Andi Under Pressure

by Amanda Flower

  “Can I go over to Colin’s?” I paused. “I want to talk to him about a camp project.”

  That was true. I did want to talk to Colin about a project, just not one assigned by a professor. Amelie didn’t need to know that minor detail.

  She didn’t even look up from her book. “Sure. Be back when the streetlights come on.”

  Before running over to Colin’s house, I headed upstairs. On the second floor, there was a second narrower staircase that led up into my attic bedroom. Before the staircase had been built, the attic could be reached by a folding ladder. That changed when Amelie had a nightmare about me being stuck in the attic during a fire. She called a contractor the next morning. He removed the folding hatch ladder, cut a wider hole in the hallway’s ceiling, and made the narrowest set of stairs I’d ever seen. They were barely big enough for my oversized feet. Luckily the opening was near the end of the hallway, so it didn’t really block anything else and the contractor made the stairs appear like they came out of the wall and had always been there.

  Mr. Rochester loved the new staircase. He had never been a big fan of the ladder. Most of the time, I liked the stairs too. It was easier and faster to reach my room. The downside was every time someone went into the bathroom in the middle of the night it woke me up because the staircase was right next to the bathroom door, and I didn’t have a door anymore. I had two fans running in my room all the time to block the noise.

  I tiptoed up the stairs, not because I was trying to be quiet but because it was the best way to climb the narrow steps.

  Mr. Rochester was already in my room lying on the lid of my closed laptop in the middle of my desk. He pawed at the middle desk drawer as if he knew exactly what I was searching for.

  I eyed the cat. “How did you know that I came up here for the casebook?”

  He meowed. Mr. Rochester knew everything.

  I opened the drawer and removed the casebook. I flipped through the pages of Colin’s and my first case. We had searched for and found a long-lost relative in my family tree. Would we be able to find out what was happening in the science building? Or how Dr. Comfrey and Polk knew each other? I hoped Bergita had some answers. She had proven to be a valuable source of town information in the past.

  I tucked the casebook under my arm, patted the cat on the head, and tiptoed down the stairs. At the last step, I almost collided with Bethany as she stepped out of the bathroom. Bathroom door-staircase collisions were another hazard of the new set up.

  “Watch where you’re going,” Bethany snapped.

  “Sheesh, sorry. I didn’t know you were in there.”

  She spotted the casebook under my arm and rolled her eyes. “Are you going to play detective again?”

  “What do you care? You said you weren’t interested in this stuff.”

  She sniffed. “Trust me. I’m not. Where’s Amelie?”

  “In the living room, reading.”

  She spun around, hitting me in the face with her hair. I knew that was on purpose. After waiting a second to make sure I was out of hair-whipping range, I followed her.

  When Bethany and I stepped into the living room, Amelie set her book beside her on the couch. “Andi, I thought you were going to Colin’s?”

  “I am.” I waved to them as I went out the door. On the porch, I left the door open just a millimeter, so I could hear their conversation. I put my eye to the crack. Bethany didn’t usually make an effort to talk to our aunt alone. Whatever she said to Amelie, I wanted to hear it.

  My sister’s back was to me, and she blocked Amelie from my view. Bethany folded her arms. “Mrs. Cragmeyer called me today. She said she would love to have me come stay with them, so I could go to school with my friends.”

  I swallowed hard. The Cragmeyers were a stuffy older couple who used to watch us when our parents were off in a jungle somewhere hunting for plants. After our parents died in January, Amelie made arrangements with the Cragmeyers for us to live with them the remainder of the school year, so that we wouldn’t have to change schools midyear. Mrs. Cragmeyer didn’t care for me. My hair was too curly. I was too awkward and too bookish for her. Beautiful Bethany was another story, but my sister didn’t care about Mrs. Cragmeyer any more than I did. It was the idea of starting high school back home with her friends that made Bethany ask.

  Amelie sighed. “Mrs. Cragmeyer shouldn’t have made an offer like that without checking with me first. Besides, we talked about this before. You are staying here in Killdeer with Andi and me. That’s final.”

