I Ain't No Scooby Doo But I Think I Just Solved A Mystery

This book was written by the students of Write On! After-School in Spring 2023. Its publication was made possible through funding provided by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826LA. We support student publishing and are thrilled you picked up this book.

Las opiniones expresadas en este libro son las de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las de 826LA. Apoyamos la publicación de jóvenes autores y estamos felices que haya recogido este libro.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Editors:

Ariana Ponce

Mike Dunbar

Maya Robles

Maricruz Pool-Chan

Cover Artwork:

Angelina Costello

Book Design: Puicón-Pérez for 826LA

Written by the students of WRITE ON! AFTER-SCHOOL in SPRING 2023

Introduction

At 826LA, we believe in the whimsy found in disappearance: a pirate misplaces his treasured fruits, an XBox console vanishes, a bear mourns the loss of his blanket that he swears was just there… or was it?

Step into a world of wonder and intrigue, where the imagination of students runs free and mysterious tales abound. In this book, you’ll discover a collection of short stories crafted by young authors who have mastered the art of suspense, cleverly weaving in flourishes of comedy. Some of them have been writing for years, while others have just discovered their passion for storytelling. Each story will take you to a new and fascinating place, filled with secrets and amusing twists. From haunted houses to eerie forests, from distant planets to Echo Park lake, these stories will ignite your imagination and keep you guessing until the very end. So, come along and join us on this journey of mystery and discovery, and prepare to be amazed by the creativity and talent of these young storytellers.

The Mysteries

El Misterio de la Lupa

ALISSON J.

Un día Emilia fue al parque con su lupa y la perrita Conejita para encontrar mysterios. Ella se enfocó en encontrar un pajarito chiquito que Fernanda le había pedido su ayuda para encontrarlo. Después de unas horas de buscar al pajarito, Emilia lo encontró en un árbol atrapado, y ella lo bajo. Luego de entregarlo a Fernanda, Emilia se fue a sentar en una mesa del parque para descansar mientras que Conejita jugaba. De repente, Conejita miró una ardilla y empezó a corretear. La ardilla se subió a un árbol. Emilia corrió rápido detrás de Conejita, pero se le quedó la lupa atrás. Cuando regresó a la mesa, ya no estaba su lupa y la empezó a buscar. Conejita usó su nariz para oler y buscar la lupa. En menos de 30 minutos Conejita encontró a la persona que se había robado la lupa. Conejita empezó a ladrar y a empujar a Gastón. Gastón se tropezó y se le cayó la lupa de su chamarra. Conejita agarró la lupa y se la dio a Emilia. Gaston estaba celoso porque él quiere ser un detective también. Le pidió perdón a Emilia y no estaba enojada. Le pregunto a Gastón si quiere ser par te de su equipo de detectives. Ahora son Emilia, Conejita y Gaston buscando misterios.

The Disappearance of the Talking Dog

ELIE G.

O

h no! Where is he?

His four legs must have ran far. Did he leave me here?

The dog was a talking dog. Nowadays it’s so quiet.

The Missing Blade

ALEXANDER G.

The detective is Joker. He is 25 years old. He wears a black jacket, a black shirt and a black pants. His sidekick is Sora. He is 19 years old. He wears a red shirt and a black jacket and white pants. They have to solve the case of a missing blade called the Infinity Blade, so they use a jet to get to a forest where the blade went missing. When they arrive, they ask the victim, Naruto. Naruto says, “I was guarding the Infinity Blade until I heard a loud noise.” When Naruto went to check it out, the Infinity Blade was gone. So Naruto asked the three groups that were last to leave the place: Kakashi, Hero, and Bangoo and Kuzooy.

Kakashi said, “I was talking to my students.”

Hero said, “I was on a mission to protect a village.”

Bangoo and Kuzooy said they were looking for food near the blade. Then Joker and Sora check the place for clues like fingerprints or foot marks but find nothing. Then they hear a noise, so they go to check it out. When they get there, they see Bangoo and Kuzooy with the Infinity Blade. Joker and Sora ask why they stole the blade. Bangoo and Kuzooy say that every time they use Kuzooy as a sword it hurts her neck. Joker and Sora put them in jail for four weeks and put the Infinity Blade back.

Then Sora asks Joker, “How did we meet?”

Joker says, “It all happened in high school. You used to get bullied a lot, until one day I stood up for you. Then we grew up together, but you went away for a week, then came back as a detective like me.”

“Oh,” Sora says. “At least we solved the mystery together!”

“Why did you ask me? Did you forget or something?”

“No, it’s just I have a bad memory.”

“It’s ok. Hey! Where did you go when you went away for the week?”

“Oh, because I had to go on a mission.”

“What was the mission about?”

“It was about a family stealing gold. It was up to me to stop them. When the family was eating dinner, I looked for where they kept the gold and all the gold was in the basement. I took some pictures and called the police and arrested them and that why I was away for a week,” Sora said.

“Oh, ok. Now you’re back,” said Joker, smiling. “I’m glad to hear that. I was worried.”

“Yep, I’m back.” Sora said.

“Let’s go home now,” said Joker.

“Yeah,” said Sora.

The Mystery of the Lost Kitten

ARIANNA (GIGI) S.

Once upon a time in a big mansion—bigger than a palace— there lived a family. One day, a girl named April, who has long light brown hair and beautiful brown skin, screamed and her best friend Max, who she invited to her sleepover party, went up to her and said “What happened?”

She said “My KITTEN NAMED COOKIE IS MISSING! Cookie is so special and I got it for my birthday and he is a rare cat. He is rare because he won’t make you itch or anything if you have allergies. He looks like a brown kitten with spots.”

Then Max cried, “Oh no!”

They began making a plan to solve the mystery! :) So… April and Max packed their bags and mystery spy things to find the kitten. Their first destination was the first suspect’s room: April’s sister May. April and her sidekick Max went to investigate in May’s room and found Cookie’s toy mouse. Then Max found May’s phone and checked it. He then found out why she kept getting Cookie. It’s because she was making a video of Cookie, so May is not the one who stole Cookie.

The next suspect was Oliver, who is April’s brother, and it was the perfect time to investigate because Oliver was not there. They went to his room to started their plan to spy on April’s brother

Oliver. April found out why Oliver wanted her pet kitten Cookie, because Cookie was sooooooooooooo fluffy, cute, and cuddly. But they couldn’t find Cookie.

April and her sidekick thought they were out of suspects, but April remembered about Jen. Jen met Cookie at a school show and tell, and said “I wish I had a kitty like Cookie! I love everything about him.”

Then that night the detectives snuck into Jen’s house and found April’s pet Cookie in the living room! April was angry at Jen for taking Cookie but was very happy to have her kitten back!

Capybara Crisis

FATIMA G.

One fateful day at Oak Tree Academy , after all the capybara ran to the field to play Capy-Ball, their favorite sport, a capybara went missing.

HOMP, HOMP, HOMP!

The Principal called the authorities because his stepdaughter, Dulce, was missing. The officers called all the best detectives, but they were all busy. They were forced to reach the last detective on the list: Kirby.

Kirby picked up. He handed the phone to Ella because he didn’t speak. The authorities begged and pleaded because they were at the end of their detective list. Ella agreed, “Yes, we will take the case.”

They drove to the Academy, “Homp Homp Homp!” and they interviewed the students. Ella questions WATER-CAPY, Dulce’s best friend, and discovers she has Dulce’s hair ties and toothbrush. Is she guilty? Water-Capy explains, “Everyone knows Dulce is forgetful, always asking where her hair ties and toothbrush are. As her BFF, I carry spares!”

Ella says, “I see you are innocent.”

HOMP! HOMP! HOMP!

Ella hears that CAPY-STRAWBERRY is hiding in a bush near Dulce. She says, “I was collecting strawberries for friends!” She has traces of strawberries around her mouth. Her friend, Capy-Monica, shows Ella the strawberries she was given. Capy-Strawberry has an alibi!

HOMP! HOMP! HOMP!

Ella then questions the final two suspects, CAPY-TANGERINE, the second BFF of Dulce, and CAPY-HIPPO, the missing student’s boyfriend. Ella said, “I know you two are close to Dulce. Where were you when she disappeared?” Capy-Tangerine says she was at the school doctor’s. Ella checked the records, and Capy-Tangerine had seen the doctor, but Ella forgot to check the timestamp on her visit. Capy-Hippo said he was studying Duolingo in the library. He was learning Capy-nese. Ella finds them innocent and lets them go.

Kirby overhears Tangerine and Hippo fighting about the ransom bread, also known as money. Kirby tells Ella via Charades (he doesn’t speak, remember? Kirby always has a recorder on his person) and plays Ella the recording of Tangerine and Hippo arguing. PROOF! Ella has enough evidence to incriminate them. They lied to her before! They then hear a THIRD voice on the recording: DULCE! They were fighting about how to split the ransom bread three ways! Dulce was part of the scheme!

HOMP! HOMP! HOMP! HOMP! HOMP! HOMP!

Dulce double-crosses Capy-Tangerine and Capy-Hippo by saying they started the drama and manipulated her. She cries big tears, and her stepfather, the principal, believes her. But Ella and Kirby don’t believe her, and when they question her she messes up her story and gets the dates wrong. She’s busted! As she is taken away, a strange student named Capy-Lunatic runs around screaming.

HOMP! HOMP! HOMP!

The sentencing was announced on the news: Three Capybaras from Oak Tree Academy Caught in Scandal! The three were sentenced to community service: a year of coaching Capy-Swimming and Capy-Ball in the community! Kirby and Ella are rewarded with 5K by having their names moved up on the detective list to Third Place because they are not First Rate.

HOMP! HOMP!

Mystery of a Girl

AMANDA A. M.

One afternoon, Kara was watering her friend’s garden. When she was finishing up, a guy showed up and came close to Kara. When the guy came closer she turned off the hose and the guy came out of the vehicle and the guy said, “Hey, are your parents home?”

“No,” Kara said. “This is my friend’s house.”

Then he said, “If you scream, you are done for!”

After that, he told her to get inside the car. Then a couple of minutes later, Kara’s friend came out of the bathroom and said, “Kara have you seen my toothbrush?”

“Hm…weird. Kara, where are you? We’re not playing hide and seek.” She screamed her name and she kept on looking for her until she saw the hose. She screamed her name again.

“MOM, HAVE YOU SEEN KARA? I CAN’T FIND HER!”

“No. Why?”

“She’s not anywhere in the house. I checked everywhere.”

“Omg, we need to call her mom!”

Meanwhile: The guy opened the door of the car and told Kara she had to give him information or else.

Kara’s mom was called Miss Bianca. She was one of the best detectives in the world, along with her sidekick Ginny. When she found out what had happened, Miss Biance thought to herself, “Could it be her friend? She always wants Kara to come over… Wait, she loves to walk a lot…It could be her twin brothers! They are always getting into trouble.”

“Bianca!”

“Yes Ginny?”

“There is another suspect,” Ginny whispered. “Oh,” Bianca replied.

“Well ma’am, we can’t do anything about it because we don’t have a lot of information.”

“What!? My daughter is way more important and you can’t do anything? She’s 15… 15!”

“Woah ma’am. I am so sorry but we can’t do anything.”

Meanwhile: ”Go wash the dishes!” the man said.

Kira said, “U…m…o…k…Later. Tell me what this is about!” The guy put her in handcuffs.

Later: “Ma’am, calm down. We will try our best!”

The next morning, Kira woke up and tried to take the handcuffs off. She got out of them, and slowly went out the door. “Excuse me, I was kidnapped. Please take me to the police.” So they did.

At the police station: “Hi, my name is…”

“Alright Miss Kira.”

“OMG! Kira!”

“Before you take her we need to know where she was kidnapped. Let’s ask you some questions and then you are free to go.”

To be continued…

Oso is Missing His Blanket

ARIANA R.

O

ne morning, Oso woke up and Oso realized his blanket was missing. He remembered he put the blanket on himself the night before but woke up without it. He ran to his mom and asked, “Where is my blanket?” Mom said, “I don’t know.”

Oso quickly ran to his brother Adan’s room to ask him if he had his blanket but before Oso could ask him if he had it, Adan asked Oso, “Do you have a blanket? I’m cold.”

Oso was confused! He stomped out of his brother’s room and went to his mom’s room to tell on his brother Adan because he thought Adan was lying. That’s when he was shocked to find dark and big footprints leading to their friend Richard’s house. Oso quickly snuck back into his brother’s room to double check his shoe size. The shoe size didn’t fit his brother Adan’s shoe size so Oso knew Adan was telling the truth. Oso followed the footprints instead. The footprints led to the park and because Adan was asking his mom if he could hang out with his friends, Oso was able to sneak out.

The footprints led to the flamingo ride at the park and Oso was angry to see Richard riding it. Oso quickly ran to the ride owner and asked, “Can I ride the flamingo?” The owner was excited and said, “Yes of course!” Oso got on the ride in a hurry and used his little feet to peddle the flamingo to where Richard was.

When he got really close to Richard, he could see that he had his blanket! Oso was really mad and his eyes were turning red and his eyebrows were pointed down when he saw Richard try to leave so he ran to Richard. Oso questioned, “Why do you have my blanket?!” Richard was scared and said, “No one wanted to let me borrow a blanket and I was so cold! I promised I was going to return it.” Oso said, “I understand but make sure to ask me next time.” Richard said “ I just didn’t want to interrupt your beauty sleep but I will ask next time.” Oso wasn’t mad anymore and said, “I forgive you, let’s go home.” The friends walked back home and Oso yelled out, “See ya later, Richard!” and Richard smiled back at him. Oso learned how to be patient and Richard learned to ask permission before taking other people’s things.

Popom Pen

ANGELA O. E.

Once upon a time, I had a pen from Mexico. It was my favorite pen. I once had it until one day, I went to the mall and took it with me. When I got home, I realized I had left the pen at the mall and started crying.

To be continued…

The Stolen Book

ARTURO G. C.

O

ne day, Technojay and his sidekick Rain were working on a case. It was a bank robbery. Gold was stolen. Technojay found hair and muddy footprints left. He gave Rain the hair and said, “Take this to the lab.”

After they got the results, they found the robber an hour later at a restaurant. He was eating a Happy Meal and he tried to escape but they got him and they sent him to the interrogation room.

“Why did you rob the bank?”

“Because I needed money.”

“Why didn’t you get a job?”

“NO!”

“Why not?”

“Um…”

“Um, what?”

“I might have robbed seven banks.”

“What!”

“Ya.”

“You will go to jail for life.”

Rian felt sad that the robber, whose name was Franck and who was her friend, was poor. She thought that he would never rob the bank. For their next case they had to get on a jet to get to it. They were tired and went to a hotel. The owner was Alex and he was crying. His book was missing and Alex told Technojay he suspected Pax and Saskay.

Alex told Technojay that Pax had said he needed a book and Saskay was sneaky. Pax and Saskay said they were building Legos. Alex said he and Kia were making a Youtube video of driving at 1,85 7,312,345,999,876,543,212,345,678,987,654,321 miles per hour.

Technojay suspected that Alex didi it so he checked the security camera and the person was wearing blue clothes. It was Alex. He always wore blue clothes. He faked that they stole his book as revenge because they bullied him in sixth and ninth grade.Technojay called the police and Alex got arrested and went to jail for life. In prison two years later, Alex tried to escape and he was wanted. Two days later they caught him.

Finding Baby Brenda & Her Special Ring

MEAH S.

O

ne windy and rainy day, a family of cousins, a grandma and the baby went on a scary walk. They got lost and found an amusement park called FunWorld. The gates of the amusement park were open but the family didn’t know that it was abandoned. The two cousins Emily and Nely, grandma Brandy and Baby Brenda walked inside the park. Suddenly, their phones got a spooky alert! They unlocked their phones and saw an alert that said there was a tsunami coming. They were surprised and didn’t know there was a tsunami coming towards them. The cousins and grandma got lost in the tsunami but there was a secret hero watching everything. His name was Funman and he is usually a villain but today he was good. He quickly grabbed Baby Brenda and her special ring saved her from the tsunami and took Brenda to a hiding place in a storage room that was like super far away from him because he was allergic to babies.

The sister of the lost cousins, Michelle heard about the tsunami on the news and hired a detective named Lucio and his sidekick Alissa to search for baby Brenda and her special ring. Lucio and Alissa found the family’s footprints in the dusty road and followed them into the abandoned park, FunWorld. They searched all around the amusement park until they found a baby bottle outside of the storage room. That’s when the detective and sidekick used their special tool to open the locked door. They were so happy to find Baby Brenda and her special ring!

Looking for the Deed

CHRISTIAN O.

Stik Man was going to Uncle Bill’s Diner with his family to get food because it was the only place open at the time. Stik Man liked the diner a lot. The person who owned it knew Stik Man because he always went to the diner.

When they arrived at the diner, they saw some guy who was looking at the airsoft place before going back into the diner. When they sat down, Stik Man ordered pancakes. Stik Guy ordered eggs with bacon. Catdog ordered pigs in a blanket.

While they were waiting, they saw two people - some guy looking around and a guy also waiting for his food. When Stik Man and his family got their food, the light went out for a while. Finally, they turned back on and Bill yelled, “Help!”

Stik Man ran as fast as he could to Bill. Bill was there looking for the deed. Stik Man called Catdog and Stik Guy over. Catdog said, “What’s wrong?”

Bill said, “Someone stole the deed.”

Stik Guy knew that someone in the diner stole the deed. Stik Man was about to go to his first suspect. Dindil was the guy who looked at the old airsoft place but it couldn’t be him because before Stik Man got his food, he ran outside to the old airsoft place. Stik Man still went to Dindil anyway.

Dindil was calm. Stik Man asked questions to Dindil about what he was doing. Dindil said, “I went outside to look at the old airsoft place, but when the lights went out I ran back to see what was going on.”

Stik Man asked, “Where were you when you ran back in?”

“Here,” he replied.

“Oh,” said Stik Man.

“Goodbye then.”

Shower!

