The Riddle of the Red Purse Read Free

step. “Spell it.”
    Holly looked up at the sky. “Bread,” she said. “B-r-e-a-d.”
    “Too bad,” Dawn said.
    “Too bad,” said Jason. He looked at Dawn. “Why?”
    “You’d better keep looking for your purse,” said Dawn. “This one isn’t yours.”
    “You think you know everything,” Holly said. “Even that dumb Linda Lorca said so yesterday.”
    Holly sat down on the steps.
    Dawn opened her mouth.
    Then she closed it again.
    Let Holly get a wet seat.
    It served her right.
    Dawn pulled out the purse. She showed them the store list.
    “Look,” she said.
    MILK
    BRED
    CHEESE
    “I hate cheese,” Holly said.
    Dawn pointed. “The person doesn’t know how to spell bread .”
    Holly looked at the purse. “Hey,” she said. “That’s not mine. Mine was bigger. Fatter.”
    Holly stood up.
    The back of her was wet. “Squish,” she said. She raced down the street.
    Just then Donny opened the school door.
    “Let me,” said Jason. “Hey, Donny. Spell bread .”
    “Out of my way,” Donny said. “I’m going to miss the bus.”
    “What about the purse?” Dawn called after him.
    He waved a purse in the air.
    It was more orange than red.
    “Found it,” he yelled. “Thanks.”
    Dawn looked at Jason.
    He had peanut butter all over his mouth.
    “We have to start over again,” she said.
    He wiped it off. “Good.”

CHAPTER 6
    D AWN WAS LATE for school. Very late.
    Her mother had made her go back upstairs. She had to wear an undershirt.
    It was tan. The yuck kind.
    She was wearing a brand-new sweater, though. Pink and purple. It was gorgeous.
    Noni had made it for her.
    Dawn was the last one in the classroom.
    Everyone was hanging up his coat and hat.

    Ms. Rooney looked up. She smiled at Dawn. “Good,” she said. “Everyone is here today.”
    Dawn went to her seat.
    It was hard not to yawn.
    She had stayed awake late last night.
    She had been reading The Polka Dot Private Eye Book.
    It was great.
    It told her how to solve mysteries.
    Linda and Sherri and Jill were in back.
    They were fighting.
    It was a whisper fight.
    They didn’t want Ms. Rooney to hear.
    Ms. Rooney didn’t like fighting.
    Linda saw Dawn. “It’s all your fault,” she said.
    Jill was crying. “I want my purse.”
    “You mean, my purse,” said Sherri.
    “No, mine,” said Linda.
    Dawn pulled off her jacket.
    She saw Linda look at her sweater.
    Good thing she didn’t know about the undershirt.
    Dawn thought about her book. It said:
ASK QUESTIONS.
    YOU’LL FIND THINGS OUT.
    She looked at Jill. “What does your purse look like?”
    “Red,” said Jill.
    “Mine too,” said Sherri.
    Linda put her nose up close to Dawn. “Red,” she said in a loud voice. She looked up at Ms. Rooney.
    Ms. Rooney was writing in her book.
    She wasn’t watching.
    “I know red,” said Dawn. She talked as loud as Linda. “But how big? How fat? Stuff like that.”
    “They’re all the same,” said Jill.
    “They can’t be,” Dawn said.
    “Smarty pants,” said Linda. “We made them at Brownies.”
    Just then Ms. Rooney stood up. “Class President,” she said, “it’s time for the pledge.”
    Dawn raced to the front of the room.
    “Class, stand,” she said.
    She looked at Jill.
    She looked at Sherri.
    She looked at Linda.
    Whose purse was it?
    The class said the pledge.
    Then Jill had something to show. It was a picture of her new fish.
    Jason had something to show too.
    It was a letter from his pen pal.
    He read it out loud.
    He made lots of mistakes.
    Jason wasn’t such a good reader.
    Then it was time to copy the board story.
    It was a story about the sunny South.
    It was easy.
    Dawn raced through it.
    Sherri raised her hand. “I was in California,” she said. “Remember? I went swimming. That’s like the sunny South.”
    Ms. Rooney smiled. “That’s true.”
    Dawn tore three pages out of her notebook.
    She wrote the same thing on each paper.

    Gorgeous, she thought.
    She went up to the pencil sharpener.
    On the way