Last Lemonade Standing Read online

  “Us on Ready, Set, Cook!?” Bess said excitedly. “I can’t wait until next year!”

  “What do you think we should make?” Nancy asked.

  “Anything but lemonade!” George groaned.

  Nancy, Bess, and George pulled off their hats and aprons and stuffed them into the picnic basket. It was the same place where Nancy had packed the Clue Book and pen.

  “No ants inside the picnic basket.” Nancy sighed with relief as she pulled out the Clue Book. “And Team Lollipop is innocent.”

  Nancy crossed Team Lollipop off the suspect list and said, “Now our suspects are Henderson ‘Drippy’ Murphy and Lily Ramos.”

  “Let’s walk past Lily’s lemonade stand on our way home,” George said. “Maybe we’ll find more clues.”

  “As long as we don’t find any more ants!” Bess said with a shiver. “Ick!”

  But when the girls got to Lily’s yard, there were no kids or lemonade. Only a CLOSED sign on the table.

  “I wonder where Lily is,” Nancy said.

  The sound of music suddenly filled the air. The girls glanced back to see Lily’s cousin Carlos sitting on the front doorstep playing his recorder.

  “Let’s see what he knows,” George whispered.

  “Hi, Carlos,” Nancy said as the girls walked over. “Where’s Lily?”

  Carlos stopped playing to look up. “Lily and her mom went to the supermarket,” he said.

  “To buy stuff for dinner?” Nancy asked.

  “To buy stuff for her lemonade tomorrow,” Carlos explained. “Her new and improved lemonade!”

  “New and improved?” Nancy said. “How is it going to be new and improved?”

  Carlos shrugged. He went back to playing his recorder until George yanked it out of his mouth.

  “Hey—that’s mine!” Carlos whined.

  “You’ll get it back,” George said. “First tell us what makes Lily’s lemonade so new and improved.”

  “How should I know?” Carlos said. “I’m just the entertainment around here.”

  “You’ve got to know something, Carlos!” Bess said. “Put on your thinking cap, please.”

  Carlos scrunched up his nose as he thought hard. His eyes suddenly lit up. “Lily said something about her new lemonade being her favorite color.”

  “Her favorite color?” Nancy said. “What is Lily’s favorite color?”

  “That’s easy!” Carlos said with a smile. “It’s pink!”

  SQUEEZE OR TEASE?

  “Pink?” Nancy, Bess, and George exclaimed.

  “Is that your favorite color too?” Carlos asked.

  Nancy didn’t answer Carlos’s question because she had one of her own. “When are they getting back, Carlos?” she asked.

  “They might stop for pizza on the way home,” Carlos replied. “Lucky ducks.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George all frowned. If Lily and her mom were stopping for dinner, it would take them forever to get home.

  “Okay, Carlos. Thanks.” Nancy sighed.

  “Can I have my recorder back now?” Carlos asked. He puffed his chest out proudly. “I can play ‘The Wheels on the Bus’—backward!”

  George tossed the recorder back to Carlos. As he played, the girls walked away from the house.

  “Let’s meet here tomorrow at ten o’clock,” Nancy said. “So we can question Lily.”

  “What should we do until then?” Bess asked.

  “Think pink!” Nancy said with a smile.

  The girls walked home together. They waved good-bye as they each reached their houses one by one.

  When Nancy got home, she found Hannah in the kitchen making dinner. She also found a pitcher of pink-strawberry lemonade on the counter!

  “I made a batch for you,” Hannah said with a smile. “Just in case you get tired of squeezing lemons!”

  Nancy forced a smile. She had to tell Hannah they weren’t selling lemonade tomorrow—at least not until they found out who stole the secret recipe.

  “Um . . . we’re not selling lemonade tomorrow, Hannah,” Nancy said. She held up the Clue Book. “We’re solving a new mystery. See?”

  “A new mystery?” Hannah asked. “Is something missing?”

  “Well . . . yes,” Nancy said. “Something . . . top secret.”

  “Top secret?” Hannah chuckled. She nodded at her pitcher of lemonade. “I know all about top secret; that’s for sure!”

  “For sure!” Nancy squeaked.

