The Lemonade Crime (2 page)

Evan crushed the note in his hand. Suddenly he didn't feel like laughing and joking around with his friends. Suddenly he wanted to punch his fist through the wall.

Here's why: Evan was more certain than ever that Scott had stolen money from him. It had happened just last week. Right in the middle of that heat wave. Right in the middle of the lemonade war with Jessie. They'd all been at Jack's house. All the guys—Paul and Ryan and Kevin and Malik and Scott—were playing pool basketball. Evan had $208 in the pocket of his shorts.
Two hundred and eight dollars!
It was more money than he'd ever seen in his whole life. He'd left his shorts folded on the bed in Jack's bedroom while they all went swimming. But then Scott got out of the pool to go to the bathroom. And a minute later, he came running out of the house, saying he had to go home right away. And when Evan went back in the house to get dressed, the money was gone.

It had been the worst feeling in Evan's entire life.

Once upon a time, about a million years ago, Scott and Evan had been friends. Sort of. Evan used to play at Scott's house a lot, and once in a while Scott would play at Evan's, although Scott said his house was better because there was more stuff to do. One time, Evan even went overnight to Scott's beach house on the Cape. The Spencers had plenty of money because Scott's mom was a lawyer at one of the biggest law offices downtown and his dad ran a financial consulting business out of their home.

But things had cooled off since then. Way off. The truth was, Scott was kind of a pain to be around. The way he bragged, the way he cheated at games, even stupid little games like Go Fish or Operation. Who cared about winning a game like Go Fish? And the way he kept things locked up—like the snacks at his house! He kept Yodels and Ring Dings locked in a metal file cabinet in his basement. If Evan thought about it, he had to admit that he really couldn't stand the kid. And now he had a reason to hate him.

"Morning work, Evan," said Mrs. Overton, tapping the work sheet on his desk as she walked by. Evan turned back to his own desk and studied the Daily Double math problem in front of him. All the other kids in the class were working on the same problem, and Evan could tell that some of them had already finished. Normally this would have made him tense, but this morning, he couldn't even concentrate enough on the problem to get that
uh-oh
feeling inside of him.

I'd get an Xbox. The new one.
That's what Scott had said last week, just before the money disappeared from Evan's shorts. They were trying to figure out how much money they would make from a lemon ade stand and what they would buy if they got rich. Suddenly rich.

And now he had an Xbox. Scott Spencer had a 20/20, and Evan was sure he'd bought it with the money he'd stolen from Evan's pocket. Evan felt like lifting his head and howling.

Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh.
A sound like a rattlesnake ready to strike shimmied through the classroom. Evan looked up. Mrs. Overton was shaking the big African
shekere
she used to get everyone's attention. The beads draped around the hollowed-out gourd made a rustling, rattling sound.

"Okay, Paper Collectors," said Mrs. Overton, "please gather the Daily Doubles and put them on my desk." Every week, the students in 4–0 were assigned a job. Some of the jobs were serious, like Paper Collector and Equipment Manager and Attendance Monitor, and some of them were silly, like Chicken Dresser (the person who chose an outfit for the rubber chicken that sat on Mrs. Overton's desk) and Goofy Face Maker (the person who made a face that all the kids in 4–0 had to copy at the end of the day on Friday). "Everyone else, come over to the rug for Morning Meeting."

Evan looked back down at the blank math problem in front of him. The only thing he'd written on his page was his name. He handed the paper to Sarah Monroe, then walked over to the rug in the corner and dropped onto the floor, his back up against the bookcase.

"Evan, sit up, please," said Mrs. Overton, smiling at him. "No slouching in the circle." Evan crossed his legs and sat up properly.

First, they went around the circle and every person had to say hello to the person on the right and the person on the left, but in a different way. When it was his turn, Evan said "
konichiwa
" to Adam, who was sitting next to him. Evan liked saying the Japanese word. It made him feel like he was kicking a ball around inside his mouth. Jessie used sign language to say hello to Megan. Scott Spencer said "Whassup?" to Ryan, which made everyone in the class laugh. Everyone except Evan.

Then Mrs. Overton turned to a fresh page on the Morning Board. A wild goose had landed on the playground yesterday morning, and that was the topic for discussion. Mrs. Overton wanted to know what the kids knew about geese in particular and migrating birds in general. So they took turns until every single one of them had written a fact on the easel. Evan wrote,
Some birds fly for days.
He was going to add
when they migrate,
but he was pretty sure he'd mess up the spelling of the word
migrate,
so he left off that part.

When they'd finished talking about geese and migration, Mrs. Overton capped the Magic Markers and said, "Would anyone like to share something with the class before we go back to our desks?" About half the kids raised their hand, but no one's hand went up faster than Scott Spencer's.

"Scott?" said Mrs. Overton. Evan slumped back against the bookcase. He did not want to hear what Scott had to share with the class.

"I got an Xbox 20/20," Scott said, looking around at all the other kids.

Immediately, the class exploded with noise. Twenty-seven fourth-graders started talking at once. Mrs. Overton had to shake her
shekere
for nearly ten seconds to get the kids to quiet down.

"Holy rubber chickens!" said Mrs. Overton. The kids in 4–0 laughed. "I can tell you're all interested in Scott's new game box. Let's have three questions for Scott about his share, and then we'll move on to the next person."

Mrs. Overton called on Alyssa first.

"What's so great about a 20/20?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" said Paul. "You put on these goggles, and the TV goes totally 3-D."

"Paul, remember to raise your hand if you want to talk," said Mrs. Overton.

