The Make-Believe Mystery

Bess made a beeline for the boys’ table. Nancy and George trailed after her. They found Peter and Kyle making sculptures out of the chicken nuggets and peas.

  “Doomsday Tower!” Peter said loudly. He made a tall stack of chicken nuggets on his plate.

  “Beware, for the evil warrior comes to attack the tower!” Kyle replied. He tossed peas at the stack of chicken nuggets. Then he caught sight of Bess, Nancy, and George and began throwing peas at them, instead. “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

  “Stop that!” Bess exclaimed.

  Kyle laughed, but he stopped the pea attack.

  “What do you want?” Peter asked them, munching on a chicken nugget.

  Nancy started to open her mouth, then clamped it shut. She remembered what Bess had said about wanting to do all the talking.

  Bess smoothed her hair behind her ears and smiled her best fake-friendly smile. “We just wanted to tell you that your team’s story idea sounds really, really cool. I bet you’ll definitely win first place.”

  Peter and Kyle stared at each other. “Huh?” Peter said after a moment. “How did you hear about our story?”

  “Yeah, how?” Kyle echoed. He looked pretty suspicious.

  “Oh, you know,” Bess said vaguely. “Stuff gets around. Anyway, I really wish we’d thought about doing a story about, um, killer bees attacking our school.”

  Kyle made a face. “Killer bees? No way! Our story’s about a mad scientist and a—”

  Peter hurled a chicken nugget at Kyle. It bounced off Kyle’s nose and landed on the table. “Shut up, Leddington! We’re not supposed to talk about it!”

  “Oh, yeah,” Kyle said sheepishly. “Sorry.”

  Bess shot a triumphant look at Nancy and George. Then she turned to the boys and said, “Our chicken nuggets are getting cold. Bye!”

  The three girls found an empty table nearby and sat down. Seconds later Phoebe joined them. She set her tray down and said, a little breathlessly, “So? What did I miss?”

  Nancy filled her in on their conversation with Peter and Kyle. She also remembered to update George on her earlier conversation with Emily, at Emily’s cubby.

  “So now we have two suspects: Brenda’s team and Jason’s team,” Bess said, popping a chicken nugget into her mouth. “By the way, wasn’t it totally, totally brilliant how I got Kyle and Peter to confess everything?”

  “Uh, Bess? All Kyle said was that their story had a mad scientist in it,” Nancy pointed out. “And our story doesn’t.”

  “That’s true,” Bess said, frowning.

  George took a sip of her milk. “Maybe the boys just added that, to make their story a little different from ours.”

  “That’s true, too,” Bess said.

  Pushing her tray aside, Nancy pulled her blue detective notebook out of her backpack and opened it up to the page with the words Emily Reeves on it. Uncapping a blue marking pen, she crossed out Emily’s name and wrote:

  SUSPECTS

  Brenda’s team

  * Brenda really, really wants to win the contest!

  * Emily called Phoebe over to talk to her on Tuesday, right before lunch. That’s the only time Phoebe left her backpack alone. And the purple notebook was gone right after that. So maybe someone else on Brenda’s team stole it while Emily and Phoebe were talking?

  * Emily had two purple notebooks today. Plus, she was acting kind of nervous and weird.

  Jason Hutchings’s team

  * Jason and the boys just came up with their story idea on Tuesday—the same day our notebook disappeared.

  * George heard Jason and Mike talking about how their story has cats and rats in it, just like ours.

  Nancy chewed on the end of her pen. After a moment she said, “Hey, you know what? What if we don’t find our story thief by Friday? We should really start trying to rewrite our story, from memory.”

  “You mean start from scratch?” Phoebe said in surprise. “But won’t Mrs. Reynolds understand if we don’t turn in a story for the contest? I mean, someone stole our notebook!”

  “We should try, anyway,” George said. “We did have a really awesome story.” She added, “I think I remember my part.”

  “I think I remember most of my part, too,” Bess chimed in. “It was about that really cute girl, Tess, and her really cute clothes.”

