2 eggs
1 cup milk
¼ cup (½ stick) melted butter, slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chocolate chips
1 cup frozen wild blueberries (do not defrost) or fresh blueberries
Optional: sanding sugar to sprinkle on top
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place baking cups in a muffin pan.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix the ingredients just until they are combined. Do not overmix.
Stir in chocolate chips. Using a spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Be careful not to crush the berries.
Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Baking cups will be nearly full. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of sanding sugar, if desired.
Bake 23–27 minutes, or until golden brown.
The side door of the school flew open, and Max and Alice ran out. “They can’t cancel the Olympics!” Max said. “We’ve got to tell the others.”
Alice pointed to a big grassy field next to the school. “There they are,” she said.
On the field, an oval racetrack had been marked out with wooden sticks and a rope. Luke and Kat were standing at the starting line that had been drawn on the grass with white chalk. Next to them was Nico, a tall boy with straight dark hair. He was one of Franklin’s best athletes. Ms. Suraci, the school’s PE teacher, stood nearby. She had a ponytail and wore a blue tracksuit with stripes on the side.
Max and Alice began to run over, but before they reached the starting line, Ms. Suraci held out her phone with the speaker on. They heard a voice say “Three, two, one, go!” and a loud buzzer split the air. The race had started! Luke, Nico, and Kat took off running. Kat quickly took the lead, with Nico hot on her heels.
Max and Alice stopped to cheer them on.
“Come on, Kat!” Alice yelled.
“Go, Nico!” Max shouted.
As the three rounded the far end of the racecourse, Nico pulled ahead of Kat. Kat’s curly hair bounced up and down as she tried to catch up with him. But Nico’s long, tall body had an advantage. He was pumping his arms and running as fast as he could.
Max and Alice cheered them as they rounded the final corner. Ms. Suraci was standing at the finish line. Nico flew across the line first! Then Kat zoomed across. The bright purple ribbons holding back her curly hair streamed along behind her.
Luke finished last. He was panting and out of breath.
“Nico wins the gold!” Ms. Suraci called out. “Kat gets silver! And Luke wins bronze!”
Kat and Luke flopped on the ground to catch their breath, but Nico punched his fist into the air. “Yeah!” he said. “A gold medal in running would be great, but I really want to win the gold in gymnastics.”
“No one else has a chance,” Alice said. “You’re our top tumbler!” She gave Nico a high five.
As the clap from the high five echoed in the air, Nico dropped his hands to the ground and flipped his feet up over his head. His body arched into a circle as he turned two perfect handsprings!
Nico landed right in front of Max. “Ta-da!” he said. Nico loved to show off. His long arms and legs made him good at running, jumping, twisting, bouncing, flipping, spinning, and anything else that would make most other people queasy.
Alice and Ms. Suraci clapped. Then Ms. Suraci pretended to put medals around each of the runners’ necks, just like they did at the real Olympics. When she was finished, Ms. Suraci checked her watch. “That was fun, kids,” she said. “But I have to get going. I’ll be rooting for you at the big race tomorrow!”
The kids waved goodbye to Ms. Suraci. She walked across the field to the teachers’ parking lot behind the school. When she was safely out of earshot, Max leaned over to the group.
“Make sure you enjoy those medals,” Max said. “Because you might not have a chance to win one tomorrow!”
Everyone looked at Max. “What do you mean?” Nico asked.
“We just heard the Olympics might be canceled!” Alice answered.
“Why?” Kat asked.
“Someone has been sending threatening messages to the school,” Alice said. “We found a note saying the school should call off the Olympics.”
“They can’t do that!” Nico said. He slumped to the grass.
“Maybe we can figure out who did it,” Kat said. “We should look for clues.”
“That’s what I was thinking. We need to find out who’s making our Olympics a mess!” Max said. “And I know where to start!”
Max always had a plan. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the envelope. He held it so they could read the BEWARE warning.
“Alice and I snagged this from the trash can in the main office,” Max said. “It’s the envelope the note came in. I was going to try to dust it for fingerprints, so just hold it by the edges.”
Max passed the envelope to Kat. She took it gently by the corners and turned it over to look at each side.
“Um, Max?” Kat said. “I don’t think you need to dust this envelope for fingerprints.”
“What do you mean?” Max asked.
Kat pointed at the flap on the back of the envelope. There, right above the sticky part, were two bright blue fingerprints!
“It looks like you’ve already found the fingerprints of the person who’s threatening the Olympics!” Kat said.
The kids huddled around Kat to get a better look. The fingerprints seemed like a deep blue smudge, unless you looked closely.
“Let me see that,” Max said. He took the envelope back from Kat and studied the fingerprints. Close up, he could see small, ridged lines. Max took out his phone and snapped a picture of the fingerprint. He zoomed in on the photo. It was easy to see a big swirl and lots of wavy lines. He showed his friends.
“Wow! Good thinking, Max,” Luke said.
“Look at that radial loop,” Max said, pointing to the screen. “And that second finger has a clear arch. These are great clues!”
“What if they came from Mrs. Doolin when she opened the envelope?” Luke asked. “Maybe she had ink on her hands or something.”
“Good idea, but I don’t think so,” Alice said. “This looks like paint.”
Alice used her fingernail to scratch off a small part of one of the blue fingerprints. Tiny blue flakes rubbed off.
“It wouldn’t rub off if it was ink,” Alice said. “Whoever wrote this note must have been using paint.”
“Exactly,” Max said. “So all we have to do to catch the Olympic troublemaker is find a match for these fingerprints!”
Excerpt copyright © 2016 by David A. Kelly. Published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
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Ballpark Mysteries Super Special #2 Page 5