The Teen Detectives In Mystery School

"I can totally not believe it!" squealed my friend Tatiana Fardman. She brushed a strand of dark brown hair out of her green eyes and turned to me excitedly. "Fiona, what do you think about getting into Emma Middle School?" Apparently unable to contain her excitement about being at school again, she jumped up and started running around the library room.

I grinned. That was Tatiana all right, always exited, not to mention over exuberant about anything and everything. But that excitement was helpful in her volleyball games which she often participated in. Tatiana is a thin, sprightly little thing, which made her extremely valuable to any volleyball team that she might tryout for.

"Well, I think the music room is much improved, after the changes they made on it," I answered, my eyes trying to follow her rapid race around the room.

"Well I don't know about you, but I think the addition of the new guys is fantastic too," commented my other friend, Michelle Deme, who tossed her blond hair at a passing guy, her blue eyes sparkling. Michelle's pastimes were going to the mall and looking at the merchandise (and not to mention the guys.) Not that I can blame her, if I had her curly golden hair and blue eyes to, I'd be flaunting it as much as she does.

A dark haired girl that was sitting near by, looked up from a magazine that she was reading. I caught her eye and grinned. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"You people are so into guys," she commented, getting up and walking over to us. "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" she added, quickly glancing at us. "With the exception of Miss Fiona Semloh, of course," she said, grinning at me.

"I just like them as friends and not as boyfriends Miss Lynn Nostaw," I frowned. "Sometimes," I added, my face breaking into a smile as I winked at her. Don't get me wrong, Lynn Nostaw and I have been best friends ever since I moved to 122 Rekab street a few years ago. I think it's because we both like the same things. Swimming, reading, mysteries, normal things like that. We sort of look the same to. Both of us have brown hair and big feet. Practically the only thing different about us is the fact that I have blue-green eyes and she has brown. Even with that difference, people still get our names mixed up.

Michelle yawned, covering up her mouth with a perfectly manicured hand.

"Sorry," she said. "Must be the company." We all glared at her.

"Or it could be the fact that we had to get up at five thirty in the morning to get to school today," she amended quickly.

"To true," Tatiana sighed. "Mom nearly had to drag me out of bed this morning. I mean, after sleeping in for months, it's kind of hard to...."

I quickly lost the train of conversation. I had more important things to think about, like whether I should have Frosted Flakes or Frosted Cheerios tomorrow for breakfast.

I shifted in my seat, impatient for the bell to ring. The conversation had switched to all the romances that had gone on this summer, and was getting pretty boring pretty fast. Anyway, I had signed up for some fun electives this year, and I wanted to get at it as soon as possible. Ok, call me a weirdo, but the teachers here are really fun.

The school that we were so exited to be in is called Emma Middle School. We could hardly believe that we actually gotten into it again for eight grade. It only takes certain students and personally, I was surprised that we had got in. We had gotten accepted for our sixth and seventh grade year, but I had heard that getting in here for eighth grade was harder. But they had made some excellent changes this year, and my friends and I wanted to take full advantage of them.

Looking around the library, where we spent every day before school, I noted with approval that we had gotten two new shelves of books. 'Good, ' I thought, 'Now I'll practically live in the library.'

Oh and by the way, don't think we're geeks for hanging out in the library, but don't ask me why we do it either. Maybe because it's such a bright, sun filled place. Plus, it has a computer lab connected to it which is excellent for checking your e-mail before school.

I felt a breeze come in as someone opened the library door and my eyes swept the crowd to see who had come in. I gasped when I realized who it was.

"Sam!" I cried.

Lynn, Michelle and Tatiana broke off their conversation and gave each other knowing looks. I glared at them. True, Sam and I are going out, but still, that's humiliating that they have to look at me like that!

I waved at a boy with scarlet hair and blue eyes as he strode across the room. I stood up on my tip toes and gave him a hug. He looks rather harmless, but he's as brave and loyal as you could want.

