Earth Day Escapade

  Who rained on the parade?

  River Heights Elementary School is putting on an Earth Day parade, and Nancy’s class has a special honor: They get to build the float! Nancy, Bess, George, and all the kids in Mrs. Ramirez’s class have worked hard to make the “greenest” float they can, collecting recycled materials to use for decoration.

  But someone’s spoiled all the fun and sabotaged the float days before the parade. Who could’ve done something like this—and why? Sounds like another case for the Clue Crew!

  TEST YOUR DETECTIVE SKILLS WITH THESE OTHER CLUE CREW CASES!

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  A Ready-for-Chapters Book

  Cover designed by Lisa Vega

  Cover illustration copyright © 2009

  by Macky Pamintuan

  Ages 6–9

  kids.simonandschuster.com

  0109

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Text copyright © 2009 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Macky Pamintuan

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  NANCY DREW, NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW, ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Designed by Lisa Vega

  The text of this book was set in ITC Stone Informal.

  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition January 2009

  Library of Congress Control Number 2008928032

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-7218-1 (print)

  ISBN-10: 1-4169-7218-8

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-5351-2 (eBook)

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE: QUEEN OR MEAN?

  CHAPTER TWO: MYSTERY NOTE

  CHAPTER THREE: TRASH TROUBLE!

  CHAPTER FOUR: ART SMART

  CHAPTER FIVE: ROYAL FLUSH

  CHAPTER SIX: LUNCH HUNCH

  CHAPTER SEVEN: WRITE ON!

  CHAPTER EIGHT: NAME GAME

  CHAPTER NINE: OH, BROTHER!

  CHAPTER TEN: HIP, HIP, PARADE!

  “Detectives like me do lots of things to help the earth,” eight-year-old Nancy Drew read out loud. “My detective club, the Clue Crew, recycles our clue bags. Except the ones with icky stuff inside, like chewed-up gum or scabby Band-Aids!”

  “Eww—gross!” Deirdre Shannon cried from her desk.

  Nancy ignored Deirdre as she kept reading her essay, “What I Do to Help Save the Earth.”

  Every kid in Mrs. Ramirez’s third-grade class had written an essay for Earth Week.

  Earth Week was coming up, and River Heights Elementary School was planning a parade down River Street. Because Mrs. Ramirez’s class had collected the most cans and bottles to recycle, they would have their own parade float.

  Best of all, the student who wrote the best essay would be picked by Mrs. Ramirez to be the King or Queen of Green!

  “And that’s how Bess, George, and I help save the earth,” Nancy finished reading. She brushed aside her reddish blond bangs, looked up, and smiled.

  “Thank you, Nancy,” Mrs. Ramirez said.

  Bess Marvin and George Fayne both gave Nancy a thumbs-up as she walked back to her desk.

  “Awesome, Nancy!” whispered George.

  “Even the icky part!” Bess giggled.

  “Thanks,” Nancy whispered back. She was the last in the class to read her essay. As she sat down, she felt Felicity Faulkner tap her shoulder. Felicity sat in the desk behind Nancy. She was also the new kid in the class.

  “I liked the part about the energy-saving lightbulbs in the Clue Crew’s flashlights,” Felicity whispered, leaning over. “We use only CFL bulbs at home!”

  Nancy already knew. Felicity’s whole essay had been about how earth-friendly her family was. Not only did the Faulkners save electricity, they saved water by flushing the toilet only when absolutely necessary.

  Deirdre was grossed out by that, too!

  “You all wrote excellent essays, boys and girls,” Mrs. Ramirez said as she walked to the front of the classroom. “Now let’s talk about the Earth Week parade.”

  Nadine Nardo’s hand shot up. “Are you going to pick the king or queen now, Mrs. Ramirez?” she asked.

  Nancy wiggled excitedly in her seat. She wanted to be the Queen of Green more than anything!

  “Let’s talk about the float first,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “Peter, show the class what you made last night.”