  Hannah turned back to the lettuce she was washing at the sink. Nancy placed the Clue Book on the kitchen table. She then turned sadly to the calendar on the wall.

  How will we ever see Katy Sloan’s concert now? Nancy thought. But as she gazed at the concert date, something wasn’t right. The heart she had drawn on the calendar was gone!

  Nancy’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of her dad calling, “I’m home!”

  Mr. Drew walked into the kitchen. He smiled as he pulled off the tie he often wore for his job as a lawyer.

  “Daddy, did you buy a new calendar?” Nancy asked as her dad kissed her on the cheek.

  “A new calendar in the middle of the year?” Mr. Drew chuckled. “What made you think that?”

  Nancy stared up at her dad. How could she tell him that the heart she had drawn on the calendar was gone? He would never believe her!

  “Just wondering, Daddy,” Nancy said quickly. She grabbed the Clue Book and pen, then hurried up to her room before dinner. Chip burst into her room too, hopping up onto Nancy’s bed.

  Sitting on the bed next to Chip, Nancy opened the Clue Book to a clean page. There she wrote:

  Clue: Lily has a new recipe for pink lemonade. Investigate tomorrow!

  Nancy shut the book. Did Lily Ramos really take Hannah’s top-secret recipe for pink-strawberry lemonade?

  “If it really is Lily, Chip,” Nancy told her dog. “I hope she’s good at keeping secrets.” She petted Chip and sighed. “At least better than me!”

  • • •

  “Wow!” Nancy said the next morning as the Clue Crew approached the Ramoses’ yard. There were more kids at Lily’s lemonade experience than ever before.

  Lily was also in her yard next to her lemonade table. “Get your fresh lemonade here . . . made from scratch!” she was shouting. “Get your fresh pink-strawberry lemonade!”

  “Pink-strawberry, huh?” Nancy said. “So that’s her new and improved lemonade.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George walked over to Lily.

  “You didn’t have pink-strawberry lemonade yesterday, Lily,” George said. “Why the switch?”

  “Your pink-strawberry lemonade gave me an idea,” Lily replied with a shrug.

  “An idea or a whole recipe?” Bess asked.

  “What’s in it, Lily?” Nancy asked.

  “I can’t tell you,” Lily said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have more lemonade to pour. Business is through the roof!”

  As Lily began pouring her pink-strawberry lemonade, Bess pointed to the table.

  “Look at the jar holding the money,” Bess whispered. “It’s shaped like a lemon—just like the jar Lickety-Split Lemonade comes in.”

  Nancy stared at the jar. The label was washed off but the jar was exactly the same as Lickety-Split’s!

  “You guys,” Nancy whispered. “Do you think Lily is serving instant lemonade and telling everyone she made it?”

  “I know how we can find out,” George said.

  George waved Nancy and Bess toward the Ramoses’ trash cans against the side of the house. She then pointed to the blue recycling can and said, “If Lily made all that lemonade, she would have used a lot of jars!”

  George pulled up the lid. The girls then stood on their toes and peered inside. Sure enough, inside the can was a big pile of—

  “Lickety-Split Lemonade jars!” Bess gasped.

  “Lily’s lemonade isn’t Hannah’s recipe,” Nancy decided. “It’s just Lickety-Split!”

  George was about to shut the lid when— />
  “Hey! What are you doing back here?” someone demanded.

  The girls whirled around to see Lily. She had both hands on her hips, and she didn’t look happy!

  LICKETY-FIT

  “Hi, Lily,” Nancy blurted.

  “Why were you snooping in our recycling can?” Lily demanded. “If you’re looking for any of my old diaries you’re out of luck!”

  “We came to look for our pink-strawberry lemonade recipe,” Nancy said. “It went missing yesterday.”

  “But you used Lickety-Split Lemonade,” George said pointing to the recycling bins.

  “Shh!” Lily cried. She lowered her voice. “My customers think my lemonade is fresh—not a powder!”

  “There’s nothing wrong with Lickety-Split, Lily,” Nancy said gently. “What’s wrong is to tell everyone you made it from scratch when you didn’t.”

