The Secret of the Scarlet Stone (A Gabby Girls Adventure Novel, Book One) by T.L. Clarke

Girls, the first symbol on my pendant does not match the first symbol on this chair,” she said sadly.
    They breathed out with disappointment.
    “Great! So we did all this for nothing,” Rosalinda wailed angrily.
    They slowly walked away from the chairs with great disappointment.
    In a last - ditch effort , Zora stopped and examined the chair one last time. Suddenly, her face flushed with excitement. “Wait a minute. I found it! It’s the third symbol on the chair that matches the first symbol on my pendant,” she said with excitement.
    They yelped and jumped up and down .
    Zora squinted curiously at the chair . “Hmmm, wait a minute … there’s something wrong here , but I can’t put my finger on it. Why would the first symbol on my pendant match the third symbol on this chair? I mean , everyone else’s matched the first symbol on the chair.”  
    Jessica bit her bottom lip as she shifted from one foot to the other nervously.
    “You’re right , Zo , that’s so strange . D o you think it means something?” Gabrielle asked.
    Rosalinda huffed out angrily, “Please , Gabby Girls, can we focus here? These chairs have absolutely nothing to do with the clue.”
    “You’re half - right , Rosa. We are here to solve the clue but I have a sneaking feeling that these chairs and table are somehow part of it,” Zora said cryptically.
    Gabrielle looked over at Rosalinda with reluctant agreement . “I don’t know about that , Zora . A s much as I hate to admit it, I kind of agree with Rosalinda .” She shook her head with utter disbelief . “Jeez, I never thought that I would hear myself say that,” she said wryly. “ Anyhoo , w e don’t have much time, so I think we should focus on solving the clue . ”  
    “Okay, I’ll go along with you for now , but I really think that ignoring the puzzle of the chairs and table will come back to bite us later,” Zora said anxiously.
    “The way things are looking right about now, it definitely might come back to bite us , but we’ll just have to deal with that problem later on , okay? Let me see the clue again , ” Gabrielle demanded.
    Zora handed it to Gabrielle . “ Okay, the second part of the clue says, ‘ I t ’ s wide and tall from floor to ceiling and always filled with words and meaning. You ’ ll know that you have found a clue when all that binds ha s come unglued. ’”
    She stuffed the clue into her pocket as she paced back and forth, mumbling to herself. Her face suddenly flushed with excitement. “I got it! I think that we should start looking in the bookshelf. It’s the only thing in this room that’s wide and tall from floor to ceiling . ”
    “Are you serious? There has to be at least a thousand books in there. It would take us forever to find a clue,” Rosalinda’s voice squeaked with panic.
    “Well , Princess Rosalinda, do you have another idea? Because if you do, we all would love to hear it right about now,” Gabrielle responded.
    Rosalinda gave her an annoyed glare . “There’s no need to get all huffy about it , Gabi. All I’m saying is that it will take forever to look through all of these books. There has to be a better way . ”
    Zora walked over to the largest section of the wall . “I agree with you , Gabi . T he clue is somewhere in this bookshelf. And I also agree with Rosalinda that it will take forever to look through all of these books,” she said calmly. She scratched her head and looked at the enormous bookshelf. “But where do we start? There’s a gazillion books o n the bookshelf,” she uttered.
    She quickly spun on her heels, looking at the wooden table , then spun around , looking at the bookshelf again. Her face lit with excitement as she stomped over to the table . “Okay, I just got a great idea. You see how the chairs seem to be oddly pointing to the different sections of the wall? I think that we should start there,” she said calmly.
    Rosalinda gave her an annoyed glare . “You can’t be serious? What