The Mystery of the Soccer Snitch (8 page)

“Maybe she won't,” Jessie said. Then she had an idea. “Do you want me to get it back from her?”

“Would you?” Ashley said. “Oh, thank you!”

Jessie was walking home from school when she was surprised by a tap on her shoulder.

She turned. There was Kayla, smiling. “Thanks,” Kayla said.

Jessie knew right away Kayla was thanking her for standing up for her about the window.

“It was nothing,” Jessie said. “I just knew you didn't break that window.”

“It was awfully nice of you,” Kayla said.

Then Jessie remembered Ashley and the golf ball. “Oh, by the way, do you still have that golf ball?”

“Yes,” Kayla said. “Why?”

“I know who it belongs to. Will you give it to me so I can return it?”

“Sure!” Kayla waved, then walked off in the direction of her own house.

When Jessie arrived home, she immediately went to look for Henry. He was already in his bedroom, sitting at his desk, doing homework. When she entered his room, he set down his pencil and turned to her. She told him everything, including the mean thing Danielle had suggested.

“Someone in my class said that, too,” Henry said. “Someone who doesn't know you at all suggested you wrote the letter so you could be mascot.”

Jessie sat down gloomily. “We have to figure out who wrote the letter!” she said.

Henry said, “Let's gather everyone together so we can go over our clues. It's snack time, anyway.”

All four children sat together at the table in the kitchen eating their after-school snack. Mrs. McGregor had made banana bread, which they ate with milk. “This is the best banana bread Mrs. McGregor has ever made!” Benny said, as he helped himself to another slice.

The children went over all their clues. Given how many people disliked Kayla, they were surprised to realize they had only three real suspects: Mr. Olson, Danielle, and Ashley. Jessie added another name. “Mia said she thought I should be mascot, so she is a suspect, too.”

“Who's Mia?” Benny asked.

“She's the high school girl who helps coaches my team,” Jessie said.

The problem was Jessie was pretty sure neither Danielle or Ashley had written the letter. Nobody really believed Mr. Olson had done it. And there wasn't much to connect Mia to the letter, either.

The Alden children looked at each other in silence.

Suddenly Violet said, “There is one other suspect we haven't thought of who might have written that letter.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Who?” Henry asked.

“Kayla,” Violet said.

The children looked at her, stunned.

“She doesn't even like soccer,” Violet said. “She told me. Her parents filled out the application. I think they push her to play soccer when she'd rather not. I think she'd rather draw.”

“That explains why she hasn't acted upset about not being mascot,” Jessie said.

“Do you think she sabotaged her own chances?” Henry asked. “Why not just say she didn't want to be mascot?”

“Maybe she thought the letter would be easier than telling her parents the truth,” Violet said.

The children were quiet, considering this.

“Well,” Jessie said. “Her mother is very forceful.”

Henry said, “Kayla's new in town, so she might not know about the automatic save function at the library.”

“Even if she knew,” Jessie said, “why would she care? Nobody would suspect her. They'd think it was Danielle or someone else who is mean to her.”

“If Kayla wrote the letter,” Henry said, “she'll never tell anyone.”

“She might tell me,” Violet said.

“How are you going to get her to tell you?” Jessie asked.

“I don't know yet,” Violet said.

Kayla was in the glade with her sketch pad when Violet arrived. Violet smiled, sat down, and took out her pencils. To Violet's surprise, she also took out a golf ball.

“Can you give this to Jessie for me?”

“Certainly,” Violet said. They drew for a long time in silence. At last, Violet put her pencil down and said, “There is something bad happening. It has to do with Jessie.”

“Jessie?” Kayla looked instantly concerned.

“People are saying Jessie wrote that letter to the mascot committee because she wanted to be mascot. People say she knew she was Coach Olson's favorite and if your chances were ruined, she'd get to be mascot.”

“Everyone should know Jessie would never do something like that,” Kayla said.

Kayla frowned and went back to her sketch pad. The two girls drew for a while in silence. Violet was not concentrating on her drawing. She sensed that Kayla wasn't either.

Violet took a deep breath and said, “Do you know what I think?” Violet knew it was easier for shy people to listen to other people's ideas than to answer direct questions. So she said, “I think you wrote the letter.” She said this in a matter-of-fact way.

“Ridiculous,” Kayla said. She went on drawing.

“I just thought maybe you wrote the letter because your parents are so serious about soccer.”

“They are serious,” Kayla said. “Too serious, if you ask me.”

They drew in silence again. After a while, Kayla said, “Do people really think Jessie would write that letter?”

“It looks bad, doesn't it? Someone writes a letter, then Jessie gets to be mascot. You can see how people might think that.”

Kayla sprang to her feet. “Well it's not true! Jessie did not write the letter.” Kayla scooped up her pencils and sketchpad. “I have to go now,” she said, and ran off through the woods.

Violet scooped up her own pencils and sketchpad and ran after her. Kayla was a good runner, much better than Violet. Violet had to run her fastest to keep up. When Kayla turned right at the street, Violet understood Kayla was heading toward the soccer field.

Jessie had come early to soccer practice that day. Coach Olson, and a few of the girls, were already there. Mia had said she couldn't coach, so Coach Olson said he'd be there too so Henry wouldn't be on his own.

Jessie waved to Coach Olson. He waved back. She walked purposely toward him.

“Hey, Jessie, what's up?” he asked.

“I've been thinking,” she said. “I believe someone is sabotaging Kayla. I just don't feel right accepting the invitation to be mascot because—”

They both looked up to see Mrs. Thompson marching across the street toward them.

“Oh, no,” Coach Olson said. “It looks like something else has happened.”

