Cooper didn't seem too worried about the note But I was Why was someone threatening her I decided to take on the mystery My name's Benjamin Zither Ben Almost 10 I have a Basset Hound named Blue He and I are detectives We already solved the case of an evil dognapper And we figured out the riddle of my unknown dad But that's a whole other story was Right now I wanted to know who the class bully I needed to find clues My dog could sniff them out Blue has a good nose and a third ear Both handy for extra-sharp sleuthing Cooper and her Giant Poodle Princess could help too The four of us make an excellent team As for the note Who was the most likely culprit Carter He's the biggest guy in our class His neck is the size of a tree trunk His hands are like bear paws And he always wears his football jersey Even when he doesn't have practice He looks as if he could squash you like a bug 2
But he's also the nicest guy Once when my peanut butter sandwich fell on the floor not only did he crawl under the cafeteria table to get it back he gave me half of his own sandwich I'll never forget that Especially because the sandwich was zucchini and mustard Who was the meanest kid in the class Penny The girl with two braids like jump ropes isn't exactly mean But she is always bragging My family's the best in the world Every weekend someone in her family is having a birthday And at my next party we're going to rent six ponies and ride around the backyard Blah blah blah Penny is definitely annoying But I couldn't exactly see her writing a hateful note to Cooper They worked together on a science project and seemed to get along well It was hard picturing anyone in the class being that mean Kids sometimes joked with Cooper about her hair Once when she spray-painted it pink Tiffany said You look like cotton candy Can I take a bite But really I think everyone liked it And wished their parents would let them color their hair too 3
4 Maybe the bully was someone in another class Maybe an older kid who snuck into our classroom to slip the note in Cooper's lunch box Or did it on the bus when Cooper wasn't looking You could look at the situation from two different angles The note could just be stupid A dumb-kid joke Which wasn't funny Or it could be something scarier A warning Cooper really needed to stay alert
Chapter 2 Jassi our teacher paced in front of the room all excited I have a wonderful new project for you to work on I think you're all going to like it Jassi was always coming up with projects Her long black hair reminded me of Rapunzel's hair in that fairytale I imagined Jassi dropping her hair out of a tower window so a prince could climb up and help her escape Only our school didn't have tower windows And Jassi didn't need to be rescued Animals I heard Jassi say What's she talking about I whispered to Cooper She wants everyone to choose an animal and do a report And say why you picked that animal But just for our class And you can share the report when you're ready 5
