Jada Sly, Artist & Spy by Sherri Winston

Author:Sherri Winston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

My skin crawled when I thought about the soft-spoken man.

Mr. Gaston.

He had given me the creeps.

At school the following day, we were still talking about what had happened at the Zoodle Doodle headquarters and the Braniff Bank Building.

Usually, the International PIE Society met on Tuesdays and Fridays. Thanks to all the events of the previous day—especially the mysterious appearance of Mr. Allister Highborne—an emergency meeting was necessary.

We convinced our usual Wednesday enrichment instructors that we had a pie emergency.

Big Mike said, “I have a surprise for everyone,” as soon as we entered the cooking classroom.

However, before he could say another word, there was a knock.

The room was at the far end of our school’s main building. No one ever just came down here.

We all stood together and opened the door a crack.

“Hello! Hello! Young people, are you in there?” a voice called.

When we opened the door wider, we saw a small woman in a flowered dress one could only call old-lady chic. Her hair was silver and gray with almost blue highlights.

“Hello,” I said. “May we help you?”

“Well,” she said in a strong voice, “you are the pie children, am I correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” we said.

With surprising strength, she pushed past us and into the room. She said, “Then I am here to help!”

Her name was Rosemary Grundle. Granny Grundle to her family and friends. She carried a huge bag filled with knitting. She had the biggest feet of any grandmother I’d ever seen. And something about her squared chin and bright eyes felt familiar. Not to mention a mustache, which looked positively itchy.

When she looked at me through her rectangular glasses, I had the strangest feeling that we’d met before. Her pink dress was buttoned right up to her neck.

“I’m replacing your other volunteer. She became ill,” said Granny Grundle. “I was applying for the position when the office alerted me that you were having an emergency meeting. A pie emergency, hmm?”

We all looked at one another. Big Mike shrugged. He said, “Uh, yes. A pie emergency.” Then his features reddened.

CJ stepped in smoothly, saying, “We had scheduled a pastry chef from La Grenouille to join us for an upcoming, uh, pie-making competition. But she couldn’t make it today!”

He said the last part as though it was an utter tragedy of mankind not to have a five-star pastry chef instruct children on baking. Hadley and Big Mike eagerly nodded along.

Big Mike added, “As far as what our chaperone does, well, Mrs. Moldy mostly sat in the chair over there and napped until we needed help.”

The woman’s face brightened.

“I can definitely do that!” she said. “But first, I’m gonna do my knitting. Carry on, dears!”

We all suffered through a short awkward moment. Soon Granny Grundle was knitting and humming to herself, and we went back to our business. I couldn’t help noticing the strong lines converging on her somewhat rectangular features. She caught me looking and I quickly turned away.

Big Mike passed out matching aprons. Each was white with a red-and-white-checked border.

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