The Stolen Unicorn

by Carolyn Keene

  Bess frowned when she saw their names. “I bet they did it.”

  George scooped up some ice cream. “Maybe the boys took the unicorn as a joke. They’re always up to something.”

  “They even told Mari to watch out.” Nancy rested her chin in her hand. “And when I looked for Silvermane in the supply closet, I saw Mike snooping around Mari’s desk.”

  “I told you they did it,” Bess said.

  Nancy tasted a spoonful of the sundae. “I bet they took the unicorn when they put the horses back in Mari’s bag.”

  “But Brenda and Alison put horses back in Mari’s bag, too,” George said.

  “That’s true,” Nancy said. “We’d better put them on the list.” Nancy wrote down their names.

  “I don’t know about Alison, but Brenda is mean enough to have taken the unicorn,” George said.

  “Especially since Brenda doesn’t like Mari,” Nancy said. “She thinks Mari’s stuck-up, remember?”

  “She does?” Bess plucked the cherry off the top of the sundae. “That settles it. Brenda must have done it.”

  “Don’t forget what was wrapped around Silvermane’s stand,” Nancy said.

  “The Carlton News!” George and Bess cried together.

  “That doesn’t prove Brenda did it,” Nancy said. “It could just have been someone’s copy of the paper. But it’s still a clue.”

  “What about Alison?” George asked. “She’s been nice to Mari.”

  “Alison is Brenda’s best friend. If Brenda took the unicorn, Alison probably knows about it. But she might not want to tattle. Let’s keep her on the list for now.”

  Nancy put a question mark next to Alison’s name. “A real detective doesn’t take someone off the list just because they’re nice.” Nancy looked at her friends. “My last suspect is very nice.”

  “Who is it?” Bess asked.

  “Julia Santos,” Nancy said. She wrote the name in her book.

  “No way.” George dropped her spoon on the table. “Julia’s great. She’s on our soccer team, Nancy. She’d never do a mean thing like steal something.”

  “Didn’t you hear Julia say how much she wanted a Silvermane unicorn?” Nancy said. “Maybe she wanted it enough to take it.”

  Bess gasped. “You’re right! Julia must have done it!”

  Nancy couldn’t help smiling. “You think they all did it, Bess.”

  “I mean it, this time,” Bess said. “Remember? Mari wouldn’t even let Julia touch Silvermane. Maybe Mari hurt Julia’s feelings.”

  “Julia was near the bag—and the unicorn—the whole time,” Nancy added. “And there’s one other thing. I found Silvermane’s comb under Julia’s foot. I think she was trying to hide it.”

  After writing down her suspects, Nancy began another list. She titled it “Clues.” Underneath she wrote:

  1. The comb. Found near Julia.

  2. The stand. Someone threw it out on purpose.

  3. The Carlton News. Whoever threw out the stand probably reads Brenda’s paper.

  Nancy sighed. “Everybody reads Brenda’s paper.”

  Just then a voice called out, “Hi, girls.”

  Nancy looked up to see Hannah by the door.

  “Come on,” Hannah said, waving the car keys. “Let’s head on home.”

  During the car ride, Nancy told Hannah about the missing unicorn mystery.

  “It sounds as if you’re on the job again,” Hannah said, keeping her eyes on the road. “Just remember to be careful.”

  “I will,” Nancy said. “And I promise to keep a cool head the way Daddy always tells me to.”

  • • •

  The next day Nancy almost forgot her promise. On the way to school, she saw Brenda running toward her.

  Brenda had a big smile on her face. When she reached Nancy she had to catch her breath before she announced, “I did it! I solved the mystery before you!”

  Brenda waved a copy of the Carlton News in front of Nancy’s face. “I wrote all about it. Read it and weep.” She shoved the newspaper into Nancy’s hand.

  Nancy stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and read:

  MISSING UNICORN MYSTERY SOLVED!

  by Brenda Carlton

  Who would believe that the daughter of our school’s very own soccer coach would steal anything? But it’s true, and I saw the proof with my own eyes! Julia Santos is a thief!

  4

  The Camera Doesn’t Lie

  What do you mean Julia is a thief?” Nancy stopped reading and frowned at Brenda. “What proof do you have?”

