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they fit together. Keisha wondered where they came from. They were all different sizes and shapes: angled ones that looked like a set of stairs, long thin ones and blocky pieces.
    Big Bob let the group hear from all the Wild 4-Evers who wanted to tell their squirrel stories. After they were done, he said: “I understand that Mr. Drockmore has been teaching you about if-then hypotheses in science lab. I’m wondering if we could make some hypotheses about what is happening at Mt. Mercy.”
    “
If
you feed squirrels,” Zack said, jumping up to sit on the back of the couch, “
then
they come back.”
    “Yeah.” Zeke jumped on the back of the couch, too, to show his agreement.
    “How about:
If
you are outside and you havefood,
then
you’ll see squirrels,” Aaliyah suggested.
    Grandma raised her hand. “May I add something?”
    Big Bob held his hand up for quiet. “Alice Carter has the floor.”
    Grandma made her way to the front of the room. She squared her shoulders.
    Keisha and Wen had an eye giggle. “It’s Grandma Professor time,” Wen whispered.
    Grandma cleared her throat. She was waiting for Perfect Hear-a-Pin-Drop Quiet. The Wild 4-Evers became a little less wild. All this had to be over before they could get to cinnamon twist time.
    “In my long association with the squirrel community, I have found that squirrels enjoy a narrow band of activities. They include chattering, chasing, burrowing, burying, gnawing, nibbling and, last but not least, napping. The most frequent of these is gnawing and nibbling on nuts, seeds, berries and, yes, grill grease, or to put it more accurately—our trash.”
    Grandma rubbed her hands together. She was just getting started, and Keisha knew that when it came to animals, she had a lot to say. Zeke and Zack slid down the couch back until their heads rested on the cushions. It might be boring, but they knew not to interrupt Grandma when she was on a roll.
    Unless you were Keisha. Aaliyah reached forwardand tapped her on the shoulder. “I’ll give you a box of Lemonheads if you save us from a Grandma Professor lecture,” she whispered.
    Keisha loved Lemonheads. Whenever they went to Charley’s candy store, she picked up a box of Lemonheads and sometimes Pixy Stix and sometimes SweeTarts. But
always
Lemonheads. She raised her hand. “Can I talk again, Grandma?”
    “If you come up here with me,” Grandma said.
    Keisha shuffled up to the front of the room. Grandma pushed her forward a little but kept her hands on Keisha’s shoulders. “Um, they probably will never get rid of all the squirrels because they have so many trees at Mt. Mercy. The biggest problem is squirrels acting crazy around the administration building. But they’re not going to cut down the trees, so …” Keisha glanced out at all the kids. Looking at them looking at her made her decide to keep studying the floor for a while. “My if-then would be … 
If
there are lots of trees around the building
and
that means a lot of squirrels,
then
you just have to make sure they can’t get into the building and find a way to live in peace.”
    “I vote for peace!” Big Bob said.
    “Since there are trees all over campus,” Keisha continued, thinking out loud, “I wonder why the administration building is the only one they complain about atMt. Mercy. According to what Daddy says, ‘
If
squirrels are crawling all over a building,
then
there is food involved.’ ”
    “Yes!” Grandma squeezed Keisha’s shoulders. “To test this hypothesis, we must conduct a thorough search around the administration building for squirrel-friendly food. Like in Dumpsters and such.”
    “Like cinnamon twists!” Razi shouted. “We better eat them before the squirrels find them.”

Chapter 5
    The next day after jump rope practice, Keisha and Savannah stood just inside the school doors watching for their rides. Savannah had asked Keisha if she could watch jump rope practice. They didn’t have a team in Montgomery