Princess on Parade Read online

  Heads Up!

  Nancy and Brenda ran to the float. As they climbed up to the haystack, Nancy saw a scarecrow lying on top. It had a huge pumpkin head and mean-looking eyes.

  “That scarecrow is ugly,” Brenda said. Her voice was shaking.

  “Yeah,” Nancy agreed. “It would scare me if I were a crow.”

  Just then the pumpkin head turned slowly. It was looking at them!

  “Do you see what I see?” Brenda asked, grabbing Nancy’s arm.

  Nancy gulped. “I—I think it’s, it’s— alive.”

  Nancy and Brenda screamed.

  The creepy scarecrow was coming straight toward them!

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Picking a Princess

  Chapter 2: Snatched from the Patch

  Chapter 3: A Pinkie Promise

  Chapter 4: The Bess Mess

  Chapter 5: The Dress Turns Up

  Chapter 6: Barnyard Bandits

  Chapter 7: Ms. Frick Sees Red

  Chapter 8: The Parade Marches On

  1

  Picking a Princess

  We’re going to have the best float in the whole parade!” Nancy Drew said, tossing a plastic apple into a straw basket.

  “My turn,” Bess Marvin called out. Bess was Nancy’s best friend. She aimed a plastic orange at the basket but missed. Instead of landing inside, the fruit rolled off the edge of the wooden float.

  “Whoops!” Nancy giggled.

  It was Thursday, after school. The volunteers of Carl Sandburg Elementary School were helping Ms. Frick, the art teacher. They were preparing their float for the River Heights Fall Festival parade on Sunday.

  The kids had named the float the Pumpkin Patch Dream. Besides Nancy and Bess, Brenda Carlton, Jason Hutchings, and Jennifer Young were part of the third-grade group working on it. Some fourth- and fifth-graders were helping, too.

  “I wish George could be here,” Nancy told Bess. Georgia Fayne was Bess’s cousin and Nancy’s other best friend. Everyone called her George. She had broken her arm in a soccer game a few weeks earlier.

  “Me, too,” Bess said. “But she’s getting her new cast put on today. I can’t wait to sign it.”

  Ms. Frick jumped off the float and stepped back to look at it. “The float’s looking good, kids. It just needs a few finishing touches.”

  Nancy liked Ms. Frick. Each day the teacher wore a different pair of cool earrings. That afternoon she had on huge dangling ones shaped like pumpkins.

  “Do you think we’ll win the prize for best school float?” Bess asked Nancy.

  “Sure!” Nancy said. “We have the only float with a real-live Pumpkin Princess.”

  “And don’t forget,” Bess added proudly, “my mom is sewing the princess dress.”

  Jennifer tied a bright orange ribbon around a bunch of wheat. “I wonder who will get to be the princess.”

  Jason sat up from the pile of hay he was resting on. He was supposed to be building a haystack. “That stupid princess is going to spoil the whole float!” he complained.

  Nancy put her hands on her hips. “Can you think of something better?”

  “Yes,” Jason said. “And when I do, it’ll replace that pumpkin priss forever!”

  “Maybe you should think about finishing your haystack instead,” Bess told him.

  Jason tossed some hay at Bess and flopped back onto the stack.

  “He’s just jealous that the star of the float is a girl,” Nancy told Bess.

  “You’re right,” Bess said, pulling the hay from her hair. “Everyone wants to be the Pumpkin Princess.”

  “I don’t think I do,” Jennifer said slowly.

  “Why not?” Nancy asked, surprised.

  Jennifer pointed to the tree stump throne in the center of the float. It was on a platform. “I don’t like to be up so high,” she said. “Besides, what if my nose started to bleed?”

  “That would be gross,” a voice said.

  Nancy turned to see Brenda Carlton standing right behind her.

  “Besides,” Brenda went on, “the only girl around here who should be princess is me.”

  Brenda flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. “I have hair like a princess and eyes like a princess …”

  “And breath like a dragon,” Bess muttered. Nancy and Bess giggled.

  “Girls! Girls!” Ms. Frick spoke up. “The most important thing is having the best float we can, right?”

  “Yeah,” a fourth-grade boy said. “We can’t let River Street Elementary win.”

