The Cinderella Ballet Mystery (3 page)

Suddenly Gregory tossed the slipper in Andrea's direction.

“Catch!” he called out.

Startled, Andrea tried to catch the slipper—but missed.

Nancy gasped. Cinderella's beautiful slipper was about to hit the floor and break into a million pieces!

Andrea screamed as the glass Cinderella slipper hit the hardwood floor.

But the slipper didn't break.

Gregory giggled. “What's the big deal? It's not real glass.”

“Gregory!”
Mr. McGuire said angrily. “Don't ever do that again!”

“What?” Gregory said innocently. “It was a joke.”

“The slippers are not actually glass,” Mr. McGuire explained to the rest of the class. “They're made of a certain kind of see-through plastic that looks like glass.”

He glared at Gregory. “Still, never do that again. These slippers are from a very special store in Paris. If anything happened to them, we wouldn't be able to replace them in time for the show.”

“Yes, Mr. McGuire,” Gregory said. He hung his head sheepishly.

Andrea's face had turned ghostly white. She picked up the slipper and gave it back to Ms. Zelda. Ms. Zelda returned the shoe to the tissue-filled box. She frowned at Gregory and hurried away.

“Gregory's jokes are getting to be way too
extreme,” George whispered to Nancy. Nancy nodded.

“Okay, that's enough excitement for today. Let's get started on the pumpkin coach scene,” Mr. McGuire called out.

Everyone scrambled to their places, including Nancy. She closed her eyes for a moment so she could think about her part. The pumpkin scene was supertricky. On Saturday, during the real performance, she and Nadine would start the scene dressed in mice costumes. When Bess, the fairy godmother, waved her magic wand, the two girls would change into coach drivers.

In reality, Nancy and Nadine would hide behind some fake bushes for a second and slip out of their mice costumes. Underneath they would be dressed as coach drivers.

In the same scene, Andrea would change from a servant girl into a beautiful princess. Her costume switch was trickier. Nancy knew that Andrea would have to practice it lots of times before she got it just right.

“Here we go, everyone,” Mr. McGuire said, clapping his hands. He turned on the CD player.

When the music began to play, Nancy pretended to be a little mouse. She curved her hands in front of her chest as though they were tiny paws. She began dancing lightly on her feet, like she was scurrying across the floor in search of cheese.

Nadine was right behind her, doing the same thing in exact time to the music. Bess was off in the corner, dancing merrily with Andrea.

Then Bess and Andrea crossed the floor with a series of graceful leaps. Just as they passed Nancy and Nadine, Nadine did a
tendu
, sticking her right foot out. Andrea tripped on Nadine's foot and fell to the floor!

“Ow!” Andrea cried out.

Mr. McGuire stopped the music. “What's going on?” he demanded.

“Nadine tripped me!” Andrea said. She sat up and brushed dust from her shorts and leotard.

“I did not!” Nadine protested. “It was an accident. I was doing my
tendu.
”

“You're not supposed to do a
tendu
there, Nadine,” Mr. McGuire told her sternly. “You're supposed to do a plié.”

Nadine shrugged. “Oh. Sorry.”

Nancy frowned. Was Nadine telling the truth? Or had she tripped Andrea on purpose?

“Smile, everyone!”

Click!

Nancy whirled around. Deirdre was standing nearby, holding her camera. She had taken a picture of Andrea, Nadine, and Mr. McGuire.

“Nadine, could you get a little closer to Andrea?” Deirdre said, gesturing with her free hand. “This will be an awesome picture for my website.”

“Deirdre!” Mr. McGuire exclaimed. “I told you that I didn't want any picture taking during rehearsals. Put that camera away. In fact, you're not allowed to bring it to rehearsals anymore. It's too distracting to the other dancers.”

“Oh, baloney,” Deirdre said. “I mean, okay. Whatever you say, Mr. McGuire.” She walked over to her dance bag.

Andrea scowled at both Nadine and Deirdre. Then she stood up and got back into position.

Suddenly Deirdre let out a scream. “Ewwwwwww!” she cried out.

“Now what?” Mr. McGuire sighed.

Deirdre made a face. “Someone put Silly Putty in my camera bag!” she announced.

“Gregory!” a bunch of kids cried at once.

“Gregory!” Mr. McGuire exclaimed too.

Nancy, George, and Bess exchanged a glance. With Nadine, Gregory, and Deirdre, today's rehearsal was turning into a three-ring circus!

“I hope Nadine isn't going to trip anybody today,” Bess said.

“I hope Gregory isn't going to put anything yucky in anybody's dance bag today,” George added.

