Earth Day Escapade Read online

  “Hi, Quincy!” Nancy called.

  “Hey, what’s up?” said Quincy, still staring down at his game.

  “We didn’t know you lived next door to Felicity,” Nancy said. “Did you ever meet her family?”

  Quincy looked up and stared at Nancy.

  “Her family?” he blurted. “Why do you want to know?”

  Nancy didn’t like to trick suspects into confessing. But the parade was the next day, and time was running out.

  “Felicity wrote how earth-friendly they all are,” Nancy explained. “You’re so lucky to have neighbors like them.”

  “Yeah, real lucky,” Quincy sneered.

  “I mean, they never waste water or electricity,” George went on.

  “And they must recycle everything!” Bess added.

  “Yeah … everything,” Quincy muttered.

  “And I bet,” Nancy said slowly, “they even have a bigger compost bin than yours.”

  Quincy jumped up.

  “What?” he cried. He pointed with his game to the house next door. “Those Faulkners are the biggest polluters in River Heights. And Felicity is the biggest liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire!”

  “So Felicity lied in her essay, huh?” George asked.

  “Is that why you wrote this note you left for her?” Nancy asked. She reached out and showed him the note.

  “How do you know it’s mine?” Quincy asked.

  “The writing on the note matched your writing on the giant birthday card,” Nancy told him.

  “Rats,” Quincy said. “I should have known the Clue Crew was on the case.”

  “So you did write it?” asked Bess.

  “Yeah,” Quincy admitted. “One day I went to Felicity’s house to watch TV with her. She played a CD at the same time. Then we drank juice out of plastic bottles, and when I went to throw mine away there was no recycling can!”

  Quincy began waving his arms. “All the lights were on when it was still daytime,” he went on. “And they did flush the toilet all the time. I heard it myself!”

  “Is that why you wrote the note?” Nancy asked.

  “I had to!” Quincy said. “When she wrote that bogus essay I had to let her know I knew the truth.”

  “But you didn’t sign it!” said George.

  “I didn’t want to get in trouble,” Quincy admitted. “I guess I was chicken.”

  “A nasty secret note is bad enough,” Nancy said. “But did you have to dump stuff from your compost bin all over Felicity’s throne?”

  “Huh?” Quincy wrinkled his brow. “I didn’t do that!”

  “But you wanted your compost bin to be on the float, didn’t you?” said Nancy.

  “Not like that,” Quincy said. “Besides, did you find any worms?”

  “Worms?” Nancy asked.

  “No—thank goodness!” Bess said.

  “Then it couldn’t have been my compost bin,” Quincy exclaimed. “It’s got a ton of worms.”

  Nancy looked at Bess and George. Quincy had a point.

  Suddenly the door behind Quincy flew wide open. A flash of orange appeared in the door frame. It was Quincy’s little brother Emmett, dressed in a carrot suit.

  Emmett’s arms were sticking out the sides, and on top of his orange hood was a tall stalk of green leaves.

  “Hey, Quincy!” Emmett said. He held up a piece of paper. “Where are the magnets so I can hang this up on the refrig—”

  Emmett stopped mid-sentence when he saw Nancy, Bess, and George. His eyes went wide open as he said, “Uh-oh!”

  The paper fluttered from Emmett’s hand as he slammed the door shut. It blew off the doorstep onto the grass.

  “That was Emmett in his carrot suit,” Quincy said, rolling his eyes. “The kindergartners are marching in the Earth Week parade dressed as organic fruits and veggies.”

  All Nancy could think about were the green leaves bobbing on top of Emmett’s head. They looked like the strange leaves they’d seen behind the school!

  When Nancy looked at Bess and George, she knew they were thinking the same thing.

  “Why did he look so scared to see us?” Nancy asked.

  “Who knows?” Quincy sighed. “He’s been acting weird ever since he lost his sneaker.”

  “Sneaker?” Nancy exclaimed.

  Before Nancy could ask if it was red, a woman’s voice called from inside the house, “Quincy, it’s time to do your homework!”

  “I’d better go inside,” said Quincy. “Good luck with finding out who trashed the throne.”

  Quincy darted into the house and shut the door.

  “Did you just see what I saw?” Nancy asked her friends.

  “For sure!” George said. “The leaves on Emmett’s carrot suit looked just like the leaves on the—”

  “Walking veggies!” Bess finished for her.

  “Quincy said the kindergartners are dressing up as fruits and veggies in the parade,” Nancy said. “Maybe those weird leaves were them spying on us!”

  “Why would they want to spy on us?” George wondered.

  “I don’t know,” said Nancy. “But I think that sneaker we found belongs to Emmett.”

  George picked up the paper that Emmett had dropped. She held it up and said, “Hey, look! This looks like the finger paintings we used to make in kindergarten.”

  But Nancy noticed something else.…

  “Bess, George!” she said excitedly. “The paint is the same colors as the smudges we found on the float. Red, yellow, and blue.”

  “Look!” said Bess. She pointed to the bottom of the painting. “Emmett’s teacher wrote his name and the date.”

  “It’s the same date Felicity’s throne was trashed,” Nancy noticed.

