April Fool's Day

by Carolyn Keene

  She fell silent as she considered Bess’s question. She scanned the room slowly, taking in every detail. She noted that Katie, Miranda, Heidi, and the twins were still watching the movie and eating pizza. She saw all of April’s goofy party decorations. She glanced at the empty mantel where the trophy used to be. She noticed the red folding chair in front of the mantel.

  Then she looked at the table with the pizza boxes on top of it and the red folding chairs around it. She counted the chairs around the table. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…

  Something clicked inside her brain. She smiled excitedly at April. “I know who stole the trophy!” she announced.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Bess’s Discovery

  “Yay, Nancy! The Clue Crew solved the mystery!” April said eagerly. “So who is it? Who’s the thief?”

  Nancy didn’t reply. She walked over to the big plasma-screen TV, picked up the remote control, and hit the pause button.

  “Hey!” Luke and Liam complained.

  “Why did you stop the movie?” Miranda demanded.

  “Yeah, why?” Heidi chimed in.

  “It’s just getting to the good part, where the evil rabbit robots decide to take over New York City,” Katie added. “You guys want to watch with us?”

  “Listen, everyone!” Nancy said loudly. “I have an announcement. April asked George, Bess, and me to figure out who the thief is. Right now we need everyone to go and stand by the mantel—one at a time.”

  Bess moved closer to Nancy. “What are you doing, Nancy?” she whispered.

  “I want to see how tall everyone is,” Nancy whispered back.

  Miranda sighed dramatically. “This is bogus.”

  “Yeah, it’s soooo bogus,” Heidi agreed.

  “Can everyone puh-lease just do what Nancy says?” April said. “Here, I’ll go first.”

  April walked over to the mantel and stood in front of it. “There,” she said. “Who’s next?”

  “I’ll go,” Katie offered. She walked over to the mantel and stood in front of it, next to April.

  Sydney went after Katie—then Miranda, then Heidi. Nancy glanced at Luke and Liam, who were still glued to their spots in front of the TV.

  “Luke and Liam—you too,” Nancy said.

  Luke frowned at Nancy. “We don’t have to listen to you. You’re not the boss of us!”

  “Yeah,” Liam piped up.

  “Do what Nancy says, or I’ll tell Mom and Dad!” April scolded her brothers.

  Luke made a face. “Fine. Come on, Liam.”

  The two boys stood up and marched defiantly to the mantel. Nancy realized that they were way too short to reach the top of the mantel—at least without help.

  “Okay, what did you guys do with April’s trophy?” Nancy asked Luke and Liam.

  Luke’s face flushed beet red. So did Liam’s. “W-what are you t-talking about?” Luke stammered. Liam didn’t say a word.

  April gasped. “You guys took my trophy?” she cried out. “I am so telling Mom and Dad.”

  Luke started to say something, then clamped his mouth shut. Liam did likewise.

  “This is boring. I’m going back to the movie,” Miranda said.

  “Me too,” said Heidi.

  The two girls went back to the TV and switched on the DVD player. Katie and Sydney joined them, but Nancy noticed out of the corner of her eye that Katie was watching her, George, and Bess. What’s up with that? Nancy wondered.

  April turned to Nancy. “How did you know it was Luke and Liam?”

  Nancy pointed to the red folding chair near the mantel. “That chair was at the table, with the other chairs,” she explained. “But someone moved it next to the mantel. I figured it was them because they had to stand on it to reach the trophy. Everyone in the room is tall enough to reach the top of the mantel—”

  “Except for my shrimp-sized little brothers,” April said knowingly.

  “We are not shrimp-sized!” Luke protested.

  “Maybe not. But you did steal your sister’s trophy, right?” George asked them.

  Bess bent down and smiled sweetly at Luke and Liam. “I don’t know about everyone else. But I think it’s supercool that you pulled off such a major crime.”

  Liam’s face lit up. “You do?”

  Bess nodded. “Definitely! It’s like something the Maniac would do.”

  “Or the Bandit,” Luke agreed.

  “So why did you guys do it?” Bess asked them.

  Luke stared down at the ground. “W-well…we didn’t like it when you wouldn’t let us join your Clue Cruise,” he said in a quiet voice.

  “Yeah. It wasn’t fair,” Liam added.

  Nancy considered this. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “So…did you take Miranda’s cell phone and Heidi’s Gamer Girl, too?”

  Luke’s head shot up. “No way!”

  “We didn’t take those things,” said Liam.

