Graffiti (Von Anton Kustsinski - Adobe Stock)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Author Caden Polzer is a fifth-grade student at Vogelweh Elementary School in Germany. Click here to find out how students can submit their own story for publication.
Welcome to the uneventful town of Sallerville.
I go to Sallerville Crickets Elementary School. Our principal, Ms. Shady, made the school mascot a cricket, which is a terrible mascot!
My best friend’s name is Cody Belle; he’s a great guy. I’m David and I want to be a detective when I grow up. Usually, our town is pretty quiet and boring, but not today.
The day started out normal with Dad driving me to school in his yellow BMW SUV. The school drop-off line was long and looked like a snake as usual. I opened the skylight window to let the light and wind flood in. When I finally got into school, I sprinted up the stairs and into our dingy school like normal. My classroom is 307 and my teacher, Mr. Parker, was behind his desk grading papers again. I was a little early, so I finished some schoolwork.
Kids in school classroom (Von klyaksun - Adobe Stock)
Finally, Cody came!
“Hey bro,’’ I said.
“Hi,” he said back.
Our first subject is always math, and then we have recess. During recess, I accidentally bumped into someone at soccer. It was just an accident, but people said it was on purpose, so I went to the principal’s office. This was my first time in the principal’s office, so I was surprised by the smells of cookies and biscuits wafting through the air and into my nose.
If this is what it’s like to be a principal, it could be a career for me, I thought to myself.
“Sit down,” the principal said in her cold, deep voice. “I heard you purposely hurt someone during recess today,” she said.
“I didn’t…,” I pleaded, but I knew it was pointless.
“HUSH!!” she shouted.
But you’re being very loud, I thought.
Behind the principal. I noticed something glinting in the office. As she dismissed me with a pink detention slip in my hand, I snapped a picture of the glinting object with my phone. (Luckily, she didn’t catch me having my phone out in school).
As I zoomed in and focused on the object, it looked like a can of spray paint!
School Principal Office (Von klyaksun - Adobe Stock)
After school, I buckled my overcoat in the cold, crisp afternoon air. Then, I put on my neon green helmet and got on my bike. I started pedaling down towards Cody’s house. I was so excited to tell him about what I saw in the principal’s office.
As I stepped into his warm house, it felt really comforting. His mom gave us cookies and we sprinted up to his room. When we discussed the spray paint I found in the principal’s office, we concluded that if there’s new graffiti on a wall in town, I should tell the police about what I saw in her office.
I expected nothing out of the ordinary in our boring town, but sometimes you can’t predict the future.
The next day started the same until I noticed some yellow caution tape near the school. On one of the school walls, there was a huge, new graffiti mural. The police were there questioning everyone because it is a crime and the person who did it would owe a $2,000 fine.
Police Officer with a child (Von flatvectors - Adobe Stock)
I knew who might have done it, so I told the police they should check the principal’s office. When the paint in her office was a match with the paint on the mural, Mrs. Shady lost her job.
We got a new principal named Mr. Light. Now everyone at school thinks I was an amazing detective. And since I solved the crime, I got to pick the new school mascot. I chose a shark because sharks beat crickets all the way!
