Addie and I hurried off. We had already missed our buses and we knew it. Now came the boring part of the plan. Waiting for three-thirty. That was almost half an hour away. And we had to wait where no one would see us. This was not easy with Addie’s wheelchair. But I found a spot by the front door behind some bushes. The ground was hard because it was so cold. I rolled Addie’s chair in there easily. We talked and tried to keep warm.
We were waiting for Ms. Colman to come out.
After awhile I looked at my watch. “Three-thirty,” I said to Addie.
“She should be here any minute now,” Addie replied.
Soon we heard footsteps in the hallway. Click, click, click. And then Ms. Colman walked out the front door.
I stepped in front of her.
“Karen!” exclaimed Ms. Colman. Then she saw Addie in the bushes. “What on earth — ” she started to say.
But I had to interrupt her. “Ms. Colman, I will explain everything later,” I said in a hurry. “Right now, can you come back to the classroom with Addie and me? It is really important.”
“Well … sure.”
The three of us rushed back inside and down the hallway. We paused in the doorway to our room. There were Nicole and Kathy. They were pawing through our desks. I saw Kathy slip something into her pocket.
More Trouble
“Ahem!” Ms. Colman cleared her throat loudly.
Kathy and Nicole both jumped. Kathy tried to take the something out of her pocket. But Ms. Colman stepped forward. “Please give me that,” she said. Kathy handed it over.
“Hey!” exclaimed Addie as she wheeled herself into the room. “That is Hannie’s new eraser!”
Ms. Colman looked sternly at Kathy and Nicole. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” she said.
This time Kathy and Nicole could not say anything about “our word against theirs.” They could not say they were not the thieves. A grown-up had caught them stealing.
So what did Kathy say then? She said, “Here. Take the stupid old eraser.” And she threw it at Addie.
“I do not know how you two knew these girls were in our room,” Ms. Colman started to say to Addie and me, “but — ”
We were interrupted then. We were interrupted by my mother and Mrs. Sidney. They dashed into the room.
“Karen!” said Mommy.
“Addie!” said Mrs. Sidney.
Then at the same time they said, “Thank goodness you are all right.”
“How did you know we were here?” I asked.
“Nancy came to me with a very strange story after she got off the bus,” said Mommy. “Something about your going to Addie’s house, but not really. And you were not on the bus. So I called Mrs. Sidney.”
“And I had just found your message on the answering machine,” Mrs. Sidney said to Addie. “We did not know what was going on. We called Mrs. Noonan. We called Mrs. Titus. We — ”
At that moment, Mrs. Noonan and Mrs. Titus ran into the room.
“You are in big trouble, Karen,” Mommy said to me.
“So are you,” Mrs. Sidney said to Addie.
“Now just a minute, please,” said Ms. Colman. “I am not sure how they did it, but somehow, Karen and Addie caught the thieves.”
“What thieves?” asked Mommy.
Addie and I had a lot of explaining to do ourselves.
Heroes
Nicole and Kathy were in Very Big Huge Trouble. Addie and I were just in big trouble. Our parents were angry. They were happy that we had caught the crooks, but they were not happy about the way we had done it.
“You asked Nancy to lie for you,” Mommy said to me.
“You really did lie to me,” Mrs. Sidney said to Addie.
“You made us sick with worry,” said Mommy.
“We did not know where you were or what you were doing,” said Mrs. Sidney. “We did not know if you were safe.”
Addie and I were both punished. That night Mommy and Seth said, “No TV for a week.” Mr. and Mrs. Sidney said, “You are grounded in your bedroom for the entire weekend.”
Boo and bullfrogs.
Still, I knew our parents were proud of what we had done.
Better yet, on Monday the kids at school called us heroes.
“Now we can keep things in our desks again,” said Bobby.
“We will not have to worry,” said Natalie.
Even better, Nancy was going to get her ring back. A bunch of kids were going to get their things back. Kathy and Nicole had eaten the candy they had taken. And they had spent the money they had taken. But the rest of the things were in their bedrooms.
Best of all, Mrs. Noonan let Addie and me keep our patrol badges. She did not kick us out of the Red Brigade. We went back to our job in the hallway intersection.
Kathy tried to make her kick us out, though. On that Friday when we found Kathy and Nicole in our classroom, Kathy said to Mrs. Noonan, “You ought to fire them as patrols! They were not doing their jobs! You know how they found out about us? They were spying. They were spying when they were supposed to be on patrol duty. You should take away their badges.”
