Meet the Specials, the school superheroes and supersheroes-
Ace+, Jump Rope, Spitball, and Noise!
We're glad they are at our school.

Buy the Specials series bundle

The Specials:
Jump Rope--Jessamyn Robbins:
Expert at lassoing things with jump ropes
Ace+: Anthony Lane:
Math and science whiz
Spitball: Sammy Newton
Excellent shot with spit wads
Noise: Naomi Hornsby
Superb at imitating any sound
Gold Star: Lisa Edwards
Can move things with mind

The Delinquent Specials:
Bad: Fulton Black
Can fly in raven outfit
Graffito:
Can turn the color of his surroundings.
Class Clown:
Can make anyone laugh at any time
Tease:
Can control animal behavior
OOO!--Out-of-Order!:
Expert computer hacker


Book One-Specials: Special Assignment

1. Jump Rope

Jessamyn Robbins stood on the playground at Acorn School. She gripped the ends of a jump rope.
“This time’s the time,” she said.
She raised her arms. The rope twirled overhead in a shaky arch. Her brown braid flipped as she rose onto her toes. But before she could hop, the rope smacked her ankles. She stumbled and tumbled onto the asphalt.
Laughter burst out around her.
“Good one, Jessamyn,” shouted a boy on the monkey bars.
“Clumsy klutz!” called a girl.
“You couldn’t jump over a crack without tripping,” cried someone else.
Jessamyn untangled the jump rope from her legs. As she rose to her feet, she spotted Lisa Edward running toward her.
The red-haired kindergartner cut through the basketball court and stood beside her.
“Code Gold,” Lisa whispered.
Jessamyn nodded. Without a word, she coiled up her jump rope and sprinted toward the school. Inside the hallway, she tore past the office, the gym, and the lunchroom. She bounded up the stairs, two at a time, and entered Room 4.
“Good,” she said, spotting no teacher.
She snatched her backpack off her chair and raced into the coat closet. Seconds later, she reappeared, wearing a red flannel shirt and pleated skirt. In place of her old sneakers, she wore white cowboy boots with silver stars on the sides. A red mask hid her eyes and nose. A red bandana circled her neck, and a red cowboy hat covered her head.
“Better,” she said.
The cowgirl tied a lasso in her jump rope. She twirled it over her head.
“First, a quick warm-up,” she said. “Yippee-ay-ee-I-owe-you!”
Like a whip, the end of the rope shot toward the pencil sharpener on the wall.
Crack!
The sharpener flew apart in an explosion of shavings.
The girl grinned. “All right, school, Jump Rope is ready.”

2. Ace+

By the foursquare court, Anthony Lane sat pretzel-style on the asphalt. He wore no shoes or socks. The zipper of his blue jeans was open.
Mrs. Mayday, the playground monitor, walked up to him. “Anthony, where are your shoes and socks?”
Anthony scratched his stiff, blond hair. “I forgot them in the classroom,” he said.
The teacher peered at Anthony’s pants. “And, Anthony…XYZ.”
The boy pulled up his zipper.
A girl playing foursquare turned toward the woman. “Anthony’s always like that in class, Mrs. Mayday,” she said. “He forgets pencils, lunch money, and homework.”
“And he can’t remember simple math facts or spelling words,” said Nathan, another one of Anthony’s classmates.
“I’m sure Anthony tries his best,” said Mrs. Mayday.
Anthony ignored them. His eyes were on Lisa Edwards, who came sprinting toward him. The kindergartner detoured around the foursquare court, bent down, and whispered in his ear.
“Code Gold!”
In a flash, Anthony was on his feet. He ran into the school, down the hallway, up the stairs, and into Room 4. Without stopping, he grabbed his backpack. He was in and out of the coat closet in seconds.
He now wore a shiny blue jumpsuit with a white A+ on the back. A blue baseball cap with the A+ logo and a blue mask completed the disguise.
“Mrs. Friendly said a Special should never show off,” he said, stepping to Nathan’s desk. “But sometimes it’s hard to resist.”
On the desktop lay a math sheet. The boy in blue pulled a pencil from his back pocket and wrote on the sheet:
a=b
a2=ab
a2-b2=ab-b2
(a-b)(a+b)=b(a-b)
a+b=b
2=1
Ace+

