In the Spotlight by Jackson Pearce

In the Spotlight by Jackson Pearce

Author:Jackson Pearce
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547601868
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00


PROJECT NUMBER 82: RABBIT CATCHER

“If Pancakes is still in the hotel, this will catch him,” Ellie said, showing Toby her plans while Kit was in her interview. Toby’s eyes got big as he looked at the drawing.

“What if he’s not in the hotel at all, though?” Toby asked.

Ellie frowned. “Well, then this won’t catch him—but I think it’s our best chance all the same. Besides, I don’t think he could have gotten very far without being seen. I say he’s still here somewhere, just hiding.”

“Rabbits are prey animals, so they would hide,” Toby said thoughtfully. “So are squirrels. Well, technically, anything can be a prey animal if something is hunting it, but rabbits are more prey animal than—”

“Let’s look for building supplies!” Ellie said before Toby could get too carried away.

“Wait,” Toby said, stopping her. “I don’t understand. Melody is being so mean to you and Kit! And I guess to me, too, but she just called me a ‘weirdo,’ which I don’t think is a bad thing, honestly. But why do you want to help her?”

Ellie took a breath. “Because that’s what engineers do—they help people. All people. Even people who are mean. I’m an engineer, and Melody isn’t going to change that, no matter how much she makes fun of it! And besides—if we catch Pancakes, we prove that Kit isn’t the rabbit thief at all.”

Toby smashed his lips all to one side of his face, like he wasn’t convinced. “I guess . . .”

“Well, it would also be very congenial if we helped her.”

Toby’s face went back to normal. “You’re definitely right about that. Let’s start looking.”

They hurried through the hotel, eyes peeled for anything that might work. Some parts were easy—they could use a pencil for the trip trigger, and one of the older pageant contestants gave them a hair ribbon for the string bit. They caught Emily in the hallway, and she went to the prop storage place, where Kit’s skate ramp was, to get them one of her practice twirling batons for the bar on top. That left only the main part of the trap. Finding a box that was big enough to hold a rabbit but strong enough to contain a rabbit was tricky.

“What about one of those long skinny soda boxes?” Toby wondered as they stood in the hotel ballroom. The oldest pageant contestants were practicing their entrances now, and they were really, really good at walking in high heels. Ellie wondered if they’d practiced a lot or if that was just one of those things you understood how to do when you got older, like making spaghetti or the way credit cards worked.

“That would work if Pancakes was a really small rabbit, I guess, but he looks pretty big on the flyer,” Ellie said, motioning to one of Melody’s bright-orange “Stolen” flyers. They were everywhere—on the walls, on pillars, on each and every step going up to the second floor of the hotel restaurant, in stacks on end tables—­

“Oh!” Ellie said.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.