by Hope McLean
“A clue to what?” Erin asked. “And does this mean there’s a clue on the ruby, too?”
“Probably,” Willow reasoned. “If there’s something etched on the back of the ruby, they’ve probably seen it. That is, if they even know about the clues. We only know about them because of the diary. Maybe the Rivals want the jewels for a whole other reason.”
Erin held out her hand, and Willow passed her the diamond. Lili and Erin looked at the etching together.
“This is amazing,” Erin said. “Things are definitely getting interesting.”
Jasmine took the diamond back from her and put it in the pouch. She had a guilty look on her face.
“So what do we do with this now?” she asked. “I mean, we found the clue. But these earrings are stolen! Couldn’t we get in trouble for keeping them?”
“I totally didn’t think of that,” Erin said. “But I guess you’re right. I guess we could put them back in the desk.”
Willow frowned. “But we don’t have the key. And if we do that, the Rivals could always go back and get it.”
“What if we just send them back to the museum, you know, anonymously,” Jasmine suggested.
“That doesn’t seem right,” Lili piped up. “I mean, the museum didn’t even know they existed. Nobody does. So how can we get in trouble for stealing something that didn’t belong to anybody?”
“The diamond belonged to Martha Washington,” Erin pointed out. “And we go to the school named after her. So maybe it makes sense if we keep them.”
Jasmine rubbed the side of her nose, a sign that she was stressed or nervous. “I don’t know, guys, it still feels wrong.”
“I think we have to hold on to it,” Willow argued. “We have to make sure the Rivals never get it. Just in case they are collecting clues.”
“I just thought of something,” Jasmine said. “The diary said it wasn’t safe to keep the four clues together, right? So there must be clues on the sapphire and emerald, too. Maybe the Rivals have those two jewels, and maybe they don’t. But as long as we have the diamond, we can keep safe whatever Martha Washington wanted to protect.”
Erin nodded. “It’s our duty to protect it. For Martha.”
Lili held out her right hand. “For Martha!”
Willow put a hand on top of hers, and then Jasmine reluctantly did the same.
“For Martha!” the four Jewels vowed.
The next morning the girls couldn’t stop smiling as they ate their breakfast.
“My goodness!” Ms. Keatley remarked. “Usually you’re more serious before a match. You all look as if you’ve already won.”
Erin swallowed the piece of bacon she was chewing before replying. “We’re just excited to get started. After winning yesterday, we feel as if anything is possible today!”
Lili nodded, picking up on her teammate’s meaning. “We’re feeling kind of invincible!”
Ms. Keatley frowned. “Don’t get overly confident. You’ve got to keep on your toes. Today are the finals. You’ll be facing your toughest competition yet.”
“We’re ready,” Willow said firmly as Jasmine nodded in agreement.
“Then let’s go!” Ms. Keatley stood up and together they took the short walk back to the auditorium at Kane College.
They got there just as the other quiz bowl teams were streaming in. The atmosphere in the room was tenser than it was yesterday. A nervous, excited energy could be felt throughout the room. After all, one of the teams would be named the Quiz Bowl Regional Champion today.
The girls and Ms. Keatley found seats together. Just as they were sitting down, the Rivals entered the auditorium. Mr. Haverford spotted Ms. Keatley right away and eagerly walked over, with the reluctant Rivals trailing behind him.
“Good morning! Big day today,” he said as he beamed at her.
“It certainly is,” Ms. Keatley responded. “Good luck to your team. I know they’ve been working hard.”
The moderator, an older woman with bright red hair, stepped onto the stage.
“Looks like we’re getting started,” Mr. Haverford said as Ms. Keatley opened up the program and started reading. “Maybe we could meet at the break for lunch?”
“What?” she asked, lifting her eyes off the page. “Oh, we’ll see.”
They left to find seats. Ryan glanced back at Willow. This time he didn’t grin. He raised his chin and gave her a defiant look that said no mercy.
Fine, thought Willow. It’s on.
The first round of the competition began. The Rivals were called to the stage and squared off against a team from Maryland.
For the first time in a match, the Rivals weren’t at their best. In fact, they seemed flustered. They got a couple of questions wrong.
“Who is the god of the underworld and precious metals —” the moderator began. Aaron buzzed in before she finished the question.
“Hades,” Aaron answered.
“Incorrect,” she said. “The Atkinson Rivals will receive a penalty for interrupting the question with an incorrect answer.”
She turned to the Maryland team. “Baltimore Brainiacs, this is your chance to answer. Who is the god of the underworld and precious metals in Roman mythology?”
A girl from the Brainiacs hit the buzzer. “Pluto?”
