A to Z Mysteries: The School Skeleton (6 page)

Mr. Dillon came flying out of his office. “What’s the matter?”

Before Mrs. Waters could answer, Miss Shotsky burst into the little room.

“Who screamed? Anyone hurt?” Miss Shotsky cried, looking first at the three kids. “Are you kids all right?”

“Yes, and here’s your friend, Miss Shotsky.” Mrs. Waters pulled the closet door all the way open.

“Well, for heaven’s sake!” Miss Shotsky exclaimed. “And what’s this?”

She removed a folded paper that had been taped to the skeleton’s hand. She read it out loud: “APRIL FOOLS!”

They all burst out laughing.

“Someone has been playing a trick on the whole school!” Mrs. Waters said.

“Well, Mr. Bones is going back where he belongs,” Miss Shotsky said. She lifted the school skeleton off the hook.

“Say bye-bye,” she said, waving the skeleton’s hand. Then she carried it into her office.

Mrs. Waters went to her desk. She looked at her calendar. “Today
is
April Fools’ Day,” she said. “It totally slipped my mind.”

She carried her coat to the closet. She placed it on the hook, then bent down and picked something up off the closet floor. When she turned around, she was holding a pair of sneakers. She turned them over so everyone could see the bottoms.

“Zigzag treads!” Josh said.

“Are
those
the sneakers that everyone’s
been talking about?” Mr. Dillon said. “How did they get in your coat closet, Mrs. Waters?”

Mrs. Waters stared at her boss for a moment, then shook her head. “I have no idea, Mr. Dillon.”

“Um, excuse me, I think I know,” Dink said.

Mr. Dillon looked at Dink. The lights glinted off his eyeglasses. “You do? Tell us, Dink.”

Dink blushed. “Well, someone decided to play an April Fools’ Day joke on the whole school. So he took Miss Shotsky’s skeleton and hid it in Mrs. Waters’s closet.”

Dink looked at Mrs. Waters. “He took your key so you wouldn’t be able to open the door.”

“But why would this person hide his sneakers?” Mr. Dillon asked.

“Because he left a footprint,” Josh
said. “And he planned to make more footprints later.”

“And he borrowed Mrs. Waters’s powder to do it with,” Ruth Rose said, grinning at Dink and Josh.

“He took the key somewhere and had six copies made,” Dink went on. “He drew six skeletons and left them and the keys in six different lockers, one for each classroom.”

Mr. Dillon shook his head. “Amazing! Why would he do such a thing?”

“I think he wanted all the kids to search for the skeleton,” Dink said.

“I’m confused,” Mr. Dillon said. He sat in Mrs. Waters’s chair. “How could some stranger come into the school and do all this without being seen?”

Dink glanced at Josh and Ruth Rose. They both nodded.

“We think it was someone who works here, sir,” Dink said.

“One of the teachers?” Mr. Dillon said. “But who? And
why?”

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose looked at Mr. Dillon. They kept staring until the principal blushed.

“Oh my goodness!” Mrs. Waters cried. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Caught,” Mr. Dillon said, grinning.

“But you wanted to get caught,” Ruth Rose said. “That’s why you left footprints and keys and notes.”

Mr. Dillon nodded. “Yes, I wanted to get caught. You see, I love April Fools’ Day. When I was your age, I couldn’t wait for this day. I played pranks all the time!”

“I did, too!” Mrs. Waters said. “My sister was always finding frogs in her sweater drawer.”

“No one plays tricks or pranks anymore,” Mr. Dillon went on. “Each year April first just slips by, unnoticed.

“So I decided that this year would be different. This year, everyone would remember April Fools’ Day.”

Mr. Dillon kicked off his loafers and pulled on the zigzag sneakers. “I’ve missed these,” he said. “I wear them to school every morning, then change to my loafers.”

Dink laughed. “We went around measuring teachers’ feet, and all the time those sneakers were in the closet.”

The principal grinned. “I have to admit, I had a lot of fun. On Monday I went in to wash my hands at Miss Shotsky’s sink. It was early; no one was here. Then I saw the skeleton with her scarf draped around its shoulders, and that’s when I got the idea.”

His eyes twinkled. “I grabbed the skeleton, came back through our connecting door, and hid it in Mrs. Waters’s closet. She leaves the key in
the lock, so I just locked the door and kept the key.”

“Then you changed your shoes, right?” Josh asked.

Mr. Dillon nodded. “I didn’t realize I’d left a footprint. But when you told me that later, I decided to leave more footprints, and that’s when I borrowed Mrs. Waters’s powder.”

“And I expect it back, please,” she said.

Everyone laughed again.

Mr. Dillon smiled. “Since you three kids were the first to find Mr. Bones, you get to make the announcement over the intercom.”

“What announcement?” Dink asked.

“Why, about the trip, of course! I’ve hired buses to take the entire school to the aquarium,” Mr. Dillon said.

“Everyone is going?” asked Ruth Rose.

“Everyone searched for Mr. Bones, so everyone gets the prize,” said Mr. Dillon.

Suddenly Mr. Bones’s head popped through the connecting door.

“Even me?” the skeleton asked.

Dear Readers
,

When I was growing up in Connecticut, my favorite place to be was in school. I liked my teachers, and I loved learning new things every day When I reached third grade, I attended a small school that had only two classrooms. The principal was also my teacher! She taught me to write in cursive, and she taught me to love reading.

I used to look forward to Monday mornings. My mom would pack me a lunch, and off I’d go. When summer vacation came along, I’d play and read and hike and swim and go to camp, but I’d be thinking about September, when I could go back to school.

A couple of years ago, we had a
writing contest, and Andrew Stern was the winner. He wrote a terrific story about scary things happening where Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose go to school. Andrew’s story gave me some new ideas, and that’s how
The School
Skeleton
was born.

I was lucky to be able to visit Andrew in his school in California. The minute I walked into the school, I knew why Andrew was such a good writer. All the kids and teachers seemed so happy to be there! The principal bought pizza for the whole school to celebrate Andrew’s winning the writing contest.

So thank you, Andrew, for your story and for reminding me why I loved school so much—and
still
do! You can see Andrew’s picture on this page.

Happy reading!

Sincerely,

Collect clues with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose
in their next exciting adventure,

THE TALKING T. REX

“I don’t believe it!”

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose ran toward Tyrone the T. rex.

“What happened?” Dink asked.

Jud pointed to the floor inside Tyrone’s belly. The table and carpet had been moved. Where the table had stood was a square hole cut into the flooring. A hinged door was open, and the compartment was empty.

“How much money was there?” Josh asked.

Jud’s face was white. “All the money we’ve made so far,” he said in nearly a whisper. “Almost five thousand dollars.”