"Babysitters Club 040 Claudia And The Middle School Mystery" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

Dawn wasn't fazed. "Sure. But they don't know whose locker is whose."
"Mr. Kingbridge knows," said Mary Anne. "He knows every little thing about this school." (Mr. Kingbridge is the vice-principal.)
"Oh, him," said Dawn. "He's half-blind." Mary Anne gasped, then giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "Anyway," continued Dawn, "he'll just figure I'm at my locker. All we have to do this afternoon is stand in front of Shawna's locker as if it were mine, and laugh and talk as we go through it for evidence."
Dawn was really into it. I was glad she'd decided that she would be the one to go through Shawna's locker. I still felt a little uneasy about the whole thing, even if it was my only chance.
Mary Anne felt uneasy, too. "What if Shawna catches you?" she asked.
"She's going to be at practice, Mary Anne,"
said Kristy patiently. Mary Anne can be such a worrier.
"But what if she forgets something and comes back for it?" said Mary Anne.
Hmmmm. That made us all stop and think. Mary Anne had a point. We sure didn't want to be caught in the act by the owner of the locker.
"No problem," Stacey said after a minute. "I'll stand guard where the two hallways meet. If I see her coming, I'll warn you."
"Great!" said Dawn. "And don't forget to watch out for Susan Taylor and that redhead, too."
Just then, the bell rang. Lunch period was over.
It's funny about time. Remember how I said that my morning classes seemed to go on forever? Well, that afternoon, when I really wasn't looking forward to school being over (I was so nervous about what we were going to do), my classes flew by. Before I knew it, the last bell had rung.
I met my friends by my locker - we'd planned it that way. By then, Mallory and Jessi had heard about our plan. They were as excited as the rest of us.
"You guys should go on home," said Dawn
to Mal and Jessi. "If we get caught, we don't want you to be involved."
"That's right," I said. "Mary Anne, you should go, too. We'll tell you all about it later."
Stacey agreed with me. "Good plan," she said. "Kristy, you'd better leave with them, too. The fewer of us that are involved, the better."
Once the four of them had left, it was just a matter of waiting until three o'clock rolled around. That sounds simple but it wasn't.
The minutes seemed to stretch on forever. At first, there were a lot of kids in the halls. But after the buses left, the school grew quiet. Kids walked by themselves or in pairs, heading to things like Spanish Club or soccer practice. We didn't see Shawna and her friends at all.
First we hung around my locker for awhile. Then Stacey realized she'd forgotten her jacket, so we headed over to her locker. We got the jacket, but it still wasn't three o'clock.
The water fountain kept us busy for a couple of minutes - but how much water can you drink? I wasn't thirsty anyway. I was just a nervous wreck. This phrase kept going through my mind: "Breaking and Entering." That was what the newspaper called it when somebody
got arrested for burglary. Was "Breaking and Entering" what we were planning?
After the water fountain, we headed for the girls' room. We didn't want to hang out in any one place too long, in case Mr. Kingbridge noticed and got suspicious.
Being in the girls' room made me remember all those nasty things Shawna and her friends had said about me. I got mad all over again, which was probably good - it kept me from being too nervous.
Finally, it was three o'clock. We stepped out into the hall. It was empty. "Okay, this is it!" said Dawn. "Stacey, man your post."
"Don't you mean 'woman' my post?" said Stacey, giggling. Dawn gave her a Look.
"Come on, Stacey. This is serious," she said. "Now don't forget - come running if you spot Shawna or any of her friends. Or Mr. Kingbridge, for that matter!"
"Check!" said Stacey, giving Dawn a mock salute. Then she wished us luck and headed down the hall.
A few moments later, Dawn and I were standing in front of Shawna's locker. Dawn looked around and then bent over the dial. She twisted it a few times and tried the latch.
Whooosh! The locker opened and an avalanche of stuff fell out. Crumpled-up papers, stuffed notebooks, old chewed-up pens . . . and a picture of the most gorgeous guy I'd ever seen.
"Who's that?" I asked, grabbing it.
"Come on, Claud," said Dawn. "This is no time for boy-watching. Quick! Put it back before somebody comes."
She was right. I got down on the floor, grabbed a handful of papers, and shoved them back into the locker. Boy, Shawna was a slob! I tried to check through the papers as I put them away, but nothing interesting was written on them.
"Check the shelf," said Dawn.
I nodded and stood on my tiptoes to see what was up there. "A bathing suit, a hairbrush, a copy of the school manual..." Pretty boring, I thought. "And what's this? Ew! A gross, old, moldy orange!" I pulled my hand away from it.
"Shhhh!" said Dawn. "Who's coming?"
I listened and heard footsteps. They were coming closer. Dawn and I tried to act casual. "So, did you understand the assignment for English class?" I asked.
Dawn and I aren't even in the same English class, but I don't think the janitor knew. That's
who was coming. He walked by, pushing a cart. He didn't give us a second look.
"Okay, let's get serious," said Dawn. "Look for a note." She bent over and started rummaging around in the papers that covered the bottom of Shawna's locker.
For some reason, I looked at the inside of the locker door. Shawna had all the usual stuff - a mirror, some stickers, some posters of cute boys - but there, stuck in the vent - what was that? I pulled out a folded-up piece of pink paper. A note. "Dawn, listen to what this says," I said.
" 'Congratulations on your A-. Who would have guessed that C.K.'s paper would have had so many right answers?' "
C.K. That was me. Evidence! I stuffed the note into my pocket, and Dawn slammed the locker shut. We ran down the hall, grabbed Stacey, and then leaned against the wall, panting. Victory!
Then I had a terrible thought. The note wasn't worth a thing. If I showed it to Mr. Zorzi or the principal, they'd want to know where I got it. And if I wouldn't tell them (which I couldn't), why should they believe that Shawna's friend even wrote it?
"Why don't you guys go on," I said to Dawn
and Stacey after I'd told them what I'd realized. "I just remembered a book I need from my locker."
When they'd left, I headed for Shawna's locker and stuck the note into the vent. It wasn't going to do me any good, and by putting it back I felt a little less guilty about what we'd done.
I also felt pretty low. Now we were really at a dead end. It looked like I was just going to have to accept that F.
Chapter 11.