The New Kid (17 page)

Nancy took a deep breath and continued:

Nancy bowed.

“Bravo!” said Mr. Lipman.

The class golf-clapped. Mr. Lipman declared twenty minutes of Ketchup Time—time to catch up on unfinished business.

Nancy collected her Bonus Bucks, and she and Carson signed them and headed out the door.

On the way to the office, Carson jammed his hands into his hoodie pouch.

What the?!

He pulled out the green yo-yo. “What’s this doing in my pocket?”

Nancy stepped back and looked at Carson from stem to stern.

“That’s
your
hoodie? Turn around.”

Carson turned around.

“Looks pretty small to me, Carson.”

Carson explained, “My dad shrank it in the dryer.”

“Three sizes? Put your arms down at your sides.”

“Well, I also think my arms have grown.”

“Three inches? Take it off.”

Nancy helped Carson pull his arms out of the sleeves. “Aha. What did I tell you?”

She showed Carson the tag. Size S. Chloe D. was neatly written in fine-point permanent marker.

Carson quietly said, “Guess it’s not mine after all.”

Oops.

In his panic about Moose, he must have accidentally grabbed Chloe’s sweatshirt off the hook. How the yo-yo got into the pouch, well, that was anybody’s guess.

They went into the office and deposited their Bonus Bucks in the Bonus Bucks Box. “Has the Wheel of Fortune been repaired?” Nancy politely asked Mrs. Sweetow.

Mrs. Sweetow pursed her lips and shook her head. “Bad subject.”

“Sorry.”

“The damage was more extensive than we originally
thought.” She rolled her eyes. “In fact, it has to be completely reconstructed.”

“Wow. That’s unfortunate!” said Nancy.

“You can say that again,” said Mrs. Sweetow.

Carson didn’t say “Wow. That’s unfortunate!” again because Mrs. Sweetow was one sour lady about the Wes and the Wheel of Fortune incident.

On the way out the door, Nancy frowned. “What a stinker! Chloe took Parks’s yo-yo from the June Box.”

“I’m not supposed to tell,” said Carson. “But actually, it’s Chloe’s brother Joey’s yo-yo. So I’m not sure what’s going on. Are you?”

Nancy closed her eyes and shook her head.

“But I did hear Chloe try to convince Mr. Lipman that Wes put it in his pack. Even I believed Wes had it!”

They slowly walked down the hall.

“Poor Wes,” said Nancy. “He gets blamed for everything.”

“Well,” said Carson. “Sometimes he deserves it. Remember how he broke the wheel? Whose fault was that?”

Nancy whispered, “It may have been improperly
installed.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “It’s not like Mrs. Sweetow is a professional carpenter or anything.”

“What about when Wes forged the numbers on the tongue depressors? Whose fault was that?” asked Carson.

“Actually, I’m not so sure he’s the one who did that.”

“Well, who else would have done it?”

“Now ya got me. But I do know this much.” Nancy picked up Carson’s hand. “On his homework papers, Wes makes big, fat, wide, messy numbers. Like this.”

Nancy scrawled a big, fat, wide, messy
4
on Carson’s palm. “On the other hand”—she picked up Carson’s other hand—“the numbers on the tongue depressors were neatly drawn. Like this.” She neatly and carefully drew a small
4
on Carson’s other palm.

It tickled.

“Well, he boosted a foroon out of the cupboard,” said Carson. “That much we do know. He ate half my half a burrito with it!”

“Do you know that for a fact?”

“Yes, and he grabbed my mango juice to wash it down.”

“Wait. What I’m asking is: Do you know for a fact that he is the one that took the foroon?”

“Pretty much.” He glanced at Nancy. “Unless you believe in fairies.”

“I have a hunch the Dustbusters may somehow have something to do with this,” Nancy said mysteriously. “I’m feeling a bit Nancy Drewish at the moment. And I’d like to see if I’m right about it. You with me?”

“Yup.”

