by Hope McLean
Willow shook her head. “Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t watch East Coast Class?”
“Yes,” answered her three friends at once.
“But didn’t Principal Frederickson say it was hard to get in touch with Derrica?” Lili pointed out.
“Yeah,” Erin said. “But we’re cute sixth graders. We could say that we’re working on a school project about her or something. People can’t resist that. Flattery works on Derrica every time. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know. I could send her a message on Chatter.”
“Don’t!” Jasmine said quickly. “We’ve got to do this quietly, you know? Not so public.”
Lili nodded. “Maybe we could write her a letter.”
“I have a better idea,” Willow said. “This TV show films in the DC area, right?”
The other girls nodded.
“Well, you need a permit to film anywhere, and those are public record,” Willow said. “I know, because some movie filmed scenes at the community center once, and they needed my mom to sign forms and stuff.”
“Oh, right. ’Cause she runs the place,” Erin commented.
“Exactly,” Willow said. “So what we need to do is find out where the show is going to be filming, and then show up in person.”
“And then warn her that her necklace might be stolen?” Erin asked. “She might think we’re weird.”
Jasmine’s green eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’ve got an idea. Maybe we could tell her that the necklace once belonged to Martha Washington, and ask her to donate it to the school.”
“Why would she do that?” Willow asked skeptically.
“To look good on TV,” Jasmine replied. “And once we get it, we can look for the next clue.”
Willow frowned. “I’m not sure. I know it was my idea to approach her in person, but now I’m thinking it’s too much.”
Jasmine sighed. “There you go again. You only like your own ideas.”
“I’m not saying that,” Willow said defensively. “I’m just trying to think things through.”
“Well, I think it’s perfect,” Erin interjected.
“We should do it,” Lili urged.
Willow looked defeated. “Okay, then. I think I can look up the film permits online.”
* * *
“I didn’t realize you girls were such big fans of East Coast Class,” said Lili’s mom, Mrs. Higashida, as she drove down the tree-lined streets of River Park. Not far from Hallytown, the small village was known for its wealthy residents, high-end shops, and fancy restaurants.
“The show is really big in the sixth grade,” Lili said, lying just a little bit.
“And you’re sure the show is filming on Main Street?” she asked.
“The production company has a permit to film here all day,” Willow explained.
Mrs. Higashida shook her head. “You girls are very resourceful. I don’t think I would have gone through so much trouble to get an autograph when I was your age.”
“It’s the digital age, Mom,” Lili said. “It’s easy to find out this kind of stuff these days.”
Her mother steered the car into a parking lot on a side street and found a space. “I’ve been meaning to check out the new shoe shop down here anyway. Promise me you’ll stick together, and don’t leave the street, okay?”
The girls promised, and then they headed back to Main Street with Lili’s mom trailing behind them. In the center of the street, they saw a bunch of film equipment outside a restaurant.
“Ooh, that must be it!” Lili said excitedly.
The sign on the window read Emile’s Bistro. They walked through the door into a long, rectangle-shaped space with warm orange walls and cozy wooden tables and chairs. All the way in the back of the room they could see bright lights and a man with a TV camera filming a table of glamorous-looking women.
Jasmine pointed to one with wavy blond hair who sat facing the doorway. A green gem glittered on a chain that hung around her neck.
“That’s Derrica!” she exclaimed. “And she’s wearing the emerald!”
Suddenly a man in a black suit appeared in front of them. His brown hair was slicked back and shiny.
“May I help you?” he asked, in a voice that clearly said he did not want to help them.
Erin spoke up. “We just want to talk to —”
“We’re waiting for my parents,” Willow interrupted her. “They’re parking the car.”
“Fine,” the man said with a sniff. “Please move to the waiting area near the front of the restaurant. And be quiet. We’re filming a very important show here.”
“We’ll be quiet as mice,” Jasmine promised, flashing him a sweet smile, and the man walked back into the restaurant.
