The Make-Believe Mystery by Carolyn Keene

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



Nancy took one of the purple notebooks from Mrs. Reynolds. She opened the notebook to the