Read The First Day of School Mystery Online

Authors: David A. Adler

The First Day of School Mystery (3 page)

BOOK: The First Day of School Mystery

7.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

Mr. Day slowly walked by the children’s desks. He looked at what they were reading.

Cam closed her eyes again and said, “Click!” She looked again at the picture she had in her head of the green car that crashed into the tree.

“Your eyes are closed. You’re not reading,” Mr. Day said.

Cam opened her eyes. Mr. Day was standing right by her desk.

“You should be reading,” Mr. Day told her.

Cam looked at the mystery. Then, when Mr. Day walked away, she closed her eyes again and looked at the picture of the green car and the tree.

“That’s it!” Cam called out. “Ms. Benson was telling the truth. I can prove it!”

“It’s you again,” Mr. Day said. “You shouldn’t be calling out. You should be reading.”

“But this is important,” Cam told him. “I have to speak with Dr. Prell.”

“Just do what you’re told,” Mr. Day said. ”Sit quietly and read.”

Cam looked at her mystery again. Just then a small folded piece of paper landed in the middle of the book. Cam opened it.

It was from Eric.
Are you sure?
was written on the note.

Yes! Cam added to the note. Then she folded it and tossed it to Eric.

“Now you’re sending notes!” Mr. Day shouted. He hurried to Eric. “Give me that,” he said.

“Come with me,” Mr. Day told Cam.

Cam followed him to the front of the room.

“Now
I’m
sending a note,” he said as he wrote. He clipped Cam and Eric’s note to his and said, “Take this to Dr. Prell.”

Cam took the notes and left the room. Once she was in the hall, she smiled. She was going to see Dr. Prell. That was just what she wanted to do.

CHAPTER FIVE

“I’m here to see Dr. Prell,” Cam told Mrs. Wayne, the principal’s secretary. Cam gave her the note.

“Do you still click? Do you still have a photographic memory?” Mrs. Wayne asked.

“Yes,” Cam answered.

“Amazing, just amazing,” Mrs. Wayne said as she knocked on the door to Dr. Prell’s office.

“Yes?” Dr. Prell called.

Mrs. Wayne opened the office door. She gave Dr. Prell the note and said, “It’s the clicking girl.”

Dr. Prell read the note. Then she waved for Cam to come in. “Cam,” she said. “I’m surprised at you. You’re in trouble on the very first day of school.”

“I can prove Ms. Benson didn’t crash her car into that tree.”

“You can?” Dr. Prell asked.

“I was in Mrs. Lane’s bus,” Cam said. “I walked past the accident, and I remember that the car was facing the wrong way.”

“The wrong way?”

“Yes,” Cam said. “It was going
away
from school when it crashed into the tree. This morning, when Ms. Benson came here, she would have been driving
toward
the school.”

“The car was facing away from school? Are you sure?” Dr. Prell asked. But before Cam could answer, Dr. Prell said, “Of course you’re sure. You’re Cam Jansen.”

Dr. Prell picked up the telephone and called the police. She asked for Officer Oppen. Then she gave Cam the telephone receiver.

“Yes?” the police officer on the other end of the line asked.

Cam told him why she was sure Ms. Benson hadn’t crashed her car into the tree.

“I think you’re right,” the officer said. “We spoke with Ms. Benson and some of the other teachers. She was in her classroom at the time of the accident. Someone must have stolen her car from the school parking lot. The thief was the one who left the scene of the accident.”

“Someone stole Ms. Benson’s car!” Cam said. “Who did it?”

“That’s
still a mystery,” the police officer said, “and we plan to solve it.”

CHAPTER SIX

Cam put down the telephone. “After Ms. Benson came to school and parked her car, it was stolen,” she told Dr. Prell.

“From our parking lot?” Dr. Prell asked.

Cam nodded.

Dr. Prell turned. She looked through her window at the cars parked outside and said, “Whoever stole Ms. Benson’s car probably saw her park it. He knew she’s a teacher and wouldn’t come back until school was over. There would be plenty of time before Ms. Benson would notice her car was missing. By then he could be a long way from here.”

“You said,
‘He
knew she’s a teacher,’ and ‘By then
he
could be a long way from here.’ Do you know the thief is a man?”

“No,” Dr. Prell admitted. “I don’t know that.”

“Women steal, too.”

“You’re right,” Dr. Prell said.

“And the thief
would
be a long way from here,” Cam said, “if he or she hadn’t crashed into that tree.”

Cam thought for a moment. Then she said, “The thief must have left fingerprints on the steering wheel. And maybe someone saw the thief get out of the car.”

Dr. Prell turned from the window. “What did the police officer say?” she asked.

“He said this is a mystery.”

Dr. Prell nodded. “The police know all about fingerprints and witnesses. Let them look for the thief.”

“But—” Cam started.

Dr. Prell stopped her. “You’re a smart girl,” she said. “I know you like to solve mysteries, but I think you’ll have to leave this one to the police.”

Cam nodded.

“You should go back to class now,” Dr. Prell told her.

Cam started toward the door.

“And Cam,” Dr. Prell said, “Ms. Benson is a
very
good teacher. I’m sure you and your class will have a great year.”

Dr. Prell wrote a note to Mr. Day and gave it to Cam.

Cam left the principal’s office.

“Click! Click!”
Mrs. Wayne said, and laughed as Cam walked past.

Cam smiled and said,
“Click! Click!”

When Cam got back to class, the children were all standing by their desks. Their arms were raised high above their heads.

Cam gave Mr. Day the note. He looked at it. Then he told Cam, “Go stand by your seat. Lift up your arms and stretch. Exercise will help you think.”

Cam raised her arms above her head.

“Arms out,” Mr. Day said.

He stretched his arms in front of him. Cam and the others in her class did, too.

“Now, right arm up, left to the side,” Mr. Day said.

Mr. Day demonstrated, and the children followed his example.

“Left knees up and hop.”

The children raised their left knees and hopped.

A few children banged into their desks. Two boys in Cam’s row fell.

The door opened. Ms. Benson came in. She looked at the hopping children. Then she looked at Mr. Day.

“This exercise will help them think,” he told her.

The children kept hopping, knocking into their desks, and falling.

Ms. Benson smiled. “Rabbits and kangaroos must be great thinkers,” she said.

“Rabbits and kangaroos?” Mr. Day asked.

“They hop a lot,” Ms. Benson explained.

“Oh,” Mr. Day said. He stopped hopping. He told the children to be seated. Ms. Benson thanked him for watching her class, and he left.

Ms. Benson stood in front of the class. “This has been a strange first day of school,” she said. “I didn’t plan to be in the police station this morning. I planned to teach. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

Ms. Benson asked the children to take out their math notebooks. She was about to teach them how to multiply fractions.

You plan to teach,
Cam thought,
and I plan to solve this mystery. I plan to find out who stole your car.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ms. Benson drew large circles on the board. She called them “pies” and drew slices in them. She wrote lots of numbers and fractions on the board. She talked on and on about multiplication and fractions.

Cam’s classmates listened to Ms. Benson. When she put some problems on the board, they did them. Cam didn’t. She kept thinking about Ms. Benson’s car.

Rrrr!

The school bell rang.

BOOK: The First Day of School Mystery

7.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads