Third-Grade Reporter Read online

  “Now for my suspects,” Nancy said. She wrote “Who?” on the next page. On the next line she wrote Emily’s name.

  “Why Emily?” George asked, surprised.

  “Emily was mad that Alice got her job and she has to clean the hamster cage,” Nancy explained.

  “I don’t blame Emily,” Bess said. She made a face. “That cage is gross!”

  “But how could Emily ruin Alice’s lunch?” George said. “Bess was watching our trays all the time. Right, Bess?”

  “Sure,” Bess said, nodding.

  “Unless it was Mrs. Carmichael,” Nancy said. “She handed Alice a plate of macaroni and cheese. And we heard her say that she once didn’t like Alice.”

  “Hey! Maybe Mrs. Carmichael keeps Pucker Powder in her kitchen,” Bess said. “Maybe we can search it.”

  George shook her head. “Mrs. Carmichael would never let us into her kitchen. It’s a lost cause.”

  Lost? The word made Nancy jump.

  “Bess, George!” Nancy said. “Mrs. Carmichael keeps a lost-and-found box in her kitchen. She lets the kids look inside it during recess, and it’s recess now.”

  “Let’s go for it!” George said.

  The girls got permission from Mrs. Reynolds to go to the lunchroom. Once there they peeked through the kitchen door. Mrs. Carmichael was scrubbing the counters with a wet sponge.

  “Hi, girls,” Mrs. Carmichael said, looking up. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’d like to look through your lost-and-found box, please,” Nancy said.

  “For what?” Mrs. Carmichael asked.

  “Um,” Nancy said.

  “I lost my science project,” George said quickly. “Can I look for it?”

  “Sure,” Mrs. Carmichael said. She narrowed her eyes. “As long as your science project doesn’t have bugs.”

  Wow, Nancy thought. Mrs. Carmichael must really hate bugs.

  “Nope,” George said. “No bugs.”

  The girls walked through the kitchen door. Mrs. Carmichael held up her hand. “Stop! Right where you are!” she demanded.

  Nancy, Bess, and George froze. Mrs. Carmichael pointed to a sign on the door: Do Not Enter Kitchen Without a Hair Net!

  Mrs. Carmichael held out three white hair nets. “It’s what all fashionable lunch ladies are wearing this year,” she joked.

  “I can’t wear that,” Bess complained. “It’ll mess up my butterfly clips.”

  George gave her cousin a nudge.

  “Okay, okay,” Bess said. She pulled the hair net over her head.

  “Now you can come inside,” Mrs. Carmichael said. The girls followed her into the kitchen.

  “We can’t search the kitchen with Mrs. Carmichael here,” Nancy whispered.

  George winked at Nancy. Then she turned to Mrs. Carmichael.

  “Mrs. Carmichael?” she asked. “What does a water bug look like?”

  “Water bug?” Mrs. Carmichael gasped. She began twisting the sponge. “Why?”

  “Oh.” George shrugged. “Because I think I just saw one in the lunchroom.”

  “A bug?” Mrs. Carmichael growled. She dropped her sponge. “Not in my lunchroom!”

  Mrs. Carmichael grabbed a fly swatter and marched out of the kitchen.

  “George?” Bess asked, worried. “You didn’t really see a bug, did you?”

  “No,” George told Bess. She pushed up her sleeves. “Now, let’s get to work.”

  Nancy ran to a white cabinet. She pulled the doors open and looked on the shelves. There were big cans of juice and bags of hot-dog buns, but no Pucker Powder. Then Nancy looked up. There was a big basket on the top shelf.

  “Maybe it’s up there,” she said.

  George dragged over a stool. She hopped on it and tugged at the basket.

  “George!” Nancy whispered. “Be care—”

  Crash! The basket toppled off the shelf. Hundreds of ketchup and mustard packets poured onto the floor.

  “Whoops,” George mumbled.

  Nancy’s heart was pounding. “Quick!” she said. “Let’s put these back!”

  But as the girls stepped on top of the packets, they burst open, squirting ketchup and mustard all over the floor!

  “Yuck!” Bess cried. “It’s all over my new sneakers!”

  “What is going on in here?” a voice demanded.

