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“Do you have any idea who might have done it?” April asked.

I pulled out my reporter's notebook, trying to impress her. “Well, I've been keeping track of what people have been saying,” I said, “and it seems like almost everyone thinks that it was someone from West Hills. And for the record, at least one person mentioned the name ‘Danny Stratham.' ”

“Cut!” April Weathers said as she turned to the
camera operator. “Roll back and edit that out.”

Then she put her arm around me. “I can see that you have an interest in reporting,” she said.

“I do!” I said proudly. “I'm a reporter for the
Cherry Valley Voice
.”

She smiled again. “Here's a tip. Repeating gossip or something that's hearsay, or what you've heard people saying, isn't something you can report. It's called speculation. A lot of the time it turns out that person wasn't involved, but if you name them, it can be very harmful and hurtful, especially if it's connected to a crime. That's why we're really careful about these things. This may look like some kind of a prank gone wrong, but it's vandalism, and that's a crime.”

“I'm so sorry,” I said, feeling as dejected as the Cougar players. I also felt really stupid. I should have known that. I do know that! We learned it in Journalism 101, for goodness' sake! I'd just gotten so excited and, well, I had wanted to impress April.

“Oh, don't be sorry. I just wanted to steer you in the right direction for the future,” she said cheerfully. “I can tell you're serious about
reporting. I was too, when I was your age. And I have some news for you. You're going to be on television tonight. Make sure to watch WKDH news at six p.m.”

“WE WILL!” Hailey and I screamed at the same time.

We didn't want to look immature in front of an award-winning journalist, so we waited until April Weathers had walked out of sight, and then we grabbed each other and started jumping up and down. Hailey's dad walked over and looked at us, perplexed.

“I thought we lost the game,” he said.

“We did, Dad!” Hailey said. “But we're going to be on the news tonight!”

“And April Weathers said I'm just like her!” I shouted.

“Not exactly.” Hailey laughed. “But close enough.”

“Oh, okay.” Hailey's dad laughed too. “In that case, let's get you home so you can set your DVR!”

The next morning the school was buzzing with excitement. Everyone was talking about what happened to Mr. Cougar and
everyone
thought that a West Hills student was responsible. The name of the day seemed to be Danny Stratham, even though I now knew better than to report that name until I gathered some hard evidence that proved he was involved. Thanks, April Weathers!

Too bad April hadn't gotten to the rest of the school. The stories about Danny Stratham were becoming wilder by the minute.

“Did you hear that Danny Stratham has to report to the dean's office every afternoon because he's in trouble all the time?” Hailey
asked as she breezed over to my locker.

“No,” I replied. “Where did you hear that?”

“Jeff Perry said that he knows a kid who knows a kid who's Danny Stratham's cousin,” Hailey answered.

“That's a real reliable source.” I laughed. “And shouldn't the vice president of Cherry Valley Middle School be a little more considerate about spreading rumors?”

Hailey's cheeks turned red. She takes her responsibilities as student body vice president very seriously.

“You're right,” she said. “It's just that everyone's talking about him.”

“Talking about who?” Jenna asked, as she and Kristen squeezed in between Hailey and me as we walked down the hall to our first class.

“Danny Stratham,” Hailey said.

“Oh, yeah, he's bad news,” Jenna said. “I heard he once kicked a neighbor's dog on the way to school just to show off how mean he is.”

“Jenna!” I said, alarmed. “That's ridiculous.”

“No, it's true. I heard that, too!” said Kristen.
“Everyone knows he's the one who vandalized Mr. Cougar.”

“Everyone
thinks
that,” I corrected her. “But no one knows, because there's no proof.”

“We'll see,” Jenna replied. “Did you see the way he was laughing and smiling at the end of the game? He looked pretty guilty to me.”

“Um, maybe he was laughing and smiling because his team had just won by almost seventy points?” I asked. “And he set a West Hills record with eight touchdown receptions?”

“Maybe,” said Jenna. “We'll see.”

Then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I heard he wanted to get a tattoo when he was six years old, but his mother wouldn't let him,” she said.

“That's enough!” I said. “No more Danny Stratham talk!”

“Okay, fine,” huffed Kristen. “What, do you have a crush on him or something? We all know how much you like football players. Does Samantha Martone only like winners?”

Kristen, Jenna, and even Hailey laughed. I
stormed off to Spanish class.

There was definitely a disturbance in the Cherry Valley force. Mrs. Cassas said, “
Class, bonne journée,
” which is French, at the beginning of
Spanish
class and then she took out a French textbook! A frog escaped in the science lab and caused eleven minutes of chaos until John Scott heroically captured it in a beaker. Missy Davis slipped on some pudding in the cafeteria and went flying through the air in a fall that was worthy of a blooper reel.

