by Mclean, Hope
“So someone from a different quiz bowl team must have dropped it!” Lili began to get excited. “Do you know what that means?”
“It means that someone from another school must have been in the library,” Willow said. “They could be our thief!”
“We can check the visitors’ book in the front office to see who has signed in recently. I know the library is open Saturday for the math study group, so anyone could have gotten in,” Erin said. She looked at her watch. “Lunch is almost over, though. We can go right after school.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jasmine said. “Now let’s get out of here.”
Erin handed her the pin. “You spotted it. You should keep it.”
Jasmine slipped the pin into the front pocket of her bag. “I’ll keep it safe,” she promised.
When the last bell rang, the girls met in the hallway in front of the main office.
“What do we do, just march in and demand to see the book?” Lili asked.
“It’s sitting right on the counter,” Erin responded. “I don’t think it’s classified information. But you guys can distract Ms. Ortiz while I look, just so she’s not suspicious.”
They walked toward the entrance of the school and turned into the front office. Ms. Ortiz, a young woman with long, curly hair, greeted them with a smile.
“Hi there, girls! Willow, how’s your mother?” she asked. “I’ve been meaning to sign up for the next round of yoga classes at the community center, but I hurt my knee playing Frisbee this past weekend. Wasn’t the weather beautiful? Do you know if there are any spots left in the class?” Before Willow could answer, Ms. Ortiz went right on talking. “If my knee isn’t better, maybe I’ll try the knitting class. I’ve heard it can be very relaxing.”
Erin stifled a laugh as Ms. Ortiz kept chatting to Willow. She shot a glance at Lili and Jasmine. They should have figured the talkative secretary would be easy to distract. Erin leafed through the pages of the visitors’ book, paying careful attention to the day of and days leading up to the theft.
A quick scan showed no unusual visitors — and not anyone from another school.
“Tell your mom I tried her banana bread recipe.” Ms. Ortiz was still talking when Erin shut the book. “It was delicious! So, can I help you girls with anything?”
Willow shook her head. “We just wanted to stop by and say hi.”
Ms. Ortiz beamed. “Isn’t that nice? Have a great afternoon. Come by anytime!”
In the hallway, the girls looked at Erin quizzically.
“Nothing,” she said. “But I guess a thief wouldn’t sign in!”
“So, we’re back at square one,” Willow said. “I wonder why the pin doesn’t have a year on it. That could tell us which team won it.”
“I think I know a way,” Jasmine said. Deep in thought, she took the pin out of her bag and examined it.
“This is an aquamarine,” she finally said. “Lili, can I borrow your phone?”
Lili handed it over reluctantly. Students were not supposed to use cell phones at school unless it was an emergency. Jasmine used the web browser to do a search. “Aha!” she cried. “It’s just what I thought. Each year the Brain Brawl championship pins have a different gemstone on them. If we can find out which year had the aquamarine, we can find out which quiz bowl team the pin belongs to.” She ran her fingertip along the touch screen as she searched for the answer. “The aquamarine was the gem for …” Her eyes continued to scan the screen. “… the fifth-grade winners of last year’s tournament. And the winners of last year’s Brain Brawl were … the Atkinson Prep Rivals!”
“The Rivals!” Erin gasped. “I should have guessed!”
“So, last year’s fifth-grade team would be this year’s sixth-grade team,” Willow said thoughtfully. “So this pin belongs to Ryan, Isabel, Veronica, or Aaron.”
“Not Isabel,” Jasmine reminded her. “She wasn’t on the team last year.”
“The Rivals were late to the Franklin quiz bowl,” Lili pointed out. “Well, they had a late slot.” Her eyes widened. “They could have been right here stealing the necklace that morning!”
“Wait a sec,” Willow said. “A pin and not being on time to the quiz bowl don’t mean anything. We need more proof. If they weren’t at the quiz bowl that morning, they could have been somewhere else. We need to find out what each one of them was doing on Saturday morning.”
Erin frowned. “I can’t imagine Veronica is a thief.”