  Nancy dropped a handful of ketchup packets. The voice belonged to Mrs. Carmichael.

  They were in big trouble!

  4

  Trouble Strikes Again

  Did you find the bug, Mrs. Carmichael?” Bess asked in a small voice.

  Mrs. Carmichael folded her arms across her chest. “Look at this mess. Ketchup and mustard all over the floor!”

  “Where are hot dogs when you need them?” George asked with a nervous laugh.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Carmichael,” Nancy said. “We were looking for Pucker Powder.”

  “Pucker what?” Mrs. Carmichael asked.

  Nancy took a deep breath. She told Mrs. Carmichael everything about Alice and the macaroni and cheese.

  “No one messes up my lunch and gets away with it!” Mrs. Carmichael growled.

  Nancy nodded. “That’s why we were trying to find out who the troublemaker was, Mrs. Carmichael.”

  Mrs. Carmichael raised an eyebrow. “And you thought it was me?” she asked.

  “We heard you say that you didn’t like Alice in the third grade,” Bess said

  “That was back in third grade,” Mrs. Carmichael said. “Now we’re good friends.”

  “Friends?” Nancy asked.

  “You bet!” Mrs. Carmichael said. “In fact, I’ll tell you girls a secret.”

  The girls leaned forward.

  “Alice is helping me write my first cookbook,” Mrs. Carmichael said. It’s called ‘The Joy of School Lunches.’”

  “Wow!” George said. “Will it have your recipe for macaroni and cheese?”

  Mrs. Carmichael nodded. “There’s even a whole chapter on fried fish sticks.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George helped Mrs. Carmichael pick up the ketchup and mustard packets. They thanked Mrs. Carmichael and left the kitchen.

  “I’ll cross Mrs. Carmichael’s name out of my notebook after school,” Nancy said as they walked through the hall.

  “I don’t get it,” George said. “Mrs. Carmichael handed Alice her plate. And Bess was watching our trays when we walked away. Right, Bess?”

  “Right,” Bess said. She shrugged. “At least most of the time.”

  Nancy and George stopped walking.

  “Most of the time?” Nancy asked.

  “You left the table?” George cried.

  “Just for a minute,” Bess said. “Molly Angelo was passing out her mom’s home-baked cookies at the next table. I had to get one. Or two. Or maybe I had three.”

  “You were supposed to watch our macaroni and cheese, Bess,” George said.

  “I did watch it!” Bess cried. “Right after I got the cookies.”

  “It’s okay, Bess,” Nancy said. “At least now we know the culprit could have been anyone in the lunchroom.”

  The girls hurried through the hall to their classroom. Mrs. Carmichael had given them a special late pass.

  Nancy opened the door. When they stepped inside everyone was reading from their science books. One by one they looked up and began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Nancy whispered.

  “Bears are brown, elephants are gray,” Andrew called out. “Someone’s having … a bad hair day!”

  Bess grabbed her head. “Oh, no. We forgot to take off our hair nets!”

  Nancy felt her cheeks burn.

  The things I do to solve a case, Nancy thought. Amazing!

  • • •

  “Is Mrs. Carmichael’s macaroni and cheese better than mine?” Hannah Gruen asked Nancy at dinner.

  Hannah had been the Drews’ housekeeper since Nancy was three years old. That’s when Nancy’s mother died.

  Nancy wrap
ped her arms around Hannah’s waist and gave her a hug. “I love your macaroni and cheese, Hannah.”

  “Good,” Hannah said. She placed a bowl of rolls on the table. “But today we’re having meatloaf.”

  “Without Pucker Powder, I hope,” Mr. Drew joked. He reached over and ruffled Nancy’s reddish blond bangs.

  Nancy smiled. She had just told her dad about Alice and the macaroni and cheese. Mr. Drew was a lawyer and liked to help Nancy with her cases.

  “Now I have only one suspect, Daddy,” Nancy sighed. “And that’s Emily.”

  “Is there anyone else who might be mad at Alice?” Mr. Drew asked.

  Nancy grabbed a roll and shrugged. “If there is, I don’t have a clue.”

  Hannah poured Nancy a glass of milk. “It could just be a troublemaker,” she said. “Someone who’s up to no good.”

