Party Drama!

by Ida Siegal

  “Okay, Papi. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, honey. You’re learning! So, based on the facts, what do you think about Melissa G.? I want you to think about what you know for certain happened so far.”

  “Well, I know Melissa G. wasn’t in the art room when Sophia’s costume went missing. That’s a fact. So I guess that means she didn’t take it. But if Melissa G. didn’t take it, then who did?”

  Papi shrugged. “Sounds like you have to interview some more witnesses.”

  “Yes! You’re right! Tomorrow I’m going to talk to Adrian. He was there when Javier walked into the room with his wardrobe costume. Maybe he saw something?”

  “Great idea! Remember, a good reporter and detective keeps her mind open to all possibilities.”

  “Got it.”

  I said good night to Papi. Tomorrow I would solve the case for sure!

  SOPHIA and I sat together on the school bus the next morning. She was so sad, she barely said a word. She just stared out the window.

  “Is Sophia okay?” asked Molly. She was sitting across from us on the bus.

  “No, Molly, she’s not okay. But she will be. I’ll make sure of that. I have to find out who took her costume. Today’s the day to solve the case.”

  “Good luck,” said Molly. “I really hope you find it. I would feel awful if someone took my costume.”

  “Thanks, Molly,” I replied as the bus pulled up to our school. I stood up to get out. Sophia just sat there. “Come on, Sophia,” I called. “We’re here. Time to go.”

  “Oh, right. Thanks,” she said as she slowly got out of her seat. She was even walking in a sad way. I waited so Sophia could go in front of me. Then I followed her down the aisle of the bus and Molly followed behind me. We all got off the bus and went into class.

  “Okay, boys and girls, have a seat,” said Miss Thompson. “Today we have a special visitor for our science lesson. Mr. Williams here has come all the way from the Bronx Zoo to introduce us to his special friend, Isadora the iguana.”

  Everyone got excited and stretched their necks to get a peek at the iguana. It was green and scaly like a lizard … but it was bigger.

  “Hello, class. My name is Milo Williams … and I’d like you to meet Isadora.” Mr. Williams held Isadora up so all of us could see her better. “Isadora the iguana is a baby. She’s only three months old. She may look big now, but when she grows up, she’ll be more than six feet long!”

  “Whoa …” we all said. The iguana lesson was so interesting, even Sophia looked like she was having fun. I almost forgot I had a mystery to solve! Mr. Williams said everyone could have a turn to pet Isadora the iguana. I made sure to get behind Adrian at the end of the line.

  “Hey, Adrian,” I whispered with my camera phone and microphone in hand. But he didn’t respond. He was busy watching people pet Isadora.

  “Adrian!” I called a little bit louder. Then he turned around.

  “What?”

  “I need to interview you for my news story. I’m trying to find out who took Sophia’s costume in the art room yesterday.”

  “Oh, cool. I’ll be on TV!”

  “Yup,” I said. Then Adrian had to step forward. The line was moving. I didn’t have much time, so I stepped forward with him and pressed record right away.

  “Adrian, did you see who took Sophia’s costume yesterday?”

  “No, I didn’t. I saw the costume on your art table. And then Javier walked in and his closet-box costume was so awesome, I walked over to him to see it.”

  “You mean his wardrobe costume,” I corrected.

  “Yeah, right. The box. I even knocked on his cardboard door to make sure it was real!”

  “You did?”

  “Uh-huh … I thought it was funny. But Ayana didn’t think so, and pushed me! She pushed me so hard, I fell against the table.”

  “Which table?” I asked.

  “Actually, your table. The table where you and Sophia were working.”

  “The table with the Lion costume on it??” I asked with excitement.

  “Um … yeah. You know what, I had to grab on to it to hold my balance. I think some stuff fell off. I was going to pick it up but I had to go back over to Ayana and yell at her for pushing me! She shouldn’t have pushed me! You know? Why do girls do that?”

  “Okay … but do you think you knocked the costume off the table?”

  “I’m not sure, but I probably did. I think I knocked everything off the table.”

