Those 70ish Girls

OKAY EVERYBODY…THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED. I ADDED IT TO THE END OF THE STORY!!!

Victory Lane has discovered someone has altered her science test causing her to have a failing grade. Her dilemma of course, is how can she defend herself? The only way to right this terrible wrong is to sleuth her way through it. Good luck Victory Lane. You’re going to need it!

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Every day I tell Speedway he can’t follow me to school, and every day he does anyway. He thinks I can’t see him, but he doesn’t realize how big he is. It’s really hard for him to peek his big head around a building and then trot to the next spot without me seeing him. Even if he goes ahead of me and hides along the way, I can see he’s been there from the drools he leaves behind. He’s not much of a sleuth dog, but he tries and I love him.

I think Speedway knows someone has wronged me because he bit his tongue twice this morning. He yelped both times, so I know it had to hurt. He bites his tongue when he gets upset. I’m not going to say anything when he follows me today. I just might need his help distracting the perpetrator.

Later that day….

When I got to school, I made sure I was the last kid to walk into the homeroom. Science is my first class and it’s in the same room, so I figured whoever altered my paper was in there. I slowly walked to my seat while I assessed the situation. I asked myself if there was anything different today about the classroom or my classmates. The room looked exactly the same. Nothing seemed out-of-order. Everyone had their heads down working on something. Everyone that is but Henry Davis and Sally Stevens. I didn’t pay much attention to Henry because he’s always gawking around, but Sally looked…what’s the word I’m looking for. Oh yeah…nervous. This was curious to me because Sally is not really the skittish type. I looked at her for a long moment. I hoped my eyes looked questioning as I raised one brow and looked straight at her. She hesitated before she nodded her head toward the kid sitting across from her and rolled her eyes. I looked in the direction of her nod and saw Emily Snodgrass. Emily was looking at a book. Interestingly enough, it was our science book. I recalled that Emily was science challenged. Could this be a clue?

“Victory Lane, are you going to stand in the middle of the aisle all day, or are you going to sit down and prepare for class. I’m sure there is something you need to work on.”

Did my homeroom teacher know about my failing grade? Did everyone know?

“Yes Ms. Stone,” I answered. “I suppose there is.” I turned my gaze toward my two suspects. I was sure the culprit was either Sally Stevens or Emily Snodgrass. Sally hates me, and Emily was most likely desperate for a passing grade in Science. Both had motive and opportunity. I knew I had to be careful. There is nothing worse than a sleuth who wrongly accuses people.

I kept my eyes on them as much as I could throughout the day, but it wasn’t until after school that I was given the opportunity to speak with either of them. As luck would have it, they were walking together. I quickly caught up with them.

Emily is in red…Sally has the bookbag

“Hey.” I said as I squeezed in between them. “Mind if I walk part way with you two? I’ve been wanting to ask you something all day.” I watched closely at their reaction to my question.

“You can walk with us if you want to,” Sally said. “But keep your dog from slobbering all over me.”

“Yeah,” Emily chimed in. “I walked home for lunch yesterday and I dropped my Science paper on the ground. That dog grabbed it and slobbered all over it.” I really wanted to show it to my mom, too, because I got a 94.0%.”

“Oh, really?” I spoke up. “Did he drop the paper so you could retrieve it or did he run off with it?” I looked over at Speedway who was smiling like he had done something good.

“I was with her. He dropped it.” Sally said. “Emily was pretty upset so I told her I would take it and blot the slobber up so when it dried, she could show it to her mom.”

“So who has the paper now? I would like to show it to Speedway and tell him no! He’s pretty smart and he will understand that he can’t do that again.”

Sally hesitated before she reached inside her notebook and took out a paper. She handed it to me. “I was just about to give it back to Emily.”

“There are two papers here,” I said. “And both of them have the same grade…a 94.” Sally and Emily looked at each other. One of them looked surprised and the other looked confused.

???????????????????

I thought it would be fun to see if you readers can solve the mystery. Who altered Victory’s paper? Why did they do it, and how did they make it all happen?

I looked at both of my suspects and their expressions told me everything. Here is what I said…

“I know exactly what happened.” I paced back and forth in front of them to make them squirm a little.

“Sally…you sit in the row of desks between my row and Emily’s. In fact, we’re all straight across from each other. I recall the morning of the test, that I completed mine and turned the paper over on my desk as we were all told to do upon finishing the exam. I got up from my desk to sharpen my pencils. I hate a dull pencil don’t you?”

Both girls were looking rather bored.

“Anyway, I remember that when I returned to my desk, my paper was face up. My assumption was that walking by my desk, someone had created enough air movement to cause my paper to slide off my desk and onto the floor. Note to self…don’t assume anything if you’re in the business of sleuthing.”

Sally spoke up. “This is ridiculous. I need to get home before my next birthday.”

“Okay then…You took my paper, erased most of my correct answers and replaced them with ridiculous answers. Your motive? You wanted me to look like a brainilac instead of a brainiac. Then, you decided to give Emily a break so you wrote her name at the top of your paper and switched it with hers when she was distracted, which no offense Emily, happens often.”

Emily looked sad yet surprised which told me she was innocent. She was sad to learn she didn’t really get a 94. I continued. Even Speedway was getting impatient.

“Sally, you took Emily’s paper, wrote your name on it, answered the questions as you did on your own paper, after comparing to mine no doubt, hence the same grade on both of your tests leaving me with the failing grade.”

Emily spoke up.

“That’s ridiculous! Why would Sally take such a chance to make sure I passed the test. She doesn’t like me that much either.”

“I thought about that, too,” I said. “Sally was sure I would cry foul the second I saw my grade. When in fact, I was in a state of shock and foolishly accepted it at face value. Sally’s intention was to claim you were the cheater. She was going to accuse you of looking across the aisle and stealing her answers. The assumption would be that you were also the one to sabotage my paper when it fell to the floor. You were going to take the fall, Sally. And you were going to fall hard.”

“You are an idiot Victory Lane! That is exactly how it all went down!”

Unbeknownst to all of us, Henry the gawker had walked up behind us and heard the whole accounting that I had so carefully stated with way too much conviction, therefore, committing a major sleuthing sin.