OKAY, okay, Sophia. Calm down. It must be here somewhere. We’ll find it,” said Mr. Colón.

Sophia looked like she was going to cry.

“Has anyone seen Sophia’s costume?” Mr. Colón asked the class. Everyone shrugged.

“Well, I suggest you all help us look for it. Without Sophia’s costume, this class may not win the pizza party …”

After that, the whole class started searching.

Mr. Colón checked the back closet to make sure no one had brought it there by accident. Sophia and I looked under our table, and Javier tried to help us but he was stuck. His wardrobe costume was not very easy to move around in.

“Uh … Emma … I can’t really bend down on the floor.”

“That’s okay,” I told him. “Why don’t you just stand in the front of the room and look around? Let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

“All right, got it,” said Javier. He waddled to a spot near the door and called, “I’ll be right here if you need me!”

“Okay!” I called back.

Sophia and I looked under every table and in every corner, but we couldn’t find the Lion costume anywhere.

“This is so strange,” said Mr. Colón. “How can a costume just disappear?”

“This is awful!” cried Sophia. “I worked so hard on that Lion outfit and now it’s gone!”

“Now don’t worry. We’ll find it, I’m sure,” Mr. Colón assured her.

“But Mr. Colón,” I said, “we need to find it before the festival on Saturday. If we don’t, we’ll lose the contest!”

Then Sophia really started to cry.

Mr. Colón started asking each of the kids if they’d seen the costume. But I knew what we had to do.

“Sophia, come here,” I said in a whisper.

I tugged at her sleeve and pulled her away to the front of the room. We walked over to Javier and huddled together, and I pulled out my camera phone and my Emma microphone.

“Guys, this is it,” I said. “This is our next news story. If we work together we can figure out who took Sophia’s costume. I know we can. But we have to hurry. We only have two days before the festival.”

“Great idea,” said Javier.

“I don’t know,” said Sophia, still sniffling. “How are we going to find it in two days?” Sophia was so sad that she was ready to give up. And that wasn’t like her at all. Sophia is usually the one who tells me to never give up!

“Sophia, we can do it. Look—I’m a famous reporter. I’m good at this. And the three of us are like a team.”

“Yeah!” said Javier.

“We can work on this together,” I continued. “And, hey, then we’ll all be famous. And we’ll find your costume. And we’ll win the contest!”

“Okay,” said Sophia with a little smile.

“Okay, good,” I said. “Now, Javier, did you notice anything suspicious while you were watching the class?”

“Not really. Well, I don’t know … I kinda saw something, but I don’t want you to get mad.”

“Get mad about what?” asked Sophia.

“Well, it’s not really suspicious … but I was looking at Melissa G…. and she was the only one who wasn’t helping search for the costume. Melissa and Molly. They were just standing by their table. And it looked like Melissa G. was smiling.”

“She was smiling?” I asked.

“Yeah. Like when Sophia started crying, it almost looked like Melissa G. was laughing.”

“What??” I asked in amazement. That did it. Now I really was getting mad. Melissa G. might think she can push Molly around, but now she’d gone too far.

“She’s so … she’s just so … she’s just so mean!” I yelled.

“It’s okay, Emma,” said Sophia. “Just ignore her. We don’t care what she thinks anyway.”

Then I thought of something.

“But, Sophia, we do care what she thinks.” I turned on my camera phone. “Javier, I need you to tell us that again. But this time on camera!”

“Why?” Javier was confused.

“Don’t you get it? Melissa G. took Sophia’s costume! That’s why she was smiling!” It seemed so obvious to me.

“But she just told Mr. Colón she hadn’t seen the costume,” said Sophia.

“Sophia, she’s lying. I know she did it. Remember when she walked by and said she liked your costume?” I explained.

“Yeah?” Sophia said.

“Well, there you go.”

“What do you mean? She said she liked it.” Sophia was confused, too.

“I know she said she liked it. But I think she was really just jealous. So she took the costume to make sure we didn’t win the contest.”

“You really think she would do that?” asked Javier.

“I know she would! We just have to prove it. And this is our first clue!”