JACKELYN A.

On a night of cold, snowy weather at Mr. President’s mansion, as they were about to cut the President’s birthday cake, Mr. President was nowhere to be seen.

The Catapolis government immediately sent over two of the best detectives, Mip and Corlin.

“Let’s split up,” Mip suggested. “I agree, I’ll go to the bathroom,” said Corlin. As they split up, Mip looked by the fridge. He found a pearl necklace and a pink feather. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Corlin found a bunch of glitter in the sink, and on the floor.

The two met up and looked through their clues. Finally, they checked the garden.

“Look, a riddle!” Corlin shouted. Mip read the riddle: “In and out I come from a spout

Hot or cold

Whatever you chose”

They reviewed the riddle over and over. “THE SHOWER!!!!!” they both said, followed by “JINX!”

Mip and Corlin ran inside to the bathroom. Mip snatched the shower curtains and saw Mr. President asleep and the wizard/ magician Sochezboz sitting down. Sochezboz quickly explained what was happening… “Mr. President will be asleep for a very long time! I was trying to perform a magic trick to make him fly, but the potion I gave him was the wrong one!”

And so then, the world would have to wait for Mr. President to wake up. In the end Mip and Corlin were rewarded with a big prize, PANCAKES! And with just enough time they celebrated with just pancakes.

The Mystery of 2029

DAMIAN M.

It was a day that people said was cold. It was 52° at 5:59 AM.

Just a few minutes before, Jamal had gone missing.

It all started 55 minutes ago, when September, who was 29 years old and depressed as normal, walked through the streets. His friends had stopped giving him money for his lifestyle. He had never worked before so he was walking thinking of what he should do with his life. He was hungry and saw a Burger King. And also, the city was Mexico City.

So anyways, he decided to go eat there before maybe going broke. He ordered a Whopper with fries and a Fanta for $158 pesos. He sat down and was about to start eating but then the Whopper grew eyes and got two feet taller while also getting an arm and a crown. “What the hashtags are you?” said September.

“Yo soy Whopper,” said the Whopper.

“I don’t speak Spanish,” said September, in a rude way.

“Yo no hablo la lengua de Inglés,” said Whopper. So then September looked at Google translate.

“Don’t worry, burger from Mexico, as long as we have connection, we can communicate and be besties,” said September.

“Yo no enteindo Americano,” said Whopper.

“I don’t care,” said September.

55 minutes later, news spread that September’s 85 year old friend went missing. September felt very sad inside.

“¿Porque te miras triste? Ponte las pilas,” said Whopper.

One hour later, September decided to be Scoby Doo and solve a mystery. But two minutes later he was still in Burger King eating chicken fries (because there was a Whopper next to him). While eating, the police came into the restaurant. “Septiembre necesitamos hablar contigo sobre un problema,” they said.

“I don’t speak Spanish,” said September.

“Busca a la persona que habla ingles,” said police 58.

“Okay,” said police 168. Then came a goofy person - he was the translator. “Hello September, my name is Pedro the Pony,” said Pedro the Pony.

“How do you know my name?” asked September.

“That doesn’t matter, but we need to talk about Jamal. The police know you two are besties, so they need your information to help solve the mystery,” said Pedro.

“Sure,” said September. After a good meal of chicken fries, September was taken to a room in jail.

“Cuéntanos lo que sabes sobre Jamal,” said the police.

“They said to tell them all about what you know about Jamal,” said Pedro.

“Hmm… okay, so we met 19 years ago - ,” said September before being interrupted by Pedro.

“No, no, no. Not a story. They want information.”

“Oh! Okay. Well, he’s a tall, skinny 85 year old man who has a neighbor named September, aka me, and has an enemy named Pablo the Handsome Man - ,” said September, before being interrupted again.

“Thank you so much,” said Pedro, dashing out the door. Then the police went to look for the first suspect: Pablo the Handsome Man.

“At least I don’t have to do anything,” said September.

“Que?” said Whopper.

“Oh yeah, you two are coming too,” Pedro said.

“Noooooooo!” cried September, while being dragged with Whopper by Pedro.

59 minutes later: “Here’s Pablo the Handsome Man’s house,” said September.

“Okay, now that we are here, we’re gonna leave,” said Pedro, while he and the police cleared out the scene.

“Then I’m not doing it,” said September.

“If you do, we’ll give you $1,000,000,000,000,000 pesos,” said Pedro, while leaving in the car. Then September started thinking of all the stuff he could do with the money.

“Let’s go!” said September, sounding very energetic, as if he had drank coffee, Gatorade, Powerade, Prime Energy, and Redbull all in one day.

BANG! BANG! The door was being banged on until - BOOM! - it fell on the floor. Inside it smelled like tacos. It was cold like outside, and when September continued walking, he saw Pablo the Handsome Man.

“Yo, what’s up man?” asked Pablo.

“The ceiling,” replied September.

“You are goofy.”

“No.”

“Anyway, you want to eat some tacos with me?”

“OMG! Yassss!” said September. While those two were being goofy, the Whopper was searching the house.

59 hours later: Whopper came from the dumpster, “Encontré algo,” said Whopper.

“What?”

“I found something,” said Whopper.

To be continued…

The Day of Mystery

JAQUELINE O.

O

ne day, a girl named Gessela began to notice that her toilet paper was moving so she decided to call some detectives who could help.

When they came, Gessela explained the mystery and asked, “What’s your name?”

The detective responded with “My name is Melissa.” Then Melissa said, “Why do you ask?” “Oh it’s because there’s a lot of people that pretend to be someone else,” said Gessela. Melissa then said, “No, I would never do that to you, I just want to help solve the mystery of the moving toilet paper.”

When they went up the stairs, they heard a cackle so the detective said “Let’s hurry up.” When they got to the bathroom, Melissa turned on a ghost detector but it didn’t light up.

Melissa then noticed a hole in the wall so she asked Gessela if she had an attic and Gessle said “yeah, why do you ask?”

“Oh, it’s because sometimes the ghost detector only works with one room even though there is another room connected.” When they went to the attic, Melissa found food and then she called up Emily, her sidekick.

Emily saw the fingerprints first and asked if anyone else had been over recently, to which Gessela said, “Only some of my family members, who I gave a key to the house.”

Then Emily said, “I am not saying that one of your tias or cousins, or uncles or your mom are the cause of the moving toilet paper. But, it could actually be a family member since they have copies of the key.”

As soon as Emily said this, Gessela remembered that when she was about five years old her tia (nicknamed Tia Florina) made a cake for her son. But, Gessela was really hungry so she snuck in and ate the cake. Gessela told Melissa and Emily about the memory. “What if Tia Florina was trying to prank me for eating the cake when I was five, because she knew this would upset me?”

A few minutes later they arrived at Tia Florina’s house to talk. They spoke with Florina, and she admitted that she was the one moving the toilet paper with a rope and some tape. Now that Gessela had solved the mystery of the moving toilet paper, she was ready to go home… but not before getting her house key back from Tia Florina.

The Missing Sister

DANIELA V.

I took my bag off my desk and ran out the door, hopping into my car. I looked at the clock in the car. It was 8:00 AM. The gate closed in 15 minutes and there was traffic, so I told my mom to unlock the door and I ran as fast as I could to my class. While I was running toward my class, I saw a poster with big red letters saying, “Missing.” It was a girl that was in one of my classes and when I got to my class I asked my friend about the poster because the girl in the poster was her sister.

“She didn’t come home yesterday. I thought she was with Michael but when I woke up she wasn’t home!”

“When was the last time you saw her?” I asked.

“The last place I saw her was at school. She was also with Michael, but I noticed that Sofia and her friends were throwing stuff at her when Michael left. Why are you asking?” Melissa asked.

“We can try to find her.”

“What!? You are crazy. My parents and I already told the police. Let’s just let the police do their job.”

“Aren’t you sad that Valentina is gone and you don’t know where she is?”

“Yes, I am sad that I don’t know where Valentina is. But we might get hurt.” Then the teacher started the lesson so I stopped talking. When the class ended, I walked with Melissa to our next class, talking about Valentina. When we were going through the hall there

were a bunch of people in a circle. When we got closer we saw Jack and Michael fighting. Then, a teacher came to separate them and told everyone to get to class before the bell rang. When we were passing by we saw Jack and Michael heading to the principal’s office with the teacher. We got to class right before the bell rang. Halfway through the class, Jack came into the class with bruises all over his face and he sat down in front of me. I whispered to him, “What happened with you and Micahel?”

“He just came up to me and asked me where Valentina was. I was confused so I stayed silent and then he started to push me around, “ Jack said.

The teacher saw that Jack and I were talking so she told us to stop and she moved Jack to the other side of the class. The bell rang so we left to go to lunch and Jack came right behind us. We started to walk toward the cafeteria, but then Michael grabbed me and Melissa and told Jack to stay away. I told Michael to let us go and he said, “Don’t go near Jack. Valentina was talking with him and now she is missing.”

“Did you say that Jack was the last one seen with Valentina?”

“Yeah, I saw Valentina and I was going to talk to her but then she walked into a class and I saw Jack but I left when they started to talk”

I looked at Melissa and I looked back at Michael and then one of his friends yelled his name and so he left. Melissa and I started to talk about who kidnapped Valentina. Then we spotted Sofia and her friends. I heard that they were talking about Valentina so we walked by. She said, “They won’t be able to find her.”

To be continued…

Shadows

JAQUELINE O.

One evening a girl named June, who was about 15 years old, saw a shadow of her mom in her house that was in Los Angeles. At first she thought it was a prank so she said, “Mom I know it’s a prank,” but no matter how hard she tried to talk, it didn’t work.

As soon as she turned on the light the shadow left.

After that, June started to think if it was just her hallucination. A little later she saw the shadow again but this time it was a shadow of her dad. It was starting to scare her so this time she was determined to figure out what the shadow was caused by. She started running towards the shadow. Suddenly her stomach began to hurt a lot. About the time she looked up, the shadow had disappeared already.

The next day June hid a camera where the shadow was appearing. Later that day, she played the footage and saw someone fall from the attic but she couldn’t see their face.

The next morning, June called Matthew with the help of a friend that gave June his number. She remembered that her friend Matthew stopped talking to her so she decided to call him and tell him to stop making shadows at her house.

Ring! Ring!

“Hello, is this Matthew?” June nervously said.

“Yes. Who is it?” Matthew answered.

“It’s me… June from middle school.”

“Oh, hi June.”

“Hey Matthew, can you please stop putting fake shadows in my house?”

“No, no I would never do that. What makes you think I would do that June?

“Oh it’s because you stopped talking to me Matthew so I suspected that you were making the shadows.”

“That’s why… No, no! The reason why I stopped talking to you is because I got a new job in India.”

June was about to hang up but there was a big noise in the attic. So she didn’t hang up but instead she asked Matthew if he knew what happened to their other friend that was named Max and who had also stopped talking to her, to which he responded with “yes he works in the same place as me.” As soon as he said that, June had already arrived at the attic. She saw some cardboard, paint, fake spiders and tape and a phone that had Jimmy written on the side. Also the light on the phone was on. She immediately knew it was one of her friends who was named Jimmy

Flashbacks started to happen.

One night, Jimmy remembered that June pranked him in middle school that led to people laughing at him so he had to move schools. When he had finished remembering the prank, he decided to play a prank on June. In the middle of the night, he went to June’s house and set up a fake shadow, where he accidentally spilled some juice on the floor, but he had already run away to his house that was across from June’s neighborhood. That’s when the shadows started!

Jimmy and June talked and Jimmy confessed that he was making the shadows. Turns out that one evening when June made cookies and when she wasn’t looking, Jimmy also put extra salt in the cookies that made June’s stomach hurt. She immediately called the cops and Jimmy was arrested.

Rose and You Will Never Catch Me

ANNALIA D.

H

i, my name is Rose. I’m 20 years old. I am a detective trying to find money stolen from the bank. The robber, You Will Never Catch Me, stole $1,00,000 of cash and $2,000,000 of jewelry. I want to catch this robber really badly.

One day the bank called me. It was a wealthy person who left this bizarre message. “The robber left a smell like a wet dog and footprints.” I took a sample from the crime scene to test at home, found the robber in the sample, and then spied on him for a week.

After spying on the robber, I asked him to be friends. The robber agreed. Later, I revealed that I was a detective and shocked the robber who was very sad. I shouted, “I don’t want to be your friend. I am a detective!”

The robber went to jail for many years. The robber in jail always regretted his stealing. He often sent pictures that he painted of his wet dog to annoy me. I grew up and became the star detective in town because I caught the most robbers.

The End.

The Missing Plush

GRACE T.

I’m Paige, and I am 17 years old. My job is being a detective. I am a really smart person, which is why I’m able to be a detective at a young age. Recently, I asked if I could take a break from working, so I could visit my parents’ house because I miss them. My parents, unfortunately, passed away not so long ago, so I’m going to go and get some of the things that are really important to me that remind me of my childhood.

I arrive at my parent’s house and the first thing I look for is my favorite bunny plush that my parents got me.

“Oh my god! Where is it!?” I whisper to myself angrily, after looking into every space and crevice in my room. I decided to look into the other rooms in the house. First is my parent’s room. Their room is still the same as they left it. Then I go into my brother’s room (yes, I have a brother). I go into his room and it seems a bit different, but I didn’t know what it is, so I ignored it. Then I look down for a bit and see a trail of oatmeal cookie crumbs with raisins. Ewww! I follow the crumbs anyway, and see two people standing at the end of them.

“Who are you guys?” I ask them.

“Well, I’m Leah, your childhood best friend! And this is our other friend, Sofia,” says Leah. Meanwhile, Sofia waves her hand.

“Oh, okay, sorry! I forgot about you guys, but also, why are you here?” I ask them with confusion. “Also, I didn’t know you liked this kind of cookie.”

“They taste kind of gross,” I whisper to myself.

“These cookies are kinda good! Also, it’s none of your business, nor concern of yours that we are here,” Leah says.

“But this is my house Leah, not yours,” I tell her.

“That is true,” Sofia says.

“Be quiet Sofia!” says Leah angrily, which makes Sofia stop talking.

“Sofia, what are you guys trying to do?” I ask her. No response. ”Come here Sofia.” Then she moves towards me. “I’ll protect you. I’m a detective. I’ll try my best so she won’t hurt you. Tell me why both of you guys are here.”

“Leah came here to take some of your stuff, hoping you would not come right now. She convinced me to come along because we could finally have all the stuff you had, since you and your family had a good amount of money… but then I saw that all she wanted was this bunny plush you had… that we were not able to find.” Sofia says in a sorry voice. “Then you came and found us.” After she finished, I hugged her.

“Thank you for telling me Sofia,” I tell her. “Now leave my house, Leah.” Then Leah proceeds to leave.

Sofia and I try to find my bunny plush, but it’s nowhere to be found.

“Since we can’t find it, someone probably has it. I wonder who would possibly want to have it?” I think out loud in front of Sofia.

“Well, all I know is that Leah does not have it. I mean she was not able to find it, and we didn’t see her leave with it,” she continues, “Also, I’m pretty sure someone told her to get your plush too, but I don’t know who they were. All I know is that it was a guy because I heard them calling each other.”

“Really? Who would want to do that?” I ask her.

“I don’t know. Paige, let’s just call it a day,” Sofia says.

So Sofia and I go our separate ways. But halfway home, I decide to go to my brother’s house to see if he has it. I go inside his house, and then his room.

“Hey Alan, do you know where my bunny plush is? I can’t find it at our parents’ house.”

“Hmm… maybe?” He says with a grin on his face. “Alan! Give it back to me! Please!” I beg him.

“Nope. It’s only fair, since you always get everything,” he says. “What do you mean?” I ask in confusion. “You are a smart person Paige, use it…” Silence.

“Fine. You were always better than me, which means you always got everything, like attention and toys and other stuff. So I decided to get your bunny plush, and to either keep it, or destroy it,” he tells me, which starts to make me mad.

“Why though!?” I ask angrily.

“Because it’s not fair! Don’t you understand? Plus, since you are here, what’s better than destroying it in front of you?” he says, while taking out my bunny plush.

“No! Please! It’s not like being smart is easier. There are always people waiting for your every mistake. And with the stress of wanting to be perfect. Just don’t do it, please!” I tell him. “Plus, they are gone now. We can start over. Please?”

He lets go of my bunny plush and hugs me.

“Okay, I believe you,” he says. “Here’s the plush.” He hands me the plush.

“Thank you so much Alan! Let’s go and get some ice cream. You still like ice cream right?” He nods. Then we leave to go get some ice cream.

Scravy and the AxoGodls

LUKE B.

One day, Scravy and Arian were relaxing in their time machine. Their time machine looked like the time machine from Dr. Who, super compact on the outside with tons of space on the inside. They have everything they need to survive in the time machine.

While Scravy and Arian were relaxing, they got a distress signal from 66 MA. They set the time setter to 66 MA. They strapped into their chairs and waited until they got to the time period. When they got to the time period, they went to the event that was happening in the Amazonian rainforest.

Scravy and Arian meet the AxoGodls. Zarchie informed them that his favorite lightning bolt was taken and his powers were not letting him summon it back to him. He figured that one of his relatives had taken it to gain more power against the other AxoGodls. He focused it on three suspects: Harchie, Parchie and Archie. Zarchie gave his reasons on why he thinks that it is these three. Harchie to supercharge his undead army and his three-headed axolotl, Triarch. Parchie to supercharge his water moves for training. Archie to supercharge his arrows.

Scravy and Arian interrogate each of the suspects. Harchie said, “I have been with Darchie talking about crops for the underworld.” Archie said, “I have been with my sister Ararchie all day talking about

different bows and arrows.” Parchie said, “I have been with Rarchie talking about strategies for his water moves.” Zarchie explained that this is false because Rarchie was not there.

They go to look for evidence and find the evidence. They find a paper with a plan on how to take the lightning bolt. Then, Scravy dusts for fingerprints and looks at the fingerprints of the suspects. The fingerprints line up with Parchie’s fingerprints.

