The Mystery of The Black Hand Print by Edward Manson

It was 3:00 in the afternoon and I was exiting the school building. I was putting my homework in my bag, but just then I noticed something. There was a note in my bag! Well, I was already late for the bus so I stuffed it in my pocket and zoomed downstairs. I finally got on the bus and slowly sat down, gasping. It said "Why did you fail Thurday's Math Test?" It was signed by the dreaded black hand print. This person had tormented me and my dreams for days on end. But wait! The Math Test was tomorrow! They were going to make sure I failed! That afternoon I sent a private message to Albert Mats, one of my "associates" asking him what we should do. He responded an hour later. "Don't take the test!" That was a brilliant idea! I decided I'd pretend to be sick the next day. It barely worked! My sister almost found out, but I did it. The next day at school, I decided to dedicate my recesses to finding clues. Who in my class had a black pen, marker, paint, or even a glove? Max Regajed helped me. I discovered 8 black pens, 4 black markers, and no gloves. I went down to the artroom and found 3 black paint bottles. Then I asked Mr.Ikslow if I could get a drink during Art Class. It worked! I quickly took a shortcut through the Grade 8 room to the end of the hallway. They were on a field trip. I hid between the doorway and the closest locker. I watched my locker for two minutes straight and then hurried back. Nobody had slipped anything into my locker. I had checked my locker at lunchtime on Wednesday and there was nothing there. So the suspect must be slipping notes into my locker between 12:30 and 3:00. As for the math test my counter-attack had worked thanks to Albert. Over the weekend I relaxed and thought of who might have something against me. George McNalty might be mad at me because I had gotten him in trouble with a teacher once for stealing lunch money from a third grader. Bruno Hamkut was probably mad at me for beating his team in a game of volleyball. Nancy might be mad at me because last week I told her to stop gossiping so much. Charles Sukant was still mad at me because I had stood up against him when he wanted to spraypaint stupid sentences on the school wall. So I had four prime suspects. Monday came along and I snuck out of the class during lunch to inspect lockers and backpacks. Nothing! Boy were these people sneaky! I had a hard time paying attention in History class because I heard a lot of whispers , which I knew were about me and the Black Hand. I tried to ignore it so they wouldn't suspect me of listening in. I caught some juicy tidbits though. I think it is a girl from what I heard. The guys were paying more attention. Although the girls are always talking and the boys might've been hiding something. On Tuesday I was exhausted from homework plus the case. I managed to write down a short document of who left the classroom between 12:30 and 3:00. The following left: Charles,Bruno,Denver,Nancy,Albert, Max, Taylor, Alison, Bruce, and Ben Hofsink. Well, at least George was off my suspect list. I got on the bus that afternoon with information overload. I found something even more disturbing in my bag. Another note! It read: "If you want to see the guinea pig again, meet me in the pine trees at 12:45 tomorrow, and bring tomorrow's French Test answers!" It was tempting at first. But then I released it was a trap! I would get in trouble for going off school property and for giving away answers! But at the same time I would get to meet the mysterious Black Hand , possibly find clues or un-mask them, and save the class guinea pig. So I decided to trick them. I wrote down all the wrong answers. Whoever it was, they were not good at French. Nancy was out. She was really good at French. That left Bruno and Charles. The next morning I woke up , confident I would solve the case. I checked my watch at lunch. It was 12:40. I slowly scanned the field for suspicious behavior. I saw a tree branch move. Someone dressed in green and black. Camouflage! Charles said his dad went hunting sometimes! I had the false answers tucked into my coat. I hurried over quickly, not wanting to be caught by the yard supervision team. I entered the pine trees. Someone quickly pulled me down and held a knife to my throat! Then I realized it was not on the sharp side. I pretended not to notice. "Give me the answers" the person growled. I pretended to shudder and cringe in fear. I slowly handed them the false answers. Then they made a run for it. I went after them in hot pursuit, jumping over fences and doing my top-speed tip-toe run. I pounced. Brought him down! I pulled off the mask! It wasn't Charles! It was Nosila a "arch-enemy" of Albert. " Ha! Thought you could escape me huh?" "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be held against you in a court of J.S.P.Y.A.!" I was quickly dragged to my doom. The principal's office. An adult would not understand how important our agency was! I was suspended for 5 days and had to apoligize to Nosila .(through gritted teeth) I had figured out who the Black Hand had been at least. Another mystery solved! Now me and my friends were free of black hand prints thankfully. I hoped I would never have to go through that again, but time will tell.........