Free Fabulous Five 016 - The Hot-Line Emergency by Betsy Haynes Page A

Pam.
    Christie had almost made up her mind that she wasn't going
to hear from the caller that evening when the phone rang again. "I need
help with problems five and nine in algebra," said the voice on the other
end of the phone. It was him.
    "Okay, let me get my book." She waved to Mr.
Snider, who had turned to look at her when the phone rang. He hurried back to
his place and carefully picked up the phone.
    "You'll have to give me a minute to look at the
problems," Christie said. "My teacher assigned the even-numbered
problems, and I haven't looked at those."
    "He did?" asked the caller.
    Christie tried to sound as if she were half-listening to
him. "Umm, yes. Okay, I'm ready. What's your question?"
    As usual, they worked the problems together easily. When
they were finished, he said, "I hope I didn't make you too angry."
    "Angry?" she asked innocently.
    "Come on, you know I'm the one who has been calling. I
wrote that thing about you on the fence. I guess I'm sorry I did it. You just
made me mad."
    "Don't worry about it," she said. "You said
you were real good at something. What is that?
    He laughed. "Oh, no, you don't. You're trying to trap
me again, aren't you? I told you I was smart, too. You won't do it that easily."
    "I didn't really expect to," Christie said,
smiling. When he had hung up, she turned to Mr. Snider, and he raised his hand,
making his thumb and forefinger into an O to show his approval. She
grinned at him. It looked as if her plan was working.

CHAPTER 14
    Christie's father pulled the car into the garage, and she
jumped out and ran into the house.
    "Hi, sweetheart," her mother said as she came into
the kitchen. "How did it go? Did you get a call from that boy?"
    "I'll tell you about it later, Mom," Christie
answered, kissing her on the cheek. "Got to hurry." She ran to her
room, tossed her books on her bed, and grabbed the phone.
    "Jana?"
    "Yeah." Jana's voice sounded excited. "It
went just the way you said it would. He came out of his house later than we
expected, but we followed him to Mr. Ice Cream on Broadway. He got a cone and
used the pay phone outside. Did he call you?"
    "He sure did," said Christie, grinning from ear to
ear. "At five minutes after eight. Now all we need is the one last piece
of evidence."
    After she had hung up from talking with Jana, Christie
suddenly felt sad. It was true, she had proved Jon wasn't the mysterious
caller, but what about the boy who was? She knew just a little bit about him,
and she would like to know more. Maybe it would help her understand why he was
doing these things. She thought about Jana and the troubles she had had with
Geena McNatt, and how when Jana found out more about Geena, it had changed her
feelings about her. There might just be a chance to help the caller rather than
get him into trouble.
    Mr. Snider walked into algebra class the next day, and the
class fell silent. "Okay, everyone. Instead of waiting until the end of
class, I'd like you to turn in your homework right now." The kids started
digging through their notebooks and pulling out their papers and passing them
forward. Christie took the papers from Joel Murphy, who sat behind her, put
hers on top, and gave them to Dekeisha in front of her.
    "Mr. Snider?" Marcie Bee raised her hand.
    "Yes, Marcie?"
    "I didn't understand how to work problem number five.
Could you show us how?"
    Christie glanced at Kevin. He had a confused look on his
face.
    "Certainly, Marcie," the teacher said. "It's
similar to problem number three. Were you able to solve that one?"
    "Yes, sir."
    Mr. Snider picked up a chalk. "Okay, let's go over
problems three and five."
    A look of horror came over Kevin's face. He looked at Curtis
Trowbridge to whom he had just given his homework and then turned to look at
Christie. She knew that, because of what she had said the night before, Kevin
had done the even-numbered problems. He hadn't been able to stay after school
for the computer math games, and didn't know that Mr. Snider had