by Ida Siegal
“It looks so real,” I told her. “But not quite real enough …”
“What do mean it’s not real enough?” Sophia sounded confused.
Then I pulled out my surprise for her. Luna’s fur brush!
“Look!” I showed her. “We’ll just take some of Luna’s cat fur and paste it on your costume and then you’ll be like a real lion!”
“Ooh, wow! This is perfect!” Sophia squealed.
She pasted Luna’s fur onto the leotard in the shape of a semicircle near the neck. It looked better than I had imagined. There was no way we could lose.
“This is wonderful, Sophia!” said Mr. Colón, the art teacher, as he walked over to our table. “I love this colorful lion’s mane. Very creative.”
“Thanks, Mr. Colón.” Sophia beamed.
“Nice costume, Sophia,” said Melissa G. as she walked by our table.
I sighed.
“Thanks, Melissa,” Sophia replied.
I just rolled my eyes because you could tell Melissa G. didn’t really mean it when she said “nice costume.” I knew she was jealous and probably worried we’d win the contest.
“Yeah, it looks awesome!” said Molly, who was walking behind Melissa G. “It really looks just like a lion. Good job, Sophia!”
Sophia smiled. You could tell she was feeling proud of her hard work.
“It’s pretty good,” Melissa G. agreed, “but, Molly, I know your costume is going to be great, too. We’ll be the most beautiful princesses at the festival!”
Melissa G. and Molly both decided to be princesses. That was not surprising at all. They both love princess everything. Princess dolls. Princess dresses. Princess castles. They even had princess sunglasses with crown jewels on them. (Secretly I always wished I could have princess sunglasses, too, but I would never tell Melissa G. that. I don’t want her to think I’m jealous or something when I’m really not!)
Melissa G. dragged Molly to the other side of the art room.
“Come on, Molly … I want to show you the silk scarf I attached to my crown. Now it looks just like a veil! I’ll show you how to do it … It’ll look so great! I know we’re going to win the contest!”
Then they sat at an empty table on the other side of the art room. Melissa G. pulled out her costume—she was the princess from the book The Princess and the Pea. Molly was supposed to be her younger sister. I never knew that the princess had a younger sister, but Melissa G. insisted she could have one if she wanted to. Molly just went along with it—like she always does.
But today, Molly looked a little sad staring back at our table. Which is strange, since I thought Molly would like to be a princess. That’s why she’s perfect-match friends with Melissa G. I felt bad for Molly, but we had work to do!
“Okay, Sophia, what’s left?” I asked.
“I just need to make the Lion’s tail,” continued Sophia.
“Yes … let’s see what we can do about that,” added Mr. Colón. “Oh, I bet we could make something out of these old jump ropes we have in the back supply closet … Come this way.”
Mr. Colón grabbed Sophia’s costume and headed to the back of the room to look for jump ropes. Sophia followed him. I pulled out my costume and started gluing feathers to my White Witch dress. It was looking very feathery. Sophia returned with what looked like a jump rope tail!
“Ha-ha!” I said. “Look at your tail!”
“I know,” Sophia replied. “I’m almost done. I just need some yellow and orange yarn to make the tail fluffy at the end.”
Sophia left her costume on the table next to me and went to go find some yarn. I continued adding feathers to my dress.
All of a sudden, everyone turned to the front of the room and started giggling.
It was Javier. He walked into the class with his costume on and he looked amazing. He was wearing a huge cardboard box that had a hole on top for his head and two holes on the sides for his arms. The box was painted dark blue with a light blue trim. He looked just like a wardrobe! It even had two doors in front that opened and closed!
“Javier!!” I screamed with delight as I ran over to him near the front of the classroom. “That is the best costume ever!! It’s amazing!”
“Wow! That’s so cool,” said Adrian. Everyone started crowding around Javier. Mr. Colón and Sophia walked over, too.
