Jingle by Gordon Korman

Author:Gordon Korman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Pitch lay on her bed, her iPad propped against her knees, her mood darkening with every YouTube video. She was watching clips of lucky rock climbers tackling the Red Rocks of Sedona and having a great time doing it. This was her trip—the one that the Benson family had planned until everybody had lost their minds and decided she had to be an elf instead. Only now that the elf job had fallen through, it was too late to book Sedona. What a waste! That had to be the worst trade in the world: an amazing climbing trip in exchange for suspicion of Grand Theft Star of Prague.

Seasons greetings.

When the text pinged on her iPad, she was grateful to exit the video. Each beautiful vista, each handhold, foothold, carabiner clip and length of rope, each exhilarated climber added to her despair. This was a winter break she would never get back. Somebody owed her one winter break!

The text was from Melissa, who was monitoring their newest webcam. A one-word message: NOW.

Pitch ran downstairs and shrugged into her coat. “I’m going over to Griffin’s!” she called, and let herself outside. It was half true. She was headed to the Bing house first, but that was merely the rendezvous point. Their final destination lay on DeWitt Street, number 14—the old tennis racket factory.

It was only 7:15, but this time of year the sky was already full dark. As she passed Ben’s block, the glow of the Slovak house caught her eye. It caught everybody’s eye these days—everybody within a twenty-mile radius, anyway.

Ben was hurrying down the street, and she paused to let him catch up.

“Your place looks like Las Vegas,” she commented.

He nodded in glum agreement and, peering out through the collar of his coat, Ferret Face seemed to nod, too. “And on top of it all, we’re in the middle of a plan.”

Pitch sighed. “This break is completely trashed. There might as well be a plan to make it interesting. Besides, I’m starting to get kind of curious. Who did steal that dumb Star?”

Griffin was waiting for them at the end of his driveway.

“Where are the others?” Pitch asked.

“It’s just us,” Griffin told her. “Minimum personnel to reduce the chances of getting caught.”

“I hate that word.” Ben shivered. “Caught.”

“Good idea,” Pitch agreed, thinking of all six team members under arrest at the Mug’s Mug.

Griffin delivered the scouting report. “According to Melissa, the only people who go in and out of that building are Crenshaw and his biker buddies. They left about half an hour ago. This is our chance to see what they’re up to. It’s definitely some kind of headquarters. For all we know, the Star is sitting there in plain sight.”

Ben looked worried. “What would we do with a ten-million-dollar work of art even if we found it?”

“I don’t know what you guys have in mind,” Pitch said, “but I vote we march it straight to the police station and shove it up Vizzini’s nose. The nerve of that guy, trying to hang this on us.

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