The Mystery of the Man Behind the Mask by Serena Sun

One eerie night,Detective Jana lay on her couch when she heard the doorbell ring.

“Hello, who’s there?” Jana opened the door and a plump old man entered.He wore worn out clothes and had a white goatee.

“Hello my name is Chester and am here to announce you’ve got a new case.”

“Have I even met you?why did you not contact me before you came?”

“First of all,this is my case we are talking about and second of all,I am your good friend Myah’s father.She told me I should talk to you about my case,in fact she refused to let me go anywhere else before I told you that my tower which holds my family is now bent out of shape and has a few stolen items that meant alot to me and my family.”

“I am sorry sir.Of course I will help you with this case.I will talk to Myah and set up a meeting to go deeper into this case.Please tell Myah and the rest of your family not to worry.Get some rest and I will see you tomorrow.Goodnight Chester.”

Detective Jana closed the door,excited for her new case.she went to bed and closed her eyes and had the weirdest dream… . . .

Ring,ring,ring!

“Oh my,what time is it? Oh no.I’m late for my meeting with Chester! Hello?’

“Good morning sleepy pants! I will give you 10 minutes to get ready.Come soon!”said Chester.

“ I am so sorry Mr.Chester! I forgot to set my alarm clock.Don’t worry I’ll be there in a flash!”

“ I am counting on it!”

“ See You soon,”as soon as I hung up,I grabbed my shoes,brushed my teeth,grabbed my detective bag, and was out the door.When I made it to their tower,I had to climb up their super long staircase.As I climbed the stairs, I noticed a few bricks were out of place and occasionally a crash of bricks falling.Now I knew what Chester was talking about.As I entered the room,a warm smile greeted me.

“Hey Jana! It has been so long since I have seen you!”

“Myah! I’ve missed you so much! Sorry for keeping you waiting,like I told Chester, I didn’t set my alarm clock so I came as quick as I could.As a matter of fact,I haven’t even had breakfast yet”,I chuckled at my foolishness.

“My then you must be famished!”Myah’s mom said as she entered the room, holding a laundry basket.

“Good morning Mrs.Denei.I really need to get started on the case. Please don’t feel the need to feed me.I will eat at my house.Now Myah,let’s start.”

“All right.Last night as I was brushing my teeth,I heard a strange noise coming from papa’s room.I slowly walked to his room,the noise got louder and louder.I bit my nails as I entered his room and all of a sudden the noise stopped!”

“That is very odd.I think the noise could reflect that your stolen items might have something to do with this.Is Chester home?”

“Did someone say my name?”Chester said as he entered the room.

“I did.Good morning.Myah just told me about a noise coming from your room last night and I was wondering if you heard anything after you called me?” I was starting to get suspicious.

“Um… I think I heard a little squeal at 12:00.”

“Are you sure you did not hear anything else?” He had a guilty grin on his face.

“Sir i need you to tell the truth,”all of a sudden, he started running and out of the blue,he jumped out of the window!

“Chester!”I ran after him as i heard myah and her mother weeping in the corner.Even though I was terrified, I had to act fast.I climbed down the stairs hoping i wasn’t to late.I ran out the door looking for any sight of him.I was too late.I climbed up the stairs,knowing that that guy was not Chester.The questions I now had were where is the real Chester and who was behind the mask?

Flying Bunnies by Genevieve Cadwell

Can bunnies fly? Of course they can. Well maybe not all bunnies can, but my bunny sure can.

Twilight was writing as she was laying under the stars. But as she got a new idea. She needed to check her idea out.

Twilight sat up and made a wish. Slowly, she was lifted of the ground. She flew herself all the way to a friends house.

She flew across the ocean to her friends house.

Once she reached the lighthouse, she ran up the twisty stairs. Then, she sat down to write.

She wrote with a magical pen. Whatever she wrote, happened in storyland. She needed to go to storyland to learn more about her story.

Once she finished writing, she walked over and turned on the lighthouse light. Then she ran back down the twisty stairs, made a wish, and started to fly.

She flew all the way to storyland. Then, she flew throughout storyland to where her story was being taken place.

She saw her main character, Clarissa, skipping down the dirt path to her house. Then she looked at how well the forest in her story was going along.

But as she was walking throughout the forest she couldn't remember the wayout. She tried to fly away but she couldn't leave the ground. Then she remembered her story. The forest didn't have any magic in it! She tried hopping, but since she mainly flew, she couldn't jump very high. She started calling for help.

Clarissa heard some shouting and ran off to find the person shouting. She found Twilight on the ground crying. Clarissa asked what was wrong and received an answer. Lucky for Twilight, Clarissa knew the woods like the back of her hand.

She led Twilight out of the forest and made her promise she would come back again. Twilight agreed and flew home.

But first Twilight had something to add to her story. But this part was about herself.

Once Twilight was actually done, she flew home to her nice warm bed. Tomorrow she would go and visit Clarissa.

The Rainforest by Genevieve Cadwell

Once there were two, cute, twin bears. Brooke and Ben were asleep in their cave. It was 6:00.

