3
Puppy Tooth-Marked Clog
“After we finish lunch, let’s go to the library instead of outside to play.” Erin handed me another French fry, and I handed her another mini rice cake. “These are good. What flavor are they.”
“White Cheddar,” I said. “Did you pick your animal yet?”
“I’m still not sure between toucans or golden lion tamarins,” said Erin. “As soon as I decide, though, I’m going to make a notebook like yours.”
I’d brought my Lots About Ocelots notebook to lunch to show Erin, and it was sitting on the table between us.
“What’s that?” Hannah and Abby walked by our table on the way to where the Rosemarys were sitting.
“It’s a notebook I’m working on for our report,” I said.
Abby stopped and looked closer at the cover, but Hannah race-walked over to the Rosemarys.
I opened it up and showed Abby my sketches and notes.
“I’m going to make one too,” said Erin.
“That’s vexylent,” said Abby. “When I pick my animal, can I make one?”
“Certainly!” I smiled big, because one, she liked my notebook idea. And two, my word, vexylent, was definitely catching on.
After we finished eating, we headed up to the library. Some kids from our class were already there, and Ms. Pearl assigned us to computers right next to Zachary.
“Are you working on your report too?” I asked.
“Yep,” said Zachary. “I’m trying to find an animal. My favorite is a hamster, but they’re not endangered.”
“Maybe you could find a tropical rain forest hamster-ish animal,” I said.
“Good idea.” Zachary started searching on his computer.
Erin typed in toucans on hers. Three books popped up, and she wrote down their titles. Then she typed in golden lion tamarins. This time six different book titles appeared.
“Look at this,” said Zachary. “It’s the world’s biggest rodent called a capybara.”
Erin and I looked over at his computer screen.
“Awesome,” said Erin. “You should do that.”
“I can’t,” said Zachary. “It’s not endangered.”
“Well, that’s sort of one of those good-news, bad-news things then,” I said.
On my computer, I typed in ocelot. Five books came up, and I started to write down all the titles, but then I thought about limited resources. “All our books are in the same section. Let’s just go and look, because some might be checked out already.”
“Good luck, Zachary,” we said, and headed to nonfiction.
There were four whole shelves of animal books. Erin started pulling out bird books looking for toucans, and I started pulling out cat books looking for ocelots. Pretty soon Erin had three: one just about toucans, one about birds in the rain forest, and one about birds of the world.
“Hey, look at this guy!” Zachary called over to us.
We race-walked over to where he was sitting. We didn’t want to call back to him because we were in the library, after all.
“He’s called a Pacific pocket mouse.” Zachary pointed to the computer screen.
“He’s so cute,” we both said at the same time.
“I’m definitely going to do him,” said Zachary. “What are you doing, Erin?”
“Toucans,” said Erin. “I’m not even going to look at golden lion tamarins, because I already found three good book resources.”
“I haven’t found anything yet,” I said.
“I’ll go check these out,” said Erin, “then I’ll come back and help you.”
The books about cats were all on the bottom shelf. I kneeled down on the floor and slipped off my puppy tooth-marked clogs so I could concentrate better. There were tons about lions and tigers and cheetahs and pet cats. I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find anything on ocelots. I decided I needed an expert. I went over to the library desk, where Erin had just finished checking out her books.
“Ms. Pearl,” I said. “I think I need some help. I can’t seem to find anything on ocelots.”
Ms. Pearl led the way back to the nonfiction section. “If these are your shoes, you were in the right place.”
My cheeks got a little warm, and I quick slipped back on my clogs.
Ms. Pearl ran her fingers along the spines of the books. “You’re right; there’s nothing here. Let’s go see what we can figure out.”
We followed her back to her desk, and she typed into her computer. “It looks like books on jungle cats are very popular at the moment. One of your classmates checked out three of them, and another checked out the other two.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“Do you want to pick a different animal?” asked Ms. Pearl.
“It’s a little too late,” I said. “I already started on my report.”
“I see,” she said. “The books are due back Monday. Can you wait until then?”
I thought for a minute. “I guess so. I can do my online resources and my encyclopedia article. Maybe I can even draw more pictures until they get turned back in.”
The end-of-recess bell rang, so we headed to class with Zachary.
“I wonder who checked out the books,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Zachary. “Who else is doing ocelots?”
“Erin!” Ms. Pearl stuck her head out the library doorway. “Can you come back for a minute? I forgot to slip these in your books.” She held up three bright yellow DUE BACK IN THREE DAYS cards.
“Sure,” Erin called back to her. “If I’m late, can you tell Mr. Harrison I’ll be right there?”
“Yessiree,” I said, and kept walking with Zachary.
When we were just about to our room, we met up with the line of the rest of our class and Mr. Harrison.
“Oooooh,” said Jack. “Cinderella and Zachary sitting in a tree . . .”
“We were in the library,” I said, very disgusted.
“K-i-s-s-i-n-g,” said Jack.
“We were checking out books,” I said even more disgusted.
“First comes love, then comes . . .” Charlie and Jack said together.
“That’s enough, Jack, Charlie,” said Mr. Harrison.
