The Secret at the Polk Street School

by Blanche Sims

  Dawn loved to hear Ms. Rooney’s laugh. It had a nice “ha-ha” sound.

  Dawn tiptoed past the office. If Ms. Rooney saw her, she’d be in trouble.

  The door to the auditorium was closed.

  She opened it quietly. It always squeaked.

  The lights were off. She could just about see the seats.

  The stage curtain looked black instead of blue.

  She went down the aisle. She had to see what Drake had put in the closet.

  She bet it was the wolf suit. And the fake nails, too.

  It was really dark on the stage.

  She couldn’t find the closet door.

  She reached around the wall with her hands.

  Then she felt the knob.

  The door swung open.

  Inside it was black.

  Dawn blinked. She couldn’t see a thing.

  She heard Ms. Rooney call, “Good-night, Clara.”

  The outside door banged open and shut.

  Dawn stepped away from the closet.

  She was ready to run.

  “Don’t do that,” she told herself. “Be brave.”

  She opened her mouth. She started to sing: “Don’t be afraid. Be brave as a wave. Brave as a cave.”

  She put her hand into the closet.

  “Plain air,” she sang. “Not a bear.”

  She took a step inside.

  There was stuff on the floor. She felt around.

  There should be a wolf suit somewhere.

  There should be fingernails, too.

  No. Just some old tools.

  The door slammed shut.

  She pushed it hard.

  It wouldn’t open.

  “Yeow!” she yelled. “Noni, save me!”

  She pushed again.

  “Let me out! Drake? Louie?”

  No one answered.

  She put her ear against the door.

  She couldn’t hear anything. Not one thing.

  She sank down on the floor.

  There were probably spider webs.

  Spiders, too.

  She’d have to stay in there all night.

  No dinner.

  No bed.

  She was starving. All she had was some gum.

  Her grandmother, Noni, would look for her.

  She’d never find her, though.

  Dawn couldn’t even cry. Detectives don’t cry.

  She leaned against the door.

  Then she heard something.

  Footsteps.

  Maybe it was Drake or Louie.

  Suppose it was someone else?

  Maybe someone was going to get her.

  She backed up against the closet wall.

  The footsteps were louder.

  They were click-clacking.

  She began to scream.

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE DOOR BANGED OPEN.

  “I’ve got a gun!” Dawn yelled.

  “Don’t be silly,” said Jason. “I thought you were brave.”

  “Of course I’m brave,” Dawn said. She stepped out of the closet.

  “It wasn’t even locked,” Jason said.

  “I pushed,” Dawn said. “I pushed hard.”

  Jason laughed. “You have to turn the knob.”

  Dawn laughed a little, too. She didn’t feel like laughing, though.

  They started across the stage.

  “Be very quiet,” Jason said. “Jim is sweeping. We’re not supposed to be in here.”

  Dawn stopped. “How did you find me?”

  Jason took a breath. “I got away from Drake. I climbed a tree. He went right past me.

  Jason swung off the stage. “I could have jumped down on top of him. Pow.”

  “Sh,” said Dawn. “Not so loud.”

  “I’m glad Louie didn’t get you,” Jason said.

  “Not me.” Dawn made a fist. “Double pow.”

  They hurried down the aisle.

  They opened the auditorium door.

  It made a loud squeak.

  Jim was sweeping at the end of the hall.

  They started to run.

  Jim banged his broom on the floor. “Hey, you two!”

  They looked at each other. They slowed down.

  “Dawn Bosco,” Jim said. “Jason Bazyk. What are you doing?”

  “I was looking for something,” Dawn said.

  “How about you?” Jim asked Jason.

  “I knew Dawn was looking for something,” Jason said. “I thought she needed help.”

  “How did you know I was there?” Dawn asked again.

  “I remembered what Louie said. I knew you’d go and look.”

  Jim swept the dirt into the dustpan. “What will Ms. Rooney say?”

  “Don’t tell,” said Jason.