The girls took a seat in the foyer of the restaurant on a bench by the front door.
“So why the lie?” Erin asked Willow.
“If we said we wanted to talk to Derrica, he probably would have thrown us out,” Willow explained. “This way, we have a reason to be here.”
“But they’ll make us leave when your parents don’t show up, won’t they?” Lili asked.
“We don’t need that much time,” Willow said. “We just need to talk to Derrica.”
“How can we do that if they’re filming?” Jasmine wondered.
Then they heard a loud voice from the back of the restaurant. “Take five, everybody! We need to reset the lights.”
Willow grinned. “Perfect. I should probably go alone, so that manager guy doesn’t notice.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jasmine said quickly. “You need someone with you who knows the show.”
“Fine,” Willow said reluctantly. “Come on, let’s move.”
“Hey — what about us?” Erin asked. “I wouldn’t mind meeting Derrica, too.”
“We’ve got to keep this low-key,” Willow insisted. “We can’t all go barging back there or the manager will throw us out for sure. You and Lili can keep watch from the bench.”
“Watch for what?” Erin asked.
Willow shrugged. “I don’t know. But it can’t hurt.”
“I want a full report of what she is wearing,” Lili called after them.
Willow and Jasmine quickly made their way to the back of the restaurant. Derrica was talking with a brunette wearing gaudy diamond earrings and a matching bracelet. Both women looked angry.
“That’s Rhianna Alison,” Jasmine whispered to Willow. “She and Derrica are always fighting.”
As they got closer, they could hear what the women were saying.
“It’s just not fair,” Derrica complained. “I found Dion first. He’s the only one who knows what to do with my hair!” She fluffed her wavy locks to make her point.
“It’s a free country, Derrica,” Rhianna shot back. “Dion’s allowed to have more than one customer, you know.”
Jasmine looked worried. “I’m not sure if we should interrupt them.”
“It’s now or never,” Willow said. “Let’s go.”
But then a loud sound rang through the restaurant.
“Ca-caw! Ca-caw!”
“What is that?” Jasmine wondered.
At the front of the restaurant, they saw Erin with her hands cupped around her mouth.
“Oh no. What is she doing?” Willow asked.
Next to her, Lili was waving her arms and pointing to a nearby table. The girls looked over and saw two diners, each holding a menu in front of them. Then one of the customers lowered his menu — it was Ryan Atkinson!
He looked alarmed to see Willow and Jasmine there. Then he leaned forward and began to whisper to his companion, whom the girls realized was Isabel.
“We’d better hurry,” Jasmine urged, and the two girls cautiously approached Derrica’s table.
“Excuse me, Ms. Girard?” Willow asked. Her voice sounded nervous. Derrica turned, and at first she looked annoyed. But when she saw the two girls, she smiled.
“Yes, I’d be happy to give you an autograph,” Derri
ca said brightly.
Thinking quickly, Jasmine rummaged through her bag and took out a scrap of paper and a gel pen, which she handed to Derrica. Willow kept talking.
“Yes, that would be nice, but we’ve got something else to ask you about,” Willow began. “It’s about your emerald. You see —”
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Derrica shrieked, jumping out of her chair. Her green silk dress was soaked. It had all happened so quickly, but Willow soon put the pieces together — the spilled glass of water on the table, and Isabel Baudin hurriedly walking away, flashing a triumphant smile.
But Derrica didn’t see Isabel. Her face red with fury, she turned to Rhianna.
“You are too much!” she yelled. “You’re so jealous that you can’t stand to see me get any attention from my fans!”
“Get over yourself!” Rhianna shouted back. “I can’t help it if you’re clumsy!”
A young man wearing a baseball cap ran up and tapped the cameraman. “Start filming! We’ve got to get this.”
Willow pulled Jasmine away from the table. “We’d better get out of here,” she hissed.
They raced to the front door, where they found the restaurant manager escorting Lili and Erin outside.
“Oh yeah? Well, I bet your food stinks anyway!” Erin was shouting.
