The Secret at the Polk Street School

With admiration

to my favorite professor:

Dr. Sidney Rauch

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

A Biography of Patricia Reilly Giff

D
AWN
B
OSCO TOOK
big steps.

Her cowgirl boots went
click-clack.

Jason was click-clacking, too. He had robot boots.

They went into the school yard.

Dawn opened her mouth. “Spring is springing,” she sang. “Grass is ringing.”

Jason started to laugh. “That’s not right.”

Dawn laughed, too. “I like the way it sounds.”

Drake Evans was kneeling near the picnic table.

He was poking around in the dirt.

“You sound like my dog howling,” he told Dawn. He put his nose in the air. “Aaooow!”

“Don’t pay attention,” Jason said.

“I won’t,” said Dawn.

Drake Evans was the meanest boy in the school. Everyone knew that.

Dawn was glad he was in Mrs. Gates’s class and not in Ms. Rooney’s.

In the classroom Dawn put her books away. She made a skinny point on her pencil.

“Happy spring,” Ms. Rooney said. She clapped her hands. “Is everybody ready? It’s idea time.”

Dawn reached into her pocket. She pulled out a piece of paper.

It was a little wrinkled.

She smoothed it out.

“Who has an idea for us?” Ms. Rooney asked.

Dawn put her hand up.

Emily’s hand went up, too. So did Richard’s and Timothy Barbiero’s.

“Yes, Richard,” said Ms. Rooney.

“We want to win the banner,” Richard said. “Right?”

“Right-a-reeno,” said Matthew. “I hope Mr. Mancina gives it to us.”

Mr. Mancina was the principal.

This week he was giving the banner to a special class. It was the class that did the most for the school.

The banner was blue and white.

It had long gold strings.

It said
BEST
.

Ms. Rooney’s class wanted to be the best. They hadn’t had the banner in a long time.

“My idea is”—Richard took a deep breath —“we could paint the hall.”

“That would be doing something good for the school,” said Matthew.

“It would be some mess!” said Emily Arrow.

“It’s a mess now,” said Richard. “All brown and tan.”

“I’d like a red hall,” said Matthew.

“Me, too,” said Jason. “Or orange.”

Richard sat up on his desk. “How about stripes?”

Sometimes Richard had good ideas, Dawn thought.

She still thought hers was better.

Everyone was looking at Ms. Rooney.

Everyone was yelling a different color for the hall.

Ms. Rooney was smiling. “It’s not practical,” she said.

Ms. Rooney always said that, thought Dawn. That meant it wasn’t a good idea.

Dawn waved her hand harder.

“Let’s listen to Dawn’s idea,” said Ms. Rooney.

Dawn read her idea paper. “Everyone knows I’m a great detective.” She looked around. “Right?”

Linda Lorca made a face.

“You’re the best,” said Jason.

Dawn reached into her desk.

She pulled out her polka dot detective hat. She pushed it up on her head.

It was a little big.

“We could find a mystery,” she said. “I could solve it.”

“That would help the school,” said Jason.

“You could say that again,” Richard said. “Got you, thief.”

Matthew gave Richard a punch. “Let the thief have my homework.”

They started to laugh.

“That’s better than my sister’s class. They’re having a bake sale,” Jason said. “My sister’s a terrible baker.”

Dawn nodded. She was thrilled. Her idea was great.

She tried not to smile.

“No good,” said Linda Lorca.

Dawn made a face at her. Sometimes Linda looked like a horse. “Why not?” she asked.

Linda raised one shoulder. “We don’t have a mystery.”

“Neigh.” Dawn made a horse noise under her breath.

Ms. Rooney smiled. “Mysteries always come along.”

Ms. Rooney looked at Timothy. “How about you, Tim?”

Dawn sat down.

She ripped up her idea paper.

She didn’t even listen to Timothy’s idea.

It probably wasn’t practical.

Everyone started to clap.

They liked Timothy’s idea. Even Ms. Rooney.

It was probably silly, Dawn thought.

She looked out the window.

She’d find a mystery all by herself.

O
N
T
UESDAY THEY
started to work on Timothy’s idea.

It wasn’t a bad idea, thought Dawn.

Not bad at all.

It would be a great surprise for the school.

Dawn walked across the stage.

She took little baby steps.

She had a cake box in one hand.

She had a can of chicken soup in the other.

A loaf of bread was tucked under her arm.

It was quiet on the stage.

Very quiet.

She was all alone up there.

Then she heard something.

Swish. Swish.

She looked over her shoulder.

Her red hood fell down over her eyes. She pushed it back.

She tried to walk faster.

Someone was coming from the side of the stage.

She looked again.

She saw hands. They had long pointy fingernails.

She saw a face. Hair was growing all over it.

“I’m going to get you!” the voice whispered.

It was a terrible voice.

Dawn screamed as loud as she could.

Ms. Rooney was sitting in the front row. She clapped her hands. “Wait a minute,” she said.

“That’s all wrong,” said Linda Lorca. Linda was sitting at the piano. “The wolf isn’t supposed to say that.”

“And Red Riding Hood doesn’t scream,” said Emily.

“I hope my idea doesn’t get wrecked,” Timothy said. “This play has to be a good one.”

Dawn put the cake box on the floor.

She put the bread on top of it.

She put her hands on her hips.

She looked at the wolf.

“How come you tried to scare me, Jason?” she asked.

The wolf disappeared behind the curtain.

“Jason?” Dawn asked.

Jason didn’t answer.

“Some wolf you are,” Dawn told him.

“Jason,” Ms. Rooney called.

Jason still didn’t answer.

Ms. Rooney stood up.

Dawn went to the back of the stage.

No one was there.

“Hey!” she said.

She went out front again. “He’s not there.”

In back of the auditorium the doors opened.

Everyone turned around.

It was Jason.

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “I had to get a drink.”

He marched down the aisle.

Dawn’s mouth opened.

How did Jason get back there so fast?

One minute he had been on the stage. The next minute he was in the hall.

She blinked.

“You did the wolf part wrong,” Sherri Dent told him.

“You didn’t even growl a little,” said Matthew. He made a wolf face. “Grrr.”

“I didn’t even do the wolf part yet,” said Jason. He crossed his eyes at them. “I’m the best growler in the class.”

He went up the stage steps on his hands and knees. “Yuff yiff. Ai ai ai.”

Jason was right, Dawn thought. He was a terrific growler.

Jason looked around. “Where’s my wolf suit? Where are my fake fingernails?”

Dawn helped him look. “Where did you take them off?”

“I didn’t put them on yet,” he said.

Linda Lorca stuck out her lip. “Those fingers took a long time to make. You’d better find them.”

“Neigh,” said Dawn under her breath.

Jason crawled to the edge of the stage. He looked worried. “My sister Peggy will kill me. She doesn’t know I took her wolf suit.”

Ms. Rooney clapped her hands again. “It’s too late to start now,” she said. “It’s almost time to go home.”

The class lined up.

Dawn kept thinking about the wolf suit.

She thought about the long fingernails.

She thought about the voice. “I’m going to get you,” it had said.

She looked behind her.

“Are you sure it wasn’t you?” she asked Jason.

“Cross my toes,” he said.

They went into the classroom.

Dawn wished she were home. She didn’t want to tell anyone she was afraid.

She was a detective.

Detectives weren’t supposed to be afraid.

She could feel a lump of worry in her chest.

She wondered what would happen next.

I
T WAS AFTER SCHOOL.

“Wait for me!” Dawn called to Jason.

She went into the auditorium.

She looked around.

Her red riding cape was on a chair.

She hoped no one had seen it.

The play was a surprise.