Some Research
Vincent
We were sitting in the library the next day after school hours.
“Okay,” said Sandy, rubbing his hands together with a gleeful expression on his face. He was clearly in his element here. “I looked through the library server. Here’s a list of books we need to scour for mentions of the Black Snowflake.”
He put a large stack of books on the table.
Cho
I stared at the Great Wall of China that was Sandy’s books. “When will we manage to finish all this?”
“We’ll do an all nighter,” he said, as if that was obvious.
“Whaaaaaat!” wailed Fizz. “It’s not even exam time!”
“We don’t have exams,” said Snowy. “Remember, they’re testing us ‘constantly, constantly’. If we want to figure out what’s happening we have to do this. So suck it up and stop complaining.”
Zacharias
Fizz sat down grimacing. Her face was still covered with the bruise from defence class yesterday. She told us that Ms. K. Waan had offered her extra training in her extra classes. The extra classes were sessions when students took classes at a higher level based on what they were gifted at. A teacher had to choose you for a gifted class. Until then, it remained free. Fizz was the first in our year to get chosen.
Angelina
I started going through the books. I decided to read them in long bursts. I started reading. I kept at it until my eyes felt like they were burning holes in my head. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I looked up.
“How much time has passed?” I asked
“A minute,” replied Snowy.
I checked my page number. 1. It was going to be a long night.
Vincent
We kept taking notes whenever we saw a mention of the Black Snowflake. Here is a compilation of our notes without the blots, doodles and rips of the original. (What that Fizz gets up to when she is bored ...)
Black Snowflake considered mythical
i.e. Most spy organizations say it doesn’t exist
It is said to have a hand in all government affairs of every country
It does this by sending agents to act undercover in various governments
Cho
These agents influence the members of the government with the interests of Black Snowflake at heart
They are not on any official list so they don’t pay taxes or anything
I had no idea where we were going with this, but I was exhausted by the end of all this work. I suggested to Snowy a quick breathing break. He just looked at me scornfully and continued scheming.
Zacharias
By the end, we had a plan of action ready. But first we had to find the computer lab where we were going to our first computer class. Snowy might have asked us to skip it had he not been a die hard fanatic fan of computers.
We took only a few minutes to reach the class. It was quite close to the library. We entered it just as the session was about to start. There were computers arranged in fours everywhere. All of them were occupied except one right in the corner. We hastily slipped into that one.
Angelina
The teacher who walked in was a tall man with fair hair. He spoke with a slight British accent. He wore a suit and a tie. (Black suit and white shirt) It was so typical I wanted to cry. After all the strangeness that I had experienced in this school, I kinda expected the teachers to be strange as well.
“I’d like to see the level that you all are at before I begin my teaching. Next to each table is a booklet. It is filled with some basic JavaScript. Everyone has to write a simple program by the end of this class.”
Vincent
I really didn’t need to look at the booklet. I already knew some very complex JavaScript from a book about coding that I had read. I began to furiously tap on the keys. If I had to finish the program I had in mind, I’d have to hurry.
‘Punzel was reading the first page of the booklet carefully and thoughtfully. Sandy was reading quickly with a smile on his face. Fizz was sitting back, flipping through the pages at a leisurely pace.
Cho
The language didn’t seem too difficult. At least, I could read and understand the booklet, so that was something! I decided to make a simple calculator program. What? Not all of us can be geniuses like Snowy.
Snowy was typing like a madman. Fizz said he looked like a hacker from a movie. Fizz herself was doing very little work. She was having much more fun looking at us and the rest of the class. Every so often she would type a few words.
Zacharias
Ten minutes before the period was supposed to end the teacher, (darn it, didn’t catch his name!) walked around and looked at people’s programs. He smiled at mine, shook his head at Fizz’s and nodded at ‘Punzel’s.
The last program in the class to see was Snowy’s. He looked at Snowy’s program silently. Then he asked, “Mr. Crabbe, my instructions were that you read the booklet, and then write the program.” He looked at the untouched booklet on Snowy’s table.
Angelina
“Well, I already know everything in the booklet,” said Snowy confidently. I was impressed. Who knew the book-lover had it in him? I realized, though, that when Snowy is confident, there is always a reason.
“Let me see,’ frowned the teacher (darn! I still didn’t catch his name). He began to question Snowy about the material in the booklet. Snowy answered without batting an eyelash. The questions got increasingly difficult. At one point, I was pretty sure the questions weren’t even from the booklet anymore.
Vincent
Mr. Computer Teacher finally stopped asking questions and looked at me quietly. “Class dismissed. Rest of you, out!”
“Ummm... the rest of whom? Do you want everybody to leave?” asked Sandy.
“Everybody except Vincent,” he clarified.
I gulped. Maybe I should have read the palmbook and made a simple program like the rest of the class.
Cho
Snowy looked worried, so I decided to tell him something that a good friend of mine told me, a year before he moved to Canada. “Don’t ever be ashamed of being the best that you can be.”
Snowy seemed reassured. I indicated to Fizz, who was still standing with her mouth gaping open. “Come on!”
Fizz had to say something first, “Sir, ma’am or neuter, what is your name?”
With a hint of what would be a smile, the teacher answered, “My name is R. Avshae. To prevent the chorus of ‘what?' s that would undoubtedly follow my saying my name in the class, I don’t usually say my name.”