Libby is holed up in the Mystery Club's room. She needs to finalize the details for the Prom decorations. According to the online vote, majority of the students chose the third theme - Masquerade Night. This is the time also to go over their mystery board for Mimi's case. She scanned the board, their members update it from time to time. She saw that the basketball team is now included in the board and Coach Bradley.
"Hmmm.. I need to talk to Dan. If the basketball team is involved, he knows it," she frowned. Confused on the team's involvement with this.
May walked into the room. The Mystery Club's room has a passcode that only current members knows. "Hey Libby, have you heard from Dan?" she asked while pointing the mystery board.
Libby sighed. "Not yet. I need to finish the draft for the organizers' contract and the design lay out. I have to forward this to Miss Jimenez before lunchtime."
"Okay, do you need help with anything?" May reached for her laptop.
"Can you search for design ideas that we can use? I already have a bunch but it's good to have many options, right?" Libby smiled.
"Sure, sure," May started working. "The earlier we finished with this, the sooner we can get back on our case "
"That's my girl," Libby winked at May. They both laughed.
"By the way, how's Mimi?"
"Better than last week. Dan and I drops by their house. And I heard Martin and his mom visited the other night, and she received messages from her student's moms that said that they will still continue to get her tutoring services, it kinda cheered her up."
"That's good to hear. I might visit her this weekend after our cheer practice."
"Thanks May, she will be happy to see you."
"She's a strong girl. If something like that happened to me, I would've transferred school already."
"We will find whoever put her in that position."
"For sure," May said confidently.
Just then Ashley and Nikki arrived with a news.
"You wouldn't believe what I heard," Nikki said. "I stayed at the library yesterday and soon enough, the talks about the test papers cannot be ignored."
"Hold on Nikki, I just need to forward this draft to Miss Jimenez, give me a minute please?" Libby then rushed with what she is doing. The other three huddled in front of May's computer and check decoration options. "I'm almost done. Where's Jon? I think it's better if we are complete."
"I'll call him," said Ashley while getting her phone.
"Jon, are you available right now? We're here at the club room. We need to discuss our case."
"Okay, give me ten minutes," said Jon on the other line.
"He'll be here," said Ashley.
"Okay," said Libby while typing. "Sent! And I am now done with the draft. Can you send me what you've got for the decorations May?"
"Sure. Got at least three options. Coming your way now."
"Yey, thank you." Libby said. "I'll just collate everything later then will send it to our organizers tonight so they can give us a quote. Prom is just 25 days away and we have so much to do."
"How about a sleepover Libby? We can finish this planning over the weekend at your house," Nikki suggested.
"Not bad, let me think about it. But if ever, can you all go?"
"Of course!" the three answered in unison.
Just then, Jon walks in. "Any update guys?"
"Well," Nikki started. "As I was saying earlier, I stayed at the library yesterday during my break times and the talks about the test papers are insane. By the way, I roam around the faculty also to check if the teachers knew something and it panned out, I think."
"So tell us everything," May said.
"I was standing beside a book shelf when I heard Brooke and Steven whispering. You know Brooke from the other class Grade 10 - Faith? And Steven from the basketball team?"
They all nodded.
"Well," continued Nikki. "It seems to me that they are arguing. Brooke is asking Steven what happened to the rest of the test papers. You all remember that only one test paper was found in Mimi's locker right? So, Brooke is asking for the rest of the stolen papers. And then Steven said that it's now complicated and "they" disposed of it already."
"They?" asked Ashley.
"Yeah," answered Nikki. "It seems that we have more than one culprit. I heard Steven said the word team."
"Jon," Libby turned to Jon. "Do you know anything or heard something about it?"
Jon sighed. "Actually last practice, I noticed something strange." he started.
"What is it?" May asked.
"When I arrived at the team lockers, I saw Dan and Kate whispering seriously, it seems that they are in an argument or something. I thought at first that it's just a lover's fight. But I heard from Kate - that they don't need to do anything and that they shouldn't talk or meddle with this big of an issue."
Libby frowned. She really needs to talk to Dan.
"And then after practice, Coach summoned Dan in his office. Honestly, my curiosity has risen, so I followed them silently and listened thru the door."
He asked them to come closer. And then he whispered "I heard Coach said something about the test papers but I left immediately because I saw Kate walking towards the office."
"Coach is in it, too? That's maybe the thing I heard from the faculty," said Nikki. "Mr. Delos Santos told Miss Ruiz that Coach Bradley is acting weird since last week. And he's suspecting that he's hiding something."
"Hmmm.. we need investigate this closely," Libby turned to her club members. "I'll talk to Dan later. Jon, try to ask around the team. Just poke around. They might know that we're onto them and destroy all the evidence."
"Sure, just in time for practice later," Jon said.
"Nikki, since you're soo good in snooping around, hang around the security office, we need to see the CCTV footage from a week before the break in at Miss Jimenez' office. If the someone from the basketball team is involved, we can see them in the CCTV."
"You got it," Nikki said.
"May, talk to Chloe again. Ask where exactly did she hear the news she told you about last time."
"Noted," said May. "Hopefully, other members of the team knew something, given that their boyfriend/girlfriend are part of the basketball team."
"Ashley, I need help with the board and interview of that witness that they presented during Mimi's trial."
"Okay, let's do this," said Ashley.
"Remember guys, these are all hearsays. We need solid proof or someone that will come forward from the concern parties - which is the basketball team. All we know right now, is someone from the team is involved with the stolen test papers. Better if we can find it." Libby reminded her friends.
They suddenly heard a knock. They looked at each other for they are not expecting anyone to come right now. Jon went to the door while the others covered their mystery board.
"No one's here," said Jon while checking the hallway. He suddenly saw a brown envelope at the floor. "But, there's this," he showed the envelope to his friends.
Libby opened the envelope. Everyone gasp as they realized what was inside. It's the test papers!