by Rachel Wise
Ha! I thought as I folded the letter and put it in my bag. That goes for sisters, too.
Extra! Extra!
Want the scoop on what Samantha is up to next?
Here’s a sneak peek of the sixth book in the Dear Know-It-All series:
Digital Disaster
MYSTERIOUS SCANDAL ROCKS SCHOOL TO THE CORE
On Monday morning at school, after a nice weekend of mostly sleeping in and watching my favorite shows I’d DVR’d but hadn’t been able to watch for, like, a month, Michael came running up to me while I was trying to unstick the zipper on my black fleece jacket. Even though it was technically spring, it was still pretty cold.
“Hey, Sam, did you hear about what happened?”
I looked up from my zipper immediately. Michael called me Sam only when something was really serious. He was breathless, his face flushed.
“No?” My heart started to beat really fast. I stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and braced myself for what he was about to tell me.
“Someone stole the math exam.”
“Wait a minute, stole it? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, not stole it exactly. The day before the exam, the math department teachers couldn’t get onto the computer system because the password had been changed. They thought an administrator or another teacher had changed it. They were able to retrieve the files, but it took them a day to figure out it was no one on the staff. It probably was a student trying to get the test ahead of time.” Michael’s hands moved wildly about while he was talking. He seemed upset, but also kind of excited.
“That’s pretty serious,” I said, but was sort of relieved. I’m just glad it wasn’t about anybody getting hurt or something. “How do you even know this?” I asked.
“I saw Mr. Trigg this morning. He told me everything and wants us to do a story on it. We’re going to talk about it at our meeting today.”
“Wow,” I said, trying to get my head around the whole thing. I wondered what it was going to mean for all of us.
I went back to my zipper. I had to be in language arts in less than five minutes and I still had my jacket on. I tugged it down as hard as I could, but no luck.
“Let me help you there, Pasty,” Michael said. Before I could respond, he grabbed the zipper and gave it a hard pull. Finally my jacket opened and there Michael was, standing there still holding the zipper. We stared at each other.
“Uh-oh,” he said.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks a lot, Lawrence!”
“I guess I don’t know my own strength,” he joked, but then he lowered his eyes and looked uncomfortable. “I’m really sorry. Can I buy you a new jacket?”
I was speechless. He was too good to be true this Michael Lawrence. “Uh.” I forced myself to say something. “That’s really nice to offer, but I’m sure my mom can fix it.” I stuck my hand out for the zipper. “At least I don’t have to wear my jacket to class, so thanks!”
He grinned. “No problem. Anytime you need your clothes ruined, you know who to call.”
I laughed and he handed me back my zipper. I couldn’t wait to tell Hailey about this, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he would have done if I’d taken him up on the new jacket offer. Would we have gone shopping together? Maybe I had just made a big mistake turning him down. After I put my broken jacket in my locker, Michael and I walked together to class. His seat was right in front and I was in the middle. We sat down. The room was buzzing. Everyone all around me was already discussing the big news. How had people found out so fast? Mr. Farrell, our teacher, was trying to get the class’s attention by turning the lights on and off. It took a while for people to settle down. Mysterious Scandal Rocks School to the Core.
I wondered who was stupid enough to do something like this, if that was the case. The truth was, no one knew what had actually happened. But if it was a student, had he done it because he was really afraid he’d do badly on the test, or had he just wanted to cause some major drama? I looked around. It could have been anyone, maybe even someone right in this room!
RACHEL WISE loves to give advice. When she’s not editing or writing children’s books, which she does full time at a publisher in New York, she’s reading advice columns in newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and is always sure her advice would be better! Her dream is to someday have her own talk show, where she could share her wisdom with millions of people at once; but for now she’s happy to dole o ut advice in small portions in Dear Know-It-All books.
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Jacket design by Laura L. DiSiena
Jacket illustrated by James Bernardin
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2013 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
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Copyright © 2013 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the
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Text by Veera Hiranandani
Designed by Bob Steimle
ISBN 978-1-4424-6820-7 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-6821-4 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-6822-1 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number
2012950925
