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The Missing CD -
"Go inside and get your sister," Mom instructed me.
I groaned. I was already late for soccer practice as it was. I don't know why we had to pick up my sister, Carly, from school. If she was in the bathroom, it would be another hour before I got to practice.
I pushed open the double doors of Carly's school. She was standing the hallway screaming.
"It's gone! It can't be gone!" She frantically looked through her purse. "Oh, where is it?!"
"What's gone?" I asked her.
"My CD, I have a solo in the play. Without the CD I can't practice, and if I can't practice, they'll kick me out of the play."

"Okay, relax," I said, pulling my double brimmed Sherlock Holmes like cap out of my back pocket and putting it on. Soccer practice was forgotten. I had a case to solve. I pulled a notebook and pencil out of my shirt pocket. I was ready to write down any information I needed. "Where was the last place you're sure you had the CD?"
"The gym."
"Then let's go to the gym!" I pointed my arm dramatically in that direction.
"I'm not going anywhere with you while you're wearing that stupid hat, Shrimp!" she told me.
That hurt, I was very sensitive about my height, and she knew it. Carly is twelve, and I'm ten. I'm also half her height. When she refers to me as her little brother, she's not kidding.
"Look, do you want to find your CD or not?"
"Fine," she groaned following me down the hall, "but that hat goes!"
I gave intaking off the hat, folding it up, and putting it in my back pocket.
"Who's that?" I asked when we got to the gym. There was a blond girl, my sister's age, standing in the middle of the room unzipping her purse. It was identical to my sister's. I had an idea, but before I could say anything, Carly was pointing her finger at the girl shouting.
"You stole my CD, Shannon! You're my understudy, and if I give a rotten performance at rehearsal, you'll get my part!"
"Whwhat are you talking about?" Shannon stuttered, her face turning bright red.
"Ahah! You're acting guilty! You did steal my CD!" Carly accused her.
"I I, didn't," Shannon said, her hands shaking so much she dropped her purse and Carly's CD fell out.
Carly bent over to pick up the CD, then she commanded, "Arrest her, you little Sherlock wanna be!"
"I've never stolen anything in my life," Shannon said. "I I don't know how the CD got in there."
"I think I do," I said, picking Shannon's purse up off the floor. I looked inside, and sure enough, my suspicion was correct. The purses were identical except Mom had sewn Carly's name inside. The thread inside Shannon's purse spelled out Carly Thompson.
"Shannon is innocent," I told my sister.
"What do you mean innocent? How else could the CD have gotten in her purse?" Carly asked.
"You put it there," I said
"How many times do you use your head to hit the soccer ball?" she asked. "I think your brain is warped."
I shook my head. "Do you want to know what happened to your CD or not? Look in your purse for your name."
Carly opened her purse and gasped. "There's no thread! Shannon Porter is written in magic marker!"
"Exactly, when you left, you took Shannon's purse by mistake," I explained. "That's why you thought your CD was missing."
"You're a pretty good detective," Shannon said, relieved she wasn't a suspect anymore.
"Of course!" Carly beamed. "He's my brother!"

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