  Bess nodded. “They’re calling their float the Barnyard Brigade. I heard they’re going to dress up in animal costumes.”

  “I’d rather be a Pumpkin Princess than a Pig Princess any day,” Nancy said.

  “Hi, kids.” A man with a bushy mustache walked over to the float. He wore a bright red flower on his checkered jacket.

  “It’s Cheery Charlie!” Jason said.

  “Cheery Charlie’s my name,” the man said proudly. “And costumes are my game!”

  The costumes for the kids on the float had been donated by Cheery Charlie’s Costume and Joke Shop. Nancy liked the store. It had not only costumes but other neat things like fake wax lips and funny wigs.

  “What do you think of our float, Charlie?” Nancy asked.

  Charlie put on a pair of eyeglasses. Attached to the frames were fake eyeballs on springs.

  “This float is simply eye-popping!” he said, grinning as the eyeballs bounced up and down.

  Nancy laughed as Charlie strolled to look at the other side of the float.

  “My cousin Tracy is having a costume party for her birthday tomorrow,” Jennifer told Nancy. “I looked for a costume in Charlie’s shop last week, but I couldn’t find anything I really liked.”

  “That’s too bad,” Nancy said. “But a costume party is a cool idea. What are you going to wear?”

  Jennifer sighed. “Just the same gypsy dress I wore last Halloween. Everyone’s seen me in it already, even Tracy.”

  Brenda made a face. “Last Halloween? I’ll bet it smells.”

  “It does not!” Jennifer said. She lowered her eyes.

  “That’s mean, Brenda,” Nancy said.

  “Stop being so nosy,” Brenda sneered. “This isn’t a mystery, Detective Drew.”

  Nancy rolled her eyes. She was very good at solving mysteries. But Brenda was always making fun of her detective work.

  “Hey, everybody!” Bess called out. “My mom is here with the princess dress!”

  Mrs. Marvin’s red minivan pulled up to the float behind the school.

  “Princess dress?” Charlie asked with a frown. “What princess dress?”

  The kids hopped off the float and ran to Mrs. Marvin.

  “Taaa-daaaa!” Mrs. Marvin sang. She held up the dress.

  “Ooooh, ahhhh!” All the girls gasped.

  Jason pretended to gag. “Blaaaaah!”

  The dress was light orange with shimmery gold sequins sewn all over it. Yellow and red leaves circled the waist and the ends of the sleeves. Mrs. Marvin had made an orange velvet cape to wear with the dress.

  “It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen!” Nancy cried.

  “It almost matches your hair, Nancy,” Jennifer said.

  “Really?” Nancy asked. She gently touched her reddish gold hair.

  “If all the girls will line up quietly,” Ms. Frick announced, “we’ll have the drawing for the Pumpkin Princess.”

  The girls swiftly formed a single line in front of Ms. Frick. Nancy stood behind some fourth-graders. Bess stood behind Nancy, followed by Jennifer.

  Everyone watched as Ms. Frick pinned a red number seven onto the dress. She held out a fishbowl filled with small pieces of paper.

&nb
sp; “The girl who pulls the lucky seven from the bowl will be the princess,” Ms. Frick explained.

  Nancy crossed her fingers.

  “Good luck, girls,” Ms. Frick announced. “I know any one of you will make a great Pumpkin Princess.”

  Nancy felt someone bump against her back. She spun around and saw Brenda pushing her way in front of Bess.

  “Hey,” Bess said. “That’s not fair!”

  “It wouldn’t be fair if you won,” Brenda said. “Your mother made the dress.”

  Nancy didn’t have time to say anything. She was next in line. Reaching into the bowl, Nancy shut her eyes tight.

  “Please . . . please . . . please,” she whispered, wiggling her fingers through the scraps of paper. She pulled one out. Number nine.

  “Oh, well.” Nancy sighed and stepped aside.

  Brenda dug greedily into the fish-bowl. She yanked out a paper and unfolded it.

  “Lucky seven!” Brenda squealed. “I won! I’m the Pumpkin Princess!”

  Nancy watched Brenda jumping up and down. How could someone so mean be so lucky? she wondered.

  “That’s mine,” Brenda said, grabbing the dress from Mrs. Marvin’s hands.

  Bess marched over to Brenda. “If you hadn’t pushed in front of me, I might have been the Pumpkin Princess!”