Suddenly their alarm went off. They both sat up in bed and yelled

“Como and George are coming today!”

Como and George were their best friends. And today, they were coming over to play.

Each time the friends played, they went on an adventure. Today they were going to a rainforest. Since Como and George were monkeys, they were going to show Ben and Brooke how to swing on vines. They couldn't wait!

“Ding Dong.” Como and George were here. Ben and Brooke rushed to the cave entrance.

“Ben. Brooke. We haven't seen you in forever!”

“We’ve missed you too, Como.”

“Ben. Brooke. Are you ready to check out the rainforest?”

“Swing on vines?”

“You bet ya we’re ready!”

“Okay. So what are we waiting for? Let’s go check out the rainforest!”

Ben, Brooke, Como and George ran all the way to the rainforest. Then when they saw four vines, all lined up next to each other, they ran to catch a ride.

“Okay. We’re going to ride these vines across this valley. Hold on tight! Here we go!!!!!”

“Whee!”

“That was awesome George, Como. But where’s Ben?”

“Ben??! BEN!!!!!!? Where are you?!??” Brooke shouted. Where was her brother?

“Hey. Guys look. There he is!!”

Ben had accidently let go of the vine. He started falling down, down, down. Luckily he grabbed ahold of a cliff and climbed up.

“Guys. We need to call 911 immediately!”

15 minutes later, a helicopter landed on the ledge Ben was stuck on. They loaded him on to the helicopter and examined him.

2 days later, Ben returned home. He had a broken leg, but other then that, he was fine. Everyone signed his cast, and both Ben and Brooke’s mother, and Como and George’s mom said no more adventures without them.

Raghav, the Mummy, and the Business Card by Raghav Goel

I am Raghav Goel, a detective, but I am not like Encyclopedia Brown! He does his detective work in a suburb, but I work around the world.

So I had a case with a live mummy roaming Giza, a city in Egypt, terrorizing the citizens. So of course, I flew there.

When I arrived, I was shocked to see no one there, because Egypt was very popular. Not even one person was out; everyone was thinking the mummy was real, so I thought maybe the people saw the mummy.

So I knocked on a door and someone screamed. I said I was here to investigate about the mummy case, so she let me in.

“When did the mummy appear?” I said.

“Yesterday, the mummy came up in front of an audience and I was there. The mummy roared and everyone ran away!” she said.

“Thanks for the information”

“No problem, just please solve this mystery; no one is leaving their homes”

“Can I have the directions to the incident?”

“Sure. Take a right from here. Then, when you reach the stage, take a left”

“Bye”

Then, I went to the spot where the woman told me the incident happened and found a business card that said Sand 4 Life.

So, I called Sand 4 Life and got everyone that was on the card to come to the incident site. A piece of white cloth fell from one of the people.

Five seconds later, the mummy appeared and scared everyone. I went under the stage, waited for the mummy to turn around and I followed.

He led me to a lab where I found a bunch of mummy making equipment with a lot of the same white cloth and the mummy entered behind me and I said

“You are a fake mummy!”

“ROAR”

I ran out the door and pulled the linen cloth and I yelled “This is the mummy reveal!” and I pulled the bandages.

 A person emerged from it and everyone was shocked to see that it was a police officer. The police arrived and arrested the “mummy” and the mummy went to jail and everyone was happy. Another case solved by me.

Raghav, the Ekushka, and the Sari by Raghav Goel

I am Raghav Goel, a detective, but I am not like Encyclopedia Brown! He does his detective work in a suburb, but I work around the world.

So I had this one very strange case about a certain horse called an Ekushka that lives in Indonesia drowning people but it was usually 1 or 2 a year but that year there were 50. So of course, I flew over there.

After I reached the country, everyone was in their homes and I heard crying. I knocked on the door and a woman came to answer. She let me inside.

“(In Hindi) Hi. Can you please tell me about an Ekushka”.

“ (In Hindi) An Ekushka was a horse that looked like a horse used for riding, but it let a person ride them and they were led to the water and the victim was drowned”.

“Thank You”

I went to the swamp where people drowned but there was nothing but a linen cloth that came from a sari, Indonesian traditional clothing for women.

I went back to the village putting the cloth in my pocket and asked people who this could have belonged to. Someone said that it was from Capada, a clothing store, so I went to investigate.

I found the small shack that was working which was strange because no one was outside because of the Ekushka.

Suddenly, someone screamed.

Did someone else die? I went dashing towards the pond and the woman who screamed was right there. Someone was drowned by the Ekushka.

But when I took a glance at the woman, she had the same linen cloth for her sari with a rip in it. I yelled to get the police and 5 minutes later they arrived and arrested the woman for multiple times of murder.  The police asked how I knew it was her.

I said, “I first found the linen cloth.” Taking it out of my pocket, “I heard her scream that someone died. When I noticed the rip in her sari I knew she set this all up.”

