The children all looked at Lucy, waiting to be told what they should do next. And wondering if she had any more cereal.

“I wish I had an answer for you all!” Lucy said apologetically. “And more cereal. But I’m afraid I have no idea what to do—and you’ve eaten all the snacks I’ve got!”

A bunch of little kids started crying. Some of the older kids cried too. (They asked me not to write that in this book but I’m going to anyway, just so you know how bad it was. Wouldn’t you cry if there was no more cereal left? Especially on the day your mom or dad went missing.)

Think, Lucy, think! Lucy thought to herself. I’m trying to think, but you keep talking, Lucy thought back. Her mind was quiet for a moment, but all she could think of was how much she wished they taught you at school what to do if you ever woke up and discovered that your mom had disappeared. That would be far more useful than the six times table!

“That’s it!” Lucy shouted suddenly, making half the room jump.

“What’s it?” replied Norman as he unpacked a camping stove from his satchel and started preparing a full breakfast.

“School, of course!” Lucy cried.

Everyone looked at her as if she’d lost it.

“We need to go to school,” she repeated.

“First you want to watch the news, now you want to go to school…What sort of kid are you?” Ella asked, slipping on her heart-shaped sunglasses even though she was inside, like some sort of Whiffington celebrity.

“The kind who wants to find out what’s going on and get our parents back! I’ve tried the police. We’ve tried the television. Now there’s only one place left—school!” said Lucy.

The crowd of watching children blinked in unison. No one really wanted to go to school, but once again Lucy had a point.

“Right, I’m off. Who’s coming with me?” Lucy said hopefully.

There was a very unenthusiastic mumble from the other kids.

“Yeah, all right.”

“S’pose so.”

“If we have to…”

“Are you sure there’s no more cereal?”

“But my eggs aren’t poached yet,” said Norman, looking at his stopwatch.

Lucy ignored them all and climbed over their heads and disappeared out of the room. A few moments later she bounded back in wearing her school uniform, looking ready for a normal school day.

“What are you wearing that for?” scoffed Ella, peeping over her shades.

“If the teachers are at school, then I can’t show up in my bathrobe and expect them to take me seriously,” Lucy said. She felt her cheeks flushing hot with embarrassment as the room stared at her. But Lucy wasn’t the sort of kid who skipped school. Nor did she turn up to class wearing her nightwear. She liked lessons and learning.

“A kid who wants to be smart is already a smart kid,” Lucy said. “My dad told me that once.”

With that, Lucy picked up her school bag, flung it over her shoulder, and bounded out of her front door, pretending not to give a hoot about the other children.

She began marching up the street toward Whiffing-ton School, along the road that was usually full of cars. As it was now empty, she decided she’d walk down the middle of the road. It was an eerie sensation.

She walked past Old Man Carvey’s Butcher Shop—CLOSED.

She walked past Whiffington Library—CLOSED.

She walked past Scrummy McScroodles Sweets ’n’ Stuff—CLOSED! CLOSED!! CLOSED!!!

Whiffington was a ghost town.

Suddenly Lucy heard footsteps behind her. She whipped around, and to her surprise she saw the crowd of children from her living room following her down the middle of the street. More children were following them, others were jogging up the pavement, and kids had started filing out of their houses.

“There she is,” Lucy heard children whisper.

“The girl who wants to go to school.”

“She knows what to do!”

“She’s the one in charge.”

In charge? Lucy thought. Why on earth am I in charge?

But before she could question it, the bunch of kids closest to her started nudging her along, forcing her to keep going, to lead them all to the school.

“What the jiggins?” Lucy said. “Hang on just a sec!”

And at that the children stopped.

“First of all, I am not in charge,” Lucy said.

The children stood still, waiting to hear a second of all…

“Second of all…”

Lucy hadn’t thought of a second of all yet. “Erm…Second of all, we’re already late, so we’d better get a move on!” She licked her hand, slicked her bangs over to one side, and marched on toward the school with her new army of children still in their pj’s and slippers following closely behind, some of the little ones even dragging their favorite teddy along for the adventure. Lucy suddenly felt a sense of achievement. They were taking control. Things were about to get better.

Or so she thought.

The muffled sound of fluffy slippers stomping over the pavement filled the air as they walked toward the school. Surely there would be a grown-up there who could help.

But when they arrived at the large iron gates of Whiffington School, Lucy stopped dead in her tracks, causing everyone to bump into each other behind her.

“I’m really sorry that you all followed me here, but the school gates are locked!” Lucy said, lifting up the big metal padlock so that everyone could see. Then she peered through the bars of the gates, looking for any sign of life inside. But the windows of the school were dark and cold. No grown-ups were in there today.