  The girls spent the rest of the lunch period trying to re-create “The Ghost of Carl Sandburg Elementary School.” They didn’t try to re-create it word for word. Instead, Nancy, then Bess, then George, then Phoebe tried to remember the key points in each of their parts. Bess took notes, scribbling furiously in a small notepad with smiley faces all over it.

  When it was her turn, Phoebe hesitated. “Okay, so then, the girl named Gerry has this, um, note . . .” she said slowly.

  “The note about the fog and the little cat feet,” George prompted her.

  Phoebe nodded. “Right! And then Gerry takes the note, and, um—” Phoebe was interrupted by the recess bell. She scooped her tray up and rose quickly to her feet. “Come on, let’s go on the swings for a while,” she said brightly. “Maybe that’ll help me remember.”

  The four girls emptied their trays in the trash and stacked them on the shelf. They headed into the hallway, chatting about their story.

  Lots of other kids were in the hallway, walking toward the schoolyard. Everyone was talking and laughing and making a lot of noise.

  Just then Nancy and her friends heard a piercing scream.

  7

  A Creepy Note

  What was that?” Bess cried out.

  Nancy started running in the direction of the scream. It sounded as if it had come from somewhere near their classroom.

  When she and the other girls reached that part of the building, they found a small crowd of kids and hall monitors gathered around the third graders’ cubbies. Katie Zaleski was standing at her cubby, looking as pale as a ghost.

  Nancy squeezed through the crowd and rushed up to Katie. “What’s going on?” she asked her breathlessly.

  “Look!” Katie pointed to something that was taped to her cubby. It was a note written in drippy red ink that looked like blood. The note said:

  A TIN BRASS GOOSE

  TWO BLUE RATS

  THREE WHISPERING CATS

  Nancy gasped. That was from their story! The red ink was from their story, too!

  Mrs. Reynolds broke through the crowd. “Exactly what is going on here?” she demanded. “Who screamed?”

  “S-someone t-taped that to my c-cubby,” Katie stammered, pointing to the note.

  Mrs. Reynolds pulled the note off the cubby and studied it. She glanced at the dozen or so faces that were gathered around. “Does anyone know anything about this?”

  Nancy gulped. Bess, George, and Phoebe were all staring at her with wide eyes. Nancy wondered: Should they tell Mrs. Reynolds about their story and about the missing purple notebook?

  Before Nancy had a chance to say anything, Mrs. Reynolds said, “I’m sure this is someone’s idea of a practical joke. I don’t want to see it happening again.” She crumpled up the note.

  Nancy glanced over at Brenda and Emily, who were standing in the back of the crowd. Brenda was scribbling like mad in a little notepad. What was that about? Was she planning to write an article about the note for the Carlton News?

  Emily glanced at Nancy, and then glanced away. Nancy wondered if she knew something. Jason, Mike, Kyle, and Peter were nowhere to be seen.

  Nancy was now one hundred percent sure that her team’s purple notebook wasn’t just missing or lost. Someone had definitely stolen it.

  And now someone—or a bunch of someones—were turning “The Ghost of Carl Sandburg Elementary School” into reality!

  • • •

  “I knew this Triple Toffee Taste Explosion Sundae would be totally awesome!” Bess exclaimed. She took an extra-big spoonful of whipped cream and stuffed it into her mouth. “Yum! You guys want to try some?”

  Bess, George, and Nancy were
hanging out at the Double Dip, their favorite ice-cream parlor. They had gotten permission from their parents to go there after school. Phoebe wasn’t with them, because she had gone shopping with her mom.

  “No, thanks, Bess,” George said. “I’m happy with my High-Protein Blueberry-Granola-Nut Milkshake.”

  “And I’m getting really stuffed on my Killer Chocolate Parfait,” Nancy said.

  She pulled her blue detective notebook out of her backpack and opened it up to the page about their missing-story mystery. “So. Who do you think put that note on Katie’s cubby?” she said, uncapping her purple pen.

  “Brenda and her creepy teammates,” Bess said immediately.

  “Jason and his creepy teammates,” George said, almost at the same time.

  “But what if maybe it was someone else? Someone we haven’t even thought of?” Nancy tapped her pen on the table, trying to sort it all out.

  After a moment she said, “Maybe someone decided to steal our story and act out parts of it, make them become real. You know, as a prank or something.”

