Super Puzzletastic Mysteries by Chris Grabenstein

Author:Chris Grabenstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

Puzzling It Out

by Eileen Rendahl

The numbers danced in front of Jeremy’s eyes. He threw his pencil down. “I can’t do this.” He shoved his chair back, making a screeching noise. Everyone else in the room stared at him.

Ms. Sullivan looked up from her desk. “What’s the problem, Jeremy?” Her warm brown eyes focused in on him as if he was the only person in the room. It was part of why he liked Puzzle Club. He felt appreciated here, valued. There weren’t many places a seventh grader could feel like that.

“I can’t do this.”

Puzzle Club had been Ms. Sullivan’s brainchild. She was new to Darbyville Junior High, like Jeremy was. Like everything seemed to be nowadays—new and unfamiliar and frustrating.

“How far did you get?” Ms. Sullivan walked over to Jeremy and looked over his shoulder at his paper.

Jeremy looked down at the scribbled and crossed-out numbers. “Not far.”

Chloe Romero walked over, too, copper curls bouncing like springs. “You’re making it more complicated than it has to be. Break it into parts and it gets simple again.”

“I don’t understand.” He crossed his arms over his chest, unwilling to look at the stupid squares again. “All I see is a bunch of numbers that could add up to anything.”

“You have to train your brain to see patterns in numbers. Did you find the magic constant?” Ms. Sullivan asked.

“Yes.” The magic constant was the number everything was supposed to add up to. That he’d figured out, but only because Chloe had told him how. “I added all the numbers up, then divided that number by the number of rows.” One plus two plus three plus four plus five plus six plus seven plus eight plus nine equaled forty-five. Divide that by three and you got fifteen. He hadn’t known what to do next, though. There were lots of combinations that could add up to fifteen, but which one was he supposed to put where and why?

“Let me show you a trick to use with magic squares that have an odd number of boxes.” Ms. Sullivan took his pencil and wrote the numbers one through nine in a row. “Which one is the middle number?”

“Five.” Did she think he was stupid? Anyone could see that.

“Put the five in the middle box.” She handed the pencil back to him.

He did. “What do I do now?” He sounded a little angrier than he’d meant to. He was frustrated, though, and he hated to be frustrated. Like really, really hated it.

“What do you have to add to five to make fifteen?” she asked.

“Ten.” Duh.

“Find different combinations that add up to ten and arrange them around the five.” She stepped back. “Remember, you can only use each number once.”

Jeremy made a list. One plus nine. Two plus eight. Three plus seven. Four plus six. The pattern began to emerge. He plugged numbers into different squares. After a few false starts, he ended up with:

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