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three books Literature

Bumping some old YKTSs I posted years ago in a new query.

First two were novels for tweens, read by me in the mid to late 1970s or early 1980s.

1. By Judy Blume or is a Judy Blume "type." It has a male protagonist who is a high school senior (I think) and gets involved romantically with a female teacher. She breaks up with him towards the end of the book. There's a scene where he is having a picnic with her and they're drinking wine; within the context of the scene it's not treated as a big deal but I remember thinking at the time that he's underage and drinking! Or maybe, he goes out alone in a picnic-for-one after she breaks up with him.

2. Girl gets involved (non-romantically) with a rebellious girl. The rebellious girl may be living with the protagonist girl & her family for some reason, but the book starts at about the time the rebellious girl moves in. In the town where they live there's a variety store which the family calls a "ten cent store" and the rebellious girl refers to as a "five and dime." The protagonist girl picks up this bit of lingo, and at one point mentions the "five and dime" to her older sister. The sister says "do you mean the ten cent store?" (Italics per original IIRC). The sister, who is significantly older & doesn't hang around with the protagonist girl & the new girl, doesn't pick up on her sister having adopted that slang from the rebellious girl.

3. Adult novel from the mid to late 1990s. A lower-class person (possibly American) had earned himself a Rhodes Scholarship and is studying Shakespeare at Oxford. He gets an outside job doing "contract research" for a woman and her father, who have what they believe is a lead to proof that Shakespere didn't write Shakespeare's plays, Francis Bacon [or perhaps another author] did. He is initially reluctant to take the job but he needs the money, and as the story goes along he's sucked into their belief. A couple of plot points I recall:

• A. At one point slightly more than halfway through the book a small bidding war erupts between the woman/father and another couple for a trunk they find in an estate sale: the researcher thinks there is some vital clue in the trunk, and the other couple see their interest and figure hey, if they want the trunk it must be valuable so we'll bid on it too! Our protagonists win the auction and look inside. The important items in the trunk were a letter and a manuscript. The letter says something to the effect of "the manuscript will prove that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare." The letter is loose and has survived the centuries, but the manuscript was sealed in the best that the 1700s had to offer so it has crumbled to dust.
• B In the end the researcher has been completely convinced that Bacon (or someone else) wrote Shakespeare's works and is given a dressing-down by one of his professors. The researcher is humbled by the professor. But AIR the professor doesn't really give any reason why the researcher is wrong. I don't know if this was just poor writing on the part of the novel's author or if it was purposely ambiguous.

In my previous query it was suggested that Chasing Shakespeare is the answer to number three. I dismissed it at the time but I'm having second thoughts and have requested the book from my local library; in the meantime if someone has a good idea of the answer I would be appreciative.