Chapter 3

Tuesday!
Ropota woke me up, once again. I got dressed, ate, brushed, moaned and whinged at my Mother and marched out, in procession with my siblings.
At school, I plugged in my laptop. As it loaded, me and Maggitha talked about... anything!
"So," Maggitha said excitedly, "That guy at the bus stop! I was like... Like... can't describe it sis!" She fell off her chair in excitement.
"But he was boring!" Sarah chipped in, taking Maggitha's hand, "And he was listening to a ipod Flaggo! You know how cheap they are! Even Mum can afford Jaffer ipods for all of us, even with her lame wage!
"I know!" sighed Maggitha, "But... just..."
I held Maggitha's other hand tight.
"He was cool at first," I said evenly, "But he is not worth you. I mean, look at you! You are one gorgeous thing!"
And I meant it. Maggitha was very pretty, darkly defined eyes, dark eyelashes, perfect eyebrows, soft, shiny hair and full lips. She was always casting her young eye around for some juicy guy to pounce on.
Shame.
The school 'bell' went off, and we hastily got ready as Mrs Burlington swivelled around in her chair, which was slowly rising from the floor.
"Hi guys!" she chirped in her high, squeaky voice.
"Hi!" we echoed back.
"Well," she continued, "Instead of having teachers for the rest of this week, you are going to be doing a special project on a scientist from the age 20o0-2010. Also you know-" (collective outbursts of laughter, awe and confusion rose from 4o teenagers) "-not many people did a great many good, so I will pick the person for you. And your groups. Of course, the Siquar septuplets-" (you know who the septuplets are!) "-will be a group."
She then went on explaining on how the project was to be done - by a VR (virtual reality) programme which she downloaded to our laptops.
"You have to make a tour through the life of the scientist," Mrs Burlington instructed, "You have been emailed the person and information on them. Jot down a storyboard in your groups. GO!"
Us septuplets scuttled off to a private corner, and we removed Richard's laptop from the table, to the corner. He was pink with excitement.
"I love this VR programme!" he said, all flushed, "It has so many cool things!"
Everyone was excited, mostly because, shy, quiet Richard was suddenly happy, jolly and excited.
"Here is an idea!" Alarina piped up, "We do a tour of her life, right, but we sort of uncover mysteries, like, if she wasn't supposed to do science experiments when she was young-" "What if the scientist was a man?" interupted Cameran rudely. "It's not," Richard said, receiving the e-mail from Mrs. Burlington, "Her name is Lina Richards and she made several mysterious discoveries she did not share with any one else. In fact, she was hardly noticed until a few years ago!" "-we could have the view from her Mum finding out!"
We all thought this was a good idea, and so we went back to our laptops and researched her. We hardly got any finds, apart from her diary, which she only wrote short jottings of her days, but she always wrote where she had been. She also had a very mysterious statement made on May 23, 2008.
"Here it is," said Rex boredly, scrolling down the document, "Everything has gone right. Metal binder, Rotorua's forest, New Zealand. The mysteries in the clearing, co-ordinates 17-18 will not be found by the present, only the past. Midnight, 2008, the clinking of a spade will never be heard there until a thousand years."
"No way!" Maggitha said excitedly. We all looked at her. "It is obvious!" she cried, "Lina made a folder with a metal binder of some sort, buried it in the scarce JapaJapa Forest, only a few minutes walk from here, at midnight, containing all her scinentific knowledge!"
"How come people from the past didn't find it?" Sarah asked, interested.
"Obvious!" Maggitha sneeered, eyebrows raised, "They didn't have the tecnology to use Grimeoslimeo!" She blushed, and everyone stared at her. Grimeoslimeo was a product forbidden by Mum, because she didn't like the idea of greazing your brain to make it function better. For some reason, Maggitha had ignored her and gone ahead anyway. That explained why she always took so long using the bathroom - she was soaking grime through her skin, skull to her brain.
"My goodness girl!" Sarah hissed.
"Anyway," babbled Maggitha, we go to a clearing at the coordinates Lina Richards suggested and then dig!"
"Good plan!" agreed Richard, "I will build a device that will detect the metal, and one that will dig for us." He laughed. "I bet we will have the best project!" he spluttered.