Ketchup Time was still going on when Carson and Nancy walked in, with some unfinished business. The sweatshirt was casually slung around Nancy’s shoulders. They strolled up to Zoe and Chloe.

“There’s an ant on your head,” Nancy told Zoe.

“Where?”

“It fell off.”

Nancy leaned against the counter. “I’m wondering if you two individuals were responsible for forging numbers on Star Jar sticks.”

“Us?”

“Yes, you.”

“So what if we were.”

What would Nancy Drew say to that?

“We love Wes’s whoppers,” said Zoe. “Wes is a very creative and inventive Whopper Weaver, in case you haven’t noticed. The
4
after the
1
and a
1
in front of the
4
was an act of generosity.”

“We were upping Wes’s chances of getting called on,” said Chloe. “And so what?”

Nancy couldn’t think of what Nancy Drew would say to that, either.

“We have the right to delegate our Star Jar chances to anybody we want! Those were our numbers and we were sharing them. Star Jar sharing is a life skill.”

“But Weston got blamed for it.”

“He was happy he got blamed. Wes loves eating lunch with Mr. Lipman. It’s Guy Time.”

“Did you two happen to have anything to do with the foroon that appeared in Weston’s back pocket just before Guy Time?” Carson asked.

Zoe and Chloe made a face at each other. “What’s a
foroon
?”

“You know exactly what he’s talking about,” said Nancy. “A foroon is a plastic eating utensil with little fangs on the edge.”

“That’s a spork, and yeah, we took one and gave it to Wes, and so what again,” Chloe told Nancy. “We heard Wes say he wished he could share Carson’s burrito, and we granted his wish! We’re the Sporks Fairies!”

Zoe walked up and leaned very, very close to Nancy and said, “So … 
ha
!”

Nancy sniffed the air. “Hmmmm,” she said. “Peppermint breath.” She smiled wryly at Carson. “Have the Spork Fairies been helping themselves to the Teenie Weenie Jelly Beanies and the Fresh Breath Refresherettes jailed in the June Box?”

“These items attract Nuisance Ants,” Chloe declared.

Nancy and Carson looked at each other. “What’s a
Nuisance Ant
?” Nancy asked him, and he shrugged.

“It’s a pest ant,” Zoe explained. “An ant that comes in from the wild and wreaks havoc in the June Box.

“It’s not an easy job, being ant wranglers,” Zoe continued. “But we have come to realize that even teensy ants are wildlife.”

“Wow. Now I’ve heard everything,” said Nancy.

“I guess you could think of us as Wild Ant
Rescuers,” Zoe added. “Similar to Ms. Tapp, but without the blue jackets.”

“Unfortunately, mints sometimes fall out of the containers into our hands when we release ants from the containers into the wild. Of course, we’re forced to eat the mints because we’re supposed to eat the mints we touch. That’s the guideline.”

Nancy made a face. “Really? Okay. Now I understand. Anyway … I’m wondering about something else.…”

She took the sweatshirt from her shoulder and stuck the tag under Chloe’s nose. “
Chloe D
. Is that you?”

Chloe reached for the sweatshirt but Nancy stepped back. “Not so fast. There seems to be something way, way down in the pocket.” She closed one eye and peered into the pouch. “Were the ant wranglers also planning to release a green yo-yo into the wild?”

“Where did you find my sweatshirt?” said Chloe. “I left it on my hook last Friday. The next thing I know, you two walk in with it. Where was it? And you’ve been rifling through the pockets.” She tapped her foot. “Where did you get it from?”

Nancy was quiet. She looked over at Carson.

Carson admitted, “I took it.”

“You
did
?”

“Yes, I took it, and I hid it behind the book cart.”

Mr. Lipman strolled over. The girls began struggling with the hoodie. There was a brief tug-of-war, with Nancy pulling on one sleeve and Chloe holding the other. “What’s going on?”

Zoe reported: “Carson took Chloe’s sweatshirt and hid it behind the book cart!”