  “Why? That’s not fair. I don’t want to be here. Mrs. Cragmeyer understands that. She cares about me and knows I will be happier with my friends.”

  Another sigh from my aunt. “I’m glad she cares about you, I really am, but that doesn’t change the fact I am your guardian and — ”

  “I have the right to decide where I’ll live and where I’ll go to school.”

  “Actually, you don’t.” There was an unfamiliar edge in Amelie’s voice. “You’re only fourteen years old.”

  “I’ll be eighteen in four years.”

  “Then we will talk about this again when you’re eighteen.”

  “You won’t get my parents’ money if I move. Is that the problem?”

  There was silence. Then my aunt said, “I’m going to ignore that comment because I know you’re upset.”

  “That only means it’s true.”

  “Bethany, I know it’s been a difficult move for you. And I know it’s hard for you to be away from everything and everyone you know, but hating it so much is not going to change your circumstances. Look at Andi, she seems to be doing so well.”

  I winced. Comparing Bethany to me was not the way to go.

  “I’m so glad that Andi is thriving in the middle of nowhere.” Bethany shook as she spoke. “That’s because there is a super nerd right next door just like her. Who have I met since I moved here besides Bergita? Is she going to hang out with me in the cafeteria? I don’t think so.”

  “That will change when school starts. You will make new friends.”

  “I don’t want new friends.” Bethany’s voice broke. “I want my friends.”

  “Your parents asked me to care for you and Andi. That means making the decisions that I think are in your best interest. I don’t think living with the Cragmeyers is the best thing for you.” She paused. “If you want a friend to visit from your old school before the school year starts, that’s fine with me.”

  “Why would one of my friends come out here? There’s nothing to do here.”

  “They might like visiting the country. Maybe I can meet their mom or dad halfway. How does that sound?”

  “It’s not the same as living there.”

  “It’s not, but it’s something and all I have to offer you. Take it or leave it.”

  I felt something wet on the back of my leg, and I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle a scream.

  CASE FILE NO. 8

  Jackson, Colin’s pug, licked my bare calf.

  “Shoo! Jackson,” I hissed as I peered back through the crack in the door, but by then Bethany had left the room and my aunt was back to reading her poetry.

  Colin watched me from the front yard. “Why are you spying on your house?”

  I put a finger to my lips. Quietly, I closed the door the rest of the way with a light click and followed Jackson down the porch steps.

  When we were safely on the lawn, I shook my finger at the pug. “You almost gave me away, Mister.”

  Jackson’s tongue hung out of his mouth as he gave me a doggy grin. Bergita scolded him so much I doubted he even noticed anymore.

  I noticed the leash hanging from the pug’s collar. “Are you walking Jackson?” I’d tried to walk the pug once. We made it to the driveway before Jackson wanted to go home.

  Colin nodded. “He needs to burn off some of the snacks he eats.”

  Jackson’s grin disappeared. He wasn’t much for exercise. He preferred to sleep on his pillow.

&nb
sp; “How was dinner with your parents?” I hoped I had been wrong about his parents’ not showing up for dinner.

  Colin leaned over to pick up Jackson’s leash. “They couldn’t get away from the hospital. There was an accident on the highway, and they had to stay there and help out.”

  “That’s scary.” I examined the cover of the casebook. Ever since my parents’ death, “accident” had taken on a new meaning.

  “Dad said that it wasn’t a bad accident, or at least that’s what Bergita told me he said in his text to her.”

  “I’m sorry. I know you wanted to see them.”

  He shrugged and wrapped Jackson’s leash tightly around his hand. “They save people’s lives. Having dinner with me isn’t going to do any good like that.”

  It might, I thought. I wished my parents had been home more. I wished I had thought to ask them to stay home. They saved lives too by finding exotic plants that had the potential to cure diseases someday. But the plants didn’t save my parents or the time Bethany and I missed out with them. I didn’t say any of this to Colin. Maybe someday I would be brave enough to tell him.

