Cam Jansen and the Basketball Mystery (2 page)

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Authors: David A. Adler

BOOK: Cam Jansen and the Basketball Mystery
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Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”
Then she said, “I’m looking at the pictures in the yearbook. Mr. Pace’s number was twenty-four. Mr. Shelton’s number was eighteen.”
“That’s right,” Danny’s father said. “You really have an amazing memory.”
Cam’s real name is Jennifer, but because of her photographic memory people started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” became just “Cam.”
“Open your eyes,” Eric told Cam. “It’s almost our turn to go in.”
Cam opened her eyes. She and the others moved up.
A student was standing by the door. She wore a paper orange Hamilton Helper sash.
“I played for Coach Jenkins,” Danny’s father told the helper. “Look, I’m wearing my uniform.”
He gave her two tickets.
The girl smiled. “I hope you’ll stay after the game for the party,” she said. “It’s for Coach, and it’s in the cafeteria.”
Mr. Shelton gave her a bunch of tickets. Then Cam and all the Sheltons entered the gym. The game was about to begin.
Chapter Two
“Look up,” Diane said. “Look at all those balloons.”
Two large nets filled with colorful balloons were tied to the ceiling of the gym.
Ten players, five from each team, stood on the court. The Hamilton players wore orange and black uniforms; the players from the other team, Franklin High School, wore green and yellow uniforms. Two players, one from each team, stood in the middle of the court. A referee in a black and white striped shirt stood between them. He held a basketball.
Trill! Trill!
The referee blew his whistle. He tossed the basketball up. The two players jumped. The one from Hamilton got to it first and tapped it to a teammate.
“Hurry! Let’s find seats,” Mr. Shelton said.
Hundreds of people had come to the game. Almost every seat in the bleachers was taken.
Cam looked up. She saw someone in the last row waving. It was Danny. There were empty seats in his row.
Hamilton scored and the crowd cheered.
Cam and the Sheltons climbed to the last row. They were just below the balloons.
Donna told Danny, “We’re winning!”
“No we’re not,” Danny said. “Franklin just scored. We’re tied, two to two.”
“Oh, I want Hamilton to win,” Donna said.
“Me, too,” Diane said. “Go Hamilton!” she shouted.
The players ran from one end of the court to the other. They passed the ball. They carefully threw it toward the basket.
“They go so fast,” Donna said. “Sometimes I can’t tell who has the ball.”
“Watch our number twelve,” Mr. Shelton said. “That’s Jordan Gold. He’s the best player on the team.”
The score kept changing. First Hamilton was winning. Then Franklin was ahead.
Bzzz!
A buzzer sounded.
Eric’s baby brother Howie cried.
“The noise scared him,” Mrs. Shelton said.
She gave Howie a pacifier.
“Is the game over?” Diane asked. “Did we lose?”
“No,” Mrs. Shelton answered. “Franklin is ahead, but it’s just the end of the first half.”
“It’s like recess at school,” Danny explained. “It’s a good time for some jokes.”
Danny pointed to the balloons and asked, “Do you know what the balloon said when it met the pin?”
“I think Howie is hungry,” Mr. Shelton said.
Donna took a bottle from the bag and gave it to her father.
“We’re behind by three,” Mr. Pace told Danny. “But don’t worry. When I played on the team we were behind lots of times by more than that and we still won.”
“Hey,” Danny said. “What about my balloon joke?”
“Look!” Diane shouted. “They’re back!”
“Go Hamilton!” people shouted.
Danny said, “I’ll tell you what the balloon said when it met the pin. It said ‘Hi, Buster.’ And do you know what you call a crate full of ducks? It’s a box of quackers.”
Diane said, “Those jokes aren’t funny.”
“How about this one?” Danny asked. “Do you know what part of a tree scares cats? It’s the bark.”
Diane shook her head. She didn’t think Danny’s jokes were funny.
“Don’t you get it?” Danny asked. “Dogs bark and a tree has bark.”
“Stop telling me jokes,” Diane said. “I’m watching the game.”
It was an exciting game. There were lots of short passes between players. There were a few long passes, too, from one end of the court to the other.
Players tried to get close to the basket before they took a shot. But near the end of the game, Jordan Gold took a shot from almost the middle of the court. He got it in. Then he missed a shot from just a few feet away.
“This is it,” Mr. Shelton said. “There’s less than one minute to go.”
Cam looked at the scoreboard. The score was fifty-two to fifty-one. Franklin was winning.
“Franklin has the ball,” Danny’s father said sadly. “They just have to hold on to it to win the game.”
The Franklin player with the ball bounced it a few times. Then he passed it to another Franklin player. The other player bounced the ball a few times and passed it back.
This time the ball never reached his teammate!
Jordan Gold jumped in and grabbed it. He threw the ball all the way down the court to Hamilton’s number eight, who was standing near the basket. Number eight took the easy shot and scored.
Bzzz!
The buzzer sounded. The game was over. Hamilton had won!
Fans stood. They cheered.
Two of the Hamilton players lifted Coach Jenkins onto their shoulders. They carried him to one of the baskets. He cut off the net as a souvenir of his last game.
The players carried Coach Jenkins to a microphone set in the middle of the court. They put the coach down. He stood before the microphone ready to speak. The cheering crowd was suddenly quiet.
“Thank you,” Coach Jenkins said. “Thanks for thirty happy years.”
People cheered.
“Thank you for letting me stay in high school for so long with so many great young people. It’s helped me feel young, too.”
A Hamilton Helper climbed up the bleachers past Cam and Eric. He was holding a pair of scissors. He was about to cut the net and release the balloons.
“Not yet,” Jordan Gold called out.
Jordan Gold stepped up to the microphone. “This is the game ball,” he said, and gave the coach a basketball. “We’ve all signed it.”
“Thank you again,” Coach Jenkins said.
The crowd cheered.
Jordan Gold held up his hands.
“We have another surprise for you.”
“I know what it is,” Diane said. “That boy will cut the net and all the balloons will fall out.”
“That’s not it,” Mr. Shelton told her. “I heard the sports news this afternoon. One of Coach’s old players is coming here. He has a special gift for Coach.”
“Is it you?” Donna asked her father. “Did you bring something?”
“Oh, I bet it’s you,” Diane said to Mr.
Pace. “I bet you’re going to show everyone that you’re wearing your orange shirt.”
“No,” Mr. Shelton answered. “It’s someone real famous.”
“Shh,” Mrs. Shelton told him. “Don’t tell them. Let the children be surprised.”
The side doors of the gym opened. Four guards walked in. They looked around. Then they turned to the open doors and waved.
“Here he comes,” Mr. Shelton said. “Here he comes!”
Chapter Three
A tall man walked into the gym. He was followed by a man and a woman. The tall man raised both his hands over his head and waved. People cheered.
“Who is he?” Diane asked.
“That’s Governor Zellner,” Mr. Shelton said. “He went to Hamilton High School. He was on the basketball team.”
“Who are the man and woman who walked in after him?” Donna asked.
“They must be his assistants, his helpers,” Mrs. Shelton said.
Governor Zellner and Coach Jenkins hugged. Then the governor stepped up to the microphone.

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