Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher
Read Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher Online
Authors: Wendelin Van Draanen
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THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2010 by Wendelin Van Draanen Parsons
Interior illustrations copyright © 2010 by Dan Yaccarino
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Van Draanen, Wendelin.
Sammy Keyes and the wedding crasher / Wendelin Van Draanen. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When her history teacher begins receiving death threats and her own name is near the top of the suspect list, eighth-grader Sammy is determined to find the real perpetrator, but she is distracted by her mother’s relationship problems, her almost-boyfriend inexplicably avoiding her, and her duties as a reluctant bridesmaid.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89734-4
[1. Teachers—Fiction. 2. Weddings—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.V2857Saqs 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2010006916
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
Dedicated to
Lillian “Wild Ride” Penchansky
(Officer Borsch has got nothin’ on you!)
***
Special thanks to
“The Cammy Crew” for their patience and steadfast fanship,
and to my gentle backseat drivers,
Mark Parsons and Nancy Siscoe—I’d be lost without you!
PROLOGUE
In the beginning I thought it was funny. I mean, having Mr. Vince for a teacher is not exactly a sunshiny way to start your day. It’s more like being trapped in a room with a dark, threatening cloud rumbling around you.
It’s not just that Mr. Vince acts like he hates us, it’s also that he’s gross. Everyone knows he chews tobacco because we’ve all seen him add to the little cup of nasty brown spit that he keeps in his desk drawer. Plus, he has a disgusting scratching habit. You name it and we’ve seen him scratch it—his head, his neck, his stomach, his crotch. It’s unbelievable.
So when the pranks began, I had to laugh. But pretty soon I realized that the prankster was serious.
Serious and dangerous.
I was almost looking forward to eighth grade starting. Not because I missed getting up early or couldn’t wait to be saddled with homework again.
Please.
No, I was looking forward to school starting up again for the only reason anyone in junior high looks forward to it.
I’d get to see my friends every day.
My best friend, Marissa, was ready, too. Her family is in crisis mode, and I think going back to school seemed like a way for her to escape all that. Plus, we’d be eighth graders instead of lowly seventh graders, and last year’s stress of being at a new school would be totally gone.
But then the first day of school arrived, and I got my final schedule.
“No!” I cried when I saw it.
“What?” Marissa asked.
“I’ve got Mr. Vince! For homeroom
and
history!”
“Eew,” she said as she inspected my schedule. “Bad way to start the day.”
Then I leaned over to see her schedule and saw that we
only had one class together—drama, at the very end of the day. “No!” I cried again. “This is the worst schedule ever!”
Our friends Dot and Holly joined us, and I found out that they had three classes the same as Marissa … and that all of them had some guy named Mr. Jefferson for history instead of Mr. Vince.
“This is so unfair!”
“Maybe you can get switched?” Marissa said.
So I marched right up to the office. It wasn’t
just
that I had only one class with Marissa, it was that I had only one class with Marissa
and
they’d stuck me with Mr. Vince.
Mr. Vince!
Let’s just say that there was no way I would survive the year with Bad Mood Bob. And that’s not just because he hates kids. He may teach history, but he and I
have
history. Last year he covered up a total sabotage of my softball team by one of his players so his team could play at the Sluggers’ Cup. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but in Santa Martina, the Sluggers’ Cup is
huge
, and since I was part of why his little shenanigans backfired, anywhere near him is now definitely enemy territory.
