The Clue in the Glue Page 3
“No, Mrs. Reynolds. I—” George tried to explain.
“That’s it,” Mrs. Reynolds said angrily. “I’m sorry, George. You may not go on the field trip tomorrow.”
The class grew very quiet.
George’s lower lip started to shake.
“And, Nancy, you are very close to not going also,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Please get back to your desk.”
At lunchtime Nancy, Bess, and George went to the cafeteria.
“Mrs. Reynolds is calling my mom to tell her I can’t go on the field trip,” George said, her eyes filling with tears.
Nancy put an arm around her friend. “George, we’ll find out who’s writing the notes.”
“It’ll be too late,” George said.
“No, it won’t. We can still solve this case,” Nancy said. “Did either of you notice anything during art?”
“I heard Jason ask Kyle if he could borrow some glue,” Bess said.
“And Andrew had some Glue Boy glue,” Nancy added. She took out her detective notebook.
“Andrew’s writing didn’t match the notes,” she said. “We should cross him off as a suspect.” She put a line through his name. Under Jason’s name, she wrote:
Clues
Smiley-face paper
Jelly Jets
Glue
“George, can I look at the note you got this morning?” Nancy asked. She took a bite of her cream cheese and raisin sandwich.
“You mean the not-note,” George said with a laugh. “There was nothing on it.” She put down her apple juice carton and dug a piece of paper out of her pants pocket.
Nancy looked at the piece of paper. It was blank except for a yellow smiley face at the top. Nancy noticed that the paper had a faint smell. She sniffed the paper. The smell seemed familiar, but she couldn’t think what it was.
This could be another clue, she decided. “Can I borrow this for a while, George?” Nancy asked.
“It’s all yours,” George said.
“Thanks,” Nancy said, and she tucked the note into her blue notebook.
• • •
After school Mrs. Marvin picked up Bess and Nancy. George and her mom had to meet with Mrs. Reynolds.
“Nancy, let’s get George a present,” Bess suggested on the drive home. “To cheer her up.”
Nancy grinned. “Good idea.”
Bess’s mom said she would take them both to the mall after dinner. Mrs. Marvin said they would pick Nancy up at six-thirty.
“See ya later, alligator.” Nancy waved after Bess and her mom dropped her off.
“After a while, crocodile,” Bess called as they drove away.
Nancy’s dog, Chocolate Chip, greeted her at the door. Chip was a brown Labrador retriever.
“Hi, Chip.” Nancy patted her puppy’s head. She put down her backpack and went to the kitchen to get some juice.
“There’s no apple juice left, Hannah,” Nancy said, peering into the refrigerator.
Hannah looked up from making supper. “I think there’s some grapefruit juice in the back of the fridge.”
“Ugh.” Nancy didn’t like grapefruit juice very much. But she was thirsty, so she got out the carton and poured herself a glass.
She took out her detective’s notebook and put it on the kitchen table. Nancy sat sipping quietly, looking over her clues and thinking.
Nancy took another sip of her drink. Suddenly, she sniffed the juice. There is something familiar about that smell, she thought.
She took out the blank note and smelled it.
“I’ve got it!” Nancy said excitedly. “The blank note smells like grapefruit juice—just like Jason’s invisible ink!”
7
Art Store Surprise
Come on, Chip, we have to test this paper,” Nancy said. “I’ll bet there’s writing on it!”
Nancy rushed up to her bedroom. She took the shade off the table lamp beside her bed. Then she held the blank paper over the lighted bulb. In a minute, words appeared: “I like you.” There was a wiggly line under the words.
Nancy pulled out her blue notebook and looked at the other notes. The writing in all the notes looked like the invisible ink note.
Nancy looked at one of the notes closely: “George, I think you are pretty.” There was a wiggly line under the word “pretty.”
“Mmm, a wiggly line in two notes. Hey, I’ve seen this wiggly line under words in something else,” Nancy said to Chip. “But where?”
Under Jason’s name, she added “Invisible ink note” to the other clues.
“Hi, Pudding Pie.” Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, came into her room and kissed the top of her head. “What’s up?”