I gave Charlie mean stink eyes. Jack always did stuff like that, but Charlie didn’t.
“Okay, everyone,” said Mr. Harrison. “We have about twenty minutes before we go to PE. Read silently at your desks or work on your reports.”
Trevor and Christopher stood a whole bunch of books around the edge of their desks like a wall.
“What in the world are you up to?” I asked.
“Excellent question,” said Mr. Harrison. “What in the world are you up to?”
“We don’t want anyone to know what animal we’re doing for our reports,” said Christopher. “We want it to be a surprise.”
“Yeah,” said Trevor. “We want to shock and amaze you! We want to shock and amaze the whole class!”
“I see,” said Mr. Harrison.
And then the rest of the class must have decided they wanted to shock and amaze everyone too. Walls of books started going up everywhere.
I looked over at Logan, who sat right next to me, but he wasn’t standing any books up.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Everyone already knows I’m doing gorillas, because I told at the zoo.”
I shrugged my shoulders right back. “A couple people know what I’m doing, but it’s still mostly secret.” I pulled Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh out of my desk. “I don’t have any books on my animal yet, though, so I’m just going to read for fun.”
“I have tons of books on gorillas,” said Logan, “but I think I’ll just read for fun too.” He opened up one of my all-time favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time.
“That is a vexylent book.” I gave him a thumbs-up.
He looked at the cover of mine. “So is that one.”
He gave me a thumbs-up back, and I bumped his knuckles.
“That’s called a thumbs-up-bump,” I
said.
Just then Charlie walked by with a pencil in his hand. “I know what animal you’re doing your report on.”
“You do?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Charlie pointed to the cover of my book. “You’re doing rats.” He sort of danced and sang over to the pencil sharpener. “Cinderella’s doing rats! Cinderella’s doing rats!”
“No she’s not,” said Rosemary T. “She’s doing ocelots! Hannah told me!”
“Now you can’t shock and amaze anyone!” said Jack.
I started to get frustrated and mad and sad all together, and that’s an awful lot to keep inside at the same time.
“Are you going to start crying?” asked Jack.
“No.” I blink, blink, blinked very hard.
“Maybe the whole secret-report idea isn’t such a great idea after all,” said Mr. Harrison.
“Yes it is!” said Christopher.
“We have our hearts set on it!” said Trevor.
And I guess a lot of the rest of the class did too, because a whole bunch of them agreed.
Mr. Harrison looked back and forth at me and Christopher and Trevor like he didn’t know quite what to do.
And all of a sudden I had an AHA!, which means a very, extremely good idea. Actually, I only had part of an AHA!, but that didn’t stop me. I stood up like I was making an important announcement. “It is just fine and dandy with me if everyone keeps their animals secret. My animal isn’t what’s going to shock and amaze you about my report. Something else is, and you won’t believe it!”
“Same for me!” Logan stood up too. “Everyone knows I’m doing gorillas, but you will be amazed by what I tell you about them!”
“Me too!” Zachary stood up at the back of the room. “I am doing the Pacific pocket mouse, and you will be very shocked by stuff!”
Mr. Harrison looked a little bit shocked and amazed by everything already. I thought he was going to ask me and Logan and Zachary to take our seats, but instead he just said, “Everyone else up too. It’s time for PE.”
4
Scuffed-up Pink Ballet Slippers
“How are you going to shock and amaze everyone with your report?” asked Erin.
We were leaning up against the fence, waiting to be picked up after school for dance class. A lot of other kids were around, so I whispered back, “I don’t have the foggiest idea. I was just so mad and frustrated all at once that it popped out of my mouth.”
“You’ll be able to come up with something good,” said Erin.
“I hope so,” I said.
“You will,” she said again. “I’ll help.”
Her mom pulled up in her periwinkle VW bug.
“See you in a few minutes,” said Erin, and she and Emma and Nicole from the other third-grade class climbed into the car.
I looked down the fence to where Rosemary T. and Rosemary W. were standing together and did a big, huge sigh. It was times like these that I especially wished I did not live on the same block with Rosemary T. If I didn’t, I was sure I would get to carpool with Erin instead. Alas.
Rosemary T.’s mom pulled up, and I walked over and climbed in. Rosemary T. and Rosemary W. gave each other hugs. They acted like they weren’t going to see each other ever again instead of in just a few minutes. Finally she got into the car.
“How was school today, girls?” asked Mrs. Taylor.
“It was good,” said Rosemary T. “We decided to keep our endangered animals a secret. That way everyone will be shocked and amazed when we give our reports.”
“That’s a fun idea,” said Mrs. Taylor. “What a clever teacher you have.”
“It was our idea, not his,” said Rosemary T. “Mr. Harrison almost wouldn’t let us do it because Cinderella cried.”
“I did not,” I said.
“You almost did,” said Rosemary T.
“I did not,” I said. “I think it’s a fine and dandy idea, and I’m all for it. I bet my report will be the most shocking and amazing one of all, even though you know what my animal is.”
“It will not,” said Rosemary T. “Mine will.”
Luckily we pulled up in front of dance class right then so we didn’t have to keep arguing in front of her mom.
