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 I am currently revising this story,
and will date it when the revision has been posted.

Mademoiselle Pearl LaPerle teaches French at Warremore Middle School. She prefers to be called Mademoiselle (Miss) instead of Madame, because Madame makes her feel old! In-between teaching and grading papers, she can't resist playing amateur detective. If there's a mystery at Warremore, you can bet that Mlle. LaPerle will be on the case!

One particular case was The Case of the Copied Homework. She cracked this one with the help of her best French student, Todd Zellanger--known as Pierre in French class.

The morning it all began, Mlle. LaPerle's alarm clock rang sharply at six a.m. and nearly bounced right off the night table before she reached out and swatted the STOP button.

"Hmm. I really need to get a new alarm clock," she yawned as she stretched her arms out above her head. Pearl got up every morning at six so she would have plenty of time to shower and eat breakfast before going off to school. She just didn't feel human until she washed her long, brown hair and soaped up with lots of suds!

Mitsy, her big, lazy Persian cat, who stretched herself at the end of the bed, was a little annoyed that her peaceful slumber had come to an end so soon. You'd think she would have gotten used to her owner's early morning wake-up routine after so many years, but no. She was a cat, after all, and sleep was very important to her. That, and breakfast.

And lunch and dinner, too!

"Time for your mama to shower, chérie!" Mlle. LaPerle whispered to her kitty

"Get up lazy-bones!" she chimed, scratching Mitsy playfully behind her ears. Of course, all Mitsy wanted was to go back to bed. Either that, or have breakfast.

Mademoiselle jumped up from her cozy bed, slipped on her slippers and bathrobe, and headed for the shower. As she adjusted the water temperature, she hummed a familiar French tune to herself. The start of another, beautiful day, she thought.

Back in the bedroom, Mitsy yawned and figured she'd just get back to bed, since breakfast was going to be a little while. She was all stretched out on her tummy, but then decided to roll over and try the other side. It was just so difficult to get comfy sometimes!

As for Mademoiselle, she was ready to go off to school in no time. Ready to teach some more French, and even ready to solve any mysteries that might come her way.

The Middle School was already coming to life when Mlle. LaPerle pulled up in her little Volkswagen Bug. A yellow convertible. Bright yellow!

Sally Johnston, one of the school's two math teachers, was getting out of her Volkswagen, too. She had a black Jetta. Mrs. Johnston was a little more conservative when it came to car color, though she sometimes thought it would be fun to have a nice, shiny sports car. A red one, of course.

"Good morning, Pearl!" she chimed.

"Oh, Bonjour, Sally!" Mlle. replied.

"You know, you're just the person I needed to see, Pearl. You won't believe this, but I completely forgot to put in the beverage order for the May Dance!" Mrs. Johnston was just beside herself.

"No, no, no--you didn't, Sally," said Mlle. LaPerle, trying to make her feel better. "You asked me to take care of that, remember? It's all set."

"Oh! That's right, I did. Wonderful!" Mrs. Johnston exclaimed, as she sighed and smiled. She was quite relieved, because she'd spent all night and morning worrying about not having anything to drink at the dance.

"Thank you so much for your help, Pearl. Oh, by the way, are we still on for tonight?"

"Oh, yes, how could I forget. It's Mystery Night!" Mlle. LaPerle was always excited about Mystery Night.

"7:30, Pearl!"

"I'll have some papers to correct, but I'll just do half tonight and half tomorrow night. Okay, see you then," said Pearl as she scooted off to prepare for her classes.

"See you at lunch, first, Pearl!" Mrs. Johnston shouted after her. What a ball of energy that Pearl was...

Once in class, Mademoiselle LaPerle waited until all of her students were seated, then she took roll call. Todd Zellanger, known to all as Pièrre in French class, was the last one to be called since his family name began with the letter Z.

"Pièrre?" she asked.

"Présent, Mademoiselle," he answered correctly.

"Très bien, classe. Very good. First thing this morning, I'd like to collect your homework--your devoirs."

Anyone passing by would have heard all of the hemming and hawing at the announcement that the teacher wanted everyone's homework. Perhaps they'd all hoped she would forget!

As Mlle. LaPerle went around the room collecting the homework, Todd leaned over to get his out of his backpack.

He discovered, however, that it wasn't in his French folder, where he normally kept it. In fact, it didn't seem to be anywhere in his knapsack!

And Mademoiselle was almost at his desk!

Todd began to panic as he watched Samantha Rodgers, or Mimi, hand in her homework.

He hated that feeling--the horrible dread, the queasy stomach, the sweaty palms--especially since he knew he'd done all of his homework the night before. But where was it?

"Pièrre?"