“Javier, this is an excellent costume,” said Mr. Colón as he inspected the cardboard box.
“Thanks,” said Javier with a huge grin.
“I think you and your team have a real shot at winning the grand prize,” Mr. Colón went on. “And, boy, this whole class is looking good. Looks like we have lots of winners here. I’d say there’s a good chance Miss Thompson’s class will win the most categories and become the winners of the pizza party! P.S. 387 is going to be the most creative school on Halloween!”
All the kids started patting Javier on the back—well, on the back of his wardrobe box! He had a big smile on his face.
“Thanks, Javier,” said Adrian. “I can’t wait for our pizza party next week! P.S. 387 rules!”
“No problem,” said Javier, trying to play it cool.
“Javier, do you know what this means?” I yelled in a not-cool way. “Forget about the pizza party, we’re gonna win the grand prize! We can finally get your spy kit from Mr. Magee’s Toy Store! And that way we can solve more cases … do more news reports … and be even more famous!”
I couldn’t think of anything more exciting. The school would be so proud of us. Plus a pizza party! This was gonna be the best Halloween ever.
Then it happened.
“Aaaahhhhhh!”
It was Sophia. She was screaming. It was such a loud screech, it gave me goose bumps on my arms.
“Sophia, what’s wrong?” I asked her.
“My Lion costume is gone!”
OKAY, okay, Sophia. Calm down. It must be here somewhere. We’ll find it,” said Mr. Colón.
Sophia looked like she was going to cry.
“Has anyone seen Sophia’s costume?” Mr. Colón asked the class. Everyone shrugged.
“Well, I suggest you all help us look for it. Without Sophia’s costume, this class may not win the pizza party …”
After that, the whole class started searching.
Mr. Colón checked the back closet to make sure no one had brought it there by accident. Sophia and I looked under our table, and Javier tried to help us but he was stuck. His wardrobe costume was not very easy to move around in.
“Uh … Emma … I can’t really bend down on the floor.”
“That’s okay,” I told him. “Why don’t you just stand in the front of the room and look around? Let me know if you see anything suspicious.”
“All right, got it,” said Javier. He waddled to a spot near the door and called, “I’ll be right here if you need me!”
“Okay!” I called back.
Sophia and I looked under every table and in every corner, but we couldn’t find the Lion costume anywhere.
“This is so strange,” said Mr. Colón. “How can a costume just disappear?”
“This is awful!” cried Sophia. “I worked so hard on that Lion outfit and now it’s gone!”
“Now don’t worry. We’ll find it, I’m sure,” Mr. Colón assured her.
“But Mr. Colón,” I said, “we need to find it before the festival on Saturday. If we don’t, we’ll lose the contest!”
Then Sophia really started to cry.
Mr. Colón started asking each of the kids if they’d seen the costume. But I knew what we had to do.
“Sophia, come here,” I said in a whisper.
I tugged at her sleeve and pulled her away to the front of the room. We walked over to Javier and huddled together, and I pulled out my camera phone and my Emma microphone.
“Guys, this is it,” I said. “This is our next news story. If we work together we can figure out who took Sophia’s costume. I know we can. But we have to hurry. We only have two days before the fe
stival.”
“Great idea,” said Javier.
“I don’t know,” said Sophia, still sniffling. “How are we going to find it in two days?” Sophia was so sad that she was ready to give up. And that wasn’t like her at all. Sophia is usually the one who tells me to never give up!
“Sophia, we can do it. Look—I’m a famous reporter. I’m good at this. And the three of us are like a team.”
“Yeah!” said Javier.
“We can work on this together,” I continued. “And, hey, then we’ll all be famous. And we’ll find your costume. And we’ll win the contest!”
“Okay,” said Sophia with a little smile.
“Okay, good,” I said. “Now, Javier, did you notice anything suspicious while you were watching the class?”
“Not really. Well, I don’t know … I kinda saw something, but I don’t want you to get mad.”
