The Nancy Drew Notebooks #4: Bad Day for Ballet

 

Most of the small girls in River Heights are in Madame Durgrand's ballet class. Bess was sick and missed a few classes, which explains why she keeps messing up her steps. She needs to figure it out because they have a big recital coming up. Their teacher picked some kids to have solo dances from Peter Pan and arranged group dances for everyone else. Nancy and her friends get to be mermaids.

Brenda is unhappy that the teacher gave the Wendy solo to her friend Alison and stops talking to her. When they get ready for a rehearsal, Dugrand finds that someone stole the only tape of their music. Brenda immediately blames Bess because she was the last person backstage. Jerry, the janitor, is also a suspect. He has to keep putting off his personal life because of rehearsals and has to give up concert tickets he bought for his girlfriend's birthday for the big show. Nancy sees Paul, their teacher's young son playing around, too.

The only clue she has is an Eiffel Tower charm, which the teacher gives to her top students. She instantly suspects Brenda because only she and Alison have that same charm. When she finds that they both have their charms, she turns her attention to Jerry. Nancy finds a tape hidden with his stuff, but it's only a tape of his girlfriend's favorite band.

While waiting for their teacher, Nancy notices that Paul has a whole play area set up to look like Paris. He says that he made it from the pictures his mom has of the city. When she tells him that he needs an Eiffel Tower, he says he has one. She reaches in his secret box to look for it, and he slaps her hand away. Nancy then finds a bunch of cinnamon candies near where the tape was and puts it all together.

She grabs the madame and takes her to Paul. As soon as she asks him, he bursts into tears about how much he hates ballet and wants more time with his mom. The madame apologizes for not realizes how much he missed his sitter, which is the reason he's always around. Paul hands over the tape. Alison and Brenda make up, Nancy gets all the acclaim for solving the mystery, and their big recital goes off without a hitch.

*Saturday morning is when Hannah goes out and leaves them alone. Nancy loves it because Carson always gets up early to make her breakfast, which is super cute.

*They practice at Bess's house and then go out for ice cream. Her mom will only let them leave if they wash off their makeup first, which is so realistic.

*To no one's surprise, George hates makeup and hides when it's time to put it on for the recital. She also hates wearing tights.

*Uh, has the teacher never heard of a music store before? You can literally buy a copy of that tape for like 10 bucks.