  Peter Patino stood up. He carried something made of colored clay to the front of the classroom.

  “What’s that?” asked Tommy Maron.

  “I asked Peter to make a clay model of our parade float,” Mrs. Ramirez explained.

  The kids stretched their necks to see Peter’s clay model. Nancy thought it looked a bit like a spaceship.

  “Will our float be made out of clay too?” Shelby Metcalf asked.

  Mrs. Ramirez shook her head. “The float will be a flatbed truck pulled by a tractor,” she told the class. “And it will be decorated with the cans and bottles you collected.”

  Nancy raised her hand and asked, “What’s that round thing in the middle?”

  “It’s a birthday cake,” Mrs. Ramirez said with a smile. “I thought we’d celebrate the earth’s birthday and call the float ‘Happy Earth Day to You!’”

  “Mrs. Ramirez?” Kevin Garcia asked next. “What will the cake be made of? Chocolate? Coconut? Vanilla?”

  “The cake will be made out of recycled cans and cardboard,” the teacher answered.

  “Cans and cardboard?” said Kevin. “What good is a cake you can’t eat?”

  “Who cares about cake?” Deirdre said. She stood and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Mrs. Ramirez, where will my throne—I mean—where will the king or queen’s throne be on the float?”

  Nancy looked sideways at Bess and George. Deirdre Shannon was used to getting everything she wanted. And now she wanted to be the Queen of Green!

  “The throne will be in the back of the float,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “Any other questions?”

  Deirdre sat down and Quincy Taylor stood up. “I don’t see my compost bin on that float, Mrs. Ramirez,” he said.

  “Your compost bin won’t be on the float, Quincy,” Mrs. Ramirez told him gently.

  “But compost is important, Mrs. Ramirez!” Quincy cried. “When the old leaves, fruit, and veggie scraps rot, they feed the earth!”

  “You forgot to mention the worms,” George put in.

  “Georgia is right, Quincy,” said Mrs. Ramirez. “We don’t want the worms inside the bin to crawl out during the parade.”

  Nancy could see George wrinkle her nose. Not because of the worms, but because she hated her real name—Georgia!

  “They’re hard-working worms!” Quincy said. “I mixed them in the soil myself. First they eat the stuff in the bin, then they recycle it by going to the bathroom—”

  “Too much information!” Nadine Nardo cut in.

  “Quincy, your compost bin in back of the school is a hit,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “It just can’t be on the float.”

  “Then I hate this parade,” Quincy muttered to himself. But Nancy heard him loud and clear.

  “Okay, everybody,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “The time has come to announce the King or
Queen of Green!”

  Nancy grinned at Bess and George, who were grinning too. This was the moment they were waiting for!

  Mrs. Ramirez held up a small piece of paper. “As I said, all of your essays were great. But the best one was written by …”

  “Pick me … pick me … pick me,” Nancy murmured. She squeezed her eyes shut and crossed her fingers. She tried crossing her toes, too, but her shoes were too tight!

  “Felicity Faulkner!” Mrs. Ramirez announced.

  Felicity jumped up from her seat. She pumped her fist in the air and shouted, “Yay, me!”

  Nancy’s heart sank. But no one was as upset as Deirdre.

  “But Mrs. Ramirez!” she said. “Felicity just wrote an essay. I wrote a whole page about it on my own website, Dishing with Deirdre! I even had a message board where kids wrote how great my website was. And how I should be queen!”

  “What for?” Tommy muttered. “You’re already a princess.”

  “I heard that, Tommy Maron!” Deirdre snapped.

  “Deirdre, sit down, please,” said Mrs. Ramirez. “There are other things you can do besides being queen.”

  “Like what?” Deirdre asked.

  “You can be in the recycled fashion show,” Mrs. Ramirez suggested, “and make old clothes look new again!”

  “Wear old clothes?” cried Deirdre. “The oldest clothes I have are six months old!”

