A Key in the Garden: A Tate Mystery (Part One)

Hey everybody! As you might have noticed from the title of the post, you've got another mystery coming up. I figured it was about time we had another one, as it's been over a year since our last. That's not to say that we started out the day intending to be involved in one - because what good mystery is intentional? - it just sort of happened that way. But really, maybe that's not entirely fair, seeing - 

Just start the story, Charlotte.

Oh, that reminds me! We're going to be trying our first joint blog post, so bear with us, this might be a little - 

Charlotte, seriously, just start the story.

- awkward at times, but we're going to try - 

Charlotte!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Here goes!

It was Veteran's Day, so we'd had the whole day off from school, and had of course squandered it like we always did, playing video games and goofing off until a few hours after lunch. That's when Mom came into our room and insisted we get out of our pajamas and go do something, anything, outside. Well, we tried, but I didn't last very long - it was deceptively cold, even to someone who was, like me, clad in a heavy sweater and scarf and fur boots. I headed back in to read a little, but Zoe stayed outside, still stubbornly trying to teach Ginger to fetch.

At around 5:00, Mom told me to call Zoe inside for dinner. The sun was already beginning to set - what had happened to summer?

Well, if you want to get technical. . . 

No, no I don't.

Because right now in science class -

Honestly, Zoe, if this is how all of our joint blog posts are going to go, we might as well just stop right now.

Fine, fine, it's your story.

Yeah, it is.

So, it was already getting dark, because of the changing tilt of the Earth and Daylight Savings and all that -

It's not "all that", Charlotte, it's actually kind of -

Maybe we should just forget this.

I couldn't agree more.

So, anyway, it was already getting dark when I opened the sliding door to fetch Zoe from the porch.

"Zoe!" I called. She didn't respond. I tried again but she still didn't say anything. I really didn't want to go out into the cold again, but it looked like I didn't have a choice. I slipped on my boots and hurried out into our cold and gradually darkening backyard.
"Zoe, Mom says it's time for dinner," I told her as I walked in her direction.

"Ok," she said sharply, watching as Ginger chased the stick she had just lobbed across the porch.

I looked at her questioningly, and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking her shoulder from under my grasp and turning away from me.

"What is going on with you today?"
"I'm fine."
"Really? Because you don't seem -"
"I'm fine."
"Ok, well," I said, rather miffed. "It's time for dinner."
"I know," she nearly growled at me. Conceding that she really didn't want to be questioned, I stopped talking and let her walk in the front door ahead of me.

Just as I was about to follow, a furry golden head popped up at the edge of the porch with a bark.

"Ginger?" I asked in surprise. I thought she had gone inside. "What are you doing there?"

She bounded up to me and offered me her nose. At first, I thought she just wanted me to pet her, but then I realized she had something in her mouth. I reached down to take it.

When I realized what it was, I immediately called back Zoe, who was about to open the sliding door and go inside, to come back and see.
"What?" She whined, coming back in my direction.
"Look," I told her, holding out the glinting sliver object.

"Is that a -" Zoe looked up at me in confusion.
"A key?" I finished. "Yeah, I think so." I looked down at Ginger, still propped up on her haunches, looking very pleased with herself. "What do you say, girl? Will you show us where you found this?" With a joyful bark, she leaped off the porch and headed towards my mom's forsythia garden.

We found her standing next to a pile of freshly-dug earth.
"Mom is not going to be happy," I remarked. Zoe rolled her eyes.
"Who cares?"

After packing the dirt back into the hole and spearing a stick into the nearby ground to mark the place, we headed up to our room. Zoe immediately plunked down on the couch to watch TV, pointedly ignoring me.

Just to make sure that we didn't lose the key, I decided I would string it on a piece of thread for safekeeping. I took some scissors and a spool of black thread from my desk drawer and sat down on the floor at Zoe's feet to get to work.
First I cut a piece of thread long enough to fit around one of our necks, with some extra at the ends to use for tying. I cut a little more than I needed to, because it's always best to be stuck with too much rather than too little.

I strung the key onto the thread and stretched it out between my hands so I could figure out how long I wanted the necklace to be. Long enough to fit over my head, but not so long that it would hang too far down my front.

I turned around to Zoe to consult, but while she glanced down at it for a moment, she quickly shrugged and turned back to look at the TV. I resolved that as soon as I finished stringing the key, I would figure out what was going on with her.

