Read Online The First Day of School Mystery by David A. Adler - Free Book Online

CHAPTER ONE
    “I give up!” Mrs. Lane said. “We’ll never get to school!”
    Mrs. Lane was driving a school bus. It was stuck in traffic.
    “Never get to school!” a small boy said, and started to cry. “Never get to school!” he said again. “How will I learn to read? How will I learn to write?”
    “Don’t worry,” Cam Jansen told the boy, and smiled. “We’ll get to school.”
    Cam and her friend Eric Shelton sat near the front of the bus, right behind the boy. Eric asked the boy his name.
    “Tommy,” the boy said. “I’m in kindergarten.”
    “Well, Tommy-in-Kindergarten,” Eric said softly, “Mrs. Lane always complains about the traffic, and we always get to school.”
    “This time it’s different,” Mrs. Lane said. “This time the cars are not moving at all.”
    Cam looked out the window. There was a long line of cars ahead. None of them were moving. People were standing outside their cars, trying to see what was wrong. There was also a long line of cars behind the bus.

    Mrs. Lane banged on the horn.
    Honk! Honk!
    A man in a car just ahead threw up his hands. There was nothing he could do.
    Honk! Honk!
    Other people banged on their horns. But none of the cars moved.

    “My teacher’s name is Mr. Gale,” Tommy-in-Kindergarten said. “I know because the principal sent a letter.”
    “A letter!” Eric said. “Oh, no! I don’t remember our teacher’s name. I don’t remember our room number.” Eric searched in his backpack. “I can’t find Dr. Prell’s letter.”
    “Don’t worry,” Cam told him. “We’re in the same class and I remember.”
    Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!”
    Cam always says “Click!” when she wants to remember something. “My mind is like a camera,” Cam says, “and cameras go Click!”
    Cam remembers just about everything. It’s as if she has a mental camera and photographs in her head of whatever she’s seen.
    Mrs. Lane banged on the horn again.
    Honk! Honk!
    The cars ahead still didn’t move.
    Cam’s real name is Jennifer. But when people found out about her amazing memory they started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” became just “Cam.”
    “‘Dear Jennifer Jansen,”’ Cam said with her eyes still closed. “‘Welcome to the fifth grade.’”
    “Here it is,” Eric said. “I found the letter.”
    Cam kept reading from the picture of the letter she had in her head.
    “‘Your teacher this year will be Ms. Benson in Room 118. School begins at 8:30 A.M., Wednesday, September 6. Please bring a pencil, pen, notebook, and an eagerness to learn. With best wishes for a great school year, Dr. Jane Prell, principal.’”

    “You got every word right,” Eric said.
    Cam smiled. She opened her eyes.
    “And I’m right, too,” Mrs. Lane told the children. She turned the key and shut off the bus. “If the cars ahead don’t move, we’ll never get to school.”
    Mrs. Lane took a small telephone from her pocket. Some papers fell out. She pressed the buttons on the telephone and waited.
    “Dr. Prell,” she said. “This is Sally Lane, the bus driver. I’m stuck on Franklin Street, three blocks from the school.... Oh, my. That’s terrible.... Of course ... Yes, I’ll get the children ready.”

CHAPTER TWO
    Mrs. Lane put the telephone in her pocket. She turned and spoke to the children. “Get your books and things together. A teacher will be here in a few minutes. He’ll walk with you to school.”
    Cam and Eric looked out the window and waited. They saw Mr. Day, the gym teacher, walking toward them. When he reached the bus, he blew his whistle.
    Trill! Trill!
    “Let’s go,” he shouted. “Line up out here.”
    Children hurried down the aisle and off the bus. They stood behind Mr. Day.
    “Get in a straight double line,” he shouted. “Hold hands.”
    Cam and Eric waited until the last children were off the bus before leaving their seats. When Cam passed Mrs. Lane she picked up some papers.
    “Are these