Sinister Substitute Read Free Page A

frowned, and looked away.
    Meanwhile, Fons Soto (who, you may recall, was sitting in Dave Sanchez’s seat) decided to have a little fun. “Hey,
Calvin,”
he called, looking across the classroom at Ricky Zaragoza. “Where’s your gecko, man?”
    “Me?” Ricky asked, pointing to himself (because he was, indeed, sitting in Calvin Jones’s seat). “Uh, I don’t have a gecko.” He hesitated, then looked over at Dave. “But I think, uh,
Reuben
might.”
    Dave felt little beads of sweat pop from his forehead, but he acted as cool as possible. “Nah,” Dave said. Then he passed along the gecko baton. “But,
Fons
, don’t you have one?”
    “Me?” Reuben Medina said, pointing to himself. “No way. But hey,
Tyler,”
he called toward Greg Lazo, “don’t you have one?”
    It was, indeed, a big jumble of names and remembering who was sitting in whose seat.
    Then Greg said, “Look, if I go outside and catch one, can I get extra credit?”
    Dr. Schwarz frowned. “No.”
    “Okaaaay …,” Greg said. “How about I catch one anyway, and we dissect it?”
    “Eeeew!” all the girls squealed.
    “No way!” all the boys snapped.
    Dr. Schwarz, however, didn’t utter a sound. Instead, his frown deepened and his eyes narrowed as he peered at the students suspiciously.
    This, of course, caused Dave to shrink into his seat and shudder. And if he’d had lingering doubts before, they were now gone.
    There was definitely something strange about this substitute.

Chapter 4
THE HAZARDS OF PRANKING THE SUBSTITUTE
    Dave had never been so glad to get away from Ms. Krockle’s classroom. (Which is, as you know, really saying something.)
    He had also never been so spaced out during drama. He sat through this last class of the day blurry-brained with worry. Was Dr. Schwarz a reporter?
    An investigator?
    Why was he so interested in geckos?
    Did he know the Gecko
had
a gecko?
    How would he know that?
    What did this all mean?
    Dave was still spaced out when school let out. So much so that he circled the bike racks againand again before he remembered that his bike was chained to a streetlight three blocks from school, looking forlorn and forsaken with its flabby flat tire.
    Now, had this disastrous day continued in the same vein (or if I were, say, just making this up), Dave would have returned to the streetlight to discover that his bike had been stolen, and (hmm, let’s see) then a mugger would have pounced from a nearby convenience store, stripping him of his wallet (and, oh, maybe his
shoes)
, and Dave would have had to walk the rest of the way home barefoot and broke (facing off with a pit bull or two along the way).
    But (fortunately for Dave) I’m
not
making this up. The fact is, Dave returned to his bike, fixed the flat, and set about making up for lost time. Dave, you see, was called “delivery boy” by Lily for a reason. He couriered packages and envelopes between businesses in the downtown area, andbesides building up a tidy sum of money for his efforts, he had also built up a reputation for punctuality, neatness, and speed.
    On this particular afternoon, however, Dave’s hard-earned reputation was in danger as he was late, smudged, and (quite frankly) beat.
    But Dave made his rounds with as much professionalism as he could muster and managed to drag himself (and his bike) up the stairs to his apartment before his parents and Evie returned home.
    Dave would have liked nothing more than to simply collapse on his bed and forget about his horrible day, but he couldn’t.
    He was still worried.
    “Sticky?” he whispered, peering behind his bookcase, but Sticky was not there.
    “Sticky?” he said more loudly, looking around his room, but Sticky did not appear.
    “Sticky!” he called, wandering through theapartment, at last venturing over to the kitchen window and lifting it fully open.
    “Hey,
hombre,”
came a stretchy, sleepy voice from the flower box outside. “What took you so long?”
    So Dave lifted his little