X Marks the Spot Read online

  Jeff Szpirglas & Danielle Saint-Onge

  illustrated by Dave Whamond

  O R C A B O O K P U B L I S H E R S

  Text copyright © 2015 Jeff Szpirglas and Danielle Saint-Onge

  Illustrations copyright © 2015 Dave Whamond

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Szpirglas, Jeff, author

  X marks the spot / Jeff Szpirglas, Danielle Saint-Onge;

  illustrator: Dave Whamond.

  (Orca echoes)

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4598-0791-4 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-4598-0792-1 (pdf).—

  ISBN 978-1-4598-0793-8 (epub)

  I. Whamond, Dave, illustrator II. Saint-Onge, Danielle, author

  III. Title. IV. Series: Orca echoes

  PS8637.Z65X2 2015 jC813'.6 C2014-906693-7

  C2014-906694-5

  First published in the United States, 2015

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952071

  Summary: Leo’s penchant for exploring lands him in trouble at school until he uses his navigation skills on the class field trip to prove he really can be responsible.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Cover artwork and interior illustrations by Dave Whamond

  Author photo by Tim Basile

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO Box 5626, STN. B

  Victoria, BC Canada

  V8R 6S4

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO Box 468

  Custer, WA USA

  98240-0468

  www.orcabook.com

  18 17 16 15 • 4 3 2 1

  For Léo and Ruby

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter One

  Leo loved to explore. He had explored many places with his parents—the ocean, the mountains, even his very creepy basement!

  To Leo, just walking to school each day was a chance for exploring. He liked to find different ways to get there. He would make maps of the streets to remember the way. Then, once he got to school, he would create new and interesting routes around the playground.

  On Tuesday, Leo came in through the front gate and past the kindergarten playground. Then he went behind the portables, where the big kids hung out. He stopped and took out a notebook full of maps. He had made all of them himself. Leo had just started mapping his new path when the first school bell rang.

  Some of the kids started running to their classroom lines. “Hurry up,” a little girl said. “We only have one minute before we are late!”

  Leo put down his map. He saw a pink backpack lying beside the portable. He looked up to see Violet running to her line without her backpack. Violet’s line was way over at the other end of the school. “Violet!” he called out. She did not hear him.

  Leo looked to his own side of the school. The kids in his class were already lining up. Well, not lining up. It was more like a football huddle than a line. The rest of the class lines were straight as arrows. But Leo’s teacher, Mr. Chang, always came to find the class jumping up and down and making gorilla noises. Eli and his friend Larry were the kings of gorilla noises. And toilet sounds.

  Leo took the pink backpack and ran to Violet’s line. Her class was already walking into the school. “Violet, wait! Here’s your backpack.”

  Violet turned around and smiled at Leo. “Thanks,” she said. “But now you’re late for class!”

  Leo turned around. At the other end of the school, Mr. Chang was already leading the class inside.

  “Not again!” Leo said. “I even came early today.”

  Leo ran as fast as he could. He was only a few feet from the door when it closed. He pulled at the door, but it was locked. He banged on the window. Nadia, the last girl in line, looked over and saw him.

  “Let me in!” Leo said through the window.

  Nadia stood there for a moment and smiled. Then she stuck out her tongue at him. She turned around and followed her class inside.

  Leo thunked his head against the window. “Oh, great,” he said. “I have to get a late slip…again!”

  Chapter Two

  The only way to get back into the school was through the main doors. Leo trudged inside and went to the office. The secretary did not look up from her desk. She was busy on the phone.

  “Late again?” she said.

  It took Leo a moment to realize she was talking to him.

  “It was not my fault,” Leo said. “Violet forgot her bag.”

  The secretary handed Leo a late slip. “And last Friday, you tried to rescue a grasshopper from the ants.”

  “They were going to eat it!” Leo said.

  “And the day before that, you had to help Joseph’s puppy across the street.”

  “Right,” Leo said. “He could have been hit by a car.”

  The secretary put the phone down. “Go to class, Leo.”

  She handed him a purple slip that said LATE in big black letters. Leo hung his head and sighed. He walked to class.

  By the time he had hung up his bag, got his homework and walked to the classroom, kids were already on the carpet. Mr. Chang was sitting on his chair, pointing at two boys running around the desks. “It’s circle time!” Mr. Chang said. His face was as purple as Leo’s late slip.

  Mr. Chang saw Leo standing at the door.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Leo said.

  “Where were you?” Mr. Chang said.

  “Violet forgot her bag,” Leo said.

  “I saw Leo running across the field after the bell rang,” Nadia said politely. She said everything very politely. Nothing else she did was very polite.

  Leo frowned.

  An eraser hit the white board behind Mr. Chang. “Boys, sit down now!” he said. Larry and Eli ignored him. Mr. Chang grinned. He reached into a bag sitting by his feet. “You won’t see my surprise if you’re not paying attention.” He pulled out a golden piece of paper from the bag. It had stars all over it.