“Get mad about what?” asked Sophia.
“Well, it’s not really suspicious … but I was looking at Melissa G…. and she was the only one who wasn’t helping search for the costume. Melissa and Molly. They were just standing by their table. And it looked like Melissa G. was smiling.”
“She was smiling?” I asked.
“Yeah. Like when Sophia started crying, it almost looked like Melissa G. was laughing.”
“What??” I asked in amazement. That did it. Now I really was getting mad. Melissa G. might think she can push Molly around, but now she’d gone too far.
“She’s so … she’s just so … she’s just so mean!” I yelled.
“It’s okay, Emma,” said Sophia. “Just ignore her. We don’t care what she thinks anyway.”
Then I thought of something.
“But, Sophia, we do care what she thinks.” I turned on my camera phone. “Javier, I need you to tell us that again. But this time on camera!”
“Why?” Javier was confused.
“Don’t you get it? Melissa G. took Sophia’s costume! That’s why she was smiling!” It seemed so obvious to me.
“But she just told Mr. Colón she hadn’t seen the costume,” said Sophia.
“Sophia, she’s lying. I know she did it. Remember when she walked by and said she liked your costume?” I explained.
“Yeah?” Sophia said.
“Well, there you go.”
“What do you mean? She said she liked it.” Sophia was confused, too.
“I know she said she liked it. But I think she was really just jealous. So she took the costume to make sure we didn’t win the contest.”
“You really think she would do that?” asked Javier.
“I know she would! We just have to prove it. And this is our first clue!”
WE set up the camera phone and Sophia helped me record the interview with Javier. He told us what he saw all over again. Then I opened my backpack and pulled out the rest of my reporting tools, including my purple reporter pad and my shiny feather pencil.
I turned to the next free page and wrote at the top: The Case of the Missing Costume. Then I wrote underneath:
Clue #1: Javier saw Melissa G. smiling after Sophia’s costume went missing.
Just then, I heard someone laugh. I looked up and it was Melissa G.! Again! So I grabbed the camera phone and pointed it in her direction. I recorded video of her laughing as she showed Molly her costume. She had on a beautiful blue princess dress with lots of lace, bows, and beading. It even had a flowing skirt with light blue shimmers and sparkles. And when she spun around, the skirt twirled in the air.
I started feeling even more mad. Her costume was awesome. And now that she’d stolen Sophia’s costume, she might actually win the contest!
Molly was sitting down, also wearing a princess dress. But she just sat there with her backpack on. She looked upset. She’s probably mad at Melissa, too, I thought.
“C’mon, Sophia. Let’s go talk to Melissa G.”
Sophia and I ran over. You know that reporters have to do things quickly. Sophia held the camera and I pointed my Emma microphone right at Melissa.
“Melissa!” I said.
“What do you want?” Melissa G. answered.
“I want to know what happened to Sophia’s Lion costume!”
“I don’t know! I already told Mr. Colón that I haven’t seen it.”
“But you said you liked it,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, so? I said I liked it because I thought it was a good costume. Big deal.”
“Well, maybe you liked it so much you were worried you were going to lose the contest. So you decided to steal Sophia’s costume to make sure we wouldn’t win!”
Melissa started to look upset. Like her feelings were hurt. I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Listen, Melissa, we don’t care if you took it,” I said with a nicer voice. “Just give it back.”
“But I didn’t take it!” Melissa yelled back.
“Then who did?” Sophia chimed in.
“Um … Melissa didn’t take it,” Molly blurted.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Um … Melissa couldn’t have taken it,” Molly explained. “She was in the bathroom putting on her princess dress when Sophia screamed. She wasn’t here when the costume disappeared.”
“That’s right!” said Melissa, like she was suddenly remembering. “When I came back to the art room, everyone had already started searching. Molly had to tell me what happened because I didn’t know.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes, really,” answered Melissa. “And besides, I don’t care about that old Lion costume. I was too busy twirling. It doesn’t matter to me if Sophia has her costume or not. I know I’m going to win the contest either way!”
