Rina: Okay ma'am, thank you. I thought I will manage and so I didn't tell you. But I am still quite unwell. I will join next week.
Ms. Shanthi: Okay, take care.
Rina: Sure, ma'am. Thank you.
Rina (going out of the classroom): Ajay, it is just cold and cough, right? Why do you make a big fuss out of it?
Ajay: It's severe cold and cough and sometimes, cold and cough lead to fever if you exert yourself by dancing and all. Your mom had called Ms. Geetha (she is their class teacher) and had asked for permission to exempt you from dance class today and she had also requested her to tell us, your good and responsible friends to remind you to take your tablets.
Rina: Okay, okay. It is fine, my good and responsible friend. Give me the tablets.
Mr. Peter walks past them in the corridor and he seems to be nervous and in a hurry. He is talking to someone over the phone and from the way he is talking, it looks like he is up to something wrong.
Ajay: I'll go after him and see what he is up to.
Rina. Let me come with you.
Ajay: No, already, you are not keeping well. Just take rest. I'll be back soon, okay?
Rina: Okay (as he leaves, she calls after him): Hey Ajay, be careful.
Ajay gives her a 'thumbs up' sign and begins to follow the teacher.
Mr. Peter is sitting in an empty classroom and talking to someone on the phone. The Principal is going to be caught in our false scheme today. Just wait and see.
Then, a student enters the classroom and he becomes quiet and ends the phone conversation.
Peter sir: Why are you not in your PET class?
The student: Sir, tomorrow, I have my National-level certification exam and I have to prepare for it. So, I asked permission from sir and came here.
Peter sir: Oh, are you one of the ten people selected from your class? Very good. All the best!
The student: Thank you, sir.
Ajay returns to the class to meet Rina and the others but they have already left the class as the school day is over. But Ajay is sure that they will be waiting for him at their favourite meeting place to hear from him about what he has found out.
As he had expected, his friends are waiting for him in their favourite meeting spot which is the tree shade near the library.
After he reaches there...
James: Ajay, tell us everything. We didn't take the school bus today so that we can talk to you. Let’s go home by a private bus. I have informed our parents.
Ajay: Yeah, yeah. Okay.
He tells them everything he overheard.
Reshmi: Oh, no. We have to warn our Principal.
The others agree to what she says.
The next day, they warn their Principal about Mr. Peter without revealing anything about what they have been doing so far about this mission and about Mr. Satish as they still don't have proof that Mr. Peter is his spy and that Mr. Satish is trying to take revenge on the Principal.
The Principal is confounded in the beginning but later, she tells them that she will pay heed to their warning and be careful about him. But, later, it turns out that nothing happens.
Three other incidents happen where the kids overhear Mr. Peter talking to someone over the phone about the Principal being caught, and in all those instances, the kids warn the Principal, but even after they warn her, nothing suspicious happens.
The Principal begins to think that the kids are wrong about Mr. Satish and Mr. Peter but during the fourth time in which a similar incident happens, the kids shoot a video of Mr. Peter talking in a similar way to someone over the phone (to make the Principal get caught) and show the video to their Principal and then, she believes them. She promises them again that she will be careful with him.
Principal: I thought your suspicion might be wrong guys, since I didn’t notice anything about him after your earlier warnings. But after seeing this video, I’m suspicious of them. I will be wary.
The kids: Ok ma’am.
After some days…
It is the Computer period for the kids and they are waiting for their Computer teacher, Ms. Roslin to arrive.
Beena to Swathi (a friendly girl with thick short hair and a pleasant face, who is a classmate of theirs, seated near Swathi in the computer lab): It will be superb if ma'am allows us to play a game while we wait for her to come to class.
Swathi: Correct, but sadly, she won't.
Beena (sulking): You're right, she won't.
The kids look at the computers (about fifty in number in the computer lab which is spacious and designed with information about computers) with longing, wishing that they had permission to play games while waiting for the teacher.
The children get information that Ms. Roslin is on leave, so they wait for a substitute teacher to arrive.
Chapter: 12
While they wait for a substitute teacher, they begin chatting with their friends.
As usual, the Gang is seen huddled together in one of their serious discussions.
Riya: Till now, we have been concentrating on protecting Principal ma'am from Mr. Peter’s schemes, but nothing fishy happened so far. What if we are wrong? What if he is not the spy?
Rina: Do you think so?
Riya: Yeah. In our concern to keep our Principal safe from Peter sir, we forgot to keep an eye on Peter sir. What if he had been up to something else?
Reshmi: Riya, but we overheard him plotting something against Principal ma'am on the phone, right?
Riya: We did, but what if he is doing something indirectly? Then, he wouldn't approach our Principal directly, right? Instead, he would be working behind the scenes.
Reshmi: Hmm, I see your point.
The kids follow Mr. Peter and they get shocked to notice Mr. Peter following the PET teacher, Mr. Sundar. But nothing happens as someone arrives and Mr. Peter stops following him.
Another day...
The kids follow Mr. Peter as usual and see him following the PET teacher as usual. This day, something strange happens.
The PET teacher goes to a quiet place in their school ground and talks to someone over the phone.
The kids follow him and so does Mr. Peter.
Sundar: 'Don't hurry me and give me tension. I am already doing what you asked me to do, right? I am your head, remember that. Don't go about ordering me like this.
After the meeting, the kids wonder whose head he is. Each come up with different theories.
Rina: Maybe, he is the head of some illegal activity group.
James: Or he could be the head of a group working for the businessmen.
Ajay: We can follow him instead of speculating among ourselves. Mr. Peter, the spy (or that’s what the kids think about him) is also confused. Both the spy and the kids follow the PET teacher but are not able to find anything out.
One day, they see their PET teacher talking to a man outside their school. One of the kids recognise the man as a notorious gangster and wonder what their teacher has to do with him.
They follow the gangster as he goes to a house. Inside the house, the businessmen talk to him and other gangsters and PET teachers from other schools about their plan of acquiring the school building but they speak in code language, to the kids’ dismay!