  “It’s right in your hand,” Brenda said. “Look at the picture in my article.”

  Nancy glanced back down at the newspaper. There was a picture of Silvermane, all right, standing right on top of someone’s kitchen counter. On the wall behind the unicorn was a clock shaped like a sunflower. Nancy’s heart sank. She had seen that clock before—at Julia’s house.

  “I took that picture through Julia’s back window,” Brenda said. “Just like a real reporter.”

  “What were you doing sneaking around Julia’s house?” Nancy asked.

  “I was looking for clues,” Brenda said. “I didn’t think I would find the unicorn so fast. But I knew Julia was guilty all along.”

  Nancy gripped the newspaper tightly, crumpling it a bit. “And just how did you figure that out?” she asked.

  “Come on, Nancy,” Brenda said. “Everyone knew Julia was dying to have a unicorn just like Mari’s. Everyone saw how snobby Mari was to her about touching it.”

  Nancy didn’t know what to say next.

  “I told you I was going to solve this mystery first.” Brenda patted the stack of sheets she had tucked into her book bag. “Now I have a newspaper to give out.”

  Brenda turned to go, then stopped and looked over her shoulder at Nancy. “I can’t wait to see Julia’s face,” she said. “If she looks even half as shocked as you do, Nancy, it’ll be really funny.” Brenda laughed and ran toward school.

  Nancy stood on the sidewalk, watching Brenda. I can’t believe she solved the mystery, Nancy thought, gritting her teeth. Brenda doesn’t keep track of the suspects or clues or anything! She doesn’t even have a special notebook!

  Nancy stuffed the article in her pocket. Julia was sure to be in big trouble, Nancy thought. Brenda’s newspaper would be all over school in no time.

  • • •

  By the time class began, many of the kids in Mrs. Reynolds’s class had read Brenda’s article. They were whispering to each other about it.

  Mrs. Reynolds had to tell the class to settle down before she spoke.

  “Yesterday Mari lost her unicorn. At the end of the day, Nancy found Silvermane’s stand and comb. I hope that by the end of the week the unicorn itself will be found and returned to Mari. That’s all I’m going to say about it for now,” she said. “Let’s begin class.”

  By lunchtime everyone in the cafeteria was talking about Brenda’s article.

  “I can’t believe it,” George said as she waited with Nancy in the lunch line. “I didn’t think Julia would ever steal.”

  Bess was standing behind George. “Now that everyone knows she took the unicorn, Julia has to bring it back.”

  Nancy watched Julia join the back of the line. “I’m going to go talk to her,” she told Bess and George. She left her friends and walked over to Julia.

  “Are you in the mood for mystery meat, Julia?” Nancy chuckled. “That’s what they’re serving today.”

  The students always called the thin slices of meat drowned in brown gravy “mystery meat.” Even after tasting it, no one knew what kind of meat it was supposed to be.

  Julia looked up at Nancy. Nancy could tell Julia had been crying.

  “I didn’t take Mari’s unicorn,” Julia said. “You’ve got to believe me.”

  “But what about Brenda’s proof?” Nancy asked.

  “The unicorn in that picture is mine,” Julia insisted.

  “But yesterday you
said you didn’t have one,” Nancy said.

  “My mom surprised me with a Silvermane unicorn after school yesterday, because I’ve been getting good grades. I keep trying to explain this to the other kids, but no one will listen.”

  Nancy looked closely at Julia’s tear-stained face. “I believe you. And I’m going to find out who really took Silvermane.”

  The two girls were served their lunches. When they saw the mystery-meat sandwiches, they wrinkled their noses and laughed. Looking for seats, they walked past Brenda’s table.

  Brenda was talking to a group of kids sitting at her lunch table. “I was smart enough to bring my camera along,” she said, “so I took a picture. I practically caught Julia red-handed.”

  Julia stopped walking and stared at Brenda. “That’s it,” she mumbled under her breath, and marched over to Brenda.

  Before Nancy could stop her, Julia had turned her lunch tray upside-down—and dumped her mystery-meat sandwich all over Brenda’s head!

