The Cinderella Ballet Mystery Read online

  Nancy gasped. So did everyone else in the class. The slipper was beautiful! It was see-through and decorated with glittering, heart-shaped rhinestones. It looked very delicate.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy saw Deirdre get her camera out of her dance bag. She took a picture of Gregory holding the shoe.

  “Deirdre, I told you before. No taking pictures during rehearsals!” Mr. McGuire called out.

  Suddenly Gregory tossed the slipper in Andrea’s direction.

  “Catch!” he called out.

  Startled, Andrea tried to catch the slipper—but missed.

  Nancy gasped. Cinderella’s beautiful slipper was about to hit the floor and break into a million pieces!

  CHAPTER THREE

  Missing!

  Andrea screamed as the glass Cinderella slipper hit the hardwood floor.

  But the slipper didn’t break.

  Gregory giggled. “What’s the big deal? It’s not real glass.”

  “Gregory!” Mr. McGuire said angrily. “Don’t ever do that again!”

  “What?” Gregory said innocently. “It was a joke.”

  “The slippers are not actually glass,” Mr. McGuire explained to the rest of the class. “They’re made of a certain kind of see-through plastic that looks like glass.”

  He glared at Gregory. “Still, never do that again. These slippers are from a very special store in Paris. If anything happened to them, we wouldn’t be able to replace them in time for the show.”

  “Yes, Mr. McGuire,” Gregory said. He hung his head sheepishly.

  Andrea’s face had turned ghostly white. She picked up the slipper and gave it back to Ms. Zelda. Ms. Zelda returned the shoe to the tissue-filled box. She frowned at Gregory and hurried away.

  “Gregory’s jokes are getting to be way too extreme,” George whispered to Nancy. Nancy nodded.

  “Okay, that’s enough excitement for today. Let’s get started on the pumpkin coach scene,” Mr. McGuire called out.

  Everyone scrambled to their places, including Nancy. She closed her eyes for a moment so she could think about her part. The pumpkin scene was supertricky. On Saturday, during the real performance, she and Nadine would start the scene dressed in mice costumes. When Bess, the fairy godmother, waved her magic wand, the two girls would change into coach drivers.

  In reality, Nancy and Nadine would hide behind some fake bushes for a second and slip out of their mice costumes. Underneath they would be dressed as coach drivers.

  In the same scene, Andrea would change from a servant girl into a beautiful princess. Her costume switch was trickier. Nancy knew that Andrea would have to practice it lots of times before she got it just right.

  “Here we go, everyone,” Mr. McGuire said, clapping his hands. He turned on the CD player.

  When the music began to play, Nancy pretended to be a little mouse. She curved her hands in front of her chest as though they were tiny paws. She began dancing lightly on her feet, like she was scurrying across the floor in search of cheese.

  Nadine was right behind her, doing the same thing in exact time to the music. Bess was off in the corner, dancing merrily with Andrea.

  Then Bess and Andrea crossed the floor with a series of graceful leaps. Just as they passed Nancy and Nadine, Nadine did a tendu, sticking her right foot out. Andrea tripped on Nadine’s foot and fell to the floor!

  “Ow!” Andrea cried out.

  Mr. McGuire stopped the music. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  “Nadine tripped me!” Andrea said. She sat up and brushed dust from her shorts and leotard.

  “I did not!” Nadine protested. “It was an accident. I was doing my tendu.”

  “You’re not supposed to do a tendu there, Nadine,” Mr. McGuire told her sternly. “You’re supposed to do a plié.”

  Nadine shrugged. “Oh. Sorry.”

  Nancy frowned. Was Nadine telling the truth? Or had she tripped Andrea on purpose?

  “Smile, everyone!”

  Click!

  Nancy whirled around. Deirdre was standing nearby, holding her camera. She had taken a picture of Andrea, Nadine, and Mr. McGuire.

  “Nadine, could you get a little closer to Andrea?” Deirdre said, gesturing with her free hand. “This will be an awesome picture for my website.”

  “Deirdre!” Mr. McGuire exclaimed. “I told you that I didn’t want any picture taking during rehearsals. Put that camera away. In fact, you’re not allowed to bring it to rehearsals anymore. It’s too distracting to the other dancers.”

