The Adventures of the Holmes Club

Chapter 10: The Speckled Band

***Nadia***

"Come on, Nadia. It's time for school." my mom stood in the doorway, hand on hips.

I groaned, "Can I stay home? I don't feel good."

"I suppose so, since this is your first sick day."

"Great."  replied and rolled over. I grinned to myself, taking the day off school would be fun.

***Alina***

"Hey, have you guys seen Nadia? I haven't seen her at all today?" I asked as soon as I saw Penny, Sophie, and Max between first and second block.

They all three shook their heads.

"I doubt Louis has seen her." Penny said, "Since they wouldn't have class together."

"Yeah, you're right. Did she text any of you?" Max asked, "Do you guys want lollipops? I still have some left over from Halloween."

"Can you focus, Max?" Penny snapped, "We're trying to figure out what happened to Nadia."

Sophie took a step back, "Woah, Penny, are you okay?"

Penny leaned against the nearest locker, "No. I was up all night looking over the notes you guys gave me yesterday. Sorry, Max, that was really obnoxious of me."

Max waved it away, "We should find Louis though."

Penny nodded in agreement and we left the 100 wing and walked toward the 400.

***Louis***

"Hey, guys!" I shouted through the quad, "Over here! Alina! Sophie! Max!"

They started walking toward me, and I noticed Penny at the back of the group, looking tired.

"Hey, is Penny okay?" I asked.

"She's fine. She's just tired." Alina replied.

"Nadia isn't here today, apparently." Penny said, as though she hadn't heard us talking about her.

"Well, have any of you had class with her yet?" I asked.

"No," Alina admitted, "But we all have English together next block, so we'll know for sure then."

***Nadia***

Around 10, I got up and ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Then I put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and decided to go investigate. I wasn't entirely sure where to start, but I decided the library was a good idea.

In the library, I looked around and decided to do research on the guy who wrote the play we all went to see. So I went to the computer and looked up Neal Simon in the library catalog.

I found a book about some of his plays, and grabbed it off a shelf.

***Penny***

"...so William Shakespeare was born on April 23..." Hatfield droned on.

I honestly couldn't repeat any of this information back at you right now. I am so tired. Usually, I would find this all fascinating, I love Shakespeare.

***Sophie***

I glanced back at Penny. She looked somewhere between dead and undead. I wasn't sure which one to go with. Hatfield was probably going to expect us to have notes on this later, but I was more entertained by drawing the Holmes Club on the corner of my worksheet.

***Alina***

So, Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564? That's interesting. Just kidding, totally boring.

I'm really more interested in the orchestral accompaniment for his plays in the Globe Theater.

***Max***

I scribbled some random dates I managed to catch in the blanks on my worksheet, then ignored the lecture on Shakespeare's history. Honestly, who cares? We're reading Romeo and Juliet, and Hatfield wants us to discuss how Hamlet alludes to Shakespeare's real life. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG HERE!!!!!!

***Louis*** 

Blah blah blah. I really don't care Mrs. Brock has to say about transversals and triangles and angles and what are we talking about?! Geometry is boring! What I want to know is what happened to Mr. B. 

I wonder what Nadia's doing.