Big Top Flop

by Carolyn Keene

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE: READY, SET, WHISTLE!

  CHAPTER TWO: NO SMILES FOR MILES

  CHAPTER THREE: FLEE-RING CIRCUS

  CHAPTER FOUR: SAY SQUEEZE!

  CHAPTER FIVE: SLICK TRICK

  CHAPTER SIX: TWIN SPIN

  CHAPTER SEVEN: WASH AND CRY

  CHAPTER EIGHT: SEE-REX!

  CHAPTER NINE: ALL EARS

  CHAPTER TEN: BARK IN THE PARK

  NANCY DREW CLUE BOOK #5: MOVIE MADNESS Excerpt

  ABOUT CAROLYN KEENE AND PETER FRANCIS

  READY, SET, WHISTLE!

  “The best part of spring is spring break!” George Fayne said. “And the second best part is that it begins today!”

  “The best part of spring,” Bess Marvin said, “is spring clothes!”

  Eight-year-old Nancy Drew smiled as Bess twirled to show off her new outfit. Spring clothes and spring break were awesome. And there was one more thing about spring that she and her two best friends would totally agree on. . . .

  “The best part of spring is the Bingle and Bumble Circus,” Nancy declared, “which is why we’re here today!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George did agree on that. Each spring the circus came to River Heights Park. This year it came with something extra fun: a junior ringmaster contest by the big circus tent!

  “Don’t forget the rules!” Bess said. Her long blond ponytail bounced as she spoke. “The kid who blows a whistle the longest and loudest becomes junior ringmaster on opening day tomorrow.”

  “How can we forget, Bess?” George asked. “We’ve been practicing all week.”

  “I whistled so loud that my puppy, Chip, ran under my bed,” Nancy said.

  “That’s nothing!” George said, her dark eyes wide. “I whistled so loud I broke one of my mom’s catering glasses!”

  “How was your whistling practice, Bess?” Nancy asked.

  “I stopped when I found my baby sister sucking on my whistle,” Bess said with a groan. “Gross!”

  It was Friday after school, so the girls still had their backpacks. George pulled a plastic bag from hers. Inside were yellow candies shaped like lemons.

  “Are those Super-Sour Suckers?” Bess asked, scrunching up her nose. “Eating those candies is like sucking lemons!”

  “That’s what makes them so cool!” George exclaimed. “They’ve got sour power!”

  Nancy shook her head and said, “Sometimes I can’t believe you’re cousins. You two are as different as—”

  “Sweet and sour?” George cut in. She was about to pop a candy into her mouth when—

  “Excuse me,” a boy said, “but where can a future junior ringmaster find cotton candy around here?”

  Nancy, Bess, and George turned. Standing behind them was Miles Ling from the other third-grade class at school. Everyone knew that Miles wanted to be a ringmaster when he grew up. He even owned a ringmaster suit and tall black hat, which he wore today!

  “You want to eat cotton candy before the contest?” Bess asked. “Won’t it make your mouth too dry to whistle?”

  “I don’t want to eat the cotton candy,” Miles said. “I want to stuff my ears with it!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George stared at Miles.

  “Stuff your ears with it?” Nancy asked slowly.

  “That’s how loud I whistle,” Miles explained. “And when I whistle in the contest, you’ll need some too!”

  Nancy and her friends traded eye rolls. Miles may have been a good whistler, but he was also a very good bragger!

  “We don’t have any cotton candy,” George said. “But you can have a Super-Sour Sucker.”

  George held out the bag. When Miles looked down at it his eyes popped wide open.

  “N-no, thanks. . . . I’ve got to go,” Miles blurted. He then turned quickly and disappeared in the crowd.

  “Do you think Miles was serious about stuffing cotton candy in his ears?” Bess asked.

  “No,” George said. “But he is serious about winning the Junior Ringmaster Contest.”

  “Well, so are we!” Nancy said, smiling. “In fact, let’s make a deal. If one of us wins, we’ll bring the other two to the circus on opening night.”

  “Sure, we will, Nancy,” Bess agreed. “After all, we’re a team even when we’re not solving mysteries!”

