Heidi Heckelbeck and the Secret Admirer Read online

  Chapter 1: HOWDY, PARTNER!

  Chapter 2: MOTHBALLS

  Chapter 3: RAISINS

  Chapter 4: STINKBUG

  Chapter 5: BUBBLES!

  Chapter 6: A SECRET MESSAGE

  Chapter 7: TRUTH POTION

  Chapter 8: OH, HENRY!

  Chapter 9: KA-BOOM!

  Chapter 10: DR. DESTRUCTO

  Chapter 11: I KNEW IT WAS YOU!

  ‘Amy and the Missing Puppy’ Excerpt

  About Wanda Coven and Priscilla Burris

  Heidi Heckelbeck couldn’t wait for the Brewster second-grade science fair. Science experiments were the next best thing to mixing magic potions.

  “We find out our science partners today,” said Heidi as she and Bruce Bickerson bounced along in their seat at the back of the school bus. “I hope I don’t get Melanie Maplethorpe.”

  “Same here,” Bruce said. “I wouldn’t want to get her best friend, Stanley Stonewrecker, either.”

  “Make a fist for good luck,” said Heidi.

  They both made a fist.

  “Pound it,” said Heidi.

  Bruce pounded his knuckles with Heidi’s.

  But it didn’t seem to do any good. When their teacher, Mrs. Welli, announced science partners, Heidi got Stanley and Bruce got Melanie.

  “Poor thing,” said Lucy Lancaster, who had gotten Charlie Chen.

  “You’re lucky you got Charlie,” said Heidi. “He’s nice AND smart.”

  Mrs. Welli asked everyone to sit with his or her partner. Heidi didn’t budge. I’d rather sit next to an egg-salad sandwich than Stanley Stonewrecker, she thought. Stanley set his chair next to Heidi’s and sat down. Heidi wanted to stick her tongue out at him, but she didn’t.

  “Now it’s time to pick a science experiment,” said Mrs. Welli. “I have a list to choose from—or you can come up with your own.”

  She handed a stack of papers to Melanie to pass out.

  “You have two days to choose an experiment,” Mrs. Welli said. “The science fair is the following Saturday. Be ready to show your experiment to the judges. You’ll also need to explain what happened and why on note cards.”

  Melanie dropped the list of science experiments on Heidi’s desk.

  “I’ll bet you were behind all this, weren’t you?” asked Melanie.

  “Behind all what?” asked Heidi.

  “Behind you getting my best friend for a partner and me getting your ding-dong friend,” Melanie said.

  “I’d say it pretty much stinks for all of us,” said Heidi.

  “Well, at least for once we agree on something,” said Melanie.

  The next day in class Heidi and Stanley flipped through the list of science experiments.

  “How about a volcano?” suggested Heidi.

  “That sounds cool,” Stanley said. “Let’s do it.”

  Well, that was easy, thought Heidi. She began to write “volcano” on a piece of paper to give Mrs. Welli.

  Then Melanie raised her hand.

  “Yes, Melanie?” said Mrs. Welli.

  “Bruce and I would like to make a volcano for the science fair,” said Melanie. She had overheard Heidi and Stanley talking!

  “Uh . . . we do?” questioned Bruce. “I thought we were going to make a shoe-box maze.”

  Melanie elbowed Bruce. “Play along, dum-dum,” she whispered.

  “Okay,” Mrs. Welli said. “I’ll put you down for a volcano.”

  Melanie turned around and made a mean face at Heidi.

  Heidi pounded her fist on the desk.

  “Shush,” Stanley said. “We’ll get in trouble.”

  “But she stole our idea!” said Heidi.

  “We’ll just have to come up with something better,” said Stanley.

  “Like what?” Heidi asked.

  “I dunno,” said Stanley. “Let’s take another look.”

  Stanley flipped through a few more experiments. He found a magic ketchup and an exploding lunch bag project. But nothing sounded as good as a volcano. Then Stanley remembered something he’d seen on TV.

  “How about dancing mothballs?” said Stanley. “Mothballs dance when you add water and other stuff to them.”