  Then Adrian had to step forward again. We were almost at the front of the line.

  “Hmm. Okay, thanks, Adrian.” And then it was Adrian’s turn and he moved forward to pet Isadora. I put my camera and Emma microphone away.

  So Adrian knocked the costume onto the floor. But we looked on the floor and the costume wasn’t there. Someone must have picked it up before we started looking.

  It was my turn to pet Isadora. I reached out to touch her scaly back. She felt so strange. But she was also more beautiful than I had thought. I realized sometimes things aren’t always what they seem.

  Someone took the Lion costume after Adrian knocked it on the floor. Now I just had to figure out one thing—who?

  AFTER everyone had a turn to pet Isadora the iguana, Mr. Williams put her back in her cage and said good-bye.

  The rest of the morning we did independent reading and practiced our spelling words. Finally, at lunch, I sat down with Sophia and Javier in the cafeteria. Shakira and Lizzie sat with us, too.

  “Emma, I saw your report last night. I can’t believe Sophia’s costume is gone!” said Shakira.

  Sophia just sulked.

  “I know, but I’m making progress on the case,” I said, then added, turning to Sophia, “We’re gonna find the costume. I promise.”

  “Forget it, Emma. It’s no use.” Sophia sighed. “I’ve decided not to go to the Halloween Festival anyway.”

  “But you love Halloween!” cried Lizzie.

  “Yeah, don’t give up now,” encouraged Javier. “I know Emma will figure out what happened. Right, Emma?”

  “Well … I’m trying. And I have a new clue.” I told them about what Adrian said in class this morning.

  “Oh, yeah,” said Javier. “I remember Adrian knocking on my box. I didn’t care, but Ayana sure did. She’s always pushing Adrian around and arguing with him one minute, and then asking him to play at recess the next minute. Girls are weird.”

  “See that!” said Lizzie. “We just have to figure out who picked the costume up after Adrian pushed it on the floor.”

  “That’s right,” I agreed. Then I opened my backpack to get my purple reporter pad and shiny feather pencil so I could write down the latest clue. When I reached into the side pocket of my backpack, I felt a piece of paper. That was odd. I didn’t put a piece of paper in there. I pulled everything out. And there it was. Next to my reporter pad was a note.

  “Guys, look at this!” I showed them.

  “Read it!” demanded Lizzie.

  I read the note out loud. Here’s what it said:

  I know what happened to the Lion costume. Someone took it. Check Sophia’s desk in Miss Thompson’s class.

  That was it. The person who wrote the note didn’t sign their name. It was an anonymous tip!

  Sophia looked up.

  “My desk? But I was at my desk this morning. I didn’t see the costume there.”

  “Hmm. What does this mean?” I wondered.

  “Whoever wrote that note knows what happened,” said Javier. “We have to check Sophia’s desk again. Sophia, maybe you just didn’t see it in there this morning?”

  “Javier, it’s my costume. I love it. I know I would’ve seen it if it was in my desk,” insisted Sophia.

  “Well, what if it was in your desk,” continued Javier, “but someone covered it with a magic invisible blanket? Yeah … So it was there but it was invisible, so you just couldn’t see it!”

  We all rolled our eyes.

  “Sure, Ja
vier. Sure,” I said. “Sophia, as soon as lunch is over, let’s ask permission to go to the library instead of recess. But on our way to the library, let’s check your desk one more time. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Sophia nervously.

  “Me too. I’m coming, too!” insisted Javier. “I have to see how this invisible blanket really works …”

  “Javier! There is no invisible blanket! Come on, Sophia, let’s go ask Geraldine the lunch lady if we can go to the library,” I said.

  “Okay, Emma. I’m sure my costume’s not there, but we might as well look. See you later, Lizzie. Bye, Shakira.”

  “Bye, guys! Good luck!” they called back.

  And off we went to find Geraldine. Javier followed behind.

  GERALDINE said we could go to the library, so we started walking in that direction. Then instead of turning down the hall to the library, we went up the stairs toward our classroom.