Scravy speaks with Zarchie about all the AxoGodls that were at the event. Zarchie gives Scravy a guest list of all the AxoGodls. Scravy reads through the guest list. He finds that the two Axogodls Darchie and Ararchie were there, but not Rarchie.

Then, Scravy and Arian fly to search Harchie’s temple and Zarchie, Harchie and Parchie teleport to the temple. Scravy looks for the lightning bolt by searching the temple and finds nothing. They all then go to Zarchie’s temple in case he just missed placed it. They do not find the lightning bolt.

Finally, they go to Parchie’s temple. Scravy looks around the temple and finds the lightning bolt in one of Parchie’s statues. Scravy returns the lightning bolt to Zarchie. Harchie goes back to the underworld and pets his three headed dog Triarch. Zarchie and Parchie go back to Mt. Olympus to discuss his punishment. They agree that Parchie has to be a mortal axolotl for 5 years with the name Larry Echo. The End… To be continued…

The Missbehaved Poison?

LILLY F.

It all started when Jhon got poisoned on the 25th of December. We all thought he was about to be a seed for the rest of his life, but he’s fine now. Ellie, Jhon’s wife, had brown hair and blue eyes. She was 21 years old and an amateur detective. She wasn’t satisfied, she wanted to know who did it.

Ellie wanted to know so she hired a sidekick named Jake. Ellie had a few suspects: her mom, a guy from work, and Jake. (Yes, the guy’s name was “a guy from work’’). Her mom’s motive was that she wanted Ellie to marry a rich husband. The guy from work was enemies with Jhon. And Jake… Jake’s motive was that he was jealous. She kept looking… and looking… and looking… and finally she found their alibis.

“I was out of town,” Ellie’s mom said.

“I don’t believe you,” said Ellie.

“I have proof. Jena saw me, I was at her house,” she continued.

“Ok,” Ellie said.

Then she went to the guy from work. “I was at home with my wife and kids,” he said.

Ellie said, “She has to come here so I can ask her questions.” “Fine.”

The wife came and said, “He was at home with the kids and me.”

Ellie was not happy. She had to question Jake. “I was at work,” he said.

“Ok.”

Ellie went home and did some research and found out who did it. She was so shocked. “What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? It’s Jake.” She went to his apartment and asked, “Why did you do it?”

“Because I was jealous of you and Jhon, so I poisoned him.”

“I’m sorry but you have to go to prison.”

My Slime Went Missing

BELLA G.

One time there was a girl named Rosa. Rosa has red hair and blue eyes. She has a Hello Kitty shirt. She really likes her slime. The color of her slime was light brown. But one day her slime went missing.

When she could not find the slime she got very mad and very stressed. She went to check in her room and she saw some little bits of slime. Then she saw more slime in the hallway. She then followed the trail of slime and she saw her friend Katy. When Katy saw Rosa she ran outside. Rosa followed her and when she ran outside she saw her with her open backpack. Rosa looked in Katy’s backpack and saw her slime inside. Katy said, “I’m sorry, I just wanted to play with your slime.” Rosa said, “It’s okay. We will play with my slime together.”

The 1644 Project: The Missing Devil

LIV R.

Introducion

One day, Jazzmane was at a casino. She had her pet devil with her. She was in her socks but cute. She was kidnapped because she was beautiful enough to be kidnapped. It was 1644. Jazzmane was 10 and ugly, messy, and she teased people.The casino was on Mars. It looked crowded, it smelt sweet, it tasted delicious, it felt smooth, and it sounded like “Pop Its.”

The detective’s name was Bean. She had 10 soulmates. They were: Julia, Quincy, Millie, Cameron, Lilly, Liliana, Gonzalez, Diane, and Diance. Some were rude, but most were super nice. She was halfCorgi, half-Pomeranian.

Bean had a pet. Her name was Precious. She was a baby pug with orange and black colors. She roared. She had angel wings to fly. She could do anything. In bed, for example, she could snuggle or cuddle.

Bean also had a sidekick. His name was Gregory. He was a devil. He had 300 cousins. He was strong, attractive, and never complained. He liked to dance, go to casinos, and sleep.

The devil’s name was Amona. Her hair was black. She was also very pretty. She was like a cat. She disliked A LOT of things.

Backstory

Because they had a HUGE fight, Amona’s father wanted her to go away for ages, and she was put into slavery. Then, she saw a guy that offered to help her. “Come with me. I’ll rescue you,” he whispered. She asked who he was. He said, “I am Eric.” He was a devil too, and also a slave. But at the time they escaped, he ran off.

She went to London to change her identity because she didn’t want anyone to recognize her. A man walked up to her and asked, “Where are you going little girl?”

And she said, “I need some help changing my identity. Do you think you can help me?”

The man said yes. He asked if she would like to be his daughter’s pet. She said yes. He took her to some stores and shops and restaurants to get her healthy and comfy. Then he went to a hairdresser to change her hair. He was doing this because he was wealthy and he liked helping people. Then he took her to a shop to get her some clothes that are comfy and comfortable for her. Then he took her to his daughter and they introduced themselves. The daughter’s name was Jazzmane.

Jazzmane took care of Amona for five years. They got to know each other better, then Jazzmane said she needed to go to the bathroom. After she got out, she was confused. She didn’t know where her pet went. She looked everywhere. The closet, the bathroom, her bed, the town, asked everyone, but everyone said no. She was crying after that. She was so sad.

A detective showed up and heard her crying. The detective asked, “What’s wrong?”

She said, “I lost my pet.” *sob, sob sob!*

The detective’s name was Bean. Bean said, “I’m a detective! Maybe I can help you! I have a sidekick too: His name is Gregory.” They looked around in the room and found a white feather. They thought it was a feather from an angel wing because it couldn’t have belonged to a bird because birds can’t even pick up 30 lbs. They went

to heaven and looked everywhere, but everyone there had angel wings. They asked God if he saw any missing angels and he said yes. They asked who it was, and he said, “Look around, and if you see any dudes with red clothes on, that is him.”

They found him but he was not the person they were looking for. They shook the feather, and white dust came off. It was actually a black feather! Which meant that it belonged to a devil. So they visited hell, and they saw everyone, but they wanted to ask the king. He said no in a confident voice. They asked the queen, but she said no too. They asked the prince but he said no still. But Bean knew he was guilty because he had sweaty hands and a sweaty forehead. So, Bean asked, “Why are you lying?”

The prince replied, “Because I want to keep her as my pet. I am her rightful owner!”

Jazzmane was fine with it, but Gregory and Power Candy got mad, so they chased him. The prince had tricked them and led them into a maze. Gregory said, “I didn’t know there was a maze in hell?”

“I didn’t either,” Power Candy said. They went left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, and they finally got track of him again. Gregory grabbed him and scraped his neck a little bit. That’s when they all stopped. The prince didn’t want to get hurt any more. He just wanted to go to the jail of heaven. They got to heaven, and put him to jail. “I’ll get you guys for this!” he said. They all laughed. Jazzmane got her pet back and then they were all friends forever. “Punchline,”said Jazzmane.

Everly’s Story

TAYLOR Z.

Everly is a perfect daughter. After Everly goes to school, her mom takes her to the park. She loves the swings.

When Everyly returns home, she takes a shower. While she is in the shower, her mom cooks dinner. Everyly hurries into the kitchen to see what a wonderful dinner is ready.

When it’s time for dessert, her mom gets the pie. Everyone looked under the bed and even in her mom’s purse. Then Everly goes back to the kitchen and opens the refrigerator.

Hooray! The pie is behind the sauces! Mystery solved! Yum, let’s eat!

The Mystery of the Hat

EVAN G.

In Echo Park 2042, Gavin’s hat went missing. The hat is red and big and it’s his favorite hat. Evan, the detective, talked to all the people in the class and Bradley and Geo were suspicious because they didn’t want to talk and they were talking about Gavin’s hat. Evan looked and looked but he didn’t find a clue, but then Evan looked in the class and found glasses that were Bradley’s. Bradley said that he took it because she liked it. He didn’t want to get in trouble so he confessed and didn’t want Gavin to be sad. Gavin felt sad but Bradley said, “Sorry.” And that’s the mystery!

The Fruit of Endless Power

MATEO M.

W

e start walking out of the diner. The ocean breeze feels so nice.

“Jack, get the supplies,” I say.

“Why?” he asks.

“Just go get it.”

“Fine.”

A bird delivers the newspaper and my mail. I get the paper. I look at the news. A fellow pirate has been robbed of the fruit. The reward is $10,000,000,000,000.

To be continued…

Hope vs. Despair

ANTHONY A.

O

ne day there was a detective and a sidekick. The detective’s name was [REDACTED] and the sidekick’s name was Kari Kagame. It all started when people started to go missing around Bright Summit High School. It started with 1 to 1,580 students missing. That’s when they had enough and wanted to finally close this case. The detective went to the school and all of a sudden (FAINT) they both fainted and the game had just begun…

“W-where am I?” (This is the detective talking). “An empty classroom? But it’s in perfect condition… well there is a door, maybe it’s unlocked.” He managed to open the door. “At least it’s open huh? How is this?” He found 11 more classrooms. He then noticed a note in his pocket. “Come to the gym? Hmm… Where is that? Oh!” He headed into the gym and…

“He must be the last person. Can we start now?” Kira said.

“Be patient, we need to figure out why we are here…” Leah said.

“Well there’s no windows. So this seems impossible,” Mike said.

“That’s what it looks like?” Shawn said.

“Can we please focus?” Lia said.

“Maybe we can call for help?” Travita asked.

“I doubt anyone can hear us.” Ron said.

“We can at least try,” Anna said.

“Looks like everyone’s here,” Kira said.

“This is the worst place to be trapped in.” Anna said.

“Is everybody ready? Ursamalum said.

“Hm…?” the detective [REDACTED] said.

“I’m the principal!” Ursamalum said.

“Are you the reason why we are here?” Lia said.

“Well, YES!” Ursamalum yelled.

“But why?” Mike said.

“Well… just for FUN! Obviously,” Ursamalum said.

“Why are we here?” Kari said.

“To play a game duh! Play it and you’ll get freedom! So what do you say?” Ursamalum explained.

“What’s your game?” Anna asked.

“I’ll explain the rules. So there will be three trials and 11 people and clues, two truths and two lies. You will have to guess which one of you is the mastermind behind all of this amongst one of you before one of you disappears from the game. Also, you may not go out of your room at night or else… also no watching outside of your room that would be cheating and THAT’S how you play,” said Ursamalum.

Just then detective [REDACTED] realized that they were in some disappearing game.

“The disappearing game… how what?” The detective [REDACTED] thought.

“Huh…” Cole said.

“There’s also no need to worry about food, drinks and comfort of living here. By the way, each trial you’ll go down a floor to even more rooms!” Ursamalum said.

“Well I guess that’s pretty nice?” Cole said.

“HEY BEAR! You said you let us go if we play your immature game right?” Ron said.

“COOOORECT” said Ursamalum. (You can tell it’s Ursamalum right?)

“Good, don’t break your deal,” Ron said.

“A black thread hmm… When I got to the school, they mailed us uniforms. I guess they were different colors for some of us plus the thread feels like the same material like our uniforms so it has to be that,

but I need to look closely to figure out who got us into this game. I have a mystery to solve, dang it!” detective [REDACTED] thought.

“Let’s see all of our uniforms, at least some are different for some of us,” Kari said.

“I am black… Kari has blue, Cole has black, Leah has green, Mike has red, Lia has black, Shawn has blue, Traviata has reddish black, Ron has brown, Anna has bluish black,” detective [REDACTED] said.

“What if it’s a lie?” Kira asked.

“Maybe…” the detective [REDACTED] thought.

“I found SOMETHING,” Lia said.

“It’s a blue thread and a red thread?” detective [REDACTED] thought. Just then an announcement came over the speaker, “TIME FOR A TRIAL! EVERYONE HEAD TO THE TRIAL ROOM!”

Afterwards, they all head to the trial room. “Now let’s get started,” Ursamalum said.

At the trial room, everyone had to figure out who had not passed the first trial.

“Let’s see we have a black, blue, and red threads. Kari has a blue uniform, Cole has black, and Mike has red. And there’s only one of you who could have done it!” detective [REDACTED] thought.

“Y’know I heard Mike’s door opening during the middle of the night considering his room is right next to mine,” Kari said, “And since his uniform is red and his tie is black could it be him?” Kari said.

“Ok, I admit going out of my room but only because I heard something,” Mike said.

“OBJECT! I remember from the rules: WE WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO LEAVE OUR ROOMS!” detective [REDACTED] said.

“But all it said was no watching,”Mike said.

“Wellllllllllll, technically I did in fact say that BUT… investigating is still watching. YOU BREAKING THE RULES SO THERE WILL BE NO VOTING YOU WILL DISAPPEAR,” Ursamalum said. Suddenly the lights go out and Mike is gone.

After that day, no one could be trusted. Everyone started being more aware and being more careful of what they did. They all started to go down to floor two.

“So this is floor two?” detective [REDACTED] said.

“Well it’s much nicer than floor one…,” Kiri said.

“WHAT!? ARE MY CLEANING SKILLS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU MAYBE I SHOULD MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR FOR BREAKING MY HEART,” Ursamalum said loudly.

“Let’s just get on with it and explore,” Ron said.

“Well normally I would explain what’s on this floor BUT NOW I’M NOT GONNA BECAUSE OF SOMEONE,” Ursamalum said, still mad about what Kiri said.

“I don’t really care and also I don’t think anyone else cares,” Kiri said.

“Let’s see there’s an arcade, some wired multi-color room, an art room, a stage and a theater,” detective [REDACTED] listed.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhHHHH,” Leah screamed.

“Already?” detective [REDACTED] said.

“RON’S GONE!” Leah once again screamed, “All there is just an earring and bow, that’s all I found.”

“Y’know… while I was walking I found some square glasses.” detective [REDACTED] said.

“TRIAL TIMEEEEEEEEE,” Ursamalum screamed. After Ursamalum announcement, they all headed to the trial room.

“Now let’s discuss,” Ursamalum said.

“Let’s see our three pieces of evidence are earrings, a bow and glasses which these clues actually help us. I already thought of our suspects and they are Cale and Shawn,” detective [REDACTED] said.

“How could it be us?” Cale exclaimed.

“Well, it’s actually really easy why it would be you two. Reason one: you both have bows Cale has one on his head and Shawn has one on his uniform which is the truth. Reason two: you both have glasses especially that are square. You are the only ones with square

glasses which is the truth and reason three: the earrings! Someone said that only Shawn had them which is a lie and last night I heard someone wanting to frame one another with who had earrings and that was SHAWN! It was him who also would say that he was gonna get rid of Ron but he may have to work on whispering,” detective [REDACTED] said.

“But THERE’S NO PROOF!” Shawn insisted.

“Yes, but I don’t need proof. I just have to see if everyone believes me. So let’s have a vote on who we think is guilty. What do you all say? “the detective [REDACTED] asked.

Everyone agreed to vote and the voting went: three votes for Shawn and one vote for Cale. Suddenly, the lights turned off again and Shawn disappeared.

“We… lll… DONEEEEEE,” Ursamalum said.

“Uhhh… you’re kinda glitching,” Kiri said.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

YYYYYYYOUUUU MEEEEEEEANNNNNNNNNN… UUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHH OOOOOOOOOOOH,” suddenly Ursamalum shut off.

“Well done! But you two weren’t even close to guessing who the mastermind of this game was,” Anna said.

All of a sudden, Anna stood from her podium and said, “Well did you ever expect ME!”

Anna soon revealed herself to be Talia Gareth.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA,” Talia laughed.

“Kiri and Naegi,” Talia said.

“Naegi?” Kiri replied confused on why Talia was calling her that.

“Yea! I actually looked into your file and found your real name. You were so mysterious and I was just so curious, y’know me especially being here for soooooooooooo loooooooooooong,” Talia explained.

“W-what do you mean?” Kiri/Naegi asked.

“I mean you’ve been here for two whole years and somehow you never noticed! Now, I need to decide if I should set you free

or make you all disappear from this world. How about I let this giant wheel decide. I was going to use it for the third trial but I got SOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOORED,” said Talia as she pulled out a giant wheel that had two fates DISAPPEAR or LET GO.

“Now let the wheel decide,” She spun the wheel and it landed on “...Awwwww let go? Too bad, well now I guess you all better get out of here before the whole building collapses.”

As they got out of the game, the building had started collapsing and a door had started opening. They all ran out of the building trying to dodge all things falling over and make it to live another day. Goodbye!!!!!!!!!! :)

Missing Handbag Mystery

ARIANNA P.

It was a Friday afternoon at the mall. Pretty typical until a bag went missing at the Louis Vuitton boutique. They were sisters but also detectives. So they were ready to solve the mystery. Who stole the bag?

Ari and Yareli decided to talk to Mary, the store manager. Ari asked, “Did you check the security tape?” “Yes, I checked it, but there is nothing.”

“Do you have any suspects?” They asked and she told them there were three: Lydia, Drake, and Tiana. All of them were in the store. They talked to Lydia. Lydia was a worker in the store. Ari asked, “Do you work here?” Lydia said, “yes, but I didn’t steal the bag.”

“I was in another section of the store helping customers,” Lydia said, “You should talk to someone who was shopping at that time.” Next, Ari & Yareli talked to Tiana, a store customer. Tiana comes into the store all the time because she is gigantic. “Did you see what happened to the bag?” asked Yareli.

“Yes, I saw a woman from the clothes aisle walking to the bag aisle.Their musty-dusty-crusty name tag fell off and I picked it up.” They looked at it, but the name tag was smudged with dirt.

Next, they talked to a customer named Drake, who was shopping for shoes and a belt. “Where were you when the bag went missing?”

”I was in the changing room, trying on belts. I would never steal from the store,” Drake said.

“There was a security tag already in the changing room,” Drake said. And it was the correct security tag!

They brought the security tag to Mary.

