Rora pointed to the floor. “I followed a trail of pencil shavings to this door. Where there’s a pencil, there’s always an eraser.”

“Wow, I’m looking for missing pencils!” Rider said. “Maybe we should work together?”

Rora nodded. “Let’s go.”

Rider and Rora put their ears to the locked door. There were strange clacking noises coming from the other side. Then there was a loud snap!

“How do we get in?” Rider asked.

Rora held up a giant set of keys. “The principal gave me these. All of the teachers are mad about grading tests that have wrong answers scratched out instead of erased.”

She opened the door quietly. Inside, a group of bullies were taking turns trying to break pencils with other pencils. Tiny wooden shards were scattered all over the floor.

THWACK!

One bully snapped a pencil in half. “I win! Give me the eraser as a trophy.”

“Looks like we found a secret pencil-fighting club!” whispered Rora. “What a terrible waste of school supplies.”

She started to rush in, but Rider grabbed her arm. “Wait, we should report this to the principal’s office. We solved the mystery—they can handle the bullies.”

“Good idea,” said Rora.

They ran to tell the principal, who broke up the pencil-fighting club immediately.

“Thanks, Rider and Rora,” the principal said. “I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll hear from you two detectives.”