“Hi!” Katie called out in a friendly voice. She wore her brown hair in a ponytail, and she was dressed in a red soccer jersey and jeans.
“Do you play soccer?” George asked her.
Katie nodded. “I love soccer! It’s my favorite sport in the whole world.”
“Mine too,” George said.
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Soccer is soooo boring. Soccermania is way more interesting.” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small flower-covered device. It had a shiny screen and lots of tiny buttons.
“What’s that?” Nancy asked.
“What? You mean you don’t know?” said Miranda. “It’s only the coolest gaming console ever.”
“It’s the new Gamer Girl,” Heidi explained. “You can play Soccermania and a bunch of other games on it. You can’t get it in the United States yet. Daddy bought it for me in Japan, on a business trip.” She added, “It cost a lot of money.”
“So did this.” Miranda reached into her backpack and pulled out a small red cell phone. “It’s the new My-Fone. You can’t get this in the United States either. Mommy bought it for me in Sweden.”
George leaned over to Nancy and Bess. “Miranda’s in third grade and she’s allowed to have a cell phone?” she said with a gasp.
“I bet none of you have the new Gamer Girl or the new My-Fone,” Heidi said smugly.
“Uh, Heidi? And Miranda? It’s not cool to brag,” Katie pointed out. “You’re probably making everyone here feel bad.”
Miranda sighed. “We’re not bragging, Katie. We’re just stating the facts—right, H?”
Heidi tossed her blond hair over her shoulders. “Right, M.”
Nancy noticed that April was staring at Miranda and Heidi with a puzzled expression. Nancy was puzzled too. She wondered why April was friends with them. Based on a first impression, they seemed kind of stuck-up. And April was definitely not stuck-up.
April turned to the rest of the girls. “Uh, maybe we should play a game or something,” she said awkwardly.
Just then the doorbell rang.
“More party guests, April?” Miranda asked.
“No. Everyone’s already here,” said April, confused.
From upstairs came the sound of the door opening…then voices…then footsteps. A moment later someone came down the basement stairs.
It was Sydney Decker!
CHAPTER FOUR
Missing!
“I’m sorry I’m late, April,” Sydney said with an apologetic smile. “I hope I didn’t miss anything.”
“M-miss anything?” April stammered. “W-what are you talking about?”
Nancy noticed that April looked really uncomfortable. No wonder, she thought. She hadn’t invited Sydney to the party—and Sydney had shown up anyway!
“I guess my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail,” Sydney breezed on. She set her backpack on the floor, next to everyone else’s. It was bright blue, with dolphin stickers on it. “It’s a good thing I ran into Nancy, George, and Bess at Gagtime. They told me all about the party and invited me. Wasn’t that nice of them?”
“What?” Nancy, George, and Bess said at the same time.
“I brought some chocolate chip cookies for everyone to share.” Sydney held up a pan covered with aluminum foil. “I baked them this morning from a recipe that I found online. Where should I put them?”
April hesitated. “Um, over on that table,” she said after a moment, pointing. “Thanks, Sydney. That was nice of you.”
“You’re welcome!” said Sydney. “So are you going to introduce me to your other friends?”
April introduced Sydney to Miranda, Heidi, and Katie. Miranda barely said hello; she was talking to someone on her cell phone. Likewise, Heidi was furiously pressing the buttons on her Gamer Girl.
Bess pulled Nancy and George away from the others. “Sydney told a big fat lie!” she said in a low voice.
“We did not invite her to April’s party,” George agreed.
“She must have really, really wanted to come to the party,” Nancy mused. “I wonder if she and April are really BFFs, or if that’s a big fat lie too.”
“It probably is, since April didn’t invite her to the party,” Bess pointed out.
“Who’s hungry?”
Nancy glanced up. Mr. and Mrs. Funk were coming down the stairs with trays of snacks.
April’s face lit up. “Oh, awesome! Thanks, Mom and Dad. Hey, everyone! Wait till you check out these superspecial party snacks that we made.”
