Chapter 1: One Hot Friday
By Steve Brezenoff
I’m Samantha Archer. You can call me Sam. I’m twelve years old, five feet and eight inches tall, and I solve crimes with some help from my friends. My friends and I have caught lots of crooks, usually when we go on field trips together. We all have our favorite tales about the cases we’ve solved, and this is mine.
It all started on a hot Friday morning. Egg and I were sitting on the curb in front of our school. Egg’s real name is Edward. His initials are E.G.G. That’s why we call him Egg. He was fiddling with his camera, like always. If you want to solve crimes, get a friend with a camera. Those pictures are great evidence. Egg’s duffel bag was next to him on the curb. We were both packed for a weekend away from home. We were going on a field trip!
We go on lots of field trips at our school. They’re usually pretty fun, and they’re almost always exciting. But this field trip was the biggest of the year. Maybe the biggest of our whole lives. This was the annual sixth-grade weekend trip to Scrub Brush. That’s an old ghost town in the middle of nowhere. Fifty years ago some rich guy bought the whole empty town. He decided to turn the place into a living history lesson. He brought in actors to play cowboys and saloon keepers and gold prospectors. Now schools visit all the time. We were really excited.
“Boy, it’s hot today,” Egg said.
“Yep,” I said. Just then a shadow fell over me. I looked up and saw Anton Gutman. “Hello, Gutman,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be getting into trouble someplace else?”
“Oh, I’ll be getting into trouble,” Anton said. He held up his overnight bag. “I have more tricks and practical jokes in this bag than you can imagine,” he said with a chuckle.
“Mr. Spade will catch you,” Egg said.
“Nah,” Anton replied.
I shrugged. “Then we will,” I said.
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Anton said. Then he walked away.
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Adapted from The Village That Almost Vanished, by Steve Brezenoff, ©️ by Capstone. Reprinted with permission.
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Questions
Which statement best describes how the narrator and Anton feel about each other?
The narrator wants to be Anton’s friend, but Anton does not like them.
The narrator thinks that they will catch Anton, but Anton does not believe it.
They both think Anton will get in trouble for his tricks.
They both think it will be funny to play practical jokes.