“We found a clue! We think it’s Fran’s missing bag.”

“Where did you find it?” Mary asked.

“In the changing room,” Ari replied.

Mary looked surprised, “I sent Lydia to clean the changing room.”

“We should look at the security tape from the changing room!” said Ari. So, Mary did and she saw Lydia on the tape going into the changing room and had the bag with her.

Ari, Yareli, and Mary confronted Lydia. “I lost it earlier today,” Lydia said, “That’s interesting! Customer Tiana found it in the handbag aisle.”

“I saw you on the security tape in the changing room,” Mary said. “Why did you steal the bag?”

Lydia needed to clarify, “Fine, I stole it because I wanted to show it to my friends.”

To be continued…

The Missing Rings

NEHEMIAS B.

One day in Chicago, two rings went missing. James Jr., his sidekick Adam the Robot, and Jake Patten went to find the rings.

Earlier one afternoon, Jake Patten’s friend James Jr. came over to play videogames. They went to the TV and when they turned it on, they listened to a story that a ring shop was robbed! Obviously, James knew who it was. Five minutes later, Jake said, “I’m tired.”

“Okay,” James said.

“Can we stop playing?”

“Sure.”

“What time is it?” Jake asked.

“Um… it is…12!?”James shouted.

James and Jake quickly left, but before they did, they heard a car: “Vroom!”

“What was that?”

“I’m pretty sure it was my dad,” James said.

“Uh oh!” Jake said.

“You got to go.”

Before they took a step, the door opened.

“Hi son! Why are you still awake?” his dad asked.

“Um… we’re talking?” James said.

When Jake was leaving he got James Jr.’s phone and took a video of his dad putting the rings under the pillow.

Jake was too scared to move his face. He said to himself, “Tell the police! Tell the police!” He ran to the police station, but when he got there, it was closed. Jake went home.

The next day, he woke up and went to the police station and showed them the video, but the police did not trust him because he was just a little kid. Jake saw the police taking out handcuffs so Jake ran out. “Come back!” the police yelled.

Jake went to the shop to build a robot. He got scraps of metal and technology pieces. Then, he went to James Jr.’s house. When he got there, the police stopped him. They said, “why are you here? Are you his friend?”

“Yes, I am,” Jake confessed to the police.

“Go ahead,” said the police.

“James? James? Where are you?” Jake cried.

“Here! I’m here!”

“What happened?”

“The police came when I was doing homework and busted the door open,” James said quickly. James and his dad had been shoved into the room. Jake tried to stop the police in order to calm James down. The police took his advice and James calmed down. Jake went with James to keep him calm. At first, James panicked, then slowly he calmed down.

When they got to the police station, the police asked them what had happened. Jake said he was going to build a robot with James. James said he was doing his homework from school. “That’s when you came into my room!” James said.

“Calm down James,” Jake said.

“I can’t!”

“Just think that you are at the beach or something,” Jake replied calmly.

“Okay, I’m calm.”

The police told Jake and James that they could go back to their house. “Ok,” they said.

When Jake and James returned to their house, it was the same as when they left it with the police. Now they were going to build their robot. First they built the head and then the body and finally the feet and legs. They put special effects on the robot like super

hearing. It could also fly and see far away.

“What should we name him?”

“Adam the Robot?”

“Sure!”

Then they asked the robot to fly them to the police station. When they got there, they saw the police going to their car. They flew above them and shouted at them. The police said the judge was already at the court. They said we would be fighting with words against James’ dad in the court.

“Ooooh,” James said.

Then Jake and James and Adam the Robot arrived at the court, and they entered the court. It was big. They talked with the judge. Then the judge decided who would go to prison and it was James’ dad. Then Jake and James went home.

Missing Stones

IGNACIO G. G. JR.

Deep in space there are the dark planets. At 9:42 PM, a robber stole the God Stones from each planet. Our heroes Slick and Jiggo are in their space mobile. Slick is nine years old and is fast. Jiggo is eight years old and can fly. Just then a victim, Zeez, asked them for help. He said, “The God Stones were stolen from every planet. If you don’t stop this robber then the power of the Fire Stone, Water Stone, Grass Stone, Wind Stone, Dark Stone and Lighting Stone will destroy the world. Go check the fourth planet, Fungus.” So Slick and Jiggo did.

When they got there they saw a spaceship part and oil, which led them to the Aliens. However, they said they did not do it. They were just getting robot parts. Then Jiggo saw gnome dust which led them to the gnomiest planet. They asked if the gnomes took the stones, but they said they were looking for flowers. Then Jiggo and Slick took their magnifying glasses, and saw footprints that led them to the Groans. The Groans said they took the stones to take over the world. So Jiggo and Slick took the stones back. They got into their space mobile and went 1,000,000,000,000,000 miles per hour and the Groans started to chase and shoot lasers at them. Slick and Jiggo dodge them and then the Groans got lost and went back to their planet. Our heroes went back to Zeez and gave him the stones.

The End

The Mystery Storm

OMAR S.

The storm had been scaring people in Bot City. They wanted to stop the storm so they went to the lab of 1900.

They found the victim building an evil machine. They found some things and threw them at the evil machine. The evil machine pieces went up into the sky blocking the storm.

But there was a fire in the lab, so they had to get out quickly. Luckily, they were able to escape. The fire destroyed the lab but at least the storm was gone in Bot City.

The storm will never come again. Now Bot City is safe.

One Goooood Popcorn

MOISES R.

There was a detective named Miko who was a dog. He liked to play soccer when he wasn’t solving crimes. Miko’s sidekick was a cat named Mushin. They lived on a spotted planet with rings that almost looked broken. The planet was called Matt. One day, a fox named Ben asked for their help. His bag of popcorn had gone missing and he needed help finding it! Suddenly, a boy named Mikey appeared. He claimed to have found the popcorn! Detective Miko looked puzzled.

“What happened to the popcorn?” he asked, “How did you find them?”

Mikey shrugged as if detective work was easy.

“They were on the floor the whole time!”

Mikey, Mushin, Ben and Miko all laughed and opened the bag of popcorn to share.

The Prank Call

GALILEA F.

Once there was a girl named Holly. There was a system where kids would be transported into a factory and were forced to make paints and toys. Sadly, Holly was one of these people, she had been kidnaped. Holly hated being there, she wanted to go home. There was a big gate that separated them from The Real World. They were treated horribly and would almost never get fed.

Holly had one friend whose name was Mira. Mira had dark brown hair and would mostly talk to herself. Holly didn’t care though because she was just happy to have a friend. But when she was getting transported to a new facility with Mira, she realized that there was a baby frog on the bus. The Frog was really cute and had a little bow tie. Holly quickly snuck the Frog into her back pocket. She woke up and she was placed in the room next to Mira. When they woke up, they realized that they had woken up just on time. They rushed downstairs and went to go eat breakfast. When they were eating breakfast she saw the cafeteria lady get out from behind the counter and she started chasing kids with a metal kitchen spoon. She saw a kid stick a sticky note on the lady. The sticky note said “Beware. Danger is here.” Mira got terrified and quickly ate her food. Holly followed her.

The lady was ugly and had crooked teeth which were stained yellow. Her hair was puffy and looked like it hasn’t been washed in years. She was missing one eye. Mira and Holly feared the lady. Holly

hated the lady. The lady was so cruel. She grabbed one of the girls and poked her in the stomach with a fork. On the first day in a new facility you get to stay in your room. Holly was pacing back and forth in the room, wondering what she would do to get the poor girl some revenge. She realized that the Frog was on an old phone that had dust on it and looked like it hadn’t been touched in years.

“Is there no information about the missing children?” one of the officers asked.

“No sir, we’ve been looking everywhere, we haven’t found anyone. We’re starting to suspect that it’s the same person kidnapping all of the children,” another officer said.

“We noticed the pattern. They’re only kidnapping girls around the age of 11 through 18. Once the kids are older than 18, they wake up in random places. Only a few kids have been found. They say that they have no memory but just remember an old lady that put a bag on their head.”

The officer said, “There’s been a number that’s been dialing over a hundred times, a lot of random numbers.”

Officer One responded, “That’s so weird, but don’t mind it, it’s probably some prank callers. I’m going to teach the prank callers a lesson. I don’t care anymore, send a few officers over there.”

Officer Two responded, “You know, we can’t do that, we’re going to get in trouble. That’s such a silly reason for somebody to get an officer called on them. Anyway, let’s keep talking about what we were talking about. We need to hire a private investigator to help us find the missing children. I’ve seen a girl who solved over 100 mysteries. Her name is Lisa. She’s really good at solving mysteries,” Officer One said. “I’m trusting you in this.”

Lisa got to the police station. She said, “Well, has there been anything strange lately, like random texts, phone calls, any of these could be a sign of kidnapping,” the private investigator said.

Officer Number One remembered, “Wait what about the prank callers?”

“Bingo,” said Lisa.

“Okay, we need to track the phone calls. It looks like they’re coming from the woods,” one of the officers said. “Yeah, we think that this is actually serious. We need to call more officers to back us up.”

Holly gave up, she felt like nobody was answering her calls and they were useless. She had made about 100 phone calls by now. So she went up to Mira and said, “I think we’re going to be here for a long time.” Realizing the sad truth, she started to sob on Mira’s shoulder. They both started crying. But Holly heard sirens. She covered Mira’s mouth and realized the cops were there. They were so excited! They jumped for joy and ran downstairs. They realize that the big gate was opened and they were saved!

She saw her parents there and jumped in joy and gave them a big hug. She started to cry and she was so happy. She hadn’t seen her parents in two months. She peaked down in her pocket and realized the Frog was still there but his bow tie was pink. Then she realized that the Frog had the word luck written on it. Then she realized that she was going to keep the Frog and name it Lucky. And that’s my story.

2026 World Cup

PEDRO S.

I

n 2026, there was a heavy drought, so there were not many vegetables. Then one day, September 30th, there was a disease, but it only affected some people. The World Cup was taking place and all of the football players from all around the world were in Los Angeles. They all got contaminated.

There was one person who wanted to help: Damoed. He did not care since he was retired. With his partner Dilane and wearing a mask, he went to one of the football players. The football player said he was playing the sport, and then he felt sick and ill.

They went to see what was the cause of the disease. When they got to the crime scene, they saw a water jug. It was infested with disease and white stuff. They scanned it and once they scanned it they saw it was filled with a type of virus.

Then, they saw a mysterious figure. He ran away and when they followed, they came to a dead end. They shined a light and saw it was a very, very tall person with long hair and a big beard. They drove him to an interrogation room. They found out his name was Jesse. He explained that he was only hiding from a weird, short person called Kevean.

Later that day, they asked him to describe Kevean to them. Jesse said he had a big head, and was almost bald. He said that he had Kevean’s ID. Then Damoed said, “Time for lunch.” They went to get a pizza with tacos covered in spaghetti. Later that day, they went to Kevean’s apartment. They asked Kevean, “Is your last name Angle?”

He said, “Yes.”

They barged in and saw that there was a giant type of virus. They arrested Kevean and took him into the interrogation room. Kevean admitted he wanted to buy the property so he contaminated it. There was a giant water supply and he was going to sell it and get rich. Then he told them what the antidote was. It was broccoli. They arrested him and he went to jail. One month later, there were vegetables again thanks to the water they found. Everyone got cured. Them Damoed said, “This was the best case ever.”

The Mystery of the Missing Prime

ETHAN M. S.

Locky Barcelona was a skinny, red-haired, 37-year-old detective who worked for the FBI. One day a shipment of Prime Energy drinks disappeared from his cousin Rocky’s house. Rocky was 16 and had blue hair and liked to play Playstation 5.

When the Prime got stolen, Rocky called Locky and said, “Locky! My shipment of Prime disappeared! There were 50 bottles! There was Rainbow Prime, Sunny Prime, Coke Prime, Limited Edition Ethan Prime, Ed’s World Prime, Pokemon Prime and Cristiano Ronaldo Prime. I need your help to look for my missing Prime!”

Locky decided to make a chart to figure out what happened. First, Locky noticed that Rocky’s neighbor Henry, who was short and lazy and played Nintendo all day, and liked to steal packages, was home at the time. He put Henry on the chart as the chief suspect, but Henry proved he was eating dinner at the time. He was seen eating his dinner from McDonald’s and watching TV. His neighbors smelled the burgers and fries and heard the loud TV.

Next, Locky suspected Rocky’s older brother Taki, because Taki loved energy drinks. He followed Taki around because Taki seemed to be acting suspicious, but he proved he was in the restroom when the delivery came (he had eaten too much Taco Bell).

The next suspect was the neighbor John who was very buff and liked to go to the gym at 1:00 AM in the morning. The neighbor John loved to steal shipments and could lift a lot because he went to the gym. Locky realized John could lift a lot so Locky looked up and saw the bottles of Prime on the roof. “You go to jail,” Locky exclaimed.

The Big Mystery

RAQUEL M.

Hi, I’m Rain. I like to hang out with my friends.This is my best friend JAY! We met at school. We’re very odd. Here are some differences between us: I have black hair and I’m kind of gloomy. He is very happy and wears a mask everyday.

It’s very rainy here. There is a lot of crime here. We have a very big mystery! Somebody stole everything in the vault. Every single last thing! We saw it on the news. We check the cameras but they are broken! Then we checked who was there. These were the people who were there:

This is Kim. She is very flexible. She can probably dodge the lasers. She is amazing!

Next is Noi. He can hack into many things. He is also amazing! Lastly is Ein. He is very mean and he can break every camera, but knowing him he would forget at least one.

We start to walk to the bank. We are checking everywhere. When we get there, I find a hair. We take it for a DNA test. Uh oh! No, no, no! It’s Kim’s hair. She’s one of my friends!

Now, we are going to Kim’s apartment. “Hi Kim,” I say, while I am shaking.

She says, “Hi!”

“Did you go to the bank yesterday?” I ask.

She says, “Yes, I took out some money for my parents at 12:15.”

I reply, “Okay, thanks. Bye!” I trust her.

We go back and see Noi’s phone. We go into his voicemail and see two that say, “This is the bank. There are many charges on your card.” There is also a video of him rushing to the bank.

So, it was obviously Ein. We get the cops and then they arrest him for 20 years!

The Case of the Missing Xbox

LEO M.

It was a very rainy Saturday afternoon. Tom was going to play in his bedroom with his new white Xbox, but suddenly he realized it was gone.

He checked the whole bedroom and he also checked the couch in the living room. He then called Detective Dan and his sidekick, Ernie. Detective Dan and Ernie checked Tom’s house. Both of them were looking for clues. Ernie got excited because he found clues of muddy footprints.

Detective Dan and Ernie followed the muddy footprints into a secret room that no one knew about. In this room, Detective Dan saw an open window with a mud trail… that led to Blake’s house. The three of them then went to Blake’s house.

On the way, Detective Dan asked Tom, “Did Blake play Xbox games with you?” “No he didn’t,” said Tom. As it turns out, Blake was away at his karate lesson.

Despite all of the investigating that led nowhere, Ernie soon found a new clue… another open window, with more footprints outside, which this time led to Rake’s house (not to be confused with Blake!)

And guess what? They found the missing Xbox. They questioned Rake who said, “I can explain…”

Detective Dan looked into Rake’s phone and he saw a picture of the Xbox. Rake told Detective Dan, Ernie, and Tom that he didn’t have money to buy his own Xbox and decided to borrow Tom’s. Tom felt both sad because he felt bad for his friend and happy because he had found his Xbox.

Rake apologized to Tom, “I’m sorry it was an accident.” “It’s okay,” said Tom. “Next time, you have to ask first.”

The End.

The Great Cheer Mystery

AVERY Y.

Hi, I am Amilia. I am 13 years old and have one sister and one brother. Something strange happened to one of my friends, Emily: her cheer uniform is gone or stolen! I’m trying to help her find it. Right when I heard about this mystery, I was on board to help her. My best friend is also my sidekick; her name is Layla. She is also 13. Today we were interviewing people who were potential suspects. Emily is very popular in our school so many people wanted to be like her. Emily did some interviewing without us, and she found a girl whose name was Kayla. Emily said she was really nervous during the interview.

“Ring ring,” my alarm clock rang. Another day in mystery, I mumbled. When I got on the bus, Emily called me to sit next to her and asked me if we had found out who did it. I said, not yet and her smile turned into a frown. I felt really bad, but right when school was over, I called the girl who was really nervous about the interview. I called her and asked if I could go to her house. She said of course. So I texted my mom and told her I was going to a friend’s house.

So I ran to the girl’s house whose name is Kayla. Right after I got to her house, I asked if I could go to the bathroom. “Of course,” she said. Instead, I went to her room. I felt kind of bad because I went through her closet, but there it was the cheer uniform. I went downstairs to confront her and then called Emily immediately to tell her the good news.

Ruby Ring

ROXANA G. C.

In an unknown land, there was a detective who had long, wavy blonde hair. She was mysterious, kind, and knowledgeable. Her name was Rain Jade Silver Tooth. She had a secret. She was immortal. Her sidekick was also immortal and had long, long, curly light brown hair. She was transparent, nice, and ignorant. Her name was Astra Lunar. They were the best detectives in the world.

One day, after just finishing a case, someone appeared in their office at their agency and presented them with a very intriguing case. Once they accepted the case, they saw the person was a girl with short, wavy hair. She introduced herself and said her name was Sharon. She explained how a very precious ring was stolen and said it had a big sapphire in front and it was silver. She also said how she tried to look for clues and found out there were two suspects.

She said, “Their names were Aria and Blair. I found a strand of Blair’s hair on my couch and Blair also tried to get me before so I had to send her to jail but she escaped.

The reason I think it was Aria is that she’s the only person out of my family I told about the ring last week and we also had an argument so I think it was her too.

Rain told her that they would find the culprit.

The next day they started looking into the case. They started by looking into the people and their whereabouts on that same day the crime happened. They looked into Blair’s whereabouts and someone said Blair was out of town. It was her sister Jane who looked very

suspicious. Then she showed them that Blair had a plane booked and took pictures so it couldn’t be her.