 3. Spitball

Ten students stood on the playground basketball court, choosing teams. The team captains, a fifth-grade boy and girl, studied the last boy to be picked, a fourth-grader with stringy black hair and a runny nose.
“You can have Sammy,” the girl said.
“Tough luck!” said the boy captain. “Your turn to choose, so you lose.”
Sammy Newton rocked on his heels. He ran a hand under his nose.
“But Sammy’s the worst shot in the world,” the girl said. “He’s so slow, I trip over him.”
“School rules say whoever wants to play, plays,” the boy said.
Sammy picked up a basketball. He stepped toward the basketball hoop.
“I can shoot,” he said. “Watch.”
The ball left his fingers. It missed the rim by ten feet.
The court erupted in laughter.
“That’s what I call a not-a-prayer air ball,” someone called out.
“Sam couldn’t hit the side of the school,” said someone else.
No one except Sammy saw Lisa Edwards run onto the court. She mouthed the words, “Code Gold.”
At once, Sammy took off toward the school. Inside, he shot down the hallway so fast that papers fluttered on the walls. He dove into Room 4’s coat closet with his backpack. He came out wearing a yellow basketball uniform complete with yellow sneakers and yellow kneepads. A yellow headband held his hair in place. A yellow mask covered his eyes.
“Spitball is ready,” he said. “But first a practice shot.”
From the waistband of his yellow shorts, he pulled a copper tube, the size of a pencil. Holding the tube to his mouth, he aimed it at the letter X pinned above the whiteboard. He blew twice.
Phoot! Phoot!
Two soggy paper wads smacked the X dead center.
“Spot marks the X!” the boy said.
On the way out the door, he grabbed an eraser off his desk and tossed it over his shoulder.
Plunk!
It landed in a wastebasket across the room. But by then, Spitball was halfway down the hallway.

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Book Two-The Specials: Special Effects

1. The Field Trip

Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!
Mrs. Jefferson’s first-grade class climbed the school bus steps.
“Did everyone visit the restroom? Did everyone get a drink of water?” the teacher asked. “It’s a long way to the Pumpkin Patch. We won’t be making any toilet or drink stops.”
Peter Little sat in the second row of the bus. He had been to the Pumpkin Patch before.
He raised his hand and said, “They have Porta-Potties at the Pumpkin Patch, but they smell weird.”
“Thank you, Peter,” the teacher said.
Across from Peter sat Lisa Edwards, a freckled-faced girl with frizzy red hair. She wore a T-shirt spotted with pencil smudges, orange juice spots, and splatters of paint. A milk mustache decorated her upper lip.
Click click. Click click, went the pen in Lisa’s hand. She kept pressing the button on top. Click click click. The pen’s transmission switch was off, but now that Lisa was a SIT, a Special-In-Training, she practiced the Special Code whenever she could.
“Mrs. Friendly said this code is impossible to break,” she told herself. Click click. Click click. “But it’s also impossible to learn.”
The bus driver climbed onto the bus. He was a large man who wore gray overalls and a San Francisco Giants baseball cap. Once in the driver’s seat, his belly pressed against the steering wheel.
“Where to, teach?” he called to Mrs. Jefferson, who sat in the front seat.
“We’re going to the Pumpkin Patch on County Road Sixteen,” she said.
The driver pulled a handle to close the bus door. He turned the ignition key and revved the engine. “You got it.”
The bus rolled out of the school parking lot. Soon it was winding through the city streets.
From her seat in the second row, Lisa Edwards had a clear view of the bus driver. She studied the back of his head.
“How odd,” she told herself. “The driver has black hair, but a strand of blond hair is hanging from the back of his cap. Why is he wearing a wig?”
The school bus stopped at an intersection and turned right.
Peter Little raised his hand. “We turned wrong, Mr. Bus Driver!” he called out. “The Pumpkin Patch is the other way.”
“Short cut, kid,” the bus driver said. “Now sit still and keep quiet.”
“Something’s wrong,” Lisa said under her breath. “Something is terribly wrong about this field trip.”
The bus left the city. It rolled down a country road and turned onto a narrow dirt road that cut through a cornfield. Out the window was a blur of tall cornstalks.
“No, this isn’t the way to the Pumpkin Patch,” Peter said.
In the rearview mirror, Lisa Edward watched the bus driver. His forehead furrowed, and his lips sneered. His eyes remained on the dirt road.
Slowly, Lisa raised her Special pen. She switched it on.
“I must get the code right the first time,” she said. “There’s only enough power left to send one message.”