“We need to find out for sure,” Willow said, then thought for a moment. “An easy way to start is by checking each of the Rivals’ Chatter statuses for two Saturdays ago.”
Willow pulled out her phone and pressed the screen. “Let’s see,” she said. “Ryan did a sign-in on Saturday at eleven a.m. from the movie theater. It says he was there with Aaron, catching a matinee.”
Willow continued to read from her phone. “Isabel signed in at the mall around eleven a.m. She even posted a photo of a pair of boots she was trying on at Shoe Crazy. Veronica signed in from the Marian Koshland Science Museum at about the same time. It says she was enjoying the infectious disease exhibit.”
Lili stuck her tongue out. “Barf!”
“So they all have alibis, then?” Jasmine seemed disappointed.
“Wait!” Lili said. She grabbed her phone back from Jasmine and logged in to her Chatter account. “I’m using my cell phone, right? There are two ways I can use it. If I use Chatter’s sign-in feature, it automatically picks up my location from my phone. But I can bypass it and choose to sign myself in from anywhere. See?”
She held up her phone. Her Chatter status said, “Lili Higashida is at the National Gallery of Art.”
“But I’m not!” Lili said. “I’m right here at Martha Washington School.”
“So the Rivals could have faked their alibis?” Willow asked.
“Yes.” Lili nodded. “And if they did, then they could be the jewel thieves!”
Jasmine frowned. “That would be proof, all right. But how are we going to prove that they faked their alibis?”
“Well, we don’t have to worry about Isabel, because we know the pin wasn’t hers,” Willow said thoughtfully. “So that leaves Ryan, Aaron, and Veronica.”
“Eli knows Ryan and Aaron,” Lili piped up. “Maybe he could ask them questions about the movie they saw. You know, to be sure they actually saw it.”
Willow nodded. She turned to Jasmine. “Jazz, do you think we could go to the science museum after school this week?”
“I’ll ask my mom,” Jasmine said. “Maybe she can take us.”
“Why don’t Lili and I hit the mall?” Erin suggested. “If we find out that Isabel was lying, too, then it makes our case stronger, right?”
“Yay! The mall!” Lili cheered.
Willow smiled. “So I guess we have a plan.”
“This is so exciting!” Erin said. “It’s like we’re real detectives.”
“It’s totally fun,” Lili agreed. “Hey, what do detectives wear? Maybe we need some cool hats or something.”
Jasmine looked anxious. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel fun. I mean, I want to prove I’m innocent, but I don’t want to get in any more trouble.”
“We’re not doing anything wrong,” Willow assured her. Her brown eyes were sparkling, and it was clear that she was excited about the challenge. “And if we’re right about the Rivals, we’ll be heroes!”
* * *
Lili and Erin were the first to do their part. The next day, Erin’s dad took them to the mall after school.
“I hope you girls don’t plan to be here for hours,” Mr. Fischer said, looking around at the brightly lit shops apprehensively.
“We’ll be fast, Dad,” Erin promised. “We just need to go check something out at Shoe Crazy.”
“Shoe Crazy? Is that actually the name of a store?” he asked, shaking his head. “Unbelievable.”
There was a bench right outside the Shoe Crazy shop, so Erin’s dad settled in and read a
book while Lili and Erin went inside.
“Ooh, look!” Lili said, darting toward a pair of sparkly silver heels.
“Where would you even wear those?” Erin asked.
“Anywhere!” Lili said confidently. She picked one up. “I wonder if they have them in my size.”
“We’re not here to shop, remember?” Erin said. “Come on, give me your phone. I don’t have a Chatter account on mine.”
Lili handed over her bright purple phone, and Erin found the photo that Isabel had posted of the boots. She marched up to the bored-looking teenage salesgirl at the front of the store. The girl’s long bangs almost covered her sleepy eyes, and she leaned against the counter, covering her mouth as she yawned.
“Excuse me. Do you have these boots?” Erin asked, holding the phone up to show her the picture.
The girl rolled her eyes and twirled her long hair around one finger. “Those are, like, so last month.”
