Mystery in the
Whispering Woods
SCHOLASTIC INC.
Written by Cathy Hapka
Illustrated by Min Sung Ku
Mystery in the
Whispering Woods
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eISBN 978-0-545-76603-6
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Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/
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First printing, September 2013
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Mystery Assignment . . . . . . .1
Chapter 2: The Whispering Woods . . . . . 9
Chapter 3: Camping Surprises . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 4: A Spooky Legend . . . . . . . . .22
Chapter 5: Thumps in the Night . . . . . . 27
Chapter 6: Olivia’s New Plan . . . . . . . . .33
Chapter 7: A Close Call . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Chapter 8: Catching a Ghost . . . . . . . 47
Chapter 9: Heading Home . . . . . . . . . .54
Chapter 1:
Mystery
Assignment
1
Andrea rushed into the classroom.“Am I late?”
she exclaimed.
Her four best friends, Stephanie, Mia, Olivia, and
Emma, were gathered around a lab table.
“Don’t worry. Ms. Russell isn’t even here yet,”
Stephanie said. “That means you’re not late.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Olivia checked the clock. “Class
was supposed to start two and a half minutes ago.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “You’re so scientific, Olivia,”
she teased.
Olivia smiled. “Well, we are in science class.”
2
The five friends laughed. It was a crisp fall day at
Heartlake High. Outside, the autumn leaves were
just beginning to change colors. And this school
year, the friends were all in the same science class
together. That made everything more fun, because
for one thing, they could work in teams on their
projects. For another thing, it meant Olivia could
help them with their homework!
3
As they were still chatting, their teacher, Ms.
Russell, hurried in. “I’m here, I’m here!” she
announced. “Take your seats, please.”
“Ms. Russell looks excited,” Emma whispered to
Andrea. “I hope that doesn’t mean we’re having a
pop quiz today.”
“I know, right?” Andrea whispered back. “Ms.
Russell loves pop quizzes!”
As they were talking, the teacher scribbled big
block letters on the whiteboard.
“MYSTERY,”Andrea read out loud.
“That’s right, Andrea,” Ms. Russell said.“Today
we’re going to talk about mysteries.”
“Wait a second,” the girls’ friend Jacob called out.
“I thought this was science class, not English class!”
Everyone laughed, including Ms. Russell.“I’m
not talking about the kinds of mysteries that get
solved by Sherlock Holmes,” she explained. “I’m
talking about the mysteries of nature.”
Some of the students exchanged confused looks.
4
“Can anyone tell me how scientists in the old
days figured out what we know about nature today?”
Ms. Russell asked.
Olivia raised her hand. “They did experiments?”
she guessed.
“That’s part of it.” Ms. Russell nodded.“But how
did they know what to experiment on?”
After a moment, the teacher continued. “Think
what causes it?”
5
Stephanie raised her hand. “Light passing
through the water in the air,” she answered.
“That’s right,” Ms. Russell said.“And we know
that because we read about it in our textbook earlier
this week. But how did scientists first discover what
caused a rainbow? How did they decide rainbows
weren’t caused by,say, magic?”
“Oh, I get it!” Andrea piped up. “Until scientists
studied what caused a rainbow, it was a mystery.
Something they couldn’t explain.”
“Exactly.” Ms. Russell smiled. “Scientists saw
something in nature they didn’t understand, and
they observed it. For your next group project, I
want you to become scientists. Find something in the
natural world that’s a mystery to you. Study it, record
your findings, and try to explain it through science.”
“But couldn’t we just look up the answers on the
Internet?” Stephanie asked.
“You could,”Ms. Russell replied. “But for this
project, I’d like you to act like scientists did before
6
they had the Internet. Once you’ve observed your
mystery, then you can research it online to see if
your results are correct. Here’s a handout with some
guidelines to help you get started.”
As Ms. Russell passed out the papers, Stephanie
leaned across the table. “We’re going to work
together, right?” she asked her friends.
“Definitely!” Andrea replied.
7
“I still don’t understand what kind of mystery
we’re supposed to find,” Emma said. “What do you
think, Olivia?”
