The next day at lunch, Arnold was sitting at a table that held enough room for most of the classmates. Helga was also there, but sat next to her best friend, Phoebe. Of course, Helga wanted to stick around to hear Arnold's story about last night.
The cafeteria was crowded with a lot of other kids, but there were several conversations going on at the same time.
"I was told from Grandma when I first arrived home after school. Grandma told me the police wanted to see me immediately. Of course I never was involved with this crime.
Flashback:
Before Gerald's brother arrived that day, Grandma had made Arnold's bed since the sheets were fresh from the dryer. She wanted Arnold to have fresh sheets tonight. After making the bedspread, Grandma thought the bed was feeling a bit strange while putting the sheets on the bed.
So Grandma bent down on her knees to find out why the bed felt strange. She pulled out a red hat that looked like it came from The Place of Hats, the store Arnold was working. Her eyes popped wide when she saw the hate. She wasn't one hundred percent sure if this hat was part of the robbery.
She didn't want to ask Arnold about it right away, so she thought poking around under the bed was not any of her business. A question came to her mind that second. 'Why would Arnold do something like this?' She knew this wasn't true Arnold would rob his own store.
She saw there were other hats under the bed, but didn't give a close look to what colors and shapes they were. She thought the right thing to do was show this evidence to Sheriff Pataki. When she walked down the stairs, she found Grandpa sitting at the kitchen table with Oscar and his wife, Suzie.
"Look what I found under Arnold's bed just now," she told them, putting the red hat on the kitchen table.
"Isn't that one of the hats of Shortman's store?" Grandpa asked with interest in this robbery.
"I'm not sure, but you know that was what I was thinking. It somehow crossed my mind when I pulled it from under the bed."
"Should we ask Shortman about this?"
"I don't want to poke my business like this. I don't want Arnold to know this hat was here."
"She's got a point, Phil," Suzie agreed.
"You're right, Pookie. We'll let Shortman find this on his own," Grandpa agreed.
End Flashback
"When I walked down to the police station, I had no idea Sheriff Pataki was going to accuse me of being guilty about this case. It turned out I was right," he finished.
"Looks like you had a day there, Arnold," Mr. Simmons spoke up.
He had overheard the entire story on what happened yesterday.
Everyone jumped out of their seats in surprise, not knowing their old teacher was standing from behind listening.
"You scared us," Eugene told him.
"I'm sorry, Eugene. I just couldn't help overhearing about what happened," Mr. Simmons said.
"That's all right, Mr. Simmons," Arnold told their teacher.
"And next time, don't scare us like that again," Harold returned.
"I'll try not to do this again," he promised as he left the table.
"Why would Mr. Simmons have to poke his nose where it doesn't belong?" Helga asked.
"He probably does this to be a part of what goes on with us. I think he wants to be a part of this," Arnold replied.
Phoebe nodded in agreement.
"I happen to think Arnold's right. Mr. Simmons doesn't want to be left out on something like this. I think we'll tell him when we have English," Phoebe remarked.
"You have Mr. Simmons after lunch, Harold?" Arnold asked.
"Yeah."
"We'd like you to tell him what we just talked about."
"I guess you're right, Arnold. I'll be sure to tell him."
That's when the lunch bell rang, telling the kids lunch was over. As Arnold and Gerald were walking to their next class, Gerald gave Arnold a piece of loosely paper from his pants pocket.
"What's this?" Arnold asked as he opened it.
"It's your schedule, man. My parents made it out just last night. I thought I'd give it to you today."
"Thanks, Gerald. So I work from after school until five?" he asked as he studied the schedule.
"Right, and you work from nine to one on weekends."
"All right."
