A big cloud of smoke billowed from my high school, Rivervale High. What was going on? Is something on fire? I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to where the smoke was coming from and was horrified to see the new auditorium in the midst of burning down. Just my luck, looks like I would have to be solving another case with Bailey, my partner in crime. Luckily, the firefighters were already there and were trying to extinguish the fire.
You must be wondering what I am talking about! My name is Hayley. Bailey and I were Rivervale's well-known school detectives. This became official after solving about two to three cases in our first two years in Rivervale. After helping the school's most popular girl, Kaylie, find out if Becky Anna Brown was her twin, she told everyone that we were very good investigators and now everyone wants us to investigate their problems.
Back to the scene, there was an ambulance and someone was on a stretcher and was being wheeled into the ambulance. Someone must have been hurt! I saw Bailey in the crowd nearest to the fire and she was taking some photographs. I also took note of the students other than Bailey who were taking photographs as the photographs may come in useful when Bailey and I are investigating. Soon, the fire was extinguished and the fire thankfully did not spread to other parts of the school. The security guards came and ushered everyone out of the danger zone. I ran to Bailey and we hurried to find the principal, Mr Billy, to ask if we could stay and look through the footage on the security cameras so that we could have some clues to investigate this. Mr Billy agreed and took us to the security room where he taught us how to look through the security cameras' footage.
Before he left, he told us that the janitor, Ms Grace, was in school early and tried to extinguish the fire. However, she is now hospitalized as she had inhaled too much smoke and had also twisted her ankle. When we heard that, we were shocked as Ms Grace was the nicest janitor in the world. She would greet us cheerfully whenever she saw us and would give the students tips when their examinations were arriving. How could anyone do that to kind Ms Grace? After he left and Bailey and I recovered from our shock, I took out Bailey and my detective notebook where we wrote down many things, such as names of suspects and clues that we have found.
Suddenly, Bailey whispered in an excited voice, "Look over here Hayley!" she said, pointing to the top left-hand side of the screen.
I was confused about why she had to whisper. Nevertheless, I looked at where she was pointing and saw a figure who was creeping towards the room after putting up several flyers on the pillar in the school Hall. We looked at each other and we both had our 'Are you thinking what I am thinking?' faces on. We nodded and immediately dashed to the school hall to see what the flyers were. Upon reaching the hall, we saw a few flyers urging students to go to prom this year. Bailey, who is also on the Dance Committee, turned to look at me. She told me that the Dance Committee is organizing the prom and that I should go for the next meeting that will be after school the following day so that it is easier to narrow down the suspects. I agreed to do so only because the person who did it might do it again and we have to stop them.
On the second day, during assembly, Mr Billy solemnly told the entire school what he had told us yesterday. Everyone's eyes widened in shock and some people's hands immediately flew to cover their mouths. Everyone was too stunned to speak, even the teachers could not believe what they were hearing. Then, chaos broke out. Everyone turned to talk to each other, trying to guess who was the one who had started the fire. Everyone had troubled looks on their faces, indirectly hurting a staff is unacceptable! Suddenly, everyone started pointing fingers at us, saying that we did it since we did not react when the principal told the school the news. Bailey and I were appalled! We have been solving mysteries for the school for a long period of time and now they think that we were the ones who had set the fire. This is unacceptable! I huffed and crossed my arms, Bailey doing the same. Mr Billy tried to convince everyone that he had told us the day before but they did not believe him which shocked us even more.