  “Is that the casebook?” Colin asked.

  “Yep. We need to talk about opening a new case.”

  Colin’s face lit up. “Really? You mean Boggs and Carter Investigations is back in action?”

  I grinned. “It’s clear we need to find out what’s going on at Discovery Camp. It’s more than missing markers. Questioning Bergita is a good place to start.”

  “Let’s go.” Colin ran toward his house only to be jerked backward by Jackson. Jackson didn’t move that fast for anyone. “Sorry, Jacks.” He scooped up the pug, and we both ran across the yard.

  The front door slammed after us when we went inside the Carters’ house. Bergita came in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “Back so soon?”

  “Jackson’s heart wasn’t into the walk,” Colin set the dog on the carpet.

  The little dog waddled over to Bergita and sniffed at her hand with the hopes of a treat.

  “Always thinking with your stomach, aren’t you?” Colin’s grandmother tsked, shaking her finger at the dog. She wore her silver hair in a high ponytail on the top of her head and looked more like a cheerleader than a grandma.

  She smiled at me. “Andi, you’re just in time for dessert. I made pineapple upside-down cake. It will rot your teeth, but it’s worth it.”

  I reminded myself to floss when I got home.

  Bergita stepped through the archway that led into the kitchen. Jackson hurried after her. She peered down at him over her hot pink reading glasses. “Oh, you want some too, do you, old pork chop?”

  Jackson didn’t seem to mind the nickname as he waited expectantly at the end of the island.

  My mouth fell open. The largest pineapple upside-down cake I had ever seen sat in the middle of the island. It was three tiers high. “Bergita, you weren’t kidding when you said the cake would rot our teeth. If we eat all of that, our teeth will fall out.”

  Bergita snorted. “Now, you hush. I tried a new recipe. It wasn’t until about halfway through mixing the batter that I realized I was following the measurements for a wedding cake. My only option was to keep going or I would waste all that precious batter. And besides, Colin’s father loved pineapple upside-down cake as a child. He could eat half of it in one sitting.”

  Colin was slack-jawed as he stared at the cake. “Mom and Dad won’t eat it.” He glanced at me. “They don’t touch refined sugar. They are both health nuts and hit the gym at the hospital every day before their shifts.”

  Bergita’s eyes twinkled. “Your mother might not, but mark my words, your father has a secret sweet tooth. I bet a piece goes missing in the middle of the night. Just between the four of us,” she nodded at Jackson to let him know he was included, “I may have made the cake this large to irritate your mother. I hoped she would turn that particular shade of purple she does when she thinks I am trying to pull her chain. It’s fun.”

  I laughed.

  “Bergita,” Colin said with a sigh.

  “Ahh, it’ll give your parents reason to daydream about putting me in an old folks’ home. Little do they know, I plan to live well into the triple digits. I’ll show them.” She gave a curt nod.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to make Dad mad.”

  “If I can’t tease my own son and daughter-in-law from time to time, what do I have?”

  Jackson put his paws on one of the dining chairs.

  She wagged her finger at him. “No cake for you. Sugar isn’t good for dogs, but I have something you’ll like.”

  “Bergita, I think you might be the reason Jackson is so chubby,” I said with a laugh.

  She removed a piece of beef jerky from a plastic jar on the kitchen counter. “Oh, the vet is going to lecture me about his weight during his next appointment.” She sighed. “But how can I say no to that face?”

  Jackson grabbed the jerky and shimmied under the china cabinet. It was a tight fit, but he made it.

  She clapped her hands. “Now, both of you take a seat at the table and I will cut you a slice.”

  Colin and I fell into the chairs around the oak dining table. There were still places set for Colin’s parents.

  The piece of cake Bergita put in front of me was enormous. I took a bite and my teeth ached. The yellow cake melted in my mouth, and the pineapple was so sweet. I wiped whipped cream from my upper lip.

  “Yum,” Colin said with his mouth full of cake.