Mr. Lipman took Carson aside and quietly asked, “Did you?”

“Well …”

How would Carson explain this?

“Yes, I did.”

Mr. Lipman became very serious. “What’s going on?”

Carson shrugged.

“Why would you do something like that?”

Carson was forced to spill the beans. He quietly told Mr. Lipman that he did take Chloe’s hoodie and he did hide it in the corner behind the book cart, but it wasn’t on purpose. “I must have grabbed
her sweatshirt off the hook thinking it was mine. Or maybe hers was hung on my hook. I’m not sure.”

Mr. Lipman said nothing.

“The hooks are right next to each other. I thought I was hiding my own hoodie, and I now don’t know where mine is.”

“But why would you hide your own hoodie behind a book cart, Carson? I don’t understand. Why would you hide anybody’s hoodie behind a book cart?”

Darn! Carson knew he would ask that question! “Well. I know it’s ridiculous to believe a lost stuffed mammal might bed down on it, but—”

Mr. Lipman said, “You don’t have to say any more. I get it. And you know what I suspect?”

“What?”

“I suspect your hoodie is in the bottom of the lost-and-found bin. More stuff gets lost in that bin and less stuff gets found there than anyplace else in the school. Go and look right now. Nancy? Please go with Carson. Immediately.”

He announced to the class: “This is a simple case of mistaken hoodie identity. There will be no further discussion. Everyone return to your seats. I don’t want to hear one more word about this.”

Chloe snatched her sweatshirt from Nancy.

Carson and Nancy prowled through the lost and found.

Yup, Carson’s hoodie was there, all right. He must have dropped it out in the yard or left it outside the classroom door.

And so was Nancy’s baseball mitt from last year!

She socked it a few times to get it back into shape. “Want to come over to my house and play catch sometime?”

“Sure.”

“When should we talk to Mr. Lipman about the yo-yo?” Carson asked.

Mr. Lipman was staring into the June Box when Carson and Nancy walked in. “Parks’s yo-yo has mysteriously reappeared!” he said.

Zoe exclaimed, “Magic. It’s magic!”

And Chloe said, “The fairies returned it!”

“No they didn’t and it isn’t Parks’s yo-yo and you know it,” Nancy said.

“And Weston Walker didn’t take it, either,” Carson added. “And you know that, too!” He looked at Mr. Lipman. “It was in Chloe’s sweatshirt pocket.”

He turned to the class. “I accidentally took Chloe’s sweatshirt to make a bed behind the book cart for my lost moose. And so what.” He sat down.

After sorting things out, Mr. Lipman erased Chloe’s and Zoe’s names from the Deputy List and wrote:
Applications for the Deputy Dustbuster position now being accepted
.

Wow. Maybe Wes could apply!

What a day.

And the hat incident really capped it off.

As Zoe and Chloe were sitting in the Blue Box at afternoon recess, Bob swooped down and grabbed the green pom-pom on Chloe’s beanie with his foot and yanked the beanie off her head and flew away with it.

Carson’s dad rumbled up in the Porsche, on time as always.

“Bad news for Bob!” Carson announced as he opened the door.

“How so?”

“He snatched a hat and dropped it on the library roof.”

“Good grief, what an aggressive bird!”

“You can say that again.”

“Good grief, what an aggressive bird!”

“And even though Ms. Pierson conceded that the pom-pom may have looked like a pile of pesto from a
crow’s perspective, it was unacceptable. When a crow makes physical contact with a person or their clothing, that’s where she draws the line, because birds are germy.”

“Ah.”

“So now Patrick and Ella are going to relocate Bob to Green Gulch Park, near the duck pond.”

“Ah.”

“Maybe you and I can go again for the release! And maybe can we buy Bob some Cheerios? I don’t think he can compete with the other crows, Dad. His tail feathers are damaged, and he’s lost a leg. They’re a bunch of bullies over there.”