  “Yeah, but who?” Bess mumbled, popping a cherry into her mouth.

  Nancy sighed. “I’m not sure.”

  Just then Jenny and Emily walked into the Double Dip.

  “Hey,” Jenny called out as she and Emily passed the girls’ table. Emily said nothing.

  “Hey,” Nancy, George, and Bess replied, in unison.

  Emily went ahead to find an empty table. Jenny paused and stared at Bess’s sundae. “What’s that? It looks really gross,” she said, making a face.

  “It’s a Triple Toffee Taste Explosion Sundae, and it’s totally not gross. It just looks that way because I kind of mixed the caramel syrup up with the ice cream and the crunchy toffee bits and the— Anyway, you want to try some?” Bess offered.

  “Uh, no, thanks,” Jenny said, shaking her head.

  “How’s your story coming?” George asked Jenny with an innocent expression.

  Jenny shrugged. “Well, uh . . . okay, I guess. We kind of fell behind, but I guess we’re kind of catching up now, and—”

  Overhearing, Emily rushed up to Jenny and glared at her icily. “We’re not supposed to talk about our story with these—with anybody. Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jenny murmured.

  Nancy glanced at Emily and smiled. “I keep meaning to ask you. Yesterday before lunch you were hanging out at your cubby, right? And you wanted to talk to Phoebe about something.”

  Emily looked confused. “Huh? I didn’t talk to Phoebe yesterday before lunch.”

  “Are you sure?” Nancy asked her.

  “Positive,” Emily said. “I walked to the lunchroom with Jennie and Alison, straight from class. I didn’t even stop at my cubby.” She turned to Jenny. “Okay, I’m totally starving. Can we go order now?”

  When Emily and Jenny had gone, Nancy turned to her friends. “George! Bess! I think I know who stole our purple notebook!” she announced.

  8

  And the Winner Is…

  Bess’s mouth dropped open. “You mean Emily’s the one?” she said.

  Nancy shook her head. “Nope.”

  “Jenny?” George guessed.

  Nancy shook her head again. “Nope. Listen, I’m not going to tell you guys right now, okay? I have a plan. Besides, I want to make sure I’m right.”

  Usually when Nancy was close to solving a case, she got really excited. This time, though, was different because the new person she suspected of taking the notebook was the last person she would have suspected.

  Bess’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You have a plan, Nancy? What is it? Tell us while I finish my sundae—it’s melting.”

  • • •

  “George, you’re stepping on my foot! Ow!” Bess whispered.

  “Sorry!” George whispered back.

  “Shh, someone’s going to hear us,” Nancy whispered to both of them.

  The three girls were scrunched together in the shadowy doorway of Mrs. Reynolds’s classroom. They were in a good position to see the third graders’ cubbies.

  It was Thursday, and all the other kids were in the lunchroom. Nancy and her friends had gotten hall passes to go to the bathroom, so they didn’t have much time.

  “Why are we doing this again?” Bess asked Nancy.

  “We’re catching the notebook thief,” Nancy replied. “Shh!”

  They stood in total silence for the next few minutes. Nancy fidgeted uncomfortably. It was hard to stay still. She could feel Bess and George fidgeting, too.

  After a while they heard footsteps coming down the hall. Actually, it was more like the sound of rubber soles squeaking on the linoleum floor. Nancy motioned for the girls to step back, and held her breath.

  The squeaking stopped. Nancy listened very carefully. She heard the sound of paper rustling, and then a small ripping sound. It was like the sound of tape being ripped from a tape dispenser.

  Nancy gave Bess and George a signal. All at once, the three girls popped out of their hiding place.

  “Phoebe!” Bess cried out.

  Phoebe was standing at one of the cubbies. She had a note in her hand, written in drippy red ink. She was just about to tape it to the cubby.

  Seeing Nancy and her friends, Phoebe gasped and dropped the note to the floor. Nancy picked it up.

  It said:

  FOUR MOONS

  FIVE RUSTY RATS

  SIX GIRLS WITH BALLOONS

  “I don’t get it,” George said, looking confused. “Does this mean you stole our purple notebook? Pretended to steal it, I mean?”

