Designed for Disaster Read online

  A Case of Stolen

  Designer Property

  “You’re not going to believe this!” Deirdre said. “You’re just not going to believe it!”

  “Believe what, Deirdre?” Nancy asked.

  “I went to Mrs. Corwin’s classroom this morning to ask her a question,” Deirdre said, “and that’s when I saw her crying.”

  “Juliana can’t find our designs!” Nadine said. “They’ve disappeared!”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. Mrs. Corwin scanned the designs and e-mailed them to Juliana,” Nancy said. “The file will still be on her computer.”

  Deirdre shook her head. “Mrs. Corwin and Juliana were going to retrieve the file, Nancy, but a virus must have corrupted it.” She let out a moan. “My life is over.”

  #1 Sleepover Sleuths

  #2 Scream for Ice Cream

  #3 Pony Problems

  #4 The Cinderella Ballet Mystery

  #5 Case of the Sneaky Snowman

  #6 The Fashion Disaster

  #7 The Circus Scare

  #8 Lights, Camera … Cats!

  #9 The Halloween Hoax

  #10 Ticket Trouble

  #11 Ski School Sneak

  #12 Valentine’s Day Secret

  #13 Chick-napped!

  #14 The Zoo Crew

  #15 Mall Madness

  #16 Thanksgiving Thief

  #17 Wedding Day Disaster

  #18 Earth Day Escapade

  #19 April Fool’s Day

  #20 Treasure Trouble

  #21 Double Take

  #22 Unicorn Uproar

  #23 Babysitting Bandit

  #24 Princess Mix-up Mystery

  #25 Buggy Breakout

  #26 Camp Creepy

  #27 Cat Burglar Caper

  #28 Time Thief

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin paperback edition May 2011

  Text copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Macky Pamintuan

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS and related logo, NANCY DREW, and NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE

  CREW are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information

  or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or

  visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Designed by Lisa Vega

  The text of this book was set in ITC Stone Informal.

  Manufactured in the United States of America 0411 OFF

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Library of Congress Control Number 2010928808

  ISBN 978-1-4169-9439-8

  ISBN 978-1-4424-2380-0 (eBook)

  coNTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE: MYSTERY GIRLS!

  CHAPTER TWO: RHES!

  CHAPTER THREE: THE MISSING DESIGNS

  CHAPTER FOUR: TOO MANY COINCIDENCES

  CHAPTER FIVE: THE TOP SUSPECTS

  CHAPTER SIX: EXCUSES AND ALIBIS

  CHAPTER SEVEN: FALSE ALARM

  CHAPTER EIGHT: LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

  CHAPTER NINE: THE LAST REHEARSAL

  CHAPTER TEN: WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?

  chaPTER ONE

  Mystery Girls!

  On Monday morning Mrs. Corwin, a River Heights Elementary School art teacher, said, “I’m putting you in teams of three. You’re going to draw pictures of anything you think would be really cool for you and your friends to wear.”

  The girls cheered. The boys all just looked at one another.

  “I think you’ll be very excited about what I’m planning to do with your designs too”, Mrs. Corwin added, “but I need them all by Friday.”

  Nancy Drew turned to her two best friends, who were also her art-table partners, cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne, and said, “That’s what’s so great about our school. We get to do things like this.”

  Bess nodded. “I know”, she said. “We have a cousin in Texas, and all he does in his art class is draw pictures of cactus plants.”

  Nancy laughed. “Really?” she said.

  George giggled. “Not really. But his art class is definitely not as cool as ours.”

  “Why do we boys have to do this?” Quincy Taylor asked Mrs. Corwin. “It’s a girl thing!”

  “No, it’s not”, Deirdre Shannon said. “One of my favorite designers is a man. I try to wear his clothes all the time. A lot of men are famous fashion designers, Quincy.”

  “And remember I said you can design anything you want to”, Mrs. Corwin reminded them. “That means sportswear like tracksuits, basketball uniforms, and swim trunks. Anything!”

  “Yeah, but what if some of the other guys in school find out about this and start making fun of us?” Peter Patino said. “What are we going to do then?”

  “Oh, you guys, I can’t believe it”, Mrs. Corwin said. She let out a big sigh. “I’ll tell you what. Instead of putting your real names on your designs, you may use a designer label. It should be something snappy that’ll catch a buyer’s attention, and it will be something only the team members and I will know. How’s that?”

  The boys all looked at one another and shrugged. “Okay, we’ll do it”, they grumbled in unison.

  “May we use both our names and a designer label?” Nancy asked. “We want a snappy label, but we also want people to know who we really are.”

  “Oh, Nancy, that’s a super idea”, several of the girls said.

  “Of course!” Mrs. Corwin told them.

  With the teams chosen, everyone talked for the next several minutes about their designer-label names.

  “I think ours should be Mystery Girls!” Bess suggested. “I can see that on jeans and tops and—”

  “I absolutely adore that”, Deirdre said from the next table. She thought for a minute. “I think we’ll be Lucky Girls!”

