To say Martin was nervous is an understatement. He was bordering on terrified!
"It's really not as bad as it sounds, Mr. Spelling." Mrs. Montero, the Principle of PS-124 said.
Martin stood just outside the door of one of the kindergarten classrooms. From all the noise coming through the door, he could have sworn there was a massive brawl going on in there.
When Martin didn't move to enter, Mrs. Montero took it upon herself to open the door and slightly push the nervous undercover FBI agent inside.
Once fully into the classroom, Martin could see toys of all sorts littering the floor and tables. On one of those tables was a small boy pretending to be King Kong, flinging around a toy airplane. There was even a little girl sleeping in the far corner of the room, curled up on the carpet that looked like a clock. It was total chaos!
"Settle down! Find your seats, everyone!" Mrs. Montero kindly ordered the children.
To Martins amazement, every child stopped what they were currently doing and after a slight pause went to their individual assigned seats.
"Children this is your substitute teacher, Mr. Spelling. He'll be with you until Mr. Timberpin returns, okay? What do you say?"
"Hello, Mr. Spelling!" The class called all at once.
Martin was a little unsettled with all twenty five pairs of eyes staring at him. "Hello."
"You'll do fine, Mr. Spelling." Mrs. Montero assured him. "Take the attendance, and have it sent down to the office. The curriculum is in the green folder on your desk. Have a good day." She smiled, like she knew it would not be a good day for the agent. Martin watched her fully leave the classroom before turning around to find twenty five pairs of eyes still watching his every move.
Martin moved over to the neat and clutter free desk, where he found the thick green folder and attendance sheet.
"Good morning. I'm going to take the attendance now." Martin said as if he wasn't sure the young crowd would understand what he was saying.
A little girl from the front row of tables raised her hand and started waving it around to catch her substitute teacher's attention.
"Yes?" Martin asked.
"Mr. Timberpin usually lets one of us take attendance." The hyper little girl said.
"Okay then. Would you like to do it today?" Martin asked.
"Yes!" The little girl said, jumping from her seat and skipping to the front of the classroom. "My name is Molly by the way."
"Hello Molly."
Martin was slowly starting to lose his nervousness. He could do this! It seems really easy to keep them happy. Now all he had to do was figure out how to keep them all happy, all day. Now that could get tricky.
"Molly Adler! That's me." Molly called. "Bobby Clay?" She called receiving a hyper 'Here'. "Daniel Elmhurst?"
Martin immediately started to search the crowd. He never thought he would see Daniel again. It could also be very bad for the case if Daniel recognized him and blew his cover.
Molly received a quiet 'here' from the back of the room. Martin could see Daniel now as Molly continued to call out names, that Martin didn't bother putting faces to. Daniel sat by himself at the last table in the back and Martin was pretty sure he was wearing the same set of clothes that he had been wearing the last time Martin saw him.
Martin had to focus of the current case. There was a man missing with a great possibility that he was still alive. As much as he wanted to talk to Daniel, he had to keep his cover.
"Mr. Spelling? Everyone is here! Can I take the attendance down to the office? PLEASE!" Molly whined.
"Sure Molly." Martin answered, distractedly.
Molly picked another little girl to go with her while Martin opened the green folder in front of him. Inside he found a study plan Mark Timberpin must have made up for the semester. It looked like this week the children were learning about farm animals, very important in the city. Most of these kids will probably never see a cow or chicken outside of the supermarket. Today's instructions told Martin that the kids are supposed to draw a picture of a horse. Today was going to be a long one.
After school ended, Danny went back to the office with the little information he had found. One thing he found out was that teachers and janitors are not in the same social class. There was a couple teachers that spent the better part of their lunch break ridiculing Danny, or James Jones which was his undercover name. Danny hoped they solved this case soon before he blew his cover, and beat the crap out of some disrespectful people that are supposed to show an example to kids.
When Danny entered the bull pen, Vivian was already there looking neat and professional as she always did. Going undercover as a teacher or assistant principle didn't call for a wardrobe change.
"Nice outfit, Danny." Vivian teased.
Danny whipped around an gave her one of his 'Don't mess with me' looks.
"Sorry." Viv apologized, giving Danny a small smile.
"It's alright Viv. I've just been hearing it all day. It is ridicules how immature grown men can be. I've been ridiculed all day. The only thing I found out today was who the adult class clowns are."
"Well, that's something. It gives us a personality profile on a few of the teachers." Sam said, joining them in the bull pen.
"I have the names and addresses of every employee at PS-124." Vivian said, handing a large folder to Sam.
"And I have all the names and addresses of every student and parent in 's class." Martin said, entering the pen and also handing a not so thick folder to Sam.
"How was your day, Martin?" Danny asked, genuinely curious.
Martin sat down next to Danny and let out a long sigh. "Not too bad. The kids were actually well behaved. They drew pictures all day." Martin said, holding up a stack of horse drawings.
"Now you get homework?" Danny said, with a smile.
"Yep, one gold star for every participant." Martin answered sullenly.
"What's wrong?" Vivian asked this time.
"Every child participated today, except for one. Daniel Elmhurst."
"Did he recognize you?" Jack asked, entering the pen.
"No. I don't think so. He sat by himself all day and when I brought the kids to recess, he sat by himself on the benches. He doesn't look good, either." Martin told his team.
"Well, if he hasn't identified you than he's not a threat to your cover. Daniel isn't our main priority right now, Mark Timberpin is. Tell me what you found." Jack ordered.