Book 1-Alex Bishop and the North Side Detectives

Continue Alex Bishop and the North Side Detectives

     "What's your schedule like?"  Fletch asked the others, looking over their shoulders at their papers.  Alex quickly perused his own.  "I have Mr. Riggs, Mr. Wells and Mrs. Marks again.  Good."  He said cheerfully.  "Then I have two new teachers:  Mr. Watts for science and Mr. Wayne for math."  "What's your first class Alex?" Dawn asked, while trying to hold a couple of library books and her schedule, and trying not to drop either of them.

     Glenna reached over and grabbed the books from her.  "Thanks."  Dawn said, rubbing her sore arm.  "I have science first."  Alex said, answering her question.  Four voices said, "I do too."  Alex continued.  "Then gym, history, math, English and...."study hall!"  They all chimed.  "We have English together again Alex!"  Dawn sang.  "Alex, you and I are in gym together."  Fletch said.

     "All of us are in the same math class."  Lee said, peeking at his friends schedules.  "We'd better go."  Fletch said.  "We have five minutes till class starts."  He ended, looking at his watch.  The friends hurried down the hall to their science class.  On the way, they passed Mr. Wells going the opposite way.  "Hello!  Have a great first day!"  He called to them.  "What a difference from last year." Fletch said, grinning and waving with the rest.

     Students were chatting outside the science classroom when Alex, Lee, Dawn, Fletch and Glenna arrived.  Alex led the way in and immediately spied their teacher standing if front of his desk greeting the students as they came in.  He was a tall man with dark brown hair and large dark brown eyes. He was dressed in a blue and white checked shirt and tan slacks.

     "Take your seats please."  He said pleasantly.  Dawn was disappointed when the boys took seats in the very back row.  But she gave a big sigh and then joined them.  As Alex sat down, he noticed a very pretty girl with long red hair staring at him.  While he was still looking, she suddenly smiled at him.  He immediately turned red and quickly looked away.  He wondered if it was all the North Side Detectives stuff that made her look in the first place.  He chanced another look at her, but now she was opening a spiral and wasn't glancing his way anymore.

     Mr. Watts closed the door and walked back to his desk; and standing in front of it introduced himself.  "My name is Mr. Steven Watts.  I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you.  I hope you will find the study of science as interesting as I do.  We'll be doing many science projects this year, many in small groups."

     "Now.  How about You and you."  he said, pointing to Alex and Lee.  Dawn let out a giggle thinking that if by sitting in the back, Alex and Lee thought they wouldn't be called upon to answer questions or anything else, they were obviously sadly mistaken.  Lee gave Dawn an angry look at her chuckle.

     But Alex and Lee of course came forward and stood before Mr. Watts.  He asked for their names and they gave them.  Alex, a bit embarrassed and Lee said his name proudly.  "I'm happy to meet both of you.  Will you boys please take the books from my desk and pass them out."  Alex and Lee got to their task quickly and within five minutes were done and took their seats again.

     Mr. Watts started his class off by reading the first chapter of their texts.  After they all were finished he announced they were going to do their first experiment.  Mr. Watts passed out beakers, ingredients and scales.  When the class let out a half an hour later,  Alex, Lee, Fletch, Dawn and Glenna all agreed that they liked Mr. Watts. 

     "I didn't think I was going to get that hard boiled egg into that bottle.  Did you?"  Lee said in an awestruck voice.  While Alex and Fletch headed off to gym, Dawn, Glenna and Lee rushed to history class with Mr. Wells.

     Alex and Fletch had to be fitted for new gym shorts and shirts because they had both grown another two or three inches since the previous year.  Mr. Riggs led them in some warm-up exercises and then split them into two groups to play a game of basketball.  When there was fifteen minutes until the bell, Mr. Riggs told them to hit the showers.  The class returned clean and refreshed to find their teacher waiting for them sitting on the bleachers.

     "Gather round boys.  I have an announcement to make.  Tomorrow we will began wrestling."  The larger students seemed to Alex to be pleased about this.  However, as Alex watched  the husky boys flexing their muscles, he found this news to be  a bit alarming.  He looked over at Fletch who gave him a positively frightened look.  The bell rang a few seconds later and Fletch hurried off to English, Alex was heading to history with Mr. Wells.

     But first he was stopping at his locker.  He opened it easily with a proud look on his face.  "No more carrying books around for me," he whispered putting his science book on a shelf.  Dawn was coming out of Mr. Wells' classroom when Alex reached the door.  "Hi Alex."  Dawn said smiling at him.  Glenna was right behind her.  "See ya at lunch Alex," she said as she and Dawn hurried off.  Alex waved at them and then went into the classroom.

     Alex immediately spied Mr. Wells sitting upon his desk, a habit he had adopted last year.  Fletch was right, Alex thought,  what a change.  Mr. Wells no longer had a pallid complexion, but his face was tanned and healthy looking.  The sun had evidently lightened his dark hair to a medium brown.  Alex reasoned the lack of the greasy hair gel her used to put on it, probably made it appear lighter in color too.

     The dark suit and tie were a thing of the past.  Mr. Wells now wore a light green polo shirt and light colored slacks.  He gave Alex a wide grin as he took his seat.  The chattering class was quiet and settled as soon as Mr. Wells closed the door.  But now it wasn't out of fear, but respect.

     "I'm so glad to see so many of my last years pupils back again.  I promise you that this year will be much more enjoyable than what some of you experienced before."  There was a smathering of laughter throughout the room.  Some students who were first timers just looked confused.

     "I have a happy announcement to make.  Mrs. Violet Books, a dear friend of mine has just had her first novel published."  Alex led the class in applause.  In a moment, Mr. Wells continued.  "And despite the fact and without sounding too proud of myself, I am among the cast of characters in the book."  The class applauded again.  "Thank you."  Mr. Wells said modestly.  "I would encourage you to buy the book and read it."

     "What's the name of the book?"  asked a boy in the front row.  "The Innocent Man."  Mr. Wells replied.  Mr. Wells allowed a few more minutes for questions and then he asked for volunteers to pass out books, and nearly everyone In the class raised their hand.