The following day they looked through the security cameras and found someone’s footprints. It was a male’s footprints. After finding out they called Sharon and Sharon said it could be Fitz because they’ve been enemies for a long time but she said she forgot about him because he was out of town. They looked into it and saw he had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Rain told Austin to get Fitz to interrogate him. Once he arrived they took him into a room that was hidden and Astria asked him, “Where were you on Thursday at 3:00 PM?”

He replied, “I was at the store with my friend. You can ask him. My car was broken down so I called him but he didn’t have a car so we walked to the store together and it took us like five seconds until we came back.”

Afterward, they let him go and started to look into the security cameras of all the stores that were close to his house because earlier he had said his car was broken and they had to walk. He also said it was very close, but they couldn’t seem to find him in the cameras of any nearby stores, so they started to look in the cameras of his house. They looked into the cameras and saw the car was not broken. Once they found that out they went to the police to get a search warrant to check his house. Afterward, they went to Fitz’s house and started to look for evidence to see if he was the culprit. They checked his notebook because it looked suspicious and found in it a place to store a ring, but there was no ring. They took it out of the house and went to examine it for fingerprints.

After a couple of weeks, they got the results. It turned out it did not have Fitz’s fingerprints at all but Sharon’s fingerprints. That night they started to think about possibilities of what could have happened instead of Fitz stealing the ring. For example, Astra said, “Maybe Sharon just staged everything to make it look as if he did it. Anyway, we should just focus on finding where Fitz was instead of at the store with his friend.¨

Then the following day they checked the security cameras of his neighbor’s house and found Sharon there wearing all black trying to avoid the cameras that were there. They quickly went to check Sharon´s house and found Aria’s fingerprints, but they felt unsure whether they were real or if it was a ruse.

Rain Jade went to check her neighbors’ security cameras. There was a window that showed the area where the hair was found. The cameras showed how Sharon had specifically placed all the hair there. They also showed how she had a ring on the bun that she was wearing.

They found Sharon and they took her to prison. Astra and Rain Jade were very pleased that their arch nemesis was in prison. Since they solved the case they were able to gain access to the safe which was their true intention because her great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma was the one who cursed them to be immortal. They finally got their revenge and they had framed her for making them like that. It took hundreds of years of planning so now they were at peace.

Beach Dogastrophe

NAOMI K.

Charlotte and James Miller run a business called The Miller Investigations. They usually get a phone call and start solving the mystery.

Well, last week on a cold snowy day, a mystery happened right under their noses at the beach. They went there with their grandma, Lulu. She was wearing her favorite light blue scarf with her dog Freddy, a little light brown Schnoodle. While they were splashing around in the water, a hard, strong wind blew away Lulu’s scarf.

“My scarf!”, she yelled.

James and Charlotte ran back to ask Lulu what had happened.

“The wind was so strong I- I- couldn’t catch it,” she panted.

Freddy was barking so loud. It was hard to understand more. That’s when James saw their first suspect.

“Hey! Let’s talk to that guy over there!” he said. The two walked over and confronted him.

“Have you seen a scarf around here?” Charlotte asked.

“Nah. It ain’t me. I didn’t take it.”

“Ok… “ Charlotte responded.

After that, they went back to Lulu and told her that they would get a new scarf. They started to shop online for one, when they stumbled upon Alyssa Obispo’s Instagram post. She was at the beach wearing Lulu’s scarf!! They ran over to the place Alyssa took the photo and started bombarding her with questions.

“You are wearing my scarf!!! “ Lulu shouted. Alyssa replied “No, I just bought this one. Look at my receipt!”

“Oh,” they said, “We’re very sorry.” Just then Charlotte saw sandy footprints, heading to a nearby cove. Dog footprints… Inside the cove, they saw Freddy!! He was wagging his tail happily wearing Lulu’s scarf.

“Poor thing, he must have been freezing!” Lulu said. Lulu eventually let Freddy keep her scarf and the mystery was solved!

Operation Kilo

SEBASTIAN O.

When all is silent, a peaceful city turns to chaos. For the people have gone mad and complete havoc spreads. Two people - the two who will save the city - are hiding away, scared for their lives. But there are no heroes to save them, so Bartholomew Barticus II and Jameel Januwel I become them. As former military operators, they fight the crime caused in the city.

But all of a sudden, Jameel’s sister goes missing. Jameel will not let his final family member go. He must find her, for she is all that is left of his family. Together, they go on an operation named, “Operation Kilo.”

“So what happened?” Bartholomew asks in a soft voice.

“I looked outside because there was a large commotion going on outside. By the time I turned to stop the person, he or she was gone,” Jameel says, in a repetitive way. Everybody is sad, but not surprised because they are in Ohio.

The door creaks open. Bruce comes into the room with no hope. “There is no point now. My sister is gone.”

“Hey, Bruce, we can do this. Just be patient,” Bartholomew says in a confident voice. “So what was the person wearing?”

“The person was wearing shorts,” Jameel replies.

“That’s all we need, Jameel. You can go,” Bartholomew said.

“Finally! I can go back to Fortnite,” Jameel says in a proud way.

Jameel leaves the room and Batholomew and Bruce do their

detective stuff to uncover the operation. They then go to questioning so they can find the criminal. One by one people get questioned, but three suspects hold off to get questioned more.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Simon says in a frustrated way.

“Do you know anything about what happened?”

“No! I do not know anything!” Simon is growing very annoyed and angry.

“Then why were you there!? Jameel said you were at the scene,” Bartholomew says.

“Oh, I get it. I was taking a walk with my dog, and then there was a small car driving by. A girl walked by and the car stopped. And two minutes later, the car and the girl disappeared.” Simon grows less angry and more understandable.

“Okay, that’s all I need. You’re free to go,” says Bartholomew.

“About time! It’s hot in here!” exclaims Simon. He walks out proudly for some reason.

Luis walks in and shoots his eyes at Bartholomew. He then walks to the table. “Hello,” he says, in a calm voice. “What am I doing here?”

“You’re just gonna get some questions and that’s it.”

To be continued…

The Mysterious Forest

VON H.

It was a dark and stormy night when a family was hiding away from danger in a forest that was very mysterious mostly for the missing people. It was foggy and filled with sounds. Inside, the house was filled with four brothers getting ready for dinner.

“Dinner’s ready!” yelled Francis, the biggest brother. They all gathered, well, not all of them. Something wasn’t right. One of the brothers was missing!? They never let anyone go outside without permission.

“Don’t you think we bossed Khalid around a bit too much? We never let him go outside. Maybe he just needed a little free time. Well, now look what happened, KHALID WENT MISSING!!” yelled Francis.

Martin, one of the very poorly treated brothers, had walked up. He had ripped-up clothes and his breath smelled like rotten food. It felt like he was keeping a secret… The conversation was quiet. Martin stared at the brothers and went back downstairs.When Martin slammed the door downstairs, right when it shut, the argument continued. On that night the sun rose up over the mountains and breakfast was being made in the tiny narrow house. In the house they were making bacon and eggs, and while eating they heard yelling from downstairs.

They went downstairs only to find a crowd of zombies. Next to the crowd of zombies and bats, there was Jack tied up in a chair. The brothers blamed Jack for turning the favorite child, Khalid, into a zombie. Turns out though that it wasn’t Jack, it was Martin that was kidnapping people and turning them into zombies. Martin hired Jack to take the blame. If Jack said no, he would have gotten turned into a zombie.

The family was still not safe…

The Missing Spell Book

SOFIA A.

I was sitting in my lab listening to my favorite music when I got a call from my best friend/sidekick Mary. “Hey Rosy, do you want to go out?”

“First of all, yes, I do want to go out. Second, I told you not to call me Rosy.”

So Mary and I went out, but Mary was acting weird. I asked her if everything was okay. Mary said, “Yes,” and skipped away so happily. I ignored it because I knew Mary was always so weird.

I thought to myself, “Like, I mean, we’ve been friends for who knows how long. I think we were friends since first grade? But we are very different from each other, especially our hair. She loves wearing light clothes and she loves her hair to be a dark color - like right now it is a very dark blue - and I love wearing dark clothes a lot and my hair is a light coffee color. We also have different personalities: She is all lovey dovey and full of happiness. Then there is me: Serious and always grumpy.”

The funny thing in our friendship is how we met. I was sitting there minding my own little business and with no friends, of course. Then she came up to me and said, ‘Hey! Do you want to be friends?’ and I said, ‘Yes!’ as a joke. But we started to hang out with each other and I have stuck to her for all these years and we are still friends with no fights. At least I don’t think so.”

Then I got a call from my other friend named Wendy. Her voice was panicking, “Rosemary, please help me! I can’t find my book!”

I told her, “Stop panicking! When was the last time you saw your book?”

“I don’t know the last time I saw it. It was in my closet but I think someone stole it because I heard a noise at night, but didn’t pay attention to it.”

I said, “Everything is going to be fine. I wrote everything down and will tell Mary about this, okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

I told everything to Mary and we started to investigate. First, we went to visit two suspects: April and Juliy. We told them about the book. April said, “We were with Wendy and Maria the whole time at the mall. Then we went to Maria’s house.”

Juliy said the same thing, but after she said, “After we went to the mall, I went with Wendy to her house, but I didn’t steal anything.”

Afterward, we went to Wendy’s house. One thing I noticed was that Mary was really shaky and again I asked her, “Are you okay Mary?”

She said, “Ya, I just haven’t eaten anything, that’s why.” I ignored it again because she actually hadn’t eaten anything.

So, anyway, we went to Wendy’s house and found a string of dark blue hair. My first suspect was Maria, but her hair was a tiny, tiny bit lighter. Then I looked at Mary. She looked focused, so there was no way she could have stolen the book.

The next morning came and Mary and I rushed to the lab to start researching. First, we started to do experiments on the hair. Then, we went back to Maria’s house with more questions for her. She said the same thing, that she didn’t steal anything. Her eyes were afraid to look at us. We kept her as a suspect for now until we could find more evidence.

We went back to the lab with a strand of Maria’s hair and I plucked a strain of Mary’s hair. After a while, we got the results. Then out of nowhere, Mary ran out of the lab. I tried to catch up but I couldn’t. I knew where she went so I went to her house. I called out

but heard no one. I went to her bedroom and there she was. After we talked it out, we went back to the lab.

When I got the results, I was so, so shocked at who it was. You will never believe it. The one who stole the book was… MARY! I looked back and forth about twenty times. I could not believe it. I started to shout at her. I was so angry that my own best friend did this to me. I wanted to just unfriend her but something stopped me from doing it. I calmed myself down and talked to her. She told me everything.

“I wanted a power that no one else could have,” she said, crying. “That book has magic spells and Wendy is the lost wizard everyone is looking for and I want that power.”

I said, “But you do know you have to go to jail now.”

“Yes, I know, but don’t tell anyone she is the lost wizard.”

I didn’t put her in jail or anything. We are still best friends and it stayed like that. No one knew that Wendy was the lost wizard until we told it here. But - be quiet - there is one more secret than her, and that is…

To be continued…

El Ladrón

ISABELLA H.

El Pacífico y Norte fueron de vacaciones a Cancún y se acomodaron en un hotel. Ellas comenzaron a jugar Jenga en un restaurante que se llama Panda. Cuándo guardaron las piezas comenzaron a ver un video juego, la caja se cayó pero Pacífico y Norte no se dieron cuenta. Un perro callejero que estaba aburrido fue y vio la caja y el perro comenzó a jugar con ella. El perro agarró la caja de Jenga y la soltó en el medio de la calle. Norte y Pacífico no se acordaron de el Jenga y se fueron del restaurante.

Cuando llegaron a la puerta del departamento, Norte gritó, “¡La caja de Jenga!” Las dos regresaron rápidamente al restaurante. Cuando llegaron al restaurante, las dos le preguntaron a uno de los trabajadores que sí había visto una caja de Jenga. Anaranjado, el trabajador dijo que no había visto nada.

Norte y Pacífico regresaron muy tristes al hotel y muy decepcionados. El Pacífico pensó y pensó y dijo, “¡Lo tengo! Podemos buscar la caja por nuestra propia cuenta.” Norte dijo, “¡Es una brillante idea!” Así que se alistaron para la aventura. Cuando se terminaron de alistar, se subieron a sus bicicletas para ir al restaurante donde se les perdió la caja. Cuando llegaron vieron las cámaras del restaurante y vieron a tres sospechosos. Cuando los interrogaron uno se llamaba Rubén, uno Pepito y la última Juana. Rubén dijo que él estuvo con su esposa viendo una película, Pepito dijo que estuvo trabajando en el restaurante del frente y Juana dijo que estuvo con sus amigas en un restaurante Chileno.

De repente, Pepito dijo que él había visto la placa del carro pero no el carro. El dijo que el número del carro que es 71D28T y de repente Rubén dijo, “Yo sé cómo encontrar a el ladrón con la placa después de agarrar la computadora del trabajo.”

Pepito volvió a dictar la placa, “71D28T.”

Rubén al ver quién era el ladrón se sorprendió y dijo, “¿Estamos en el hotel más cerca de la playa verdad?”

Pacífico y Norte dijeron, “Sí, ¿por qué?”

Pepito dijo, “¡El dueño de este hotel es el ladrón!” Norte y Pacífico se asustaron y decidieron investigar cuál es el número de teléfono. Le dijeron a Pepito que investigara cuál es el número de teléfono. Pepito encontró el número telefónico y llamaron al dueño del hotel.

“¡Trip, Trip, Trip!” sonaba el teléfono hasta que contestó el dueño y dijo, “¿Hola, hola?”

Pepito dijo, “Buenas tardes. Soy Pepito Fernández.”

Norte le dijo en el oído, “Actúa como un millonario.”

Entonces Pepito dijo, “…y soy el dueño de la empresa Mulieres y necesito verlo urgentemente en la puerta de su hotel.”

El dueño del hotel dijo, “Si me disculpa. Me llamo Juan y lo veré mañana en la mañana.”

Pepito dijo, “Sí, sí adiós.” ¡PIP! sonó el teléfono hasta mañana.

En la mañana, Norte, Pacífico, Pepito, Juana y Rubén esperaron en la puerta del hotel. Pepito, Juana y Rubén se escondieron en el otro lado de la acera. Mientras, Juana, Rubén y Pepito cruzaban la acera para esconderse, Juan el dueño del hotel estaba llegando a su hotel. Norte y Pacifico se le acercaron, Juan confundido dijo, “¡Con permiso. Necesito llegar a mi destino!”

Norte dijo, “Nosotros llamamos ayer. Nos ayudó un amigo.”

Juan se rió, “¡JA JA JA! Se lo que quieren de mi.”

Pacifico dijo, “Necesito que me devuelva mi Jenga familiar.”

Juan dijo nerviosamente, “Eeeeee si, si en… si tengo la caja de Jenga pero la perdí.”

Por Mientras, Norte agarraba a Pacifico de la chaqueta para que

no atacara a Juan. Norte le preguntó a Juan porque se robó la Jenga familiar de Pacifico. Juan dijo que es un Jenga clásico. Después

Norte le preguntó, “¿Dónde fue la última vez que tuvo el Jenga en las manos?” Juan dijo que en su mansión. Pacifico le preguntó si podían ir a la casa a buscar el Jenga. Juan dijo que sí y que si quería podía ir ahorita.

Norte, Pacifico y Juan llegaron a la casa. Como la casa era muy grande, Norte iba a revisar el primer piso, Juan el segundo piso y Pacifico el patio trasero. Norte, Pacifico y Juan se sentían cansados porque no encontraron nada. Pacífico le preguntó, “¿Cómo agarró la caja desde el carro?” Juan le dijo, “Maneje lentamente hacia la caja, abrí la puerta y agarré la caja y me fui.”

Justamente cuando estaban a punto de rendirse una ardilla pasó en frente de ellos. La ardilla era tan linda que los tres la quedaron viendo hasta que se subió a un árbol que estaba en el patio trasero. Cuando la ardilla se subió a una rama, Pacifico dijo “¡Mire ahí la caja de jenga!” Juan agarró una escalera para alcanzar la caja de jenga. Norte, Pacifico y la caja de Jenga salieron de la casa de Juan, muy felices.

The Missing Gold Ring

SOPHIA V.

One day, this girl named Vanassa got ready for school and noticed that her favorite ring was gone. She looked everywhere but she couldn’t find it anywhere. Her parents called her to get ready to leave for school but she didn’t want to go (she wanted to make sure she found it first). She told herself that as soon as she got back from school she would look for it.

After about six or seven hours, she got back home. She brought a friend over to see if she would like to help her (Vanessa’s house was pretty big). Her friend had been there two days ago and Vanessa had a bit of a suspicion because the last time Vanessa saw her ring was when her friend was there. But she just wanted to look for it, just in case she lost it.

Her friend decided to leave. Vanessa was disappointed because she wanted to wear her ring. She also wanted to take a nap because she was really tired of looking. She woke up at 8:40 PM. She was hungry so she made a soup. And then she saw something gold and she put her soup down. She reached out for the gold object but it wasn’t her ring sadly.

She put her sad face back on. It was 12:18 AM. She was getting tired so she went to sleep. She got ready the next day for school. She got to school and saw her friend with a gold ring. Vanessa grabbed the ring and sure enough it was Vanessa’s ring!

Vanessa asked her friend why she had her ring. Her friend said that she found it on the floor, but Vanessa didn’t believe her because if it was on the floor Vanessa would’ve seen it. Vanessa told her to tell the truth, so she did. She said that three days ago when she was at Vanessa’s house she saw the ring and wanted it so she took it. Vanessa didn’t want to be friends with her anymore. And that was the story of the missing gold ring.

The Missing Magic Book

PAIGE V.

Pass me the chopstick, Emma,” Jemma said.

“Okay Jemma,” Emma said to her twin sister. They were eating sushi, ramen, dumplings and chicken strips. It was time to pay for all the food so Emma said, “Give me the magic book so we can pay for the food.”

