Keep Friends Close, Emeralds Closer by Hope McLean

Author:Hope McLean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Eli’s heart pounded as the third-period bell rang. He quickly made his way down the hallways of Atkinson Prep. He had told his math teacher, Mr. Hardaway, that he was supposed to help Coach Peters with something, and he’d be late for class. It was a lie, but Eli knew that Mr. Hardaway and Coach Peters almost never talked. So Eli would probably be safe — if he hurried.

It felt weird to lie and sneak around, but exciting at the same time. And figuring out the plan hadn’t been easy. First, he had to get the GPS from Jasmine and make sure it was working. On Monday and Tuesday, he’d watched Ryan as closely as he could without looking suspicious. Eli kept a careful list of everything Ryan wore and carried with him.

At first, placing it somewhere on Ryan’s school uniform seemed like a good idea, until Eli realized that Ryan didn’t wear the uniform out of school, when he’d be most likely to try to steal the emerald. Then Eli thought about putting the GPS in Ryan’s shoes, but he might change those, too. Ryan’s watch would have been perfect, because he almost never took it off. But the device was about an inch by an inch square — too big to effectively hide in a watch.

Finally, Eli figured it out. He didn’t know why it took him so long to notice it, but after several days of reconnaissance, it became clear to Eli that Ryan was basically addicted to his new mini tablet device. He had the latest high-tech model, and he used it to go on Chatter, play games, and watch videos between classes. Tablets weren’t allowed in school but none of the teachers stopped Ryan, because of his uncle. Nobody wanted to get chewed out by Arthur Atkinson.

Even better, Ryan had a thick, black protective case for his tablet, the kind that kept it from shattering if you dropped it. Eli went to the local tech store and examined a case just like Ryan’s. If he could get the plastic open, there would be just enough room to slide in the GPS.

And now it was Friday, and Eli had just one chance to put Operation Emerald into action. Eli had noticed that the only time Ryan’s tablet wasn’t locked up was during gym class, when Ryan stuffed all of his belongings into an open cubbyhole in the locker room.

Eli stopped outside the locker room door and leaned against the wall. Inside, he could hear the boys talking and laughing loudly as they changed for gym. He nervously glanced up and down the hall. When the noise subsided, he slowly opened the door and peeked in.

Thankfully, the locker room was empty. He swiftly made his way to the cubbyholes. Though Eli had seen Ryan bring the tablet into the locker room with him throughout the week, he had never followed him in. Now he had to dig through the cubbyholes until he found it.

He struck gold in the sixth cubby he checked.

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