  Leo’s eyes went wide. “Cool! What is that?”

  “It’s a special award,” Mr. Chang said. “Each month I will give one away for someone who shows good skills. This month, I’m looking for responsibility.”

  “Responsi-what?” Eli asked. Then he bumped into a chair.

  “Responsibility,” Mr. Chang repeated. “Like coming to the carpet quietly and calmly.”

  Larry, Eli’s friend, bumped over the same chair and fell onto Eli. “I like shiny things,” Larry said.

  “I could cut that up to make gold coins for my pirate treasure!” Eli shouted. Eli liked pirates a lot.

  Leo stared at the shiny award in Mr. Chang’s hands. His eyes went as wide as wheels. If only Mr. Chang knew how hard he was trying to be responsible each day. Like when he had saved Violet’s bag.

  “People who are responsible come to class on time, like Nadia,” Mr. Chang said.

  Leo saw that Mr. Chang was looking right at him. Leo lowered his
head. He was responsible. Mr. Chang just never saw it.

  “But enough about the award for now,” Mr. Chang said, leaning forward on his chair. He tried to sound excited, even though three girls at the back were passing notes back and forth. “I have a special project to show how responsible you can be!”

  Leo was the only other one leaning forward, because he saw what Mr. Chang was holding in his hand.

  It was a map!

  Chapter Three

  Leo couldn’t hold in his excitement. “What a cool map!” he shouted.

  Mr. Chang stopped. “Please raise your hand if you want to share,” he reminded Leo. Mr. Chang did not like shout-outs.

  Leo nodded. He had to show he was responsible. He raised his hand.

  Mr. Chang sighed. “Yes, Leo?”

  “What a cool map!” Leo shouted.

  Mr. Chang sighed again. He started to unfold a giant map, but one end flopped onto Justin’s head. “Could I get some helpers?” Mr. Chang asked.

  Leo raised his hand, but Mr. Chang chose Nadia and her friend Mai instead.

  As the girls unfolded the map, Leo’s heart raced. It was a map of the whole school. It was as long as Leo was tall. It was the biggest map he had ever seen!

  “This is a blueprint of the school,” Mr. Chang said. “I borrowed it from the caretakers. I told them I would be very responsible and take good care of it.”

  “Then why is Larry chewing on the corner of it?” Nadia asked.

  Mr. Chang’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Larry! Enough with the paper!”

  “But it’s so blue,” Larry said.

  “It looks like a pirate map!” Eli said. “Where’s the treasure?”

  Mr. Chang pulled the blueprint away from Larry. “It’s not a treasure map, Eli. Look, it shows us all of the rooms in the school.”

  “Even the girls’ bathroom!” Larry said. Then the rest of the kids started laughing.

  Leo stared at the map. There were numbers on the sides that showed how large the hall was. They also showed the measurements of all the rooms in the school. He had no idea there were so many rooms. He edged closer to take a better look.

  His hands fell over the map. He traced the outline of their classroom with his fingertip.

  Then Leo stood up and went to his desk. He kept his map notebook inside. He pulled it out. He had already started to make his own map of the school, but he did not have enough time to visit every classroom. He could use this map to finish his own.

  “Leo,” Mr. Chang said, “it’s circle time, remember?”

  Leo tried to explain about his map book. “But—”

  “Responsible students ask before getting up during a lesson,” Nadia said quietly so that only Leo could hear.

  Leo’s eyes went from the map to the shining gold award.

  Mr. Chang began to fold up the blueprint. “The special project is that you are going to make a map...of our classroom!”

  “Wow!” Leo shouted.

  “Bo-ring,” said Justin.

  Mr. Chang just kept talking. “We will make maps with partners. I have already chosen a partner for each of you.” Mr. Chang read through the list. Leo waited and waited. Would he get stuck with Eli? Or Larry? Maybe he could work on his own.

  Mr. Chang had almost gone through the whole class list when Leo heard Mr. Chang say, “Leo, you can work with Nadia. I’m sure you will both be responsible.”

  Leo’s heart sank. He looked over to Nadia. She folded her arms across her chest and stuck out her tongue.

  But Mr. Chang was too busy to see that.

  Chapter Four

  “There’s just one more thing,” Mr. Chang said. “It’s the really special part of this project.”

  “Great. I bet there’s a map test tomorrow,” Eli huffed.

  “You’ll be tested,” Mr. Chang said. “But not in class. We’re going to use our mapping skills on a field trip in a few weeks.”

  “A FIELD TRIP!” twenty voices hooted at once.

  Mr. Chang seemed pleased at this. He waited for the class to calm down. It took a minute or three.

  “What field trip?” Justin asked. “Are we going to that stinky farm again?”

  “No farms, Justin. We are going to explore the woods with an expert guide. So you need to take this seriously. I’m putting twenty minutes on the clock.” Mr. Chang got up from his chair and walked to his desk. There was a little clock sitting on the edge. He turned a dial on it and a little sliver of red was shown. The clock was a special timer that counted down the minutes.