  “Please,” said Dawn.

  Jim stopped to think.

  “You have to promise—”

  “We promise,” Dawn said.

  “—never to come to school this late,” Jim said.

  “We won’t,” said Jason.

  “Never again,” said Dawn.

  They went outside.

  “I’m going to get killed,” Jason said. “I’m supposed to do homework.”

  “Me, too,” said Dawn.

  She reached into her pocket. “Want some gum?”

  She pulled everything out.

  Two sticks of gum.

  A piece of paper.

  Jason took a stick of gum. “What’s that paper?”

  Dawn put some gum into her mouth. “My homework? A shopping list?”

  She opened the paper.

  She stopped chewing.

  She waved the paper around. “Listen!” she said.

  Jason sat down on the curb. “My robot boots are beginning to hurt.”

  Dawn sat down next to him. “This isn’t a shopping list. It isn’t homework.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a letter.”

  Jason pulled off one boot. “A stone.”

  Dawn began to read: “ ‘Dawn Bosco. I’m going to get you. Jason, too.’ ”

  Jason put his boot back on. “Who’s it from?” he asked.

  Dawn raised one shoulder in the air. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s signed, ‘The Wolf.’ ”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IT WAS WEDNESDAY MORNING.

  It was time to work on the play.

  Dawn was up on the stage. She was sitting behind the blue curtain.

  She had on her red riding cape.

  Jason was sitting next to her.

  He was wearing a new wolf suit.

  It was Jill Simon’s fake fur rug.

  It was a mess.

  “You have to hurry,” Jason told Dawn. “You have to solve the mystery.”

  He made a face. “I don’t want Peggy to know about her wolf suit.”

  Dawn looked out of the curtain.

  Richard was fooling with Matthew.

  They were pushing up the seats.

  They sat down on them hard.

  “Bam!” said Matthew.

  “Double bam!” said Richard.

  “Triple bam!” said Ms. Rooney. “You’ll never win the banner this way.”

  Ms. Rooney looked at Linda. “Go ahead,” she said.

  Linda sat down at the piano. She was going to do a song for the play.

  She took up almost the whole seat.

  “Horse face,” Dawn said under her breath.

  Linda began to play.

  She kept making mistakes.

  She kept saying, “Wait.”

  She started over.

  “We won’t win the banner this way,” said Jason.

  “Horrible playing,” said Dawn.

  Dawn pulled the wolf note out of her pocket.

  “I used my detective box last night,” she told Jason.

  “What did you find out?”

  Dawn raised one shoulder. “I looked with my magnifying glass.”

  “What did you see?”

&
nbsp; “Nothing.” She put the paper up to her nose. “It smells funny.”

  Jason leaned over.

  He sniffed at the paper.

  “I know that smell,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  He tried to think. “I can’t remember. It’s something horrible.”

  Dawn held it up to her nose again. “It doesn’t smell horrible to me. It smells like flowers or something.”

  Outside, Linda Lorca stopped playing.

  “Try it again,” said Ms. Rooney.

  Dawn and Jason went to the back of the stage. The closet door was locked.

  They went to the little window on the stairs. They looked outside.

  “Hey!” said Dawn. “There goes Mrs. Gates’s class.”

  “Drake is carrying a shovel,” said Jason.

  Dawn thought for a minute. “There was a shovel in the closet,” she said.

  Jason nodded. “Louie said he put something in the closet.”

  Dawn bit at her lip. “Just an old shovel?” she said. “He wasn’t talking about the wolf suit.”

  “I guess not,” said Jason.

  Dawn took a breath. “Do you know what that means?”

  “Drake isn’t the wolf,” said Jason.

  “No,” said Dawn.

  She watched Mrs. Gates’s class. She didn’t want to think about the wolf.

  Mrs. Gates’s class stopped at the picnic table.

  Drake stood on top of the table. He started to say something.

  He waved his arms around.

  “Ms. Rooney would never let us do that,” Dawn said.

