The Mystery of the Blue Ring by Patricia Reilly Giff Page B

hard, everyone. Did anyone see . . .”
    Dawn took a quick drink of water.
    She didn’t really want water.
    She wanted to go to the art room.
    She’d get Emily’s ring. She’d bring it to the classroom.
    Emily would be thrilled.
    Jason would say, “Dawn’s a great detective.”
    Maybe Ms. Rooney would excuse her from homework.
    She hurried down the hall.
    Her cowgirl boots made clicking noises.
    She clicked a little harder.
    “Hey,” said the monitor.
    Dawn wanted to say “hey” back to him. He had a fresh face, though.
    She stopped clicking. She turned the corner.
    Mrs. Kara was in the art room.
    Dawn put her head in. “I think Emily left something here.”
    Mrs. Kara looked up. She had a spot of paint on her nose. “All right.”
    Dawn went into the closet. She took a deep breath.
    She loved the smell in there.
    She wished her father had the same floor-washing stuff.
    She looked on the sink.
    Just a piece of brown soap.
    She picked up the spaghetti mop.
    Not there either.
    Too bad.
    Mrs. Kara let her try in the art room.
    She looked all over.
    The ring was gone.
    She sighed.
    Dawn went down the hall.
    Jason was getting a drink. His cheeks were fat with water. He made crazy eyes at her.
    Dawn laughed. She went into the classroom.
    Ms. Rooney was taking lunch money. There was a line at her desk.
    Dawn stood in back of Emily and Sherri.
    Emily had stopped crying. She looked sad, though.
    “Maybe you left the ring at home,” Sherri said.
    Emily shook her head.
    “I bet you did,” said Sherri.
    “I wore it to school yesterday,” Emily said. “I had it in art.”
    “She’s right.” Dawn leaned forward. “I saw it. It was on the art room sink.”
    Sherri’s eyes opened wide. “Maybe you took it, Dawn.”
    “I did not.”
    “I bet you did,” Sherri said.
    “I even looked in the art room,” Dawn said. “I tried to find it.”
    “Maybe it’s in your pencil box,” Sherri said to Dawn.
    “Maybe,” said Linda.

    Dawn gave her milk money to Ms. Rooney. “Chocolate,” she said. “Please.”
    She took the pink ticket. Then she went back to her seat.
    She pulled out her pencil box.
    She took out her pencil with the tassel.
    She took out her ruler.
    She took out her eraser.
    “See, smarty,” she said to Sherri. “No ring.” Beast turned around. “You took Emily’s unicorn last time.”
    Then Jill turned around, too. She looked as if she would cry.
    Jill always looked that way.
    Dawn looked at the other kids.
    All of them were looking at her.
    “I didn’t take the ring,” she whispered.
    Nobody said anything.
    Maybe nobody believed her.

CHAPTER 4
    A FTER SCHOOL D AWN waited in the school yard.
    She wanted to stay away from Sherri.
    She didn’t want to see the rest of the class, either.
    Everyone thought she had taken Emily’s ring.
    Maybe even Jason Bazyk, the nicest boy she knew.
    Dawn picked up a stick. She waved it in the air.
    She made believe she was a cowgirl. She was rounding up cattle.
    “Yip-pi-ai-ay,” she said.
    Then she broke the stick. She pushed it through the fence.
    She didn’t feel like playing cowgirl.
    She didn’t feel like playing anything.
    She looked around. Everyone was gone.
    She went out the gate and started for the corner.
    Carmen, the guard, was standing next to the mailbox.
    All the cars were whizzing by.
    “What’s cooking, Cookie?” Carmen asked.
    Dawn tried to smile.
    Carmen pushed back her hat. “Lost all your get-up-and-go?”
    “I guess so,” Dawn said.
    “Tough cowgirl like you?”
    Dawn raised one shoulder.

    “Nobody liked your cowgirl boots?”
    “I don’t know,” Dawn said.
    Carmen put her whistle in her mouth. She went to the middle of the street.
    All the cars stopped.
    “All right, Cookie,” Carmen told her.
    Dawn marched across the street.
    The people in the cars were watching her.
    She hoped they saw her cowgirl boots.
    She almost forgot about Emily and the ring.
    At the other side she stopped to wave at Carmen.
    Carmen crossed the