  “Give me a break!” George groaned under her breath.

  Mrs. Ramirez went on about the float. There would be a recycled-items musical band. Kids would play instruments made out of empty bottles and cans. And everyone in the class would get to decorate the float for the parade.

  “And my throne,” Felicity said, waving her arm. “I want it to be fit for a queen!”

  Nancy didn’t feel bad anymore about not being queen. She couldn’t wait to work on the float with her best friends.

  “I can’t wait to build our float,” Bess said later during recess. “I can fix or build anything, you know.”

  “Maybe we can decorate the float with recycled computer parts!” said George, her dark eyes flashing. “What do you think of that?”

  “As long as they’re not from my computer.” Nancy giggled. She knew George was a computer geek. Bess and George were cousins, but not at all alike. Bess had long blond hair and loved girly-girl clothes. George had curly dark hair. She loved clothes too—as long as they were comfy enough to do cartwheels in.

  As the friends walked to the swings, they passed Deirdre, Nadine, and Madison Foley. The three girls had been chosen to be the recycled fashion models. But they were not talking about clothes. They were talking about Felicity.

  “Some queen!” Madison was saying. “She doesn’t even flush the toilet.”

  “Remind me never to go to her sleepover!” Deirdre scoffed.

  George shook her head as the models strutted away. “Those things they said about Felicity were mean!” she said.

  “I know!” said Nancy. But then she smiled. “Just for that, let’s build Felicity the best throne ever!”

  Bess nodded and said, “We can find some old material and cover a chair with it. Maybe red velvet.”

  The girls ran to ask Mrs. Ramirez if they could see the float in the back of the school.

  “Sure,” Mrs. Ramirez told them. “But it’s still just a flatbed truck.”

  “Not for long!” said Bess.

  Nancy, Bess, and George ran around the school to the back. They could see Quincy stirring his compost bin with a long shovel.

  Then they saw the float, already covered with bright green felt. In the middle of the truck stood a chair.

  “That’s going to be the throne,” Nancy guessed.

  “What’s that on the chair?” asked George.

  She hoisted herself up onto the flatbed truck. Then she picked a bottle up from the chair.

  “It’s probably a recycled bottle,” Nancy guessed. “Somebody must have left it for our float.”

  “They also left a note,” George said. She shook the bottle upside down until a piece of paper dropped out.

  “A note in a bottle?” Bess gasped. “Read what it says, George.”

  Nancy was curious too. She listened as George read the note out loud. “It says, ‘Queen of Green … come clean!’”

  Nancy wrinkled her nose.

  What did that mean?

  “It’s probably a note for Felicity,” George said, jumping down from the float. “But what does it mean by ‘come clean’?”

  “Come clean means confess,” said Nancy. “But what did Felicity do wrong?”

  Nancy wanted to ask Quincy if he’d seen anybody put the bottle on the chair. But when she turned toward his compost bin, he was gone.

  “Maybe we should show the note to Felicity,” George suggested.

  Nancy shook her head as she folded the note and slipped it into her jacket pocket. “It might spoil her fun about being queen,” she said. “But we should keep it just in case.”

  “In case of a case?” Bess asked.

  “Maybe,” said Nancy. But she didn’t think the note was a case for the Clue Crew—at least not yet!

  As the girls turned to go back to recess, they saw a bunch of kindergartners. They were holding plastic pails and staring at the float.

  Nancy recognized Quincy’s little brother, Emmett. He was holding a pail too.

  “What are you doing? And where’s your teacher?” she asked him.

  “She’s over there. She said we could go and dump food mush in my brother Quincy’s compobin if we stayed together,” Emmett replied. “We can’t wait to see all those neat worms!”

  A girl in a pink jacket pointed to the float. “First let’s climb up on that!” she said.

  The kindergartners began charging toward the float, until George yelled, “Stop!”

  “Why can’t we climb it?” asked Emmett.