Scott nodded his head. "Yeah, it's like you're really
in
the jungle," said Scott. "Or in a car chase. Or wherever the game goes. And the controls are the gloves you wear. It's how you move your fingers, like this." Scott held out his hands and showed how he moved them in different ways to make things happen in the game. Ryan shook his head as if he couldn't quite believe it.

Mrs. Overton looked at all the hands that were still raised. "Question number two? Jack?"

"What games do you have?" asked Jack. All the boys and even some of the girls had turned their bodies so that the whole circle was facing Scott.

"So far I've got Defenders, Road Rage, and Crisis. And then I've got a whole bunch that are in Japanese, and I have no idea what they are."

The class started to whisper and talk again until Mrs. Overton called for the last question before moving on. "Jessie?"

Evan sat up a little, wondering what his little sister would ask. The first few days of school, Jessie had hardly said a word. Now everyone in the class turned to hear what she had to say.

"How much did it cost?" she asked.

Evan smiled. Leave it to Jessie to ask the one thing that everyone wanted to know but didn't dare ask.

"Jessie, that's not an appropriate question," said Mrs. Overton.

Jessie's forehead wrinkled up. "Why not?"

"We don't talk about money in class," said Mrs. Overton.

"We do in math," said Jessie. "All the time."

"That's different," said Mrs. Overton. "What I mean is, we don't ask each other how much things cost. It isn't polite. Okay, let's move on. Evan, do you have something you'd like to share with the class?"

Evan had raised his hand, and now he dropped it. "Since Jessie's question didn't count, can I ask the third question?"

Mrs. Overton paused for a minute. Evan could tell that she wanted to move on to a different topic, but she also wanted to follow the rules of Morning Meeting. "Okay," she said. "That seems fair."

Evan turned to Scott and looked him right in the face. That feeling came over him, the same one he'd had when he read Jessie's note. It was like a giant steamroller. Evan almost never got angry or jealous, but now he wanted to reach across the room and grab Scott and shake something out of him.

"Who bought it?" he asked. "You or your parents?"

Scott jutted his chin out, like he did when he was challenging Evan on the basketball court. "I did. All my own money."

The class erupted again, and Mrs. Overton didn't bother with the
shekere.
She just held her hands up and said, "4–0!" When they quieted down, she said, "Scott, it's very impressive that you saved your money for something you wanted to buy. Now let's move on."

But Evan couldn't move on. He couldn't listen to Salley tell the class about the trip she'd taken to her grandparents' house. Or even to Paul talk about the nest of snakes he'd found in his backyard. He couldn't hear anything or see anything. That feeling was all over him, through him, inside him. That feeling of wanting to shake something out of Scott. And now he knew what it was he wanted.

Evan wanted revenge.

eyewitness
(
),
n.
A person who actually sees something happen and so can give a first-person account of the event.

Jessie stood in the doorway, one foot inside the classroom, one foot outside on the playground. All the other kids had run outside. Everyone except Evan and Megan. They were staying inside to finish their Daily Double.

Jessie didn't want to go outside if Megan and Evan weren't there. She still didn't know most of the fourth-graders—not enough to know who was friendly and who wasn't—and she knew she'd probably say the wrong thing to the wrong person. And people would laugh. Or be mean. Or just give her one of those looks—those looks she never understood—and then turn their backs on her.

Maybe Jessie could stay inside and read her Independent Reading book instead. It was worth asking.

She walked back to her desk and pulled out
The Prince and the Pauper.
It was a book her grandmother had given to her. Twice, actually. First, Grandma sent it at the beginning of the summer with a note that said,
Jessie, I loved this book when I was your age.
Then a month later she'd sent another copy of the same book with a note that said,
This book made me think of you, Jessie. Hope you enjoy it!

Jessie had laughed and said, "I hope she forgets and sends me my birthday money twice!" But Mrs. Treski didn't laugh. She frowned and shook her head and went to the phone to give her mother a call, just to see how she was doing.

"Mrs. Overton?" said Jessie. Evan had gone to the boys' room, and Megan was in the hall getting a drink of water, so the room was empty except for Jessie and her teacher.

"Yes, Jessie?" Mrs. Overton looked up from her desk, where she was reading over what the students had written in their Writer's Notebooks that morning. Jessie had written about the fireworks that she and Evan and her mother had watched from their house on Labor Day. She'd used lots of long words, like
kaleidoscope
and
panorama,
and vigorous verbs, like
exploded
and
cascading.
She thought her paragraph was pretty good.

Jessie heard Evan and Megan laughing in the hallway. That stopped her, the way they were laughing together. She didn't want them to see her, staying inside with the teacher during recess. She was pretty sure that Evan would say, "That's not what fourth-graders do." So she mumbled, "Uh, nothing," and carried her book back to her desk.

"You should go outside, honey," said Mrs. Overton. "You don't want to miss all of morning recess. Right?"

"Right," said Jessie faintly. She hurried to the back door, the one that opened right onto the playground. When she turned to close the door behindher, she saw Evan and Megan walking into the classroom from the hallway. They both looked pretty happy, considering that they were missing recess
and
had to do math.

Outside, a handful of girls were sitting at the picnic table, folding origami flowers. Some of the fourth-graders were swinging and sliding on the Green Machine. About eight or nine were playing kickball. All of Evan's friends—Paul and Ryan and Adam and Jack—were shooting baskets, along with Scott Spencer. Where should Jessie go? She wondered if the boys were still talking about the 20/20 so she drifted over to the basketball hoop. She sat down on the grass and pretended to concentrate on her book, but really she was listening to the boys' conversation. Jessie overheard Paul ask Scott, "How'd you save up that much?" They weren't playing a real game, just shooting free throws from the line.

"Lots of ways," said Scott. Paul bounce-passed the ball to Scott, and he took his shot. And missed. Jessie was glad to see that.