  “Don’t be such a sore loser, Bess.” Brenda twirled around with the dress.

  “You’re the loser, Brenda Carlton!” Bess shouted. She tugged at the dress.

  “Let go of it!” Brenda yelled.

  “No way!” Bess yelled back, and pulled even harder.

  “Bess, Brenda!” Mrs. Marvin shouted.

  Ms. Frick ran over, her pumpkin earrings swinging. “Girls! Stop pulling the dress. You’re going to—”

  RRRRRRRRRRIPPPPPPP!!!

  2

  Snatched from the Patch

  Brenda and Bess dropped the dress.

  “I think they tore it,” a girl said.

  Nancy heard Jason laughing. He was holding up two pieces of heavy paper. It was the paper that had made the ripping sound, not the dress.

  “Very sneaky, Jason,” Brenda said.

  Ms. Frick picked up the dress and shook it out. “It was sneaky. But at least he got you girls to stop fighting.”

  Cheery Charlie marched over to Ms. Frick. “Why didn’t you get the Pumpkin Princess dress at my shop along with all the other costumes?” he asked.

  “I volunteered to make the dress, Charlie,” Mrs. Marvin said.

  Charlie shook his head. “But I have a beautiful pumpkin dress in my shop. It’s made of chicken wire and foam rubber.”

  Brenda made a face. “Sounds gross.”

  Charlie smiled at Brenda. “So this is the lucky Pumpkin Princess.”

  Brenda flipped her hair. “That’s me.”

  “Well, then, I need the opinion of a beautiful princess.” Charlie touched the carnation on his jacket. “Would you tell me how my flower smells?”

  “Okay.” Brenda leaned in to smell it.

  When Brenda was close, water gushed from Charlie’s red flower and squirted her right in the face!

  “Bleeeech!” Brenda sputtered.

  All the kids laughed. Even Mrs. Marvin and Ms. Frick smiled.

  “Serves her right,” Bess said.

  “We all want to use Mrs. Marvin’s dress in the parade,” Ms. Frick told Charlie when everyone had quieted down.

  Charlie took a deep breath. “Suit yourself. But I’m not happy about this.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

  “Okay, kids,” Ms. Frick called out. “When I tell you your parts on the float, I don’t want to hear any arguments.

  “The fourth- and fifth-graders will wear the apple tree costumes,” Ms. Frick announced. “They’ll dance along the sides of the float in the parade, just the way we’ve practiced.

  “Jason, you will be the princess’s Scarecrow Guard,” she continued.

  “Crows of the world, watch out!” Jason did a swift karate kick.

  “The girls in the third grade will be the princess’s Veggies-in-Waiting,” Ms. Frick went on.

  “Great. Now we have to wait on Princess Snooty!” Bess grumbled to Nancy.

  “Nancy will be an ear of corn,” Ms. Frick continued, “Jennifer a pea pod, and Bess a stalk of broccoli.”

  “But, Ms. Frick,” Bess wailed, “I hate broccoli!”

  “You have to wear it, Bess, not eat it,” Ms. Frick said.

  “Where are our costumes, Ms. Frick?” Jennifer asked.

  “The costumes are hanging on a rack in the gym,” Ms. Frick explained. She led the kids inside. “I’ll hand them out. Then you can try them on.”

  Nancy climbed into a soft yellow-and-green corn-on-the-cob costume. She peeked out of the hole for her face and giggled.

  Once all of the colorful costumes were on, everyone laughed, even Bess. The kids ran outside and chased one another around the float.

  Jason sneaked up behind Nancy. He yanked at the back of her corn costume.

  “Veggie-wedgie! Veggie-wedgie!” Jason chanted. Nancy was about to push him away when she heard Jennifer scream.

  “Jennifer, what is it?” Nancy asked.

  Jennifer pointed to a clump of bushes. “Look, over there!” she shouted.

  Nancy gasped. A pair of moose antlers, a bright red rooster comb, and two pig ears were bobbing above the bushes.

  “Those aren’t real animals,” Brenda said. She marched over to the bushes and spread them apart. “See? They’re just kids in dumb costumes.”

  Three boys dressed as animals stepped out from behind the bushes.

