The Magnolia Robbers

Amanda girlfriends would always bring over lipstick and nail polish. She tried to like it, but couldn’t. Amanda preferred playing sports and reading mystery novels. She was always good at guessing who did it before she even got to the last page. Her favorite sport was football and she became good friends with her teammates. They included Mickey, the lineman; Daniel, the receiver; Roger, who plays center and Aaron, the quarterback.

It was a yucky and rainy day, so football was cancelled, unfortunately. Amanda went to the bank to make a deposit for her mom. While Amanda was waiting in line, she saw Jessica, her best friend and a senior in high school. “Hey Amanda, what’s up?” Jessica asked. “Hey Jessica, did you get a haircut?” Amanda asked. “As a matter of fact I did” Jessica said. “Yeah, your hair looks so…, but Amanda couldn’t finish because two strangers with ski masks came through the doors. Screams filled the bank. “Everyone, get down!” one yelled. Amanda paid close attention to the voice coming through the ski mask. It sounded like a thick southern accent. Amanda wanted to scream out, but she managed to stay quiet. One of the bank robbers started to dig through the cash register, while the other robber yelled, “Everyone, if you stay down and shut up, no harm will come to you!” Once the robbers were done emptying the cash register, they ran out of the bank.

Amanda got up and was shaking. Everyone else got up, too. Amanda saw that something was left by the cash register. It was a magnolia. She picked it up and a note fell out of it. She read it out loud, “You have been robbed by the Magnolia Robbers.”

Meanwhile, a police car had pulled up in front of the bank. “What happened?” Chief Jackson asked. “A robbery!” everyone said. The police explored the crime scene and couldn’t find any clues.

Amanda and Jessica left the bank after being interviewed. As they were walking down the street, Jessica said, “I wonder who would want to rob the bank.” “Me too,” said Amanda, thinking about possible suspects. It felt like she was a character in one of her mystery novels. Just then, Roger jumped out of the bushes and said, “Yo, I heard you guys were at the crime scene.” “You know, I’m heading to a meeting at Liam’s house where we are going to discuss possible suspects. Want to come?” he asked. Liam was the best player on Amanda’s baseball team. Jessica hesitated to go, but Amanda, on the other hand, said “We’ll come!” She was ready to solve the mystery and figure out who the men were behind the ski masks.

The meeting was downstairs in a huge basement with a bar and pool table. Roger led the way. Amanda saw a lot of her football friends there like Mickey, Aaron and Daniel. Liam was standing on top of the pool table and yelled “Now everyone, we are going to list the possible suspects in today’s bank robbery. I’ll start it off by saying that it was Daniel who robbed the bank!” “WHAT??” Daniel yelled. Amanda got up and reminded everyone that there were two robbers, not just one. “I think it was Aaron and Roger who did it,” Mickey said. Aaron and Roger stood up and Aaron spoke for the both of them. “Hey, I thought we were on the same team here!” Everyone began to argue and the room got really loud. “Hey, if ya’ll shut up for the rest of the meeting, you can have a very tasty cake my mom just made!” Liam said while still standing on the pool table. The room finally became quiet. Liam cleared his throat and said, “Now let’s get on with the meeting.” “I think Mickey and Daniel did it. No doubt!” he said. Everyone started arguing again. “So what makes you so sure?” yelled Mickey in anger. “Yeah!” Daniel yelled. Roger got up. “I say Liam did it!” Roger yelled. “Yeah!” Aaron yelled. “I agree,” Daniel said. Everyone got up and started attacking Liam , except Amanda. “Guys, stop it!” Amanda yelled. No one listened. Liam was tied to a chair with rope.

“You guys are insane!” Liam yelled. Everyone just laughed and went upstairs for cake. Then they heard a scream. It sounded like it was coming from Mickey who was already in the kitchen. When they got to the kitchen Mickey was on the floor with his eyes closed and a big bump on his head. They saw a broken plate next to him. Jessica screamed, “Is he de, de dead?” Roger checked his pulse. “No, just knocked out, fortunately.” “Who would do this?” Amanda asked. All of a sudden the power went out.

Amanda got really scared. She couldn’t see a thing. Luckily, the lights came back on. Amanda looked around. Everyone had disappeared but Liam who was still tied to the chair downstairs and Mickey who was still on the ground. “Liam, are you okay?” Amanda yelled from upstairs. “I will be after you untie me!” “Where is everyone?” Liam asked while Amanda was untying him. “They’ve all disappeared except for Mickey who was knocked out by a plate.” Amanda found a cell phone and called 911. “What’s your emergency?” It was Chief Jackson who had picked up the call. Amanda said, “Chief Jackson, hurry, the robbers are here, the robbers are here!” We’re at Liam’s house and his address is 3497 Tuelub Street.” “I’m on my way!” said Chief Jackson.

While waiting for Chief Jackson, Liam and Amanda heard a noise. Liam grabbed his lucky bat from the closet. The noise was coming from the bathroom, specifically behind the shower curtain. With Amanda close behind, Liam slowly opened the shower curtain. Standing there was a man in a ski mask! It was the same ski mask worn in the bank robbery. They gasped. Liam started to swing the bat and was able to knock the ski mask off his face. “Oh my gosh!” they yelled. It was Roger! Roger was one of the bank robbers! They quickly managed to tie him up. But, who was his accomplice, Amanda thought.

Just then they heard Mickey whispering to someone in the kitchen. “I thought Mickey was knocked out,” said Amanda. They walked near the kitchen where the voices were coming from and quietly looked through the door to see who Mickey was talking to. It was Chief Jackson. Amanda realized there was something different about Mickey’s voice. It was the same southern accent she heard from the robber. “Oh No!” she said to Liam. “The second robber is Mickey! They could hear them whispering about where the money was hidden. Roger and Mickey had buried the money under an old magnolia tree behind Chief Jackson’s house. “Liam, you know what this means, don’t you?” “What?” said Liam. “Chief Jackson is in on it too!” “Liam, you know what to do, right?” said Amanda. “Right!” said Liam. “Start swinging!” Liam was able to take down Mickey and Chief Jackson with his lucky bat while Amanda called 911. This time, help was really on the way. Roger, Mickey and Chief Jackson were put in handcuffs. On their way out the door, Amanda asked “Why did you do it? Was it all for just a little bit of money?” “Yeah,” said Chief Jackson. “All for a little bit of money.”

Meanwhile, Jessica, Aaron and Daniel were found tied up in the closet. Chief Jackson had been very busy behind the scenes while the meeting was going on at the house. He managed to turn the lights out, tie up as many kids as he could and hit Mickey over the head with a plate to make it seem like he was a victim. But, he wasn’t able to get rid of Amanda. If only he knew that Amanda was such a great mystery solver!

Amanda headed home for the evening. When she walked in her house, she handed her mom the bank deposit receipt from earlier in the day, sat down at her computer and began writing her first mystery novel called The Magnolia Robbers.