  Bergita smiled. “So how was camp today? You kids get any smarter? The summer I was twelve, I learned to skip stones down on the reservoir, not how to build a rocket ship or whatever it is you’re doing.”

  “We aren’t building rockets,” I said to Bergita, and then Colin and I shared a look.

  Bergita set her mug of tea on the table. “Why do I have the same feeling I get when Jackson wiggles under the sofa after knocking a glass off the coffee table? What are you two up to?”

  “We aren’t up to anything,” Colin said.

  Bergita pursed her lips. “You shouldn’t lie to your grandmother. I’m old and could keel over at any moment. What if the last thing you told me was a lie, then how would you feel?”

  “You just said that you planned to live into your triple digits to torment Mom and Dad.”

  She grinned. “Well, I suppose I did.”

  “Honest,” I said. “We aren’t up to anything.”

  “I’m always suspicious when kids say ‘honest.’ It makes me think the opposite. If you were really honest, would you have to profess that? Hmmm?” She looked from Colin to me and back again.

  I licked my forked. “We aren’t up to anything, but someone at Michael Pike is.”

  Bergita cut herself a big slice of cake, twice the size of mine.

  I gasped at the piece.

  She snorted. “I’m over seventy. If I can double up on my carbs, I’m going to do it.”

  Colin rolled his eyes.

  She forked a piece of cake. “So tell me what this someone else has been up to.”

  “Stealing,” I said. “At least, that’s what we think. Things have gone missing from the chemistry lab recently. They may have been stolen.”

  She ran her fork through the whipped cream. “What types of things?”

  “Markers — ”

  “Wait, did you say markers? Who cares about markers? I’ll buy the chemistry lab a carton if they are so hard up for markers.”

  “That’s not all. An expensive scale is missing too.”

  “Hmm,” Bergita said. “Is that your casebook?” Bergita pointed to the notebook beside my place at the table. “Does this mean you two plan to investigate these lab supply disappearances?”

  I nodded. My mouth was too full of cake to speak.

  “We want to solve the mystery,” Colin said.

  I swallowed. “How do you know Polk?”

  She held her mug. “Polk? He’s from Killdeer. I know he’s from
around town. You live here long enough you meet everyone. Maybe not the college kids that come and go, but everyone else.” She squinted at me. “What does Polk have to do with this?”

  I lowered my voice. “A lot. I think he’s at the center of the whole thing.”

  Bergita stabbed her cake. “That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”

  CASE FILE NO. 9

  “Why do you say that, Bergita?” I asked.

  Bergita stirred another scoop of sugar into her tea. “Because Polk is the sort of man who is blamed for things gone wrong whether he did them or not. Why do you think Polk is involved?”

  “He hangs around Colburn, the science building, a lot.” I shot a glance at Colin. “And we saw him talking to our chemistry professor. It was odd.”

  “Odd? Why? Polk is a janitor there. Maybe he was asking her if she needed a lightbulb replaced.”

  I shrugged. “When they spoke, Dr. Comfrey told Polk to stay away from the building.”

  Colin pushed up his glasses with the handle end of his fork. “She thought security might think he did it because of the things that went missing.”

  “The markers,” Bergita said. “Does Polk like to draw?”

  I frowned. “We already said that it’s more than markers. A scale is missing and some precious metals, copper and . . .” I trailed off.

  “Palladium,” Colin jumped in. “She said the palladium was missing too, and only certain people would know its worth. Polk was one of them.”

  “How would he know?” Bergita set down her fork.

  “We were hoping you could tell us,” I said.

  “Maybe you should talk to Amelie about this. She must know your chemistry professor better than I do since she works there. And I have no idea why Polk would take those items from the lab.”

  “What do you know about him?” Colin asked.

  She peered into her tea. “He’s harmless, and he’s a tortured soul.”

  Colin’s brow wrinkled. “A tortured soul? What does that mean?”

  Bergita sighed. “Polk has had a sad life.”

  “Why’s that?” Colin asked through a mouthful of cake.

  “Can you swallow before you ask a question? Goodness, your mother will think I raised you in a barn.”