The Cinderella Ballet Mystery Read online

  “Thank you, that’s kind,” Ms. Zelda said.

  “Ms. Zelda, can you help me with my cape?” one of the other students called out. “It’s too long!”

  “Yes, yes, I’m coming,” Ms. Zelda replied. She patted Nancy’s costume, beaming. “There. You look just like a little mouse.”

  Nancy thanked Ms. Zelda as the older woman hurried away with her tape measure, safety pins, and sewing kit. Nancy gazed after her, wondering if the costume manager might be the slipper thief. But that didn’t make any sense. Why would Ms. Zelda have stolen the slippers? Besides, Nancy didn’t feel comfortable accusing her of being a thief. She was a grown-up, after all. Maybe Ms. Zelda lost the barrette, just as she said.

  “Hey, Nancy Clue,” someone said.

  Nancy glanced up. Gregory was standing nearby. He looked handsome in his prince costume: black velvet pants and a royal white tunic with gold buttons.

  “Hi, Gregory,” Nancy said. She wondered if he had been eavesdropping on her conversation with Ms. Zelda.

  Gregory pointed to the “taille 35” clue, which Nancy was still holding. “Where’d you get that?” he asked her curiously.

  “In the set storage area,” Nancy replied. “Why?”

  “I want to show it to someone,” Gregory said. “I’ll bring it right back. Is that okay? I’ll be supercareful with it.”

  Nancy thought for a moment. She wondered why Gregory really wanted to borrow the “taille 35” paper. Still, some instinct told her to say yes. Maybe she would learn something new and important about the case. After all, Gregory was a suspect.

  “Sure,” Nancy said with a smile. She handed the piece of paper to him.

  “Thanks a lot!” Gregory said. Then he rushed off.

  Nancy watched him as he hurried to the other side of the studio. She followed tentatively. Bess and George came up to her.

  “You look so cool in your mouse clothes!” Bess exclaimed.

  “You guys look really great in your costumes too,” Nancy said. She lowered her voice. “I’m following Gregory.”

  “Why?” George asked.

  Nancy explained. “I want to know what he’s going to do with the ‘size thirty-five’ clue,” she finished.

  “We’re all dressed and we have our makeup on,” Bess whispered. “We have about twenty minutes until the first scene. We can help you!”

  Nancy nodded. She put her finger to her lips. Then she, George, and Bess began following Gregory again.

  The studio was bustling with activity, so Gregory didn’t seem to notice that he was being watched. He walked toward Scruffy, who was curled up in the corner on an old red blanket.

  Gregory bent down next to Scruffy and held the piece of paper Nancy had given him under the dog’s nose. Scruffy sniffed. Gregory said something to him. Then Scruffy got up and began walking this way and that, his nose low to the ground, continuing to sniff.

  “What is Gregory doing?” George whispered to Nancy.

  “What is Scruffy doing?” Bess added.

  Nancy frowned. What are they doing? she wondered.

  Then something occurred to her.

  “On Wednesday I saw Gregory walking around the set storage area with Scruffy,” Nancy said out loud to her friends. “It’s like he was using Scruffy to help him find something. Then yesterday, when I found the rhinestone in Gregory’s stuff, Scruffy started sniffing it and barking like crazy.”

  Bess and George both stared at her. “What do you think all that means?” George asked her.

  Nancy’s eyes flashed. “I think I know what happened to the Cinderella slippers,” she announced.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Bravo!

  George gasped. “You know what happened to the slippers?” she demanded. “What? Who? Where? How? Why?”

  “I think Gregory is the person who should be answering those questions,” Nancy said.

  Nancy marched up to Gregory and Scruffy, with George and Bess at her heels. Gregory stopped and turned around. Scruffy gave a short bark.

  Nancy put her hands on her hips and stared sternly at Gregory. She felt a little silly doing that in her mouse costume. But this was important.

  “You took the Cinderella slippers, didn’t you?” Nancy accused Gregory.

  Gregory’s cheeks turned bright red. “Uh, n-no way,” he stammered. “I d-don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Bess stepped up. She put her hands on her hips too. “You do know,” she said. “And you’d better tell us!”

  Gregory stared at the floor. Scruffy barked at him.

  “I think you took the Cinderella slippers on Tuesday, as a joke,” Nancy guessed. “You hid them somewhere, maybe in the set storage area. Then you forgot where you hid them. Or someone moved them. Either way, now you don’t know where they are. You’ve been looking for them since Wednesday, using Scruffy’s super-duper doggy nose.”

  Bess seemed to pick up on Nancy’s thoughts. “You let Scruffy smell the rhinestone and the piece of paper with the size on it to help track down the slippers,” she said slowly.

  Gregory looked up and stared at her, his eyes wide. “How’d you guys know all that?” he asked her.

  “That’s why we’re the Clue Crew,” George said with a grin.