  “Troublemaker?” Nancy repeated. She dropped the roll on her plate. “Or three!”

  “What do you mean, Pudding Pie?” Mr. Drew asked.

  “Jason, David, and Mike!” Nancy said excitedly. “They’re always up to no good.”

  “Remember, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said, “before you accuse anyone, there’s one thing a detective always needs.”

  “I know,” Nancy said. “Proof!”

  Nancy smiled and took a sip of milk.

  I may not have proof yet, she thought. But I do have three more suspects. And that’s a great start!

  • • •

  “The boys!” George said the next morning as they entered their classroom. “Why didn’t I think of them?”

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Nancy said. “Everyone knows the boys are brats.”

  “Yeah. And they probably like Pucker Powder, too,” George said.

  Bess looked hurt. “I like Pucker Powder and I’m not a brat.”

  Nancy hung up her jacket. She sat down at her desk next to Alice.

  “I brought my lunch to school today, Nancy,” Alice said. She held up a small brown paper bag. “No more macaroni and cheese for me.”

  A note fell on Nancy’s desk. Nancy looked up and saw Brenda walking away.

  Nancy unfolded the note. It read: “Did you find the troublemaker yet????”

  Nancy wrote a big “no” on the note. She passed it back to Brenda and watched her read it.

  Brenda shook her head. She crumpled the note and tossed it on the floor!

  Nancy quickly wrote Brenda another note. This time it read: “Pick it up! You shouldn’t litter!”

  The morning went fast for Nancy. Soon it was time for lunch and then recess.

  Nancy, Bess, and George discussed the case on the swings in the playground.

  “No trouble so far,” Nancy said. “And it’s already the middle of the day.”

  “Maybe the troublemaker gave up.” Bess said. She crossed her fingers hard.

  Nancy was about to swing higher when she heard Alice cry out: “Oh, no!”

  Nancy stopped swinging and turned around. Alice was near the seesaws. She looked worried as she dug through her bag.

  “My lucky jump rope!” Alice cried. “It’s gone!”

  “Gone?” Nancy jumped off the swing. “No way!”

  5

  Backpack Attack

  I know I packed the jump rope this morning,” Alice said as the girls ran over. “It was in my bag during lunch when I reached for my notepad.”

  “Did you put your bag down during recess?” Nancy asked. “At all?”

  “Only when I went on the seesaw,” Alice said sadly. “And now the jump rope is missing.”

  “Don’t worry, Alice,” Bess said. “Nancy is a detective. She’ll help you find your jump rope.”

  The girls and Alice searched the playground. They even asked other kids if they’d seen it. No luck.

  “Do you want us to tell Mrs. Reynolds?” Nancy asked Alice.

  “No,” Alice said seriously. “I’ll take care of this in my own way.”

  “What do you mean?” Nancy asked.

  Alice pulled her notepad out of her bag. “By writing about it,” she said.

  “Oh, great,” George whispered. “More bad news about our school.”

  Nancy had something to write, too. She took out her notebook and opened it to her Trouble list. Under “Macaroni and Cheese” she wrote “Missing Jump Rope.”

  Now two horrible things have happened to Alice, Nancy thought. And that’s two too many!

  • • •

  “I can give Alice my old jump rope,” George said after school. “If she doesn’t mind bubblegum on the handles.”

  “George!” Bess cried. “That’s gross!”

  “I don’t think Alice wants another jump rope,” Nancy told George. “Her old jump rope was special. She’d had it since she was eight years old.”

  The girls began walking home. When they were a block away from the school Nancy felt someone bump into her shoulder.

  “Excuse us!” Jason’s voice growled.

  Jason, David, and Mike pushed their way past the girls.

  “You shouldn’t push!” Nancy yelled.

  “I said, excuse me!” Jason growled.

  Nancy’s eyes fell on Jason’s backpack. Stuffed inside the back pocket was something long and skinny—something that looked like a jump rope!

  “Bess! George!” Nancy said in a low voice. “Check out Jason’s backpack.”

  “Is that the jump rope?” Bess gasped.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Nancy said. She narrowed her eyes. “Let’s question him.”

  “Freeze!” George yelled to the boys.