  Phoebe hung her head. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Why, Phoebe?” Nancy asked her.

  “I’m really sorry,” Phoebe said in a quiet voice. “See, when I got the notebook on Monday, and it was my turn to write my part, I kind of, um . . . I just couldn’t seem to write it. No matter how hard I tried, the words just wouldn’t come out.”

  “I think that’s called writer’s blocks,” Bess offered.

  “Writer’s block,” George corrected.

  “Yeah, that,” Phoebe said, nodding. “Anyway, I didn’t want to let you guys down. And I didn’t want to lose my bet to that creep Brenda. So I decided I’d pretend that the notebook got stolen.”

  “Why were you doing this stuff with the notes?” Nancy asked her.

  Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t know. Just to make things more confusing. I figured, if you guys had enough suspects and clues and weird stuff happening, you’d never suspect me.”

  She added, “Plus, Mrs. Reynolds would probably get so mad about the notes that she’d cancel the whole short-story contest or something. That way I definitely wouldn’t lose my bet to Brenda, because the bet would be off.”

  George turned to Nancy. “How did you know? That it was Phoebe, I mean.”

  “Emily told us that she never talked to Phoebe at her cubby yesterday,” Nancy explained to George and Bess.

  “Oh, yeah,” Phoebe said, shaking her head. “I made up that story about Emily to make her and her teammates look guilty. I guess that was a dumb lie to tell.” She looked at the girls, her eyes shiny with tears. “I’m really sorry about everything. I should have just told you guys the truth, from the beginning.”

  “Yeah, you should have,” Bess told her, pouting angrily.

  “You really let us down,” Nancy added.

  George nodded in agreement.

  “I’m really, really sorry,” Phoebe said again.

  She looked so upset that Nancy felt sorry for her. “You really should have told us the truth from the beginning,” Nancy said. “We could have helped you with your ending.” She glanced at George and Bess and added, “I guess we still could.”

  George shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

  Bess shrugged, too. “We are a team.” She stopped pouting and smiled a little at Phoebe.

  • • •

  On Friday, the day the stories were due, Nancy got up in front of the class to read her team’s sto
ry. Her team was going first, and she had butterflies in her stomach. She looked at all the faces of her classmates, took a deep breath, and began reading:

  “Once upon a time, there was a school called Carl Sandburg Elementary School. It was a really nice school, and everyone liked it there.

  “That is, until the ghost started haunting it.

  “At first no one believed there was a ghost. After all, ghosts don’t really exist, right? But then everyone had to believe it because of the weird stuff that started happening.

  “One morning one of the kids found this note taped to his cubby:

  “A TIN BRASS GOOSE

  TWO BLUE RATS

  THREE WHISPERING CATS

  “It was written in creepy-looking red ink that looked like blood. Or maybe it was blood. The teachers and the principal figured one of the kids had written it. The principal said during the morning announcements that the person who wrote it should come forward right away. But no one did.

  “And then someone found the second note.

  “The person who found the second note was a really cute girl named Tess. Tess had awesome taste in clothes. In fact, she was wearing a really cute pink T-shirt that day, and these cool jeans with daisy patches.

  “Anyway, Tess found the note taped to her cubby. It was written in creepy-looking red ink, just like the first one. It said:

  “FOUR MOONS

  FIVE RUSTY RATS

  SIX GIRLS WITH BALLOONS

  “Tess was really freaked out by the note. She screamed at the top of her lungs. A bunch of kids came running up to her and asked her what was going on. (Some of them asked her where she got her T-shirt. She told them at Girl Power, at the mall.)

  “What did the notes mean? No one could figure them out. And then one day this girl named Gerry was walking down the hall after soccer practice. She was going over some key moves in her mind because there was a big game coming up.

  “Anyway, she was turning the corner and thinking about headers when she saw it.

  “She saw the ghost!

  “Right away Gerry stopped thinking about soccer. She tried her hardest not to scream.

  “The ghost was an old man with white hair and glasses. He was wearing a suit with a vest and a bow tie. Gerry knew he was a ghost and not a real person because his skin was kind of silvery white, like a ghost’s.