Talent Show Tricks Read online

  Everyone cheered and followed Mrs. Castle to her classroom. Boxes of all kinds of pizza, bottles of soda, and a plate full of cupcakes were waiting for them. Joe ran to get a plate before all the pepperoni was gone. He sat down with Speedy, Chet, and Iola and dug into his slice.

  It wasn’t until Frank sat down beside him that Joe remembered. The Phantom! The idea of pizza had completely made him forget that his brother thought he knew who the Phantom was. He must have been even hungrier than usual.

  Joe nudged his brother. “So, about what you were saying before?”

  “Oh, right,” Frank said. “Well, there’s just one thing I need to check before I’m completely, one hundred percent sure. Hand me your cup.”

  Joe handed over his empty plastic cup and watched his brother as he stood and walked to the table of soda bottles. He poured a full cup of cola and started to walk back. Halfway there, he tripped over his own feet and “accidentally” poured the cup of soda all over Olivia.

  “Ahhhhh!” Olivia squealed. “Watch what you’re doing!”

  “Oops!” Frank said. “I’m sorry!”

  Zoe ran to get a stack of napkins and started to dab at Olivia’s white gloves, which were covered with the brown cola.

  “It’ll be okay!” Zoe said. “Take these gloves off, and I’ll go wash them in the sink.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Olivia said quickly. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Zoe insisted. “You’re going to be all wet and sticky.”

  “I don’t mind!” Olivia snapped.

  “It will only take a minute!” Zoe said, and she pulled off one of Olivia’s long gloves.

  Joe stared.

  Olivia’s hands were stained a bright neon green.

  “Hey,” Annie said, looking up from her conversation with Desiree and Lauren. “Olivia, why are your fingers green?”

  “What?” Olivia stammered. “I—uh—I don’t—”

  She tried to hide her hand, but her dress didn’t have any pockets. It was too late anyway. Too many people had already seen her green fingers.

  “Your fingers!” Annie exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “They’re stained the same color as that slime the Phantom put in my hat!”

  Olivia’s face was pale.

  “Wait—are you the Phantom?” Annie asked.

  “Olivia,” Mrs. Castle asked, a worried expression on her face. “What’s going on here?”

  “Okay, fine, it was me!” Olivia burst out. She pointed at Annie. “I put that stupid green gooey stuff in your hat and put the bubbles in Daniel’s trumpet and made it seem like Iola was croaking! But I did it for all of you. I just wanted this to be the biggest, best talent show ever, and . . . and . . .”

  “And you knew that articles in the school newspaper about the ‘Phantom of the Talent Show’ would get the whole school excited for the show,” Frank finished. “You were scared that tickets weren’t selling fast enough, and you needed to do something to make sure the show was a success.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?” Olivia pointed out. “That was the biggest audience the talent show has ever had!”

  Mrs. Castle shook her head. “Olivia, you should have known better,” she scolded. “That’s not the mark of a good director!”

  Olivia looked down at the floor.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone or ruin your hair, Annie! I just wanted people to see our show.”

  Annie’s frown slowly disappeared, and she sighed. “Well, the green is already washing out. I’m still kind of mad, but I forgive you, Olivia.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Daniel said.

  “And me,” Iola piped up.

  Olivia gave Annie a big hug. “Oh, thank you. I really am sorry. I know I got carried away this time. Mrs. Castle, I’ll accept whatever punishment you think I deserve.”

  Mrs. Castle put a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “We can talk about that on Monday. For now, let’s all just enjoy the party.”

  The cast and crew finished their pizza and cupcakes, and then they all waved good-bye to one another as they went home with their parents.

  “I can’t believe Olivia did that,” Frank said. He and Joe were heading out to their tree house after the party.

  “She was always a little dramatic, but I didn’t think she would try to ruin the show,” Joe added. “At least she was sorry about everything.”

  The boys climbed up to the tree house, using their flashlights to guide the way.

  With big grins, Joe and Frank gave each other a high five as they settled in for a fun tree house sleepover.

  Don’t miss the next

  Hardy Boys

  Clue Book:

  #5 SCAVENGER HUNT HEIST

  “Rawwwr!”

  Frank Hardy jumped nearly a foot in the air, splashing the milk from his cereal bowl all over his brand-new navy-blue T-shirt. “Joe! That’s not funny!”

  “It’s not?” Eight-year-old Joe Hardy disagreed. In fact, he was laughing so hard, he thought orange juice would come out his nose. “Don’t worry, Frank. I know I do a killer bear impression, but it’s just me.” He laughed some more while his brother grumbled under his breath.

  “Joe Hardy!”

  Joe’s laughter died in his throat as soon as he heard his father, Fenton Hardy, shout his name.

  “Stop teasing your brother,” Mr. Hardy said, peering at Joe over his newspaper. But Joe thought he saw a smile in his father’s eyes.

  Frank refilled his bowl of Healthy Nut Crunch with fresh milk and took a seat back at the breakfast table with Joe and Mr. Hardy.

  “I’m not teasing Frank,” explained Joe, slurping the sweet milk from his bowl of Sugar-O’s. “I’m helping him face his fears.”

  “I’m not afraid!” said Frank. But when he looked at his watch and saw that he would be at Bayport Bear Park, along with the other third and fourth graders, in less than an hour, he shivered.

  In his nine years, Frank had faced a lot of fears solving mysteries with his younger brother, Joe, and their friends—their dad had even built them a tree house, which served as their official mystery-solving headquarters. But so far, Frank had never faced an actual bear—and he hoped he never would. He’d seen a show about bears on TV last year. They were huge and could smell people, animals, and food from miles away! Not to mention that when they defended themselves, they stood on their back legs and their fur puffed out so they could look extra big!

