1
The Contest
C lass, I have a special project for you,â Mrs. Reynolds announced. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a brown paper bag.
Eight-year-old Nancy Drew leaned toward Bess Marvin, who sat next to her. They were both third graders in Mrs. Reynoldsâs class. Bess was one of Nancyâs best friends.
âI wonder whatâs in the bag?â Nancy whispered to Bess.
âIt looks like a lunch bag, so maybe itâs food,â Bess whispered back. She tossed her long blond hair over her shouldersand glanced at Mrs. Reynolds. âHmm. Or maybe not.â
Nancy leaned forward in her seat. Mrs. Reynolds was pulling folded-up pieces of paper out of the bag.
âThese have your names on them,â Mrs. Reynolds explained. She let the pieces of paper flutter through her fingers and back into the bag. âFor this project, weâre going to need seven teams. Iâm going to pick seven names out of this bag. Those students will be the team captains. Each captain will choose three or four other people to be on his or her team.â
âIf Iâm a team captain, Iâm not going to choose any girls,â Jason Hutchings called out. He turned to his friend Mike Minelli, and they gave each other high fives.
âThatâs enough,â Mrs. Reynolds said, frowning at the boys. âAnyway, each team will write a short storyâa mystery short story set here at Carl Sandburg Elementary School. A week from tomorrow, all the teams will read their stories out loud in class, and weâll vote on the best one.â
A mystery short story! Nancy sat up inher seat. She loved mysteries. For one thing, she was the best detective at Carl Sandburg Elementary School. She had a special blue notebook that her father had given her. She wrote clues in it whenever she was working on a case.
Still, writing a mystery short story would be different from solving a mystery, Nancy thoughtâa different kind of fun. She was excited about trying it.
Across the room, George Fayne raised her hand. George was Bessâs cousin and Nancyâs other best friend. âMrs. Reynolds? Wonât it be kind of hard for all the team members to write together?â George asked.
âYouâll take turns,â Mrs. Reynolds explained with a smile. âYou can decide on a story idea as a team. Then each team member will write one part of the story. The first person will write the first part. The second person will write the second part, and so on.â
âCool,â George said. âKind of like the baton relay.â George, who was tall and had dark, curly hair, was really into sports.
Mrs. Reynolds reached into the paperbag and picked out seven names for the team captains. âKatie Zaleski, Andrew Leoni, Julia Santos, Mari Cheng, Jason Hutchings, Nancy Drew . . . and Brenda Carlton,â she read out loud.
âI knew Iâd be one of the team captains,â Brenda Carlton said smugly.
Bess glanced at Nancy and rolled her eyes. Nancy put her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling. Brenda wrote her own newspaper, which she printed on her fatherâs computer. She always acted as if she was the most important person in the class.
Mrs. Reynolds had all the team captains take turns picking their teams. Nancy picked Bess, George, and Phoebe Archer. Brenda picked Jenny March, Emily Reeves, and her best friend, Alison Wegman. Jason Hutchings picked all boys, just as heâd said: Mike Minelli, Kyle Leddington, and Peter DeSands.
âIâm passing out the composition books youâll be using for your stories,â Mrs. Reynolds said. She went up and down the aisles and gave each of the team leaders a shiny purple notebook. âEach person can write his or her part and pass the notebook on to the next person on the team. Good luck!â she finished with a smile.
Nancy took one of the purple notebooks from Mrs. Reynolds. She opened the notebook to the
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