But Mrs. Noonan just smiled at Addie and me. “Take away their badges? I do not think so. They may be two of our best patrols ever. I asked them to pay attention to what was going on, and they certainly did.”
Addie and I grinned at Kathy and Nicole then. Kathy and Nicole just glared at us. Nicole even stuck out her tongue.
There was one thing I did not understand. “Mommy?” I said later that night. “Why did Nicole and Kathy take all those things? They did not really need them. And they have allowance money to spend. So why were they stealing?”
Mommy and Seth and I were sitting on the couch. Mommy took my hand. “I think they were stealing because they are not very happy,” she told me.
I looked up at her. “I don’t get it.”
“Well,” said Mommy, “maybe they are having some trouble in school. Or maybe they are having some trouble at home. They probably wanted someone to notice. They wanted their teachers and parents to give them some help. So they did something to attract everyone’s attention.”
“Oh,” I said. “I see.”
“That is not the best way to ask for help,” Seth pointed out. “But sometimes people think it is the only way.”
“Oh,” I said again. I felt sorry for Kathy and Nicole. But I was still glad we had caught them.
The Ceremony
Kathy’s and Nicole’s parents made them give back all the things they had stolen (except, of course, for the candy they ate and the money they spent). And they made them do it in person.
One morning Kathy and Nicole stepped into my classroom. Each of them was holding something in her hand. Kathy looked around the room. She spotted Tammy. She called her over. Then she opened her hand.
“Here is your Troll,” she said. “I am sorry we took it.”
Nicole called to Nancy. She held out her hand. “Here is your ring,” she said. “I am sorry we took it.”
Nancy peered at the ring. “Thanks,” she said.
Nicole and Kathy left the room. Nancy ran to Hannie and me. “I am so glad I got it back!” she cried. “I will never wear it to school again. Even though I did not get in trouble when it was stolen.”
Nancy’s parents had been very nice about the missing ring. After all, they had said she could wear it to school. And they agreed that Nancy had been responsible when she left it in her desk instead of wearing it on the playground. But all the Daweses agreed that school was not the best place for a special ring.
Remember the bad day I had? The day when I found out about the 2AT, and then Addie and I got in trouble with Mrs. Noonan? Well, a week after Nicole and Kathy were caught, I had a day that was just the opposite. It was terrific!
It was the day of the badge ceremony.
Late in the morning, Ms. Colman said, “Karen, Addie, Vicky, and Terri, it is time for you to go to the auditorium.” (Vicky and Terri were going to be the new patrols
from our classroom.)
Addie and I grinned at each other. We were wearing our best clothes — birthday party clothes. And as we were on our way to the auditorium, we put on our patrol badges one last time.
“How do I look?” Addie asked me.
“Very official,” I replied. “How do I look?”
“Also very official.”
In the auditorium were Mrs. Noonan, Mrs. Titus, the new and old patrols, and a lot of mothers and fathers and grandparents. The mothers and fathers and grandparents were sitting in the audience. The patrols were gathering on the stage. Mr. and Mrs. Sidney lifted Addie and her wheelchair on the stage, too. I stood beside Addie. Then Mrs. Titus stepped up to a microphone.
“Welcome,” she said. “Today’s program is to honor …”
While Mrs. Titus spoke, I looked into the audience. In the second row I saw Mommy and Seth. In the fourth row I saw Daddy and Elizabeth and Nannie and Emily. I smiled at them.
Mrs. Titus finished speaking. Before I knew it, I was walking across the stage and putting my belt and badge on Vicky Anders. Then Addie put her belt and badge on Liddie Yuan from Mr. Berger’s class.
When all the badges had been handed over, the audience began to clap. I looked at my parents and Nannie. They were smiling so widely I thought their cheeks would break. And Mommy cried a little.
Later, when the badge ceremony was over, I walked through the hall with Mommy and Seth. It was lunchtime. We ran into Ms. Colman. “Hello!” she greeted them. “I am glad I saw you. I was going to call you this afternoon to tell you how well Karen did on the 2AT. One of the highest scores in the class.”
Mommy and Seth hugged me then. “Honey, we are so proud of you,” said Mommy.
You know what? I was proud of myself, too.
About the Author
ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.
Copyright © 1995 by Ann M. Martin
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, 1995
e-ISBN 978-1-338-05726-3
Ann M. Martin, Karen's School Mystery
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