  5

  Mystery Meat Mess

  Brenda sat frozen in place as gravy dripped down her face and hair.

  The entire room burst out laughing.

  Nancy covered her mouth to hide her smile. She noticed Mike and Jason at the next table. They were holding their stomachs from laughing so hard.

  “Meat-head! Meat-head!” Jason chanted at Brenda as he pounded his fist on his lunch table.

  Even the students who had been listening to Brenda’s story just a minute before were now howling.

  “Meat-head! Meat-head!” they all joined in.

  Alison was sitting next to Brenda. She tried to help Brenda clean up the mystery meat mess. By then the whole cafeteria was chanting, “Meat-head! Meat-head! Meat-head!”

  Nancy thought Brenda looked as if she was about to cry. Nancy almost felt sorry for her.

  Just then Ms. Rodriguez, a teacher on cafeteria duty, stepped forward. “Let’s go,” she said, taking both Julia and Brenda by the arm. “The assistant principal will want to see you.” She looked at Nancy. “You, too.”

  Nancy had never had to go to Mrs. Oshida’s office before. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, Nancy was nervous.

  She swallowed hard and followed Ms. Rodriguez down the long hall. The closer she got to the door of the office, the more Nancy wished the hallway was longer.

  Ms. Rodriguez knocked on Mrs. Oshida’s door and led the girls inside.

  “What have we here?” Mrs. Oshida asked, looking at Brenda. “A food fight?”

  “She dumped her lunch all over my head—” Brenda began.

  “She lied about me to the whole school—” Julia said at the same time.

  “Wait a minute,” Mrs. Oshida said, holding up her hand. “One at a time.”

  Ms. Rodriguez pointed to Nancy. “This girl saw the whole thing.”

  Mrs. Oshida looked over the top of her reading glasses at Nancy. “Nancy Drew, you’re a very good student. You tell me what happened.”

  Nancy took a deep breath and explained all about how Mari’s unicorn had disappeared. Then she told Mrs. Oshida about Brenda’s article and how angry it had made Julia.

  “Because,” Nancy said, “Julia didn’t take Silvermane.”

  “How can you say that?” Brenda pointed to a copy of the newspaper she had brought along. “I proved it!”

  “Let me see that,” Mrs. Oshida said.

  Brenda gave her the paper.

  Nancy took her copy of the Carlton News out of her pocket and looked at it.

  “I just figured out the real proof in this article,” Nancy said. “And it shows that Julia didn’t steal Silvermane.”

  “What are you talking about?” Brenda asked.

  “The unicorn in this picture is standing on the counter. Mari’s missing unicorn wouldn’t be able to do that. I found her Silvermane stand yesterday in our classroom. Mrs. Reynolds has it.”

  Brenda covered her face with her hands.

  “And you can call my mom,” Julia said. “She’ll tell you that unicorn is mine.”

  Julia’s mother was the school soccer coach. Her office was next to the gym.

  Mrs. Oshida quickly called Coach Santos. When she hung up the phone, the assistant principal sighed and looked at Brenda.

  “Brenda, your father is a well-known newspaperman in this town,” she said. “He knows how important it is for newspaper articles to be just about the facts. Your article wasn’t all facts, was it?”

  “But I thought it was,” Brenda said.

  “And as for you, young lady,” Mrs. Oshida said, turning to Julia, “your mother works for this school. She’s very disappointed in your actions today.”

  Julia hung her head.

  Mrs. Oshida tapped her fingers on her desktop for a moment. “This is what I’m going to do,” she said. “As punishment, neither one of you will enjoy recess this afternoon. Instead, you will spend that time in the art room making apology cards for each other. Is that understood?”

  Brenda and Julia nodded.

  That sounds fair, Nancy thought.

  “That’s not all,” the assistant principal said. “In your next newspaper, Brenda, you are to write another story about the missing unicorn. This time, you will write about how you were wrong.”

  Brenda squirmed.

  “And you, Julia, will pay for Brenda’s lunch tomorrow,” Mrs. Oshida added.

  “Okay,” Julia said.

  Mrs. Oshida looked at the three girls for a moment. “You are all dismissed.”