  “Oh, baloney,” Deirdre said. “I mean, okay. Whatever you say, Mr. McGuire.” She walked over to her dance bag.

  Andrea scowled at both Nadine and Deirdre. Then she stood up and got back into position.

  Suddenly Deirdre let out a scream. “Ewwwwwww!” she cried out.

  “Now what?” Mr. McGuire sighed.

  Deirdre made a face. “Someone put Silly Putty in my camera bag!” she announced.

  “Gregory!” a bunch of kids cried at once.

  “Gregory!” Mr. McGuire exclaimed too.

  Nancy, George, and Bess exchanged a glance. With Nadine, Gregory, and Deirdre, today’s rehearsal was turning into a three-ring circus!

  “I hope Nadine isn’t going to trip anybody today,” Bess said.

  “I hope Gregory isn’t going to put anything yucky in anybody’s dance bag today,” George added.

  “I hope Deirdre isn’t going to be running around with her camera today,” Nancy piped up.

  It was Wednesday after school. The three girls were on their way to Mr. McGuire’s studio for another rehearsal.

  Wednesday! Nancy thought. That meant there were only two more regular rehearsals—today and tomorrow—before the big dress rehearsal on Friday night. During dress rehearsal, all the dancers would be wearing their costumes and makeup.

  And Saturday was opening night! Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, would be there along with Hannah Gruen. Hannah was the Drews’ housekeeper. But she was much more than that. Hannah had helped raise Nancy since she was three years old. That’s when Nancy’s mother had died. George’s and Bess’s families would be at the opening night performance too.

  The three girls finally reached Mr. McGuire’s studio. They ran up the stairs, their dance bags swinging from their shoulders.

  “I think we’re rehearsing the ballroom scene,” Nancy called out to her friends.

  “I love that scene,” Bess gushed. “It’s so pretty!”

  They got to the top of the stairs. Nancy expected to see all the students stretching at the barre and on the floor. But instead, everyone was huddled around Mr. McGuire. He looked very serious.

  Andrea turned around and saw Nancy and her friends. She came running up to them. “Nancy! Bess! George!” she cried out. Her eyes were shiny with tears.

  “Andrea, what’s going on?” Nancy asked her curiously.

  “My Cinderella slippers are gone,” Andrea announced. “Somebody stole them!”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The First Clue

  “What?” Nancy exclaimed. She couldn’t believe the Cinderella slippers were missing.

  “Who stole them?” George asked Andrea.

  “We don’t know,” Andrea replied. She brushed a tear from her eye. “I can’t dance on Saturday night without my glass slippers! What am I going to do?”

  Nancy rushed up to the crowd around Mr. McGuire. He was talking to Ms. Zelda. Andrea, Bess, and George followed.

  “Where did you put them, exactly?” Mr. McGuire was asking Ms. Zelda.

  Ms. Zelda pointed to the storage area in the corner of the studio. Costumes hung neatly on metal racks. Shoes, hats, and other accessories were lined up on shelves.

  “I … I put them over there last night, in their box,” Ms. Zelda said. “The box is still there. But the slippers, they are gone! I have searched the whole studio three, four times. Oh, Monsieur McGuire, what are we going to do?”

  Mr. McGuire turned to the sea of faces. “Doe
s anybody know anything about this? Gregory?”

  Maybe Mr. McGuire thinks this was one of Gregory’s practical jokes, Nancy thought. If it was, it’s not very funny.

  “Who, me?” Gregory exclaimed, looking surprised. “I don’t know anything. Honest!”

  Mr. McGuire sighed. “All right. Ms. Zelda, please send an e-mail to the store in Paris and see if there’s any way we can get a replacement pair sent by overnight courier. The rest of you, five minutes of stretches, then we’ll start rehearsal.”

  Ms. Zelda bowed her head and hurried off. The students scattered around the floor and began their stretches.

  Nancy, George, and Bess found an empty spot on the floor and sat down. Andrea sat down next to them.

