In The Dark by Susannah McFarlane Page B

organisation that protected the world from evil-doers. ‘We shine a light on evil’, was one of their mottoes. ( SHINE liked mottoes and they had one for most things.) They spent a lot of time shining a light on the SHADOW agency, uncovering and stopping their evil plans. SHADOW was as bad as SHINE was good.
    What did all this have to do with Emma Jacks? Well, when she wasn’t worrying about strange noises at night, or going to school or gym or playing withher friends or being irritated by her older brother, Bob, and other normal ten-year-old girl things, Emma Jacks was EJ12. EJ12, special agent and code-cracker, under-twelve division to be exact (which Emma liked to be). In fact, she was one of SHINE’s best agents. In the agency’s Shining Stars award, SHINE’s Spy of the Year competition, EJ12 was in the top five.
    Emma had been selected to join SHINE when she won a maths competition. SHINE used maths competitions as a way of finding clever thinkers to help them crack codes, and they had found Emma. Since then, as EJ12, she had cracked codes and gone on missions all over the world. As EJ12, Emma Jacks seemed to be able to do anything.
    So how could a special agent be afraid of the dark? So far EJ12 had only been sent on day missions. She didn’t know it but that was about to change.

    â€˜Emma, time to wake up,’ said her mum as she pulled up the blind in Emma’s bedroom.
    Emma opened her eyes. The sunlight rushed into the bedroom and made her squint. She dived under her doona. ‘Mum, pull down the blind pleeeeeease, it’s too light!’
    â€˜That’s a first,’ said Mum as she left the room. ‘You normally want more light. Come on sleepy head, let’s get moving.’
    Emma was tired. The problem with staying up late worrying about dangerous dressing gowns and strange noises was that you felt sleepy the next morning. But how different things were in the daylight—dressing gowns went back to being dressing gowns, gym bags were gym bags, and Emma wouldn’t even think about checking under her bed.
    Emma got dressed and went down to the kitchen. Mum, Dad and Bob were already there having breakfast.
    â€˜You’ll both need to move quickly this morning,’ said Mum to Emma and Bob. ‘I need to be at workearly so you will have to catch the bus. Hurry up, come on!’
    Excellent, thought Emma. Hannah and Elle will probably be on the bus.
    And to Emma’s delight, Hannah and Elle and Isi were on the bus. Isi was in Emma’s gym squad but Emma was only getting to know her more now that they were in the same class at school. Emma really liked Isi. They liked a lot of the same things, particularly chocolate, and Isi was always cheerful and seemed to bounce her way through everything. Emma wondered if Isi ever got scared of the dark. She didn’t think so.
    As the bus pulled up to the stop, Emma could see her friends peering out the window, waving frantically. As soon as Emma climbed on, the three girls started talking at her.
    â€˜Hey, Em, we were hoping you’d catch the bus today. We’ve been talking about my slumber party,’ said Hannah.
    â€˜We’re thinking we should have a theme,’ said Elle.
    â€˜Em, Em, it’s going to be sooo fun,’ said Isi.
    â€˜Hi guys. A theme is a great idea,’ said Emma, ‘but what theme?’
    â€˜First we thought a dance party,’ said Hannah.
    â€˜That would be cool,’ agreed Emma.
    â€˜Then we thought a pyjama party,’ said Isi.
    â€˜But won’t we be in pyjamas anyway?’ asked Emma, who was very logical.
    â€˜Exactly, that’s what we thought,’ said Isi, ‘so then we had a better idea—a spooky slumber party!’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Emma, trying to sound as if that was a good surprise rather than a completely bad surprise. ‘What would we do for that?’
    â€˜It would be awesome, Em,’ said Elle.