  Ms. Rodriguez led Brenda and Julia to the art room.

  Nancy was allowed to go to recess. She ran out to the schoolyard and found George, Bess, and Mari playing jump rope. They stopped when they saw her.

  “What happened, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  Nancy told them everything that had happened in the assistant principal’s office.

  “I really thought Julia took Silvermane,” Mari said.

  “We all did,” George said. “Just because of Brenda’s dumb article.”

  “But it was nice of Brenda to want to help find Silvermane,” Mari said.

  “That’s just it,” Nancy said. “Brenda doesn’t usually do nice things. Maybe she wrote that article so that we would all think Julia did it—”

  “But instead it was really Brenda?” George cut in. “That would be sneaky.”

  “That sounds like Brenda,” Bess said.

  “So I guess that means she’s still a suspect,” George said.

  “At least I can take Julia off my list,” Nancy said. “Unless . . .”

  “Unless what?” Mari asked.

  “Unless Julia stole the unicorn before she knew her mother had bought her one.”

  “Wow,” Bess said. “I would never have thought of that.”

  Nancy groaned and flopped to the ground. “This is awful,” she said. “I’m right back where I started. I still have the same suspects. And no new clues.”

  “What about this?” Mari handed Nancy a piece of paper.

  On it was a drawing of a unicorn. A speech balloon coming from its mouth read: “Help! I’ve been horse-napped!”

  “Where did you get this?” Nancy asked.

  “I found it in my desk this morning,” Mari said.

  Nancy snapped her fingers. “This is from Mike and Jason. I knew they put something in your desk yesterday.”

  “Those two creeps,” Bess muttered.

  At the same time, the bell for the end of recess rang. Nancy, Bess, George, and Mari lined up with the rest of their class.

  Nancy dropped her voice to a whisper as Mrs. Reynolds led them all back to the classroom. “I’ll talk to Mike and Jason after school. Don’t worry, Mari. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  After all the students had settled into their seats, Mrs. Reynolds sat down at her desk.

  “I heard about what happened in the cafeteria today,” she said. “This unicorn problem has gone far enough. From now on this class will never have show-and-tell again.�
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  6

  Superballs and Flower Fairies

  That’s not fair!” Mike stood up. “Almost everyone has shown their stuff. Now I’ll miss my turn!”

  “Can’t we just finish this week’s show-and-tell, Mrs. Reynolds?” Bess folded her hands together. “Pleeeeease?”

  “Yeah,” Mike said. “Can we?”

  “Pleeeeease,” the whole class repeated.

  “All right, class,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “We’ll finish up this time. But then that’s it for show-and-tell.”

  Nancy realized that the whole class loved show-and-tell as much as she did. Maybe Mrs. Reynolds will change her mind if the unicorn is found, Nancy thought. I’ve got to solve this case.

  • • •

  That afternoon it was Mike Minelli’s turn for show-and-tell. He walked up to a table set up in the front of the room.

  Mike held up a small, rainbow-colored rubber ball. “This is a one-of-a-kind super bouncing ball,” he said. “I made it with the help of the Ricochet Ball Kit.”

  Mike pointed to the boxes and a big bowl of water set up on a table. “I have three kits right here, and I need a few volunteers.”

  With Mrs. Reynolds’s permission, Mike picked Jason, George, and Peter DeSands.

  “Okay,” Mike said. “Pour some of the colored sand from these bottles into your ball mold. You can use as many colors as you want.”

  Nancy watched as George filled her mold with purple and yellow sand. Then she shook the mold so the colors swirled together.

  “Now snap your molds closed and put them in this bowl of warm water for a few minutes,” Mike said.

  Jason, George, and Peter placed their molds inside the bowl. When the superballs were ready, the volunteers opened their molds. Out popped three perfect balls.

  “Ta-da!” Mike sang. He gathered the balls from his volunteers. “Now watch this.” Mike bounced the balls against the chalkboard. Before the class knew what was happening, rainbow-colored balls were zooming all over the room!

  They bounced against the ceiling, zipped over heads, and knocked over projects. Some students screamed. Some kids laughed. Others covered their heads or ducked under desks.