“Hi, Daddy. I’m working on a mystery.” Nancy gave him a big hug and told him all about George and the notes.
“I’m sure it’s Jason,” Nancy said. She held out the invisible ink note. “Just look at this note. Jason had an invisible ink project for the science fair.”
“Well, if you think all of your clues add up, then you are probably right,” Mr. Drew said, winking at Nancy as he left the room. “But it’s always good to double-check your clues.”
Nancy flopped down on her bed. “I can’t wait to tell George about my clue. I’ll call her right now.”
• • •
After dinner, Bess and her mother picked up Nancy. As they drove to the mall, Nancy told Bess about the invisible ink note.
“George was really excited when I told her, Bess.”
“That’s super!” Bess said. “Now what do we do?”
“George should talk to Jason and make him go with her to Mrs. Reynolds,” Nancy said. “He can tell her that he was writing notes to George, and she didn’t know about it. Then she can go on the field trip.”
“Let’s still get George a present,” Bess said.
At the mall, Nancy and Bess went to George’s favorite store, Nature Time. There were so many choices, they couldn’t decide what to buy.
“How about a T-shirt that says Save the Tree Frogs?” Nancy asked.
“She might croak over that,” Bess said. Then she and Nancy giggled.
“Oh, look. Glow-in-the-dark stars,” Nancy said. “She can put them on her ceiling.”
After Nancy and Bess paid for the gift, Mrs. Marvin and the girls headed for the front entrance of the mall. On the way, they passed the art supply store.
Jason and David were just leaving the store with their mothers. “Hi, you guys!” Jason called.
Nancy noticed that Jason and David each held a bag. “What did you buy?”
“Just some glue,” Jason replied. He pulled out a bottle of Glue Boy.
Then David took out a tube of Peacock’s Glue. That’s the same glue I found under George’s display table! Nancy thought.
“I’ve never used that glue,” Nancy said to David. “Is it good?”
“It’s great,” David replied. He held up the tube for them to see. “My dad and I use it when we make wood gliders. It’s like paste. Real thick and sticky.”
“Do you use it for school?” Nancy asked.
“Sure,” David said. “It works on paper, too.”
“We’d better go, girls,” Mrs. Marvin said.
“See ya,” Bess called as she and Nancy followed Mrs. Marvin to the main entrance of the mall.
“Are you sure Jason is the one writing George notes?” Bess asked as they rode home. “Maybe it’s David.”
Nancy wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know, but all the clues point to Jason.”
“Well, it’s David who uses the kind of glue you found under George’s table,” Bess said.
“That’s true,” Nancy said.
• • •
When Nancy got home, she put on her favorite nightgown with red and pink roses. Chocolate Chip lay curled up in a ball on the floor beside her bed.
Nancy got on top of the bed and opened her blue notebook.
She thought out loud about David.
“I did see David at Jason�
��s display table. He was playing with the invisible ink on some paper. It could have been smiley-face paper, Chip.” Nancy gave her puppy a rub behind his ears. Chip thumped her tail on the carpet.
“David does like Jelly Jets. He and Jason are always eating them. And David uses Peacock’s Glue.” Nancy tapped her pen on her notebook.
“But what about the invisible ink note?”
Nancy studied the notes again. Suddenly, she jumped off the bed. Chip hopped up from the floor, wagging her tail back and forth.
“Chip, that’s it!” Nancy picked up the two notes with wiggly lines in them.
“The wiggly line!” Nancy waved the notes in the air and did a little dance. “I know where I saw it before!” Chocolate Chip jumped around her feet.
“And I know who wrote George’s notes and fixed her model!”
8
Boys, Boys, Boys
Nancy woke up extra early the next morning, and Hannah drove her to school.
“Have fun on your field trip today,” Hannah said as Nancy hopped out of the car.
“I will, Hannah.” Nancy gave her a kiss goodbye. I hope George gets to go, Nancy thought.
Nancy hurried to the classroom and over to Jason’s display table. She found the test paper that David had written: “Invisible ink is not stinky!” There was a wiggly line under the words “is not.”