“Correct,” the moderator answered.
Jasmine looked at Willow, her eyes wide. “The Rivals usually don’t make those kinds of mistakes,” she whispered.
“What happened yesterday must really be getting to them,” Willow said. “Maybe they won’t make it past the first round today!”
The Rivals struggled for a few more questions before requesting a thirty-second time-out, using the only one they were allowed in the game. They huddled together, then went back to their buzzers, looking serious.
Whatever was said during the time-out worked. The Rivals began wiping the floor with the Brainiacs, nailing question after question until they were victorious.
Jasmine sighed. “I guess they’ve got their mojo back.”
Then it was the Jewels’ turn. They were facing a team from Connecticut, the Stamford Smarties.
“I almost forgot!” Lili pulled the tiaras out of her bag before the girls took to the stage. “They brought us luck yesterday.”
Erin stuck one on her head. “They did! Now for a team cheer!” she cried, and the girls formed a circle, wearing their tiaras.
“History!” Erin cried, putting her hand in the center of the circle.
“Math!” Willow yelled next, adding her hand.
Jasmine put hers on top of Willow’s. “Science!”
Lili slapped down on Jasmine’s. “Art!”
“Go, Jewels!” they cheered
They took their places on stage. The Smarties were tough, but after a fast-paced match, the Jewels managed to prevail.
The rest of the morning was a blur as the girls competed.
“0.1667!” “Symbiotic!” “Botticelli!” “Jackie Robinson!”
The Jewels were on fire as they got one answer after another right. They won their next two matches, then there was only one other team left to face: the Rivals.
“Why did it have to be the Rivals?” Erin wailed, before greedily gulping down some water during the break.
“We can do this,” Willow said. “We’ve made it this far. There is no reason why we can’t beat the Rivals in the finals.”
Lili smiled. “Let’s do it!”
They climbed back on the stage for the final match of the day to determine who would win the regional championship. The audience grew quiet as they entered the stage with the Rivals. The silence was eerie, and the girls began to feel more nervous than they had all day.
“Go, Jewels!” a loud shout broke the silence. It was George, their friend from the Allentown All-Stars.
“Yeah! Go, Jewels!” Lauren joined in. Soon others began clapping and cheering for the Jewels. The Rivals’ reputation for nastiness had followed them to regionals. They hadn’t made a lot o
f friends.
Isabel sniffed as she stood behind her buzzer, pouting at the crowd’s enthusiasm for the Jewels. Veronica had a determined look on her face, as did Aaron. Ryan acted like he didn’t care about the crowd. He wore the same smug smile he always did.
“Quiet, please!” the moderator silenced the crowd. “I’d like to welcome the Martha Washington Jewels and the Atkinson Prep Rivals to the final round of our tournament. Let’s begin.”
The crowd settled down as the moderator asked the first question.
“What three minerals make up granite?”
Willow glanced at Jasmine and gave her an encouraging smile. She knew her friend would get this one!
Jasmine buzzed in, seconds before Veronica did.
“Martha Washington,” the moderator said.
“Feldspar, quartz, and mica,” Jasmine answered.
“That is correct,” the moderator replied.
The audience clapped enthusiastically. The Jewels were off to a great start! Because they got a question right, they got to answer a three-part bonus question, which they nailed. That gave them a forty-point lead right out of the gate.
“What name did American colonists give the series of laws passed by the British Parliament after the Boston Tea Party?” the moderator asked.
I got this! Erin thought as she hit the buzzer, beating Isabel to it.
“The Intolerable Acts,” Erin answered confidently. She shot a snarky smile at Isabel, who rolled her eyes in response.
“Correct,” the moderator said, once again to the cheers of the crowd.
Willow beat Ryan to the buzzer over a complicated math problem. Lili identified the art movement called Impressionism before Aaron could. The girls were doing great, but then the Rivals began to make a comeback.
Ryan answered a math problem first, flashing Willow his smug smile as he did. Aaron got an art history question right, and Veronica and Isabel both scored for the Rivals, too. The competition was heating up!
The questions kept flying and the buzzers were getting a serious workout as the two teams went head to head, battling it out for the title. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, time was up.
“The score is tied,” the moderator said. “We need to go into a tie-breaker. Three tossup questions will now follow.”
Willow gave a thumbs-up to her team. They were so close to beating the Rivals! Lili smiled cheerfully. Jasmine looked determined. And Erin’s face was flushed from the excitement. But across the stage, Ryan was frowning. They look worried, Willow thought.
“According to the periodic table of the elements, what is the symbol and atomic number for calcium?” the moderator asked.
Veronica beat Jasmine to the buzzer by a fraction of a second.
