West Meadows Detectives: The Case of the Berry Burglars
I took a deep breath Going to school without my best friend wasn’t a big deal It’s just that I don’t like surprises They can ruin my whole day And Hajrah not coming to school today would be a surprise Just then someone called my name from the other side of the schoolyard It was Hajrah She waved her arms and jumped up and down Myron she called Come here The buzzing in my brain went quiet Hajrah was here The surprise was over but it was replaced by a new question Why does she want me to leave the school doors Hajrah knew I didn’t like changes to my routine Running across the playground a minute before the entry bell rang was a big change Myron Come here she called again 8
Hajrah isn’t just my best friend She’s also my detective partner We solve mysteries in our neighborhood She calls us the West Meadows Detectives One thing I do know about my detective partner I can trust her I put the evidence together Hajrah knows I don’t like leaving the school doors but she is asking me to do this anyway And she’s not giving up That can mean only one thing I ran across the playground Have you found a new mystery Hajrah’s eyes went big It’s a messy one I don’t like messes I said You’ll like this one She led me to the far side of the yard We stopped near the big chain-link fence that runs around the school I got here about ten minutes ago I walked by the school garden and this is what I saw 9
The garden was near the fence It had been planted by the garden club a few weeks ago Now it was the middle of June so the tiny seedlings had grown into leafy green vegetable plants and colorful flowers But something was wrong At one end of the garden leaves had been trampled and stems snapped in two Something or someone had damaged the plants Other kids gathered around One girl was moving around the flattened plants snapping pictures with the camera on her phone Glitch got here a few minutes ago Hajrah said Hey Myron Glitch looked up from her phone and waved Her real name is Danielle but everyone calls her Glitch because she is so good with computers I figured you guys 10
would want a closer look at this mess when we get to class Hajrah leaned in close and spoke quietly I’ve asked around but nobody knows what happened and none of the garden club members are here right now That’s odd I pulled my notebook from my backpack You’d think one of them would be here to check on the plants in the morning Hajrah shrugged It could be important or it could be nothing I made a note in my book anyway This early in an investigation it was hard to tell the difference between important and nothing The school bell rang What’s going on here a loud voice boomed We spun to face Mrs Rainer our school 11
