The Disaster Log

Book 2: The Substitute Teacher

Chapter 1: The New Teacher

There are two kinds of substitute teachers.

The first kind spends fifteen minutes trying to figure out how attendance works.

The second kind gives everyone a worksheet and silently counts down the minutes until the final bell.

Ms. Vega was neither.

The moment she walked into the classroom, something felt different.

She smiled.

Not a fake teacher smile.

A real smile.

The kind that made it seem like she actually wanted to be at school.

Which was suspicious.

Very suspicious.

"Good morning, everyone," she said.

The class mumbled back.

Then she looked around the room.

"Ben, good luck at your soccer game tonight."

Ben nearly dropped his pencil.

"How do you know about that?"

Ms. Vega smiled.

"I hear things."

The room got quiet.

Then she looked at Emma.

"And congratulations on finishing the mural in the art room."

Emma blinked.

"What?"

Now everybody was staring.

I looked at Tessa.

Tessa looked at me.

Neither of us said anything.

But I knew exactly what she was thinking.

Mystery.

At lunch, we met at our usual table.

"This is huge," said Tessa.

"It's not huge."

"It's definitely huge."

Jordan opened a notebook.

"I have begun collecting evidence."

"Already?"

"I started during second period."

Of course he did.

Jordan flipped the notebook around.

Written across the top was:

OPERATION SUBSTITUTE

Underneath were several theories.

Tessa pointed at number four.

"I'm voting for alien."

"Why?"

"Because aliens are cool."

That wasn't a reason.

Unfortunately, it was the best reason we had.

Chapter 2: Operation Substitute

Over the next few days, things got stranger.

Ms. Vega always seemed to know things.

Not creepy things.

Just random things.

She knew who played instruments.

Who liked science.

Who had won awards.

Who had recently moved to town.

It was like she'd memorized the entire student body.

"Definitely a spy," said Tessa.

Jordan shook his head.

"A spy would have better things to do."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Spy stuff."

Helpful.

Very helpful.

After school on Thursday, we decided to investigate.

Which sounds impressive.

It wasn't.

Mostly we followed Ms. Vega around from a distance while trying not to look suspicious.

We failed immediately.

At one point Tessa hid behind a tree.

The tree was thinner than she was.

Ms. Vega definitely saw us.

She just didn't say anything.

That somehow made it worse.

Chapter 3: The Folder

The next week, our investigation reached a new level.

A terrible level.

The kind of level where people get in trouble.

"We need evidence," said Tessa.

"We have evidence."

"We need secret evidence."

Those are usually the worst kinds.

After school, we noticed Ms. Vega leave an empty classroom.

On her desk sat a folder.

A very large folder.

Tessa immediately walked toward it.

"No," I whispered.

"Yes."

"No."

"Absolutely yes."

Jordan was already following her.

Traitor.

I followed because somebody needed to make good decisions.

Unfortunately, that somebody was me.

And I was following them.

Inside the folder were pages and pages of notes.

Student names.

Hobbies.

Sports.

Projects.

Achievements.

Everything.

The entire sixth grade.

Maybe more.

My stomach dropped.

"This is weird," I said.

Tessa nodded.

"This is very weird."

Jordan carefully examined the papers.

Then he froze.