Crop Circles or Not?

By Taryn, 6H

"Another boring, Saturday morning in Taber."13 year old Salem Omega told me, Ally O'Neil. It wasn't that boring I thought.

"What do you mean?" I asked, "It's beautiful out!" Flowers, trees in full bloom, baby birds twittering away, well, you could say that's a typical spring day here.

"Ahhhhhh!" screams echoed through the Omega field.

"Lets go!" Salem cried running towards her house. Salem and I threw the door open and ran up the stairs to her room. She looked out the window and her eyes widened in shock.

"What?" I asked trying to get a peek at the ground below.

"Crop Circles!" Salem whispered. I peered out of the window and saw them. Great patches of the wheat had been cut, it was horrible!

"Looks like we have a mystery on our hands." Salem commented.

"Huh?" I asked. I knew Salem loved solving mysteries, but me her partner!

Salem and I went downstairs to talk to her mom. She was staring blankly out the window.

"Mom?" Salem asked her mom quietly. I watched her mom turn around.

"Who could have done this?" Her mom, Ellie asked stressed.

"I don't know but I plan on figuring it out." Salem told her seriously. Every year the Omega's grew the best wheat around and they always won 1st place at the fair, but now the wheat, which was the Omega's life had been destroyed.

"So, where do we start?" I asked Salem.

"The field!" Salem answered at once.

It had been an hour already and still, we hadn't found anything. I searched the area around me one last time and saw a bright blue sweater lying on the ground.

"Sadie!" I hollered. I picked up the sweater and a student I.D. fell out of the pocket, Sadie Jonline, our first suspect. Sadie was the world's worst bully, according to the kids she picked on, 6th graders mainly. Sadie looked like a typical bully would. Short spiky red hair, brown eyes and a mountain of freckles, oh yeah, one more thing, she's short. Salem came running to my side. Salem took the sweater and glanced at the I.D. "Sadie Jonline." She said suspiciously.

Salem and I split up again, wishing to pursue our investigation further before questioning Sadie. A few minutes along the line I heard Salem call me. I parted the tall stalks and found myself in the center of a huge crop circle. Salem was looking at what seemed to be a huge spaceship.

"Hey, that's the spaceship from drama!" I announced in shock. We moved the spaceship to the side and found a path of trampled wheat that lead straight to Kasey Kortano's front yard. Salem opened up the gate and started walking towards her front door. After three soft knocks Kasey answered.

"Hi Salem, Hi Ally." Kasey said sleepily. Kasey was an angel, no not really, but she was really nice, to everyone, well that's if you don't get on her bad side. Kasey had long, wavy golden blonde hair, vibrant blue eyes and was superiorly tall. Salem and Kasey looked a lot alike, although Salem had brown hair. As Kasey ran her fingers through her hair, I nervously felt my own bone straight brown hair. My only good feature was my startling almond shaped bright, emerald green eyes.

"Can we talk to you?" Salem asked.

"Sure, Come on in." Kasey replied, trying to stifle a huge yawn.

"Where were you last night?" Salem asked.

"I got back from Florida around midnight, why?" Kasey questioned.

"Follow me." Salem called, already at the top of the stairs. Salem lead Kasey to her bedroom window.

"Oh my gosh, who did this?!" Kasey gasped.

"That's why were here," Salem said softly.

"What, you can't be serious!" Kasey cried.

"Okay, okay calm down!" I said.

"I can't, I mean, your supposed to be my friends!" She shouted.

"It's just that we found a path that lead straight to your yard." I commented.

"Mind your own business!" Salem snapped, "You don't have to be smart to figure out I'm being framed!"

"I think it's time we paid Sadie a visit," Salem proposed.

After a five minute walk we were standing at Sadie's front door.

"Here we go," I gulped. Salem raised her fist and knocked. Mrs. Jonline, a surprisingly nice woman answered the door.

"Why hello!" She sang.

"Um, Mrs. Jonline, can we come in?" I asked timidly.

"Of Course!" She Chanted.

"Is Sadie home?" Salem wondered.

