The Great Museum Mix-Up and Other Surprise Endings

by Deborah Lytton

  Also by Deborah Lytton

  Ruby Starr

  The Fantastic Library Rescue and Other Major Plot Twists

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  Books. Change. Lives.

  Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Lytton

  Cover and internal design © 2019 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover design by Jeanine Murch

  Cover and internal illustrations by Jeanine Murch

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

  Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

  (630) 961-3900

  Fax: (630) 961-2168

  sourcebooks.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Lytton, Deborah A., author.

  Title: The great museum mix-up and other surprise endings / by Deborah Lytton.

  Description: Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, [2019] | Series: Ruby Starr ; [3] | Summary: Ruby and the members of her lunchtime book club are thrilled when the class field trip to the museum gives them the chance to follow in the footsteps of an adventurer who may have discovered the last unicorn.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018033549 | (trade pbk. : alk. paper)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Museums--Fiction. | School field trips--Fiction. | Friendship--Fiction. | Books and reading--Fiction. | Clubs--Fiction. | Imagination--Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.L9959 Gr 2019 | DDC [Fic]--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018033549

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  An Excerpt from Ruby Starr

  Back Cover

  For my mom, who always believes in me

  With love

  Chapter 1

  How an Adventure Begins

  Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Ruby Starr. (That’s me.) In case we haven’t met before, there are a few things you should know. If we have met before, see if you spot anything new.

  1. I love, love, absolutely love books (every kind of book, especially the classics).

  2. I have four besties: Siri, Jessica, Daisy, and Charlotte (plus a most-of-the-time friend named Will P).

  3. I started the Unicorn Book Club with my friends so we could read together and talk about books. In my opinion, the next best thing to reading a book is talking about a book.

  4. I am really good at these things: writing, singing, and baking (but I still can’t crack an egg using only one hand).

  5. My dream is to one day be a famous author and to have so many published books that they take up an entire shelf in the library.

  6. Sometimes I imagine I am in the pages of a book. My thoughts sort of fly up into bubble-gum bubbles full of ideas.

  7. I believe in the power of imagination.

  Today is Book Club Tuesday, so I am sitting at my usual lunch table with the other Unicorns discussing our latest read, which, this week, is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. (Fun book fact: This novel won the Newbery Medal in 1968 and has been considered a classic ever since. When I am a famous author, I hope to win at least one Newbery Medal for my work.)

  “Has anyone finished the book?” I ask the Unicorns. Siri, Jessica, and Daisy are sitting across from me, and Charlotte is sitting to my right. My most-of-the-time friend, Will P, is sitting at the other end of the table with his book club, the Polar Bears. Sometimes I read with them too. Other times, I stay away from his friends because of their habit of throwing food.

  “I finished the book in one day,” Jessica announces. She is a super-speedy reader.

  “It took me six days,” Daisy admits. “But I’m done too.”

  “Same here,” says Siri.

  “Ruby and I finished on Saturday,” Charlotte shares with a quick smile in my direction. Charlotte didn’t like books when she first came to our school a few months ago. But that’s different now.

  “Excellent news. If everyone is finished, then we can begin our discussion,” I say in my fake British accent. Certain words sound more official when I say them with an accent. Discussion is one of those words. Other words that are especially impressive in an accent are s’mores, periwinkle, and brilliant.

  I have laid out a cloth napkin in the middle of the table for our lunches. On Book Club Tuesday, it is especially important to bring yummy snacks for sharing and also to wear something in the Unicorn’s signature color, pink. I’m wearing a pink-and-white-striped T-shirt. Charlotte is wearing a pink cardigan over her red dress. Siri has her hair braided with pink ribbons, and Jessica and Daisy are wearing matching pink sweatshirts.

  “Why do you think Claudia ran away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art?” I ask as I hold up a small container of apple slices. Charlotte and Daisy each take one.

  “She wanted an adventure,” Jessica answers before she bites into a mini blueberry muffin.

  “Claudia thought her family didn’t appreciate her,” Siri adds.

  “Would you have run away?” Charlotte asks Siri. She offers us animal crackers. I choose a tiger.

  Siri doesn’t even take a moment to think before answering, “For sure.”

  “I think Claudia was good at planning,” Daisy says, joining in the discussion. “She figured out how to eat, sleep in a bed, wash her clothes, and even take baths while living in a museum.”

  Then it’s Siri’s turn to ask a question. “If you did run away, would you want to run away to a museum?”

