Bob drove me back to the school. "Thanks for the ride," I said to him before he drove away. I walked up to my dorm room where I ran into Zoe crossing the bridge.

"Hey," she said. "I was just going down for lunch. Come on." I followed her back down and into the dining hall. There were round tables with eight seats at each one. Luscious food was piled high on each table.

"Is it like this everyday?" I asked hopefully.

"No just today. The day before classes is the best," Zoe said sitting down at the nearest table. I joined her and grabbed turkey, gravy, grapes, brownies, beans, asparagus, a parfait, and lemonade. It was a feast and I ate all of it. The plates on our table were scraped clean. I walked slowly back up to my dorm with Zoe and a full stomach.

"Boy," I said to Zoe flopping down on my bed. "I cannot eat like that again."

"Just wait until dinner," Zoe said.

"What do you know about Professor Mueller?" I blurted out.

"Nice guy. Great professor. Why?" Zoe asked.

"Oh I don't know. I've heard a lot of people talk about him, different opinions," I said clasping my fingers together. Zoe nodded slowly.

"Where can I find him?" I asked.

"You can try his classroom," Zoe said. "His classroom is on the fourth floor, on the left, in the Mockingbird Building."

"Thanks Zoe. I'll see you later," I said grabbing my backpack.

I scurried up two flights of stairs and across the left rope bridge. I slowed down when I got near the Mockingbird building. I arrived at a wooden door that had the name Professor Mueller on it. Below that was the number 491. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Come in," a deep voice said. I walked into the classroom. A man in a dark suit had his back to me and was leaning on a desk. A black cat was basking in the sun on a windowsill.

The man turned around. He was tall, taller than most basketball players, and had light blond hair.

"Hi," I said after taking a couple of seconds to take everything in. "I'm Laura Peck. I'm a freshman and I'm in your third period Creative Writing class."

"Ah," Professor Mueller said. "I look forward to seeing you in my class.

"I, uh, see you have a cat. What's it's name?" I asked looking at the yawning black cat.

"Washington Irving," Professor Mueller said. "I named him after the man who wrote "Sleepy Hollow". Black cats like my Washington are usually symbols of Halloween."

"Oh," I said examining the room. There were hard wooden seats, windows lined left wall, and books were scattered everywhere.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Professor Mueller asked.

"Well actually I heard that you're close friends with Martin Greenbranch," I said quizzly. Mueller chuckled. "Yes I guess you could say that."

"What can you tell me about him?" I asked.

"Heh. Not much to say, just that he is a genius when it come to a paintbrush," Professor Mueller answered. "I don't buy any of his work though. It's too ghastly for me."

"Uh Sebastian Gunderman supposedly hid some paintings her and people say his cat is guarding it and abducting anyone who he thinks poses as a threat to finding that artwork. Do you believe that?" I asked.

"I never really gave it much thought. I don't really know too much about it so I can't say that I do believe that story or not. Why do you want to know anyway?" he said suspiciously. I made a mental note that he is good at answering questions.

"Just curious," I responded quickly. "I heard some kids talking about it over lunch and just wanted to know the different opinions."

"Ah," Professor Mueller said. I couldn't tell if he was buying my story or not. Just to be safe, I changed the subject.

"Wherever did you get Washington Irving?" I asked.

"He was here when the school opened and just seemed to like me," Mueller boasted. "He won't go anywhere near the other teachers."

"Thank you for your time. I'll see you in class," I said turning to leave.

I walked slowly back to my dorm. Zoe was sitting at her desk writing her story. I sat down on my bed. So far my suspects were Zoe, John, Martin Greenbranch, and Professor Mueller. The only person against the school is Martin. Zoe might go to the extreme to get her contract broken. John seems to like it here at the school and has no intention of stealing or shutting it down that I can tell of, and Professor Mueller would lose his job if the school shut down.

The was nothing left to do. Except... find that missing girl. There could be a secret passageway here which just might lead to the students. The only problem is this school is too big to go knocking on every floorboard. I would have to do a little research on Buckthorn Academy.

"Zoe!" I exclaimed breaking away from my train of thought. "Where is the library in this school?"

"Third floor. You go to the left and the whole side is the library," Zoe said, surprised by my sudden outburst.

"Great, thanks Zoe," I said grabbing my backpack. I zoomed up towards the library. It was practically empty. There were at two kids in the circular room, counting me. Books went from the ground all the way up to touch the ceiling. There were many ladders to climb up to reach books, and there were at least ten computers in the middle of the room.

I got on to one computer and typed in Buckthorn Academy of Creative Writing. I went to five different websites. Not one website said anything about sebastian Gunderman building anything that could keep kids hidden. I finally ended up searching Sebastian Gunderman. It seemed that his bedroom was what is now in the Mockingbird building, in room number 491.

If there is a secret passageway, I thought, my first place to look will be Professor Mueller's classroom, classroom 491.