Princess Mix-Up Mystery Read online

  Princess Mix-up Mystery

  BY CAROLYN KEENE

  ILLUSTRATED BY MACKY PAMINTUAN

  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 January 2010

  Text copyright © 2010 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Macky Pamintuan

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

  ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of

  Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  NANCY DREW, NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW, and related logos are registered trademarks

  of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Designed by Lisa Vega

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

  Manufactured in the United States of America / 1109 OFF

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Control Number 2009924063

  ISBN 978-1-4169-7811-4

  ISBN 978-1-4169-9855-6 (eBook)

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE: ONCE UPON A GUESS

  CHAPTER TWO: THRONES AND GROANS

  CHAPTER THREE: HAIRY SCARY

  CHAPTER FOUR: CAUGHT BLUE-HANDED

  CHAPTER FIVE: STRAWBERRY SPRITZ FOREVER

  CHAPTER SIX: STICKY SITUATION

  CHAPTER SEVEN: KNOCK, KNOCK, WHAT’S THERE?

  CHAPTER EIGHT: HIDE AND SNEAK

  CHAPTER NINE: NATURAL DISASTER

  CHAPTER TEN: PRINCESS POWER!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Once Upon a Guess

  “Can’t we run errands later, Nancy?” Bess Marvin asked, pointing to her daisy-shaped watch. “We’ll miss the opening of Prissy’s Princess Parlor!”

  “Prissy is a good name for that place,” George Fayne scoffed. “Who else but prissy girly-girls would go there?”

  Eight-year-old Nancy Drew smiled at her two best friends as they walked side by side down River Street. “Prissy is short for Priscilla, George,” she explained. “She and her sister, Wendy, own the Princess Parlor!”

  “Where else can girls like us can get our hair styled and topped off with a princess-pretty tiara?” Bess asked. “It’s a dream come true!”

  “You mean a nightmare,” George groaned. “I’ll bet even the computers in that place are pink.”

  “Is that all you can think about?” Bess asked. “Computers?”

  “When I’m not thinking about printers, scanners, and speakers!” George answered with a grin.

  Bess rolled her eyes. “Are you sure you’re my cousin?” She sighed.

  “Come on, you guys,” Nancy said, picking up her pace. “Errands first, fun later.”

  River Street was the busiest street in River Heights. Besides the usual stores Nancy saw tiny green buds on the trees that lined the street. Not only was it spring break, it was the first week of spring—and spring was Nancy’s favorite season!

  “First stop,” Nancy said as they turned toward a store in the middle of the block, The Mean Bean Health Store.

  Nancy, Bess, and George filed through the door of the Mean Bean. There to greet them was Kevin Garcia. Kevin was in the girls’ third grade class at River Heights Elementary School. Kevin’s parents owned the Mean Bean, but he acted like he owned it himself.

  “Welcome to the Mean Bean, Clue Crew!” Kevin declared.

  Nancy smiled at the mention of their detective club, the Clue Crew. Everyone at school knew that she, Bess, and George loved solving mysteries. And were good at it too!

  “What do you need?” Kevin asked, rubbing his hands together. “If it’s all-natural, we’ve got it.”

  “Hannah needs something stinky that will keep deer from nibbling her flower garden,” Nancy explained.

  “How about George’s sneakers?” Bess joked.

  “Ha, ha,” George said, not really laughing.

  Hannah Gruen had been the Drews’ housekeeper since Nancy was three years old. Not only was Hannah as sweet as her cupcakes—she was the next best thing to a mom!

  “Do you have the deer repellent?” Nancy asked.

  “I told you, we have everything!” Kevin boomed. “Um … everything except natural stinky deer repellent.”

  Nancy frowned. She didn’t want to disappoint Hannah, but the Mean Bean was the only natural store in town.

  “It’s okay, Nancy, we’ll find something else,” Bess said. “Now we can go to Prissy’s Princess Parlor!”

  Kevin raced to the door as the girls left the store. “Did you say parlor?” he shouted after them. “We sell all-natural shampoo here! Organic nail polish! Even lipstick made out of pulverized soybeans!”

  Kevin’s voice trailed off as the girls headed down River Street.

  “Hannah will be so disappointed.” Nancy sighed.

  “But the deer—cartwheels!” George said, as they walked along.

  Prissy’s Princess Parlor wasn’t hard to find. It was the only store with a door decorated with purple and gold balloons. It was also the only store surrounded by reporters, photographers, and cheering girls.

  “Now,” Mayor Strong said, holding a pair of scissors. “Prissy’s Princess Parlor shall live happily ever after!”

  Prissy and Wendy Darling held opposite ends of a ribbon stretched in front of the door. Nancy noticed that the door was painted like a castle gate.

  “It’s just like a fairy tale,” Nancy breathed as the mayor ceremoniously snipped the ribbon in half.

  “If this is a fairy tale,” George said, “there’s the ogre!”

  “Ogre?” Nancy asked. She looked up to see where George was pointing. Standing at the window above the store was an angry-looking man. His mouth was a grim line as he scowled down at the cheering crowd.