  The girls high-fived. In just minutes they had gotten a bunch of great clues.

  “Let’s find the kindergartners in the school yard tomorrow,” Nancy said with a grin. “And catch them yellow, blue, and red-handed!”

  Nancy couldn’t wait to question the kindergartners. So the next morning, while the other kids played in the school yard, the girls searched for Emmett.

  “Why do you think the kindergartners ruined our float?” George asked as they walked.

  “Remember how they wanted to climb our float and we wouldn’t let them?” Nancy said. “Maybe they were mad enough to do something mean.”

  “They could have had peanut butter, too,” George added. “Kindergartners bring in their own lunch.”

  As they walked around the monkey bars, Nancy spotted Emmett. He was sipping from a juice box as he kicked a ball back and forth with two other kindergartners, the boy with freckles and the girl in the pink jacket.

  “Hey, Emmett!” Nancy shouted.

  Emmett looked up. His mouth dropped open. Then he looked at his friends and said, “Brendan, Emily, run!”

  Leaving the ball, the kindergartners began to run. Nancy, Bess, and George ran after them at full speed.

  “They’ve got to be guilty!” said George as they ran. “Why else would they be running away from us?”

  Backpacks flapped as the girls and kindergartners darted through the school yard. As they ran past Felicity, she shouted, “Does this have anything to do with the case?”

  “Yes!” Bess shouted back.

  “I’m there!” said Felicity as she joined the chase.

  The kindergartners were fast, but the third-graders were gaining speed.

  “Hey! No juice in the school yard—and be careful!” a fifth-grade monitor shouted.

  The kindergartners kept running, but not fast enough!

  “Gotcha!” Nancy said, grabbing Emmett’s backpack. But then Emmett whirled around and—

  “Aaaaahhhh!” Nancy screamed.

  Squirting into her eye from Emmett’s juice box was something wet, sticky, and cold.

  It was an apple juice ambush!

  “Quit it!” Nancy cried.

  Emmett flung the juice box away.

  “You little pest!” said George.

>   “I didn’t mean to make it squirt!” Emmett exclaimed. “It was an accident!”

  “Just like when he spilled gunk on your float!” Emily blurted. Her hand flew up to her mouth. “Whoops.”

  Emmett groaned under his breath.

  “So you did ruin our throne,” Nancy said. “Is that why you were spying on us in your veggie suits?”

  “No!” said Emmett. “I was looking for my sneaker. I lost it when we jumped off the float.”

  “We didn’t want you to know what happened,” Brendan added. He leaned forward and began to whisper. “So we went in disguise.”

  “I didn’t mean to mess up the float,” Emmett explained. “But I tripped on an empty bottle. Then all the gooky stuff spilled out of my pail.”

  “What were you doing with all that gooky stuff?” Bess asked.

  “It was stuff from our lunch we didn’t eat,” Emily said. “We wanted to throw it in Quincy’s mush pile.”

  Nancy smiled at Bess and George. So that’s how the throne got messed up—it was the kindergartners all along!

  “You ruined my float!” Felicity told the little kids. “You’d better go tell our teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, what you did.”

  “No way!” Emmett gasped.

  “Your teacher will tell our teacher!” said Emily.

  Nancy had to think fast. “You might get the River Heights Elementary School Honesty Award,” she said.

  “The what?” Emmett asked.

  “The school gives out an honesty prize every year,” Nancy said. “Maybe you’ll win.”

  The kindergartners exchanged smiles. Then Emmett said, “Let’s find Quincy’s teacher!”

  They had started to run when Nancy called, “Wait!”

  “Now what?” Emmett groaned.

  Nancy pulled the red sneaker from her backpack. She held it up and said, “You forgot this.”

  “My sneaker!” Emmett cheered. “Thanks!”

  After taking his long-lost sneaker, Emmett and his friends left to find Mrs. Ramirez.

  “Wow,” said George. “They’re really going to tell Mrs. Ramirez.”

  “They’re being real grown-up,” Felicity said. “For kindergartners.”

  Nancy frowned when she heard that. She turned to Felicity and said, “They’re more grown-up than you. At least they’re telling the truth.”

  Felicity didn’t reply.

  As the day went by, the kids in Mrs. Ramirez’s class heard the good news. The Clue Crew had solved the case of the trashed throne.

  At lunchtime Nancy and her classmates waited outside the lunchroom for the doors to open. They talked about their float and the parade.

  “Now our float is safe,” Nadine said, “thanks to Nancy, Bess, and George!”

  “Way to go, Clue Crew!” Tommy cheered.

  Deirdre shook her head and said, “What was Felicity thinking when she lied on her essay?”

  “What was Emmett thinking?” Quincy sighed. “You don’t put peanut butter and macaroni salad in a compost bin. Just fruit and veggie scraps, cut grass, leaves—”

  “Hey, guys!” a voice cut in.

  Everyone turned. Felicity was running down the hallway with a big smile on her face.

  “Guess what?” she said. “I finally told Mrs. Ramirez that I lied on my essay.”

  “No way!” said George.

  “Yes way,” Felicity said, nodding. “And it feels great.”

