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I’d pretend that the notebook got stolen.”
    â€œWhy were you doing this stuff with the notes?” Nancy asked her.
    Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t know. Just to make things more confusing. I figured, if you guys had enough suspects and cluesand weird stuff happening, you’d never suspect me.”
    She added, “Plus, Mrs. Reynolds would probably get so mad about the notes that she’d cancel the whole short-story contest or something. That way I definitely wouldn’t lose my bet to Brenda, because the bet would be off.”
    George turned to Nancy. “How did you know? That it was Phoebe, I mean.”
    â€œEmily told us that she never talked to Phoebe at her cubby yesterday,” Nancy explained to George and Bess.
    â€œOh, yeah,” Phoebe said, shaking her head. “I made up that story about Emily to make her and her teammates look guilty. I guess that was a dumb lie to tell.” She looked at the girls, her eyes shiny with tears. “I’m really sorry about everything. I should have just told you guys the truth, from the beginning.”
    â€œYeah, you should have,” Bess told her, pouting angrily.
    â€œYou really let us down,” Nancy added.
    George nodded in agreement.
    â€œI’m really, really sorry,” Phoebe said again.
    She looked so upset that Nancy felt sorry for her. “You really should have told us the truth from the beginning,” Nancy said. “We could have helped you with your ending.” She glanced at George and Bess and added, “I guess we still could.”
    George shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
    Bess shrugged, too. “We are a team.” She stopped pouting and smiled a little at Phoebe.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    On Friday, the day the stories were due, Nancy got up in front of the class to read her team’s story. Her team was going first, and she had butterflies in her stomach. She looked at all the faces of her classmates, took a deep breath, and began reading:
    â€œOnce upon a time, there was a school called Carl Sandburg Elementary School. It was a really nice school, and everyone liked it there.
    â€œThat is, until the ghost started haunting it.
    â€œAt first no one believed there was a ghost. After all, ghosts don’t reallyexist, right? But then everyone had to believe it because of the weird stuff that started happening.
    â€œOne morning one of the kids found this note taped to his cubby:
    â€œA TIN BRASS GOOSE
    TWO BLUE RATS
    THREE WHISPERING CATS
    â€œIt was written in creepy-looking red ink that looked like blood. Or maybe it was blood. The teachers and the principal figured one of the kids had written it. The principal said during the morning announcements that the person who wrote it should come forward right away. But no one did.
    â€œAnd then someone found the second note.
    â€œThe person who found the second note was a really cute girl named Tess. Tess had awesome taste in clothes. In fact, she was wearing a really cute pink T-shirt that day, and these cool jeans with daisy patches.
    â€œAnyway, Tess found the note taped to her cubby. It was written in creepy-looking red ink, just like the first one. It said:
    â€œFOUR MOONS
    FIVE RUSTY RATS
    SIX GIRLS WITH BALLOONS
    â€œTess was really freaked out by the note. She screamed at the top of her lungs. A bunch of kids came running up to her and asked her what was going on. (Some of them asked her where she got her T-shirt. She told them at Girl Power, at the mall.)
    â€œWhat did the notes mean? No one could figure them out. And then one day this girl named Gerry was walking down the hall after soccer practice. She was going over some key moves in her mind because there was a big game coming up.
    â€œAnyway, she was turning the corner and thinking about headers when she saw it.
    â€œShe saw the ghost!
    â€œRight away Gerry stopped thinking about soccer. She tried her hardest not to scream.
    â€œThe ghost was