  “That’s Marvin Dretzel the Human Pretzel,”

  “How do you know?” George asked.

  Bess explained. “He owns the Yay for Yoga studio upstairs.”

  “My mom takes a class there,” Bess said. “She says yoga helps her to relax.”

  Nancy watched as Marvin slammed down the window with a bang. He didn’t look very relaxed to her!

  “Okay, princesses,” Prissy shouted to the crowd. “Are you in it to win it?”

  More cheers, as both sisters undraped a thick white mattress on the sidewalk.

  “The princess who guesses how many peas are under this mattress wins a free salon treatment tomorrow for her and two of her BFFs!” Wendy shouted. “And their picture in the paper.”

  Nancy was superexcited now. The contest was just like her favorite fairy tale, “The Princess and the
Pea.”

  “Let’s all try to guess,” Bess said.

  “No way!” George cried. “Even if I won, I wouldn’t go in that princess parlor. Besides, I can’t go tomorrow.”

  “Why not?” Bess asked.

  “Trina Vanderhoof asked me to join her girls’ basketball team, the Blue Jets,” George answered. She pretended to dribble a make-believe ball. “The first game is tomorrow.”

  “But you could be a princess!” Bess exclaimed.

  “Princess, schmincess.” George rolled her eyes. “Who needs a royal court when you can be on a basketball court?”

  “Okay, okay,” Nancy said, tugging George’s arm. “But stand in line with us for good luck.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George hurried to the back of the line. A girl wearing a pink tiara was about to climb on the mattress when two bigger girls pushed in front of her.

  One began measuring the mattress with a measuring tape. The other listened to it with a doctor’s stethoscope!

  “Don’t those two go to our school?” Bess asked.

  Nancy nodded and said, “It’s Suki Sussman and Ella Knox. They belong to the Rad Scientists Club.”

  “That explains it,” George said. “They’re probably trying to figure out scientifically how many peas are under the mattress.”

  Suki and Ella worked until Mayor Strong stepped in. “Girls, even princesses have to wait their turn,” he said.

  “Yeah!” The tiara girl sneered. “Take a royal hike!”

  Suki and Ella grumbled as they trudged to the back of the line. But the moment they saw Nancy, Bess, and George their jaws dropped.

  “We were standing where you are!” Suki complained. “You took our place!”

  “We didn’t see you when we got here,” Nancy said.

  Nancy could hear Suki and Ella grumbling as they slipped behind her and her friends. She tried to ignore the Rad Scientists as she turned back to the contest. Every girl so far had guessed the wrong number of peas.

  Finally it was Bess’s turn. She hopped on the mattress and lay on her back.

  “Thirty peas,” Bess guessed out loud. “That’s my lucky number times ten.”

  “A good guess, but wrong,” Mayor Strong said.

  “Phooey,” Bess said, hopping off the mattress. “Time to get a new lucky number.”

  Next was Nancy’s turn. She climbed on the mattress, laid back, and stared at sky as she took a guess.

  “Is it one pea?” Nancy asked. “That’s how many peas were under the mattress in ‘The Princess and the Pea.’”

  “But not under this mattress,” Mayor Strong replied.

  Nancy’s heart sank as she scooted off the mattress to join her friends. She and Bess had no chance of winning the princess makeover now. Unless …

  “Take a guess, George,” Nancy said. “If you win you can pick us to go with you.”

  “I told you, Nancy,” George said, shaking her head. “You can’t pay me to enter that prissy princess contest!”

  “Looks like someone already did,” Bess said. She pointed to a bill crumpled on the middle of the mattress.

  “That’s the ten dollar bill Hannah gave me for the deer repellent,” Nancy gasped. “It must have fallen out of my pocket while I was guessing.”

  “Got it,” George said. She crawled across the mattress. She was about to grab the bill when Mayor Strong shouted out: “Next princess—take a guess!”

  “Huh?” George gulped. “No, I just wanted to—”

  “Guess, guess!” the crowd chanted.

  George rolled her eyes and flopped on her back.

  “Okay. I guess fifty-five,” George said. “That’s how many are in a frozen bag of peas. I helped my mom count some for one of her catering jobs. Can I get off now?”

  Mayor Strong blasted the trumpet so loud it made George bounce. Photographers snapped George’s picture as she sat up, stunned.

  “Girls—we have a winner!” Mayor Strong shouted. “Long live Princess Georgia!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Thrones and Groans

  “Did he say princess?” Nancy gasped.

  “Princess Georgia! Princess Georgia!” the crowd chanted. “Long live Princess Georgia!”

  George leaped off the mattress shouting, “My name’s George! Nobody but my grandmother calls me Georgia!”

  Nancy and Bess cheered too. They knew George hated her real name, but she had just won a free makeover at Prissy’s Princess Parlor for herself and her friends. And those friends would surely be them!

  A photographer from the River Heights Daily News snapped George’s picture.

  “Way to go, George!” Nancy cheered as she and Bess ran to join their friend. Suki and Ella ran over too, but not to congratulate George.

