Chapter 1Low, dark clouds spit angry drops of rain ontothe pavement, where they splattered intogrowing puddles of muddy water. Justin Grantkept his head down and plodded on toward school,trying to keep up with the much longer stride ofJordan Waters, his best friend since kindergarten.Truth be told, neither was in much of a hurry toget to McNair Elementary. That was unusual, becauseboth were good students and normally loved school,especially since they had formed the Math Kids clubwith Stephanie Lewis. The three had solved the mysteryof the neighborhood burglars together, but the clubhad become complete when they''d added CatherineDuchesne. With their new club member, they hadsolved the mystery of a bank robbery and found afortune in gold that had helped the town recover fromfinancial hardship. They had also come in second inthe district math competition.But that was all in fourth grade.

Now they weremoving to fifth grade and things were changing--andnot for the better.For one thing, Catherine and Stephanie were goingto be in a different classroom. The girls were going tobe in Mrs. Wilson''s class while the boys were goingto be in Mr. Miller''s. His nickname was "Miller theKiller" because he was so hard on kids. Some of thekids thought their fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Gouche,had been tough too--they had called her Mrs.

Grouchwhen she was mad--but the word was that Mr. Millerwas much, much worse.But that wasn''t what was bothering Jordan abouttheir new teacher. It was math. Mr. Miller hated math.He had the only classroom in the entire school whodidn''t have a math team in the school-wide competition.Mr.

Miller loved English and social studies but madeit clear that math was his least favorite subject. Jordandid great in math, but he struggled with English. Hehated reading, mixed up letters when he tried to spell,and couldn''t stand writing papers. Mr. Miller wasgoing to be his worst nightmare."This is going to be a lousy year, isn''t it?" Jordansaid as he used his long legs to step over a puddle in alow spot in the sidewalk."Yeah," replied Justin glumly. He didn''t evenbother to try to step over the puddle.

He was one of theshortest kids in his grade and he knew his short legsweren''t going to reach from one side to the other.He just plowed through the puddle, splashing watereverywhere. He was glad he had worn an old pair oftennis shoes and not the new ones his mom hadbought him."It''s going to stink not having Stephanie andCatherine in the same class," Justin said as he shookwater from one leg."Wouldn''t really matter, since Mr. Miller hates math anyway," Jordan said. "I heard he doesn''t even have math groups."Justin didn''t reply, just trudged through the rainin his soaked sneakers.

The first day of fifth gradewas already miserable and they hadn''t even reachedthe school.***Four blocks away, Stephanie ducked her head andraced down the sidewalk and into the waiting drynessof Catherine''s dad''s car."Thanks so much for driving us to school, Mr.Duchesne," Stephanie said politely, shaking a fewdrops of water out of her ponytail onto the floor inthe back seat."Happy to do it," Mr. Duchesne answered. "It''sright on my way to the college anyway, so it''s reallyno trouble. Besides, I still owe you one, don''t I?"Stephanie smiled as she remembered meetingCatherine and working with the other Math Kids tosolve the cryptic message Mr.

Duchesne had left afterhe had been kidnapped. Teamwork and their mathskills had helped them rescue their new friend''s father."Hey, check this out!" Catherine exclaimed. "Mydad has a new book!" Catherine was positively beamingas she held it up for Stephanie to see.Mr. Duchesne taught math at the college and hada whole library of math books, many of which he hadwritten himself. Stephanie thumbed through thebook, not understanding any of the equations butenvious that Catherine''s dad was so into math. She isso lucky, Stephanie thought to herself.

"Congratulations!" she said. "I think it''ll be a whilebefore anything in the book makes any sense to me,but I can''t wait to read it when it does."Mr. Duchesne chuckled from the front seat.Stephanie placed her gym bag on the seat next toher. If the rain stopped in time, maybe her soccer teamwould still be able to practice after school. Soccer wasone of the few things in the world that Stephanie likedas much as math--well, almost as much. Catherinelooked longingly at the bag containing Stephanie''ssoccer shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers.

I wish I could playsoccer like Stephanie, she thought."I can''t believe they split us up into two differentclassrooms," Stephanie said."Yeah, it really stinks. Does that mean we''ll have tobe on a different math team for the district competition?""Worse. It means we''ll actually have to competeagainst each other in the school contest," Stephaniesaid gloomily."We''ll beat them, of course, but it won''t be nearlyas much fun," Catherine said.Catherine smiled to show she was only joking,but Stephanie was worried. Would this be the end ofthe Math Kids?.