Ally's Mad Mystery

by Jessica Brody

  Ally ducked her head so Audrey and Jay wouldn’t notice her and kept walking.

  Unfortunately, Ally’s dorm room was right next to Jane’s, which required her to pass by Jane’s door on the way. And even more unfortunately, Ally could see as she rounded the corner, Jane’s door was open. Which meant she’d probably see Ally pass by and it would probably be awkward.

  That was peculiar. It had never been awkward between the two girls before. They’d always been such good friends. The best of friends. They’d always been there for each other, even after that whole debacle with the magic wand Jane stole. Jane had a hard time after that: People looked at her differently. Ignored her in the hallways. Whispered things behind their hands. But not Ally. Ally had stuck by Jane’s side the whole time. Just as a good friend should do.

  But now it seemed like everyone was turning against Ally, and Jane was going right along with them. Accusing her of “creating” mysteries to solve. Thinking she was just a silly girl with her head in the clouds.

  As Ally neared Jane’s open door, she heard strange noises inside, along with some quiet murmuring. She told herself not to look. Not to pay it any attention. Just keep her eyes straight ahead and walk past the dorm room as fast as she could.

  She didn’t want to deal with Jane right then. She didn’t even want to talk to her. She just wanted to sit alone in her dorm room and try to retrace the details of the day, in hopes that she could maybe come up with a clue she’d overlooked.

  But as soon as she passed Jane’s door, Ally heard a loud bang, and she jumped and turned instinctively, peering inside the room. Jane was standing in front of her dresser, just inside the door, with a huge scowl on her face. Ally watched her yank open a drawer, riffle around inside, and then shut it with another loud bang.

  “Where is it?” Jane said, evidently to herself, because there was no one else in the room and she hadn’t yet noticed Ally standing in the doorway. She was far too consumed by her search.

  Ally could tell from the tone of her friend’s voice that Jane was frustrated. It was the same tone she’d used a little while back when she couldn’t find her Fighting Knights mascot costume. She’d searched everywhere before eventually finding out that CJ had stolen it.

  See? Ally thought. Crime in Auradon!

  Ally told herself to keep walking. Whatever Jane was looking for was no business of hers. But then Jane slammed another drawer closed and mumbled to herself, “I swear it was right here. It couldn’t have just vanished into thin air.”

  Vanished into thin air?

  Ally had always been a curious girl, and she usually let her curiosity get the better of her—another trait that seemed to run in the family. Curiosity, after all, was what had landed Ally’s mother in Wonderland in the first place.

  “What couldn’t have vanished into thin air?” she asked, startling Jane, who jumped at the sound of Ally’s voice and turned around.

  “Oh, hi, Ally.” She seemed frazzled and distracted. “Nothing. Just…um…well, it’s my mother’s watch. I seem to have misplaced it.”

  That definitely got Ally’s attention. Her detective instincts were suddenly on high alert. Something was wrong here; she could feel it. Jane wasn’t one to misplace things. She was pragmatic, organized, and logical. Basically all the things Ally was not.

  “Misplaced it?” Ally repeated dubiously, stepping into the room. “Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn’t, I don’t know, maybe stolen?”

  Jane turned to give Ally a confused look. “No, it wasn’t stolen. Who would steal my mom’s watch?”

  Ally shrugged. “Perhaps someone with a preference for making an entire carrot cake disappear.”

  Jane chuckled. “Are you still on that silly cake mystery?”

  The question stung, but Ally tried to push it to the back of her mind and soldier on. “What if someone did steal your mum’s watch? What if the two things—my cake and your watch—are somehow connected?”

  Jane shook her head like it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “Of course it wasn’t stolen. Who in Auradon would do something like that? And I don’t see what a gobbled-up cake has to do with a watch. I’m sure I just put it somewhere and forgot. That explains it logically.”

  Ally harrumphed. There was that annoying word again. She much preferred its anagram: Ally logic. Logic with a twist.

  “Well,” Ally said, “where and when did you last see it?”