The culprit hung her head low and said that she knew how to speak horse so she bribed the Ekushka infinite food to drown people.  So case closed, another mystery solved by Raghav Goel.

The Pig in Her Bag by Britta Nathan

It was December, a busy month for the farmer’s market.  Mia trekked past the stands with her pig, Leo. He was named after Leonardo Da Vinci, Mia’s favorite scientist, and had been a birthday present from her late Grandmother.  Mia had ridden there on her rusty bike, with Leo in the basket. Leo was a tiny pig, but healthily plump. They had been sent by mother to get some beans. They secretly bought some honey from the honey stand. Then they got to the beans.

Mia got in line with Leo under her arm and fished for her money.  Soon it was their turn.

“Why, hello!  That is quite the pig!  Think I could buy it off you?  Where are your parents?” The person at the stand looked around.

“He is not for sale, and my parents are at home.  Now could I have some beans, please?”

“Sure thing, that would be $5, please.”  Mia pulled out her money. $3.00. Oops. $2 spent on honey.  Mia thought mother had sent extra money.

“I actually don’t have enough money!  Sorry!” Leo and Mia went home to get more money.  As they pulled into the driveway, they heard mother open the broken screen door.

“Mia!  You’re back!  Did you bring the beans?” mother asked.  Mia explained. Except for the honey part, of course.

“And to think!  That lady thought she could buy Leo!” Mia finished angrily.

“I could have sworn I gave you $5, but, Mia, you can’t keep that pig of yours forever.  It might be about time we sold it. We could use the extra cash. Tell you what, I’ll come with to the market and we can-”

“Leo is a he! And you’ll never sell him!  I won’t let you!” she interrupted. Mia ran into the house and up the bare stairs to the room she shared with  three younger siblings. She locked the door and sat on her bed, eyes wide, for a moment. Then she grabbed her old school backpack and emptied out all the folders and notebooks still inside.

“Mia, let me in!  Listen to me! You unlock this door right now!” she heard mother say.  Mia did not, however, follow mother’s instructions. Instead, she reached into the closet and grabbed a few outfits, which she put in the backpack.  Then she rushed to the window and opened it. Mia and Leo were on the second floor. They needed to get out without using the door. Mia stuck Leo in the backpack, closed it, and jumped.  Leo squealed. Mia ran to her bike and got on.

The ride was uneventful, and pretty soon Mia and Leo were at the playground, a rusty mess of slides and monkey bars.

“Hi, Mia!” Uh oh, Tina, a younger sister.

“Hi, Tina, I’m just here playing with Leo.”

“Can I play?”

“No.”

“Why?” Tina whined.

“Go away, Tina.” Tina reluctantly left.

“Now, Leo, we wait,” Mia said.  And so they waited for dark, eating the honey that Mia still had in her pocket.  Before long, the park emptied out and the sky darkened. Mia put Leo in the bike basket and they rode home.

Mia pulled out the keys from her backpack and unlocked the door.  During the school year, she often got home to an empty house and so had to have her own keys.  They had never been taken out of the backpack after the school year ended. Mia could hear her parents snoring gently in the next room.  She snuck into the kitchen on her tiptoes, every moment listening for her parents. Mia opened the pantry and pulled out dried fruit. She knew it would keep for a while, a necessity for her plans.  Then she grabbed some peanut butter and a few apples. Mia crept up the stairs, wincing at every creak. The snoring in the room below stopped. Mia froze. The door to her parents room opened. Mia was immensely grateful Leo was outside in his little pen instead of with her.  She climbed the rest of the way up the stairs just as mother came out of the room. Mia turned around.

“Oh, hi mother!” she said nervously.  Mother swept up the stairs and hugged her.

“You came home!  But where is that pig of yours?”

“I, um, I realized you were right.  And I… Sold him. To the green bean lady.” Mia sweated.  She hated lying to her parents. But it was worth it if it saved Leo.

“Oh, Mia, I am so proud!  How much did you get?” Mia froze.

“Um… I got...er... $10.  It’s... in my backpack.” She was in deep now.

“Well, let’s talk about this in the morning.  You go to bed now.”

“Actually, I was just going to put my backpack in my room,” she held up the backpack, “And then put my bike away.”

“You do that.  I will go back to bed as well.” Mother went back down the stairs and into her room.  Mia dropped off the backpack and went outside to put the bike away. But instead, she opened the garage and grabbed the family’s camping tent and a sleeping bag.  She put these in the pen with Leo. Then Mia wheeled her bike to next to the pen and went inside after closing the garage door. In her bed, Mia waited for an hour to make sure mother was asleep.  She almost dozed off a few times, but managed to stay awake. Then Mia grabbed her backpack and jumped out the window again. In the small yard, she grabbed her equipment and put Leo in the bike basket.  Soon they were riding to the park again.

This time, they never came back.  Within a few weeks, Mia and Leo became experts at hiding.  They moved camp often and Mia took small jobs to make enough money to keep them going.  They only got caught once, and escaped. And that is the story of Mia and her pig, Leo.