Book 2-Alex Bishop in Follow That Mystery

Lee and Alex continued up the hallway to history while Dawn and Glenna headed off to Drama and Fletch to English.  The history teacher, Miss Phillips was waiting to greet Lee and Alex at the door.  She was an attractive brunet.  Her hair was cut short and she had soft brown eyes and was petite in form.  Alex at his five foot ten inches towered over her.

     Alex thought she looked of oriental heritage and when she spoke, he was sure of it.  She introduced herself to the class and asked for volunteers to pass out books.  After that was done, she ask her students to read the first chapter on the revolutionary war.  After they were finished with that, the teacher and class discussed what they had read.

     Alex was fairly proud of his participation.  His ninth grade class had studied the revolutionary war at the end of the middle school year and most of it was still fresh in his mind.  Lee thought he had done okay because he had answered two questions correctly that Miss Phillips had put to him.   Like Alex, he was better at book reports than sharing ideas in class.

     At the end of class, Alex said "So long" to lee and hurried off to English.  Dawn was waiting for him at the door, looking disgruntled.  "Thanks to Mr. Clouse three people have come up to me asking about Mr. Wells' case," she told Alex as soon as he reached her.  "Don't worry sweetie it will pass,"  Chet said waving to her as he rushed off to his next class.  "See you later!"  she called to him.

     "He's a quiet guy,"  Alex said watching Chet disappear around a corner.  But then he added, "But nice."  Dawn giggled and said, "Yeah, he's both."  Then Dawn went on about the three students' questions.  "Those kids also ask me if we we're recruiting more members.  Our detective activities...." she said, dropping her voice to a whisper,...." Is supposed to be a secret.  And that....that...."

     "Watch it Dawn.  Mr. Clouse is a teacher after all."  Alex said with a smirk.  "Well, I hope this all blows over soon," Dawn said testily and leading the way into the classroom.  Mr. Slater, a stooped over, balding, very thin man ( which a slight breeze would blow over)  with a spindly gray mustache, was putting books on the desks when Alex and Dawn came in. 

     Alex thought their teacher looked so frail, and he wondered how he was able to lift just one of those heavy books he was handing out.  Dawn took a seat in the second row, only because all front row desks were taken.  The front row was Dawn's preferred seating.  And Alex sat down next to her, although he was a last row sitter when Dawn wasn't with him.

     Mr. Slater begin to speak and he was so soft spoken Alex was straining to hear him.  He wasn't the only one.  Nearly all of the students were leaning forward in their seats trying to make out what their teacher was saying.  Mr. Slater told the class to read the first chapter in their books and then do the exercises at the end. 

     "Not diagramming," Alex whined in a whisper.  Dawn grinned at him.  It took the better part of an hour for the class to do the assigned work.  All except for Dawn who spent the last half hour of English going on to the next chapter of her book, and doing that chapter's exercises.  When Mr. Slater dismissed the class, Alex was the first one out the door.

     "Do you believe him?"  Alex asked Dawn when she met him in the hall.  "Good thing he wrote tomorrow's assignment on the board.  I couldn't understand a word he said."  "He is very old, isn't he?"  Dawn said.  "I'm so thankful it's lunch time,"  Alex said, as his stomach growled.  Then his mood brightened.  "Hey, how was drama class?"

     "It was great!  Our first performance is "Barefoot in the Park" and I got the role of "Cory," the Lead!  Can you believe it?"  Dawn squealed.  "Great!"  Alex said with a wide grin.  "You've never seen "Barefoot in the Park" have you?"  Dawn said with a smirk.  "Well, no,"  Alex admitted sheepishly.

     "Well, your chance is coming soon.  Our performance is next month, October fifteenth," she said happily.  "I'll be there!"  Alex assured her.  Dawn and Alex filled their trays and then sought out Lee, Glenna and Fletch.  As they neared on of the back tables, Alex and Dawn were surprised to see Lee's ex-girlfriend sitting with their friends.

     "Look who I ran into," Lee said with a grin, as Alex gave Elizabeth a small wave and sat down next to Dawn, who said "Hello" to Elizabeth in a rather uncomfortable way.  Fletch and Glenna both said a casual "Hi."   "Guess what?" and Dawn began to tell Fletch, Lee and Glenna about her lead in the play.  Chet gave her a kiss on the cheek and said how proud he was of her.

     Dawn grinned at him and then said, "And you all have to come for moral support," she ordered.  "Of course we'll all be there,"  Chet assured her, looking at Lee in particular.  Lee got the hint really quickly.  "Oh yeah.  Sure.  That's great Dawn."  "Thanks for your support Lee,"  Dawn said with a smirk at him.

     Alex heard a shuffle of feet behind him and looked around to find two of his fellow students standing there gaping at him.  "Hi," one of the boys said boldly.  He glanced at his partner and then added in a lower voice, "We were wondering if you guys are taking on any more members of the North Side Detectives.  We're taking Criminal Justice courses in a couple of years.  It would be cool to get some experience working on a real case," he ended with a grin at Alex.

     Alex was momentarily speechless at the boy's question.  But he found his voice finally and said, "Look.  That case that Mr. Clouse brought up was just an accident really.  And no, we're not taking on any new members," Alex ended more testily than he intended to.  The others at the table nodded vigorously in agreement with what Alex had said.

     The two boys walked away without saying anything and disappointment on their faces.  "I told you that this was going to happen,"  Dawn said immediately.  "It'll all go away eventually,"  Alex said, turning back to his meal.  But he didn't sound all that convincing.  "That was pretty stupid of Mr. Clouse to say what he did in front of the whole class,"  Lee grumbled while he gnawed on a carrot.

     Dawn looked over at him suspiciously for the solidarity.  Very rarely did Dawn and Lee agree about anything.  He saw her raised brows and pursed lips and said, "No. I mean it.  Why did he do that?"  "Well, he said he was a friend of Mr. Wells and he just wanted to thank us."  Fletch said matter of factly.

     "Yeah, well.  He could've thanked us privately, couldn't he?"  Lee said.  "I mean he could've figured that our fellow students were going to ask us about it and that might be annoying.  Plus, like I told Alex earlier, we don't want our parents to find out that we helped out on other cases.  He could say something to your dad Alex,"  Lee said facing him.

     Alex put down his fork and swallowed the last of his mac n' cheese.  "I'm calling Mr. Wells as soon as I get home today,"  Alex said with a determined look on his face.  "Good," Lee said, seeming satisfied.  Alex picked up his burger and took a bite.  He hadn't told his friends, but he had thought of the comments Mr. Clouse had made throughout the day so far.  He wanted to know the reason why too.