  Jane’s lips tugged into a frown. “Right here.” She pointed to the top of her dresser. “I thought I put it right here after dinner.”

  “Then what did you do?” Ally asked, effortlessly slipping into detective mode.

  Jane sighed. “I sat down at my desk to work on my History of Auradon homework. I thought I’d get a head start on it before the banner-painting party.”

  Ally eyed Jane’s desk, noticing it faced away from the door. “So you were sitting here?” Ally asked, walking over to the desk and giving it a quick tap tap tap with her finger.

  Jane nodded.

  Ally glanced back at the dorm room door, which was conveniently situated just next to the dresser. “And that door was open at the time?”

  Jane shrugged. “Yeah. Everyone keeps their dorm rooms open.”

  “Not the VKs,” Ally pointed out.

  Jane giggled. “Yeah, well, they’re still a little paranoid.”

  “They really are, aren’t they?” Ally laughed, too, and for a moment, she forgot all about why she was even there. It felt good to laugh with her best friend again.

  But then Ally remembered her investigation and adjusted her expression. Good detectives didn’t socialize on the job. They stayed serious and focused.

  Ally cleared her throat. “So, just to recap, the watch was on the dresser, your back was turned to the dresser when you were working, and the door was wide open. Meaning anyone could have reached in and swiped the watch.”

  Once again, Jane looked puzzled, as if Ally was speaking another language. “Huh?” Then, a moment later, comprehension seemed to dawn on Jane’s face and she sighed in disappointment. “Ally, enough with the mystery stuff. I’m telling you no one stole the watch, I just forgot where I put it.”

  Ally could feel frustration boiling up inside her. Jane’s watch had gone missing and she still didn’t believe there was crime in Auradon?

  “But you said,” Ally argued, “that you put the watch on the dresser.”

  “I said I think I put it there. But I could be wrong. I probably put it somewhere else. I just need to keep looking.”

  “Did you hear anything unusual while you were doing your homework?” Ally asked. If she could find the person who stole the watch, she could finally prove to Jane (and everyone) that she was right: that crime existed in Auradon, and so did the need for a good detective. She could finally get everyone to take her seriously. Maybe the cake wasn’t a big deal to them, but a missing valuable family heirloom? That should get everyone’s attention!

  “Ally,” Jane started to protest.

  “Just answer the question, please,” Ally pressed. “Did you or did you not hear anything unusual while you were doing your homework?”

  She knew she was badgering Jane, but sometimes that was what good detectives had to do to get information out of people.

  “No,” Jane replied. “I didn’t hear anything unusual, because—”

  Ally was certain Jane was about to say, yet again, “because there’s no crime in Auradon,” but curiously, she never finished her sentence. Jane’s eyes kind of clouded over and she bit her lower lip, like she was lost in thought.

  “What?” Ally urged.

  “Nothing,” Jane muttered. “I…” She shook her head. “Nothing.”

  But Ally didn’t believe her. She knew Jane had suddenly remembered something. She could sense it. “What?” she asked again. “Tell me.”

  “I’m sure it was nothing,” Jane was quick to say. “It’s just, I do remember hearing a weird kind of pattering noise.”
<
br />   Pattering noise, Ally echoed in her mind, taking mental note of the clue.

  Getting a bit more into the details, Jane went on, “Like someone taking really tiny steps. Almost more like a tapping than a step.”

  Tiptoeing, Ally immediately thought with excitement. Someone was sneaking through the hallway.

  “I wanted to see what it was,” Jane continued, “but when I turned around, there was nothing there.”

  “Are you sure? You didn’t see anything when you turned around?”

  Jane bit her lip again, thinking. Then she looked at Ally, eyes wide. “Well, there was this shadow.”

  “A shadow?” Ally repeated.

  “Yeah. But I only saw it for a moment and then it was gone.”

  Ally was even more suspicious. “Do you remember anything specific about the shadow? Like was it tall or short or large or small or—”

  Jane paused. “But it could have just been someone coming back from dinner.”