  “Hey,” Andrea said in a low voice. “The three of you have a detective club, right? The Glue Crew?”

  “The Clue Crew,” Bess corrected her.

  “Right. The Clue Crew,” Andrea said quickly. “Can I hire the Clue Crew to find the missing slippers? I’ll give you all my allowance for this week.”

  “You don’t need to pay us,” Nancy replied.

  “Our club is all about being the best kid detectives ever. Not about making money,” George added.

  “And yes, we’ll take your case,” Bess piped up. She glanced at Nancy and George. “Um, if that’s okay with you two.”

  Nancy and George nodded. Nancy felt a rush of excitement. She loved solving mysteries—even more than she loved dancing.

  “We’ll get on the case right away,” Nancy told Andrea. “We’ll do our best to find the slippers by Saturday.”

  George was busy rehearsing a scene with Deirdre and Madison. Nancy and Bess checked all the shoe boxes and accessory boxes on the shelves one more time. The missing slippers were nowhere to be found.

  “This is so mysterious,” Bess said as she picked up yet another box and peered into it. “It’s like they disappeared into thin air!”

  “I know what you mean,” Nancy said. “But they have to be somewhere. Things can’t just disappear into thin air.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Bess agreed. “Slippers, where are you?” she called out.

  Nancy sighed. The funny thing was, the box for the slippers was still there. It was on the shelf right where Ms. Zelda had left it last night. It was a pretty white box with pink and silver stripes and writing on the side.

  “There’s got to be a clue,” Bess muttered. She picked up the pink and silver striped box and turned it upside down.

  Just then, Nancy noticed something odd. Gregory was walking toward the storage area with Scruffy on a leash. Scruffy had his nose low to the ground, as though he was sniffing for something.

  Gregory was looking at the ground the whole time too. In fact, he didn’t even seem to notice Nancy and Bess.

  That Gregory acts so strange sometimes! Nancy thought.

  But Nancy’s thoughts were interrupted by Bess’s voice.

  “Nancy!” Bess exclaimed. “I found something. I think it’s a clue to the missing slippers!”

  “I’ve never seen a barrette like that,” George remarked.

  Nancy sat cross-legged on her bed and leaned over to take a look. George was holding a silver barrette in the palm of her hand. It was zigzag shaped.

  Bess had found the barrette at the dance studio, wedged into a crack in the shelf under the pink and silver striped shoe box.

  George handed the barrette to Nancy. Then she moved over to Nancy’s desk and started typing on the computer. This was one of George’s jobs in the Clue Crew: entering and keeping track of the case on Nancy’s computer.

  “Clue: Zigzaggy barrette found under the Cinderella shoe box,” George read out loud as she typed.

  “Do you think the slipper thief left it there by accident?” Bess suggested.

  “Or maybe the barrette was there all along and doesn’t have anything to do with the slipper thief,” Nancy pointed out.

  George typed all this into the computer.

  Nancy turned the barrette over and over in her hand. It looks like a Z, she thought. She turned it over again. Now it looks more like an N.

  N—as in Nadine?

  Did the barrette belong to Nadine? Nancy wondered. Was Nadine the slipper thief?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Drama Queen

  Nancy held the barrette out to George and Bess. “At first I thought it was a Z shape,” she said. She turned it sideways. “But now I’m wondering if it’s an N shape.”

  “Maybe,” George said.

  Bess nodded slowly. She seemed to be following Nancy’s train of thought. “That means it could be Nadine’s! She wears barrettes.”

  Nancy leaned back against her pile of fluffy pillows and was quiet.

  “Nadine was really, really mad that Andrea got to be Cinderella instead of her,” Nancy said after a while.

  George nodded. “It looked like she tried to trip Andrea yesterday at rehearsal. But it might have been an accident.”

  “No way,” Bess said. She grabbed a handful of buttery popcorn that Hannah had made for the girls. “That was no accident.”

  “So maybe Nadine stole the slippers to ruin the ‘Cinderella’ ballet for Andrea and everybody else,” Nancy mused. “And while she was stealing them, her barrette fell and got stuck in the crack in the shelf.”