Jasmine shrugged apologetically at the manager as she and Willow squeezed by.
“Sorry,” she said.
Willow turned to Erin when they got outside.
“What was that?” she asked. “Ca-caw?”
“I was giving you a signal,” Erin explained. “Lili spotted Ryan and Isabel at that table, and we wanted to warn you.”
“You ended up warning them that we were there,” Willow said, sounding exasperated.
Erin looked sheepish. “Sorry. I didn’t think of that.”
“They would have seen us anyway,” Jasmine pointed out.
Willow sighed and leaned back against a tree. “Yeah, I know. It’s just … we were so close!”
“At least I got her autograph,” Jasmine said.
Lili looked excited. “Really? Cool!”
“Getting the emerald would have been better,” Willow said gloomily.
“Well, look on the bright side,” Jasmine said.
“What’s that?” Willow asked.
Jasmine grinned. “That fight is going to make a great TV episode!”
“So the Rivals have beaten us again!” Jasmine said, flopping down on the fluffy rug on Lili’s bedroom floor. Lili pushed a pile of clothes underneath her bed to make room for the rest of the girls.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Willow said. “After all, if the Rivals were planning on approaching Derrica, they didn’t get a chance.”
Erin grinned. “Willow, you really hate losing, don’t you?”
“There’s nothing to like about losing,” Willow said flatly. “We need to regroup. The Rivals are clearly after Derrica and the necklace. If they get it, it’s all over for us. They’ve already got the diamond and the ruby. We’re not sure if they have the sapphire, too. So this could be our last chance. We have to beat them to it.”
“When’s the next time the show is filming?” Jasmine asked.
“I didn’t see any more permits,” Willow replied. “But they might be filming in someone’s private house or something.”
Lili jumped up and grabbed her laptop off her desk. She flipped it open and began to type.
“Maybe there’s something on the show’s blog,” she suggested.
Erin opened her phone. “I’ll check Derrica’s Chatter page.”
For a few minutes, the room was quiet except for the sound of tapping on keys.
“Derrica doesn’t say anything about where she’s going to be,” Erin reported. “Mostly, she’s just mad at Rhianna.”
“Here’s something,” Lili piped up. “This says that the cast of East Coast Class is going to be at a big charity ball two weeks from tonight.”
“I bet she’ll wear the emerald there,” Jasmine guessed.
“Probably,” Erin said, still looking at the screen. “There’s a quote here from her about the emerald. She calls it her ‘lucky charm’ and says she wears it everywhere!”
“Just like my lucky pen,” Lili said.
Jasmine laughed. “Sure, if your pen was worth thousands of dollars.”
Willow looked thoughtful. “So there’s a good chance that the Rivals might try to get the emerald at the charity ball. But since Derrica wears it everywhere, they could strike at any time.”
“We just need to tail Derrica,” Erin said. “Like private investigators.”
“Which would be great, except we go to school and don’t drive and can’t go out late at night,” Jasmine pointed out.
“Tailing the Rivals would make more sense,” Willow chimed in. “But that’s not easy, either. It’s too bad we don’t have some way to keep tabs on them …”
A tall boy with spiky hair appeared in the doorway.
“I’ve been listening to you guys,” said Lili’s brother, Eli. “How come I’m not invited to this meeting? After everything I’ve done for you so far.”
His voice was teasing, but all four Jewels immediately felt bad. Like they had told Principal Frederickson, Eli was an honorary Jewel, even if he did go to Atkinson Prep with the Rivals. Without Eli’s help, the girls never would have been able to trick the Rivals into giving them the diamond that night in New York City.
“Come in, come in!” Jasmine and Erin said at once, scooting over to make room for him on the rug. Eli sat down, smiling.
“Thanks,” he said. “Lili’s been keeping me updated on the whole emerald thing. And she showed me that bug that was in her pen. Pretty sophisticated technology for a bunch of sixth graders.”