  Leo nodded. This was the greatest news he could have ever heard at school. A mapping field trip? In the woods? He could even bring his super-duper compass! There was just one problem…

  “Oh great, I’m stuck with La-La-Land Leo,” Nadia said.

  Leo sighed. Nadia was not his first choice for a partner. But he knew he could map the class with his eyes closed. “Let’s get started,” he said.

  Leo went to the front desk and got a big piece of paper. Nadia was supposed to get a pencil and ruler, but instead she went over to her friend’s desk and got a colored marker. She started to draw a puppet on her hand. Leo thought about telling Mr. Chang that Nadia was not a responsible partner. But Mr. Chang was too busy trying to unfold the paper airplane that Eli was making.

  Leo looked back at Mr. Chang’s timer. He tried to call Nadia over to his desk to start.

  Nadia held up her colored hand and made it talk in a silly voice. “No, La-La Leo. You come over heeeeere!”

  Leo shrugged. “Fine.” He took the paper, went and got a pencil and ruler, then joined Nadia at her desk.

  She had opened a doodle book and was using the marker to make pictures of cats. “Don’t you think these are great?”

  Leo stared back at the timer. “We have used up three minutes already,” he said. “I bet we can get this done in two minutes. There’s a window over there, Mr. C’s desk over there. And the carpet. What else is there to map?”

  Leo searched the room. He could see the whiteboard, the desks and the computer. There was also the filing cabinet with Mr. Chang’s globe on top. He laid down the paper and started to draw them out.

  Nadia saw what Leo was doing and put her doodle book away. “Pencil is so boring,” she said. She grabbed the paper from Leo’s hand and wrote MY MAP on it in giant letters with her marker.

  “You used up half the space!” Leo grumbled.

  Nadia smiled. “It’s a small classroom.”

  Leo could feel his face getting warm. All he wanted to do was show Mr. Chang what a great map he could make. Now the project was ruined!

  He stormed away from Nadia and took the washroom pass from Mr. Chang’s desk. He put it on his desk, then took another big piece of paper. First he needed a break. Then he would show Mr. Chang what he could do by himself!

  Chapter Five

  Leo left the classroom and headed toward the boys’ washroom. A bright orange pylon blocked the way. A voice called from inside, “The washroom is closed.” It was Mrs. Banks, the school caretaker. “Please use the junior washroom upstairs.”

  Leo’s eyes went wide. The upstairs washroom? That was where the big kids went! Leo was sure he would get bonus marks for effort if he could put the upstairs washroom on his map. But could he be back in class before the timer ran out?

  Leo peeked back into the classroom. Mr. Chang was busy watching the rest of the class make their maps. And the timer still had a big slice of red on it. No problem! He would be superfast.

  He took the stairs two at a time and finally made it to the second floor. His face was red and he was out of breath. But he had made it!

  Leo looked all around. What a cool place! There were no coat hooks, only lockers. A few kids wandered the halls, listening to music on headphones. On one side of the hall, a display case showed shiny trophies and track-and-field medals. Leo spied a large mural covering one wall. It was painted with animals from around the world. There were zebras, hippos, owls and even a king cobra.
>
  The primary hall only had little pictures of bunnies and some finger paintings. Sheesh. His grade really needed some better art.

  Leo sat down. He added the mural and lockers to his map. He drew the cobra just the way it looked in the mural.

  Bang! Leo jumped.

  What was that noise? And what was that funny smell? It wasn’t coming from the washroom. It came from somewhere down the hall.

  Leo got up and followed the stinky smell. He found a classroom and looked through the open door.

  Inside, older students were wearing goggles. At the front of the room stood a teacher in a white coat. He was holding test tubes full of bubbling blue liquid. He mixed them together. There was a puff of smoke and another loud bang. A smell like rotten eggs filled Leo’s nose.

  “Ewww!” a voice called out behind him.

  Leo turned around. Eli was standing there.

  “What are you doing here? The washroom pass is on my desk.”

  “It was on your desk,” Eli said. “I got tired of waiting.” He looked into the science lab. “This place is coooooool!”

  Leo saw a clock on the wall. He gulped. There wasn’t much time left. He began to walk back to the stairs. “Come on, Eli. Mr. Chang will wonder where we are.”

  But something caught Eli’s eye. “Check that out!” he said and pulled Leo over to him.

  Eli pointed to an art classroom across the hall. Students were sculpting large creatures out of clay. “Wow! They have a whole art room upstairs,” Eli said. “I bet they don’t even use crayons. Or eat them.”

  Then Eli stepped into the room. “Check out this bucket of clay. We could totally make pirate-ship models from that clay!”

  All eyes in the room turned to Eli.

  “What are you doing here?” Mr. Ross, the art teacher, asked.

  “Going to the washroom,” Eli said. “What does it look like?”