  “I’m sure your aunt Maria wouldn’t do that at her famous cafés,” Bess added. “Would she?”

  Lily began blinking hard. She then shook her head and said, “My aunt Maria does everything right. She’s my hero!”

  “So what are you going to do?” Nancy asked.

  “I’m going to stop lying about my lemonade,” Lily promised. “But I will keep selling Lickety-Split.”

  “Why?” George asked.

  “Because I hate squeezing lemons, that’s why!” Lily declared. “Did you ever squirt lemon juice in your eye by accident? Owie!”

  Lily was about to return to her stand when Antonio Elefano from school walked over.

  “Do you really allow pets here?” Antonio asked.

  “Sure!” Lily said with a smile. “My lemonade experience is totally pet friendly.”

  “Cool!” Antonio said as he reached into his backpack. “Because I brought Stinky—my pet rat!”

  Lily and Bess screamed as Antonio held up the squirming rat. When Stinky heard the screams, he jumped out of Antonio’s hand onto the ground. When the other pets saw Stinky, they barked, meowed, and chased him through the yard!

  “We’d better get out of here,” Nancy told her friends. “Lickety-split!”

  The girls left Lily’s yard and headed toward Main Street. They had permission from their parents to buy frozen yogurt at their favorite store, Fro-Yo A-Go-Go.

  “This place is the best,” George said as she pulled the handle on the yogurt machine. “Where else can you fill your own cup with any yogurt flavor you want?”

  “And put on your own toppings!” Nancy added, squirting pistachio yogurt into her cup.

  “Yogurt is yummy,” Bess agreed. “But I’m sure going to miss Henderson’s dad’s ice-cream truck.”

  “Yeah.” George sighed. “Mr. Drippy will probably be Mr. Squeezy now.”

  Nancy remembered Henderson stuffing something into his pocket as he left their lemonade stand.

  “Henderson is the only suspect we have left,” Nancy said as they headed toward the topping counter. Suddenly a bunch of younger kids darted in front of them.

  George recognized two of the boys, Mikey Pinsky and Victor Sung from her block.

  “Mikey, Victor, hel-lo?” George called. “There’s a line from the yogurt to the toppings!”

  “We never got yogurt, smarty-pants,” Mikey sneered. He pointed to the toppings. “Just this stuff.”

  “No yogurt?” Nancy asked with surprise.

  Nancy, Bess, and George watched as the kids began loading their cups with gummy worms, licorice, tutti-frutti cereal, sprinkles, chocolate chips, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple chunks—the works!

  “Hurry up, you guys,” Victor told the others. “Henderson wants us back at his house in fifteen minutes!”

  “Did you say Henderson?” Nancy asked the kids. “Are you talking about Henderson ‘Drippy’—I mean—Murphy?”

  The kids traded looks before Victor said, “We can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

  “Does that secret have something to do with lemonade?” George demanded.

  “How did you know?” a girl gasped.

  Nancy, Bess, and George watched openmouthed as the kids paid for their toppings and left.

  “It does have something to do with lemonade,” Nancy whispered. “We should follow them!”

  “I know where Henderson lives,” George agreed. “It’s the house with the ice-cream cone–shaped mailbox!”

  But Bess shook her head. “We’re not going until I get my toppings,” she insisted. “I can’t eat fro-yo without blueberries and crispy coconut!”

  “Okay,” George said. “But after our fro-yo, we go-go straight to Henderson’s!”

  The girls poured on their toppings and ate their frozen yogurt. They then left the shop and quickly walked to Henderson’s house.

  Nancy, Bess, and George went to the front door. After they rang the doorbell several times, no one answered.

  “Where is everybody?” Bess asked.

  “Maybe the kids didn’t go to Henderson’s house,” George said. “Maybe they just said that to trick us.”

  As they turned away from the door, Nancy noticed something way up in a nearby tree. . . .

  “It’s a tree house!” Nancy said, pointing. “Maybe Henderson and the kids are up there!”

  They were about to head for the tree house when something round and yellow rolled out from under the garage door. It was a lemon!

  Nancy looked at the lemon, then at the garage.

  “Where there are lemons—there’s lemonade,” Nancy said, turning toward the garage. “Come on, Clue Crew. We’re going in!”