“I knew it!” Nancy said right out loud. “That’s where I saw the wiggly line before.” Nancy pulled the other notes from her blue notebook. She held two of them near the invisible ink test.
Just like the one under the words in these two notes, she thought. David is the one who wrote the notes!
When George and Bess arrived, Nancy told them what she’d figured out.
“I can’t believe it’s David,” George said. “He’s been so mean to me.”
The girls left the classroom and found David in front of the school. They marched over to him. “You’re writing George secret notes, aren’t you?” Nancy asked. “And you’re using Jason’s smiley-face notepaper.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” David said. Nancy thought he looked very nervous.
“Did you fix my model?” George demanded.
David shook his head, but his face got red. Finally, he said, “I might have. And maybe I left you a note or two. But I was just kidding around.”
“George got in trouble because of your notes,” Nancy said.
“Yeah, she can’t go on the field trip because Mrs. Reynolds caught her reading one of your notes,” Bess added.
David looked embarrassed.
“I want you to stop leaving me notes, David,” George said. “And I don’t want the other kids to know you were sending me notes.”
“Neither do I!” David said quickly. “That’s why I left you an invisible ink note.”
George looked puzzled.
“After Brenda wrote in her paper about you,” David explained, “I thought that someone might find one of the notes and read it.”
“The way we did,” Nancy added.
David nodded. “So, I decided to write in invisible ink.”
“David, please don’t send me any more notes, in regular or invisible ink!” George cried.
“Okay,” David said. “I gotta go.” He turned and ran inside the school building.
Nancy handed George the notes. “We have to talk to Mrs. Reynolds so you can go on the field trip.”
“What if she still doesn’t believe me?” George asked.
“We can prove David wrote the notes,” Nancy replied. “We can show her the handwriting.”
“I wish she didn’t have to know it’s a boy writing me notes. It’s so yucky,” George said.
The three girls walked back to the classroom to see Mrs. Reynolds. George showed her the written notes and explained about David.
When George finished, Mrs. Reynolds said, “I already knew about the notes.”
Nancy, George, and Bess opened their mouths in surprise.
“David just told me a few minutes ago,” the teacher explained. “He told me he’d left some unsigned notes in your desk. He seemed terribly upset that I decided not to let you go on the field trip.”
Mrs. Reynolds held out the notes. “It seems David has a crush on you.”
George’s face turned red.
Mrs. Reynolds put her arm around George’s shoulders. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anybody.”
George sighed with relief.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, George,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “But if you hadn’t been passing notes in class those other times, it would have been easier to believe you.”
George looked down at the ground.
“You will be going on the field trip.” Mrs. Reynolds smiled again. “I’ve already called your mother.”
Nancy, Bess, and George cheered.
• • •
Later that afternoon Nancy, George, and Bess hunched down low in their theater seats. They were at the Adler Planetarium, waiting for the sky show to begin.
“Isn’t this place great?” Bess said.
“Yeah. Look at the neat stars on the ceiling,” George said. “Just like the cool glow-in-the-dark stars that I’ll be able to put on the ceiling of my bedroom.” She smiled at Nancy and Bess, who beamed back.
• • •
That night Nancy snuggled down in her bed. Chocolate Chip was fast asleep on the floor. Nancy got out her blue notebook and began to write:
We had a great trip to the planetarium today. It was so much fun. The volcano display was my favorite. The red-hot lava was neat and scary. The sky show was really cool.
Nancy drew a little picture of a volcano in her notebook.
The mystery of George’s secret note writer has been solved. It was David Berger. George and I have to remember not to pass notes in class anymore!
Nancy thought about how Jason was a really nice boy after all. So was Andrew. Then she thought about David. He really liked George, but he had been mean to her all week. She wrote:
I’ve decided that some boys can be pretty nice. Except when they really like you. Then they just get weird.
Case closed.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Aladdin
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Copyright © 1998 by Simon & Schuster Inc. Produced by Mega-Books, Inc.
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First Minstrel Books printing January 1998
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ISBN-13: 978-0-671-00816-1 (pbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4424-6795-8 (ebook)