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However,No Rules, the fourth book in the series, opens with Friday deported to Switzerland.
But with their master of mystery-solving out of the country, Highcrest Academy is in a panic.
She had actually written well over seven thousand words because she found the subject of herself so compelling.
She was just beginning an analysis of her id when she was interrupted.
Excuse me, Friday dear, I was wondering if you could give me some help?
Friday turned to see Miss Franelli, a mousy woman who looked fifty-five but was really only twenty-nine.
Miss Franelli was a math teacher.
My sophomore class, said Miss Franelli.
All their textbooks have gone missing.
Where have they gone?
I dont know, said Miss Franelli.
I think the students have hidden them, but Ive looked everywhere and I cant find them.
Theyve hidden every single textbook?
Ingenious, said Melanie.
I wish Id thought of that.
They were never very enthusiastic students before, said Miss Franelli.
But VP Petes talk of freedom seems to have gone to their heads.
Cant you report them to him?
I did, said Miss Franelli.
He cant fire you, said Friday.
Youre the only teacher in the math department who has a grasp of fourth-dimensional geometry.
But what do they do in class if theyre refusing to study?
They just sit around reading romance novels, said Miss Franelli.
The boys as well?
Oh yes, said Miss Franelli.
He probably just enjoys the kissing parts, said Melanie.
So what exactly happened?
Well, I had them for a double period but it was split by recess, said Miss Franelli.
Before recess, they all had their textbooks.
After recess, the books were gone.
The students wont tell me where.
I searched the classroom, the staff room, and the book closet.
Not in any of the nearby classrooms.
Not in the grounds or the gardens, or the bushes just outside the windows.
I couldnt find them anywhere.
Perhaps they took them back to their rooms?
There wasnt time, said Miss Franelli.
Recess is only fifteen minutes.
The sophomore dormitory is on the far side of the school.
Besides, it was raining yesterday.
They wouldve been soaked if theyd tried to walk.
They were dry when they got back to class.
Hmm, I think I know where the textbooks are, said Friday.
But you havent even searched the scene of the crime, said Melanie.
This time I just need to check the geography, said Friday.
Lets go and see your classroom.
Friday, Miss Franelli, and Melanie left the study hall and walked across to the school quad.
Thats your classroom up there, isnt it?
asked Friday, pointing to the second-floor classroom at the end, closest to the math staff room.
Yes, said Miss Franelli.
Then it all fits, said Friday.
Class, said Miss Franelli, Friday Barnes has come to help find your textbooks.
Oh good, said Tristan Fanshaw.
We were all so worried.
The class sniggered at his sarcasm.
Friday scanned the room.
The apathy of the sophomore students was palpable.
Are you going to cross-examine them?
Theres not much point, said Friday.
Theyll just enjoy taunting me, and Id rather not give them the pleasure.
She turned and walked back to the doorway.
Lets get the books.
Where are we going?
You said they were all entirely dry when they returned from recess, said Friday.
If they had stepped foot out into the rain, they would have ruined their self-consciously disheveled hair.
So, wherever they took the books, they got there by walking under cover.
Friday reached the end of the corridor and walked down the large staircase to the ground floor.
They were standing with the downstairs corridor on one side and the doorway to the quad on the other.
Now, where could they go without getting wet?
Along the corridor, said Melanie.
But then theyd be walking back toward their classroom, said Friday.
I think instinct would make them walk farther away.
But it was raining outside, said Miss Franelli.
There is one covered walkway, said Friday as she stepped out into the quad.
The walkway to the library, said Melanie.
Precisely, said Friday.
A library full of books.
You think the textbooks are there?
Im sure of it, said Friday.
What better place to hide twenty books than in a building full of tens of thousands of books?
Well never find them, said Miss Franelli.
Dont be so sure, said Friday.
Lets go and see.
She walked directly across the quad to the library on the far side.
Two minutes later they were standing in the romance section of the school library.
These are all romance books, said Miss Franelli.
No, they just look like romance books, said Friday.
She took one down from the shelf and opened it up.
Okay, this one actually is a romance book, but the textbooks will be here somewhere.
Friday started taking stacks of romance novels down from the shelves.
What are you doing?
demanded the librarian, striding over to the section.
Friday and the librarian did not get along.
Given Fridays love of books, you would think she would be a librarians favorite.
But the librarian at Highcrest Academy was a woman of strong views.
She did not like children.
She especially didnt like children who touched her books.
Were looking for math textbooks, said Friday.
Youre not going to find them here, said the librarian.
I think I will, said Friday.
Miss Franellis class left the first half of their lesson yesterday with their textbooks.
When they returned they had romance novels.
They are not the right size.
These are standard hardbacks.
Textbooks are much larger.
Of course, said Friday.
But I dont understand.
All the evidence leads to here.
The textbooks must be here somewhere.
Do you have any oversize romance novels?
Romance novels arent printed in that format, said Friday.
Actually, said the librarian, they are when they are published in large print for the visually challenged.
People with bad eyesight, said Friday.
But there arent any students here who are visually impaired.
She had an excellent ornithology collection and first-edition travel memoirs.
But her eyesight failed in her later years and she mainly read large-print romance novels.
Where are they kept?
In their own section, said the librarian.
Lady Cutler was an avid reader.
We can see, said Friday.
She reached out and took a book from the center shelf, then took off the dust jacket.
Those little ingrates, said the librarian, snatching down books and discovering one textbook after another.
Dont worry, said Friday, Miss Franelli knows where your novels are.
The hard part will be getting them to give them back, worried Miss Franelli.
Ill get them, said the librarian with ominous menace.
said Miss Franelli hopefully.
The yelling could be heard from as far away as the school swamp.
That was fun, said Friday.
I havent had a good mystery to solve in ages.
Since Ian left, said Melanie.
Since I promised not to cause trouble, said Friday.
I cant wait for the Headmaster to get off probation so I can be a nosy again.