“I hope Deirdre isn't going to be running
around with her camera today,” Nancy piped up.

It was Wednesday after school. The three girls were on their way to Mr. McGuire's studio for another rehearsal.

Wednesday!
Nancy thought. That meant there were only two more regular rehearsals—today and tomorrow—before the big dress rehearsal on Friday night. During dress rehearsal, all the dancers would be wearing their costumes and makeup.

And Saturday was opening night! Nancy's father, Carson Drew, would be there along with Hannah Gruen. Hannah was the Drews' housekeeper. But she was much more than that. Hannah had helped raise Nancy since she was three years old. That's when Nancy's mother had died. George's and Bess's families would be at the opening night performance too.

The three girls finally reached Mr. McGuire's studio. They ran up the stairs, their dance bags swinging from their shoulders.

“I think we're rehearsing the ballroom scene,” Nancy called out to her friends.

“I
love
that scene,” Bess gushed. “It's so pretty!”

They got to the top of the stairs. Nancy expected to see all the students stretching at the barre and on the floor. But instead, everyone was huddled around Mr. McGuire. He looked very serious.

Andrea turned around and saw Nancy and her friends. She came running up to them. “Nancy! Bess! George!” she cried out. Her eyes were shiny with tears.

“Andrea, what's going on?” Nancy asked her curiously.

“My Cinderella slippers are gone,” Andrea announced. “Somebody stole them!”

“What?” Nancy exclaimed. She couldn't believe the Cinderella slippers were missing.

“Who stole them?” George asked Andrea.

“We don't know,” Andrea replied. She brushed a tear from her eye. “I can't dance on Saturday night without my glass slippers! What am I going to do?”

Nancy rushed up to the crowd around Mr. McGuire. He was talking to Ms. Zelda. Andrea, Bess, and George followed.

“Where did you put them, exactly?” Mr. McGuire was asking Ms. Zelda.

Ms. Zelda pointed to the storage area in the corner of the studio. Costumes hung neatly on
metal racks. Shoes, hats, and other accessories were lined up on shelves.

“I … I put them over there last night, in their box,” Ms. Zelda said. “The box is still there. But the slippers, they are gone! I have searched the whole studio three, four times. Oh, Monsieur McGuire, what are we going to do?”

Mr. McGuire turned to the sea of faces. “Does anybody know anything about this? Gregory?”

Maybe Mr. McGuire thinks this was one of Gregory's practical jokes
, Nancy thought.
If it was, it's not very funny.

“Who, me?” Gregory exclaimed, looking surprised. “I don't know anything. Honest!”

Mr. McGuire sighed. “All right. Ms. Zelda, please send an e-mail to the store in Paris and see if there's any way we can get a replacement pair sent by overnight courier. The rest of you, five minutes of stretches, then we'll start rehearsal.”

Ms. Zelda bowed her head and hurried off. The students scattered around the floor and began their stretches.

Nancy, George, and Bess found an empty spot on the floor and sat down. Andrea sat down next to them.

“Hey,” Andrea said in a low voice. “The three of you have a detective club, right? The Glue Crew?”

“The Clue Crew,” Bess corrected her.

“Right. The Clue Crew,” Andrea said quickly. “Can I hire the Clue Crew to find the missing
slippers? I'll give you all my allowance for this week.”

“You don't need to pay us,” Nancy replied.

“Our club is all about being the best kid detectives ever. Not about making money,” George added.

“And yes, we'll take your case,” Bess piped up. She glanced at Nancy and George. “Um, if that's okay with you two.”

Nancy and George nodded. Nancy felt a rush of excitement. She loved solving mysteries—even more than she loved dancing.

“We'll get on the case right away,” Nancy told Andrea. “We'll do our best to find the slippers by Saturday.”

George was busy rehearsing a scene with Deirdre and Madison. Nancy and Bess checked all the shoe boxes and accessory boxes on the shelves one more time. The missing slippers were nowhere to be found.

“This is so mysterious,” Bess said as she picked
up yet another box and peered into it. “It's like they disappeared into thin air!”

“I know what you mean,” Nancy said. “But they
have
to be somewhere. Things can't just disappear into thin air.”

“I guess you're right,” Bess agreed. “Slippers, where are you?” she called out.

Nancy sighed. The funny thing was, the box for the slippers was still there. It was on the shelf right where Ms. Zelda had left it last night. It was a pretty white box with pink and silver stripes and writing on the side.

“There's
got
to be a clue,” Bess muttered. She picked up the pink and silver striped box and turned it upside down.