But Olivia didn’t answer. She was staring out
the classroom window thoughtfully. Suddenly, she
snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it!” she exclaimed.
“It’s fall, right? Why don’t we observe the way leaves
change from green to autumn colors?”
“That sounds interesting,” Emma said. “I know
they change colors when it gets colder. But I’ve never
really thought about why.”
Stephanie nodded. “We could go to the park over
the weekend and look for evidence.”
Olivia smiled. “I’ve got an even better idea. I’ll ask
my parents if we can use their camper this weekend.
We could camp out in the Whispering Woods—
there are lots of autumn leaves there!”
“Fabulous!” Andrea exclaimed.
“Do you think they’
ll let us use the camper?”
Mia asked.
8
“Why not?” Stephanie shrugged. “We’ve gone
camping lots of times before. Great idea, Olivia!
You’re a genius!”
“Thanks.” Olivia traded a high five with each
of her friends. “This is going to be the best science
project ever!”
Chapter 2:
The Whispering
Woods
9
Friday afternoon, the autumn sun shone brightly
over Heartlake City. Mia looked around the yard as
she hurried toward the garden shed.
“We’ve picked the perfect project,” she told her
dog, Charlie.
Charlie barked, and then pounced on a pine
cone. He picked it up in his mouth.
“Don’t eat that!” Mia warned.
She opened the shed and grabbed her family’s
battery-powered lantern. Then she crossed it off the
checklist Olivia had given her of what to pack.
10
As Mia headed inside, Charlie eagerly followed
her. The little dog ran over to the kitchen counter
and started barking at a cooler sitting there. It was
stuffed with hot dogs, apples, and snacks for the
weekend.
“That’s not for you.” Mia shook her head. “That’s
people food.”
“Almost ready to go, sweetie?” Mia’s mom called
from the hallway.
the cooler and snapped it shut. “I just need to finish
packing my clothes.”
“You’d better hurry.” Her mom checked her
watch. “Olivia’s parents will be here any minute to
pick you up.”
Mia raced upstairs with Charlie at her heels. Her
duffel bag lay open on her bed. The puppy leaped up
and sniffed at it.
“Oh, Charlie.” Mia giggled. “Those are people
clothes, and they’re still not for you.”
11
A horn honked outside. Mia dashed over to the
window. Olivia’s gleaming pink and green family
camper was parked at the curb.
“Time to go!” Mia said excitedly.
When Mia ran up to the camper, Olivia jumped
down from the front seat. “Let me help you put your
things in the trailer,” she said.
“Thanks!” Mia grinned.
12
Behind them, Olivia’s mom waved from her car.
She was going to follow the camper to the woods,
and then drive back with Olivia’s father once the
girls were settled.
As they stowed Mia’s things, Olivia suddenly
looked down. “Hey, Charlie! Do you want to come
with us?”
Mia turned and saw that Charlie had followed
her outside. He eagerly wagged his tail.
“Charlie’s not allowed to come.” Mia laughed.
“He’d eat all the mysteries of nature!” She led
Charlie back into the house and shut the door.
“Everyone ready?” Olivia asked as Mia came back
to the camper.
“You bet,” all the friends said together. “It’s time
to hit the road!”
“Wait!” Mia’s mom suddenly rushed out of the
house, the front door banging open behind her.She
was holding Mia’s cooler.“You girls almost forgot to
take the food with you!”
13
“Oops,”Mia said.“That would have been bad.
Thanks, Mom!”
As Mia strapped herself in, her mom stowed the
cooler in the back trailer. Then she waved good-bye
and headed back to the house.
“Now is everyone ready?” Olivia asked with a
bright grin. “Whispering Woods, here we come!”
14
Soon the camper was rumbling along an unpaved
road deep in the forest.
“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Olivia
said to her friends. “After we set up camp, we’ll start
collecting leaf samples.”
Stephanie nodded. “We’ll want to get leaves from
lots of different kinds of trees.”
“And we’ll record the temperature in the woods
and how much daylight there is,”Emma added.
