BSC #40: Claudia and the Middle School Mystery

Tagline: How could anyone accuse Claudia of cheating?

For once, Claudia's studied really really hard for her math test. And when Claudia gets her paper back, it has an A- on it. All right!

But then, Claudia's math teacher calls her to his desk and accuses her of copying off of Shawna Riverson's test!

Claudia can't believe it. Neither can the Baby-sitters. Claudia would never cheat! And they're not going to rest until they help clear Claudia's name!

The book opens with Claudia studying for math with Janine. Unlike usual, Claudia's starting to finally catch on, and is even enjoying having Janine be her study partner. After awhile, Janine declares Claudia ready for the test, and leaves Claudia to do the rest of her homework. Claudia still isn't convinced though: this is a huge test, worth almost half of her grade. Stacey and the girls are quick to talk her down that night and the next day before her test.

During the test, Claudia starts to panic, but soon remembers everything Janine told her. Taking her time, she tackles the test one question at a time. Claudia's surprised at how much she remembers, and when it comes time to hand in the test, she's feeling pretty good. She's not sure of the exact grade she's got, but it doesn't even matter to her: she knows she did well, better than usual, and that's all that's important.

The next day, Claudia is thrilled to find out that she did even better than she could have hoped for: 94%! It's one of the highest grades Claudia's ever received, and she's ecstatic. However, her jubilation is short-lived. Mr Zorzi, her math teacher, calls her and Shawna Riverson to his desk. Turns out that both girls got the exact same score. In fact, they made the exact same mistakes. The only conclusion to be made is that one of the them cheated off the other. Shawna's quick to defend herself, saying she'd never ever cheat. Since Shawna generally does well and has high grades, Mr Zorzi believes her and doesn't even give Claudia a chance to defend herself. Claudia is going to get an F on the test.

Claudia is in total shock and is severely setback. She figures, if this is what happens when she studies, why should she bother? She spends the rest of the day avoiding her friends and family, eventually just lying in her bed, not even doing art. When her family calls her down for dinner, they tell her that the principal informed her of the situation. Claudia doesn't know what to say, only that she didn't do it. To her dismay, it doesn't seem like her parents believe her initially, but Janine quickly steps in and takes Claudia's side without hesitation. Her parents quickly recant, saying that of course they believe Claudia, and that they'll figure something out. Claudia tells them that she'd like to do it on her own. She talks things over with Janine, and tries to feel better.

The Club is immediately on Claudia's side (with the exception of Mary Anne, who in trying to be sensitive, is actually very insensitive). Everyone realizes that Shawna is obviously the one who cheated, but none of them can figure out why or how to prove it. Dawn mentions that she has the locker next to Shawna's, and that due to a mix-up, for a few days at the beginning of the year, it was actually her locker, so she knows the combination. She suggests that they look inside it to find evidence, but everyone quickly quashes that idea.

The next day, Claudia is still pretty bummed out. Suddenly she spots Shawna and her friends laughing and talking, and decides to follow them. Hiding in a bathroom stall, she overhears Shawna talking about how lucky she was to have gotten away with cheating, and how she doesn't even feel bad, because what's one more bad grade to Claudia? Shawna continues to explain how she cheated because she had stretched herself too thin in terms of extra-curriculars, and hadn't had time to study. Claudia is enraged by what she hears, and when the coast is clear, heads to meet up with her friends. At first, everyone is excited, because this was the proof they were waiting for! Then they realize that it would still be Claudia's word against Shawna's, and that that wouldn't help her in the end. Realizing that desperate times call for desperate measures, they decide to break into Shawna's locker after all, to see if they can find anything incriminating.

After school, Dawn, Claudia and Stacey stay behind to look inside Shawna's locker. With Stacey on lookout, Dawn and Claudia rifle through Shawna's things. Claudia then notices a note stuck in the locker vent. It says, "Congratulations on your A-. Who would have guessed that C.K.'s paper would have so many right answers?" Dawn is ecstatic, knowing that they hit the jackpot. However, Claudia realizes that she would have no way of explaining how she got the note, and no way of proving that she hadn't just made it up to clear her name. After Dawn and Stacey leave, Claudia puts the note back, and continues to be upset.

Claudia then thinks she can guilt or goad Shawna into letting something slip, so she spends all of their next math class saying suggestive things, waiting for Shawna to respond or start freaking out. All Claudia manages to do though is annoy Shawna and Mr Zorzi, and effectively miss the entire math lesson.

Finally, Claudia decides that she just doesn't care anymore. At least, that's what she tells herself. She wears her most outrageous outfit possible, and spends the whole day acting all cheerful, and pretending that she doesn't care about school, her math test, her grades, anything. Come the end of the school day, Claudia is exhausted from all the pretending, and doesn't even feel any better. That's when she sees Janine. Janine is visiting the middle school so that she may have words with the principal. Claudia is mortified, but Janine reassures her that she's always been on good terms with the principal, and that she's merely going to have a conversation. Enough is enough; Janine wasn't going to let her little sister suffer in silence anymore.