“But are they still on the shelves?” Erin asked. “Like, did you have any in stock a couple Saturdays ago?”
The girl sighed. “No. They’ve been totally sold out since, like, forever.”
“So she’s lying!” Lili cried out.
“Whatever,” the salesgirl said. “I am not.”
“I don’t mean you, I mean — oh, you know what I mean,” Lili said, turning to Erin.
Erin nodded. “Isabel must have taken a photo of some boots she bought here last month! So I would say her alibi is definitely busted.”
* * *
On Wednesday after school, Mrs. Johnson took Jasmine and Willow to the Marian Koshland Science Museum.
“So you have a report due on infectious diseases?” Jasmine’s mom said as they entered the museum. “That sounds … um … interesting.”
“Thanks for bringing us,” Jasmine told her mom. “This is really going to help with our reports.”
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll head to the Lights at Night exhibit,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Call my cell if you need me.”
Jasmine and Willow headed to the Infectious Diseases area.
“Your mom seems kind of grossed out,” Willow remarked.
“I don’t blame her,” Jasmine said. “It does sound pretty gross.”
But the gallery was actually kind of cool, with brightly lit interactive photo and video panels. You could press a button and watch a video on a number of topics, from vaccines to viruses.
“So what are we looking for, exactly?” Jasmine wondered.
“I’m not sure,” Willow admitted. “Let me check Veronica’s Chatter page again and see if there’s something there that can help.”
Willow took out her phone, and after a few seconds, she frowned.
“That’s weird. I can’t get a signal,” she said.
“Let me try,” Jasmine suggested, but she didn’t have any luck, either.
“Hmm,” Willow said thoughtfully. She walked over to the nearest museum guide, an older man in a blue jacket. “Excuse me, but I can’t seem to get a cell phone signal.”
“I’ve never been able to get one inside the building,” the guide informed her. “I always have to walk outside to use mine.”
Willow turned to Jasmine. “So Veronica couldn’t have posted her status from the exhibit!”
“Unless she went outside to do it,” Jasmine pointed out.
“That seems like a lot of trouble,” Willow said. “Anyway, it’s the best proof we have.”
* * *
After the girls studied the exhibit and Veronica’s Chatter post, the missing cell phone signal was the only clue they could come up with. But the next day, Eli finally approached Ryan and Aaron at their school.
At first, Eli had refused when Lili asked for his help.
“What do you want me to do, grill them like some police detective?” Eli had asked. “That’s weird.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Lili replied. “Maybe just ask them some questions about the movie they posted about, to see if they really saw it.”
“If they are master jewel thieves, then they probably read the movie review so they know what happens,” Eli pointed out.
“But movie reviews don’t tell you everything,” Lili said. She reached into her backpack. “Here’s ten bucks. Go see the movie and then talk to Ryan and Aaron about it.”
Eli thought for a moment. “What movie is it?” he asked.
“Curse of the Black Tiger,” Lili replied.
Eli had been wanting to see that one for a while; he loved ninja movies.
“Ten more bucks,” Eli said. “I want to bring Zane.”
Lili scowled. “You want me to pay for your best friend, too? That’s … bribery!”
“No, actually, it’s extortion,” Eli told her. “But that’s the deal. Besides, I might need Zane’s help.”
“Fine,” Lili said reluctantly, handing over another ten-dollar bill with a sigh. “This is going to make a big dent in my glitter fund.”
* * *
Eli and Zane saw the movie. And the next day, they positioned themselves next to Ryan and Aaron in the school courtyard.
“Man, Curse of the Black Tiger was awesome,” Eli said loudly to Zane. Then he turned to the sixth graders. “Did you guys see it?”
Ryan and Aaron looked at each other for a moment.
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “It was definitely awesome, all right.”
“How about that twist ending?” Eli asked.
“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that,” Zane agreed, nodding his head.
Eli looked directly at Ryan. “Did you guys see that coming?”
“Well, yeah, it was sort of obvious,” Ryan said smugly. “Right, Aaron?”