Tying the ends securely, I set it down on the couch and set to putting away my materials. The scissors and spool went into my desk drawer, and the excess thread that I had cut off the ends went into the trash can. I went back and picked up the necklace, then tucked it carefully into my bedside table drawer.

Then, having stalled for as long as I could, I took a deep breath to steel my nerves and plunked down on the couch next to Zoe, made sure the bedroom door was closed, and reached out the remote to turn off the TV.
"So, what's going on?" She sighed but didn't respond.

"Zoe?" She shrugged, then reached over the armrest to fetch something sitting on the floor. I thought at last she was about to actually tell me something, but as it turned out - 
"Want some chips?" she asked, holding out a bag of Lays.

"No, I don't want some chips," I said, exasperated, as I pushed away the bag. "I want to know what's going on with you. Why won't you tell me?"
"It's embarrassing," she mumbled. That got my attention. Nothing embarrassed Zoe. A contradiction in terms.
"What is it?" I asked, now rather warily.
"Well," she sighed, looked down at her hands, and stalled for a few more seconds. At last, she continued, "there's this guy -" but didn't get any farther than that. She was cut off by my shrieks.
"What?!? All right, all right, tell me more! Who is it? Who is it? Who likes who? Did he ask you out? Did you ask him?"
"Charlotte, shut up."
"Ok, ok, but it's just so exciting!" She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "So why is that so embarrassing?"
"Well, first of all, I do not like him, so don't get any ideas in your head," she warned. "It's just, well, Erica Crane decided yesterday that I did and she got up during lunch and shouted it out to everyone. Everyone! All my teammates and friends and even everyone that I don't know. And now everybody believes her and thinks that I like him and is teasing me like crazy and -" she stopped to take a breath. "And the worst part is that now he's avoiding me like the plague."
"I thought you said you didn't like him," I said, smirking.
"I don't! But he's the center forward for our travel basketball team and he avoids me so much that everyone else is following his example and everyone at school is laughing at me and - Ugh!" she cried. "Can you see why I'm upset?"
I could, I really could. But as what she was saying began to sink in, I had to admit to myself that there wasn't a thing I could do to help her. I didn't even know how to comfort her. This was really a job for Mom, but I couldn't tell her without betraying Zoe's secret. What could I do?
And with all this excitement, I had nearly forgotten about the key. Where had it come from, and why in the world was it buried in our garden? With too many mysteries in one day for even Alexandria Beauregard's mind, I decided I'd just go to sleep. Maybe when I woke up in the morning, everything would make more sense.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Happy (very belated) Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! Happy, um, well, 10 days after Thanksgiving! Sorry I didn't post on the actual day - we were too busy watching football and cooking and eating and doing all those classic, stereotypical Thanksgiving things to do much of anything else.

I turned on the TV as soon as I got up to watch the Macy's Parade. I liked watching the marching bands the best. I think I'd like to be in our school's marching band someday, if I ever get good enough. Maybe play the piccolo! That would be so much fun.

After the parade was over, the National Dog Show came on. I had planned to start my homework after the parade was over, but who can work on a holiday? Ginger came over after a while to watch with me. She liked the golden retriever the best - of course she would - but I think the little yellow Chow Chow was my favorite - all that fluffy fur looked so soft! Mom made us turn it off after a while, saying I'd already watched way too much for one morning, and enlisted me to help her put the turkey in the oven.

After I helped her with the cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, baked potatoes, salad, and dinner rolls, she let me go. She had plenty of help from the cousins and aunts and uncles that were beginning to swarm the kitchen as they arrived, carload by carload. Of course, there wasn't nearly enough time for me to get very far into my homework, so in an act of total boredom and desperation, I decided to plunk down on the sofa in our room with Zoe and watch a little football. And escape the crazy mess of cousins that waited for us downstairs.

Our dining room table was way too small to hold all the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents that had showed up, so it was every man for himself - the lucky ones snagged places at the table, while others were stuck eating at the counter or in chairs along the wall. Zoe and I, at least, got a table to ourselves, even though it was off in a far corner of the dining room. Mom had set it up really nicely, though, so it didn't turn out to be that bad after all.

Mom started to light all the candles stuck into haphazard holders all around the room as everyone loaded up their plates and found places to sit. Dad stood up and said grace as soon as she was finished, then turned out the lights.
The room looked so pretty with the candles burning on all the tables and counters.

