The Potato Chip Puzzles_ The Puzzling World of Winston Breen - Eric Berlin [11]
Winston wished again that he had been able to choose the team’s chaperone. And he supposed that Mr. Garvey still wished he could have chosen his own team. Well, they’d all have to find a way to work together.
Mr. Garvey pulled in at eight twenty-five. The three boys and Winston’s father filed onto the porch to meet him. “And here’s my team,” said Mr. Garvey, smiling as he got out of his car. There were hellos all around. Mr. Garvey and Nathan Breen shook hands. The two men made a minute’s worth of small talk. If Mr. Garvey was still upset at Winston’s insistence on including Mal and Jake, he kept it well hidden.
“Shotgun!” Mal called, so he took the passenger seat while Winston and Jake got in the back. There was a small cargo area behind them, holding a baby seat (it was always strange to be reminded that teachers had families of their own), a couple of grocery bags containing snacks, and a small cooler.
“What’s with the food?” asked Jake as Mr. Garvey got into the driver’s seat.
“Ah,” said Mr. Garvey, starting the car. “That’s called thinking ahead. I’m guessing this is going to be an all-day affair, so I’ve loaded up on supplies. If we don’t have to stop for food, we’ll have that much more of an edge on our competition.”
“Do you have a Porta Potti back there?” Mal asked.
Mr. Garvey gave Mal a sideways look. “We might take a little break now and again, if need be,” he said. “Here,” he continued, handing Mal a piece of paper. “You just volunteered to be the team navigator.”
“I did?” said Mal. “Oh. I did.” He took the paper and unfolded it. It was a map. “Okay,” he said. “Step one: Leave the driveway.”
Mr. Garvey did as he was told. As they drove along, Mr. Garvey said, “Let me explain a few things about how today is going to work.” Winston already didn’t like the sound of that. The teacher continued, “I know you all think summer vacation has started. As far as I’m concerned, however, today is a school day. This is a field trip, and I’m the guy in charge. All right?”
“All right,” said Winston. He and Jake shared a bemused look.
“I told Winston a couple of days ago, and I’ll tell you two right now: We’re here to win. And if you boys stay serious and focused, and if you listen to me and do what I say, we will win.” Mr. Garvey drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I hope we have fun today, don’t get me wrong. But our first priority is not to have fun. What did I just say?”
Mal said, with a tone of disbelief, “We’re not supposed to have fun.”
“You can have fun,” Mr. Garvey corrected him. “Of course you can have fun. But that is not the main reason we are here. We are here to get these puzzles solved. We’re going to do it quickly, we’re going to do it efficiently. That . . . that is what we’re here to do.”
As pep talks went, this was more alarming than inspiring. Sure, Winston wanted to win, but he was troubled by Mr. Garvey’s fervor, and he was sure that Mal and Jake were, too.
Mr. Garvey seemed to sense that. He said, “Jake, I’m sure your baseball coach says something like that before every game. Right?”
“Something like that,” Jake said. He made a face at Winston that said, “Not even close.”
The math teacher wanted to close the subject. He said, “All right. Let’s warm up our brains a little. Winston, do you have any puzzles for us?”
Winston looked around. They were coming up to a red light near a small row of stores. He studied the stores for a few moments and said, “You see that store where you can buy kitchen stuff ?”
“Yeah,” Jake said.
“You might go there if you wanted to buy a PLATE.”
“Okay. . . .”
Winston continued, “You can add a letter to the word PLATE and then scramble all the letters. You’ll wind up with something you can buy in the art supply store right next door. Then you can add a letter to that word, scramble the letters again, and get something you can buy in the office supply store. Then you can do it one more time—take the