  “Oh.” Gregory frowned. “I didn’t mean to steal the slippers, exactly,” he confessed finally. “I was just going to hide them, as a joke, like Nancy said. I did it after rehearsal on Tuesday.”

  “Is that the last time you saw them?” Nancy asked him.

  Gregory nodded. “On Wednesday, when Andrea and everyone else figured out the slippers were missing, they all freaked out! I thought that was kind of funny. Then I went over to the hiding place to get them. But they were gone!”

  “Where did you get the rhinestone?” Bess said.

  “It fell off on Tuesday when I hid the slippers,” Gregory replied. “I was going to glue it on later. I let Scruffy smell it so he’d help me find the slippers. He has an awesome sense of smell. I think his great-grandfather was a bloodhound.”

  Then something else occurred to Nancy. “That’s why there was a magnifying glass in your dance bag,” she said suddenly.

  “Yeah. I was trying to act like a real detective so I’d solve the mystery,” Gregory admitted. “I guess it didn’t work. The slippers are still gone. Mr. McGuire is going to be supermad at me.” He sighed unhappily.

  Nancy thought for a moment. “Where did you hide the slippers on Tuesday?” she asked him.

  “In a giant ice-cream sundae,” Gregory replied.

  “A giant ice-cream sundae?” Nancy, George, and Bess repeated in unison.

  Gregory nodded. “Yeah. It was made of painted wood. It had a little shelf on the back part of it. I put the slippers there. But then the whole thing disappeared! Like, how did that happen?”

  Nancy gasped. It all made sense now.

  “I know where the sundae is!” she exclaimed.

  “You do?” Gregory asked her eagerly. “Where? I’ll give you my magnifying glass if you find the sundae,” he offered.

  “You can keep your magnifying glass,” Nancy told him. “Come on, guys, we have to get up to the attic!”

  “The attic?” Bess said, sounding confused.

  “The giant ice-cream sundae is from The Nutcracker,” Nancy said, heading for the stairs.

  Bess, George, and Gregory followed Nancy. The four of them raced up the stairs to the attic. Scruffy bounded behind them.

  Nancy had never been in the attic before. It was a big room with a ceiling that sloped down on either side, following the lines of the roof. It was full of set pieces and props: giant trees, the fronts of buildings, fake lampposts, Victorian furniture. Everything was covered with a fine layer of dust. Scruffy sneezed; so did Bess and George.

  “Okay, what’s this about The Nutcracker?” George asked Nancy as she sneezed again.

  “Ms. Zelda told me that she moved some old set pieces from The Nutcracker from the studio up to the attic, to ma
ke room,” Nancy explained breathlessly. “This was Tuesday night.”

  “Tuesday night?” Gregory cried out. “That’s right after I hid the slippers.”

  Nancy nodded. “Exactly! Now, we just have to find the giant ice-cream sundae somehow. There’s an awful lot of stuff here.”

  “And we can’t mess up our costumes, or Mr. McGuire will really be mad,” George pointed out.

  “And we don’t have a lot of time,” Bess said.

  But it took Nancy and her Clue Crew only a few minutes to find the giant ice-cream sundae. It had been shoved in between a huge cookie and an enormous piece of pie.

  Nancy peered behind the sundae. She saw the shelf Gregory had mentioned. Actually, it was more like a little nook.

  The Cinderella slippers were there!

  Nancy pulled them out and held them up in the air. “Yay, we found them!” she exclaimed.

  “The Clue Crew does it again,” George said with a big grin.

  Nancy stood behind the blue velvet curtain. She peered through a crack between two curtain panels. “Oh, I see Dad and Hannah,” she said excitedly. “They’re sitting in the front row!”

  “I see my parents,” Bess said.

  “I see mine, too,” George added.

  It was opening night. The curtain would go up in a few minutes. Backstage, everyone was buzzing with excitement. Ms. Zelda hurried around making sure everyone’s costumes were on just right. Mr. McGuire rushed here and there, checking that the lights and sound equipment were working properly.

  Andrea came up to Nancy and her friends. She was dressed in her Act I Cinderella clothes: a simple gray dress, black tights, and black ballet slippers. In Act II, she would be transformed into a beautiful princess with her long pink ball gown—and of course, her special Cinderella slippers.

  Andrea gave each of the three girls a big hug. “I don’t know how to thank you guys,” she said happily. “You really are the most awesome detectives in the world!”

  “I’m just glad we found your slippers in time for opening night,” Nancy said.

  “Gregory apologized to me and Mr. McGuire,” Andrea said. “He brought us both homemade cookies from his mom too. They were real this time.” She giggled.

  “That’s good.” Nancy giggled too.

  “Places, everybody!” Mr. McGuire announced in a loud whisper. “Curtain in two minutes.”

  “Oh, my gosh!” Bess exclaimed.