Emma said, “Wait, the magic book? I thought you brought it?”

“No I did not. Check your bag just in case,” Emma said. So Jemma checked her bag but there was nothing.

“How are we going to pay for the food then?” Jemma said.

“I got this under control guys so don’t worry.” Ava said so she pulled out her credit card and paid for the food.After they paid for the food, Emma said “Are we going to look for the magic book? Sis, you know how important it is?”

Mia out of nowhere asked the twins, “Where was the last time you saw it?

Jemma said, “We were at the museum so an appraiser could check the magic book.”

Mia said, “You guys may have left it there.”

Ava said, “Let’s go guys,” so Ava, Mia, Jemma and Emma drove to the museum.

Emma asked the nearest worker, “Do you know where the appraiser is?”

“Do you have an appointment for an appraisal today?”

Emma said, “Ummm… yes. Yes, we do.”

The worker said, “The appraisal room is right over there. They’ll be waiting for you.”

The assistant said, “Do you have an appointment?

Jemma said, “Yes. I booked the appointment. My name is Jemma.”

“Last name please?” the assistant asked.

“Valdez,” Jemma said.

Then she said, “What time is your appointment and with whom did you book?”

“At 4:50 and with the appraiser Maddie.”

“Oh sorry, we can’t find your appointment at this place.”

“Oh there might be some glitch,” said Jemma

“Oh there might be, this computer is very old. I’ll let you go in anyways.”

Mia and Ava stayed behind and Jemma and Emma went to their appointment. They went into Maddie’s room and Jemma said, “Do you know where the magic book is? We may have possibly left it here.”

“If you left it here, we would have already given you a call. Just in case you can check the security camera to see if it was stolen.”

Maddie, Emma and Jemma watched the camera when it was Friday at 3:15 in the afternoon when they arrived. They saw themselves walking into the room then the assistant talked to them and then they let them go in. The assistant, who is a different assistant, checks the book and takes photographs, writes something in a journal and lets them go. They explored around the museum and left Friday at 6:30.

The appraiser Maddie said, “ We can see you brought it back with you.”

“Sorry for wasting your time,” Emma said.

“It’s okay, no worries,” said Maddie. They left the appraiser’s room and they left the museum to go back to the car.

“I remember Lily had it last time because I saw her using it for a project when I came to her house,” said Ava.

Then Mia said, “We should go to Lily’s. Where is she at?”

“I can make a call but I’m not sure if all of you should go because she may be suspicious,” said Ava.

Ava got out her phone and made the call. After Ava finished making the call, she said that Lily was at 98751 Al Free St.

Mia, Ava, Jemma and Emma drove to Lily’s house. Ava got out of the car and walked to Lily’s house while Mia, Jemma and Emma stayed in the car. Ava knocked on the door and Lily answered it and said, “Oh hello Ava! Come inside. I’ve got some tea ready for us.”

Ava went inside Lily’s house and sat down on the couch while Lily brought the tea. She asked Ava if she wanted anything else.

Ava said, “No I’m fine.”

So Lily sat on the couch and they both drank the tea.

Ava said, “I have a question for you,” and Lily said, “Oh what is it?” Ava then said, “Do you know where the magic book is?”

Lily said, “Oh, the magic book? I think the twins have it. Last time, I put it in the twins’ desk. They should probably have it. Plus, why are you asking me where it is? And also do you have any more questions for me?”

Ava said, “Oh no I don’t. I have to go now. Goodbye.” So Ava walked out of the house and thought that Lily had it because she’s joyful as always but the way she answered the question was suspicious.

Ava got back to the car and told Emma, Jemma and Mia what Lily said. Jemma said, “Oh yeah! We haven’t looked in our desks since yesterday, so it could be there.”

So Mia drove to the twin’s house and Emma and Jemma went inside and checked in both their desks but the magic book was not there. They went back to the car and said it was not there.

So Mia said, “Should we check everyone in the town?”

Ava said, “No, no that’s going to take too long, we should put up missing posters that would be much faster.”

Emma said, “We need to look for it today. It’s almost my aunt’s wedding day and afterwards we’re going to celebrate my great, great,

great grandmother’s birthday. She has so many greats and she is the one who found it in 1596. She’s still alive because she used the magic book to live longer. She is 1299 years old and almost 1300 so we need to look for it today because she wants to buy my aunt a gift on her wedding day.”

So Mia asked, “Do you know anyone else who had it?” Everyone shook their heads no. Then Mia remembered on Thursday during school she saw Lalani and Bella talking. She saw Bella holding the book and at the time she thought it was a coincidence but now she realized it might not be a coincidence anymore.

Mia drove to the park where Bella and Lalani always like to go. When they arrived, everyone got out of the car and Mia said “Follow me.” Mia saw Bella holding a book, the same book she saw her holding on Thursday and then Ava eavesdropped and heard that Bella and Lalani were going to ruin the magic book.

Jemma snatched the book out of Bella’s hands. “Oh well! You’re not ruining this book today or ever!” said Jemma.

“Oh I didn’t mean to do that,” Bella said.

Jemma ran with the magic book in her hands to the car with Mia, Ava and Emma and they drove off.

The End.

Vector & The Secret Formula

BENJAMIN L.

V

ector is a boy who solves mysteries. A very tall 13-year-old boy famous for being a good detective.

Vector’s uncle, Allan, has a secret formula that makes you invisible, but the formula has gone missing, so Uncle Allan goes to see Vector.

“Can you help me find my secret formula?” Uncle Allan asked. “Of course, I can. Do you have any clues or suspects?” replied Vector.

“Yes,” said Uncle Allan, “I have a few suspects but no clues.” They both go to his lab and notice a big mess with everything thrown around.

Vector notices small paints on the floor but can’t make them out. “I don’t know what kind of footprints these are,” he says. “Let’s follow them to see where they go,” replied Uncle Allan. Vector and his Uncle follow the footprints to the door that leads outside.

Once outside, the footprints disappear, but they see someone in the distance running away. Vector and Uncle Allan run after the suspect but are too fast and disappear into the forest.

The secret formula remains missing to this day.

A Missing Girl

NATALIA V.

Once, there was a girl that was named Sally. One day, Sally and her mom went to the park. Sally played at the playground while her mom was looking at her phone. While her mom wasn’t looking, a robber came and told Sally that he had candy in his car, like everyone else does. He lured Sally to the car.

Sometime later, Sally’s mom yelled,”We are going home!” Sally did not go to her mom and her mom got very worried and started looking for Sally. Sally’s mom tried to look for clues that would lead her to Sally. She wanted to call the police, but instead, she had another idea. She was going to call Lucian, the detective.

Sally’s mom called Lucian who came in a second. Lucian asked Sally’s mom what happened and Sally’s mom said she thought Sally was kidnapped and that she was trying to look for clues to help Lucian find her. There was a bush right next to Sally’s mom and when Lucian looked at it, she found a red ribbon.

Lucian asked, “Is this Sally’s ribbon?”

Her mom shouted, “That is her red ribbon!”

Her mom also found a clue, a piece of paper with a map on it.

Lucian looked at the map.

“This map is very huge,” Lucian said, “But if we follow it, it might lead to a trap for you.”

But her mom said, “I need my daughter.”

“You can go, but we need to be quiet and sneaky to get inside. We can trick them!” Lucian said.

“We gotta go before they leave!” replied her mom.

“They won’t leave until they see that you are close,“ Lucian said.

Her mom replied, “How will they know if I am close or not?”

“I think they put a tracker on us, or they have a person look at us right now.”

“Then what do we do? Do we just wait or…?”

“We have to find the tracker on you.” So they looked around her.

Lucian said, “I will call my sidekick.”

Her mom said, “Hurry up! I want my child back!”

Lucian called Emily. That is her sidekick. She came in like a second. Lucian told her what happened.

Her mom said, “Hurry up! We don’t have all day to stand around talking.”

Lucian and Emily found the tracker and they came up with a plan. Emily got the tracker and she went the wrong way. The robber saw that she was going the wrong way. Lucian and the mom went to the place where the robber was. He was about to tell the rest of the crew that he had realized he was doing something bad.

Sally was really scared because she had been trapped for 45 minutes. She thought her mom was going to save her until she heard something that the robber said. He said that her mom was going the wrong way. Sally got really freaked out. She thought that her mom forgot about her, but it was the other way around. Sally was very worried that her mom did not like her anymore, and she started crying. The robber heard Sally crying so he went to check if she was doing okay, since he was a good robber. He did not know that he was a robber because he thought he was signing up for tutoring other people.

The mom and Lucian were trying to get Sally back, and they finally got Sally after two hours of trying so hard. The mom and Sally were crying because Sally thought that her mom had forgotten about her. The mom thanked Lucian and Emily for saving sally. The mom and Sally went back home to get some rest because tomorrow was going to be a big day, calling the police and trying to find the robbers.

The Wandering Wig

JESUS A.

It was a sunny morning on June 17th when the Ghostey family went to the bank to get some money to buy Prime. The robber walked into the big brown bank in the center of town. He was ready to rush into the vault room and steal the money. His teammates were waiting outside to help him when he was done stealing the money.

The robber was seen on the news wearing a pink curly wig. The police found a piece of the robber’s hair at the bank and brought it to the forensics lab. BUT! The hair was fake so the police were back to square one. The Ghostey family followed the robber back to his house where they saw the robber take off his wig. Now the Ghostey family knew who committed the crime! They go to the police station to help the police solve the crime but the problem is that humans can’t see or hear ghosts. Instead, the Ghostey family go to the police station to draw what the robber looks like. But the police are confused.

“What is happening? Who is drawing on the white board?” said the police officer.

After a couple of minutes, once the drawing is complete, the police realize that they now know what the robber looks like! They decide to go out and find the robber - the Ghostey family goes too! The police think they have found the robber but he is wearing a different wig - a bright green one! However, the Ghostey family recognise the robber’s face and pull off his wig. The police now recognize the robber from the drawing and take him to the police station to talk. The robber finally confesses to the crime and he gives all the money back to the big brown bank.

The Biggest Problem on Earth

CAMILA R.

Camila and Kimberly are two best friends and famous detectives known all over the world.They work at the Super Spy Agency For Girls. This is a mystery story that took place on the red carpet. The suspects are Alexander, Molly, and Mary. Alexander, Molly, and Mary work together at a hotel. One day, on the crowded red carpet near the hotel, a woman yelled,“Someone robbed the restaurant!” The police, the security, and the detectives went to see what happened. The woman told the detectives that the robber was wearing a yellow shirt with old shoes and a very old coat from 1945. The robber got away!

The next day the detectives spoke with the woman who yelled for help. The detectives Camila and Kimberly asked her a bunch of questions. One question was, “What did they look like?” When they were done asking questions Camila and Kimberly accused Molly! Then they talked to Molly and arrested her. Molly went to the court and the lawyer and detectives were there. Also the person who accused the detectives and the person who accused Molly were there, also. Some workers were there also.The judge asked her questions, “What were you doing in the kitchen with the key ring on the floor? “It wasn’t me,” said Molly, “I know the security camera was erased but you should check the one in the office.”

The next day the judge went to check it and it wasn’t Molly or Mary. It was Alexander the whole time! He had the big key ring the whole time! He stole it from the security guard. Then, in the court, they arrested Alexander. This is the end of my creative story :D

The Missing Dog

JADE R.

There was a detective named Jaxx, who was a small gray robot. Their sidekick was a beautiful yellow and orange butterfly named Carolina. They lived in a toty, which is a mix of a city and town, named Toty. One day, a purple alien named Lou asked for their help. Their pet dog Leo had gone missing and needed help finding it! Lou couldn’t remember where Leo could have gone or if someone had taken it. They thought maybe their brother or sister had taken their dog Leo.

Jaxx and Carolina began to find clues to help find the missing dog. They went looking at Lou’s home. There they found footprints that were dog footprints! That clue led them to the ice cream shop in Toty. When Jaxx and Caroline got there, they found the missing dog. Lou felt so eurprived (emotional, relieved and surprised). They said, “I did not check there.” Jaxx and Carolina had solved the case!

The Arico Case

SOPHIE M.

T

wo in the afternoon, sat John Clinton, a detective and his puppy sidekick, Scruff. It was a rainy day. They were in their office.

The door swung open, John forgot to lock the door. “It’s me Edward,” a man said.

“What happened?” John said, leaning back in his chair. “I have another case for you.” Edward responded, “I’ll take a look at it.” The detective said while petting Scruff.

Marcus Arico, a government worker, got kidnapped. The suspects were William Harvey, Chloe Marksman and James Hacklen. After an hour of reading, John finally got up and got in his car, along with his pet, Scruff.

After a 30 minute car ride, they got to the government building.

“Hello, I’m here to solve the Arico case,” John politely said. “Go to the third floor room A2,” The clerk said firmly, not looking up. After one elevator trip, they arrived at the room. Maybe a coincidence, it was the camera/security room. No one was there.

John immediately called the police, he was going to need help.

“C’mon Scruff, let’s drive to Chloe’s house,” John said while Scruff barked, then followed happily.

John and Scruff drove in a navy blue truck to a suspect’s house named Chloe Marksman. They were going to question her, but maybe Scruff could just bark at her.

Ding dong. The door opened. There was a lady standing there.

“Hello, I’m here for the Arico case,” John said. “Come in,” she said. They had a very tense conversation.

No matter what, John didn’t get her to budge. So he just left.

“We’ll come back,” said John, shutting the door. “Let’s go to Harvey’s house,” John said while driving to KIngs Avenue.

“I’m not letting you inside,” William said. “That’s too bad,” John said. “I’m going to have to talk to you here.”

“FINE!” Harvey said. Now, even though he said “ Fine,” all he said was “I didn’t do it,” and “I didn’t kidnap Arico.”

Finally John and even Scruff got annoyed. So they left. They could always do it later.

Then they went to the last suspect’s house. It was James Hacklen.

“Hello, I’m here for the Arico case,” John said.

“Oh, come in, come in,” James said back.

“So, where were you at 10:53 PM, Monday?” John asked.

“I was returning home,” James said a bit firm but still polite.

“Did you know Marcus before you got the job?” John asked.

“No, never.”

“Tell the truth,” John said, picking up paperwork. “Did you kidnap Arico?”

“No sir,” James said. “I have everything I need to know,” John said walking out the door. “Goodbye.”

John and Scruff went home that afternoon. John went home confused and overwhelmed. Scruff went home feeling happy and energetic.

Now here’s the cool thing about John’s house. He had his own office and Scruff had a tiny room connected to John’s bedroom. John ate dinner, Scruff did too. Now they were going to head to Marcus’s house. He could snoop through anything he wanted to.

John turned to Scruff, “There’s a plant, a LEGO building, his journal and an umbrella.

Wait? A journal?” John sat down on a chair with Scruff sitting on his lap. Page one through 101 had nothing worth saying. But 102 was different. It read, “I found out that William works for the enemy government.”

Tick tock! John”s eyes darted at the clock. It was 12:39. They should both be home now.

John stuffed the book in his coat. He was going to read it later. After that, they both went to sleep.

In the morning, Scruff was in a deep sleep, so John left. Scruff would wake in two hours. John would be back home at one.

“What is this?” John said to himself. He was at the Arico house. The night he had been there, he didn’t notice the trash and the mess outside and inside.

John looked at his watch.He had thirty minutes before he had to get back home. He was going to the government office. He went straight to Harvey’s work station. There were a bunch of devices on his desk, but none of them belonged to a suspicious brand. It belonged to the government.

He went home after that, he would grab some food and then pick up Scruff.

After he picked up Scruff, they were going to the one place to solve the case: Bracken Hall, where any authorized person is able to track, find a document and scan anyone, anything and everything.

John was suspicious of Chloe and WIlliam.

Since a computer was open, he was going to scan William.

He entered the password and got through the firewall. WIlliam’s tracker signal was totally gone. Now this wasn’t a coincidence.

John and Scruff just solved the case. This probably wasn’t surprising. It was William Harvey.

The first clue was in the camera room. William was seen kidnapping Marcus. While Chloe was trying to stop him.

The second clue was the trash scattered at Marcus’s house. Obviously, Marcus was fighting for his life.

The third clue was Williams watches scattered all over. He took them off so he wouldn’t get tracked at Arico’s house. So no one could track him at Bracken Hall. That’s why his signal was gone.

Two days later, William was arrested and I guess Scruff got the last laugh.

Marcus was a very important person. He knew stuff. He also knew secrets that people wanted… even would hurt others for…

Inside Job

NATALIA C.

As Juan was getting his fourth cup of coffee that night, he kept falling asleep because he worked very late at the police department. While pouring a packet of instant coffee into a cup of hot water, he heard a noise from the hallway. “Who’s there?” he asked, but no one answered. “Hello?” Still no response. He started to walk towards his office when suddenly somebody blindsided him and knocked him unconscious.

“Juan,” a voice said faintly, then again, “Juan,” BEEP.

“Huh, where am I?” said Juan.

“Juan, it’s me, Marie. Do you remember what happened?!”

Somebody had broken in and stolen files from Juan’s office. Chief was the only other person still there, but he was in an online meeting.

“You know what this means, right Juan?” Marie said.

“Yeah, we have to keep guards on watch again,” Juan said.

Marie did not think that was a good idea. As Juan and Marie investigated further, they realized that the alarms had not been tripped at all at the crime scene, and the guards had no idea what was happening. The cameras had all been wiped off their footage. Whoever has been committing these crimes most likely had help from somebody else. Somebody from inside.

They started to search for people who had come to work or had reported something. Once they noticed that all the museums had refused to sell or borrow their artifacts from a private collector, they had something. The same private collector had asked each museum about the same matter two weeks before the robbery. Then they decided to run the name of the private collector, but it was an alias, and no one knew who they were.

To be continued…

Betrayal

VIOLET S.

One day, Drew went on a vacation to see his friends and family in Long beach. Two days later, he got a call saying that all of his stuff had been taken from his hotel room. He called Ava, the detective, to find out who took his stuff.

