everything is in order. There may be lost children. Some booths might need change. And I want all of you to keep your eyes on the bicycles. Last year, one was stolen.”
Ms. Benson looked at her watch. She clapped her hands and said, “It’s ten o’clock. Let’s open the gates. It’s time for the carnival to begin.”
Chapter Two
“Let’s check the bicycle rack,” Cam said to Eric.
“No. I have to find Donna and Diane. My mother told me to look out for them.”
The schoolyard was already crowded. There were groups of children waiting in lines at the Button Jar Guess and at the Water Gun Shoot.
“Try your luck here. Win a great prize!” the girl at the Boat Race called out.
“Test your knowledge,” the girl at the Trivia booth said.
“Great prizes here. Easy to win!” the boy at the Beanbag Toss shouted.
Eric stood on one of the schoolyard benches. He looked at the children standing near the many booths. Then he looked down at Cam and told her, “I don’t see them.”
“Maybe they’re with the bicycles.”
Cam and Eric walked to the bicycle racks. There was a long line of bicycles, all locked up. They found Donna’s and Diane’s bicycles. But the two girls weren’t there.
“Look,” Cam said and pointed to a red-and-blue bicycle. “This one isn’t locked. That’s probably what happened last year. Someone didn’t lock his bicycle and it was stolen.”
“I have to find Donna and Diane.”
“I’ll help you look,” Cam told Eric. “I just want to take a picture of this bicycle. I want to remember what it looks like in case it’s missing later.”
Cam looked straight at the bicycle. She said, “Click,” and blinked her eyes. Then she told Eric, “I have a picture of the bicycle stored in my brain. Now we can look for the twins.”
Cam and Eric walked past a few girls at the Water Gun Shoot. They were shooting water guns and trying to put out the flame on a candle a few feet away. A boy at the Boat Race was blowing through a straw at a toy sailboat. He was trying to send it across a large tub of water.
“I see my sisters,” Eric said. “They’re at the refreshment stand.”
Donna and Diane were waiting in line behind an older girl. The girl had long brown hair, and braces on her teeth.
“I’ll take a cup of cola,” the girl said.
The boy behind the counter pointed to a sign above him and said, “We have orange juice, apple juice, and milk.”
“Yuck,” the girl said. “Health food. All right, give me some of those whole-wheat pretzels and orange juice.”
The boy gave her a bag of pretzels and a cup of juice. The girl paid him and began to walk away. Then she stopped and said, “Let me see the coins I paid you.”
The boy held out his hand.
“I need this one,” she said, and took one coin back. “It’s my lucky dime.” She gave the boy another dime and walked away.
“I’ll have some orange juice,” Donna said.
“And I’ll have apple juice,” Diane told the boy.
Cam and Eric waited while the two girls drank the juice. Then Eric said, “I thought you planned to win a stuffed animal. Why aren’t you at one of the game booths?”
“I don’t know which one to try,” Donna said.
Bong! Bong!
The boy at the Dime Toss booth was hitting the bottom of a large metal pot with a wooden spoon. “We have a winner! We have a winner!” he shouted.
“Look,” Eric said. “It’s the girl who just bought pretzels and juice. I guess she really did have a lucky dime.”
“And look at that stuffed animal she won, a teddy bear,” Donna said. “Just what I want.”
“Why don’t we try the Dime Toss?” Diane asked.
“It’s almost impossible to win,” Eric told his sister. “That’s what Freddy, the boy running the booth, told us. That’s why he’s giving away such good prizes.”
“Look,” Cam said. She pointed to the schoolyard gate. Cam said, “Click,” and closed her eyes. She said, “Click,” again.
“What are you pointing