  “Like an icicle!” Bess shouted.

  The boys stopped. They turned around and folded their arms.

  “What do you want?” Jason asked.

  “I want to know what’s inside your backpack pocket,” Nancy said.

  “Alice’s jump rope was stolen during recess,” George said. “Did you take it?”

  A sly smile spread over Jason’s face. “Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.”

  “I bet that means yes,” Bess said.

  The three boys snickered. They turned around and raced up the block.

  “Get them!” George yelled.

  Nancy panted as they chased the boys. It wasn’t easy running with schoolbooks. But George was a fast runner and caught up to the boys.

  “Gotcha!” George shouted. She grabbed onto Jason’s backpack.

  “Get off me!” Jason yelled. His backpack fell to the ground. “Now look what you made me do!”

  George didn’t answer. She reached into the back pocket. But when she pulled out her hand she wasn’t holding a jump rope. She was holding a green-and-brown, slimy—

  “Snake!” George yelled.

  The girls screamed as they tossed the wiggly snake back and forth. But the boys were laughing their heads off.

  “Scaredy-cats! Scaredy-cats!” Jason sneered. “Scared of a fake snake!”

  Fake snake? Nancy dropped the snake. It lay on the ground without a wiggle.

  “It looked real to me,” George said.

  Nancy looked at the boys. “You still could have stolen the jump rope.”

  “How could we?” David sneered. “We didn’t even have recess today.”

  “Huh?” George said.

  “It’s Tuesday,” Jason said. “It was our day to wash the chalkboard. Remember?”

  “And if you don’t believe us,” Mike said, “you can ask Mrs. Reynolds.”

  Nancy had completely forgotten about the boys’ Tuesday job.

  “We believe you,” Nancy sighed.

  “But we don’t like you,” Bess said.

  • • •

  “Slow down, Chocolate Chip!” Nancy told her chocolate Labrador puppy later that afternoon. She gave Chip’s leash a tug.

  “She’s getting big,” Bess said. “Soon you’ll have to call her Chocolate Cookie.”

  Nancy smiled. “Thanks for walking her with me, you guys.”

  “It’s fun,�
� George said. “And while we walk Chip we can talk about the case.”

  “Some case,” Nancy sighed. “I just crossed the boys out of my notebook. Now Emily is my only suspect again.”

  The girls walked Chip three blocks away from Nancy’s house.

  “Hey!” Bess said. She stopped walking and looked around. “This is the block where Emily lives. I know it is!”

  “How do you know?” Nancy asked.

  “In second grade she invited me over for milk and caramel fudge cookies,” Bess said. “But I don’t remember which house she lives in.”

  “You remember the cookies but not the house?” George said.

  Bess shrugged. “They were yummy.”

  The girls walked Chip up the block. Suddenly George grabbed Nancy’s arm. “There’s Emily!” she whispered.

  Nancy looked to see where George was pointing. She saw Emily jumping rope in front of a light blue house.

  All of a sudden she saw something else. Emily’s jump rope was bright pink with sparkly handles!

  “Ohmygosh,” Nancy gasped. “Alice’s jump rope!”

  6

  Alice, Go Home!

  Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,” Emily sang as she jumped rope.

  “Nancy?” George whispered. “Is that the same jump rope Alice showed you?”

  “Maybe,” Nancy whispered back. “But I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.”

  “Jump!” Bess laughed. “Like the jump rope. That’s funny, Nancy!”

  “Shh,” Nancy said. “I don’t want Emily to know we’re watching her.”

  Nancy pulled Chip behind a tree near Emily’s yard. Bess and George followed.

  It sure looks like Alice’s jump rope, Nancy thought as she peeked out.

  Just then a squirrel scurried down from the tree. Chip barked and pulled as the squirrel ran into Emily’s yard.

  “Chip, wait!” Nancy cried. She tried to hold the puppy back. Bess and George grabbed the leash, too. But it was no use. Chip was pulling with all her might.

  Emily stared as all three girls stumbled after Chip into her yard.

  “Hi,” Emily said.

  The squirrel disappeared between a row of bushes. Chip whined.

  “Hi, Emily,” Nancy said. “We were just walking my dog.”