  “They must be from River Street Elementary School,” Nancy said to Bess. “And they’re spying on us.”

  The boy in the pig costume pointed at Nancy. “That’s the corniest costume I’ve ever seen!”

  Then Ms. Frick walked over. “Well, it looks as though we have visitors,” she said.

  The River Street spies took one look at Ms. Frick and began to run away.

  “What’s the matter?” Jason yelled. “You chicken?”

  “No way,” one of the River Street kids called over his shoulder. “I’m a rooster!”

  Then the boys ran off.

  “Those costumes were dopey,” a fourth-grade boy said.

  “Our float will be much better,” Jennifer said.

  “Okay, everyone,” Ms. Frick called out. “It’s time to hang up your costumes.”

  Brenda raised her hand. “Ms. Frick, may I take my costume home? Please?”

  Ms. Frick shook her head. “No costume is to leave the school.”

  Brenda stuck out her lower lip. “But I’m the princess!”

  “And I’m the teacher,” Ms. Frick said with a firm smile. “Go inside and hang up your costume.”

  Once the costumes were put away, everyone hurried back outside to the float.

  While Nancy put the last of the fruit in her basket, she spotted Brenda carrying a plastic bag under her arm. Brenda looks like she’s doing something sneaky, Nancy thought. I wonder what’s inside the bag?

  Then Bess tapped Nancy’s shoulder. “Nancy, George is here with her new cast!”

  “Let’s sign it,” Nancy said.

  Brenda dropped her bag on the float and followed Nancy. “I’m going to sign her cast Princess Brenda,” she said to Nancy.

  “Did it hurt?” a fourth-grade boy asked when everyone was around George.

  “It did when I broke it,” George admitted. “Now it just itches.”

  All the kids wanted to sign the new cast, but Ms. Frick was the first. She drew a pretty butterfly with colored pens.

  “My turn!” Jason shouted. He took out a pen and scribbled, “Way to go, KLUTZ!”

  “What a pain,” George groaned as Jason ran back to the float.

  The last ones to sign the cast were Nancy and Bess. Using purple and pink pens, they wrote, “Friends Till the End.”

  Ms. Frick clapped her hands for attention. “The flo
at is just about finished!” she announced.

  The volunteers cheered loudly.

  “But don’t forget to meet here Saturday afternoon for the big dress rehearsal,” Ms. Frick added.

  George sighed. “I wish I could be a part of the parade.”

  “You will,” Nancy said. “You’re going to cheer for us.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George took one last look at the float before they went home. Jason was finally throwing hay into a big pile for the haystack.

  “It’s about time!” Nancy said.

  • • •

  That night at dinner, Nancy laughed as Hannah Gruen placed some food on the table. Hannah was the Drew family’s housekeeper.

  “You made corn on the cob,” Nancy said. “Just like my costume!”

  Hannah smiled. “I’ll save some for your father. He’s working late tonight.”

  Nancy was about to bite into her corn when the phone rang.

  “I’ll get it, Hannah,” Nancy said. “Maybe it’s Daddy.”

  But it wasn’t Mr. Drew. It was Brenda.

  “Listen. I’m only going to say it once,” Brenda said. “I need you to solve a mystery.”

  Why would Brenda ask her for help? Nancy wondered. Brenda was always saying that she could solve mysteries better than Nancy.

  “What kind of mystery?” Nancy asked.

  “The Pumpkin Princess dress,” Brenda whispered. “It’s been stolen!”

  3

  A Pinkie Promise

  What do you mean the dress was stolen?” Nancy asked.

  “I can’t explain now,” Brenda said. “Meet me tomorrow morning in the schoolyard. And come alone!”

  “But—”

  Click!

  “Hello? Brenda?”

  Nancy heard the dial tone. Brenda had hung up.

  • • •

  “I’ll bet there are more names on my cast than on the Declaration of Independence!” George told Nancy and Bess at the playground the next morning.

  Just then Nancy spotted Brenda walking toward the swings.

  “I’ve got to go,” Nancy said. “I just thought of something I have to do.”

  “What?” Bess asked.

  Nancy bit her lip. She had promised to meet Brenda alone.

  “Uh, nothing important,” Nancy said. “I’ll be right back.” She could feel Bess and George watching her as she walked away.