  Suddenly Frank felt a little queasy. “Dad,” he moaned, cradling his stomach with one hand. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “No?” Mr. Hardy said. “What wrong, Frank?”

  “He’s got FOFT,” said Joe, rolling his eyes.

  “FOFT?” asked Mr. Hardy.

  “Fear of Field Trip,” Joe said, cracking a smile in his brother’s direction.

  “Not that Frank is afraid,” said Mrs. Hardy, entering the kitchen. “But you two know that you won’t have to see any real bears at Bear Park, right? It’s just a silly name.” She kissed Frank on the top of his head and handed him a fresh T-shirt, which he swapped out for his soggy one right at the table.

  “Or is it?” Joe waggled his eyebrows up and down dramatically.

  Even Frank had to laugh at his brother’s ridiculous face this time.

  “Dad,” Frank said, deciding that it was time for a change of subject. “Do you have any cases for work that you need our help with?”

  Fenton Hardy was a private detective, and sometimes he worked with the local Bayport Police Department to help solve crimes. When he needed their help, Mr. Hardy was known to tell Frank and Joe about the cases he worked on; he knew the boys had their own detective club and had solved lots of mysteries of their own.

  Mr. Hardy showed his sons the front page of the newspaper he was reading. The headline on the front, in big, black letters, read: NY POLICE HUNT FOR JEWEL HEIST ROBBERS!

  “A jewel heist!” Joe exclaimed, through a mouthful of Sugar-O’s. “Cool!�
��

  “Do you have any leads?” Frank asked seriously.

  “A couple,” said Mr. Hardy. “While you’re on your field trip, I’m going to be at the police station, helping the officers question a suspect.”

  “Why don’t you just arrest him?” asked Joe.

  “Because we have to make sure he committed the crime first,” said Mr. Hardy. “Remember last year when Joe thought Mrs. Beasley next door stole his bike?”

  Frank laughed, his eyes sparkling. “And we found it the next day, in the backyard. Joe forgot he left it there.”

  “Honest mistake,” Joe defended himself. “She was acting suspicious.”

  “Exactly,” said Mr. Hardy. “But if you’d accused Mrs. Beasley without proof, you’d have looked awfully silly. Same with the jewel heist. Before we arrest someone, we need to have proof he did it, otherwise the real bad guy could get away with robbing that jewelry store.”

  Frank thought about this for a minute, then took out a pocket notebook that Aunt Trudy had gotten him. Frank and Joe liked to take notes when they were solving a mystery, and this seemed like a very good first note to make in his notebook. Proof! he wrote.

  “You boys better get a move on,” Mrs. Hardy said, pointing at their kitchen clock. “The school bus will be here in ten minutes, and you don’t want to miss your field trip.”

  Frank closed his notebook and placed it in his back pocket. He couldn’t help but wonder if missing the field trip was really such a bad thing.

  “Watch it, Hardys!” Adam Ackerman, the biggest bully at Bayport Elementary School, pushed past Frank and Joe on his way out of the school bus, stepping on Joe’s toes as he went.

  They had just arrived at Bayport Bear Park, and Adam was cutting everyone to make sure he was the first one off the bus.

  “Even I waited my turn,” Cissy Zermeño told Frank and Joe as they climbed down off the school bus. “And I like to be first and best at everything.”

  Frank and Joe exchanged a look. No one knew how Cissy liked to be number one better than the Hardys. She always won at everything.

  “Okay, class,” Ms. Potter, one of the chaperones (and a teacher at Bayport Elementary), called out. “Please follow me into the visitors’ cabin, single file.”

  Frank had to admit the park was pretty neat. It was springtime, so everything was green and bright and the birds were singing their chipper songs. After a long winter, it was nice to see leaves on the trees again, and clover-green grass covered the ground. A few picnic tables and grills for cookouts dotted the park. On the outskirts of the property was a thick, sprawling forest with all different kinds of trees.

  That must be where the bears live, thought Frank while a lump formed in his throat.

  Straight ahead, Ms. Potter led the line of students into a dark-brown log-cabin-type building. In front of it was a wooden sign that said BAYPORT BEAR PARK VISITORS’ CABIN.

  Inside the cabin, Joe’s classmates were crowded around something that he couldn’t see.

  “Whoa,” said Phil Cohen, one of the Hardys’ best friends. “Look at that!”

  “What is it?” asked Joe, inching toward the center of the crowd.

  That was when Frank and Joe saw it—a big yellow ball about the size and shape of a watermelon, covered in bumblebees!

  Franklin W. Dixon is the author of the ever-popular Hardy Boys series of books.

  Matt David is a part-time illustrator and full-time clue finder, and lives and works in San Francisco. He solves mysteries with his trusty pencil and the help of his wife, son, and clever cat.

  ALADDIN

  Simon & Schuster, New York

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  authors.simonandschuster.com/Franklin-W-Dixon

  authors.simonandschuster.com/Matt-David

  Don’t miss any of the cases in the Hardy Boys Clue Book series!

  #1: The Video Game Bandit

  #2: The Missing Playbook

  #3: Water-Ski Wipeout

  Coming Soon

  #5: Scavenger Hunt Heist

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

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin paperback edition December 2016

  Text copyright © 2016 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Matt David

  Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

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

  ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Book designed by Karina Granda

  The text of this book was set in Adobe Garamond Pro.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2016901232

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5181-9 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5180-2 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-5182-6 (eBook)