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“What? Why?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. There are twelve objects . . . so maybe we have to take a letter from each one to spell out something?”

“How?” Winston asked.

“Beats me. I’m just throwing out stuff for you to use.”

Winston sighed. This was the frustrating part, waiting for an idea to come from some magical place within the brain. Right now all he could think to do was stare at the Sun Wheel, rotating around.

The girls showed up a few minutes later. Bethany arrived first. She was gazing up at the Ferris wheel, unaware she had come to a stop right next to Winston, who wondered whether or not he should say something. Before he could decide, Bethany turned and saw him. She glanced up to see Mal and Jake as well. Winston might have said something at that point—though heaven knew what—but Bethany abruptly turned her back and stalked away. Her friends Elvie and Giselle came up right then, saw Bethany marching away, and ran to catch up.

Last to arrive was their teacher, Miss Norris. She came running up, as frazzled as ever. She was out of breath. “Girls, please,” she called, between pants, “it’s very crowded here, and I don’t want to lose you—”

“We said where we were going,” Bethany called back, disappearing from view around the side of the ride. Miss Norris was definitely not in charge of her team—certainly not in the same whip-cracking way that Mr. Garvey was.

Mr. Garvey caught Winston staring and gave him a light shake, as if to literally rattle Bethany and the girls out of his head. Winston, abashed, turned back to the Ferris wheel.

How could they get an answer word out of this bunch of pictures?

“Does this park have a stage?” Mal asked.

“I think it does,” Winston said. “Why?”

“Well, there’s a picture of a stage. Maybe it’s a clue that we should go there.”

“There’s a picture of a rhinoceros, too,” said Jake. “You think this park has one of those?”

A few minutes later, Mr. Garvey said, “A lot of teams here now. At least we’re back in the thick of it.” He kept looking over at Rod Denham’s team to see how they were faring. Lincoln Junior High looked truly stuck, which would have been something to celebrate, except that Winston and his team weren’t doing too well, either. There were several other teams gazing up at the Ferris wheel, mouths slightly agape, unable to make sense of what they were seeing. They all looked like victims of the same wizard’s hypnotism spell.

“Maybe there’s more to the puzzle somewhere,” Mal said.

“Where?” asked their teacher.

“The other side of the wheel, maybe? There could be pictures on both sides.”

Mr. Garvey looked at Mal with some surprise. “You might be right. Go and see.”

“Can I go, too?” Jake asked quickly.

“And me?” Winston said. The three of them looked up at their teacher with pleading eyes. They may as well have said, “We really need to get away from you for a few minutes.”

Mr. Garvey got the message and agreed. The boys tried not to appear too giddy as they left Mr. Garvey behind, but they all felt some relief as they walked away.

“I’m glad I’m only average at math,” Jake said. “I’ll never have him as a teacher.”

“He just wants to beat that rival team,” Mal said. “You should hear some of the things you say right before your baseball team plays Maplewood.”

“That’s different,” Jake said.

“If you say so,” Mal replied, shrugging.

Speaking of the rival team, the three of them walked past Rod Denham and the trio from Lincoln Junior High. They stopped talking as Winston and his friends drew close, and watched them pass with expressions of cool hostility, as if Winston was trying to eavesdrop or something.

“Everybody’s so friendly around here,” Mal said so the Lincoln kids could hear. “I am definitely inviting those guys to my birthday party.”

The other side of the Ferris wheel looked no different—each picture had been painted on both sides of its car. So that was a bust; they had learned nothing new. They stopped nonetheless and looked up at the Ferris wheel from this new vantage point.

“Any idea what this is?” Mal asked.

Winston