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

Almost everybody raised their hands. "How did you figure that out, Heather?" asked Mr. Zorzi. She answered, but I wasn't really listening. I just kept looking at that beautiful A-for the rest of the period.
Mr. Zorzi worked quickly through the whole test. Finally, the bell rang, and everyone got up to leave. As I was gathering my books together, I heard Mr. Zorzi speaking loudly over the noise we were all making. "Shawna Riverson and Claudia Kishi," he said, "please stop at my desk on your way out."
I figured that he must want to congratulate me on my especially high grade, and to tell me how proud he was that I studied so hard for the test. I couldn't really guess why he wanted to talk to Shawna. After all, she almost always gets good grades. She's one of the best students in the class.
I walked up to Mr. Zorzi's desk with a big smile on my face. Shawna was right beside me, looking bewildered. Mr. Zorzi didn't return my smile. I stood there next to Shawna, waiting for Mr. Zorzi to speak. He looked very stern.
"I'd like both of you to take out your test papers," he said. I didn't have to look far - I hadn't even put mine away. I had been planning to show it off to Stacey and the others. Shawna pulled hers out of a notebook.
"Put them side by side," said Mr. Zorzi, "and tell me if you notice something." I saw it right away. We'd both gotten the exact same grade - ninety-four percent. I said so to Mr. Zorzi.
"That's right, Claudia," he said, still sounding pretty grim. "But there's something else." He pointed at my paper. "See Problem Five?" I looked where he was pointing. I'd gotten that one wrong.
"I think I understand what I did there, Mr. Zorzi," I said. "I should have multiplied by the reciprocal instead of dividing, right?" Beside me, Shawna nodded as if she agreed.
"That's not the point, Claudia," he said. "Look at Shawna's paper." I did. And I realized something. She'd gotten the same question wrong - in the exact same way.
Mr. Zorzi went over our tests with us. We'd each only gotten three problems wrong, but we'd each done them wrong in the same way. I still didn't understand what Mr. Zorzi was getting at, though. Maybe he thought we
should be tutored together or something.
"Girls," he said, "the probability of this happening is almost zero." He looked at each of us in turn. "Do you realize what this suggests to me?"
I turned to Shawna. For just a second, I saw something like fear in her eyes. Confused, I looked back at Mr. Zorzi.
"One of you must have copied from the other," he said. He was looking straight at me.
Did you ever hear the expression "my blood ran cold?" Well, that's what happened to me. The second he said that, I felt like there were icicles in my veins. I shivered. Then, just as suddenly, I felt hot all over, and I knew my face must1 have turned bright red. I just couldn't believe what Mr. Zorzi was saying.
Shawna spoke up right away. "Mr. Zorzi, you're not my regular teacher, so you don't know me that well." I turned to look at her, feeling like I was in the middle of a dream. Shawna went on. "If you did, you'd know that I would never cheat on a test." She sounded so sure of herself.
Mr. Zorzi looked closely at her arid then nodded. "You can go, Shawna," he said. She gathered her books together and left the room without looking at me.
I stood with my head down, trying to understand what was happening. I felt like a complete jerk. Why couldn't I have spoken up like Shawna did? Of course, I knew right away that she must have copied my paper. I knew for sure that I hadn't cheated. But there was no way that Mr. Zorzi - or any teacher, for that matter - would take my word against hers.
Shawna is a really good student - in everything but math. But even in our remedial math class, she usually gets the best grades. She always studies hard for tests. Shawna is also incredibly popular. She has this huge group of friends, she's in the Drama Club (and always gets the leading roles in their plays), and she's a member of the Pep Squad. Miss Stoneybrook Middle School, that's Shawna.
And who was I? Good old Claudia "C-student" Kishi. Of course Mr. Zorzi assumed I was the one who had cheated. Why shouldn't he? I stopped myself. Wait a minute. He shouldn't! So I wasn't the best student in the history of the world. I was honest, at least. I'd never even thought of cheating on a test!
"Mr. Zorzi," I said. "I know this doesn't look good. But there must be some explanation! There's no way I would ever - "
But Mr. Zorzi interrupted me. "Claudia," he said gently, "I've seen your record, and I know you must be tired of having to work so hard in order to get passing grades in your classes." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "But looking at somebody else's paper isn't the answer."
"But Mr. Zorzi," I said. "I didn't - "
He held up his hand. "I'm sorry, Claudia, but I'm going to have to talk to the principal about this." He frowned. "Cheating is serious business."
As if I didn't know.