“Bad luck reigns at Cherry Valley,” Hailey noted, scooping white rice with salt and butter into her mouth, her typical lunch. “Told ya.”

“Whatever,” I said. “The only bad luck I'm having is that I haven't seen Michael all day. I wonder if he's avoiding me.”

“Hmmm,” Hailey said. “Now that I think about it, I haven't seen him either. He's probably just lying low and feeling sorry for himself. It was a bad loss yesterday, especially if you're the quarterback.”

“It was,” I agreed. “I guess I'll find out later at our newspaper meeting.”

If you are a fan of the strong, silent type, you would have fallen head over heels in love with the Michael Lawrence who attended the newspaper meeting later that afternoon. Michael almost always had strong opinions to share, but I guess he decided to keep them to himself. He wasn't sitting by my side in our usual spot on the love seat, either (yes, there's a love seat in the office, and I
love
sitting in it with Michael Lawrence). He was slouched in a chair on the other side of the room. Maybe he was going for the sullen loser look. I think I heard Allie say that was popular on the fashion runways this year.

Mr. Trigg, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of excitement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” he announced as he gathered the
Cherry Valley Voice
team together in the newsroom. “We've had quite the incident! And it is our job as journalists to investigate and report what we've found to our peers!

“Samantha Martone, I spied your familiar face on my television screen last evening,” he continued.
“Nice quote. You and Mr. Lawrence also did a stellar job on the school election pieces, so I'd like you to continue that tradition with an investigation into the cougar statue story. Good luck.”

“More like bad luck,” grumbled Michael.

“What was that, Mr. Lawrence?” Trigg asked. “Did you have something to add to the conversation?”

“No. I'll work on the story with Sam,” said Michael. “I'm just not hopeful that we'll be able to dig up any answers.”

“Mr. Lawrence,” Trigg replied. “Winston Churchill once said, ‘The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.' I highly encourage you to channel your optimistic side for this assignment.”

“Got it,” Michael said as he slumped back into his seat.

Normally, I would have taken his behavior personally, considering our failed conversation outside the locker room, but I was too excited by the thought of reporting an actual news story to get upset by it. Any other day, Michael's behavior would have sent
me into a panic, but now I was actually getting a little ticked off. He needed to stop pouting like a baby and get to work.

As Mr. Trigg handed out the assignments for the rest of the team, I tried to look casual and cool as I sauntered over to Michael's chair.

“Hey, Michael, this is going to be great, right?” I said. “We get to investigate a real crime!”

I was almost positive that I had spoken loud enough for Michael to hear me, but he didn't respond.

“Earth to Michael,” I said even louder. “Do you read me?”

“Huh?” Michael said as he looked up at me, distracted by his own gloomy thoughts. “Oh, Sam. Hey, what's up?”

“Did you hear Mr. Trigg?” I asked. “We're working together on the cougar story. It's only the biggest news story Cherry Valley Middle School has ever had.”

“Yeah, I heard him,” Michael said. “It's big news, all right. Everyone is talking about it. I can't wait to find out who did this. The whole football
team can't wait to find out who did this.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to stay calm. “Let's focus on our job as
Cherry Valley Voice
reporters, shall we?” I continued, trying to sound detached and professional.

“Sure,” said Michael. “What's your plan?”

“Well, first, I think we need to get some advice from Mr. Trigg,” I told him. “This is real news, and we haven't worked on anything this big before.”

“Okay, that sounds reasonable,” Michael agreed.

It could have been my imagination, but I had a feeling that the sullen football Michael was being pushed aside by the excited reporter Michael a teensy little bit.

Mr. Trigg relished his role as advisor to the news team. He was thrilled to sit with Michael and me after the meeting to go over proper procedure and give us some tips for getting started. In fact, he had already done some of the work for us. He gave us the name of the police officer who was leading the investigation and said that most reporters begin with the official side of the story
by getting a copy of the police report and talking to the officers who collected evidence from the crime scene.

“We need to e-mail Officer Mendez and schedule a time to meet her,” I said.

“Would you mind doing that?” Michael asked. “I'm meeting with Coach Dixon after this to go over our plan for the game against Valley View. If we have another loss like the one to West Hills, we could get knocked out of the playoffs.”

“Sure, no problem,” I replied. “I'll do it as soon as I get home.”

“And, Michael . . . ,” I added, a bit nervously, “I'm sorry if I seemed insensitive after the game. I know it was a tough loss.”

“It was,” Michael admitted. “I was awful.”

“It wasn't just you,” I said. “The rest of the team was terrible too.”

“I'll tell the guys you said that, Pasty.” He chuckled.

Great.
Martone Insults Entire Cougar Football Team, Including the Love of Her Life; Gets Banned from Future Games
.