  “What if it wasn’t? What if it was the person who took your watch? So, please, just tell me what the shadow looked like.”

  Jane thought about it for a moment. “Okay. Well, it had a strange protrusion on its head.”

  Ally squinted. “A protrusion? What do you mean?”

  “The shadow’s head was strangely shaped. Like the person had a very high ponytail or something.”

  “A ponytail!” Ally repeated eagerly, tapping her forehead. “That’s good. That’s very good. That definitely narrows down the list of suspects.”

  “Yes, it does,” Jane said, and Ally heard something peculiar in Jane’s voice.

  When she refocused on Jane she saw that Jane was staring directly at Ally’s hair. Ally touched the top of her head before remembering that she, herself, was wearing her hair in a very high ponytail, just as she normally did.

  Jane’s eyes widened in horror. “Ally, did you steal my mom’s watch?”

  Ally was shocked. “What? No! Of course not! Why would I steal your mum’s watch?”

  Jane suddenly burst into laughter. “Ally! I was kidding! Of course I don’t think you stole my mom’s watch. Even though you’ve been a little desperate lately for a mystery, I don’t think you’d go that far!”

  “Not funny!” Ally cried.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Jane pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. “But the banner-painting party starts soon. We should head down to the carnival grounds and see if Audrey needs any help getting ready.”

  Ally shook her head at her friend. “Banner painting will have to wait. We need to stay focused if we’re going to figure this mystery out! Are you on board or what?”

  “Well,” Jane began, sounding unsure.

  “Look. If I’m wrong, no harm done. But if I’m right, and there is a bigger mystery here, then we’ll find your mum’s watch. So really, what do you have to lose?”

  Jane thought about that for a moment before finally replying, “Okay. Where do we start?”

  We have a clue. It may just be a ponytail, but I know we’re just a hair away from solving this. Hahaha!

  Ally peeked her head out of Jane’s room, and when she saw no one was in the hallway, she slowly and quietly shut the door so the two of them could be alone and unheard.

  “Okay, think,” she told Jane. “Who in this school wears their hair in a high ponytail? Besides me, obviously.”

  Jane pressed her lips together and squinted her eyes, trying to picture all the girls at Auradon Prep. Ally sat down on the edge of the bed and tapped her finger against her forehead, trying to focus her thoughts.

  “What we really need is some kind of registry with everyone’s picture in it so we can quickly skim through all the students in the school and check for ponytails,” Jane mused.

  That’s when the idea hit her, and Ally immediately shot to her feet. “InstaRoyal!” she exclaimed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and clicked on the InstaRoyal app. Everyone at Auradon Prep had a profile on InstaRoyal. All she had to do was narrow down a list of girls who had ponytails and go from there.

  “Of course!” Jane shouted, excited.

  Ally instantly got pumped about the plan. It sounded like a very detective-like thing to do. And maybe even, dare she say it, logical.

  As she and Jane perused the app, the first profile to appear was Mal’s.

  “Mal always wears her hair down, straight, and short,” Jane noted.

  “Not to mention Mal has no motive. Plus, she’s been way too busy lately setting up the surprise Talking Dragons concert for Ben. She’s had no time to steal desserts or watches,” Ally confirmed.

  Ally swiped to the next profile and studied the picture of Lonnie.

  “Lonnie could have stolen the cake when she came in to set up her DJ equipment,” Ally noted suspiciously.

  “But she doesn’t fit the description of the shadow,” Jane reminded her, pointing at Lonnie’s hair, which was loosely braided down her back in the photo, the same way she always wore it.

  Ally swiped again. Evie’s profile picture appeared next. But she usually wore her hair down, as well. Ally and Jane quickly ruled her out and swiped to the next profile, which was Audrey’s. Jane acknowledged that although Audrey could be a pain sometimes, she wasn’t likely a thief. Plus she never wore her hair up, and she had an alibi.

  “Yes, and on my way back to the dorm, I saw Audrey setting up for the banner-painting party at the carnival grounds. So there was no way she could have stolen the watch,” Ally concluded.

