Partners in Crime (9780545463119) Read Online Free Page A

stuck out at odd angles. “Well, that was a waste of time,” she said. “We’re never going to figure out who our client is.”
    But while Darcy was trying to look for clues in our classmates’ behavior, an idea occurred to me.
    â€œWait.” I shot up from the bacon chair excitedly. “It’s all about the numbers!”
    Darcy tilted her head like Hubble does when he’s confused.
    â€œThe birth date!” I said.
    Darcy’s eyes lit up as she caught on. “You’re right! The twin was born on April fourth. So all we need to do is find out which one of our classmates was born on April fourth.”
    But the excitement drained from my body as I said out loud, “Err, how do we do that?”
    Darcy thought for a moment, then a smile stole across her face. “I have an idea.”
    Oh no. I could see trouble brewing. “What’s your plan?” I asked.
    â€œWe go to Principal Plati’s office and wait until he isn’t around. Then we do something to distract the secretary. She leaves the office unattended. Then I slip inside, download the seventh-grade student file onto a flash drive, and we’ll have a listing of everyone’s birthdays.”
    â€œDarcy!” I cried. “You can’t mess around in the school office again. You’ll be suspended.”
    Last year, once a month, Darcy snuck into the office and inserted “Happy Birthday to Darcy Carter” into Principal Plati’s morning announcements. The school secretary figured out after four months that something was up, but I think Principal Plati would have gone on wishing Darcy a happy birthday for a few more months after that.
    â€œIt’s the fastest way,” Darcy argued.
    â€œYou can’t do it,” I said, worry leaking into my voice. We joked around about us being opposites and it was fun that Darcy wasn’t always a goody-goody like me. But this was going over the line. I pleadedwith my eyes. Darcy was my best friend and I didn’t want her constantly getting into trouble.
    Darcy heaved a sigh. “Fine. We’ll find another way.”
    I leaned back in the chair and let out the breath I’d been holding. “Thank you.”

We couldn’t research our classmates’ birthdays over the weekend. But I had a different kind of birthday to deal with: my cousin’s third birthday party, which was about as awful as you could imagine. My aunt and uncle hired a clown and, long story short, twenty little kids are now traumatized for life.
    One of the kids was apparently terrified of clowns. He started screaming as soon as the clown entered the room with his big floppy shoes and red bulbous nose. The clown made the mistake of reaching for the scared boy, maybe to try to make him feel better. But all the kids immediately got it into their preschool brains that the clown was about to kill them. Sothey all started screaming and running around the house.
    This then ruined our weekly family movie night because my mom had a migraine.
    So, instead, I headed upstairs to read for a while. It was a good book, from one of my favorite sci-fi authors. But I couldn’t concentrate. My mind kept wandering to Bailey Ann Banks, whoever or wherever she was. I walked over to the window and trailed my fingers along my all-time favorite birthday present — my telescope. I leaned over and peered through the lens. The moon wasn’t full yet, but I still had a nice view of the seas. (Those are the moon’s dark spots. But they’re not actual seas. They’re plains of solidified lava.)
    Most kids our age don’t really know what they want to be when they grow up. They’re just guessing. Darcy says she’ll end up as either an FBI agent or a fugitive permanently on the run.
    But I’ve always known what I want to be. An astronomer. I want to study the skies, the stars, and the planets. I want to solve the mysteries of the universe. When