Chapter 4

Tria laughed when she saw Chloe the next day. She had already finished reading her mystery book and had started a new one. “What?” Chloe asked. “There’s nothing wrong with reading mystery books! This one I picked out myself. I don’t need to only be recommended.”

“Can I recommend?” Tria asked, peeking into Chloe’s backpack. It had some more mystery books in it.

“Is it mystery or science?” Chloe asked.

“No, but-” Tria started.

“I don’t know if I’d like that!”

“Well, you-”

“I gotta get going, bye,” Chloe said before abruptly leaving. Maybe she was just being stubborn. Thought Tria. Or she was having a bad day… Tria has had many encounters like this when someone would not try something new. It was like that when Ellie refused to try naan bread instead of eating pita. Her mother called it being stubborn which Tria knew more than enough about.

There was another possibility: Tria interrupting Chloe from her reading, even though Chloe isn’t usually very interested in her books. Well, her new love for mystery books may be more interesting than science and math questions that no one would even solve anyway.

During class, Chloe took out her book at any chance she got. Even at lunch, she chose a quiet table with no one else sitting on it so she could eat and read in peace. When Tria came over to sit at Chloe’s empty table, she didn’t even notice. But, when Chloe got in trouble for reading, Tria knew something was up. Chloe was always trying hr best to do as good as she could, and always follow instructions.

It was just like the time where there was a “war” they called it in school. There were two sides: against zoos, and with zoos. Chloe was with it at the start, but when it started getting personal and people were doing a type of blackmail notes, Chloe immediately realized and dropped out. For that, she was given an award at the end of the year. So, why would Chloe be so interested in this book? Tria thought Maybe she wasn’t really interested… she had something else to do with reading mystery. Chloe lying? What a hard thing to think.

Tria decided (after much debating) to ask Chloe. If she didn’t answer in exactly the way Tria wanted her to, she may have to go further with the investigation. Chloe’s life: a mystery itself.

“What’s the real reason you’re reading these books?” Tria immediately felt bad for starting this with such a  harsh question.

“What books?” Chloe stammered. “Just the mysteries you mean… not the other books-I mean uh…” This was weird. Tria peeked around Chloe and saw that she was standing in front of a pile of other books and newspapers. They were all about crime, mystery, and histories of their town, Brickwood.

“Something is up, want to tell me?” Tria asked Chloe.

Chloe then hesitated to say, “There’s a mystery and a crook going around in Brick wood.” She crumpled down further. “I want to solve this before more things get stolen.” Tria is about the same height as Chloe, but at this moment, she felt way taller.

“Now that you know about it,” Chloe said, standing up. “I could really use some help. You thought I like mystery books? Wow, I must be a great actor.”