Mr. Zorzi went on. "And he'll probably want to let your regular math teacher know, just so that everyone can be aware of the incident."
I nodded miserably. I felt like a shipwreck victim, drifting away on a tiny rubber raft, helpless to do anything but watch as the ship tilted and then - whooosh! - went down.
But Mr. Zorzi wasn't finished. "And, of course, the principal will be calling your parents."
The tiny rubber raft sprang a leak and sank. It was all over. I couldn't even begin to think about how my parents would react to a phone call like that.
Suddenly I felt very, very tired. I could see that there was no point in trying to say anything else to Mr. Zorzi. He had his mind made up. He wasn't being mean about it or anything - I think just about any teacher would have acted the same way, dismissing Shawna and putting the blame on me. After all, why would Shawna cheat? She wasn't the one who got C's in all her subjects.
"Claudia?" Mr. Zorzi asked softly. I looked up. I'd been lost in a fog for a minute. "You can go now," he said.
I gathered my books to my chest. Then I glanced at my math test, lying there on the desk. Obviously, I wasn't supposed to take it with me. Mr. Zorzi needed it for evidence.
I walked out of the room without saying a word. I was in a complete daze. Somehow I found my way to my locker. I leaned against it for a moment with my eyes closed. I didn't feel like crying - I didn't feel anything at all. I was numb.
Finally, I opened my locker and put my math book away. I never wanted to see it again.
I can't really remember much about the rest of the day - only that it was probably the worst one I've ever spent in school. And that
includes the day I went back to school a few days after Mimi died, when everyone was afraid to speak to me. That was bad, but this was worse.
I spent my lunch hour in the girls' room, not wanting to see any of my friends. Luckily, I didn't have any classes with Stacey for the rest of the day. She would have taken one look at me and known something was wrong.
I knew I'd call her that night and tell her all about it. After all, she was my best friend. And I could count on her to tell the others, so I wouldn't have to. I knew she'd be nice about it - supportive and all that - but boy, did I wish I didn't have to tell anyone. If only it had never happened.
What a day! I felt like I had been on a roller coaster. I'd started off so excited, and here I was at the end of the day, feeling more miserable than I'd ever felt before. All I could think was, If this is what I get for studying, I may never crack a book again.
Chapter 5.
Stacey did have a pretty wild time at the Pikes' that afternoon. It was the same day I'd been accused of cheating, but luckily she didn't even know about that yet. She had enough on her hands as it was.
As Stacey said, it's never calm at the Pikes'. I told you that Mallory had a big family, but let me introduce them all just so you get the whole picture.
Mallory's the oldest. She's eleven and kind of quiet (at least in relation to the rest of the Pikes) and . . . well, I've already told you a lot about her. After Mal come the triplets - Byron, Adam, and Jordan. They're ten. And if you think that one ten-year-old boy can be a noisy handful, you should try sitting for three at a time! Actually, Byron's kind of sensitive and a little calmer than the others - but Jordan and Adam make up for it by being extremely wild.
Then, after the triplets, there's Vanessa. She's nine, and she thinks she's Emily Dickinson or something. She wants to be a poet, and she goes around speaking in rhyme half the time. Then there's Nicky, who's eight. He longs to be old enough to play with the triplets,
but unfortunately they leave him out of things too often. Most of the time, Nicky ends up hanging around with Mar go. She's seven, and she's a pretty good kid. And then, finally, there's Claire, the baby of the family. She's five, and she seems to be in a permanent "silly" phase. She loves to play "pretend," and she generally refers to people as "silly-billy-goo-goo' s."
So this is what Stacey saw when she arrived at the Pikes': Mallory was dashing out the door, trying to be on time for a sitting job of her own. She barely had time to say hello to Stacey. Mrs. Pike was trying to round up Margo, Nicky, and Vanessa for a trip to the mall, but no sooner would she have all three of them in the car than one would jump out, claiming to have forgotten something that he or she desperately needed.
"Hi, Stacey," said Mrs. Pike with a sigh. "Thanks for being on time. I know I must be crazy to take all three of them clothes shopping at once, but at least it's better than taking everyone!"
Stacey tried for a moment (she told me later) to picture a trip to the mall with all eight Pikes. The image was too horrible to think about.
She smiled at Mrs. Pike. "Why don't you just stay with the others, and I'll get Vanessa," she said.
She went into the house and found Vanessa in the living room, searching through a huge box of toys, games, and other stuff. "Vanessa," she said, "your mother is waiting for you. Better get going!"