Mr. and Mrs. Funk set the food down on a large table surrounded by eight red folding chairs. April, Nancy, George, Bess, Sydney, and Katie gathered around. Miranda put her cell phone back in her backpack and joined the others. Heidi did likewise with her Gamer Girl.
“Eeeew!” April’s friends all cried out at once.
On one of the trays was a kitty litter pan full of kitty litter—and kitty poops! It was sitting on some old newspapers, and there was a shiny new pooper scooper sticking out of it.
“That is soooo disgusting!” Heidi moaned.
“Really gross,” Miranda agreed.
April started laughing. So did her parents.
Sydney frowned. “What’s so amusing about kitty litter? What if some of us had eaten it by accident? We might have gotten sick—or worse!”
“April Fool’s!” April exclaimed. “It’s not really kitty litter.”
“It’s not? Then what is it?” asked Nancy.
“It’s a special recipe made of cake and cookie crumbs mixed with chocolate pudding and frosting,” Mr. Funk explained.
Bess made a face. “And what are the…um…little things made of?”
“We microwaved some caramel candies until they were soft and rolled them into kitty poop shapes,” April told her guests.
Everyone cracked up. Nancy had to admit that this was a really good April Fool’s Day prank!
Katie glanced at the other items on the table. “Well, at least there’s some real food here. Hey, french fries—my favorite!” She grabbed a french fry out of a basket and dipped it into a small dish of ketchup. She popped it into her mouth—and almost spit it out. “This isn’t a french fry. It’s sweet!”
“It’s baked bread dough rolled in sugar. And the ‘ketchup’ is strawberry jam,” Mrs. Funk explained.
George studied the remaining snacks. “Is the other stuff April Fool’s Day food too?” she asked hesitantly.
April grinned. “Maybe. See for yourself!”
“Don’t worry, it’s all edible,” Mr. Funk reassured the girls. “Enjoy!” With that, he and Mrs. Funk went back upstairs.
“I’m going to wash my hands first,” Katie said. “I got ketchup—I mean, strawberry jam—on them. I’ll be right back.” She rushed to the bathroom, which was in the far corner of the basement.
Nancy and the others sat down at the table and helped themselves to the snacks. Katie rejoined them a few minutes later and dug in too. There were “green beans” made of rolled green fruit candy that had been microwaved and reshaped. There were apples with holes in them and gummy worms sticking out of the holes. And to drink there was “Martian milk,” which was milk with green food coloring in it.
They also ate the chocolate chip cookies that Sydney had brought. They were just regular old chocolate chip cookies, and they were delicious.
April smiled at everyone around the table. “So…what kind of gags did you all bring? Let’s check them out!”
“Let’s!” Bess said eagerly.
Nancy, George, Bess, Sydney, and Katie all got up from the table and went over to their backpacks. They got their gags and brought them back to the table. Miranda and Heidi stayed where they were.
Nancy passed out her fortune cookies with goofy sayings in them. April broke her cookie in half and read her message out loud. “Mine says, ‘Help! I’m being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory.’ Ha-ha!”
Bess grossed everyone out with her lip gloss with the spider in it. Geor
ge tricked April with her squirting calculator. And Sydney shared her bag of candy that made your mouth turn black. Nancy remembered seeing it at Gagtime.
Katie had brought an egg carton to which she’d glued all the eggs inside. “I made another one at home this morning,” she explained. “I put it in the refrigerator, and when my dad tried to make eggs, they broke and gushed all over his hands!”
“What about you guys?” April asked Miranda and Heidi. “What did you bring?”
Miranda and Heidi exchanged a glance. “We, uh, kind of forgot to bring anything,” Miranda admitted.
“Yeah, sorry, April,” said Heidi.
“That’s too bad,” April said, “’cause at the end of the party, I’m giving out a grand prize for the best gag.”
“What is the grand prize, anyway?” Sydney asked.
April pointed to a fireplace mantel near the table. On top of the mantel was a cool-looking gold trophy. It was draped with strings of pink and purple beads.
“Ta-da! There it is!” April said grandly. “And there’s something inside the trophy too. It’s a gift certificate for a manicure at the Pretty in Pink Salon.”