  Daisy scrunches up her nose. “I wouldn’t like to be there in the dark. It sounds creepy.”

  I nod. “I would bring a flashlight, so I could see everything. What about you, Jessica?”

  “I would rather run away to a bookstore,” she says with a big sigh. “Then I could read all the time, and no one would tell me to turn o
ff the light and go to sleep.”

  Everyone laughs at that. We all know what it’s like when you want to read just one more page and your parents turn off the light. (Secret factoid about me: sometimes I hide under the covers with a flashlight and keep reading even though I am supposed to be sleeping.)

  “I would run away to the San Francisco Ballet,” Charlotte tells us. “Imagine being part of a real ballet company.” Charlotte stands up and spins around three times like it’s an exclamation point at the end of her sentence.

  I grin at my dancing friend. “I can’t imagine being part of a ballet company. I can’t even imagine taking a ballet class.” My friends know that dancing is not my thing. Not at all! So smiles appear on all of our faces, starting from one side of the Unicorns and going to the other.

  That’s when I notice that something isn’t right with Siri.

  I’ve read a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries, and Nancy is always paying attention to little details. I’m sort of like a Nancy Drew in training. That’s why I realize Siri isn’t smiling her real smile. She has her worried expression on. It’s the one where her eyebrows go down a little and her eyes get really big. I know this because she has been my best friend since kindergarten. I’ve seen her excited, worried, and even really mad. We’ve had sleepovers together and real adventures and even a few fights (which I would rather not think about). When you know someone as well as I know Siri, you can almost always tell what they are thinking—not that I have the power to read minds, although sometimes I wish I did.

  I am a famous detective who can solve even the most complicated mystery because of my incredible mind reading abilities. I am interviewing three suspects accused of stealing a giant green diamond from a museum in New York. I ask all three where the diamond is and then read their minds. The first suspect is an old woman, who is thinking about her calico cat. The second suspect is a teenager, who is thinking about eating pizza with pineapple and pepperoni. The third suspect is the manager of the museum. He is thinking about the diamond hidden in his hat. Hey, I did it! I solved the crime!

  I’m sure mind reading would have its downsides though—like reading minds you didn’t actually want to read, but your power made you do it anyway. Here are three minds I would not like to read:

  1. Will B (the other Will in our class, who has a habit of eating things you shouldn’t eat, like pencil erasers and things that come from inside his nose).

  2. A substitute teacher we had once named Mrs. Cheer, who was anything but cheery.

  3. My brother Connor, who loves insects. I wouldn’t want spiders and ants crawling around in my mind.

  Anyway, I don’t have to read minds to know that Siri and I are going to be friends forever. I give my best friend one of my signature winks and say, “I bet you would like to run away to a fabric store.”

  That gets me a teeny real smile. “Would there be a sewing machine there?”

  I nod and answer her in my fake British accent. “Most definitely.”

  Siri offers me a piece of sushi. “I bet Claudia and Jamie got in a lot of trouble after they went home. The book doesn’t show us that part of the story.”

  I’m growing to like cucumber rolls these days. I take the piece of seaweed, rice, and cucumber and give her some stick pretzels.

  “I would get in a lot of trouble,” I answer. It would be super-serious Trouble with a capital T (which would be a lot worse than my usual trouble with a lowercase t).

  “Me too,” Jessica agrees.

  I think about this. “It might be worth it though to solve a giant mystery like the one about Angel.”

  “Is there a statue at school with a mysterious past?” Charlotte asks us. She is still sort of new here. The rest of us have been together at this same school since kindergarten.

  I shake my head. “Not that I know of, unless you want to investigate the lunch meat that is probably going to fly over here any minute.” I point to the other end of the table where, right on schedule, Will P’s friends have started flinging half-eaten sandwiches, chips, and everything in between.

  Daisy scrunches up her nose. “We better clean up fast today.”

  We all put our containers into our lunch bags, and I shake out Mom’s napkin before folding it up.

  Siri hands me my water bottle. “We didn’t get to choose a book for next week,” she reminds us.

  Jessica stands up just in time to avoid a splatter of orange slice on her seat. “We’ll have to vote on a new book tomorrow. Let’s go to the swings.”

  I am just turning to follow Siri and Charlotte when it happens. It’s worse than being fake vomited on (which has happened before), and it’s worse than having a half-eaten, very slimy piece of salami hit my hand (which has also happened before). What happens is so awful it almost can’t be described. But it happens to me.

  Something lands in my hair!