  “Okay, let’s hurry before we get caught,” I said nervously.

  We ran over to Sophia’s desk and lifted the top to look inside.

  “See, I told you guys the costume wasn’t here.” Sophia looked disappointed.

  “You haven’t even checked under the invisible blanket yet. Of course we can’t see it,” said Javier. He wasn’t even joking.

  Sophia and Javier started arguing about invisible blankets again. But I noticed something stuck in the hinge of the desk top. I had to get a closer look, so I moved past Sophia and Javier. I bent over to inspect the lid. And then I found it. There was a small orange strip of felt.

  “Hey, guys! Look!!” I screamed.

  “What?” they both asked.

  “This …” I pulled the felt strip loose from the hinge and held it up. “Look familiar, Sophia?”

  “What? Is that part of the invisible blanket?” asked Javier.

  “Wait—that strip of felt is from my Lion’s mane!” said Sophia.

  “Yes!” I cried. “It must have gotten stuck in the hinge and fallen off. That means your costume was here. The person who wrote the anonymous note was right.”

  “But it’s not here now,” Sophia sighed. “Where is it?”

  “I don’t know. But, Sophia, we’re getting closer!”

  “Emma, we have to find out who wrote that anonymous note,” said Sophia. “He or she probably knows something more.” She was starting to sound hopeful.

  “You’re right. But how are we going to figure out who wrote it?”

  “Well … let’s see.” Sophia examined the note. “It’s written with pink ink. Maybe we can figure out who’s been using a pink pen …”

  “Yes! As soon as everyone gets back to class, we’ll look at their pens,” I suggested.

  “Uh, guys …” said Javier.

  “What is it?” we asked.

  “I think I hear something. We should really go.”

  “I know, I know. We will,” I told him. “I just have to write these clues down in my reporter pad.”

  I pulled out my pad and wrote:

  Clue #3: Adrian knocked the costume onto the floor.

  Clue #4: Anonymous note written in pink ink told us to look on Sophia’s desk.

  Clue #5: We found an orange felt strip in Sophia’s desk. Costume was here, but is gone now.

  “No really,” Javier said again, sounding nervous. “We need to leave.”

  “Okay, I’m done. Let’s go,” I said as we ran toward the door. I quickly put my purple reporter pad and shiny feather pencil back in my backpack. I put the piece of felt in the side pocket.

  “Someone’s coming!” Javier gasped. We stopped in our tracks before we got to the door.

  “It’s too late. Someone’s here.”

  SOPHIA, Javier, and I hurried over to the coat closet to hide. Just as we closed the closet doors behind us, Miss Thompson walked into the classroom with Mr. Colón.

  “I don’t know what happened,” we heard Mr. Colón say as we peeked through a crack in the doors. “One minute the costume was there, the next it was gone. We’ve looked everywhere and so far it hasn’t turned up.”

  “Did you ask Melissa G.?” asked Miss Thompson. “I know those girls don’t always get along. I don’t think she would steal a costume—but you never know.”

  I knew it! I knew Melissa G. had something to do with it. And Miss Thompson thought so, too!

  “I thought about that, too. But Melissa was not there when it happened. I gave her permission to use the bathroom. I was holding the costume myself when she walked out of the room. And I saw her walk back in after the costume went missing. It definitely wasn’t her.”

  Sophia and I looked at each other and shrugged. I guess it wasn’t Melissa G. after all. I felt bad for blaming her. Papi was right. I should’ve checked all the facts before making assumptions.

  “I know,” Miss Thompson said. “Have you checked with Charlie the custodian? He might know something.”

  “Actually, I haven’t. Great idea. I’ll do that after school today,” answered Mr. Colón.

  Miss Thompson grabbed a folder and what looked like her own lunch bag. Then they both walked out of the classroom. We waited a minute after they left and then we opened the closet doors and stepped out.

  “That is a great idea.” I said. “I bet Charlie the custodian knows something.”

  “I know exactly where he is, too,” said Sophia. “Come on, let’s go there now.”