  “Because it’s our float,” Nancy said. “We’re going to decorate it for the parade.”

  “Big deal!” called a boy with freckles, flapping his hands. “We’re marching in the parade!”

  “Then why don’t you march back to recess?” George asked.

  “Okay!” Emmett said. He turned to his friends and shouted, “Company … forward—march!”

  The kindergartners began stomping their feet. Chanting, “Hup, hup, hup,” they marched their way around the school.

  “They forgot to dump their compost,” Bess pointed out.

  “And we forgot about recess!” Nancy said.

  But as they left the float, Nancy glanced over her shoulder. Who wrote the mysterious note to Felicity? And what did she have to come clean about?

  “Daddy, don’t throw away my broccoli scraps!” Nancy said that night after dinner.

  “Why not?” Mr. Drew asked, holding a plate over the kitchen trash can. He and Nancy were clearing the table.

  “I can throw them into Quincy’s compost bin tomorrow,” Nancy explained. “The worms will eat and recycle them!”

  “Worms?” said Mr. Drew. He gave Nancy a little wink. “At least someone is eating their vegetables.”

  Hannah Gruen smiled as she loaded plates into the dishwasher. “I can put the broccoli in a plastic bag for you, Nancy,” she said. “Just don’t mistake the compost for your lunch.”

  “Eww, gross!” Nancy laughed.

  Hannah, the Drews’ housekeeper, had been making Nancy laugh since she was three years old and her mother had died. Hannah could never take the place of Nancy’s mother, but she came pretty close!

  “Guess what?” said Nancy. “Bess, George, and I found a mysterious note on the Queen of Green’s throne today.”

  “Do you know who wrote it?” Mr. Drew asked.

  “The only person I can think of is Deirdre,” Nancy replied. “She was mad that she wasn’t picked to be queen.”

  “Maybe Deirdre just needed to blow off some steam,” Hannah suggested.

  Nancy nodded. She had decided not to tell
Felicity about the mysterious note. Besides …

  “Whoever wrote the note was being earth-friendly, too!” Nancy said.

  “In what way?” asked Mr. Drew.

  “They reused the bottle for the note,” Nancy said with a smile. “And both the bottle and the paper can be recycled.”

  “Our float is going to be the best part of the parade!” Nancy told Bess and George.

  It was the first day of Earth Week. The kids were sliding their trays along the metal ledge in the lunchroom. They had been working on the float for a few days now and it was looking good.

  Nancy, Bess, and George had finished decorating Felicity’s throne that morning. Bess had brought in her grandmother’s old red velvet coat to cover the chair. Hannah had given the girls a string of gleaming white pearls she no longer wore. They weren’t real pearls, but they looked awesome draped over the back of the throne.

  “It looks so regal!” Felicity had swooned.

  “Wait till you see your crown,” Tommy said. “I’m making it out of recycled dog food cans.”

  “Dog food?” Felicity gulped.

  “Don’t worry,” said Tommy. “My dog licked them all clean!”

  Deirdre, Madison, and Nadine spent the morning painting hats made out of jumbo tin cans with smooth safety edges. By the time they went to lunch, their hands were streaked with paint.

  “Hey, supermodels,” Mrs. McGillicuddy, the head lunch lady, called. “You’d better wash your hands or you’ll be painting your veggie burgers!”

  “Okay,” Deirdre said with a little giggle.

  Nancy watched as Deirdre and her friends left the lunchroom. “Deirdre doesn’t seem mad anymore about not being queen,” she said.

  “Deirdre may be over it,” said George. “But the Queen of Green is acting like a royal pain.”

  “A royal pain?” Nancy repeated. She looked to see where George was pointing. Felicity was standing by the trash cans.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Felicity snapped at a second grader. “That water bottle needs to be recycled!”

  “Who made you boss?” the boy asked.

  “That’s ‘queen’ to you, bucko!” Felicity snapped.