  “Woo-hoo!” Quincy cheered. “The Queen of Green came clean—once and for all.”

  “Oh, Mrs. Ramirez said I can’t be the Queen of Green anymore because I lied,” Felicity said.

  Nancy felt bad for Felicity. But she knew telling the truth was the best way to go.

  “But guess what else?” Felicity asked. “I’m going to talk my mom and dad into saving water and electricity—and into recycling all our paper, cans, and bottles, too.”

  “That’s great, Felicity!” Nancy exclaimed.

  “I know,” said Felicity. “But now that I goofed, who will be the Queen of Green on our float?”

  All eyes turned to Deirdre.

  “Don’t look at me,” Deirdre said.

  The lunchroom door flew open. Mrs. McGillicuddy stood in the doorway wearing a green hairnet and a big smile.

  “Attention all students!” she announced. “Changes have been made in the lunchroom!”

  “Changes?” Nancy asked. “What changes?”

  “If you’ll notice, there are no more foam plates!” Mrs. McGillicuddy said. “Instead of plastic water bottles, we have a brand-new water cooler with reusable cups.”

  Excited whispers filled the hall.

  “And whatever fruits and veggies you don’t eat will go right into that young man’s compost pile.” Mrs. McGillicuddy nodded at Quincy.

  “Sweet!” Quincy shouted.

  “So in honor of Earth Week,” Mrs. McGillicuddy boomed, “we declare the River Heights Elementary School lunchroom officially green!”

  A big cheer erupted from the students.

  Mrs. McGillicuddy and the other lunch ladies waved the kids into the lunchroom.

  “So that was Mrs. McGillicuddy’s top secret plan,” George said.

  “To make the whole lunchroom earth-friendly!” Bess added. “How cool is that?”

  Nancy watched as Mrs. McGillicuddy took her place behind the counter. She had done an awesome thing turning a whole lunchroom green in just a week. So awesome, it gave her an idea.

  “You guys,” Nancy said excitedly. “I think I just found our new Queen of Green.”

  “Happy Earth Day to you!” Nancy, Bess, and George sang together. “Happy Earth Day to yoooooou!”

  Everyone was singing on Mrs. Ramirez’s Earth Week float. That’s because it was finally the day of the big parade, and all of River Heights Elementary School marched down River Street.

  One first-grade class walked their pets in a parade of the species. There were dogs, cats—even an iguana walking slowly on a leash. The fourth graders volleyed their Earth balls back and forth, while some fifth graders pushed a car they’d built that ran on people power, not gas.

  Marching in front of Mrs. Ramirez’s float were the kindergartners in their fruit and veggie costumes, chanting in unison, “Hup … hup … hup!”

  Nancy smiled as she waved at Hannah and her dad, who were standing in the crowd. They both clapped and cheered.

  “Fabulous float, Nancy!” Mr. Drew shouted.

  “Thanks!” Nancy yelled back over the music.

  Proudly Nancy looked around the class float. It was pretty fabulous. The cans and bottles were tied to the float with colorful ribbons. The recycled can and bottle band played while the recycled fashion models struck glam poses. Felicity was one of them now. She strutted back and forth in an old-made-new dress with dangling recycled bottle-cap earrings.

  Sitting on the lid of his compost bin was Quincy. The kids in the class had finally agreed that an earth-friendly compost bin was definitely float-friendly, too—even with the worms. Mrs. Ramirez said it was okay, as long as Quincy kept the lid on very tight!

  Behind Quincy sat the Queen of Green herself—Mrs. McGillicuddy!

  “Hellooooo, River Heights!” Mrs. McGillicuddy shouted from her throne, waving a soup-ladle scepter. Instead of a hairnet, she was wearing a shiny crown made out of recycled silver foil. “Who says lunch ladies don’t rule?”

  But no one could be prouder than Nancy, Bess, and George as they stood side by side on the float.

  “We solved another case, you guys!” said George over the music and cheers.

  “And we saved our class float,” Bess added.

  Nancy beamed as she pointed to all the cans and bottles they’d collected. “Not only did we save our float, we helped save the earth,” she said. “And that is the best part of all!”

  Recycled Bottle Band Blast!

  (Soda) Pop Quiz: What’s a fun way to recycle and reuse empty bottles?

  Answer: Turn them into earth-friendly musical instr
uments!

  You Will Need:

  Six empty bottles (plastic or glass)

  Tap water

  Five friends to join the band

  Fill the first bottle almost to the top with water. Keep filling the following bottles with less and less water until the last has about an inch or so of water in it.

  Good Vibrations

  Blow over the tops of the bottles. Notice how each bottle has a different tone? That’s because your breath is making the air inside the bottle vibrate. The less water, the deeper the pitch.

  Band Together

  Get five friends to each play a bottle, and take one for yourself. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Pour water in and out until you get the tune you’re aiming for!

  More Bottle Brainstorms

  Fill empty glass bottles with water. Instead of blowing across the tops, tap the sides of the bottles with a spoon. The less water, the higher the pitch.

  Or fill empty bottles with dried beans, birdseed … or rock on with pebbles! Cover the tops with masking tape, then shake it up for a neat maraca-like sound.