  Nancy, George, and Bess rolled their eyes. Deirdre could be such a copycat sometimes, but that was okay since their designs would be different.

  “Do you think we’ll make any money from this?” George asked.

  “Money!” Katherine Madison said. “You mean, like, real money?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Nadine Nardo exclaimed. “Fashion designers are all rich.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I could be a millionaire before I’m in the fifth grade!”

  Quincy looked up. “Well, then I’m interested too because I’m not looking forward to all the chores Mom said she has planned for me during the summer if I want an allowance.”

  The class laughed, but Nancy noticed that all the boys’ teams had now huddled together to talk about what they were going to do.

  When the recess bell rang twenty minutes later, Bess leaned over to Nancy and George and said, “I wonder what Mrs. Corwin is planning to do with our designs.”

  “That’s funny”, Nancy whispered back. “I was just thinking the same thing.”<
br />
  As they headed out of the art classroom, Deirdre and Katherine came up behind them.

  “I wonder what Mrs. Corwin will do with our designs”, Deirdre whispered.

  George grinned knowingly at Nancy and Bess.

  “We have to find out”, Katherine said. “It could affect our new careers!”

  Nancy thought about it for a minute. Should the Clue Crew try to solve the mystery right away, she wondered, or should we just wait until Mrs. Corwin tell us?

  chaPTER TWO

  Rhes!

  On Friday morning all the fashion designs were turned in by the girls and the boys, and now everyone was waiting to hear what Mrs. Corwin was going to do with them.

  Nancy, Bess, and George had decided not to spoil Mrs. Corwin’s surprise by trying to solve the mystery.

  “I have a dear friend from college who’s a fashion designer in New York City,” Mrs. Corwin told them. “She wants to start a new clothing line, so she’s agreed to look at your designs to see if they’d fit with what she has in mind. I’m going to scan them and then e-mail them to her this morning.”

  “Oh, wow!” Nancy said. She looked at Bess and George, whose eyes were wide with surprise. “Can you believe it?”

  “Never in a million years!” Bess said.

  “When will we know?” Deirdre asked.

  “Monday morning,” Mrs. Corwin said.

  During the weekend all anyone could talk about were the fashion designs.

  When Monday morning finally arrived, Nancy, Bess, and George hurried into Mrs. Corwin’s room and took their seats.

  “Class, this is my wonderful friend, Juliana Marigold,” Mrs. Corwin announced, “and the young lady next to her is Nicole Whitcomb, a fashion model. She’s in the third grade too!”

  Bess looked at Nancy. “I didn’t know girls our age could be fashion models,” she whispered.

  Juliana smiled at the class. “I absolutely adore all your designs,” she said.

  The girls cheered.

  Mrs. Corwin held up her hand for silence.

  “Unfortunately, I can only use about half of them,” Juliana added.

  There were several groans.

  Some of the boys said, “I hope you don’t use ours!”

  “I’m sorry that I had to make a choice,” Juliana said. She consulted a piece of paper she was holding. “I’m using the designs from Nancy’s team, Deirdre’s team, and Quincy’s team.”

  “Let’s give those teams a hand,” Mrs. Corwin said.

  Everyone applauded politely.

  “Each item of clothing will have ‘Rhes!’ embroidered on it with the subdesign label below.” Juliana walked to the chalkboard and wrote Rhes! Beneath that, she wrote Mystery Girls!

  Nancy, Bess, and George gasped.

  “This is a dream come true,” Bess breathed.

  “Excuse me, what does ‘Rhes!’ mean, Juliana?” George asked.

  “River Heights Elementary School!” Juliana said.

  “Cool!” the class said.

  Bess turned to Nancy. “Everyone in the world will know about our school,” she said.

  “We’re going to be rich!” Nadine said.

  “I think my ONITAP designs are cooler than the ones you chose, Juliana,” Amanda Johnson said. “I feel cheated.”

  Everyone turned to stare at Amanda.

  “I could have been rich too!” Amanda added. “It’s not fair.”

  “Amanda, please,” Mrs. Corwin said. “We’re going to discuss that in just a minute.”

  Nancy turned to Bess and George.

  “What’s wrong with Amanda?” she whispered.

  “She’s never acted like that before.”

  Bess and George shrugged. “None of you will be getting rich,” Mrs. Corwin said. “Instead, Juliana is going to make a big donation to our school for the use of the designs. No one in the class will receive any money.”

  Everyone looked at one another. Was that fair?

  Mrs. Corwin looked at Juliana. “I think you can explain this better than I can,” she said.

  “I know you may be disappointed, but it would be difficult for any of you to enter into a legal agreement because you’re not old enough,” Juliana said, “and second of all, it would be very difficult for you to sell only a couple designs to any fashion house. At least this way you will have a connection to the industry that you can use when you get older.”