“Has anyone seen Kayla?” Mrs. Thompson asked loudly.

Coach Olson looked around. “She doesn't seem to be here yet.”

“I haven't been able to find her all afternoon. Lately she's been disappearing for hours at a time.”

“Here she comes now!” Jessie said, pointing.

Kayla jogged toward them. Tucked under her arm was a sketch pad. Her face was flushed from the heat, her neck and forehead wet with perspiration.

That was when Jessie noticed that Violet, too, was running from the same direction. Violet was panting. Jessie ran for her own water bottle and gave it to Violet, who drank some, then splashed water on her face.

“Whew!” Violet said. “It's hot!”

“What's going on?” Jessie whispered.

“I'm not completely sure,” Violet whispered back.

“Where have you been?” Mrs. Thompson asked Kayla.

“In the woods, drawing.” Kayla's voice was low and remarkably steady for someone who had just sprinted in the heat.

“Why?” Mrs. Thompson asked.

Instead of answering the question, Kayla said, “I cannot have people saying that Jessie wrote that letter sabotaging me. Jessie is much too nice. She didn't do it.”

“And how do you know that?” Mrs. Thompson said.

“Because I wrote the letter,” Kayla said.

There was stunned silence. Then Mrs. Thompson said, “What?”

“I never thought it would blow up this way!” Kayla said. “I never thought there would be a big scandal. I thought you'd keep it all hush-hush. I thought you'd be embarrassed. I didn't think you'd march onto the soccer field and tell the whole town about it!”

Mrs. Thompson stared, astonished. She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed her mouth. There was a long silence. Jessie found herself smiling. She supposed Mrs. Thompson wasn't often at a loss for words.

At last, Mrs. Thompson asked, “Why on earth would you do such a thing?”

Kayla didn't answer.

Violet leaned and whispered to Jessie, “She wrote the letter because she didn't want to play soccer anymore.”

Jessie stepped forward and, to Mrs. Thompson, said, “Ma'am, maybe Kayla wrote the letter because she didn't want to play soccer any more. Maybe she didn't want to be a mascot.”

“Oh, don't be silly,” Mrs. Thompson snapped.

“Well, I didn't!” Kayla said. “It was too much! Soccer, soccer, soccer. All the time. Every day. Nothing else but soccer! I told you I wanted to do the drawing class and you said, ‘but what about soccer.'”

Violet squeezed Jessie's hand.

Things are not what they seem.

Kayla wasn't a snooty show-off, like everyone thought. She was unhappy. She was shy and quiet. She wanted to be left in peace, with her sketch pad. She acted badly because she didn't want to play any more.

Kayla turned to Jessie. “I hope you decide to accept the invitation. You deserve it. You'd be a wonderful mascot.”

CHAPTER
10

Prime Time Soccer

Thousands of people cheered and waved flags and banners. The stadium was so crowded, the Aldens held on to each other as they made their way to their seats. All around people were speaking different languages.

“I can't believe we are in Rio de Janeiro!” Henry said.

“I'll bet there are one million people in this stadium!” Benny said.

“Almost,” Henry said. “This stadium holds almost seventy-five thousand people.”

“Seventy-five thousand!” Benny repeated, astonished. “How many zeroes is that?”

“Three,” said Henry.

Up ahead, a child accidentally dropped the churro he was eating. Benny watched the churro drop and said, “Poor Watch. He'd love to be here!”

“He could make all the noise he wanted,” Violet said. “And nobody would even hear.”

“And he could eat the food people are dropping,” Benny said.

Benny liked the smells of all the different foods. Most of the food for sale in the booths he didn't recognize, but they all smelled delicious. He looked forward to lunch! No boring hot dogs and peanuts for him! He was looking forward to trying new Brazilian food.

Aloud he said, “This is much better than a coupon for a free cone at Igloo Ice Cream! A million times better!”

Grandfather, Henry, Violet, and Benny sat in the special seats reserved for family members of mascots.

“The opening ceremony will start soon,” Henry said, checking his watch.

“Yay!” Benny shouted.

Violet smiled. She was happy things worked out so well. Somewhere in these thousands of people, Kayla was here with her parents. Kayla's parents still wanted to come to the tournament. Kayla was happy to go, as long as she didn't have to walk onto the field in front of millions of people and as long as she didn't have to play soccer if she didn't want to. The Thompsons were staying at the same hotel as the Aldens. That morning, they'd all had breakfast together.

Kayla's parents let her sign up for the Monday after school art class. Kayla was multi-talented. She was a good artist and a good soccer player. She also knew how to be a good friend.

Ashley's attitude toward Kayla changed as well. After Jessie gave her the golf ball, and Ashley returned it to the store, Ashley stopped being mean to Kayla. In fact, the next time Danielle started saying something unkind to Kayla, Ashley stopped her.

The marching band came onto the field, but the crowd was cheering so loudly the children could only hear the beating of the drums. Then came the spectacular fireworks.

“Look at that one over there!” Benny shouted, pointing to the sky. “Fireworks!”

“I like that one!” Violet shouted, pointing. “Lavender fireworks! Amazing!”

A singer stood on the stage and sang. The crowd quieted so the children could hear her singing. Her voice was smooth and rich. Violet could not understand the words, but the music was breathtakingly beautiful.

Next, two expert soccer players did a demonstration. They dribbled the ball up and down the field, showing the most amazing footwork—kicking the ball in surprising directions, kicking it into the air and bouncing it up and down on their heads and shoulders, keeping it moving in the air without ever using their hands.

“They're so good,” Violet said, “they make Kayla look like a beginner!”

“I wish I could do that!” Benny said.

“Maybe you can,” Grandfather suggested. “If you practice enough.”