“A manicure? That’s awesome,” said Bess. “I really hope I win!”
“I hope I win too,” Katie said. “I’ve always wanted to go to the Pretty in Pink Salon.”
Miranda stared at her nails, which were painted glittery pink. “Big deal. Heidi and I go there all the time.”
“Yeah. All the time,” Heidi echoed. She studied her nails too. They were painted the same shade of pink as Miranda’s.
Katie frowned at Miranda and Heidi. Nancy thought she looked really annoyed. Nancy didn’t blame her. Why were Miranda and Heidi acting so snotty? April was frowning at her old friends too.
After a while, April suggested that they all play games. Everyone got up from the table. First there was Hot Potato. Then Blindman’s Bluff. Nancy had never played Blindman’s Bluff. It was a lot of fun!
After the game, Miranda announced that she needed some lip gloss and walked over to her backpack. “Oh no!” she cried.
April turned to her. “What’s up, Miranda?”
Miranda was digging through her backpack frantically. She looked upset. “My cell phone!” she exclaimed. “It’s gone. Someone stole it!”
CHAPTER FIVE
A Thief on the Loose?
Heidi dropped her balloon and rushed over to Miranda. “What do you mean, someone stole your cell phone, M? That is soooo awful!”
“My parents are going to kill me!” Miranda cried out. “That phone cost, like, five hundred dollars or something. Or whatever that is in Japanese money.”
“Japanese money is called yen,” Sydney offered.
“Okay, that is so not helpful, Cindy,” Miranda grumbled.
“Sydney,” Sydney corrected her.
“Sydney, Cindy, whatever,” said Miranda. She scanned all the faces in the room. “One of you stole my phone. Who is it? Heidi is the only one who’s definitely not the thief, since she’s my BFF.”
“Thanks, M,” Heidi said. She raised her hand in the air.
“You’re welcome, H,” Miranda replied. She and Heidi exchanged a high five.
“Maybe you lost it, Miranda,” Katie suggested.
“I don’t lose things,” Miranda said huffily. “I’ve never lost anything in my entire life. Well, except for my MP3 player once. Or twice. And my favorite City Girls doll, too.”
April looked thoughtful. “Hey! Maybe someone pretended to steal your phone as an April Fool’s joke.” She turned to the other girls. “Okay, really funny. Who did it?” she said loudly.
No one said a word.
“Come on, fess up,” April persisted.
Still no one said a word.
Nancy frowned. Was April right? Was this an April Fool’s joke, except that no one was fessing up?
Or was Miranda right? Was there a thief on the loose?
If there was a thief, Nancy thought, it had to be one of them. No one else had been in the basement except her, George, Bess, Katie, Sydney, Miranda, and Heidi. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Funk had been down here too. But she couldn’t imagine parents stealing a kid’s cell phone!
And as far as Nancy could remember, no one had left the basement since the party started, except for Mr. and Mrs. Funk. So the phone had to be here somewhere.
Nancy tried to recall the last time she’d seen Miranda using her cell phone. Was it when Sydney had arrived at the party? Or sometime after that?
“When was the last time you used your phone?” Nancy asked Miranda.
Miranda scrunched up her face. “Um…let’s see…it was right before we sat down to eat the kitty litter cake or whatever,” she said finally. “I was talking to, um, my friend Alyssa.”
“Alyssa Montoya?” Katie asked her.
“No, a different Alyssa,” Miranda said quickly.
“I know!” said Nancy suddenly. “Let’s just call your cell phone, Miranda. If it’s in the basement somewhere, we’ll hear it ringing. What does your ring tone sound like?”
“It’s that supercool song ‘Dancing Dogs,’” Miranda replied. “But, uh, we can’t call my phone.”
“Why not?” George asked her.
“Because, uh, it’s on silent mode,” said Miranda.
Nancy thought about this. Something didn’t add up. “Hey, Miranda? Why did you put it on silent?” she asked after a moment. “I mean, it’s not like we’re at the movies.”