After careful discussion and deliberation, the principal, Janine and Mr Zorzi (who got called down eventually) decide that Claudia deserves another chance to prove herself. The next day, Mr Zorzi allows Claudia to re-write the test (a different test, but on the same materials). Claudia passes the test with flying colours, doing even better on it than the first time. Mr Zorzi apologizes to Claudia, and then calls Shawna to his desk. He tells her that she'll have a chance to prove herself by retaking the test tomorrow. Shawna breaks down and admits to cheating. She gets sent to the principal's office, and is ultimately suspended for two days, as well as getting an F on the test.

Claudia is thrilled. Not only did she prove herself innocent, but she earned an A- fair and square. The Club (and Janine) take a moment to celebrate with Claudia at their next meeting. Claudia gives Janine a piece of art she made, specifically for her, thanking her for always having her back and helping her out. That night, Claudia's parents celebrate at dinner with a cake. For the first time, Claudia sees how proud they all are of her, and she's pretty damn proud herself!

The subplot in this one involves the Pike triplets. They were playing ball when the ball goes wild and goes into the basement window. None of the triplets will confess to who did it, so Mr and Mrs Pike decide to punish and ground all of them, until one of them fesses up. Over the course of the book, the triplets start driving everyone crazy, cuz they're going nuts from being cooped up, but still they remain loyal to each other and refuse to rat on the culprit. Finally Mallory comes up with the idea of "re-enacting the crime". Turns out it was nobody's and everybody's fault: One of the triplets pitched the ball, but it was a bad throw, another triplet attempted to hit it anyways, and it just glanced off the bat and continued running wild, and the third triplet attempted to catch it, but it glanced off his mitt and into the window. The triplets are official ungrounded and cleared of all charges!

Random Thoughts:

• I never read the plot synopsis' on the back of these books, because I generally remember what all of the books are about. I'm glad I don't. Jfc this one spoils so much! Claudia spends the first three chapters worrying about her test. Us readers already know what she got on the test!
• I've gone on before about how I don't under the American grading system, but this time, I'm SURE I've got it all mixed up. Claudia gets a 94% on her math test. Here in Canada, that would be an A+ (anything above 90% is an A+). I'll admit, it doesn't make sense in Canada that A+ has a 10% range, A- to A has a 10% range, and then all the other letter grades and their iterations have a 10% range. But okay. Anyways, Claudia's 94% is only an A-??? You'd think even in the US system, it'd be at least an A! (From what I understand, the US system is roughly a 5% range for every different grade?)
• Claudia's parents are horrible. First off, they don't immediately take her side. But more importantly, they don't do anything! I know Claudia was all like, "No, please don't get involved!" but my god, she's a 13 year old child! If after three days or so, I hadn't heard of anything being done, I would have marched into the school and talked to the teacher and principal myself! I mean, I'm not saying they should storm in their, guns-ablazing, but at least be like, "Look, let's have a meeting and talk this out."
• On the other hand, Janine further cements herself as the most awesome person ever in the series haha I love when Claudia gives her a chance and opens up to her and has all these great sisterly moments.
• I like how apparently this is the fourth window the triplets have broken in three months. Uh, didn't your dad just get laid off and then have to start a new job?? Way to go guys...
• PS: there was no mention of that drama at all in this one
• I always loved Claudia's "Ms Frizzle" outfit in this one. It's one of the ones that sticks out in my head whenever I think back on the series and Claudia's crazy outfits haha
• I also like how, of all the outfits Claudia wears over the course of the series, this is the one she feels the most silly in haha
• Claudia is clearly capable of learning and studying: it just takes her longer to do it than most kids. How is it that she's always on the verge of failing??
• Also: how is it that Janine's never given her test taking tips at all. How has no one?? As a teacher, I'm constantly reminding my students to breathe, take their time, skip questions they don't know, etc, etc, etc
• As if Mr Zorzi is all, "One of you cheated", and then when Shawna goes, "Not me!" he essentially goes, "Well, it's true: Claudia's grades generally suck. Okay!" and gives Claudia a zero. No questions asked. Nothing else. Seriously, I would have immediately asked both of them to redo the test, then and there. There is no way I would have relied on the word of just a student.
• Plus it seems suspect that Shawna was ready to defend herself so quickly. You know, almost as if she was expecting to be accused. If you accuse an innocent person of a crime, they're generally too shell-shocked to be able to defend themselves. They're like, "Wait, what? Is this really happening? How???"
• They say that Mr Zorzi is not their usual math teacher, but rather that he's taking over for their usual teacher. Doesn't Wesley, the student teacher, take over for Mr Zorzi later? So confused >_< haha
• American lockers confuse me. Whenever I see them on TV or movies, or described in books, it seems like they have the locks built into them, and that they don't change the combinations. Anyone who has ever used that locker can apparently continuously get into it, at least for the rest of the year, if not for ever. In my province (can't really speak for the whole country with any certainty), students are to provide their own locks, and give the office their combination. I like that much better, because I feel secure in knowing that I'm the only one with my combination. Also: it allowed me to keep the same combination all throughout high school.