“C-A-twenty,” she answered.
“Correct,” the moderator said.
Willow grew nervous. If the Rivals got this question right, it was game over!
“What is the name of the Swedish author who wrote Pippi Longstocking?”
Erin banged the buzzer so loud the slap echoed throughout the auditorium. “Astrid Lindgren!” she cried.
“Correct,” the moderator confirmed as the crowd clapped.
The girls exchanged nervous glances. This was it. If they got this question right, they would be the champs!
“This Greek mathematician reinvented how pi was estimated. Name him or her.”
Willow knew the answer! She pressed the button, but her heart sank as she heard the sound of a Rivals buzzer a split second before hers.
Across the stage, Ryan smiled smugly. “Archimedes.”
“Correct!” the moderator cried. “And the winners of the Quiz Bowl Regional Tournament are the Atkinson Rivals. Congratulations!”
The crowd clapped politely, but some of the students who had previously lost to the Rivals groaned. Ryan slapped Aaron on the back as they grinned at each other. Isabel and Veronica hugged. They then crossed the stage to shake hands with the Jewels.
“I’m not going to lie, you had me nervous there for a little bit,” Ryan said while shaking Willow’s hand. “I think I may have underestimated you, in more ways than one.”
He shot her a knowing look. They both knew he was talking about the diamond.
“But don’t worry,” he added. “It’s a mistake I won’t make again.”
Willow gave him an icy smile. “You may have won regionals, but we’re going to take nationals, you can count on it.”
Just as the Rivals were leaving, Ms. Keatley came rushing onto the stage.
“Girls, I am so proud of you all!” she said. “You did an amazing job. Second place! It is quite an achievement.”
Willow smiled. “I would have liked to have won, but you’re right. We did great!”
“There is going to be an awards ceremony,” Ms. Keatley said. “I need to fill out some paperwork first. I think you’re getting a trophy! I’ll be right back.”
As Ms. Keatley walked away, Erin opened her arms wide.
“Group hug!” she cried.
They all grabbed each other. “We did awesome!” Jasmine said.
“Um, guys, I can’t breathe,” squeaked Lili, who was trapped in the center.
Laughing, they broke apart.
“We may not have won, but we’ve proven that we can stand up to the competition,” Willow said. “I’m proud of us. And I think I spotted a pattern in the Rivals’ incorrect answers. We can come up with a study strategy to cream them the next time we face off!”
“Whoa! Relax!” Erin held up her hand. “One quiz bowl tournament at a time.”
Jasmine laughed. “Yeah, let’s celebrate how great we did here first. But Willow is right. I feel more confident than ever.”
Lili looked around to make sure no one was nearby. “And to think we stopped them from getting their hands on the diamond. It wasn’t easy, but we did it!”
“It’s not over,” Erin reminded them. “If the Rivals really are collecting clues, they might try to steal the diamond back. And we need to find out if they have the emerald and the sapphire.”
“We’re the Jewels — we can do anything we put our minds to!” Lili cried as she held out her arm. Willow, Erin, and Jasmine each reached out and put a hand on top of hers.
“Gooooooo, Jewels!”
Willow nodded at Lili. “I’ve been doing some research, too, to try and figure out what the E-Fifty on the back of the diamond could mean. It could be part of a math equation. Also, there is a World War Two tank that has a model number E-Fifty, as well as a smartphone. But those are way after Martha’s time, so I ruled them out. I’m thinking the E-Fifty will make sense once we see the clues on the other jewels.”
“If we see the clues on the other jewels,” Jasmine pointed out. “The Rivals definitely have the ruby. For all we know, they might have already stolen the emerald and the sapphire, too.”
Erin nudged Jasmine. “Shhh! Here comes Principal Frederickson!”
A stern-looking African American woman marched into the library. Principal Frederickson always walked like she knew exactly where she was going. Today, she was headed right for the girls’ table.
The Jewels quickly stopped talking and closed their notebooks.
Erin greeted her in her most polite voice. “Hello, Principal Frederickson.”
Their principal raised an eyebrow, and Erin swore she saw something resembling a twinkle in her eyes.
“You don’t have to hide anything from me, girls,” she said. She leaned forward, placing her hands on the table. “I know what you’re doing. And I know all about the Martha Washington jewels.”
Copyright © 2012 by Pure West Productions, Inc., and Katherine Noll.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
This edition first printing, August 2013
Previously published as Jewel Thieves: Diamonds Are a Thief’s Best Friend
Cover art by Tate
vik Avakyan
Cover design by Natalie C. Sousa
e-ISBN 978-0-545-53949-4
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.