  Nancy and her friends loved solving mysteries more than anything. They even had their own detective club called the Clue Crew. Nancy owned a notebook where she wrote down all her clues and suspects. She called it her Clue Book, and she carried it wherever she went.

  The girls turned to gaze at the big white circus tent with red stripes. Past the tent were rows of trailers.

  “That’s probably where the circus people and animals stay,” George pointed out. “Who are your favorites?”

  Nancy smiled as she remembered the circus from last spring. “Oodles of Poodles are the best!” she said.

  “I like Shirley the Seesaw Llama!” Bess said excitedly. “No one rides a seesaw like Shirley!”

  “The Flying Fabuloso Family rocks!” George said. “Especially the trapeze twins, Fifi and Felix!”

  “Fifi and Felix?” Bess said with a frown. “Those twins are trouble times two!”

  “When they aren’t on the trapeze,” Nancy said, “they’re playing tricks on other circus people!”

  “Last year Fifi and Felix put some trick soap in Ringmaster Rex’s trailer,” Bess added. “His face was blue throughout the whole show!”

  George shrugged and said, “The circus is all about tricks, right?”

  Nancy was about to answer when the crowd began to cheer. She turned toward the tent just as Ringmaster Rex stepped out, waving his tall black hat!

  “There he is!” Nancy said.

  “And his face isn’t blue!” Bess said with relief.

  Mayor Strong and more circus people filed out of the tent. Fifi and Felix Fabuloso marched behind their parents.

  “Will all kids please form a single line?” Mayor Strong asked. “Lulu the Clown is about to come around with a bag full of whistles.”

  The line formed lickety-split. The girls landed in the back with Miles right behind them.

  “The best always goes last!” Miles bragged. “And that would be me!”

  George groaned under her breath. “No wonder Miles is a good whistler,” she whispered. “He’s a total windbag!”

  Lulu the Clown, wearing a gray wig, baggy dress, and striped stockings, walked down the line with her bag of whistles. One by one the kids reached inside and pulled out a whistle until—

  “Eeeeeeeek!” a voice cried.

  What happened? Nancy, Bess, and George stepped out of the line to see. A girl with curly blond hair had just pulled a giant squirmy spider from Lulu the Clown’s bag. But when she threw it on the ground—it bounced!

  “It’s made out of rubber,” the girl said, staring at the spider. “But it’s still icky.”

  Mayor Strong raised an eyebrow and said, “Are you clowning around with these kids, Lulu?”

  “I didn’t put that spider in the bag,” Lulu insisted. She pointed to Fifi and Felix snickering to each other. “It’s those Fabuloso Twins and their tricks!”

  Nancy frowned. No surprise there!

  “I thought the circus was supposed to be inside the tent!” Ringmaster Rex sighed. “Let’s get on with the contest, shall we?”

  Nancy, Bess, and George each pulled a whistle from Lulu’s bag. So did Miles. When everyone had a whistle—

  “Let the contest begin!” Ringmaster Rex boomed.

  Nancy and her friends waited while other kids blew their whistles long and loud near the front of the tent. Finally it was their turns!

  Nancy gave her whistle a long tweet but stopped when her nose began to tickle. B
ess blew her whistle until she got the giggles. Then came George’s turn and . . .

  TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

  Everyone clapped their hands over their ears. George’s whistle was so loud that even the horses in the circus tent whinnied!

  George finally stopped to catch her breath. The crowd began to cheer. George was a whistling superstar!

  “Way to go!” Nancy cried as George hurried back.

  “You mean ‘way to blow’!” George joked.

  “Not bad,” Miles told the girls as he walked to the front of the tent with his whistle. “Now prepare to be blown away.”

  “Don’t worry, George,” Bess said, handing her the bag of Super-Sour Suckers. George had asked Bess to hold them while she whistled. “You’re the whistling champ so far!”

  The girls looked on as Miles held his whistle between his thumb and pointer fingers. After clearing his throat he shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages! Introducing the junior ringmaster with the biggest, loudest whistle in the West . . . the East . . . the—”

  “We don’t have all day, kid,” Ringmaster Rex said.

