“What’s the matter?” asked Kelly.
Miss Becker closed the classroom door behind her, stood in the hall with us, and leaned close.
“Something’s happening in my classroom. Something very … oh, what’s the word —”
Brian raised his hand. “Elephant.”
“Spaceship?”
“No, Brian —”
“Nutcracker!”
“Please —”
“Garbonzo beans! My final answer.”
Miss Becker shook her head. “What I was going to say is that something very mysterious is happening in my classroom.”
“I’m practically choking on my own breath!” said Mara, fanning her face.
“What she means,” said Brian, “is that we solve mysteries. We’re the Goofballs.”
“I know that, of course,” Miss Becker said. “The mitten and the sock.”
“I hopped all the way home,” said Brian.
“I know,” Miss B. said. “I watched you.”
“Ahem,” said Kelly. “Getting back to the mystery …”
Miss Becker pointed through the window on the door. “Tomorrow is our last day in this room.”
“We heard about that,” said Mara. “You’re moving up to a new classroom, aren’t you?”
Miss Becker nodded. “But I’ll miss this one and everything in it. I call it my Wonderland, because so many wonderful things happen here.”
“They do,” said Brian. “I’m living proof.”
“The reading tree,” she said, “the tiny fish tank, the squeaky rocking chair, the lopsided bookshelf, the old cardboard puppet theater. I’ll miss them all.”
“Life is about change,” said Kelly. “You taught us that. So turn that frown upside down. Make it a smiley face. Just like you taught us on the art easel.”
“I drew my first circle on that easel,” Mara said. “It was the beginning of my career as an artist and a fashion person.”
“That’s just it,” Miss Becker said.
“That same easel — my old high school art easel — has just vanished!”
I gasped. “That’s terrible!”
“Or magical!” said Mara.
Miss Becker frowned even more. “This morning some pencils went missing. Then a tub of building blocks. Just before lunch — poof! — all the crayons disappeared!”
“So the kids really are magicians?” said Mara.
“Or aliens beaming stuff up to the mother ship?” Brian asked.
“Or just plain bad?” I asked.
“No, no, and no,” said Miss Becker.
“The kids are wonderful. They’ve known for a while that we’ll be leaving this room, but it really hit me yesterday how much I’ll miss it. It was my first classroom.…”
“Aha!” said Mara.
“Did you solve the mystery?” I asked.
“No. Just practicing for when I do.”
“Well,” Miss Becker said, “ever since this morning, things have been vanishing. I can’t explain it. The kids say they have no idea.”
Miss Becker opened the door. The kids were sitting together on the floor. Their eyes were focused on Miss Becker. Their beaming faces told me that they loved her just like we did.
So why were things vanishing from Miss Becker’s Wonderland?
And, maybe more important, how?
“Miss Becker,” I said, “I have an idea that’s so good I could say it a hundred times. But I won’t. But I could. The Goofballs will solve the mystery of your disappearing stuff. Because the Goofballs will go undercover to teach your class!”
“Yes!” said Mara. “We’ll disguise ourselves as teachers and find out the truth!”
“Teachers love the truth,” said Kelly.
“T-R-U-T-H,” said Brian. “Look, I’m starting already.”
Miss Becker tapped her chin as if she was thinking it over. “I don’t know. I could use a day off. But this class is a real handful.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “All together, the Goofballs have eight hands and four paws!”
She smiled. “If Principal Higgins and your teacher, Mrs. Lang, say you can, then yes. Now, excuse me, I must go back in.”
As soon as she closed the door, Principal Higgins trotted down the hall, shuffling his papers and plans, followed by Mr. Boggs, the builder.
Principal Higgins shook his head. “I can’t believe there’s a room in my school that I never heard of! Why is there an extra room?”
“It’s where the elevator was,” Mr. Boggs said.
Kelly turned to us, grinning like the winner of a grinning contest. “Let me handle this.”
She planted herself in the hallway right in front of the principal.
“Principal Higgins!” she said.
He screeched to a stop. “Yes, Kelly?”
“Miss Becker is great, isn’t she?” she asked.
He blinked. “Why, yes, of course she is!”
“Do you think we could be teachers like Miss Becker one day?” Kelly asked.
“Absolutely!” he said. “That would be excellent. You’d be great teachers. Now excuse me. There’s still so much work to do!”
Principal Higgins shot to the end of the hall and screeched around the corner.
“How will that help us?” Mara asked.
Kelly kept her grin going. “Principal Higgins said we could be teachers one day. What he doesn’t know is that that day … is tomorrow!”
“Very S-M-A-R-T,” said Brian.
“Thank you,” said Kelly.
That’s when Miss Becker leaned out her classroom door and said, “Better hurry and solve our mystery. While I was talking to you, our little puppet theater vanished!”