  Nancy and her friends ran to their places. Nancy’s heart was pounding so hard that she thought it would burst out of her chest. It was opening night! And she was in the show! She was not just a real detective but a real ballerina, too.

  The lights in the theater dimmed. The music began to play.

  The blue velvet curtain closed after the final act. Applause rang out in the auditorium.

  Behind the curtain, the dancers rushed around, looking for their places to take a bow. Nancy bumped into George.

  “Ow, sorry!” Nancy giggled.

  “Wasn’t that awesome?” George said breathlessly.

  Bess ran up to them. “That was so much fun,” she said. “I think we should all be dancers when we grow up!”

  “Dancer-detectives,” George said, nodding. “We’ll solve mysteries during the day and dance on stage at night!”

  Mr. McGuire stepped out from one of the stage wings. His usually serious-looking face was glowing with excitement. “Places, everyone!” he said in a loud whisper. “It’s time to take your bows.”

  “I can’t believe it’s over!” Bess gasped.

  Nancy took her place. So did George, Bess, and the other dancers. After a few seconds, the curtain swished open. Nancy was dazzled. Her eyes took a minute to focus because the stage lights were so bright, and the auditorium was dark.

  Everyone was clapping like mad. Nancy tried to make out her father and Hannah in the audience. She finally spotted them. Her father was holding a bouquet of flowers and a big stuffed teddy bear. They were for Nancy!

  Then Mr. Drew and the whole audience stood up. This was a standing ovation, which meant that the people really, really liked the ballet.

  Nancy took her bow along with the other dancers. After a moment, Andrea swept out from the wing of the stage and took a special bow, since she was Cinderella. The crowd clapped even more loudly. Andrea looked so pretty. Her Cinderella slippers glittered brightly under the stage lights.

  The curtain closed, then opened again. The audience just kept clapping. Nancy turned to look at George and Bess and grinned. They grinned back.

  The Clue Crew had done it again!

  Nancy, Bess, and George’s Ballerina Finger Puppets

  Nancy, Bess, and George love to put on a show of their own with these cute ballerina finger puppets. You can too!

  You will need:

  White posterboard

  Pencil

  Scissors

  Markers

  Construction paper or wrapping paper

  Glue

  Fabric scraps

  Colored (not clear) fingernail polish

  Glitter, small rhinestones (optional)

  *Draw the outline of a ballerina on the posterboard with the pencil. Just draw the ballerina’s head, torso, and arms—no legs. Her head and torso together should be about as tall as the length of your hand from your wrist to your knuckles. Her arms can be posed like ballerina arms—out to the side, over her head, or one arm up and one arm to the side. You decide!

  *Cut out your ballerina shape with the scissors. Near the bottom of the torso, cut out two legholes for your fingers to go through. (Your fingers will be the ballerina’s legs!)

  *Use the markers to draw her eyes, nose, and mouth. You can make her smiling or serious—or even mean-looking, like Cinderella’s wicked stepmother!

  *Use the construction paper or wrapping paper to create her hair and leotard. Sketch the hair and leotard with the pencil, then cut them out with scissors, and glue them onto your posterboard ballerina. Another option: You can use markers to draw her hair and leotard instead.

  *Use the fabric scraps to create her tutu (which is a fancy French word for a ballet skirt). Cut a triangle shape that would be the right size for a skirt; then trim one corner of the triangle so it can be her waist. Glue the tutu onto your posterboard ballerina.

  *If you want, you can glue glitter or small rhinestones onto her leotard or tutu (or even her hair).

  *Paint the fingernails of your middle finger and the finger next to your thumb with a pretty color. Those will be your ballerina’s toe shoes! When your fingernails are dry, put those fingers through the two legholes in your ballerina’s torso.

  It’s Time to Dance!

  Drape a pretty scarf or other cloth over a table, the back of a chair, or other hard surface for your ballerina’s “stage.” Then put on a CD of classical music like The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky or A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn—or whatever music you and your ballerina feel like grooving to.

  The More the Merrier

  Invite your friends over to make ballerina finger puppets with you. Then you can all put on a show together! If you want to make finger puppets from the Cinderella ballet, you can use these instructions to make a fancy Cinderella, a fairy godmother, or even mice!

  How Did They Do Leaps and Jumps in THAT?

  In the early days of ballet, dancers’ skirts came all the way down to the floor. But eventually, dancers wanted costumes that would show off their steps and make it easier for them to move around. In the early 1700s, dancers started wearing ballet skirts above their ankles. Over the next three hundred years, the ballet skirts continued to get shorter and shorter.

  Read all the books in the

  Blast to the Past

  series!

  #1 Lincoln’s Legacy

  #2 Disney’s Dream

  #3 Bell’s Breakthrough

  #4 King’s Courage

  #5 Sacagawea’s Strength

  #6 Ben Franklin’s Fame

  Coming Soon:


  #7 Washington’s War