  “Fifty-five peas was my answer,” Suki complained. “If you guys hadn’t jumped in front of us, I would have won!”

  “You can have the prize,” George said. “I have to play basketball tomorrow.”

  “George, are you serious?” Nancy cried. “If you go to the princess parlor you get to pick two friends!”

  “Sorry,” George sighed. “But I don’t want—”

  “You owe me a favor, George Fayne!” Bess cut in.

  “What favor?” George asked slowly.

  “May I remind you that I secretly ate your string beans at Grandma’s house last Thanksgiving?” Bess asked.

  George gritted her teeth. Nancy knew she hated string beans even more than girly-girl makeovers.

  “Well?” Bess asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Okay, you win,” George said. “But Trina is going to flip when I can’t play tomorrow.”

  “Play basketball after your makeover,” Nancy said.

  “With pink nails and glitter in my hair?” George exclaimed. “I don’t think so!”

  Just then, George was whisked aside by Prissy and Wendy, who smiled as they presented her with the winning certificate.

  “Princess George?” a reporter from the Daily News asked. “Who will be joining you for your royal makeover?”

  “Nancy Drew and Bess Marvin,” George replied. “I guess you could say I couldn’t have won without them.”

  All three friends smiled for the photographer until a scowling Marvin Dretzel pushed past the girls.

  “I’m not here to judge, Mister Mayor, but the noise is unacceptable!” Marvin declared. “How can my students find inner peace with a gaggle of girls downstairs every day?”

  “Don’t get your joints in a twist, Marv,” Mayor Strong said. “Little princesses never make a lot of noise.”

  “Princess power! Princess power! Princess power!” the girls in the crowd shouted.

  “Well,” Marvin huffed. “I certainly hope this place doesn’t last too long.”

  “What a grump,” Nancy said as Marvin stomped back to his upstairs studio. But as she gazed into the crowd she spotted two more grumpy faces—those of Suki and Ella.

  Looks like those Rad Scientists, Nancy thought, are mad scientists!

  “What if I don’t recognize you later?” Hannah asked the next morning.

  “Just look for three princesses!” Nancy suggested.

  It was Wednesday morning and the three girls had a plan. Hannah would leave Nancy, Bess, and George at Prissy’s Princess Parlor and pick them up after their makeovers.

  “Did you ever find that all-natural deer repellent, Hannah?” Bess asked as they approached the salon.

  “Not yet, I’m afraid,” Hannah sighed. “And my tulips will bud any day now.”

  Hannah opened the door of Prissy’s Princess Parlor. A tiny fairy bell jingled as Hannah and the girls filed into the salon.

  “Welcome, fair princesses!” Prissy said, taking a deep bow. “I am your lady-in-waiting Priscilla!”

  “Wow!” Nancy said as they looked around.

  The walls of the parlor were painted deep rosy-pink. Purple velvet chairs faced mirrors surrounded by gold frames. Hanging from the ceiling were crystal wind chimes and tiny porc
elain fairies.

  “It’s magical!” Bess gasped.

  The girls hung up their jackets. After Hannah said good-bye and left the parlor, Prissy turned to the girls and smiled.

  “You’ll be happy to know that two other princesses are holding court today,” Prissy informed them.

  “Really? Who?” Nancy asked.

  ZIIIIIIP! Prissy pulled open a velvet curtain. Behind it were Suki and Ella, getting their nails polished by Wendy.

  “Surprise!” Suki sneered. “We wanted to see what we could have won if you hadn’t jumped in front of us.”

  “Too bad our allowances only pay for manicures,” Ella complained, holding up rainbow-colored nails.

  Nancy rolled her eyes at Bess and George.

  Suki and Ella were still mad. And they wouldn’t let them forget it!

  “Time to let your nails dry, princesses Suki and Ella,” Wendy declared in a chirpy voice. “In the meantime let’s get our three new princesses into their royal robes.”

  “As if we ever got royal robes,” Ella grumbled.

  The sisters led Nancy, Bess, and George into the back room. Hanging on a rack were red cloth beauty capes.

  “Hurry and change,” Wendy said excitedly. “You must turn into princesses before the clock strikes twelve, just like Cinderella.”

  The girls glanced at the clock. Eleven fifty-three. Only seven minutes to change!

  The girls raced to the rack. They each took a robe and slipped it over their heads. Bess’s arms got stuck in the sleeves but after a lot of wiggling they popped out.

  “We did it,” George pointed to the clock. “In five minutes flat!”

  “Well done, princesses,” Prissy exclaimed. “Now if you’ll please follow me—your royal makeovers await!”

  “Still wish you were playing basketball?” Nancy whispered to George as they followed the sisters.

  “Nah,” George whispered. “Just don’t tell Trina I’m having fun.”

  The girls stepped from the back room into the parlor. The velvet curtain was still pulled back. But Suki and Ella were no longer behind it.

  “Where’d they go?” Wendy wondered.

  “Their jackets are gone,” Prissy said, nodding at the coat rack. “They must have left.”