  They heard Ms. Rooney clap her hands.

  They ran back to the stage.

  Dawn picked up her can of soup. She picked up the bread.

  Someone had taken a big bite out of it.

  “Gross!” said Dawn.

  “It was probably Richard,” said Jason. “He likes to fool around.”

  Dawn looked at the bread. “There are pointy teeth marks in it,” she said. “Huge ones.”

  “Maybe a dog,” Jason said.

  “Maybe,” said Dawn.

  Jason looked a little worried. “Maybe . . .”

  Dawn pulled up her hood. “Don’t say it.”

  “I won’t,” said Jason.

  Ms. Rooney clapped her hands. “Goodness,” she said. “Where’s Red Riding Hood? Where’s the wolf?”

  Dawn opened the curtain.

  She stepped out.

  “I’m going to my grandmother’s house,” she said in a loud voice.

  Ms. Rooney clapped her hands. “You forgot something.”

  Dawn didn’t say anything.

  “Where’s your loaf of bread for Granny?” asked Ms. Rooney.

  “It’s behind the curtain,” Dawn said.

  She didn’t want to touch it.

  She didn’t even want to look at it.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IT WAS LUNCHTIME.

  Dawn and Jason walked downstairs together.

  “Don’t worry,” said Jason. “It wasn’t a wolf.”

  Dawn thought about the teeth marks in the bread.

  Those horrible teeth marks.

  “Detectives aren’t afraid,” she told herself.

  She took a breath. “I know,” she told Jason. “It was a person. Someone was trying to scare me.”

  “Me, too,” said Jason.

  Dawn frowned. “Why does someone want to scare us?”

  Jason put his shoulders in the air.

  They stopped outside the cafeteria.

  Today was Mrs. Smith’s bake sale.

  They had set up a table.

  In front was a sign.

  HELP US WIN THE BANNER.

  SMALL COOKIES . . . 5¢

  LARGE COOKIES . . . 10¢

  MONEY FOR THE SCHOOL

  TO BUY A STATUE

  OF

  JAMES K. POLK

  “Yuck,” said Jason. “Who wants that?”

  Jason’s sister Peggy was behind the table. She looked at Jason. “Dummy. Everybody does. Mrs. Smith said so.”

  Jason gave Dawn a tap. “Don’t buy the chocolate chips.”

  “They look good,” Dawn said.

  Jason held his fingers to his nose. “My sister made them. She burned the bottoms. My mother had to scrape them off.”

  Peggy put her hands on her hips.

  “Bunny brain,” she said to Jason. “Be quiet.”

  “I’ll take an oatmeal cookie,” said Dawn.

  Peggy sniffed. She put the smallest one in a napkin. “Ten cents.”

  “A nickel,” Dawn said.

  Peggy picked up a crumb. She popped it into her mouth. “Wrong, Red Riding Hood. This is big enough for you.”

  Dawn put out her lip. “No fair.”

  “Too bad. Put it back if you don’t want it.”

  Mrs. Smith came along. “I see you have a nice big oatmeal cookie.” She smiled at Dawn.

  Dawn put the dime on the table.

  She marched into the cafeteria.

  “My sister’s tough,” Jason said. “Even my father says so.”

  They each took a tray.

  Today was vegetable soup.

  It was red. It had squashed peas. It had corn, too.

  Dawn hated it.

  They sat at the last table.

  Drake and Louie were sitting across the way. They were blowing straws at each other.

  She kept watching them.

  Drake wasn’t the wolf.

  Neither was Louie.

  She picked up her spoon.

  She took the peas out of her soup.

  She lined them up on her tray.

  “Hey!” she said.

  “Don’t you like those peas?” Jason reached for them.

  “Listen!” Dawn said. “I think I know. I know who the wolf is.”

  “Tell me,” Jason said.

  Dawn nodded. “I need your help.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  DAWN KNOCKED ON Jason’s side door.

  A minute later, he opened it.