  I carefully reach my hand up to the spot just over my right ear… It’s gooey. I am really afraid to see what it is. Please don’t let it be a meatball. Please don’t let it be tuna fish.

  I pull the unidentified mush out of my hair, and there it is. Only guess what. I can’t tell what it is!

  My detective skills are pretty good, so I begin with the color. It’s yellow. Then I look at the texture. It’s sticky. I know it has to be in the food category, since it’s lunchtime. That leaves a few options: It could be mango. It could be papaya. It could even be bell pepper.

  I have to pause my detective work for a second. Because I have to do this:

  EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

  “Sorry about that, Ruby.” Will B is standing next to me.

  “Is this yours?” I lift my hand up, so he can see the mush.

  Will B nods. “I didn’t mean for it to hit you. I was aiming for Bryden.”

  I want to say a lot of things right now. But most of them would probably get me into Trouble with a capital T. I also want to put this yellow mush into Will’s sweatshirt pocket. But that would most definitely get me into Trouble with a capital T. So instead, I say this: “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure. I think it’s papaya. Or it could be mango.”

  If he doesn’t know, that must mean he didn’t eat it before he threw it. Which is better. I think.

  “That explains a lot,” I tell him as I turn away and drop the sticky goo into the nearest trash.

  Siri is standing a few steps away from me. “What happened?”

  I shrug. “What else? Flying food. I’m going to the bathroom to check out the damage.”

  “I’ll come with you. What are besties for?” she says as she puts her arm around my shoulder.

  Having a bestie is one of those things you don’t realize is that important until you don’t have one. Then you find out just how important it really is. There was a time when Siri and I were experiencing what my mom calls “friend troubles.” I had more tears and stomachaches than I’ve had in probably my whole entire life. But all that is behind us now and we are closer than we have ever been, which is why I ask her this: “What’s wrong?”

  She shrugs. Shrugging is Siri’s signature move. “Nothing.” Only the worried expression is still on her face. Have you ever noticed that when someone doesn’t want to tell you something, their face tells you anyway? Siri’s face is telling me that something is very, very wrong.

  “You can always talk to me, you know,” I say in my brightest voice. “I’m really good at figuring things out.” I am a whiz at word searches and guessing games. Here are my go-to choices for the animal guessing game that my family plays on long car rides:

  1. Anteater

  2. Porcupine

  3. Toucan

  “I know,” Siri answers me. But she doesn’t say anything else.

  I have read stories where someone keeps a secret and the secret ends up causing lots of problems for everyone, especially the hero. I hope t
his is not going to turn out that way.

  Siri stays with me the whole time I wash the yellow goo out of my hair. She even stands next to me while I lean underneath the hand dryer to blow the side of my hair dry.

  I imagine Siri and I are riding a golden dragonfly through a garden of magical flowers. We are searching for the purple praying mantis: the guardian of the magical story stone. Whoever holds the stone knows all the stories in the world. Siri spots the praying mantis underneath a ruby rose. He will only tell us where the stone is hidden if we tell him a story that makes him smile. Siri and I tell him about our friendship. The praying mantis smiles and even winks. Then he hands me the story stone. He is counting on us to keep it safe.

  Chapter 2

  The Best Assignment Ever (Really!)

  Our teacher, Mrs. Sablinsky, is all business after lunch. “Room 15, no dillydallying, please. Take your seats,” she says as she claps her hands together. “We have a busy afternoon ahead of us.” If I were a teacher, I would understand that sometimes students need to take their time. Maybe they are in the middle of writing a story in their imagination. (Everyone knows you can’t rush a writer!)

  I cut my imagination story short and hurry to my desk in the middle of the room. Last week, we moved to new seats, and I’m not sitting in the front near Jason anymore. He sleeps through class most of the time, so he’s not the worst seat partner, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Now I am sitting near my friends, which is the best thing ever. Siri is to my right and Will P is to my left. Jessica is in front of me. Daisy is next to her and Charlotte is in the desk right behind me.

  Mrs. Sablinsky sits in her director’s chair in the front of the room. “I have a very exciting announcement for you. For the next two weeks, you will be working on a book report.”

  When Mrs. S says the magic word book, my ears perk up right away, like my dog, Abe, when he hears kibble being poured into his bowl. I already know this will be a better-than-best assignment. Our last assignment was a math report on creative ways to use numbers in everyday life. I wrote the paper about baking because I’m pretty much an expert at baking, and because numbers are super important when measuring ingredients. I know this from personal experience (but that’s a whole other story).