  Heidi knew all about mothballs. Her grandma Mabel stored her woolens with mothballs every summer to keep away the moths. Heidi remembered how some of her grandma’s sweaters would smell like mothballs even after they were no longer stored with them.

  “I guess so,” Heidi said.

  Stanley raised his hand.

  “Heidi and I would like to do dancing mothballs,” said Stanley.

  “Very good,” said Mrs. Welli, writing it down.

  “So now what?” Heidi asked.

  “We need to learn more about our experiment,” said Stanley.

  “My dad’s a soda-pop scientist,” Heidi said. “Maybe he can help us. Do you want to come over after school?”

  “Sure,” said Stanley.

  Whoa, I can’t believe I just asked Stanley Stonewrecker to come over to my house, thought Heidi.

  Well, it wasn’t like this made him her friend or anything.

  Ding-dong!

  “I’ll get it!” said Heidi as she thundered down the stairs.

  Heidi met her mom and little brother, Henry, in the front hall.

  “Who is it?” asked Henry.

  Heidi put a finger to her lips and whispered, “Shh . . . It’s Stanley.”

  “SMELL-A-NIE’S Stanley?” asked Henry.

  “Shush! He’s going to hear you,” Heidi whispered.

  “But what’s he doing here?” asked Henry.

  “The two of us are working on a science project,” whispered Heidi.

  Ding-dong!

  “Coming!” Heidi called.

  “And you picked Stanley?” asked Henry.

  “Of course not!” Heidi whispered loudly. “My TEACHER picked him.”

  “Yikes!” whispered Henry as Mom scooted him away from the door.

  Heidi brought Stanley into the kitchen. “Stanley, this is my mom and my little brother, Henry,” she said.

  “Hi, Stanley,” said Mom. “Would you like a Rice Krispies bar?”

  Stanley said yes and helped himself to one. He saw Henry pull a Candy Pop from a kitchen drawer. Henry tore off the wrapper and popped the candy into his mouth.

  “That better not be the last one,” Heidi said.

  “It’s not,” said Henry. “We have five left.”

  “What flavors?” asked Heidi.

  “Coconut,” said Henry.

  “What else?” Heidi asked.

  Henry peeked in the candy drawer.

  “More coconut,” he said.

  “What happened to all the grape ones?” Heidi asked.

  “Maybe they got stolen,” said Henry.

  “Is the thief, by any chance, named HENRY?” asked Heidi.

  Henry pulled the Candy Pop out of his mouth, followed by a slimy trail of purple spit. “Want the rest of this one?” he asked.

  “That’s gross,” Heidi said.

  Henry shrugged.

  Just then the back door banged open. Mr. Heckelbeck was home! He walked in and set a bag of groceries on the counter.

  “The gang’s all here!” said Dad cheerfully.

  He introduced himself to Stanley.

  “We’re partners in the science fair,” said Heidi as Dad kissed the top of her head.

  “Our project is dancing mothballs,” said Stanley.

  “Need some help?” Dad asked.

  “Yeah!” said Heidi.

  “Definitely,” said Stanley.

  “Okay, here’s what you’ll need,” said Dad.

  Heidi got
a sheet of paper and a pencil from the kitchen desk. “Ready,” she said.

  “You’ll need water, vinegar, baking soda, and mothballs,” Dad said.

  Heidi wrote everything down.

  “It works with raisins, too,” said Dad.

  “Ooh! Let’s use raisins!” said Heidi.

  Stanley agreed.

  Heidi wanted to do the experiment right away, but Dad had to work on a new cola.

  “Let’s meet here tomorrow after school,” Dad suggested. “We’ll run the experiment from my home lab.”

  “Sounds like a plan!” Heidi said. “I’ll get what we need for the experiment. Stanley, you can gather the note cards and art supplies for our poster.”

  Dad held his hand in the air, and Heidi and Stanley high-fived it.

  So far, so good, Heidi thought.

