Free The Secret at the Polk Street School by Blanche Sims

CHAPTER ONE
    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.

CHAPTER TWO
    O N T UESDAY THEY started to work on Timothy’s idea.
    It wasn’t