  LEMON-RAID

  The Clue Crew could hear voices inside the garage. When George rapped on the garage door, the chatter stopped.

  “Is anybody in there?” George called.

  “It depends,” Henderson called back. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s Nancy, Bess, and George,” Nancy called. “We want to ask you something, Henderson.”

  “Not now,” Henderson shouted. “We’re busy in here.”

  “Too bad,” George said through the door. “Because we have an awesome pizza with extra cheese that we want to share.”

  “Pizza?” excited voices cried. “Cool! Open the door, Henderson!”

  The garage door slowly rose. Nancy, Bess, and George looked inside. There was no car, just Henderson and the kids from the yogurt shop. The kids were now wearing lab coats and goggles. They were standing behind a table filled with chemistry beakers!

  “Wow!” Nancy exclaimed.

  Also on the table were bowls filled with lemons and the toppings from the yogurt shop.

  “Where’s the pizza?” Victor asked.

  “What pizza?” George said. She turned to Henderson and asked, “What’s going on in here?”

  Henderson shrugged as he mumbled, “Um . . . we’re just whipping up a science experiment.”

  “It looks like you’re whipping up lemonade!” Bess said.

  “Okay!” Henderson sighed. “So you found my lemon lab.”

  “Lemon lab?” Nancy asked.

  “We’re trying to come up with thirty lemonade flavors,” Henderson explained. “So my dad’s lemonade truck will be just like an ice-cream truck!”

  Henderson pointed to another table near the garage wall. On it were pitchers of lemonade in different colors.

  “So far we made licorice lemonade, coconut lemonade, and pistachio lemonade!” Henderson said proudly.

  “Don’t forget spinach lemonade!” a girl with goggles added. “It’s an acquired taste.”

  “I think I get it,” Nancy said. “But why is your lemon lab such a big secret?”

  “I want to surprise my dad!” Henderson replied.

  The Clue Crew stepped back to whisper among themselves.

  “One of those thirty flavors could be pink strawberry,” Nancy said. “Let’s look for our secret ingredients—and the missing recipe.”

  “Good idea,” Bess whispered.

  The Clue Crew strolled around the table studying fruit, candy,
and vegetables. There was no honey, fizzy water, mint, strawberries, or recipe written on ladybug paper!

  “Now what are you looking for?” Henderson asked.

  “You were stuffing something in your pocket when you left our lemonade stand,” George explained. “What was it?”

  “Something in my pocket?” Henderson gulped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Henderson pointed to the open door and exclaimed, “Quit being nosy and get out of my lemon lab, Clue Crew!”

  Mikey stood up with a lemon in each hand. “Or prepare for a squeeze attack!” he said with a grin.

  The other kids stood up holding lemons too.

  “Nancy, George, I can’t get lemon juice on my new summer blouse!” Bess whispered. “Let’s go . . . pleeeeeeease?”

  Nancy, Bess, and George left the garage.

  “They can’t be making Hannah’s secret recipe,” Bess said as they walked away. “Not without strawberries, fizzy water, mint, or honey.”

  “But what was Henderson stuffing in his pocket yesterday?” Nancy wondered. “I still want to know!”

  As they approached Henderson’s tree house, Nancy stopped. She looked up at the small house and smiled.

  “Kids keep secret stuff in their tree houses all the time,” Nancy said excitedly. “Maybe that’s where Henderson put Hannah’s secret recipe!”

  The girls climbed the wooden ladder leading up to Henderson’s tree house. One by one they stepped inside. . . .

  “Holy cannoli!” George cried.

  Henderson’s tree house was filled with Katy Sloan pictures, CDs, fan magazines—even a Katy bobblehead!

  Suddenly Nancy saw something tacked to a bulletin board. It was another picture of Katy Sloan, but this one was extra special. . . .

  “You guys!” Nancy said, pointing to the bulletin board. “It’s a picture of Katy Sloan—from our lemonade stand!”

  PAGE PUZZLER

  Nancy, Bess, and George studied the picture.

  “It’s ours, all right,” Bess said. She pointed to the picture. “There’s the date of the concert I wrote on it!”