  The next morning Heidi rounded up everything they would need for the science experiment. She found an empty fishbowl in the kitchen cupboard. It was round and fat like a globe. This will be perfect to show off our dancing raisins, thought Heidi. She took a big box of raisins from the pantry as well as the baking soda and vinegar. Heidi put all the items in a brown paper bag and kept it in the kitchen.

  Heidi grabbed a bagel and ran to the bus stop with Henry. Today was the deadline to choose a science experiment for the fair. She wanted to find out what Lucy and Charlie had picked for their project. Heidi caught up with Lucy just before lunchtime.

  “What are you and Charlie doing for the science fair?” Heidi asked.

  “We’re going to build a lemon battery that will light a Christmas tree bulb,” said Lucy.

  “A two-year-old could do THAT!” said Melanie, who was listening in as usual. “You should call it ‘Lemon Batteries for Babies.’”

  “Mrs. Welli said our project was the hardest one of all,” Lucy said.

  “Who CARES?” said Melanie. “A volcano is WAY cooler than a battery made out of fruit. We’re going to win, for sure.”

  Then Melanie did her famous twirl and walked off.

  “What a stinkbug,” said Heidi.

  “You’re not kidding,” Lucy said. “How’s it going with Stanley?”

  “Okay so far,” said Heidi as she reached into her cubby to grab her lunch bag.

  “Wait—what’s this?” Heidi asked. She stooped down to get a better look in her cubby.

  Heidi pulled a bundle of grape Candy Pops from her cubby. The sticks were tied with a purple ribbon.

  “These are my favorite!” said Heidi.

  “I wonder where they came from,” Lucy said.

  “It must be Henry,” said Heidi. “Yesterday, Henry ate the last grape Candy Pop, and I got really mad.”

  On the way to the cafeteria Heidi spied Henry in the school bus line. She waved the Candy Pops in Henry’s face.

  “Did you put these in my cubby?” Heidi asked.

  “Why would I do that?” asked Henry.

  “To be nice?” Heidi suggested.

  “I’m not THAT nice,” said Henry. “But can I have one?”

  “In your dreams, bud,” Heidi said, and she and Lucy continued down the hall.

  In the cafeteria Lucy got in the hot-lunch line with Bruce. Heidi sat down with Charlie. They pulled out their sandwiches and water bottles.

  “Want an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie?” Charlie asked. “I’ve got an extra.”

  “Sure,” said Heidi.

  Charlie handed her the cookie.

  Then Lucy and Bruce set down their trays.

  “It’ll be tough to win the science fair,” said Bruce. “All the second-grade classes in Brewster will be in it.”

  “What are YOU worried about?” Lucy asked Bruce. “You’re the smartest scientist in the whole school!”

  “Probably the whole state,” said Charlie.

  “Probably the whole universe,” said Heidi.

  “Thanks, guys,” Bruce said. “But it’s not me I’m worried about. It’s Melanie. I’m afraid that she’s going to mess things up.”

  “I know what you mean,” Heidi said.

  They ate the rest of their lunch in silence.

  Mr. Heckelbeck’s home laboratory had a kitchen and a library with bookcases from floor to ceiling. In the middle of the room was an island with a marble top and another sink on one side. This is where Heidi and Stanley set up their experiment.

  Heidi’s dad gave them each a white lab coat. Heidi set the supplies from the shopping bag on the island.

  “Let’s get started!” said Dad. “We need two quarts of water.”

  Dad handed a two-quart measuring cup to Stanley. Stanley went to the sink and filled it with water. With Dad’s help, he poured the water into the fishbowl.

  “We need two-thirds of a cup of white vinegar,” Dad said, pointing to a red line on the measuring cup.

  Heidi carefully poured the vinegar into the cup. The smell reminded her of dyeing Easter eggs. Then she poured the vinegar into the bowl.

  “One tablespoon of baking soda,” said Dad.

  Stanley scooped a tablespoon of baking soda and smoothed it off with his finger. Then he dumped it into the bowl.

  “Now for the raisins,” said Dad.

  Heidi dropped five raisins into the bowl.

  “It’ll take a few minutes for the raisins to dance,” said Dad.