  Miles stuck the whistle in his mouth. His chest puffed out, then, TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

  Nancy gulped. Miles really was an awesome whistler. But would he whistle longer and harder than George?

  Miles’s eyes darted around as he whistled. But when his eyes landed on George they popped wide open. Suddenly—CLUNK—the whistle dropped out of Miles’s mouth. Miles’s lips began to pucker, then his whole face!

  The crowd laughed at Miles’s funny faces. Nancy had a feeling it wasn’t a joke. Especially when Miles stopped puckering and pointed angrily at George.

  “It’s all her fault!” Miles shouted. “She did it on purpose!”

  Nancy turned to George, a Super-Sour Sucker lodged in her cheek.

  Did what?

  NO SMILES FOR MILES

  The crowd was still laughing as Miles stormed over to George. His hand trembled as he pointed to the bag of Super-Sour Suckers in George’s hand.

  “Just looking at those candies makes me pucker!” Miles complained. “That’s why you ate them in front of me!”

  “What?” Nancy said with disbelief.

  “So I would lose the contest!” Miles said.

  “How should I know Super-Sour Suckers make you pucker?” George asked. “We’re not even in the same class.”

  “Don’t even say s-s-super-s-s-sour,” Miles stammered, his face twitching again. Suddenly—

  “Attention boys and girls!” Ringmaster Rex boomed. “The Bingle and Bumble Circus agrees that the winner of the Junior Ringmaster Contest is—”

  “Georgia Fayne!” Mayor Strong chimed in.

  “Yaaaaaay!!!” Nancy and Bess cheered.

  “Did he have to say Georgia?” George said, cringing at her real name.

  “And since Miles Ling made such funny faces,” Mayor Strong went on. “The circus wants to make him junior clown tomorrow on opening day!”

  Nancy smiled at Miles. She expected him to be smiling too. Instead his face glowed with rage.

  “Clown?” Miles cried. “I didn’t go to circus camp for three whole summers to be called clown!”

  “Harsh,” Lulu the Clown muttered.

  Miles shot George one last glare before stomping off through the crowd.

  George shook her head and said, “Remind me never to go trick-or-treating with Miles on Halloween. Did you ever see such a candy meltdown?”

  “Don’t worry, George,” Bess said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You’re going to be junior ringmaster tomorrow,” Nancy added excitedly. “And we’re going to the Bingle and Bumble Circus!”

  • • •

  The next day, Saturday, couldn’t come fast enough for Nancy, Bess, and George. At one o’clock sharp the girls were driven straight to the park by Hannah Gruen.

  Hannah was the Drews’ housekeeper, but she was more like a mother to Nancy. She gave the best hugs, baked the best oatmeal cookies, and laughed at Nancy’s riddles even if she had heard them dozens of times before.

  As they walked onto the circus grounds, Nancy gasped, “Look at all those people!”

  “They’re here to see the circus!” Bess said.

  “And me!” George added a bit nervously.

  It was too early for the show, but it was not too early to watch jugglers, acrobats, and clowns practicing right outside the tent.

  Hannah was busy watching a man juggle plates when—WOOF! A snowy white poodle wearing a big collar charged toward the girls. Running after it was a boy of about nine years old.

  “Gotcha!” the boy said, grabbing the dog.

  Nancy smiled at the dog. “Omigosh—is that one of the Oodles of Poodles?” she asked.

  The boy nodded, then introduced himself. “My name is Alberto,” he said. “I’m helping my parents train the poodles during my spring break.”

  “That must be so cool,” George said.

  “Most of the time it is,” Alberto said. “But Celeste here is hard to train. Today she refuses to wear her costume!”

  Celeste gave a little yap before jumping out of Alberto’s arms.

  “See what I mean?” Alberto groaned before running after Celeste.

  “I don’t blame Celeste for not liking her costume,” Bess said. “That collar looked itchy!”

  Hannah walked over with a woman at her side. The woman was dressed in a Bingle and Bumble T-shirt and khaki pants.

  “Girls, meet Peggy Bingle!” Hannah said excitedly. “Her great-great-grandfather started the Bingle and Bumble Circus almost a hundred years ago!”

