The Greatest Sand Castle Contest Ever

Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

(https://vk.com/daretoreadndrus)

ПРИЯТНОГО ЧТЕНИЯ!

Carolyn Keene

The Nancy Drew Notebooks: Volume Forty-Nine

The Sand Castle Mystery

Copyright, 2002, by Simon & Schuster, Inc

IS THIS CONTEST BEILDING UP TO A BIG LETDOWN?

While vacationing at a lake, Nancy, Bess, and George have their eyes on first prize in the annual sand castle contest. They use special colored sand and carefully build the castle to look like the ones they researched at the library. If the girls win, they'll get their picture in the local paper and all the ice cream they can eat.

But before judging begins, someone wrecks the girls' castle and writes a mean message in the sand. Nancy and her friends will have to dig deep to get back into the contest before it's too late!

The Greatest Sand Castle Contest Ever

“What this sand castle needs is a seashell! ” eight-year-old Nancy Drew exclaimed to her best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne.

Nancy gently pressed a pale pink shell along the bottom of their castle. So far, their castle was still pretty small, and it had only one tower, but Nancy still liked it. “Do you think we have a chance at winning the sand castle contest? ” Nancy asked.

“I know we do! ” Bess said, giving George a high five.

George and Bess were cousins. George’s real name was Georgia but she liked to be called George. All three girls went to the same school and now that it was summer they were on a special four-day vacation together. Carson Drew, Nancy’s father, was a lawyer, and he had taken the girls with him on a business trip. He had rented a cottage at the edge of Echo Lake in Michigan. Nancy thought it was the most beautiful lake in the whole world.

Hannah Gruen, Nancy’s housekeeper, had come along, too. Hannah had taken care of Nancy for the past five years, ever since her mom passed away. She always made sure Nancy had clean clothes and ate balanced meals. Now at Echo Lake she could watch the girls at the beach from the kitchen window of the cottage.

Ever since the girls had arrived at the beach on Friday, all they could think or talk about was Echo Lake’s Tenth Annual Sand Castle Building Contest.

Bright yellow fliers about it were posted all over town. Anyone between the ages of six and twelve could enter, and Nancy, George, and Bess had signed up right away. It was Saturday now, and the girls had until Monday afternoon to make the best, most beautiful sand castle they could imagine.

“I can taste the first prize, ” Bess said. She licked her lips. “All the ice cream you can eat after the contest at Peppermint Park! ”

“Did you see those flavors on the flier? ” Nancy said. “Mmmm, Beachy Peachy Fudge.”

“S’mores Scores, ” George said.

“You would pick the flavor that had to do with sports.” Nancy laughed.

“The winners get their pictures in the newspaper, too. Plus your picture will hang in Peppermint Park for a year! ” said Bess. She picked up her baseball cap and yanked it onto her head. “Maybe I’ll wear my new hat for the photo! ” Bess laughed. She tugged the brim down over her blue eyes and made a silly face.

“I’m going to bring the picture home and show Brenda, ” said George. Brenda Carlton went to their school and always bragged about the newspaper she ran. “I bet the Echo Lake News is better than her old paper, any day, ” George said.

“We haven’t won yet, ” Nancy said. She looked around the special roped-off area of the beach. In every corner were groups of people working on castles. Nancy did a quick count. “We have ten other teams we have to beat, ” she said. They were team number nine, and there was a red flag with the number on it right by their castle.

Bess opened her beach bag and took out two drawings of sand castles.

“It’s a good thing the contest didn’t start until today, ” Bess said. “I’m glad we had time to go to the library and study up on castles.”

George wriggled her fingers. “Yeah, but my fingers are so tired from taking all those notes! I never thought I’d be studying anything on vacation — even something as cool as sand castles.”

“Drawing pictures of a castle is one thing, ” Bess said doubtfully. “Building it is another.”

“Some of these castles are amazing, ” Nancy said as she looked around. There was a castle next to them that had three tall, pointed towers. There was another castle decorated with real starfish.

George looked down at one of the drawings. “Our castle doesn’t look like the drawings we did, ” she said. “I wanted it to have two, maybe even three big towers, and lots and lots of windows.”

“Our castle still looks like a big lump, ” Bess said.

“It does not. We have to think positively, ” Nancy said. “And I positively think we are going to win.”

Nancy dug in her beach bag and pulled out a straw. “I read about this in one of the books. This is for blowing away extra sand, ” she said. She leaned over the castle and gently blew into the straw.

Bess took water from a pail and poured a little on some sand. “This will help the sand pack down tightly, ” she said. Then she put the wet sand in one of Hannah’s cooking molds. It was the shape of a small fish.

“Here goes nothing! ” Bess said, and carefully turned the mold over on top of one of the towers. When she lifted it up, there was the shape of a fish.

“That looks great, ” George said. “But I think we need something more to give it oomph.”

Bess frowned. “But what? ”

“Let’s take a picture of it, ” Nancy said. “Maybe we can figure something out tonight.”

Nancy pulled out three bright yellow disposable cameras and held them up. The best thing about them was that they were waterproof and Nancy could take pictures under the water if she wanted. Nancy’s father had bought them the cameras because he hadn’t wanted to miss any of the fun while he was working. “Pictures will be the next best thing to being there, ” he said.

The girls loved the cameras. Already they had taken pictures of the cottage, inside and out. They had even taken pictures of their own feet walking on the sandy bottom of the lake.

Nancy snapped a picture of the castle. “Come on, let’s take pictures of all the other castles, too, ” she said.

Bess grabbed her camera and snapped a picture of the team next to them. Then Nancy took a picture of the lifeguard and the team nearest to him. He was sitting high up on a white chair. He had a stripe of white sunblock on his nose, which made her laugh.

“Say ice cream! ” Nancy said, taking a picture of Bess.

“Hot fudge! ” Bess laughed.

The girls took the cameras down to the water and dove under the surface with them. Nancy opened her eyes wide and took a picture of Bess. Then Bess took a picture of George. All three girls sputtered and came up for air.

“Hey, cool camera! Is it waterproof? ” asked a voice. Nancy turned. The two girls from the sand castle next to them were in the water, too. They both had on the same blue bathing suit. “Can I see the camera? ” one girl asked, and Nancy handed it to her.

“Major cool, ” the girl said. She handed the camera back to Nancy, smiling.

“I’ll take your picture, too, ” Nancy said, “but first tell me your names so I’ll know whose pictures I’m taking.”

“I’m Lara, ” said the girl with the long brown braids. “I’m Jane, ” said her friend, who had short, curly brown hair.

Nancy took their picture. “Got you! ” she said. “Your castle is really awesome. How did you get the tops to point up like that? ”

“That might just be the winning secret, ” said Lara, smiling.

“We won second prize last year, but this year we’re going to win first! ” said Jane.

“No, we are, ” giggled Bess.

Jane smiled back at Bess. “We’ve been building sand castles here every summer since the contest started. This is our year to win.”

“Did you just move here? ” Lara asked Nancy. “Where do you live? ”

George shook her head. “I wish we lived here! We’re on vacation.”

Lara’s face grew dark. “That’s not fair! This contest should be for the people who live here, not people like you who are just on vacation.”