  “Why?” asked Heidi.

  “Because something that’s called a ‘chemical reaction’ is happening in the fishbowl,” he said. “When you mix vinegar and baking soda, they make a gas called carbon dioxide—that’s what the bubbles actually are.”

  Heidi and Stanley watched bubbles form on the ridges of the raisins.

  “The bubbles collect on the raisins and make them rise to the surface. When they get to the top, the bubbles pop and the raisins fall back to the bottom. Then it starts over again.”

  “There goes one!” said Heidi.

  “There goes another!” said Stanley.

  “Dad, can we add color to the water?” Heidi asked.

  “Great idea,” said Dad. He opened a drawer and pulled out a tray of food coloring.

  “How about purple?” asked Heidi.

  Stanley agreed, and Mr. Heckelbeck added a few drops of food coloring. The water turned a lovely shade of light purple.

  “What if we added music?” said Stanley.

  “A dance definitely needs music!” said Heidi.

  “How about the Charlie Brown theme song?” suggested Stanley.

  “Perfect!” Heidi said.

  “I’ll bring my dad’s portable music player to the science fair,” said Stanley.

  “Cool,” said Heidi. And then she had a thought: Maybe the science fair won’t be so bad after all.

  The next week of school flew by. Before they knew it, the science fair was a day away! Heidi was so excited that it was hard to concentrate on anything else.

  “Math books, everyone!” Mrs. Welli said.

  Heidi opened her desk and found, on top of her math book, a blank piece of paper with a happy-face border. The paper was crinkly in the middle, like it had been wet. Heidi sniffed it. The paper smelled like lemons. It had a folded note attached to it with a paper clip. Heidi undid the paper clip. A few scratch-’n’-sniff candy stickers floated to the bottom of her desk. Can this be from my secret admirer? wondered Heidi. Then she unfolded the note and read it.

  “Hei-di!” called Mrs. Welli. “Kindly close your desk and pay attention.”

  Heidi shoved the note, the stickers, and the piece of paper inside her math book and closed the lid of her desk. Then she tried to work on double-digit subtraction, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the note. Who can it be from? Maybe it’s Charlie Chen. Charlie’s working on a lemon battery, and the paper smells like lemons. Plus Charlie gave me a cookie yesterday. It HAS to be Charlie!

  During silent reading Heidi took her secret message—and a book—to the reading corner. She switched on a lamp and held the paper to the light. The message said:

  Heidi qu
ickly stuck the paper back inside her book and sat in the Comfy Chair. I never knew Charlie liked me, thought Heidi. I’ll have to thank him for all the cool stuff.

  In art Heidi tapped Charlie on the shoulder. He was molding a swan out of clay.

  “I really liked your poem,” said Heidi.

  Charlie looked puzzled. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “Didn’t you leave a poem and stickers in my desk?” Heidi asked.

  Charlie’s cheeks began to turn red. “Huh?” he asked.

  “Oh, uh, never mind,” Heidi said. “Gotta go.”

  Heidi returned to her seat. If Charlie isn’t my secret admirer, then who can it be?

  There was one sure way to find out. . . .

  Heidi pulled her Book of Spells out from under the bed. She opened to a chapter called “Truth Potions.” Here we go, she thought. Heidi read a spell:

  Hmm, Heidi thought. My secret admirer has to be someone at school. I’ll be with all my classmates on the day of the science fair—that should do the trick! Heidi looked at the next step.

  This will be a breeze, thought Heidi. I already have a pack of peppermint gum, and I can get water at school. All I need is green food coloring and a bowl.

  Heidi crept downstairs. She listened to make sure that no one was in the kitchen. She heard music coming from the study. Mom must be working on her jewelry, thought Heidi. Her mom had her own jewelry business.

  Heidi tiptoed into the pantry and snooped through the baking supplies. She found a box of food coloring and peeked inside. The green was missing. Dad must have used it up on St. Patrick’s Day, thought Heidi. He had made green pancakes and green smoothies for breakfast. Now what am I going to do? she wondered.