Miss Akiyama was waiting out front, and Rosemary T. ran right by without stopping to say hi or anything. I bet she was on her way to find Rosemary W., who was coming in another carpool with Hannah and Abby.
“Hi, Miss Akiyama,” I said.
“Hello, Cinderella,” said Miss Akiyama. “I have one more group to wait for and then we’ll get started.”
I went inside to change from my school clothes to my leotard and tights.
“Do you have both your ballet slippers this time?” Rosemary T. stuffed her school clothes into a cubby.
“Yes.” I quick looked in my ballet bag to make sure both of my scuffed-up pink ballet slippers really were inside. They were. Phew!
Class started with our regular warm-up at the barre. Then we moved across the floor practicing our leaps and slides. Next Miss Akiyama started teaching us the two dances we’ll be doing in our Winter Wonderland Recital next month.
The first was called the dreidel dance. It was Super Fun with a capital S and a capital F! We got to wear our tap shoes and pretend to be tops and twirl all over the place.
The second one was called Falling Snow. We started by standing very still like trees. Then our branches, which were really our arms, started moving. Next the Snow Princess came, blowing all around us. The Snow Princess is a solo part, and Miss Akiyama hasn’t decided who gets to be her yet.
When dance class was over, my mom and Tess were waiting out front in our car.
“Where’s Rosemary?” asked my mom.
“She’s saying good-bye to Rosemary W.,” I said. “For some reason it takes them a long time nowadays.”
Tess pushed her dinosaur over to me, and I gave it some pats.
Rosemary T. finally got in the car. “Hello, Mrs. Smith. Hello, Tess.”
“Hello, Rosemary,” said my mom. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” said Rosemary T. “What toy did you bring this time, Tess?”
“Brontosaurus,” said Tess a little bit mean. She did not like Rosemary T., but she knew she would get in trouble if she didn’t answer her.
“What’s his name?” asked Rosemary T.
“Charlotte,” Tess said a little growly. “She bites.”
It got very quiet in the car for a few minutes until finally my mom said, “How was dance class?”
“It was very good,” I said. “Miss Akiyama started teaching us our dances for the next recital. We’re doing two, a tap dancing one and a ballet one.”
“My favorite is the ballet,” said Rosemary T. “I like the solo part.”
“I think my favorite is the dreidel one,” I said.
“Because you know you won’t get a solo again?” I guess since I got the solo part at the Autumn Recital, Rosemary T. didn’t think I’d get this one.
“No,” I said. “Because tap dancing is my favorite.”
“As soon as you know when the recital is, let me know,” said my mom. “I’m sure your Grandmother Smith and Grandma B. and Aunt Flora will all want to be invited.”
“I’ve already invited my mom and dad and Andrea and Libby.” Andrea and Libby are Rosemary T.’s big sisters, FYI.
“I’m coming,” said Tess. “So is Charlotte Brontosaurus.”
“I’m also inviting my grandparents,” said Rosemary T., “and all my aunts and uncles and cousins.”
“You’ll have quite a crowd then.” My mom pulled up in front of Rosemary T.’s house. “Could you ask your mom to let me know the date?”
“She probably doesn’t remember.” Rosemary T. climbed out of the car. “She’s very busy with the PTA and all her charity work.”
I watched my mom’s eyebrow start to go up in the rearview mirror. Her eyebrow thing was usually reserved for my family and sometimes things on the TV. This time, though, I
was pretty sure she was doing it to Rosemary T., and I was pretty happy about that. Maybe she was finally figuring out Rosemary T. a little bit.
“Thank you very much for the ride, Mrs. Smith,” said Rosemary T.
When my mom pulled away, I said, “Peace at last!” I figured since my mom’s eyebrow had gone up, maybe I was allowed to be a little mean.
“Peace at long last,” said Tess.
“That’s enough, girls,” said my mom. So maybe it still wasn’t okay after all. Alas.
5
The Group in Cahoots
Erin and I headed to the library as soon as we finished lunch on Monday. While she turned in her books, I went over to the animal section to get mine. There weren’t any, though.
I walked over to Ms. Pearl’s desk. “For some strange reason there still aren’t any books with ocelots in them.”
“Let me take a look.” She put her glasses on her nose and typed on her computer. “It looks like they were returned and then checked right out again.”
“By the same people?” I could not believe my ears. I looked over at Erin, and she looked back at me. I could tell that she could not believe her ears either.
“No. And yes.” Ms. Pearl bent closer to her computer. “The two people who checked out the books you want returned them at the same time. Then they checked out the other person’s.”
“When did all this happen?” I tried to raise my eyebrow up.
“I had a substitute this morning, so it must have happened then.”
“So the books are gone for three more days?”
“I’m sorry, but yes,” said Ms. Pearl.
“Hmm.” I bit down on my fingernails and thought about all this. “We only need two books for our reports. Now these guys are both going to have five.” I was starting to get a little bit nervous about finishing my report.
“Would you like me to reserve them for you?” asked Ms. Pearl. “When they come back in on Thursday, I could set them aside with your name on them.”
The Super Secret Mystery Page 2