And with that, Melissa G. twirled to the other side of the room and pretended to lie down on a stack of imaginary mattresses.
Javier was still standing in the front of the classroom—still stuck in his costume. Sophia and I walked back over and told him what happened.
“So Melissa didn’t do it?” Javier said.
“Nope,” said Sophia.
“That’s what she says,” I added. “I still think she had something to do with it.”
“But Melissa G. couldn’t have done it,” Sophia insisted. “You heard Molly.”
“I guess you’re right,” I agreed. But I still wasn’t convinced. Something just didn’t make sense. But I didn’t have a good reason to suspect Melissa anymore, so I just wrote down what I did know in my reporter pad.
Clue #2: Molly says Melissa G. was in the bathroom when the costume went missing. Melissa couldn’t have taken it.
“Okay, everyone. Class is over,” said Mr. Colón. “Miss Thompson is here to take you to the lunchroom.”
Mr. Colón walked over to Javier, Sophia, and me.
“Listen, Sophia, I know you’re upset. But don’t panic. Your costume is around here somewhere and we’ll figure it out.”
I looked at Sophia and whispered, “That’s right—we’ll figure it out.” And we walked out the door for lunch.
THAT night I told Papi about my latest news story at school.
“Pobrecita Sophia,” he said in Spanish. Poor Sophia.
“Yeah, she’s pretty upset. Bendito,” I added. That means “poor thing.”
Papi helped me set up my laptop computer to record another report.
I wrote my news story on my purple reporter pad. Then I adjusted the laptop so the camera was pointing toward me. Once I saw myself on screen, I laughed. I love seeing myself on TV!
I looked into the computer screen again with a serious reporter face. That was better. As usual, I was wearing my green velvet reporter blazer and my chunky white pearl necklace. My chocolate-pudding Slinky curls were in just the right position around my face. I looked just like a real reporter and I was ready to go on the air. I clicked record and said, “This is Emma and I’m on the air!”
I decided not to sing the intro like I normally would. Even though it sounds funny and famous that way, this was
a serious report and I knew I had to be more serious. Then I read the story I had written on my purple reporter pad:
“As some of you may have heard, Sophia’s Lion costume was stolen from the art room today. She worked very hard on this costume and needs it back. If she doesn’t get it back, Sophia can’t compete in the costume contest. And neither can I. Or Javier. We were a group costume from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Without Sophia’s costume, Miss Thompson’s class will win fewer categories and that means we might not get the pizza party. Also—P.S. 387 might not win the grand prize! Sophia’s costume was really good. P.S. 387 has to win … So we have to find her costume!”
Then I pressed play to show the two interviews we did that day with Javier and Melissa G. Afterward, I explained the clues I had discovered so far. And then I wrapped up my report.
“The case continues tomorrow. Stay tuned. We will get to the bottom of this!”
“Nice job,” said Papi as soon as I was finished.
“Thanks, Papi. We don’t have much time. The contest is the day after tomorrow and Sophia doesn’t have a costume! I know Melissa G. took it and I’m going to prove it at school tomorrow.”
“But, Emma, it sounds like Melissa couldn’t have done it. She wasn’t even there when it went missing, right?”
“I know but … she’s not nice at all, Papi. Ella es muy mala. She’s so mean!”
“Okay, okay. But remember, when you’re a reporter and a detective, you can’t let your feelings about someone cloud your judgment.”
“What do you mean, Papi?”
“I mean, just because you don’t like Melissa G. doesn’t mean she took the costume. That’s called bias—when you judge someone based on feelings instead of facts.”
“So you think I have bias?” That sounded like I had a disease.
“Yes, I think you’re being a little biased. It’s not fair to Melissa G. And it’s not nice to accuse someone of something you know they didn’t do. Eso es mal. That’s wrong.”