Just as Mlle. LaPerle arrived at his desk, Todd noticed a piece of paper marked with Devoirs in the upper right-hand corner.

Voilà! There it was!

Without even checking it out, Todd pulled the paper from his knapsack and handed it to Mlle. LaPerle. She said, Merci, then smiled at him. As she moved on, Todd noticed that there seemed to be a purple juice stain or something on his paper. When did I do that? he wondered. Oh, well. At least he handed it in.

Wow, that was close! He'd never forgotten to bring in his homework before. And it was something he thought he just didn't need to experience.

Mike Mayor, known as Jean-Paul in French class, was just behind Todd. He was smiling a big smile when he handed in his devoirs, as he always did. Teacher's pet!

Then it was Sara Tassler--Antoinette. Everybody, so far, had handed in homework.

Another row back, a confident Jerry Bakkerson--or Marcel, as the teacher called him--handed a piece of paper to Mlle. LaPerle. As she turned and walked towards her desk, he snickered to himself and folded his hands on his desk. Jerry must have been playing the good, little student that morning, as he was usually causing trouble.

And he never did his homework before!

On the other side of the room, Mandy Tellman, known as Giselle in class, saw that Jerry had actually handed in his homework for once! She smiled, too, when she handed hers in, then looked back at Jerry.

About an hour later, after Mademoiselle's lesson on the verb avoir (to have), the bell rang for lunch. Mlle. LaPerle watched as the kids all filed out of the classroom, in a somewhat rushed and haphazard manner. She fetched her lunch bag filled with a Turkey sandwich, an apple, some carrot sticks and a yogurt, and headed for the Teacher's Room.

"Lunch time--great!" shouted Peebo. Richard Samson was his real name, and Mlle. LaPerle called him Stéphane in class, but all of his friends called him Peebo. He looked a lot like the little monkey from a movie they all went to see last year, and the nickname's stuck with him since then. He wasn't the most popular boy at Warremore, but pretty much everybody liked him.

"Hey, did anybody notice that Jerry passed in his French homework?" Mandy asked. Mandy sort of minded everybody's business all of the time. If something was happening--anything at all--she'd be sure to find out about it and then proceed to tell everybody she ran into. "Jerry never does his homework!"

"Yeah, I saw that," said Peebo. "Maybe he's turned over a new leaf?" he added jokingly. Everybody laughed at that.

"Well, I saw Jerry snooping around the coatroom while everyone was at recess," Mandy said smugly. "I bet he stole someone's homework and copied it for himself..."

"Yeah," agreed Samantha. "I bet he did."

"But why would he do that?" Todd asked. "He's never cared about handing in his homework before, right?"

"Who cares?" shouted Peebo, interrupting the others. "Let's go to lunch."

"Hey Samantha, what's that purple stain on your knapsack?" Todd asked. It wasn't very big, but since she had a white knapsack, it was rather visible when she swung it onto her shoulder.

"Oh... um... the stain? That's just some juice--no big deal..."

"Hey you guys!" urged Peebo. "The lunch line's getting longer and longer--let's go!"

The next day, Mlle. LaPerle told her class that she was about halfway through correcting their homework papers. She didn't tell them about Mystery Night at Mrs. Johnston's house, but it wasn't really a naughty thing for her to leave some of the correcting for one more night. After all, Mademoiselle usually handed back her class's homework in record time! Some teachers, like a certain goofy Science teacher who shall remain nameless, take a whole weak to correct papers.

Mlle. LaPerle just couldn't miss Mystery Night, though! Each week, the Mystery Night regulars would talk about the different mystery novels they'd read, and someone would bring a detective movie for them to watch. They'd make popcorn and fruit drinks, and even stay up a little late talking and gossiping.

"Pièrre?" asked Mlle. LaPerle after roll call. "I'd like to see you after school for a minute, s'il te plaît." And that's all she said. Not even a clue as to whether he'd done anything wrong or not! She didn't seem mad, but she wasn't smiling at him either. Mademoiselle just went on with teaching.

Oh no! What did I do, Todd wondered. What did I do? How did she expect him to pay attention after having just dropped such a bomb on him!

He couldn't concentrate in Math class. Mr. Stanley's monotone voice and the figures and formulas all seemed to blend together, as Todd contemplated what he might have done wrong--or what he might have forgotten to do.

He couldn't keep his mind on the experiments in Science class, either. Those facts and figures and formulas were worse.

He didn't even feel like eating his lunch--and it was Pizza Day! Normally he'd gobble down two pieces of pizza and two milks.

And Todd's friends didn't even know what the problem was, so they couldn't help him out.

No. He'd have to face this alone...