"She's in her room." Her brother answered.

"Thanks," I said, since apparently Salem couldn't.

"What do you want!?" Sadie demanded as we stepped into her own private disaster zone.

"Uhh, this place is a mess!" I whispered to Salem.

"Where were you last night?" Salem demanded. I looked down at my watch, almost noon. I knew I was staying at Salem's tonight but we had to get going.

"I was at home like always, watching TV!" Sadie scoffed.

"Any witnesses?" Salem asked.

"Just one, Kyle Dawsin," Sadie sneered.

"Kyle was here?" Salem whimpered. Kyle and Salem had been dating for two years but Salem recently broke up with him for a guy named Cody.

"Duh!" Sadie replied.

"Salem, come on!" I cried.

After a short talk, I had convinced Salem to come talk to Kyle with me. Kyle answered the door on the third knock.

"Hey," He commented dully. Salem looked away the moment their eyes met. "I thought you'd be with Cody," Kyle accused.

"Me and Cody broke up," Salem muttered softly.

"What, sorry, couldn't hear you?" Kyle mocked.

"I broke up with Cody," She said more clearly.

"Oh," Kyle sighed. Then it hit me, I knew who did it!

"Salem come on!" I cried.

"Hang on!" she snapped, since she was deep in conversation with Kyle. Now, I usually wasn't impatient, but right now I was.

"Salem, I know who did it!" I cried desperately.

Back at Salem's house, Salem had insisted on having Kyle come, well anyways. Back at Salem's house, I gave my explanation.

"Sadie." I told the wall.

"Sadie, what?" Salem asked as I turned to face her.

"Sadie did it! I commented. "Come on I have to show you something," I continued.

After a fifteen minute walk in the field, I reached my destination, a huge mud puddle. I pulled out the blue shoe that I had seen earlier. I pulled out the other blue shoe from my backpack.

"I got this from Sadie's room," I commented.

'Then, who's is this?" Kyle said as he pulled a red runner from the mud.

"I'm not sure, hey, come with me," Salem said snapping back to reality.

At the spaceship, it had taken us half an hour to find it, Salem turned over her backpack filled to the brim from everything to everything, did I mention everything? Salem grabbed powder, black paper, clear tape and a dusting brush. After finding the perfect print, Salem pulled out something else.

"I was partners with Sadie for that fingerprinting lab," She announced. She checked the fingerprint against Sadie's. "Not a match," Salem said stunned.

"I was partners with Kasey if that helps," I announced.

"Let me see your paper," Salem said thoughtfully. After checking the print more than once, still no match.

"I was partners with Cody," Kyle said coolly. After three prints we had our match.

Cody! So our culprits were Cody and Sadie, Cody and Sadie Jonline! They were siblings, why didn't I think of it before. But why? Of course, Sadie has only ever cared about her family, that's her weak spot, so she couldn't stand her brother being so upset about his break up! That's when she came up with a plan. A plan that would get back at Salem Omega, she knew she cared deeply about the crops, and she would be heart broken, But how, how would she be able to convince people to help her. Theft. Theft was the only answer. She knew no one would help her, so she stole.

"Lets go!" I yelled.

At Sadie's, we all knocked at once. Her brother Cody answered the door. Ignoring his rude comments, we burst into Sadie's room.

"Sadie," Salem said quietly, "You are so good at lying, not!"

"I believe this is yours?" I commented throwing the sweater at her.

"Sadie!" Kyle said astonished.

"Hey there's no use in lying, we already know you were in on it!" Kyle retorted.

"Um," was all he could say.

That was our first mystery together. Since then we've not only been inseparable, but we haven't solved a mystery solo since. Oh yeah, almost forgot, if you're wondering what happened to Sadie and Cody, well, their parents were faced with many charges including vandilism and theft. Cody and Sadie have to help out around not only the town but The Omega field too, for three whole years! So, we went from only having Sadie, to Sadie and I, to Sadie, me and Kyle, teen detectives and true best friends.

The End . . . Or is it?

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