She came down, then went to the hotel room and started looking for clues. Ava didn’t have any clues the first day, so she went to her friend’s Aubree’s house to spend the night and to help her find different ways to look for clues.

The next day she went back and started looking again, this time she found a fingerprint.

Ava called Drew and told him to bring the two suspects, Scarlett the maid and Adam his best friend. He said “Okay,”

Ava talked to the manager named Andrew and asked him if he had seen either Scarlett or Adam leave with something. He explained that he saw Scarlett leave with what looked like a men’s jacket but he did not see Adam. Then, Ava got permission from the manager and checked the security cameras and saw Adam leave with a bag of stuff that no one knows what it was.

Then, Drew arrived at the hotel with Adam and Scarlett. While Ava was waiting for Drew and the suspects, she went through Drew’s hotel room and found a fingerprint from the dresser. She then took Scarlett and Adam to the police station to get it tested and waited. Adam got scared so when they went back to the hotel he tried to

convince Drew that it was the maid Scarlett. Scarlett heard their conversation and said ”I swear that I didn’t do anything!”

Two days later, they got the results. Ava called Drew and told him to go to the police station. When he got there, he told her quickly that it was the maid. She said, “No,” and that it was his best friend Adam. He didn’t believe her. Then, she said,”Why don’t we search his house and prove that it’s Adam that took your stuff.” He said “Okay.”

They went to ask him if it was okay to go and search his house for Drew’s belongings. He got really defensive and he said “No, no you can not! I don’t want you to!”

Later that day and while he was out of town for a few hours, they drove to the house and went in without him knowing. When they got there, they searched everything and they found nothing. Ava said, “Why didn’t we find anything?” Drew then said “See told you he didn’t take anything!”

That night Drew stayed the night with Adam because he checked out of his hotel room and he didn’t want to stay there anymore. In the middle of the night while Adam was asleep, he got a message and read it, it said “Did you sell all of Drew’s things yet?” He left the room and called Ava. He said, “Call the police tomorrow morning.” She said “Okay.”

The next morning she called them and showed up with them at Adam’s house. They took him in and started questioning him. The big question that they asked him is “Why did you take all of Drew’s belongings?” He responded with “I took all of his belongings because they were worth a lot of money and Drew has the life that I have always wanted since I was a little kid.” They asked him a lot more questions and had a lot of information. Drew got his stuff back from the guy that Adam was working with, but he will never ever talk to Adam again because he was too hurt. Then at the end Adam got arrested for a very long time.

The End.

Missing Toy DAISY V.

I took my dog on a walk and bumped into my cousin Chiclali. She said, “Hi,” and we began to talk. Suddenly I looked at her hand, and she had the missing toy I had lost a few weeks ago. It was my favorite teddy bear.

To be continued…

Foxy is Missing

SKY J.

It was a late afternoon where Grace was walking her dogs. One was named Cooper. He was a pretty strong dog who would always pull Grace when she walked him. Foxy was the other dog who was older and slower. Foxy can barely see or hear, but the bond they have together was priceless. They walked all the way to the park where Grace stopped the dogs for a bathroom break. Right after that Cooper saw a crow and pulled the leash so hard that Grace let go. She then proceeded to run around the park until she grabbed ahold of Cooper’s leash. Since Grace was missing a dog, she got really worried. She walked around the park until it got dark and she could barely see where she was going. Grace decided there was no point and to return home. When she got home, she barely slept because she couldn’t. It was so hard to stop thinking about Foxy and where he was. She then woke up to an urgent message on her phone. It read, “I have your dog, Foxy, and if you don’t give me $5,000, you can forget about Foxy.” She got so scared that Grace ran into her mom’s house. She was so scared that someone would steal Cooper, too.

Grace knocked three times. This was their secret signal. Her secret signals were specifically for only them. Of course her dog was there, but he did not count in this situation. When her mom opened

the door she was ushered in because it was freezing and raining in the middle of the night. “Come in come in.” Her mom said. Her mom was a petite woman with soft short black hair and the biggest cheeks, it looked like she was hibernating for the winer, and her name was Kim. Grace rushed inside with her dog and exploded with the story. She was talking so fast it sounded like she was rapping songs. Immediately after, they both heard a “woof.” Kim and Grace stood still because that bark was familiar. A little too familiar. Finally they recognized the sound. IT WAS HER DOG’S BARK! The bark was so loud that Cooper could hear it. Although Cooper has been distracted. Most of the time Cooper sat across the fish tanks across the hall. “Cooper,” Grace said. “Lead me to Foxy.” What she meant by that is, “Tell me where Foxy is.” Since Grace was very smart and worked in the doggy day care for years, she knew how to train dogs very well. So knowing what she knows, Grace decided to train Cooper to be a full on police dog. He knew how to bite people, run really fast, and the most useful in this situation was to smell out people. Cooper started running through the halls softly but then fast. He was running and running until he stopped! It was a tiny door leading to a tiny room under the stairs. But nothing was in there but a tiny piece of paper which read… “You’ll never catch me! Hahahaha!” It was so upsetting and losing Foxy was so scary, she couldn’t see straight but Kim could. KIm said, “Hey well I only gave a house key to two people.

“Were you and your brother at your house? We need to go now!” said Kim. They got into Kim’s car and drove as fast as they could to the train station and got there only five minutes before the train left. While in the car, Grace made a plan to have Kim go in through the front of the train and for Grace to stay in the back. When the train started, she would run up and grab the dog while Kim called the police to be on the next train to stop and put Misha in jail. “Let’s go,” said Grace. The whole time she kept Cooper very close to her side. “Oh no,” said Kim. “I don’t think we can make the train. It is leaving in 50 seconds.” They started running and got there but there were five seconds left and there was no way they could get in.

Grace pushed herself in the doorway while Kim did the same. Grace ran to Misha and saw a big orange dog. “Foxy!” she screamed. Grace lunged at Foxy, grabbed the leash, and signaled Kim to call the police. “No!” screamed Misha. “Why did you take my dog?” asked Grace. “Because you are always the favorite and are perfect. I wanted to ruin one thing in your life,” said Misha. Just then the doors of the train swung open and police officers grabbed Misha and took him outside. “Thank you!” said Grace. “Anything for my daughter,” said Kim. And with that they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Missing ADAMARIS G.

Once upon a time in a scary, dark city named New York, Aiden lost his phone in his house. He noticed it was gone when he went to check his pockets. It was so important to him because he had all his pictures from his old school. So Aiden called the Secret Territory. Aiden explained, “My phone is missing and the last place I had it was in my bedroom.” Alan then called Adamaris and told her, “We have a case with a phone.” Alan got into the car with Adamaris and left the Secret Territory House at 1:00 AM and got to Aiden’s house at 3:00 AM.

Once they arrived, Aiden told them his phone went missing at 12:55 AM. Adamaris and Alan went to the room where Aiden lost his phone. There, Alan found footsteps. Alan asked Aiden “Are these your footsteps?” Aiden said, “No, I don’t wear shoes in the house! I wear socks.”

Then Adamaris asked “Did you leave the house?” Aiden said “Yes but just to go outside to get air.”

Adamaris asked “Did you have any friends over?”

He said “No, I don’t have any friends over right now because my friends live in LA, so they can’t see me but actually I have my great great best friend Ethan who now lives in New York, and was here last night.”

Alan said “Ethan is our main suspect because he was in the house last night.” Adamaris asked “Where was Ethan? Did you ever leave him alone?”

Aiden said “He was with me all day but I did go outside to get air.”

Suddenly Ethan came in and said “I was not doing anything!”

Then they asked Ethan, “Where were you when Aiden went outside?” He said, “I was just laying on his bed!”

Alan and Adamaris left because they wanted to go further into the investigation and checked the apartment’s cameras, so Alan said to Aiden “We’re going to come back when we can get further into the investigation.” Aiden said, “Okay.”

Aiden waited days and days then months and years, but they never called. Two years passed by, Aiden had not heard from Alan and Adamaris. Aiden never tried to call them because he thought they were busy with other investigations. So Aiden finally decided to call them, but no one answered. Aiden just got a new phone and Alan and Adamaris were never seen or heard of ever again!

The End.

Tickets

NATHALIE C.

One day, I woke up feeling uneasy, so I checked my folder to admire my concert tickets, but something was wrong. They were missing! I almost started crying until my bunny hopped on my face and stared at me. Then my cat walked by and my bunny followed. My bunny’s name is Perry and my cat’s name is Mochi.

“Hi,” Perry said to Mochi.

“What!?” Mochi asked, annoyed.

“I think Nat’s tickets got stolen!” Perry exclaimed. “What do you mean?” Mochi asked.

“She looked very mad and I think I know who stole them,” Perry said.

“Who?” Mochi asked.

“Either her friends or I ate them,” Perry said. “WHAT?!?!?!” Mochi meowed.

“Mochi, what’s wrong? Why are you spiked up?” I asked. I couldn’t understand them, obviously, but I thought he was hungry. I went over to the shelf, still sniffling, and I gave him food. He came and sat next to me. That’s crazy! He’s never been so friendly.

Then Perry came over too. I called my friends over to my house to tell them the tragic news about my tickets.

“Hi Nat,” said Danielle and Melanie.

“Hey, Ready to go to Little Tokyo today?” I asked.

“Yup.”

We walked out.

Meanwhile Perry and Mochi were trying to find out who stole the tickets.

“Come on,” Perry exclaimed.

Mochi and Perry ran and hopped over to my dad’s room. Since the living room has cameras, they tried to look at them. The reason they went to my dad’s room is because he set the cameras up in the living room, but he didn’t put any in his own room. Only problem is, my dad doesn’t let them go in his room. But he wasn’t home right now, so Perry hopped on my dad’s keyboard, while Mochi turned on the computer with his small paws.

Meanwhile, I am at Little Tokyo with my friends! I went to the arcade, and the ice cream shop with the photo booth, and now am eating with my friends. I’m about to tell them the tragic news until I get a call from my company. They asked me if anything from my office had gone missing, because there have been several robberies in the office. I said no, and I hung up. Right after that the food came. But that doesn’t stop me. I told my friends the sad story, that my concert tickets were missing, and they laughed. I started to think it was them or a worker, who had stolen my tickets.

Perry and Mochi were currently guessing the password to my dad’s computer. They tried and tried and tried… until! The computer locked! They sat there in despair. They heard the front door open, and they looked at the time and immediately knew it’s my dad! They ran out to the living room and pretended to sleep.

“Hi Mochi, hi Perry!” he said. He walked to his room and changed. He went out, and Perfect! He left the door to his room open! They RAN! Tapped random buttons, and it opened the camera on Alexa. They started searching the camera history from the living room cameras, and found my friends ripping and stepping on the tickets.

“How will I tell her?!?” Perry asked. They paused the footage without turning it off, and ran out of the room.

I’m currently on my way back from hanging out with my friends,

and it’s 10:00 PM. My mom and dad said hi, and my dad walked into his room. He hears his computer. It sounds like it’s overheating. He also sees the paused camera footage. He watches it in shock as he calls my name and shows me the footage.

I texted my friends the footage. They start apologizing. I called them and told them we were not friends anymore. I called them dumb, because the tickets were available online, too. I didn’t need the ones they tore up. Perry and Mochi side-eye each other with pride.

I ended up buying VIP tickets and posting on my Instagram that I saw the band face to face in a Meet and Greet backstage. My friends were jealous.

The End.

Magic Book

DARLET C.

Someone took the pink magic book. Maria thinks it’s a drawing book because it is the size of an average book, but it’s a magic book that has magic pages that come to life. Maria and Sophia are sisters. Sophia thinks it was Maria, but it wasn’t Maria… oh so she thinks! Maria couldn’t sleep and she went to the kitchen. When she went to the kitchen, she saw a ghost and Maria felt scared. The ghost accidently put a purple magic potion in a drink and Maria accidently drank it and turned mean. She got an evil idea!

Maria took the magic book while Sophia was sleeping and gave it to Mairek, the boy who wants to take over the world. The boy is evil and is gonna try to destroy the magic book, but the book has magic pages that come to life. BOOM! The magic book magically disappears. They thought they were gonna find the magic book in the living room but they found the magic book in the kitchen instead. They saw a purple footprint on the pink cover of the book but when they touched it they found out Mairek had played a trick on them. Next thing they knew, Maria and Sophia got trapped in a nest. Mairek got supplies and made a fake magic book to trick Maria and Sophia. He tricked them again! When they touched the fake magic book they realized it was not real! Evil Mairek took the real pink magic book and left the sisters in the house to be trapped inside the nest forever.

The Missing Book

NATALIA R.

The twosome of Xavier and Claudia are best friends, and also the town’s investigators. People think they have the same personality but look different. They met at school a few years ago in math class but started talking in reading class and that’s how they became best friends.They both shared their love for mystery books. And they say this was the craziest mystery of their careers.

One day, Xavier and Claudia were hanging out with their friend Matilda. Also all of them brought their favorite books to read. Specifically, Matilda enjoys fantasy books. Her family also enjoys different types of books but she brought a special book.That special book was passed down to generations because it was based on one of her ancestors. She made sure she wouldn’t lose it.

While Matilda was looking at her messages, Claudia and Xavier both went to the restroom. When they returned Matilda was searching through her backpack looking anxious. “Hey guys, have you seen my book?“ she said nervously. “We would never go through your backpack just to find a book!” Xavier exclaimed. Matilda looked even more anxious. Claudia then decided to ask Matilda, “has anyone happened to pass by?”

“Yes actually. Three people did pass by: the waiter to help me settle down, a parade figure and a man named Ethan to choose his seat,” Matilda continued. Xavier then said, “Come on Claudia, Ethan is the closest to our table. Shall we ask him where he got the book

that he has in his hand?” “You’re right!” Claudia quickly replied. Claudia then walked up in curiosity then asked, “What book is that?”

Ethan sat in silence. “Hello? Hello!” Claudia got mad then snatched the book out of his hand. The book cover is the exact same with a few different tweaks! “Where did you get this” Claudia said furiously. “My best friend usually borrows books from the library. I don’t own a library card so she borrows books from the Mar Vista library for me.” Claudia’s face turned red. She gave it back then walked back to the table as the waiter approached. She sat down with her head down.

“Hello! Can I help with your drinks?” The waiter asked. When Claudia lifted her head she noticed that the waiter had a book in their hand. “Off topic but, what book is that?“ Xavier asked. The waiter avoided Xavier’s question. Then the waiter walked away.

“That was.. odd?” Matilda whispered. “If you excuse me I will go check outside to see if the character from the parade is already on the floatie,” Claudia exclaimed. “She was a snowflake!” Matilda quickly answered as Claudia stepped out of the restaurant. Then she thought, “Snowflake, snowflake huh… she must be on a winter floatie.” She then saw a snow floatie! She observed closely and then saw two snowflakes. She then said, “That must be her.” Claudia looked around backstage and saw no books, “she should be clear.”

Claudia just then remembered about Xavier and Matilda and hurried inside. Right when Claudia sat down, Xavier exclaimed “Claudia come here!” Claudia tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. She took a glance around the restaurant then saw Xavier and walked over. “What is it?” Claudia asked. Xavier then gave Claudia her black coat that blends in with almost everything. “I suspect that the waiter stole Matilda’s book. Go and see what book she was holding,” Xavier whispered. Claudia put her pure black coat on then proceeded to enter the back through the kitchen. There she saw the waiter looking around to make sure that there was no-one around. Claudia got a good glance at the cover of the book and saw that it had not one single twitch. Then the waiter started reading the

book. “Once a lonely girl that her parents did not send to school did go to a school. But! It was a terribl-” Claudia quickly took off her pure black coat then said “Aha! I knew it was you.”

Claudia then tried snatching the book out of the waiter’s hand but the waiter dodged causing Claudia to trip and then the waiter ran away. Luckily, Xavier and Matilda were outside. They stopped the waiter and backed her into the kitchen. Claudia got up then grabbed the book out of her hand. “Xavier, mind keeping her here? I need to make a call,” Claudia said. Right when Xavier was about to say something, Claudia signaled their code for 911. Soon the police arrived and the waiter was arrested for taking customers’ things then it became a law. Till this day they say that this was their most bizarre investigation of their career.

The End.

Kat Likes To Sleep

NOE A.

One day in Ohio State, Kat was taking out the trash to the landfill. Then she realized she didn’t have her iPhone 14 with a cat case. She started to panic like she was gasping for air because she spent the first thousand dollars she ever had on the phone.

Her brother reminded Kat that she had State Farm insurance and then a man wearing a red polo shirt came out and said, “it’s alright, Justin from State Farm is here.” Justin started to sing the State Farm is here song… but ended up giving Kat the wrong phone! Kat became angry at Justin because it was her old iPhone 7!

But just then she remembered she never checked under her pillow. She then went back home, and lifted that pillow. Her pillow was warm because she never turned off the screen. “iiiiiPPhooone!!” she yelled with excitement.

Finally she was at peace and texted her mom, saying, “Goodnight.”

WhoJake?Kidnapped

MILLI-ON F.

A witch in her 60s thought that her house was not clean. After, she had an idea… A really bad idea. Jake is a 35 year old that has a really clean house. She knows that Jake has a really clean house, so she decided to kidnap him to clean her house. She kept him in a basement where he slept. After, she demanded that Jake clean the house with deodorant. She was happy that her house was clean and tidy. Then, when it was December 31, 2023, she got arrested for stealing, kidnapping, and starting a fire at a park for cooking food. After a couple of years, she got released, then she changed her name to Fiona and got a makeover to look like Fiona from Shrek.

Recipe Book Gone Missing

JAYLIN R.

Jerry always wanted to be a detective. As a kid, he loved to solve mysteries. Now at 29, he’s finally a detective! He’s also grown up. Six feet tall, blue eyes, and brown hair. Plus, he has a wife and two kids.