"Fiona!" he said, holding me at arms length after hugging me back. "Long time no see, chick!"

"Sam, I saw you yesterday," I said pointedly. "Remember, you and Lynn helped me pick out what I was going to wear for the first day of school..." I trailed off, looking at the blank look on his face. I sighed, and went into more detail. "You suggested that I wear my blue flowered shirt with my orange striped pants."

"Oh, yeah! And Lynn nearly knocked me out for making such an awful suggestion!" Sam said, snapping his fingers.

Space case. Don't get me wrong, he's an awfully decent guy. I mean, Sam Alexander have been friends (if not dating) for as long as I can remember.

"Fiona! Earth to Fiona! Come in Fiona! Can you read me?" Sam was waving his schedule in front of my face.

"Yes, I can," I said grabbing the schedule. "It says that you have science first period. Oh, that's the same as the rest of us." I glanced up at the clock. "And I also see the bell is going to ring...." BRING! "Right now."

As we were walking out the door, I looked back to see if I had forgotten anything. As I did, I noticed that the librarian was looking through a box of new looking science books, frowning and muttering to herself. I thought that was kind of odd: usually she is a pretty cheerful person. I shrugged and went to class.

* * * * * *

An hour later, Lynn and I were sitting in our second period math class. Lynn was peacefully asleep and I had my famous vague look that I reserved for teachers that make boring lectures. They call it teaching. Yeah right.

But for the first (and last) time, I was actually thinking in math class. But I wasn't thinking about math, I was thinking of my first period, science class. The class was very strange. Usually our science teacher was very enthusiastic about starting right away. Last year, we had homework to do on the first day. Not much work though, just to read out of our science book. But today, he just talked about his vacation and asked us about ours. I could tell that everyone in the class was prepared to work, and one person even asked the teacher if he was going to read out of the science book today. Our science teacher cleared his throat, looked uncomfortable, and changed the subject to the various illnesses he had caught during the summer. Very strange. But then, he did have a reputation for being strange, so then why....

"Miss Semloh," a sharp voice cut through my thoughts. "Could you be so kind as to take that infamous look off of your face and pay attention?" I snapped out of my thoughts and tuned my eyes on my math teacher. He was a good teacher I'll admit, but no people skills at all.

"So sorry Mr. A, I was just thinking," I said mildly.

"Riveting. Glad to see a change," he said sarcastically. By that time Lynn had awoke up and was glaring at him.

"If Miss Semloh will let us, we will proceed with the lesson," he said dryly.

"Proceed," I said, docilely. He did. I turned to Lynn and rolled my eyes. She stared at me for a second and then gave me a small grin.

"Now class, we will return to the previous assignment," Mr. A was saying.

"What assignment?" a courageous child asked.

"The last one that we did last year," Mr. A barked, as if that was obvious. "I seriously hope you kept it." The class exchanged looks. Was this guy for real? As if we would save a homework assignment, much less one from last year!

"Oh Mr. A," a girl said sweetly, a total teachers pet. "My little brother ate it while I was reviewing over the summer, so could I have the book to do it over?" Mr. A looked impressed.

"Of course you..." he started to say, then stopped. He got a very confused look and looked rather nervous. Unwilling to tangle with Mr. A again, I nudged Lynn. She got the message.

"Uh, Mr. A?" she said tentatively. "Is something wrong? Are you going to pass out the books?"

He still had that nervous look. The confused one had disappeared.

"Yes, of course Miss Nostaw... uh, I mean, no, I won't. Instead of the assignment, I'll hand out a hand out and let you do that instead of the book work," he said smoothly. "Here," he picked up a stack of papers and handed them out.

"Um Mr. A?" another brave soul said, holding up the paper. "This is geometry. We're in algebra."

"Oh right, just testing you," Mr. A said with a nervous laugh. "Just seeing if you were awake. Ha ha ha...."

Lynn and I exchanged confused looks. What was going on here?