“Well, they do have Arthur Atkinson helping them,” Willow pointed out. “He’s got tons of money and he must know where to get all kinds of sophisticated equipment.”
“Equipment that helps people break into safes, for example,” Erin piped up.
Eli nodded. “Yeah, that kind of stuff can get expensive. You might not be able to track the Rivals, but you could use a GPS device to keep track of their movements on a computer. But those will cost you a few hundred bucks.”
Jasmine sat up straight, her eyes shining. “Wait, we have one of those!” she cried. “When we adopted Mozart from the pound, he used to run away all the time. He used to push open the gate and jump over the fence and everything. Mom and Dad finally got this little GPS thing to put in his collar so we could find him. Once he got used to being part of the family, he stopped, so we don’t use it anymore.”
“Awesome!” Erin said. “So we just need to put a collar around one of the Rivals and then we’ll always know where they are!”
Eli laughed. “You wouldn’t need a collar,” he said. “You’d just have to hide it in something that one of the Rivals always has with them. Like they did with Lili’s pen.”
Lili frowned. “That was so unfair!”
“Exactly,” Willow said. “I don’t know if I feel right about this. It kind of feels like cheating.”
“It’s not cheating if we’re doing the same thing,” Erin countered.
“Yeah,” agreed Jasmine. “We’re just making things even.”
Willow didn’t answer right away. Instead, she absently poked at the purple strands of the rug.
“Come on, Willow,” Erin said. “You hate losing, right? Well, we can’t win without the right equipment. It’s like playing basketball without a ball.”
Erin’s logic hit home, and Willow reluctantly relented. “Okay,” she said. “But how do we do it, and who do we choose?”
“Ryan,” Jasmine said firmly. “Anytime something important happens, he’s usually there. He’s the Rivals’ team captain and he also seems to be leading their little gang of jewel thieves.”
“And he’s connected to Arthur,” Erin pointed out. “Definitely Ryan.”
Willow nodded. “Now we just have to
hide the GPS on him somewhere.”
All four Jewels stared at Eli.
“Oh, great,” he said sarcastically. “Now I’m starting to wish I had never come in here. That’s not going to be easy.”
“But you go to the same school,” Erin said.
“And you’re sooooo good at this tech stuff,” Jasmine added, buttering him up. “If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
“Plus, I’ll let you have my dessert for a week,” Lili added.
Eli held out his hand, and Lili shook it.
“Deal,” he agreed, and he got a mock serious look on his face. “It’s time to launch Operation Emerald!”
Eli’s heart pounded as the third-period bell rang. He quickly made his way down the hallways of Atkinson Prep. He had told his math teacher, Mr. Hardaway, that he was supposed to help Coach Peters with something, and he’d be late for class. It was a lie, but Eli knew that Mr. Hardaway and Coach Peters almost never talked. So Eli would probably be safe — if he hurried.
It felt weird to lie and sneak around, but exciting at the same time. And figuring out the plan hadn’t been easy. First, he had to get the GPS from Jasmine and make sure it was working. On Monday and Tuesday, he’d watched Ryan as closely as he could without looking suspicious. Eli kept a careful list of everything Ryan wore and carried with him.
At first, placing it somewhere on Ryan’s school uniform seemed like a good idea, until Eli realized that Ryan didn’t wear the uniform out of school, when he’d be most likely to try to steal the emerald. Then Eli thought about putting the GPS in Ryan’s shoes, but he might change those, too. Ryan’s watch would have been perfect, because he almost never took it off. But the device was about an inch by an inch square — too big to effectively hide in a watch.
Finally, Eli figured it out. He didn’t know why it took him so long to notice it, but after several days of reconnaissance, it became clear to Eli that Ryan was basically addicted to his new mini tablet device. He had the latest high-tech model, and he used it to go on Chatter, play games, and watch videos between classes. Tablets weren’t allowed in school but none of the teachers stopped Ryan, because of his uncle. Nobody wanted to get chewed out by Arthur Atkinson.