Jack is Jerry’s partner. He makes funny impressions. He doesn’t do math well. He watches his phone all day. He is Jerry’s best friend. It was a Tuesday when Superdog called Jerry on the bone phone. “Jerry, my recipe book disappeared. I returned from lunch, and it wasn’t where I left it.” “Where did you leave it?” Jerry asked. “In my kitchen safe,” said Superdog.

“Jeffrey has the combination to the safe - and one else does,” Superdog added.

“We’ll be right there,” Jerry said. “We want to talk to Jeffrey and any other suspects.”

Jerry got Jack, and they drove to Superdog’s house. Superdog was waiting for them outside. Jeffrey was with him, wearing his Dodger cap backward, as usual. He looked nervous.

“Tell us what happened,” Jack asked.

I was making a batch of cookies, so I opened the safe to get the recipe. Then somebody knocked me out. I saw the recipe book was gone.

“Was anybody with you?” Jerry asked.

To be continued…

Diamond Snatcher

AARON M. L.

On January 23, 2019 12:43 P.M. Jewelry Museum. The expensive light blue diamond with hints of white went missing. It is one of the most expensive diamonds in the world from Ancient Egypt. It’s been around since King Tut was alive and was found in 2015 before it was taken to be displayed at a jewelry museum. A pro photographer had an assignment from his boss to take pictures of the Zumpango diamond. He had a perfect position and light to take the picture of the diamond. Suddenly, the lights went out and when the lights came back on, the diamond was gone. But the pro photographer took pictures of it before anyone else could. He ran to his boss and told him everything that happened and the boss believed him and put up the news before other newspaper companies could.

1:15 P.M. Detective John got a call from the museum who needed the best detective on the case. Detective John tried to find fingerprints on the clear case but could not find it because the thief used gloves to not be caught immediately. He asked to go to the security room to see the cameras and saw the photographer taking pictures and was trying to figure out where he had run off. Then he found out that he had gone to the newspaper because he was working on an assignment. He was taken to the police department and interrogated and was asked a lot of questions but the detectives knew that he hadn’t done it because thieves would know more about the value of the diamond, so they cleared him. Then Detective John

saw another suspect on the security camera and he tried to blame it on Daniel because he was taking pictures of the diamond but was wrong. Daniel is a person who likes to travel around the world and to go to museums to look at the art and the value of it. But Daniel didn’t do it because he was sending photos to his friends to show them where he had been.

3:10 P.M. Detective John is still trying to watch the security room footage and sees Poppy, a girl that went to New York to live over the summer with her cousins and friends. She decided to go to the museum to take pictures to send to family members and more. She was put in jail because the detective thought she was one of the criminal sidekicks that maps out the security guards and museum. She was not guilty because she showed them the location of the pictures and proved that she had not contacted the criminals.

6:03 P.M. The detective tries to see who did not leave in a panic when the Zumpango diamond was stolen. He saw Man leave the museum with a grin on his face. He saw Man not leaving in a panic so he thought he was the thief and it turns out he was correct. It was Man! He was caught in the alleyway talking to someone on the phone about the diamond and where to sell it. Then he was put in cuffs and was taken to jail.

Turns out, Man was one of the most wanted criminals in the world who has been on the run since 1989. His first robbery was a shoplifter and was put behind bars in the FBI prison. When the police went to his warehouse, they saw expensive cars, watches, art, money, gold bars, lots and lots of diamonds that were taken to one of the most secure vaults in the world.

Mission Accomplished!

Mystery of the Phone

MARIELA C.

One day I woke up from a nap, and suddenly I couldn’t find my phone. I started to blame everyone at my house. I started panicking because I had a big interview online.

First I blamed my mom because she always moves it, and when I asked her she said she hadn’t seen it. When my mom said she hadn’t seen it, I went to my dad to ask him and he said he hadn’t seen it since the morning. I was suspicious of my brother so I went to go ask him if he’d seen my phone and of course he said no. I started getting frustrated and mad. I was really sad because I was really looking forward to this interview. I even called my phone on my mom’s phone but nothing, at that time I thought my phone was dead. I tried everything but nothing. I threw myself on my bed and suddenly I felt something hard hit my back. I lifted my converse and saw that my phone was there. I screamed of happiness then I looked at the time and it was 3:40 and my interview started at 3:50. That day I knew I was lucky.

The Vampire’s Soccer Curse

ALEXIA C. M.

The police realized all the soccer balls were stolen the day before the World Cup.

Alexia is the lead detective. Alexia noticed Tobi looked like a vampire. Tobi accused Lucio of stealing the balls. Lucio said he didn’t do it and he points out that Tobi has three balls.

Alexia looks at the camera footage and catches Tobi stealing the balls. Tobi goes to jail and Lucio plays in the World Cup. Tobi uses his vampire power to escape jail. He joins Mateo and they beat Lucio’s team to win the World Cup.

A Mysterious Dream

DAVID C.

One day, Detective X and his brother Detective NYZ were investigating a crime about their Grandma. She was kidnapped. At the start, they did not know this case was about their grandma. So, after they approached the scene with things knocked over, they found four footprints. So there were two people responsible for this case. After searching for a while, they found their first culprit, Marty. They got him to the police station and interrogated him, and he was clear, or so they thought. After their second thoughts, they asked, “Why was he there if he was an alibi for the person?”. They tracked him down to launch a sneak attack on him. They had their slime ready. They said, “Ready, set, go!” They threw their slime to confuse and capture him. To interrogate him again this time, they used a lie detector. They screamed and yelled, “Tell us why you were there at the scene of the crime!” Marty responded, “I will never tell you why I was there!” Detective X said, “Spill it, or you go to jail.” The man said “I can be bailed out by someone.” Detective X said, “Who will bail out a criminal?” He said, “I’m no criminal.” Detective X said, “Then tell us why were you at the crime scene?” The man said “That’s it!” and then got out. Then Detective X ran for him and said, “Come back here!” “Never,” he said. “Why not just give up?” asked Detective X. “I will never just give up,” he said.

After a while, Detective X and the other guys found themselves in a broken-down warehouse. Detective X shouted, “Come out and turn yourself in to the police. They’re on their way.” Marty said, “You have no chance of finding me; besides, you’re out of breath.” “That may be true,” Detective X said, “But still, the police are on their way.” “You want to know why I was there?” Marty said, “I’ll tell you. I’m an undercover detective.” “Wait, what?” Detective X said. “Yes, I’m a detective like you,” Marty said. Detective X had no words. He was just surprised at it. But then, “Wait a minute…I don’t think so,” said Detective X. “Why not?” asked Marty. “Because I track down undercover detectives,” said Detective X. “Do you mean to tell me?” Marty asked. “Yes, no one can be an undercover detective. It’s a crime. Even with the authority of a special Federal Bureau of Investigation, or short FBI. So come out of there!” Detective X yelled. “Okay,” Marty said. “Wait, okay? I thought I would have to handcuff you. Well, okay,” Detective X said. “Not so fast,” said Marty. “Huh?” “It’s you. Why did you have to do that?” Marty said. “I will take you in now!” said Detective X. Marty screamed, “AHHHH!!!” “Come back. I will take you in if you start running now. Stop! Bang, Bang. You’re going to jail. Say goodnight, you criminal. 1, 2, 3. Bang, bang, bang. You’re going to jail,”

Marty woke up from a horrible dream. He pulled out his slime and then, “Bang, bang, bang, you’re going to jail. You’re going to jail for good.”

Marty woke up from a second dream and banged his head, and then he was hurt—Bang, Bang.

And then he woke up again from a third dream and he was in the hospital and then this happened. Slime fired all over the place, and Marty escaped from the nightmare and woke up in prison.

Rebeca’s Missing Chips

LILY R.

Meow meow,” cried Rebeca’s cat, Rain. Rebeca was eating some chips and watching Dance Moms. Rebeca loved chips and Dance Moms. Her cat is just like her. She is lazy and always sleeping.

Randomly, Rebeca gets a text from her best friend Ava. Ava said there was a robber in her neighborhood. “No random guy will break into my house!” Rebeca said. It was getting pretty late so Rebeca went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Rebeca heard a loud noise… like glass breaking! Rebeca went to see what that loud noise was. In her living room her favorite glass was all broken! Rebeca cleaned up the mess and went back to bed. In the morning Rebeca wondered what happened last night. After breakfast Rebeca realized her chips were opened so she went to close it and saw…. “My chips are all gone!!” Rebeca screamed so loud even Rain jumped. “Who would eat them?” Rebeca thought about it for a couple of minutes.

Then she went to ask the neighbors if they saw anything at night. They all said “They weren’t awake at 3 AM.” “What if it was the robber that was in my neighborhood?” Rebeca asked herself. “But why would he just eat chips and break a glass?” “Meow” Rain said as if she was saying “I don’t know, don’t ask me!’ Then Rebeca realized… “Rain, did you eat it?” Rain just moved her nose a little and walked away. It turned out Rain was hungry so she ate the chips and knocked a glass down on her way back.

Rebeca was really mad at Rain. Not just about the chips, but also because her favorite glass was broken because of Rain! So Rebeca kicked Rain out of the house and into Pet Space, which is where humans went to adopt lonely animals. Rain was scared of all the other cats at first. Then one of the cats introduced herself as Isabelle, which happened to be Rain’s favorite cat name. Rain and Isabelle then skipped all the way home, and Rain introduced Isabelle to all her friends. And off they went to play. Meow!

Paige, the Bunny

DESTINIE N.

Paige the Bunny was a striped rainbow bunny who loved to eat doughnuts. Her friends wanted to throw her a birthday party. They had doughnuts with them to bring to the party. They looked for Paige in the kitchen but she wasn’t there.

They find Paige’s clothes in the trash, but not her. They think that Paige’s mean friends made her run away. They see Paige’s mean friends wearing one of Paige’s skirts. They ask them, “What did you do with Paige?” Paige’s mean friend says, “She’s under the bed.”

They go under the bed and they find Paige looking for a magic book to make cake. They say, “Here are some doughnuts. We missed you!” They all go outside to have Paige the Bunny’s birthday party.

The Other Sister

LAILA O.

Once there was a girl named Rose. She and her sister are one year apart. One night they went to sleep and heard something. Someone had broken the window. Thirteen years later, Rose woke up and got ready for her new school because they just moved out of their old house.

A couple minutes later she got in the car and drove to school. When she walked to math class her teacher asked, “Don’t you have a sister?” “I don’t think so,” said Rose in her mind. “Actually, do I have a sister?”

Then the bell rang. After school she asked her Mom if she had a sister. Her mom said “NO! I mean no, why do you ask?” Then they drove home. When Rose got in the house she did her homework and thought about why her Mom said no so loudly in the car.

A couple minutes later she sat down on the couch and watched Star Wars and her Mom said “Dinner is ready.” So they ate, and Rose asked, “Why did you talk so loudly when I asked you if I had a sister?” “What-” her dad opened the door, and said “Can you guys help me bring the groceries in?” “Ok,” said Rose. Then she got in bed after helping her Dad. She started to fall asleep and her Mom and Dad did too.They had turned off the lights and all were asleep. In the middle of the night, she woke up and heard something. It was arguing but no one was awake. It was… She woke up and her mom called her down for breakfast.

She went down and ate some food. Then she went and started to think if she really did have a sister. So her mom said “I am going to work see you later.” “Okay’’ said Rose.

She thought and thought and then she got an idea. She could go to her Mom’s room and could look on the computer for photos. She goes to her Mom’s room and looks for baby photos and then she sees two babies in the photos. The babies looked the same. Knock. She heard someone at her door. Knock.

Rose almost opened the door, but she stopped. She thought that it was her Mom but she doesn’t know, so she goes and actually opens the door and…

It was her Dad and he had more groceries. So her Dad made dinner. Then her mom came back home, and then Rose went and ate her food in her room, “I need to find this girl aka my sister?!” she said to herself.

“When everyone is asleep, I will go search for something in my school and look for some files to find my sister,” Rose said to herself. She got in bed and pretended to be asleep. Her mom came in and said good night.

Then she left. Rose went and sneaked outside and into her school. She went to the principal’s office. Then she went to file one and found nothing, then she looked in file two and nothing again, about 30 minutes later she looked in file 100 and… Then she found something and it was a picture of her sister because she had the same last name.

In the picture, her sister was at their old house. Suddenly she heard footsteps… It was the janitor. Then Rose hid while he looked around and left.

Then she went to their old house. When she got there, she rang the door and no one answered so she went and tried to open the door. It opened and she walked in and it was cold and windy and then she heard someone talking and it was coming from the kitchen. So she walked there slowly and heard someone talking on the phone and so she picked up the phone and it said Kelly. “It’s my mom!

WHAT! Why is my Mom talking to someone? Calm down, me, calm down,” she said to herself and she heard something in the basement.

So she went and opened the door and she saw her Mom, “Mom what are you doing here?!!”

“You know when you asked about your sister?”

“Yes I do mom.”

“Well I beat you to her.”

“Well how did we get separated?”

“Well I did not want another kid so we moved and I left her here.”

“But why?”

“Cause I already told you.”

“So can I see her?”

“NO,” said her mom. “I’m taking you back home.” Then Rose threw something so she could distract her mom and could go and grab her sister. Then her mom turned around and she went and grabbed her sister and ran. When her mom had turned around, they were gone.

The End.

Acknowledgements

826LA would like to thank to following for their support in making this chapbook possible:

Our 826LA Families

Nuestras Familias de 826LA

City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs

Skylight Foundation, a legacy of the Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation

The Joan Leidy Foundation

Josie B.

Michelle G.

Elizabeth B.

Bill M.

Eddie C.

Richard G.

Kacee G.

Jack G.

Jack S.

Michael G.

Elodie M.

Obehi J.

Sugar V.

Gio D.

Doug W.

Jessie L.

Gwyn K.

Christi C.

Ned A.

Breanna H. O.

Emma D.

Ben W.

Peyton L.

Remy S.

Andy A.

Mira V.

Karen V. K.

Susan H.

Omar A.

Nicole A. A.

Linda M.

Monica Arellano

Maya Robles

826LA Intern

Ariana Ponce Olivares

826LA Evening Tutoring Programs Associate

Mike Dunbar

826LA Program & Operations Manager

Pedro Estrada

826LA Program & Operations Manager

Megan Acosta

826LA Senior Manager of Volunteer Programs

Shani Foster

826LA Director of Education

Puicón-Pérez

826LA Design Manager

About 826LA

826LA opened our doors in 2005, as part of the 826 Network founded by writer Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari.

826LA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 who attend Title I schools with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

We believe great leaps in learning can happen with one-onone attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and strengthen each student’s power to express ideas creatively, confidently, and in their individual voice.

826LA Programs

826LA offers a variety of in-person and virtual programming.

TUTORING

Volunteers provide in-person, one-on-one homework help to support students as they navigate all subject areas. Write On! After School supports younger students, while Tuesday and Thursday Night Tutoring supports middle and high school students.

FIELD TRIPS

Our roster of virtual and in-person field trips includes Storytelling & Bookmaking, Well-Wishing & Poetry Writing, Choose-Your-Own- Adventure, and more.

IN-SCHOOLS, WRITERS’ ROOMS, & COLLEGE ACCESS

We provide personal statement writing support for college applications at Manual Arts, Roosevelt, and Venice High Schools and a number of other partner schools, as well as via the Great Los Angeles Personal Statement Weekend event. 826LA staff and volunteers work with teachers to support creative writing projects in the virtual classroom.

826LA.ORG

826LA staff

Jaime Balboa Executive Director

Diego Quevedo Chief of Staff

Shani Foster Director of Education

Raeesa Hyder Director of Advancement

Cheryl Klein Senior Communications Manager

Pedro Estrada Programs & Operations Manager, Echo Park

Mike Dunbar Programs & Operations Manager, Mar Vista

LaTesha Knighten In-Schools Program Manager

Megan Acosta Senior Manager of Volunteer Programs

Alma Carrillo Development Manager

Christie Thomas Institutional Giving Manager

Carinne Mangold Store Manager

Puicón-Pérez Design Manager

Angelica Butiu-Coronado

Program Coordinator, Writers’ Room Roosevelt High School

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Susan Ko President

Sarah Rosenwald

Varet

Vice President

Nancy Yang Treasurer

Chad DePue

Secretary

Andy Alcaraz

Ben Au

Adriana Centeno

Matthew Cherniss

Dave Eggers, Emeritus

Jodie Evans, Emeritus

Scott A. Ginsburg

Eileen Shields

Belinda Tan

Holly A. Thomas

David Ullendorff

Karen Van Kirk

William Trlak Program Coordinator, Writers’ Room at Manual Arts High School

Maricruz Pool-Chan Program Coordinator, Tutoring, Echo Park

Monica Arellano Program Coordinator, Tutoring, Mar Vista

Maddie Silva Program Coordinator, Field Trips, Mar Vista

Mari Zerbe Program Coordinator, Field Trips, Echo Park

Ariana Ponce Olivares Evening Tutoring Programs Associate

ADVISORY

BOARD

J.J. Abrams

Judd Apatow

Miguel Arteta

Mac Barnett

Steve Barr

Joshuah Bearman

Amy Brooks

Father Greg Boyle, SJ

Stefan G. Bucher

Mark Flanagan

Ben Goldhirsh

Rebecca Goldman

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein

DeAnna Gravillis

Spike Jonze

Miranda July

Catherine Keener

Keith Knight

Ariadne Makridakis

Arroyo

Senior Volunteer Coordinator

Wilson Swain

Echo Park Time Travel

Mart Staff

Cole Montgomery Development Coordinator

Larry Hansen

Mar Vista Time Travel

Mart Staff

Marco Beltran

Echo Park Time Travel

Mart Staff

Al Madrigal

Krystyn Madrigal

Tara Roth

Katie McGrath

R. Scott Mitchell

Lani Monos

B.J. Novak

Miwa Okumura

Jane Patterson

Keri Putnam

Sylvie Rabineau

Sonja Rasula

Luis J. Rodriguez

Terri Hernandez

Rosales

Brad Simpson

J. Ryan Stradal

Natalie Tran

Sarah Vowell

Sally Willcox