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Tricky Troll






 

The girls filed down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase was another door. Nancy opened it slowly.

“Where are we? ” Nancy asked as they filed into a big room. It was filled with racks of costumes, cardboard trees and cottages — even a fake giant pumpkin!

“It’s the storage room, ” Amara said. “So we must be in the basement.”

“Neat! ” Mari said. Her camera flashed as she took a picture of the pumpkin.

“Arrk! ”

Nancy gasped. Lester was flapping out from behind the pumpkin!

“It’s Lester! ” Katie cried happily. “He was probably scared by the flash! ”

“Good work, Mari! ” Nancy exclaimed.

“Don’t mention it, ” Mari said.

A small figure wearing a white beard and a red cap stumbled out after Lester.

“The troll! ” Bess cried.

“Cotton candy! Raaak! ” Lester squawked. He flapped onto the troll’s shoulder and began tugging at his beard.

“Lester, stop! ” Katie scolded.

Lester yanked the beard off. Nancy stared at the troll’s face. But it wasn’t the troll at all. It was Amara’s little cousin Ernest!

“You! ” Amara shouted.

“Busted.” Ernest sighed.

“Why are you wearing the troll’s costume, Ernest? ” Amara demanded. “And tell us the truth — no fairy tales! ”

“It wasn’t my idea! ” Ernest insisted. “Before you guys came to the house the troll asked me to wear it. So I said yes.”

“You wanted to wear his costume? ” Nancy asked.

“Sure! ” Ernest said. “This way I could sneak around and snoop on your sleepover! ”

The girls frowned at Ernest.

“But I didn’t! ” Ernest went on. “After I saw Lester I had a better idea. I’d have my own sleepover — with Lester! ”

“A sleepover with a parrot? ” George asked.

“Sure, ” Ernest said. “But Lester wasn’t a great guest. He kept trying to eat my beard.”

“Cotton candy! ” Lester screeched.

“So that’s who was hiding behind the potted plant, ” Mari said. “It was Ernest! ”

“He was waiting to sneak into the library so he could take Lester, ” Katie added.

“And he snuck out with Lester through the secret door! ” Nancy exclaimed.

Ernest wrinkled his nose. “What are you all — detectives? ” he cried.

“Just one of us is, ” Bess said, pointing to Nancy. “But we like to help.”

Ernest heaved a big sigh. “I guess the door isn’t a secret anymore, ” he said.

“And speaking of secrets, ” Nancy said. “Were you trying to scare us, too? ”

Nancy mentioned the tumbling books, the fireplace, and the footprints.

“No way! ” Ernest said. “The only trick I played was the rubber bat. I’m not allowed to go near the controls! ”

Nancy studied Ernest. “Is he telling the truth? ” she muttered to Amara.

“Yeah, ” Amara muttered back. “When Ernest lies his nose twitches. It’s not twitching now.”

Nancy believed that Ernest just wanted Lester. But now her only suspect was the troll.

“Tell us where the troll is, ” Nancy said to Ernest. “You’ve got to know.”

“Can’t, ” Ernest said. “I promised I wouldn’t. And a promise is a promise.”

“Okay, ” Amara said. “But wait till your mom finds out that you put that whoopie cushion on grandma’s chair last Thanksgiving-”

“You said you wouldn’t tell! ” Ernest cried.

“But I never promised, ” Amara said with a wide grin.

“Okay, okay, ” Ernest said. “The troll is in my room. Check it out.”

Amara led the girls out of the storage room and up to the third floor.

“This is it, ” Amara said. She pointed to a blue door.

“What if it’s a trick? ” Bess whispered. “What if he has a whole room full of rubber bats? ”

“Or smelly socks! ” Mari gasped.

Nancy pressed her ear against the door. She could hear a man’s voice.

“Steal third! ” he was saying. “What are you waiting for? Steal third! ”

Nancy recognized the voice. It belonged to the troll.

Without knocking, Nancy pushed the door open. She saw a little man sitting on the floor. He was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and Ernest’s baseball cap. He was staring at a round object in his lap.

“Looks like we got your goat, ” George growled. “Troll! ”

Startled, the troll jumped. The glass object flew out of his hands and into Nancy’s.

“What’s this? ” Nancy gasped.

“That’s my aunt’s crystal ball! ” Amara explained. “But it’s really a TV.”

Nancy looked inside the TV crystal-ball. There was a baseball game going on!

“Rats! ” the troll muttered. “They were just in the bottom of the seventh! ”

“So that’s the plan you had up your sleeve, ” Nancy said. “Ernest would wear your costume while you hid in his room and watched the baseball game.”

“You got me, ” the troll admitted.

“That was sneaky! ” Amara scolded. “You were supposed to be working tonight.”

The troll looked worried. “Are you going to tell your aunt Ellen? ” he asked.

“I don’t have to tell her, ” Amara said. She nodded at Mari. “I’ll show her! ”

Mari snapped a picture of the troll.

“Hey! ” the troll cried. “Now your aunt will see me without my costume! ”

“Exactly! ” Mari said.

“And if that doesn’t work, ” Katie said, smiling. “Lester has a big mouth! ”

“Steal third! Steal third! ” Lester squawked. “Arrrk! ”

“Give me a break! ” the troll groaned.

“But we won’t tell if you get back to work, ” Amara said firmly.

“Okay, okay.” The troll sighed. “Our team is losing anyway.”

The girls left the troll in Ernest’s room. Nancy handed Amara the crystal ball. Then she crossed Ernest’s and the troll’s name off her suspect list.

“So if it’s not the witch, or Ernest, or the troll, ” Bess said, “who is making all those weird things happen? ”

Nancy didn’t know. But she knew they had to return Aunt Ellen’s crystal ball.

“Let’s put the crystal ball in Aunt Ellen’s office, ” Nancy said. “If she’s there we’ll tell her the troll found it.”

This time the girls didn’t take the secret staircase. They climbed the usual stairs all the way up to the tower.

“Isn’t it strange, ” Nancy told her friends, “that every time something weird happens, something nice happens, too? ”

“Like the cookies, the sweets, and the stickers, ” Bess pointed out.

“Those were from my aunt Ellen, ” Amara said, a bit angrily. “Are you saying that my aunt is trying to scare us? ”

“No, ” Nancy said. She didn’t want Amara to be mad. “It was just a thought.”

When the girls reached the tower it was empty. Amara placed the crystal ball on Aunt Ellen’s desk.

“Let’s leave her a note that we returned it, ” Nancy said.

She sifted through the papers on the desk for a notepad. Her eyes fell on a bright red folder with a silver design.

Nancy picked up the folder and studied it. The design was a spider!

Taking out her notebook, Nancy compared her sketch of the spider stickers she kept finding around the house with the one on the folder. They matched!

“Look! ” Nancy cried. “It’s the exact same spider that’s all over the house! ”

 


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