"But Buckingham isout!" Anna exclaimed, and this got my attention.

I'm sure I stared at her for asecond or two before saying, "Professor Buckingham is still here,Anna," not adding that I'd spent half the morning coaxing Onyx, her cat,down from the top shelf of the staff library. "That's got to be just astart-of-school rumor." There were always plenty of those—like how some girl got kidnapped by terrorists, orone of the staff members won a hundred grand on Wheel of Fortune. (Though,now that I think of it, that one was actually true.)

"No," Anna said."You don't understand. Buckingham's doing some kind of semiretirementthing. She's gonna do orientation and acclimation for the newbies—but that's it. She's not teaching anymore."

Wordlessly, our heads turned,and we counted seats at the staff table. Sure enough, there was an extrachair.

"Then who's teachingCoveOps?" I asked.

Just then a loud murmurrippled through the enormous room as my mom strolled through the doors at theback of the hall, followed by all the usual suspects—the twenty teachers I'd been looking at and learningfrom for the past three years. Twenty teachers. Twenty-one chairs. I know I'mthe genius, but you do the math.

Liz, Anna, and I all looked ateach other, then back at the staff table as we ran through the faces, trying tocomprehend that extra chair.

One face was new, butwe were expecting that, because Professor Smith always returns from summervacation with a whole new look—literally.His nose was larger, his ears more prominent, and a small mole had been addedto his left temple, disguising what he claimed was the most wanted face onthree continents. Rumor has it he's wanted by gun smugglers in the Middle East,ex-KGB hit men in Eastern Europe, and a very upset ex-wife somewhere in Brazil.Sure, all this experience makes him a great Countries of the World (COW)professor, but the best thing Professor Smith brings to the Gallagher Academyis the annual anticipation of guessing what face he will assume in order toenjoy his summer break. He hasn't come back as a woman yet, but it's probablyjust a matter of time.