 

I'm so sorry I posted so late! Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? What do you do for the holiday? Do you get together with friends and all your extended family, or do you just have a small celebration at home? It can be really fun to get together with all our cousins and aunts and uncles, but sometimes I wish we were the latter; all the people in the house can get pretty overwhelming!
I'm so excited for Christmas this year! I already have some ideas for presents for Zoe and my parents, and my mom's been very secretive this weekend. Do you celebrate Christmas? Are you looking forward to the holiday season?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long - reentry to school has been a little bumpy so far! But I'm starting to adjust again, and Zoe's soccer season is almost over, so life will hopefully begin to return to normal again soon.

With everything that's been going on around here in the past two months, I've had hardly any time to think about Halloween, let alone try to come up with a costume. But Zoe was away at her soccer playoffs last weekend, and I had some time to myself, so I decided to come up with something.

I ended up being a Halloween fairy. "Moderately lame," Zoe told me when she heard. But I think it's kind of a cute idea, and, well, I couldn't come up with anything better. Besides, once I realized what Zoe was planning to go as, I couldn't believe she had called my costume lame. She was going as a skateboarder, which basically means she dressed up as she usually does and brought her skateboard along with her. Talk about a lack of imagination!

Mom insisted on taking a picture of us before we left the house - several pictures, actually.

I'm particularly proud of the wings. I made the basic structure out of thicker wire, using a picture of butterfly wings that I found online as a template. I took some really fine wire and criss-crossed it over the outline so it looked like the wings were covered with a thin web. The tutu was fun too - I tied some strands of glittery tulle onto a wide ribbon until it was big enough to go around my waist.

Mom let us go at last, and we headed into the mudroom to put on our shoes.

Zoe popped her pumpkin up on the front of her skateboard and pushed her way over to the door, despite Mom's protest that she would scratch up the kitchen floor. It sat there grinning evilly, seemingly pleased that it was getting a ride.

On our way out the front door, I stopped to give our pumpkin a pat, which we wouldn't carve until later that night. We have a compost garden in our backyard, and without our even trying, every year tomato plants and raspberry bushes and, more recently, pumpkin vines grow there. We had three pumpkins growing there this year, but we waited too long to cut the other two and they grew mold and ended up rotting a little bit. But the one survivor is cute and round and perfectly orange, and just right for a jack o'lantern.

Mom, much to our annoyance, insisted on taking one last picture of us on the steps before we left. Like a mom anywhere in the world, I'm willing to bet, she took one look at the gathering clouds and the slight drizzle outside and asked whether we were sure that we didn't want to wear coats, but we groaned and insisted we didn't need any. She relented eventually, but not without significant attempts to encourage us to just bring them, just in case.

Happy Halloween everyone! Did you go for some tricks or treats last night?

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Back to School

Hey everyone! It's the day after Labor Day, and unfortunately, that also means that it's the first day of school. Of course, that means that I got out of bed at about 5:30 - a full hour and a half earlier than I needed to, mind you - partly because I was really nervous, and partly because I put a lot of thought into my outfit for the first day of school. As you might be able to guess, Zoe couldn't care less what she wears - as far as she's concerned, the sole purpose of clothes is utility - and consequently, got to sleep in until 7:00.

After trying on just about every possible outfit in my wardrobe, I was left standing in front the mirror in our room with a pile of clothes at my feet and my favorite purple plaid dress in my hands.

I sighed, tossed the dress to the side, and plodded, rather halfheartedly, over to my dresser in search of an outfit that I had yet to try. I had been at this for over an hour and still nothing seemed just right.
I pulled a flowered skirt and the white sleeveless t-shirt that I had worn for my birthday out of a drawer and considered them for a moment. Shrugging, I decided that it couldn't hurt to try.

Pretty, simple, dressy yet not overly so, casual but not to the extent that I looked like, well, Zoe, I was satisfied. A good thing, too, as there wasn't much time left until the bus came.

I retrieved my comb from my bedside table drawer and ran it through my hair, which had become more tangled and frizzy with each new top I had tried on.

I slipped on a purple knit beret and pulled the necklace I had made at Dani's birthday party last summer off the post of our bunk bed, where Zoe was still asleep.

