15. Mystery Solved

MYSTERY SOLVED 15 The doors flew open! Parents, teachers, and students rushed into the gymnasium. They all looked terrified. The gym was a complete disaster. Broken science projects covered the floor. White foam dripped from everything. "Sam!" his mom cried out. "Lucy!" her parents yelled. "Antonio!" his father shouted.

The three friends were standing in the middle of the gym. Their parents relaxed when they saw that they were safe. Sam's mom spotted the fire extinguishers. "Did you put out a fire?" she exclaimed. Sam shrugged. "Sort of." "It was just a small one," Lucy added, trying to keep their secret safe. "Super tiny. Barely anything!" Antonio said with a smile.

Ms. Grinker ran her fingers through her thin, gray hair. She muttered, "We are never having another science fair." The parents and teachers all agreed the science fair had been awful. But the students thought it was pretty fantastic. Sam, Lucy, and Antonio walked toward the parking lot. As they stepped off the school grounds, Sam pulled Orson Eerie's book from his backpack. "Whoa!" he said. "It's still hot!"

All of a sudden, Lucy's eyes lit up— like a lightbulb had gone off in her head. "Let me see that!" she cried. She yanked the book from Sam's hands and flipped it open. "Look, guys!" she exclaimed. "There's writing on these pages!" "Huh?" Sam asked. "What do you mean?" "Yeah. We already looked and didn't find anything. You know that," Antonio added. "My invisible ink project!" Lucy said. "I found that project in this book! And look— Orson wrote notes in here in invisible ink!"

Sam and Antonio both leaned in to get a closer look. Lucy said, "The heat from the lava made the invisible writing readable —just like how it worked in my project!" She flipped through the pages of the book. There was writing on all of them. Hundreds and hundreds of words, and it was all in Orson Eerie's fancy, old-fashioned handwriting. "That's why Orson was trying so hard to get the book back," Antonio said. "It contains his secrets!"

"It will take us forever to go through all of these notes," said Lucy. "And it looks like Orson may have written some of these notes in code." Sam was silent. He knew this book was important. He knew it could be the key to understanding how Orson Eerie became a mad scientist. It could be the key to everything. Sam finally spoke up. "Maybe, just maybe, this book will show us how to stop Eerie Elementary once and for all..."