“Those are the two things that change from summer
to fall.”
“When we get home on Sunday, we can research
what we found on the Internet,” Mia said.“Ms.
Russell said that’s okay as long as we observe and
come up with a hypothesis ourselves.”
Olivia nodded. “I also brought something else to
help us.”
“What is it?” Andrea asked. “Is it one of your
scientific inventions?”
15
“Maybe.” Olivia winked. “But it’s a surprise—
you’ll have to wait and see when we get there.”
As the girls rode along, they passed a few other
families setting up tents in the woods. Finally, their
camper pulled up to a big, flat clearing. A fire pit
was in the center, and a large picnic table stood to
one side.
16
“This is great!” Stephanie exclaimed, hopping
down to the ground. “We’ll have plenty of space to
work on our science project here.”
“The ranger said we reserved the very last
campsite,” Olivia explained. “His office is right down
the road if we need to use the phone. But otherwise,
we’ll have this whole area to ourselves.”
The friends quickly unpacked and waved good-
bye to Olivia’s parents. Her dad beeped the horn
as they pulled away in her mom’s car. Then Olivia
turned to the others. There was an excited gleam in
her eye.
“Okay,”she said. “Is everyone ready to see my
surprise?”
Chapter 3:
Camping
Surprises
17
Olivia hurried around to the back of the camper
and opened the trailer. She dug something out and
held it up. “Ta-da!”
“What is it?” Mia asked. “It looks like a camera
with a big extra part on it.”
“It is. This camera has a timer,” Olivia explained.
“I can set it to take a picture every few seconds, every
few minutes, or however often I want.”
“Cool ! Take my picture now.”Emma struck a
pose. “I worked hard on my camping outfit.”
Stephanie laughed. “It’s supposed to be for
18
photographing our mystery of nature, not your
fashion sense.”
“Well, the way some people dress is a complete
mystery to me.” Emma waved her hand.
Olivia looked proudly at her invention. “I was
thinking we could set up my camera to focus on
some leaves,”she said. “It will be sort of like a time-
lapse film.”
19
“Neat!” Stephanie exclaimed. “Let’s go find a
good spot to set it up.”
“Shouldn’t we get our camp ready first?” Emma
glanced to the fire pit. “I’m hungry.”
“Here.” Mia grabbed her cooler from the trailer
and pulled out a bag of apples. “We can snack on
these while
we’re setting up our project.”
Mia placed the bag on the picnic table and
each of the friends grabbed a piece of fruit. They
munched as they scouted the nearby woods for the
best spot to photograph the autumn leaves. Once the
camera was ready, they returned to the camper.
“Hey,who knocked over the apples?”Emma asked.
The girls looked over to where she was pointing.
Several apples were scattered across the table and
onto the ground.
Mia giggled. “That looks like something Bella
would do when she’s looking for food.”
“It was probably a squirrel,” Olivia said. “Come
on, let’s start the campfire for dinner.”
20
“Oof!” Andrea collapsed dramatically onto her
sleeping bag. “I’m so full I couldn’t eat another bite!”
Night had fallen over the Whispering Woods.
The friends had just finished a tasty meal of hot dogs
cooked over the fire.
Emma licked mustard off her fingers. “That was
delicious. Now what should we do?”
Stephanie rubbed her hands together and
grinned. “How about some ghost stories?”
21
“Ghost stories?” Emma sounded curious.
“I know one!” Andrea leaned forward.“It’s called
The Tale of the Phantom Horse
. I remembered it
when Mia mentioned Bella earlier.”
“You did?” Emma gulped. “Why?”
“Because.” Andrea said in a hushed voice. “This
ghost story might be
true
!”
22
Emma wrapped both arms around herself and
shivered. “Horses aren’t scary.”
“Real horses aren’t,”Andrea agreed.“But this is a
ghost
horse. Long ago, when Heartlake City was first
founded, the mayor had a beloved horse.”Andrea
suddenly stopped talking and looked around at each
of her friends.
“Well?” Emma said breathlessly.
“Yeah, why’d you stop talking?” Stephanie asked.