2. Room 5

Back at Acorn School, the fifth-grade class was slogging through math. That meant a long hour doing long worksheets of long division problems.
The desks in Room Five were arranged in groups of four. Jessamyn Robbins, Anthony Lane, Sammy Newton, and Naomi Hornsby sat in a group by the window. Miss Monroe, the teacher, called this Group One. The other fifth-graders called it Group Dumb. Everyone knew Jessamyn, Anthony, Sammy, and Naomi went to a “special” class each afternoon.
Anthony Lane filled in the final answer. Then he calmly erased the entire sheet.
Jessamyn leaned toward him. “So how long did it take you to finish today?” she whispered.
“New record,” Anthony said. “Twelve seconds.”
“Isn’t it hard pretending to be slow in math?” Jessamyn asked.
“No harder than how you and Sammy act on the playground. How many times have kids laughed at you for tripping over a jump rope or at Sammy for missing a basketball shot by a mile?”
“Google times infinity,” said Sammy.
“Shhh!” went Miss Monroe from the front of the room. “If Group One needs help, please raise your hands.”
The four ignored her. They were listening to a high-pitched sound coming from far beyond the school grounds.
Dit dit—dit dit dit—dit!
“Special code,” said Anthony.
Dit dit—dit dit dit—dit!
“From Lisa Edwards,” said Naomi, who had the best hearing. “She’s in trouble.”
Dit dit—dit dit dit—dit! Dit dit—dit dit dit—dit!
“Her school bus has been hijacked!”
Dit dit—dit dit dit—dit!
“It’s on a dirt road. Five miles south on County Road Sixteen.”
“Time for some Special action,” said Sammy.
Jessamyn looked toward the teacher. “But how do we get out of this classroom?”
“I’ll handle this,” said Naomi. She looked toward the classroom intercom. Out came the voice of Mrs. Friendly, the special ed teacher.
“Miss Monroe, will you send Jessamyn, Anthony, Samuel, and Naomi to room 3C?”
“OK, Mrs. Friendly,” replied the teacher.
Without waiting to be dismissed, Group One grabbed their backpacks off their chairs and peeled out the classroom door.
“Great impression, Naomi,” said Jessamyn, racing down the hall.
“You’ve got Mrs. Friendly’s voice down pat,” said Anthony.
Jessamyn and Naomi ducked into the Girls’ Room. Anthony and Nathan entered the Boys’ Room. Seconds later, the quartet stood back in the hallway. No longer were they clumsy, awkward, slow, and stuttering fifth-graders, but the Specials—Jump Rope, Spitball, Ace+, and Noise.
Jump Rope, formerly Jessamyn Robbins, wore the red dress of a cowgirl. A red mask hid her eyes. She twirled a lasso above her red cowgirl hat. With a quick flick of her wrist, the rope shot forward. It wrapped around a fire extinguisher on the wall.
Spitball, transformed from Sammy Newton, was dressed in a yellow basketball uniform, a yellow headband, and a yellow mask. He held a short titanium tube to his lips. Two spit wads shot from the tube and struck the X in the exit sign at the far end of the hall.
“Spot marks the X,” he said.
Anthony Lane, alias Ace+, now wore a blue mask, blue overalls, and a blue cap with A+ on the front.
He held up his backpack. “I have all the equipment we’ll need in here,” he said.
Noise, a.k.a. Naomi Hornsby, now wore a brown leotard top and bottom. A brown mask her face.
“Ready, Specials?” she said. “Let’s rescue the kidnapped kids.” When she opened her mouth next, out came a bugle cavalry call.
“Charge!” the Specials cried.

3. Tic, Tac, and Toe

The school bus was parked in the hot sun at the end of the dirt road. In the shade of a large oak tree lay three men. They wore identical outfits: black jeans, and a black T-shirt with OX on the front.
In the rear-view mirror, Lisa Edwards watched the bus driver pull off his baseball cap. Long locks of blond hair spilled out. Finally, the driver ripped off a rubber mask, revealing the face of an attractive, young woman.
The woman turned toward her first-grade passengers. “There’s been a change of plans, kiddies,” she said. “We’ll wait here for a while. Call me Madame Temper. I’m in charge here. As you can see, your teacher is taking a nap. Sleeping power dropped in her morning coffee did the trick.”
Lisa Edwards saw Mrs. Jefferson slumped in the front seat.
The woman opened the school bus doors. The three men in black climbed on. One held a basket.
“Tic, Tac, and Toe! Three in a row!” the driver said. “Remember, boys, my husband wants no one harmed.”
“What’s the sense of kidnapping kids if we don’t ask for any ransom?” asked one man.
“Don’t sweat, Tic. We’re getting something more handsome than ransom,” Madame Temper said. “Did you bring the snacks?”
Toe held up his basket. “Picked these myself.”
The man started down the bus aisle, handing out ears of raw corn to the first-graders. When he came to Lisa Edwards, he pointed to the pen in her hand.
“What d’ya got there?” he asked.
Lisa stuck out her tongue. “As your prisoner, I’ll only state my name, rank, and what cereal I had for breakfast,” she said. “Lisa Edwards…First-grade…Cheerios.”
Toe dropped a cob of corn in Lisa’s lap. “Little whippersnapper,” he grumbled, moving down the aisle. “Never work with children, that’s what I told Tic and Tac. Children mean trouble.”
Lisa returned the pen to her pocket. “Out of power,” she said. “I hope my code reached the school.”

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