  “I guess you can say I have sawdust in my blood,” Peggy said with a smile.

  “That’s got to hurt,” George said.

  “It’s a figure of speech, dear,” Peggy said. “How would you like a tour of the circus grounds before I show our junior ringmaster her very own trailer?”

  “That would be George!” Bess said proudly.

  Hannah was invited to have coffee in the circus performers’ lounge while Nancy and her friends followed Peggy. They walked past the tent to what Peggy called the “Back Yard.” She explained how the circus performers lived in trailers so they could travel from town to town. Some trailers were painted bright colors.

  There were also a few smaller tents, like a polka-dotted tent called “Clown Alley,” plus a big open tent that served food to the staff and performers. The girls were surprised to see everyone eating chicken, salad, and potatoes.

  “I thought circus people only ate cotton candy and peanuts!” Bess admitted.

  Peggy let the girls peek inside the wardrobe trailer, where bright sparkly costumes hung everywhere. A seamstress named Pearl sat at a sewing machine mending last-minute rips and tears.

  “What’s that loud rumbling noise?” Nancy asked as they walked away from the trailer.

  “You mean that growl?” Peggy asked. The girls gasped as she pointed to cages and dens housing two tigers, horses—even a baby elephant!

  “Do all the circus animals live here?” Nancy asked.

  “All but Oodles of Poodles and Shirley the Seesaw Llama,” Peggy explained. “They have trailers of their own.”

  “That’s because Shirley’s a star!” Bess said.

  “Everybody is a star at Bingle and Bumble Circus!” Peggy said. She smiled at George. “Now let’s show our junior ringmaster her trailer!”

  Peggy led the girls to a shiny silver trailer. She opened the door and the girls filed inside.

  The first thing Nancy saw was a ringmaster suit hanging from a rack. It had black pants and a red jacket with gold buttons. A shelf on top of the rack held a tall black hat just like Ringmaster Rex’s!

  “Is that mine?” George asked.

  Peggy nodded and said, “Why don’t you change into your suit right away? I’ll knock on your door at show time.”

  Peggy left the trailer, and George ran straight to her costume. She was
about to grab the jacket when—

  “Wait!” Bess said. She pointed to a small sink in the corner. “Don’t touch that beautiful costume until your hands are as clean as a whistle!”

  “Since when are whistles clean?” George joked. “They’re full of spit.”

  George did wash her hands, though. She then slipped on her ringmaster suit and hat.

  “Ta-daaa!” George declared.

  “Awesome!” Nancy said. “But something is missing.”

  “What?” George asked.

  Nancy looked around the trailer until she spotted a long, silver object on the vanity table.

  “That!” Nancy said, pointing to the table. “There’s your whistle, Ringmaster George!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George admired the supershiny whistle. It was engraved with George’s name and the words JUNIOR RINGMASTER.

  “They wrote George,” George said with relief. “Not Georgia!”

  “And this one can’t be full of spit,” Bess said with a smile. “It’s brand-new!”

  “Try it out, George,” Nancy said excitedly.

  George was about to give it a tweet when—whoosh—something slid under the door. It was a note written with green ink. Nancy picked it up and read it out loud: “ ‘You’re all invited to a cotton-candy party in the big circus tent. Come over right now!’ ”

  “Cotton candy—yum!” Bess cheered.

  “But Peggy wanted us to wait here,” Nancy said.

  “Maybe the note came from Peggy,” George said, putting the whistle back on the table. “We should go to the party.”

  The girls left the tent, making sure to close the door behind them. They rushed to the big tent and peered through the canvas opening. There was no party inside—only a few grown-up Fabulosos practicing a trapeze act. Their purple glittery leotards sparkled as they swung high above.

  “No cotton-candy party in there,” George said.

  “Phooey,” Bess said, disappointed.

  Nancy didn’t get it. “Then who sent that note?” she wondered out loud. Then—

  “There you are!” Peggy called, rushing over. “The guests are about to enter the tent. George, we’re almost ready for you.”

  “Okay!” George said. “I just have to go back to my trailer for my whistle.”