The Secret in the Spooky Woods Read online

  Laura glanced down at the megaphone. She looked sheepish. “It’s my older brother’s,” she said. “He uses it for football practice.”

  Meanwhile, George was staring around the clearing. “Wow,” she commented. “You guys brought a lot of stuff out here.”

  Nancy saw that George was right. A large flashlight was sitting on the ground nearby, along with a bag of potato chips, some soda bottles, and a stack of magazines. There were even a couple of folding chairs. One of them held a small, battery-powered radio.

  “So it was you guys all along!” Nancy exclaimed. “You’ve been hiding out here in the woods trying to scare people. But why?”

  Alison crossed her arms across her chest and looked grumpy. But Sarah and Jennifer traded an embarrassed glance.

  Then Jennifer spoke up. “I guess we might as well tell them.”

  “No!” Alison snapped. “It’s a secret.”

  “Not anymore,” Lindsay pointed out. She looked at Nancy. “See, we started this secret club. It’s called the Five Friends Club, or FFC for short.”

  Nancy’s eyes widened as she remembered the song she’d heard them singing. Before she could say anything, Laura spoke up.

  “We didn’t want anyone to find our secret meeting spot,” she said, waving one hand at the clearing. “So we started trying to scare people away by making them think the woods were haunted.”

  “It was just sort of a joke at first,” Jennifer added. “We just told people some spooky stories, and pretty soon everyone was talking about it. But then when we heard you were trying to solve the mystery, we decided we should do some scarier stuff.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Especially after Jennifer accidentally called your puppy with her new dog whistle yesterday. We were afraid you would find us for sure. So we came up with some really good ideas — like making spooky sounds through the megaphone, and calling Jason and those guys pretending to be ghosts.”

  Nancy nodded. Most of the mysterious events were starting to make sense. Even the mismatched footprints seemed perfectly ordinary now that she realized they weren’t mismatched at all. They were left by two different girls wearing different pairs of sneakers.

  But one thing still puzzled her. “But why?” she asked. “Why did you want to start a secret club like that in the first place?”

  All five girls were silent. They looked at each other. Alison still looked grumpy.

  Finally, Lindsay spoke up. “It was her idea,” she said, pointing to Alison. “She’s having a fight with Brenda Carlton. So she thought we’d start the club to prove she’s more popular than Brenda.”

  Alison gasped. “That’s not true,” she cried. “You guys thought it was a good idea too.”

  Just then there was a shout from nearby. “Here they are!”

  A second later a whole group of kids trooped into the clearing. Brenda was at the front of the group. Jason and his friends were there too.

  “We came to rescue you,” Jason said to Nancy and her friends. “We heard that spooky voice again and figured you girls needed a bunch of guys like us to help you out.”

  George rolled her eyes. “Is that why you let Brenda lead the way?” she joked.

  Meanwhile, Brenda was staring at Alison. “What are you guys doing here?” she cried. “Are you the ones who’ve been trying to scare everyone?”

  Most of the other kids heard her. They started murmuring and were all staring at Alison. Alison kept quiet, but the other members of the FFC started apologizing and trying to explain. The chatter in the clearing grew louder and louder as everyone found out what had happened.

  Nancy stepped forward. “Alison,” she said, “I think your plan backfired. Instead of making you more popular, the FFC made you way less popular.”

  Alison scowled. “I don’t care,” she said stubbornly.

  But Nancy didn’t believe her. Alison looked so upset that Nancy felt sorry for her.

  “It’s okay,” she said kindly, putting a hand on Alison’s arm. “Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe you could invite everyone to join your club.”

  “Nobody wants to do that,” Alison mumbled. “Everyone’s mad at me now. I’m sorry.”

  Brenda heard her. She smiled uncertainly. “I’m not mad at you, Alison,” she said. “Not anymore. Can I be in your club?”

  Alison looked surprised. “Um, sure!” she said. “Everyone can be in it.”

  “But then it won’t make sense to call it the Five Friends Club anymore,” Lindsay pointed out.

  Alison smiled. “That’s okay,” she said. “Maybe we can call it the Fabulous Friends Club instead.”

  Everyone cheered. “Come on,” Nancy said. “Let’s all go back to the park.”

  Alison and Brenda linked arms with each other and led the way down the trail. Jennifer, Lindsay, Sarah, and Laura were right behind them. Nancy followed with her two best friends.

  “Another case closed,” Bess said. “I’m glad it wasn’t real ghosts!”

  Nancy nodded. She was thinking over the whole case. Almost everything made sense now. There was just one thing still bugging her.

  “I guess this means all our suspects are innocent,” she said. “But it still doesn’t explain why Mr. Garrison is so grumpy all the time. I guess Hannah is wrong and he just doesn’t like kids after all.”

  “I guess so,” George agreed. “Too bad for us.”

  Just then they reached the edge of the woods. Nancy stepped out onto the soccer field just in time to see Mr. Garrison walking by.

  “Oops,” Bess whispered with a giggle. “I hope he didn’t hear us talking about him.”

  Meanwhile, Jennifer set Princess down on the ground. The poodle puppy let out a Yip! and raced up to Mr. Garrison, her tiny tail wagging.

  “Aaah!” Mr. Garrison cried fearfully as the puppy leaped up on his leg. “Get that thing away from me! Get it away!”

  Without waiting for an answer, he turned and raced off at top speed. Princess followed for a few steps, then gave up.

  Nancy’s eyes widened. She thought back on the other times she’d seen Mr. Garrison. She realized he only seemed grumpy when Chip was off her leash—or when he thought she was.

  “Did you see that?” she exclaimed. “I think we just solved the last piece of the mystery.”

  “What’s that?” George asked.

  Nancy smiled. “Mr. Garrison isn’t grumpy,” she said. “He’s just afraid of dogs!”

  • • •

  A little later, as her friends played with Princess, Nancy sat down on the grass by herself. She pulled out her detective notebook and her pen and started to write.

  We just solved the Secret in the Spooky Woods. But the real secret turned out to be Alison Wegman’s club. I guess she knows now that clubs are more fun if you share them with lots of people.

  I also found out that even adults can have secrets—like Mr. Garrison. This whole time we thought he was a big grump. But he was just scared to death of dogs!

  Anyway, I’m definitely going to be nicer to him from now on. I think Alison and Brenda are going to be nicer to each other, too. At least for a while!

  Case closed!

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition October 2004

  Copyright © 2004 by Simon & Schuster, Inc

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster

  Children’s Publishing Division

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  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  The text of this book was set in Excelsior.

  Printed in the United States of Americ
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  NANCY DREW, THE NANCY DREW NOTEBOOKS, and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  ISBN: 978-1-4424-8346-0 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Control Number 2004102673

  ISBN 0-689-87413-8