  She moved on to the next profile.

  “Jordan!” Ally yelled as soon as the picture of the Genie’s daughter came onto her screen. “Jordan always wears her hair in a high ponytail, with that gold cuff.”

  Jane shook her head. “Jordan isn’t even here this weekend. She’s visiting her dad, remember?”

  “Right.” Ally sighed and swiped again, her finger freezing as soon as the next profile appeared.

  Frolicking fruitcakes!

  Ally’s eyes widened as she stared at the picture on her phone screen. She couldn’t believe it. The girl in the photo wore a small hat perched atop her head.

  Jane was wrong, Ally realized with astonishment. “Jane!” she shouted at her friend in excitement. “It wasn’t a ponytail forming that weird protrusion on the shadow’s head. It was a hat. A hat with a single peacock feather in it!”

  Ally knew that hat well. She also knew the girl who wore it well.

  Or, at least, she thought she did. She thought they were friends. But it seemed lately Ally had been wrong about a lot of friendships.

  Including this one.

  “Freddie,” Ally snarled, staring at the photograph on her screen. Then, with newfound determination, she shut off her phone, slipped it back into her pocket, and turned to her best friend.

  “Time to go to Freddie’s dorm room,” she said.

  It was time to question her first suspect.

  I thought Freddie was a friend. But a good detective knows everyone’s a suspect.

  As Ally and Jane made their way to Freddie’s dorm room, Ally felt a strange gnawing in her stomach at the thought of questioning Freddie Facilier. Sure, Freddie was a VK, so she was a likely suspect, but Ally had been convinced that Freddie had changed. That she’d seen the error of her villainous ways and decided to be good. And not steal people’s stuff.

  Ally and Freddie had recently bonded when they’d set out on an adventure together to the Bayou D’Orleans. At least Ally had thought they’d bonded. But maybe she didn’t know Freddie as well as she thought she did. Maybe Freddie was still a villain through and through.

  The idea unsettled her. She didn’t like thinking she could be so wrong about someone. It made her doubt her own instincts, and Ally’s instincts were her biggest strength. They were her secret weapon. She had to be able to rely on them if she was ever going to crack this case—or any case, for that matter.

  When they arrived at Freddie’s dorm room a few minutes later, Jane l
ooked scared. Ally took a deep breath to steady her own nerves and lifted her hand to knock on the door. But before she could make contact, she heard something coming from inside. A voice.

  No, not just one voice. Two voices. She looked at Jane with wide eyes.

  “Who is in Freddie’s room with her?” she whispered.

  Perhaps Freddie had a partner in crime?

  Ally was about to pound on the door and demand they fess up, but Jane grabbed her arm to stop her.

  “Wait, let’s listen a little longer,” Jane whispered.

  Ally almost protested, but then she remembered Fairy Godmother’s words to her earlier: Good detectives do rely on their instincts. But they also know when to slow down, read the clues, and think things through logically.

  Right, Ally thought. Slow down. Read the clues. Think things through.

  If Freddie was in there with her accessory to the crime, then maybe listening in would provide Ally with some much-needed evidence. She lowered her hand and pressed her ear to the door instead, gesturing for Jane to do the same. The girls strained to make out the words through the thick wood.

  “Why are you doing this?” a voice asked. It definitely belonged to Freddie. Ally recognized the deep, almost husky, quality of it.

  “I’m just having some fun,” the other voice replied, but as hard as she tried, Ally couldn’t determine whose voice it was. It was definitely female and it seemed familiar, but Ally couldn’t place it.

  “You’re going to get in trouble,” Freddie said sternly.

  “Relax, Freddie,” the other voice said. “I’m disappointed in you. Auradon Prep has really turned you into such a softy. Look what else I stole.”

  “Stole?” Ally mouthed to Jane, nearly buzzing with excitement. She pressed her ear harder against the door. Ally heard some kind of muffled noise, and then Freddie gasped. “That looks really valuable!”