Nancy Drew: 2 . The Hidden Staircase

Urgent Call

"All hail the conquering hero!" sang Helen Corning the instant she walked in the door. Nancy Drew lifted her head back and laughed.

"Don't tease me, Helen!"

"Oh come on Nance! You sent a family of crooks to jail and recovered Josiah Crowley's will! Who's not to be impressed by it?" Helen leaned forward. "I do believe a certain Hardy is really impressed."

Nancy blushed slightly. "Helen, knock it off! The others are going to be here . . ."

"Nancy, Helen! Hi!" The newcomer was Emily Crandall, Helen's second cousin and a friend of both girls. She was flanked by their newest friends, Ida and Isabel, nicknamed Izzy, Topham. Nancy had helped them retrieve what was rightfully theirs from a family of imposters and thieves and they couldn't stop singing her praises.

"Good timing," Nancy muttered under her breath. She waved and said more loudly, "Glad you could make it!" The girls were meeting Nancy at her house for a sleepover. She hugged each of them as they entered the house followed by a sniff-down by Togo, Nancy's new puppy. Nancy noted with pleasure how good he was acting as she introduced the girls to him, but attributed it to him being excited about meeting new people than anything else.

"Us, miss this, are you kidding? Not for the world!" exclaimed Ida as she flipped her dark, curly hair.

Izzy laughed as she bent down and patted Togo for a bit. "Ida wouldn't stop talking about it!"

"And why not? We get to spend the night with our brand new friends and the wonderful Nancy Drew!"

Nancy waved her hand. "Oh come on, I had loads of help, you know that!"

"Plus, we might get to see pictures of these pen pals of yours," said Ida, giving a sly wink.

Nancy glanced at Helen. "You told them?"

Izzy scoffed. "Girl, she didn't have to. We can see it all over your face when you talk about them, even now."

Nancy put her hands on her face. "Oh man, I thought I was better at keeping things secret!"

"Apparently not everything," said Izzy. The girls burst out laughing.

"Oh alright, let's head up to my room and I'll tell you about all of my pen pals."

"Oh, there are more?" asked Ida as the girls grabbed their backpacks and followed Nancy to her room.

Helen let out a sad sigh. "Yeah, it's just . . . well, two of them had to deal with the same tragedy you four have had, though, both parents in a plane crash." They gasped and expressed condolences.

Nancy nodded. "Yeah, they're going through a lot. They told me they would contact me once they got their heads above the water. That was about a year ago."

Emily sighed as a tear fell from her eye. "Yeah, I can totally relate."

Ida wrapped an arm around her. "Of course you can. I just hope they have wonderful friends and family helping them through this and no imposters. Especially incompetent imposters. What kind of imposter is incompetent?"

Emily chuckled. "The really bad kind." The girls laughed.

"Oh, your room is so cute!" said Ida when Nancy led them into her room.

"And it's bigger than I thought it would be," said Emily.

Nancy beamed. "Thanks! Though it's nowhere near as big as your rooms at Riverview."

Emily chuckled. "I don't think there are many rooms in River Heights as big as our rooms. There's more room there than I know what to do with!"

"But other than that, you're adjusting well to the new arrangements?" The girls set down their bags.