  Nancy noticed that a few people still seemed unhappy.

  “Juliana and I also have another surprise that we’ll tell you in the morning,” Mrs. Corwin said. “You’ll never guess what it is, either!”

  chaPTER THREE

  The Missing Designs

  “The fashion world is coming to River Heights!” Juliana announced the next morning. “That’s my new surprise. I’m going to debut my ‘Rhes!’ clothing line in your school auditorium!”

  There was a collective gasp from the class. Nancy could tell that even the boys were surprised.

  Deirdre’s hand shot up. “Juliana! Juliana! Juliana!”

  “Yes?” Juliana said.

  “Does that mean that River Heights will be just like New York, Paris, and Rome during their fashion weeks?” Deirdre asked breathlessly.

  Juliana nodded. “As close as we can make it,” she said. “There will be national and international coverage of the event by fashion magazines and television crews!”

  “Models walking the runway and all that?” Bess said.

  Juliana nodded again. “And speaking of that, let me introduce the rest of my models, who just arrived this morning,” she said.

  Just then a side door opened and three girls and one boy walked inside. They all wore sunglasses.

  “You’ve already met Nicole, who accompanied me, and now I want you to meet Felicity, Elizabeth, Marissa, and Cory,” Juliana said.

  With that, Elizabeth, Marissa, and Cory paraded in front of the class the way they would walk on the runway during the fashion show, swinging their hands back and forth.

  “What’s wrong, Felicity?”

  Juliana asked. “Why are you just standing there?”

  Felicity rolled her eyes. “I don’t feel well,” she said.

  Juliana sighed but didn’t say anything.

  After the other three models had paraded back and forth several times, they left the room. Felicity hurried to catch up.

  “I’ll see you in the auditorium in a few minutes!” Juliana called after them.

  Bess looked at Nancy and George. “You can actually feel the electricity in the air,” she said.

  “Yeah, and if you touched Felicity, you’d probably get shocked,” George said. “She definitely doesn’t want to be here.”

  Juliana turned back to face the class. “As promised, there’s still one more surprise,” she said. “I’m planning to have some of you model your designs for the show.”

  There was a loud shriek from some of the girls.

  “Modeling is a perfect job for good-looking guys like me,” Quincy said.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Quincy,” Nadine said. “My mother told me that modeling agencies hire all kinds of models, not just people who look like movie stars.”

  “Quincy doesn’t look like a movie star, Nadine,” Peter said. He grinned. “You need glasses.”

  “That’s not what I meant, Peter!” Nadine said. “Modeling agencies hire real people too.”

  “Well, class, I think we’re getting off the subject,” Mrs. Corwin said. “What we need to do now is start planning for the big event. It’ll take all of us working together to pull it off.”

  “You can do it,” Juliana assured them. “I need to go to the auditorium now, but Nicole has agreed to stay with you to answer any questions you might have.” She smiled at Nicole. “Nicole is a natural. She doesn’t need as much practice as the others.”

  Nicole smiled back. “Thank you, Juliana,” she said.

  When the bell rang to signal the end of art class, Deirdre balanced her art b
ook on top of her head and started walking out of the room.

  “What in the world are you doing?” George asked.

  “I’m doing what models all over the world do, George,” Deirdre said. “I’m practicing my runway walk.”

  “With a book on your head?” George said.

  “I suggested it to her,” Nicole said. “I just want to make sure you know all our secrets.”

  “Well, that is nice of you, Nicole,” Nancy said.

  “I didn’t want to say anything, but unlike you …” Bess paused. In a whisper she continued, “Those other models seem kind of stuck-up.”

  Nicole made a face. “Yeah, they can be,” she agreed. “But never mind. In modeling school we always practiced our runway walks with a book on top of our head to get proper balance and good posture.” Addressing everyone who was around her, she added, “I’d advise you to do the same. Remember that there will be people from all over the world here photographing you.”

  For the rest of the day, under Nicole’s direction, everyone on the three winning design teams walked around balancing books on their heads. From time to time some of the fourth and fifth graders thought it was funny to try to knock them off, but after a while they just gave up. In fact, by the time school was out, Nancy had noticed that a lot of the kids in the other classes were doing the same thing.

  When Nancy mentioned that to Bess and George on the way home, George said, “Oh yeah! Modeling fever hit our school big-time. I overheard several fifth graders talking about how much better they would have been doing it than us.”

  “Oh yeah, right!” Bess said.

  The next morning, just as Nancy and the Clue Crew entered Mrs. Ramirez’s classroom, Deirdre, Nadine, and Katherine ran up to them. They had stricken looks on their faces.

  “Uh-oh, something’s wrong,” Nancy whispered.

  “You’re not going to believe this!” Deirdre said. “You’re just not going to believe it!”

  “Believe what, Deirdre?” Nancy asked.

  “I went to Mrs. Corwin’s classroom this morning to ask her a question,” Deirdre said, “and that’s when I saw her crying.”