“Heidi and I were, uh, at the movies last night, and I guess I forgot to turn the ringer back on,” Miranda explained. “Right, H?”
Heidi hesitated, then said, “Right, M.”
Nancy stared at the two girls. She had a funny feeling that they were hiding something. Or was she just imagining things? Maybe Miranda was just acting weird because she was upset about losing her expensive cell phone.
“The cell phone’s got to be down here somewhere,” Bess spoke up. “Why don’t we all look for it?”
“Good idea, Bess!” April told her. “Whoever finds it gets to take the rest of the kitty litter cake home,” she joked.
“Ha-ha, very funny, April,” said Heidi.
The eight girls split up and started combing the basement for the missing cell phone. Nancy looked under the couch. She looked under the table. She looked under the eight red folding chairs. She looked under the snack plates and even the napkins. But the cell phone was nowhere to be found.
“Any luck, Nancy?” Bess called out. She was looking under some pillows.
Nancy shook her head. “What about you?”
“Nothing. How about you, George?” Bess said.
George was looking all around a big plasma-screen TV. “I found an empty potato chip bag, two little race cars, and a toy mouse. But no cell phone,” she said.
“Hey, everybody! I found it!” Sydney announced gleefully. She stood up, holding a dusty cell phone.
Miranda rolled her eyes. “That’s a green cell phone, dummy. I would never get a green cell phone.”
Sydney studied the cell phone more closely. “Oh. Sorry.” She flicked the phone open. “Oh. I am a dummy. It’s not even real. It’s a toy cell phone.”
“That must belong to one of my—,” April began.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Heidi burst out, interrupting April. “This is soooo not funny anymore!”
Nancy glanced over at Heidi. Heidi was rooting through her backpack, which was white with pink and red hearts on it. She looked upset.
“What are you talking about, H? What’s the matter?” Miranda asked her.
“My Gamer Girl console. It’s gone!” Heidi cried out.
CHAPTER SIX
The Red Clue
Miranda gasped. “What do you mean, your Gamer Girl is missing, H?”
Heidi was sitting on the floor and taking everything out of her backpack one by one: a pink comb, a pink brush, a pot of pink lip gloss, a pink MP3 player, a pair of pink headphones, a couple of books, a
nd a couple of teen fashion magazines. “It’s not here. It’s definitely not here,” she moaned. “My parents are soooo going to ground me forever if I don’t find it!”
“When was the last time you saw it, Heidi?” Nancy asked her.
“I was playing with it…let’s see…I think it was right after Sadie showed up,” said Heidi.
“Sydney,” Sydney corrected her.
Heidi shrugged. “Whatever. Anyway, I put it in the front pocket of my backpack. And now it’s gone!”
April scanned the faces of all her friends. “Okay, is this another April Fool’s joke? Fess up, people!” she demanded.
No one said a word.
“I don’t think it’s an April Fool’s joke, April,” Sydney said gravely. “I think Heidi’s Gamer Girl was stolen—and Miranda’s cell phone, too. In my opinion, you have a dangerous criminal on the loose!”
“I still think Miranda just lost her cell phone. And maybe you lost your Gamer Girl, too, Heidi,” Katie suggested.
“No way,” said Heidi. “I definitely put my Gamer Girl in the front pocket of my backpack.”
“And I definitely put my cell phone in the front pocket of my backpack,” Miranda added.
“Which means that someone took them out of our backpacks,” Heidi concluded.
Nancy frowned. Now that two valuable items were missing, she had to agree with Miranda and Heidi—and Sydney, too. There had to be a thief on the loose.
The question was who.
April came up to Nancy, George, and Bess and pulled them into a quiet corner. “Listen,” she said in a low voice. “I need to make sure that Miranda and Heidi find their stuff. It’s my party, so I feel kind of responsible.”
“That makes sense,” said Nancy.
“Aren’t you guys in a club that solves mysteries? Do you think you could solve this mystery?” April pleaded.
Nancy glanced at George and Bess. They both nodded.
Nancy turned to April. “Our club is called the Clue Crew,” she said. “And we’ll get on the case right away.”
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