  The three of us snuck out of the classroom. We looked both ways to make sure no one saw us. Then we raced back to the lunchroom. All the kids were outside playing. Charlie the custodian was mopping up in the back. We started running in his direction.

  “Emma!” someone suddenly called. We stopped in our tracks and turned around. It was Geraldine the lunch lady walking right toward us. “You know you’re not supposed to run in here! I thought you three were going to the library?” she asked. I could tell we were in trouble.

  “Oh, um … yeah, we were,” I said. But I didn’t know what to say next.

  “So why aren’t you there now?” Geraldine wanted to know. Sophia and I just looked at each other nervously. I stared at my feet. Then Javier started talking.

  “Geraldine, they didn’t really want to go to the library,” he said.

  “Is that so?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

  “Yeah … I tricked the girls into going with me by telling them I had seen an invisible blanket in the library. But it’s not actually there. I made it up. They left and insisted on coming back to join the class in the school yard.”

  Geraldine the lunch lady started giving Javier a lecture about how invisible blankets aren’t real, and even if they were real, you can’t go around searching for them during lunchtime.

  “You girls go along. Javier, you come with me. You earned fifteen minutes on the bench.” Geraldine pulled Javier outside to sit on the bench while the other kids played. He winked at us as he left the lunchroom. I felt awful that Javier got in trouble. But we still had a case to solve, so Sophia and I ran to talk to Charlie the custodian. He was still mopping in the back.

  “Hey, girls, what’s your hurry? Why are you running on this wet floor? You know you could get hurt,” Charlie said.

  “Oh, sorry, Charlie,” we said together.

  “Charlie,” Sophia began, “I lost my Aslan the Lion costume I was making for Halloween. We were hoping you might have seen it?”

  Charlie began to open his mouth to reply but then I shouted, “Wait! Don’t answer that. Not yet.” I hurriedly grabbed the camera phone and microphone and pressed record. “Okay, now. Now you can answer.”

  “Is that a camera?” Charlie asked.

  “Yes, this is a story for ‘Emma Is On the Air.’ We’re trying to figure out who took Sophia’s Aslan costume.”

  “All right, then,” he agreed. “As a matter of fact, Sophia, I did see your costume.”

  Sophia and I looked at each other and smiled.

  “Where??” Sophia asked.

  “It was right
on top of one of the desks in Miss Thompson’s classroom. I saw it there yesterday. I figured I’d better move it because that night they were going to use that classroom for adult school. English lessons, I think.”

  “So you moved the costume?” I asked. “Do you remember where you put it?”

  “I wasn’t sure who it belonged to. I thought it might belong to that little girl Molly, because I saw her with the costume earlier in the day, but I wasn’t sure. It looked important, so I put it in the lost and found bin and figured Molly could find it there the next day if it really was hers.”

  Suddenly we heard a whistle blow from outside. All the kids started lining up to head back to class. Lunch was over.

  “The lost and found bin! That’s great! Thanks, Charlie!” I called.

  “Anytime, girls!” Charlie replied as he continued to mop the floor.

  Sophia and I put the camera away as all the kids started walking back into the lunchroom—including Javier.

  We ran over to Javier and told him what happened.

  “That’s great!” he said.

  “Oh, I hope he’s right. I hope my costume’s there,” said Sophia. We made plans to head straight to the lost and found bin after school.

  “But, guys, Charlie said he saw Molly with the costume. Why would Molly have Sophia’s costume?” I wondered.

  “He must be confused,” Sophia said. “He wasn’t sure who he saw. He probably saw me holding the costume, not Molly. Molly would never take my costume.” Sophia seemed pretty convinced.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Molly wouldn’t do that,” I agreed. “Oh, and Javier, sorry you got benched.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry you got in trouble, Javier,” Sophia added.

  “Eh. That’s no problem. I get benched all the time. The bench is my good friend, it’s no big deal.”

  Javier is the best. I pulled out my reporter pad and wrote down:

  Clue #6: Charlie the custodian says he put the costume in the lost and found bin.

  This case was about to get solved!