  He was eating bread and peanut butter. It was all over his mouth.

  “Come on in,” he said. “I’ll make you some.”

  Dawn went into the kitchen.

  The bread was on the table.

  So was the knife.

  Jason stuck his finger into the peanut butter. He licked it off.

  “Hand me the bread,” he said.

  Yuck, Dawn thought. “Never mind,” she said.

  “You don’t like peanut butter?” Jason put his finger into the jar again.

  His sister Peggy came into the kitchen. “Stop doing that,” she said. “It’s gross.”

  “Stop bossing me,” Jason said.

  “Stop fighting!” Jason’s mother called.

  Peggy picked up the peanut butter. She put the lid on top. “I’m taking this.”

  “You are not,” said Jason.

  “I need it for cookies,” said Peggy.

  Jason grabbed for the jar.

  Peggy kicked his leg.

  “Yeow!” he yelled.

  Mrs. Bazyk came into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

  “Tomorrow’s the last day,” Peggy said. “Holly and I are making cookies.”

  She looked at Jason. “This elephant won’t let me go.”

  “Jason.” Mrs. Bazyk frowned.

  Dawn frowned, too. “Let her go.”

  Peggy pushed past Jason. “I have to hurry. My class wants to win the banner.”

  She slammed out the door.

  “I need coffee.” Mrs. Bazyk put a pot onto the stove. “Do you fight with your brother?” she asked Dawn.

  Dawn shook her head. “Uh-uh.” She crossed her fingers.

  They went into the playroom. It had a bunch of clothes on one chair. It had a pile of papers on the other.

  Jason threw the papers onto the floor. He sat down.

  “Did you forget?” Dawn asked.

  He blinked. “Yes. Let’s go.�
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  “Going down to the basement!” he called to his mother.

  “Why?” she called back.

  Jason looked at Dawn. “Just to go down there.”

  Mrs. Bazyk didn’t answer.

  They went down the stairs.

  Dawn sniffed. It smelled like wet clothes.

  “Not much light.” Jason hopped down the last step.

  Dawn looked around.

  It was a good thing she was a detective.

  This was a scary place.

  “Over here,” said Jason. He pointed to some shelves.

  He pulled a box down.

  Dawn pulled one down, too.

  Halloween costumes. A skeleton. A pumpkin.

  Dawn pulled out another box.

  She put her hand in.

  Then she sat back. “Look at this,” she told Jason.

  Jason reached into the box. “I don’t believe it.”

  Dawn nodded. “It’s true,” she said.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “PEGGY,” SAID DAWN.

  “Peggy?” Linda Lorca asked.

  “Peggy?” said Richard.

  “My own sister,” said Jason. “The wolf.”

  Ms. Rooney’s class was standing behind the curtain.

  Outside, the whole school was waiting.

  “Hurry,” said Emily Arrow. “Tell us!”

  Jason was wearing Peggy’s wolf suit.

  He held out his arms.

  “We found it in the basement,” said Dawn. “Peggy had put it back.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Linda.

  “I didn’t either,” Dawn said. “Until the bake sale.”

  She picked up the can of soup.

  She put the bread under her arm.

  “Peggy called me Red Riding Hood,” she said.

  “So?” asked Linda.

  “The play was a surprise,” said Dawn. “How did she know I was Red Riding Hood?”

  “That’s right,” said Emily. “How did she know?”

  “I asked her last night,” Jason said. “She was up on the stage. She had to get something for Mrs. Smith.”

  “She saw the wolf suit?” Richard said. “She put it on?”

  Jason nodded. He knelt down on the stage. “Yip, yip,” he growled. “She was mad. She didn’t know I took it.”

  “You should have asked,” said Linda.

  “Then she saw my Red Riding cape,” said Dawn. “It was on a seat. She put the wolf note in it.”

  “A scary one,” said Jason.

  “She made teeth marks in the bread,” said Emily.

  “With a peanut butter knife,” Jason said.