Aaron looked uncomfortable. “Um, yeah. Sure.”
Eli held back a smile. His little sister had been right! There was no twist ending in the movie at all. Ryan and Aaron were lying. But why? Because they were jewel thieves, like Lili said? It seemed kind of hard to believe.
“Cool. Later, dudes,” Eli said, and then he motioned for Zane to walk away.
“So why did we do that, again?” Zane asked him.
“I told you, if you wanted the free ticket, no questions asked,” Eli reminded him.
* * *
Friday at lunch, Lili told the Jewels what Eli had learned.
“So Ryan and Aaron were definitely lying,” she said.
“Just like Isabel,” Erin added.
“And most likely Veronica,” said Jasmine.
Willow was frantically typing into her laptop. “I’m adding that to our report. After school we go see Principal Frederickson, right?”
The girls looked at one another nervously. “Are you sure we have enough proof?” Erin asked.
“We know they were at the scene of the crime. We know that they lied about where they were. That seems like pretty good proof to me,” Willow said.
When the final bell rang, the girls met in the sixth-grade hall and then went to Principal Frederickson’s office.
“How lovely to see you again, girls,” said Ms. Ortiz. “Can I help you with something, or are you just here to chat?”
“We’d like to see Principal Frederickson,” Willow said. “If she’s not busy.”
“Let me check,” the secretary said. She picked up the phone and dialed. “The Jewels team is here to see you. Okay, then.” Ms. Ortiz smiled. “Go right in.”
The girls entered the principal’s office and sat down in front of her desk.
“Congratulations on winning the Think Out. I’m very pleased to see you all doing so well in Martha Washington’s first year back on the circuit,” the principal said with a rare smile.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Willow replied anxiously.
“So what brings you ladies here today?” Principal Frederickson asked.
Erin, Jasmine, and Lili all looked at Willow. She took a breath and handed the principal their report.
“We think that the Atkinson Prep academic team stole the Martha Washington ruby,”
she said.
Normally the principal’s face wore the same calm expression every day, but Jasmine was sure she noticed a flicker of surprise in her eyes, though it quickly faded. She raised an eyebrow.
“That is a very serious accusation,” she said.
“But we have evidence,” Willow countered. “They all lied about their alibis from nine to one on the Saturday when the ruby was stolen.”
“And one of them dropped this in the library,” Jasmine added, placing the championship pin on the table.
The principal picked it up and examined it. “I see,” she said. “This is very interesting.” Then she began to read Willow’s report, and her eyes got that look again. Jasmine got the feeling that the Jewels had found out something important, and Principal Frederickson knew it.
“Are you going to tell the police?” Erin asked.
Principal Frederickson put down the report. “I’m not sure if this evidence warrants police involvement,” she replied crisply. “Martha Washington and Atkinson Prep have a long history together. Out of courtesy, I should bring this to Arthur Atkinson’s attention first.”
The girls looked at one another, and Willow gave a nod.
“Okay,” Willow said. “Um, thanks for listening to us.”
The principal stood up, and her manner was all business once more. “Enjoy your weekend,” she said curtly, and it was clear she wanted them to leave.
Back in the hallway, the girls began to talk all at once.
“She’s not going to the police!” Erin said.
“But at least she believed us,” Lili pointed out.
“Did she?” Jasmine asked thoughtfully. “I mean, I thought she did, but then why isn’t she going to the police?”
“She knows the best thing to do,” Willow argued. “It’s in her hands now. I’m sure she’ll take care of it. She trusts us. Principal Frederickson is the one who brought the team together, after all.”
Jasmine frowned. “I hope you’re right. I hope we’re right, and the Rivals have that ruby.”
* * *
That night, the stolen ruby haunted Jasmine’s dreams. Principal Frederickson was pointing at her, and her finger grew longer and longer.
“You did it!” the principal accused.
For once, Jasmine was glad to wake up early on a Saturday. She was digging into a bowl of granola at the kitchen table when her cell phone rang.
