chaPTER ONE
Mystery Girls!
On Monday morning Mrs. Corwin, a River Heights Elementary School art teacher, said, âIâm putting you in teams of three. Youâre going to draw pictures of anything you think would be really cool for you and your friends to wear.â
The girls cheered. The boys all just looked at one another.
âI think youâll be very excited about what Iâm planning to do with your designs tooâ, Mrs. Corwin added, âbut I need them all by Friday.â
Nancy Drew turned to her two best friends, who were also her art-table partners, cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne, and said,âThatâs whatâs so great about our school. We get to do things like this.â
Bess nodded. âI knowâ, she said. âWe have a cousin in Texas, and all he does in his art class is draw pictures of cactus plants.â
Nancy laughed. âReally?â she said.
George giggled. âNot really. But his art class is definitely not as cool as ours.â
âWhy do we boys have to do this?â Quincy Taylor asked Mrs. Corwin. âItâs a
girl
thing!â
âNo, itâs notâ, Deirdre Shannon said. âOne of my favorite designers is a man. I try to wear his clothes all the time. A lot of men are famous fashion designers, Quincy.â
âAnd remember I said you can design
anything
you want toâ, Mrs. Corwin reminded them. âThat means sportswear like tracksuits, basketball uniforms, and swim trunks.
Anything!
â
âYeah, but what if some of the other guys in school find out about this and start making fun of us?â Peter Patino said. âWhat are we going to do
then
?â
âOh, you guys, I canât believe itâ, Mrs. Corwin said. She let out a big sigh. âIâll tell you what. Instead of putting your
real
names on your designs, you may use a designer label. It should be something snappy thatâll catch a buyerâs attention, and it will be something only the team members and I will know. Howâs that?â
The boys all looked at one another and shrugged. âOkay, weâll do itâ, they grumbled in unison.
âMay we use both our names
and
a designer label?â Nancy asked. âWe want a snappy label, but we also want people to know who we really are.â
âOh, Nancy, thatâs a super ideaâ, several of the girls said.
âOf course!â Mrs. Corwin told them.
With the teams chosen, everyone talked for the next several minutes about their designer-label names.
âI think ours should be Mystery Girls!â Bess suggested. âI can see that on jeans and tops andââ
âI absolutely adore thatâ, Deirdre said from the next table. She thought for a minute. âI think weâll be Lucky Girls!â
Nancy, George, and Bess rolled their eyes. Deirdre could be such a copycat sometimes, but that was okay since their designs would be different.
âDo you think weâll make any money from this?â George asked.
âMoney!â
Katherine Madison said. âYou mean, like,
real
money?â
âAre you kidding me?â Nadine Nardo exclaimed. âFashion designers are all rich.â She took a deep breath and exhaled. âI could be a millionaire before Iâm in the fifth grade!â
Quincy looked up. âWell, then Iâm interested too because Iâm not looking forward to all the chores Mom said she has planned for me during the summer if I want an allowance.â
The class laughed, but Nancy noticed that all the boysâ teams had now huddled together to talk about what they were going to do.
When the recess bell rang twenty minutes later, Bess leaned over to Nancy and George and said, âI wonder what Mrs. Corwin is planning to do with our designs.â
âThatâs funnyâ, Nancy whispered back. âI was just thinking the same thing.â
As they headed out of the art classroom,
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