  Nancy studied the two boys. They seemed to be telling the truth. That meant that there was still another thief on the loose!

  “So where did you hide the trophy?” Bess asked the boys.

  In response, Luke took Bess’s hand and led her to a stack of cardboard boxes in the corner of the basement. Liam trailed after them. Luke pulled the trophy out from behind the stack. The trophy was dusty but intact.

  “You hid my trophy back there in that dirty, yucky corner?” April said to her brothers. “Thanks a lot!”

  “I’ll clean it off for you, April,” Bess offered quickly. “I have to wash my hands, too. They’re totally covered with dust now!”

  Bess disappeared into the bathroom. April turned to Nancy. “Thanks for finding my trophy and gift certificate,” she said gratefully.

  Nancy smiled. “No problem. Now we just have to find the other thief.”

  “Do you know who it could be?” said April.

  Just then Bess came running out of the bathroom, trophy in hand. She had a big smile on her face.

  “Nancy! George! April!” Bess said breathlessly. “I think I just solved the rest of the mystery!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Best Gag of All

  “What do you mean, you’ve solved the rest of the mystery?” Nancy asked Bess.

  “I thought you went to the bathroom to wash your hands,” George added, confused.

  Bess nodded. “I did. See?”

  She turned her hands palms up. Nancy saw immediately that they were splotched with red. It was the same shade of red as the fingerprints on Miranda’s and Heidi’s backpacks!

  “I washed my hands in the bathroom with the bar of soap that was there,” Bess said. “The soap was white, but it turned my hands red.”

  Nancy turned to April. “Does your family use some kind of magic soap, or what?”

  “I bought that soap at Gagtime,” April replied. “I put it in the bathroom for the party, as a joke.”

  “I saw that soap when we were at Gagtime!” George recalled.

  Nancy remembered seeing that soap too. Her heart was pounding with excitement. She couldn’t believe it. Bess had figured out a major piece of the puzzle!

  “Our thief must have washed her hands with the soap, then left the red fingerprints on Miranda’s and Heidi’s backpacks,” Nancy said out loud.

  “Red fingerprints? What red fingerprints?” April said, puzzled.

  “I’ll explain later,” said Nancy. “I think I know how to find our thief.”

  Without another word, she hurried over to Miranda, Heidi, Katie, and Sydney. They had all taken a break from the movie to get more pizza. The DVD was on pause. The twins had gone upstairs.

  “Hey, Nancy. Do you want pepperoni or plain?” Katie asked her.

  Nancy shook her head. “No thanks, Katie. I just wanted to tell everyone that April has the coolest soap in the bathroom. You should all check it out!”

  Miranda’s face lit up. “Really? Is it from Pretty in Pink?” She started heading for the bathroom.

  “Is it
Mango Madness or Fresh ’n Fruity?” Heidi asked. She followed Miranda.

  “Could I go first? I got tomato sauce all over my hands,” Sydney said, trailing after them. “Is the soap really perfumey, Nancy? I don’t like really perfumey soap.”

  Katie was the only one to hold back. “Not me! That soap is weird,” she complained.

  Miranda, Heidi, and Sydney stopped in their tracks. “What do you mean, it’s weird?” Miranda demanded.

  “When did you use it, Katie?” Nancy asked her casually.

  Katie made a face. “I washed my hands with it while we were having snacks. But it’s some kind of practical-joke soap. It turned my hands red! I think I got most of the red off, but”—she glanced at her hands—“not all of it. I still have three red fingers. Yuck!”

  Nancy, George, Bess, and April glanced knowingly at one another. They had found their thief!

  “What?” Katie frowned at the four girls. “Why are you all looking at each other like that?”

  “We found red fingerprints on Miranda’s and Heidi’s backpacks—,” Nancy began.

  “Which means that you’re the thief,” April finished. “Why, Katie? Did you want to ruin my party, or what?”

  Katie’s eyes grew huge. Her lower lip trembled. “I’m really, really sorry, April,” she said after a moment. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far. And I didn’t mean to ruin your party or anything.”

  “You took our stuff, Katie?” Miranda said, shocked.

  “That is soooo lame, Katie,” added Heidi. “Give it back—like, now!”

  Katie turned to gaze at Miranda and Heidi. “I stole your stuff because I was tired of hearing you bragging about it,” she said, sounding upset. “I was going to give it back right away and act like it was an April Fool’s joke or whatever. But you kept acting so mean to everybody. I decided I wouldn’t give it back until you started being nice again.”

