turned her gaze on him and flashed him a smile.
"What survey?" asked Mrs. Overton.
"A love survey!" shouted Scott Spencer. And the boys started making kissing noises and whooping it up.
"Jessie?"
"It's just a survey I handed out. All the kids answered it. Mrs. Feeney said it was okay!" Evan listened as Jessie's voice got squeaky in the way it did when she was nervous.
Mrs. Overton stared straight at Jessie, then tapped her pencil on her desktop. "I want to see your newspaper before you hand it out, okay? I'll look at it during recess. Meanwhile"âshe turned her attention to the whole classâ"I wanted to update you on the boxes of candy hearts that I collected from you on Friday."
"Confiscated!" shouted Scott Spencer, whose mother was a lawyer.
"Private property," called out David K.
"Power to the people!" yelled out Malik, then shrugged his shoulders to show he was just goofing around.
"Excuse me," said Mrs. Overton, lifting one eyebrow in the way she did when she was warning them to settle down. Evan always marveled at this technique. He'd never met anyone who could lift one eyebrow as high as Mrs. Overton. "As I was saying, I spoke with Mrs. Fletcher and she in turn spoke with the superintendent, and it has been decided that because we do not know the
source
of the candy, we cannot allow you to
have
the candy."
"Oh, come on!" shouted several of the kids in the class.
"It's just candy, for crying out loud!" said Ray.
"And it's Valentine's Day," said Salley.
"Yeah!" shouted most of the class in agreement.
"Enough! As I said, it has been decided." Mrs. Overton looked severely around the room.
Good,
thought Evan.
No more stupid candy hearts.
Jessie raised her hand. "Mrs. Overton, what if we did know where the candy came from? Would that make a difference?"
Mrs. Overton looked at her, perplexed. "Jessie, do you want to talk with me privately?"
"No." Jessie's face had that blank-slate look that left most people confused. But Evan knew that something was going on inside Jessie's head.
"Well," said Mrs. Overton. "I suppose it might make a difference if we knew who left the candy. Or maybe not. It would depend."
Just then a voice came over the PA announcing that an assembly for the lower grades had been canceled. When the announcement ended, Mrs. Overton told them to break into their rainforest groups. They were going to continue working on their group projects.
Evan looked around the room for his group and found them gathering at the back table. But his mind wasn't on the great kapok tree as he joined them. He was wondering why Jessie had looked straight at him when she mentioned the surprise poem in the newspaper? Was it a poem that Evan particularly liked?
And then an awful thought came to him. What if it was the framed poem he had given to Grandma? Jessie must have noticed it on Grandma's dresser and copied it to put in the paper. For everyone to see. Evan's head sank into his hands, and he groaned.
Chapter 18
Kill
kill (v) to
not
publish a story or newspaper that is ready (or close to ready) for publication
Â
It didn't take a super detective to figure out that Mrs. Overton was not going to let Jessie hand out her newspaper to the class. Jessie didn't understand why, but there was something about this love stuff that made people act crazy. One look at Mrs. Overton's face when she'd heard "love survey" told Jessie that Mrs. Overton was going to put an end to this extra credit project before it even happened. She was going to kill the Valentine's Day issue of
The 4-O Forum,
and Jessie couldn't bear that thought. All her hard workâcounting up the surveys, writing the articles, digging through the boys' trashâall for nothing. She would never have another front-page story like this one. A story that
everybody
would want to read. It was her one chance to be a star reporter, just like her dad. Even if her statistics were a little bit off, it was now or never.
"Well," said Jessie to the
"What survey?" asked Mrs. Overton.
"A love survey!" shouted Scott Spencer. And the boys started making kissing noises and whooping it up.
"Jessie?"
"It's just a survey I handed out. All the kids answered it. Mrs. Feeney said it was okay!" Evan listened as Jessie's voice got squeaky in the way it did when she was nervous.
Mrs. Overton stared straight at Jessie, then tapped her pencil on her desktop. "I want to see your newspaper before you hand it out, okay? I'll look at it during recess. Meanwhile"âshe turned her attention to the whole classâ"I wanted to update you on the boxes of candy hearts that I collected from you on Friday."
"Confiscated!" shouted Scott Spencer, whose mother was a lawyer.
"Private property," called out David K.
"Power to the people!" yelled out Malik, then shrugged his shoulders to show he was just goofing around.
"Excuse me," said Mrs. Overton, lifting one eyebrow in the way she did when she was warning them to settle down. Evan always marveled at this technique. He'd never met anyone who could lift one eyebrow as high as Mrs. Overton. "As I was saying, I spoke with Mrs. Fletcher and she in turn spoke with the superintendent, and it has been decided that because we do not know the
source
of the candy, we cannot allow you to
have
the candy."
"Oh, come on!" shouted several of the kids in the class.
"It's just candy, for crying out loud!" said Ray.
"And it's Valentine's Day," said Salley.
"Yeah!" shouted most of the class in agreement.
"Enough! As I said, it has been decided." Mrs. Overton looked severely around the room.
Good,
thought Evan.
No more stupid candy hearts.
Jessie raised her hand. "Mrs. Overton, what if we did know where the candy came from? Would that make a difference?"
Mrs. Overton looked at her, perplexed. "Jessie, do you want to talk with me privately?"
"No." Jessie's face had that blank-slate look that left most people confused. But Evan knew that something was going on inside Jessie's head.
"Well," said Mrs. Overton. "I suppose it might make a difference if we knew who left the candy. Or maybe not. It would depend."
Just then a voice came over the PA announcing that an assembly for the lower grades had been canceled. When the announcement ended, Mrs. Overton told them to break into their rainforest groups. They were going to continue working on their group projects.
Evan looked around the room for his group and found them gathering at the back table. But his mind wasn't on the great kapok tree as he joined them. He was wondering why Jessie had looked straight at him when she mentioned the surprise poem in the newspaper? Was it a poem that Evan particularly liked?
And then an awful thought came to him. What if it was the framed poem he had given to Grandma? Jessie must have noticed it on Grandma's dresser and copied it to put in the paper. For everyone to see. Evan's head sank into his hands, and he groaned.
Chapter 18
Kill
kill (v) to
not
publish a story or newspaper that is ready (or close to ready) for publication
Â
It didn't take a super detective to figure out that Mrs. Overton was not going to let Jessie hand out her newspaper to the class. Jessie didn't understand why, but there was something about this love stuff that made people act crazy. One look at Mrs. Overton's face when she'd heard "love survey" told Jessie that Mrs. Overton was going to put an end to this extra credit project before it even happened. She was going to kill the Valentine's Day issue of
The 4-O Forum,
and Jessie couldn't bear that thought. All her hard workâcounting up the surveys, writing the articles, digging through the boys' trashâall for nothing. She would never have another front-page story like this one. A story that
everybody
would want to read. It was her one chance to be a star reporter, just like her dad. Even if her statistics were a little bit off, it was now or never.
"Well," said Jessie to the
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