Lucy gulped as hundreds of faces stared dis-appointedly at her.

“So now what do we do?” a little voice cried out.

“I don’t know,” replied Lucy, feeling awful that she’d let everyone down.

“If only I had a pin. I’ve got my lock-picking badge, you know,” said Norman, proudly pointing at it.

“Where have all the grown-ups gone?” Ella whined.

“I don’t know that either,” said Lucy.

“I believe they may have gone due east,” said Norman, checking his compass against the position of the sun.

“Why is this happening?” the children cried.

“I DON’T KNOW!” Lucy yelled, feeling a lump rise in her throat. “I don’t know what’s happening, why it’s happening, where the grown-ups have gone, or when they’re coming back. I just woke up like everyone else and found that my mom was missing—that’s all! I don’t have the answers. I’m just a kid like you!”

Everyone let out a long, disappointed sigh. The younger kids hugged their teddy bears as their bottom lips started trembling. They had all hoped that Lucy would be like one of those super-smart kids they’d all seen in the movies—you know, those movies where things go wrong and somehow there’s always one kid who knows how to sort it all out.

What they didn’t realize was that Lucy Dungston definitely was one of those kids.

She just didn’t know it yet.

“You might as well all go home and wait there. It’s probably the safest thing to do,” Lucy said.

Slowly the children started to leave. They hung their heads and dragged their feet in the dirt as they wandered back through the empty streets to their empty houses.

Lucy rested her head on the cold gates. No Mom, no police, no teachers, no cereal. This is bad, she thought.

She was just about to start trudging home herself when a gust of wind blew past her face, causing her to turn away. It whooshed over the playground and toward the front door of the school.

Sometimes the wind gusts in just the right place, at just the right time, blowing you in the right direction.

That’s when Lucy saw it, flapping in the breeze like a hand waving at her. It was a piece of paper pinned to the front door of the school.

Her heart stopped.

“Wait!” she cried, and all the children stopped in their tracks and turned back. “Look!” she added, pointing at the piece of paper on the door.

Without thinking, Lucy started climbing one of the large iron gates. Just as her fingers gripped the top, her foot slipped through the gap between the metal bars. She managed to cling on tight with her hands, but her feet dangled uselessly beneath her, swinging this way and that, unable to find a foothold.

Everyone gasped.

Then, all of a sudden, Norman did the strangest thing. He ran over to Lucy and crouched down underneath her on all fours, like some sort of dog.

“What—are—you—doing?!” Lucy strained as she gripped the top of the gate.

“Someone needs to get on my back,” Norman said, so quietly that hardly anyone heard him.

“SOMEONE GET ON HIS BACK!” Ella blasted.

The kids suddenly realized what Norman was trying to do—make a human pyramid! Quickly, two older girls from the hockey team crouched on the ground next to him, and a couple more kids climbed onto their backs. Finally the tips of Lucy’s toes brushed against someone’s bottom, and she could step on them, completing the pyramid.

“Thanks!” Lucy said as she swung her legs over the gate with ease, dropped down into the empty playground, and ran toward the small piece of paper that was pinned to the door. She reached up, plucked out the pin, and took the paper down. Her hands shook with nerves as she flipped it over, inspecting it.

It was a letter, and judging by the writing on the front, it was meant for them.

As she looked more closely at the dirty brown writing, she began to worry about what this letter might say. Something about the word on the front suddenly seemed frightening.

Childrun

Perhaps it was the way it glistened in the sunlight: not in a nice way, but in a horrid, sticky sort of way.

“Pass me the pin!” Norman said, stretching his open hand through the gates.

Lucy handed it to him and he set to work picking the lock. After a few seconds of fiddly fingerwork, Norman had the school gates open, so that Lucy could rejoin the rest of the children. “Told you,” he said to Ella with a braces-revealing grin as he proudly rubbed his lock-picking badge.

“Read it, Lucy!” cried Ella.

With a trembling hand, Lucy straightened the paper and took a deep breath.

“What does it say?” Norman asked, pulling a pair of reading glasses out of his Scout uniform pocket.

In the same dirty brown writing was this:

Everyone was silent. The grown-ups had gone away. Forever.

The children were alone.

No grown-ups to watch over them.

No grown-ups to tell them what to do.

No grown-ups to stop them from doing whatever they wanted.

Lucy nervously lowered the letter as the crowd of children burst into celebration, cheering and high-fiving. It was their town now!

“I’ve got a very bad feeling about this…,” Lucy said to herself.

“Me too,” said Norman, who Lucy hadn’t noticed was standing beside her, reading the letter over her shoulder.

“This is the best day EV-ER!” cried Ella’s voice from deep within the joyous crowd.