My backpack was hanging off the back of my desk chair, its contents scattered across the surface of the desk and on the shelves underneath. Internally kicking myself for not putting everything together the night before, I started to scrape together all the textbooks and binders within reach and stuffed them into my backpack.

My science textbook went in first.

After shoving in my binder and notebook, I slipped Zoe's and my shared library card and, for encouragement, a birthday card from my best friend that moved in fifth grade into the zippered pocket at the front of the bag.

Those were followed by a few mechanical pencils, in case any ran out of lead.

After a moment of consideration, I slipped my cell phone into the front pouch. Technically they're not allowed, but I wanted to make sure I was always prepared in the case of an emergency.

Pulling the backpack up onto my shoulder, I glanced at my watch. Five minutes to seven. Time to wake up Zoe.

I turned to look at her, somehow still asleep even after I'd been messing around with my dresser drawers for an hour and a half. Just a quick word of warning - Zoe is not a pretty sleeper. She somehow manages to tangle her blankets, clothes, and hair pretty handily, and emerges from her bed every morning looking as if she just lost a fight with her pillow.

"Zoe!" I cried. She must have been pretty soundly asleep, as she didn't seem to respond.

"Zoe!" I nearly shouted. Still nothing.
"ZOE!" She sat bolt upright and said frantically:
"What's going on? Who's dead?"

"No one's dead," I sighed. "It's time for school."
"Ugh," she groaned, and flopped back on her pillow. "What happened to summer?"
"I know," I responded. "Believe me, I do. But the bus is going to be here in ten minutes. Come on!" She groaned again, threw off her covers, and reluctantly climbed out of bed - as always, neglecting to straighten the covers.

Neat freak that I am, I couldn't leave Zoe's bed in such disarray. I straightened the blanket and pillows and nestled her stuffed animals - including an adorable pink owl that a friend of ours brought back from Japan this summer (you can sort of see him in this picture) - amongst them.

"You ready?" I heard Zoe say from over to my right. Not surprisingly, she had dressed in a considerably shorter amount of time than I had. Also not surprising was what she was wearing.

"That's what you're wearing?" I asked, gesturing towards her outfit, which I couldn't help but stare at in disbelief.

"Yeah. What's wrong with it?" Her tone was nonchalant, but I could see a red tint of embarrassment creeping into her cheeks.
"Well, first of all, you seriously need to fix that bed-head," I said, lifting up my comb for a second time and beginning to run it through her hair. Surprisingly enough, Zoe let me.

"And you just can't wear running shorts and a tank top to school," I told her.
"They're comfortable," Zoe grumbled.
"Here," I said, ignoring her, as I handed her a pair of jeggings and her favorite long-sleeved t-shirt. She sighed in resignation and held out her hand.
Moments later, she was standing in front of the mirror, looking - in my opinion, at least - much more presentable.

"See?" I said. "Much better."
"I guess," she said, shrugging, but I could tell she liked it.

 Just then, Mom hollered up to us that we'd miss the bus if we didn't hurry up. Zoe grabbed her shoulder bag and I slipped on my backpack, and we headed downstairs.

As Mom toasted a bagel for me to eat for breakfast, I packed up my lunch. which consisted of a sandwich, an apple, grapes, two snack-sized bags of cheez-its, a small bag of Dove chocolates, and a Butterfinger candy bar. Zoe pulled three dollars out of the teacup in the cupboard so she could buy her lunch at the cafeteria.

I slipped the bagel into my lunch bag so I could eat it while we waited for the bus, and Zoe grabbed a banana out of the basket by the phone. Mom fussed over our clothes and hair and made sure we had everything we needed.

With only minutes to spare, we slipped on our shoes on the bench on the front porch.

Mom insisted, as she always does, that we take a picture together on the front steps to commemorate the first day of school. Zoe mumbled something about why anyone in their right mind would want to celebrate the first day of school, and I asked Mom if she was sure that we wouldn't miss the bus. She waved off our concerns with a flick of her hand and raised the camera.

With kisses and hugs and endless "good luck"s, Mom finally let us go. We set off down the driveway to the bus stop and our first day of school.

I definitely am excited to be a seventh grader this year, but it is too bad that summer's over already. Oh, well. It was, in my opinion, a pretty great summer!
How was your summer? When do you go back to school? Are you excited to meet new friends and learn new things - or are you mourning the end of summer and the return to work? I'd say I'm pretty much a combination of both, but Zoe's probably entirely the latter!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!