  George typed everything into the computer. “Let’s look at it from a different angle. What if the barrette fell and got stuck there some other time? Like last week or last month or whatever?” she said out loud.

  “Or what if the barrette belongs to somebody else with the initial N?” Bess added.

  “I think we need to talk to Nadine as soon as possible,” Nancy announced.

  “I have to ask you something,” Nancy told Nadine.

  It was Thursday, a few minutes before rehearsal. The studio was already crowded with dancers who were stretching and getting ready. Nancy, Bess, and George had found Nadine in the corner by herself.

  Nadine tugged her black leg warmers over her tights and glanced up at Nancy and her friends. “What?” she asked suspiciously.

  Nancy pulled the silver barrette out of her dance bag and held it out to Nadine. “Is this yours?”

  Nadine stared at the barrette. “Nope, that’s not mine. Lately I only wear barrettes that are shaped like flowers, animals, or musical notes. That one is shaped like … well, I’m not sure what it’s shaped like. It’s either a lightning bolt or a really skinny tree.”

  “Actually, we think it’s the letter N,” George piped up.

  “We? What do you mean, we? You’re not on one of your crazy Clue Crew cases, are you?” Nadine asked.

  “We are. We’re trying to find the missing Cinderella slippers,” Bess replied. “This barrette is a clue. A very important clue.”

  Nadine’s jaw dropped. “Am I one of your suspects?” she demanded.

  “Where were you between the end of Tuesday’s rehearsal and the beginning of Wednesday’s rehearsal?” Nancy asked her.

  “Did you steal the slippers?” Bess blurted out.

  “What made you do it, Nadine?” George added.

  “I don’t believe this!” Nadine exclaimed. “Of course I didn’t steal those stupid slippers. Why is everyone so worried about them, anyway? Andrea can wear another pair of ballet shoes. I’m the real victim here. I was rejected for the part of Cinderella, not once, but twice!” She held up two fingers and stabbed them in the air dramatically.

  “Maybe you stole the slippers because you’re mad about not getting the part,” Bess said.

  “Of course I’m mad. I should have been Cinderella!” Nadine huffed. “But why would I make things even worse by committing a crime? I don’t want to spend opening night in jail!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George exchanged a look. Nadine was being her usual drama-queen self. But was she telling the truth about not stealing the slippers?

  Sometimes clues are a lot easier to figure out than people, Nancy thought.

  On th
e studio floor, rehearsal was under way for one of the Act Two scenes. Nancy watched George, Bess, and some of the other dancers practicing pirouettes with Mr. McGuire’s help. Pirouettes involved spinning on one foot and were difficult to do.

  Nancy was not in this scene, so she took the opportunity to do a second search for clues. This time, she crawled around on the floor on her hands and knees to get a really close look. She peeked into every crevice. She peered into every nook and cranny. She found a lot of rusty bobby pins, empty paper cups, and dust bunnies. Yuck, she thought, making a face.

  And then she found something a little more interesting in the set storage area. It was a small piece of white paper, half hidden under a shelf. She picked it up and stared at it closely. It said, “taille 35.”

  Nancy frowned. What did “taille” mean? Was that code for something?

  Then she noticed that the words “taille 35” were written in the same fancy cursive style as the letters on the Cinderella shoe box. Maybe the piece of paper came from inside the shoe box, she thought.

  It’s definitely a clue, Nancy told herself.

  She stuffed the piece of paper in her pocket and made a mental note to discuss it with her fellow Clue Crew detectives later. Then she brushed the dust off her tights and headed over to where her dance bag lay on the floor.

  On her way, she almost tripped over Gregory’s legs. He was sitting on the floor, going through his own dance bag. Scruffy was sitting next to him, sniffing everything.

  Gregory moved his legs out of the way. “Oh, sorry,” he mumbled.

  Nancy glanced down. Gregory had dumped some of the contents of his dance bag out on the floor. There were some dirty socks, a water bottle, school notebooks, homework assignments, a half-eaten granola bar, dirty T-shirts, and a dirty towel. What a mess!

  “Are you cleaning out your bag?” Nancy asked him curiously.

  Gregory shook his head. “Nah. Just looking for something.”