  “Nice…again?” Bess repeated, confused. “I don’t get it.”

  “You guys are usually really nice in school,” Katie told Miranda and Heidi. “But for some reason, today you started acting like snobby rich girls or something. It was totally weird.”

  April nodded. “I kind of noticed that too. But that doesn’t make it cool for you to steal their stuff, Katie.”

  “I know,” Katie agreed. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

  Katie walked over to her backpack, opened a zipped compartment in the back, and pulled out Miranda’s My-Fone and Heidi’s Gamer Girl. “Here you go,” she said, handing the items over to the two girls. “I’m sorry. April’s right. I shouldn’t have stolen your stuff.”

  “Hmm. Should we accept her apology, H?” Miranda asked Heidi.

  “I don’t know, M. Should we?” Heidi replied.

  The two girls exchanged a mysterious smile. Then Miranda pushed a button on her cell phone. It squirted water at Katie!

  Katie shrieked as the water sprayed her face. “W-what’s th-that?” she sputtered.

  Heidi pushed a button on her Gamer Girl. It squirted water too. Katie shrieked again.

  Miranda and Heidi started cracking up. “April Fool’s!” they said at the same time.

  Nancy couldn’t believe it. The pricey, impossible-to-get “My-Fone from Japan” and the “Gamer Girl from Sweden” were fakes—just like George’s squirting calculator!

  “You told us to bring gags to the party, right?” Miranda said to April, still cracking up. “So we bought the phone and the gaming console at a gag store in Chicago. We decided to act like snobby rich girls for the day and show off our expensive new ‘gear.’ That was our gag. We fooled you, didn’t we?”

  “You sure did,” April said. She looked stunned.

  “When someone stole our stuff, we decided to keep the gag going and act super upset,” Heidi went on.

  “You guys are such good actors,” Bess told them.

  Miranda flipped her blond hair over her shoulders. “Thanks! Hollywood, here we come.”

  April grinned at Miranda and Heidi. “You had us all totally fooled. That means only one thing.”

  “What?” asked Heidi.

  April took the trophy from Bess, who was still holding it, and held it out to Miranda and Heidi. “Ta-da! You guys win the grand prize for the best gag!” she announced.

  There was clapping and cheering all around. Miranda whispered something in Heidi’s ear. Heidi nodded.

  “Just to show there’s no hard feelings,” Miranda said, “this is for you, Katie.”

  Miranda reached into the trophy and pulled out the gift certificate for the Pretty in Pink Salon. She handed it to Katie.

  Katie smiled happily. “You guys are the best. Thanks! And again, I’m so sorry about what I did.” She reached over and hugged Miranda and Heidi.

  George leaned over to Nancy and Bess. “Wow. Was this one of our trickiest mysteries to solve, or what?” she said.

  Nancy grinned. “It was. And that’s no April Fool’s joke!”

  Fool Your Friends with Nancy’s Delicious “Dirt” Cake!

  Have some April Fool’s fun by serving your friends “dirt” cake. It looks like a pail full of dirt and bugs. Gross! But it’s really a tasty, easy-to-make treat made of chocolate cookies, whipped cream, and other yummy (and edible!) ingredients.

  You Will Need:

  2 packages of instant chocolate or vanilla pudding mix (usually 3 to 4 oz. each)

  1 cup of powdered sugar

  1 8-oz. package of cream cheese (leave it out of the fridge for an hour, to soften)

  1 8-oz. container of frozen whipped cream topping (thawed)

  1-pound package of cream-filled chocolate cookies

  A clean (toy) sand pail

  A clean (toy) plastic shovel

  Some gummy worms (optional)

  Some plastic spiders and other plastic bugs (optional)

  A plastic flower (optional)

  Get ready to make some dirt!

  Combine pudding mix, powdered sugar, and cream cheese in a bowl.

  In another bowl, crush the cream-filled cookies so you get a bunch of little chunks and crumbs that look like dirt. You can also use a food processor, with a parent’s help. Pour the cookie bits into the container of whipped cream topping and mix together.

  Using a spoon, put a layer of the cookies and whipped cream mixture into the pail. Then add a layer of the pudding mix/powdered sugar/cream cheese mixture. Keep doing this, alternating layers and ending with the cookies and whipped cream mixture on top. You can also add gummy worms as you go along.

  If you have them, add some plastic bugs, a plastic flower, and more gummy worms on top. Stick the plastic shovel into the “dirt” and serve.

  BON APPÉTIT!