Another Day, Another Adventure.

Chapter 1: Rakes, Races, and Alarming Possibilities.

Author's note: This takes place after the first three books, and were just gonna pretend the fourth never happened. (I still liked it) Okay? Okay. The characters can be any age pretty much, but I think they would be in their 17's or 18's. Hope you enjoy it!

December 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve. It was a late December day just like any other. The Society still had yet to see any snow. The last leaves of the season hung on the trees for dear life, while rest had gently fallen to the ground. This was much to the annoyance of the Mysterious Benedict Society. (Mostly Constance, though.) It was their job to rake all the leaves up, and boy, there were a lot of leaves.

Constance whined, and leaned on her little rake.

"I'm tired of this! Can we take a break?"

Kate, who was swiftly raking up the leaves into a pile, turned to face Constance.

"Oh, stop complaining! It's our fault for putting this off for so long! Number Two asked us to rake the yard weeks ago! ... C'mon! The faster you rake, the faster we get this done!"

Constance rolled her eyes at Kate's positivity, and began to rake the leaves again.

"I hate raking leaves all day, I wish that they would go away. I just want to take a break, But no! I have to rake and rake."

Kate admired the size of her leaf pile, and smiled with much pleasure.

She happily continued to rake — Ignoring Constance's poems — when she paused and grinned.

"I have a great idea!"

Constance rolled her eyes, for probably the umpteenth time that day, and mumbled to herself.

"That's a first..."

Kate shot Constance a look, but continued to speak with an enthusiastic tone in her voice.

"Let's have a contest to see who can rake up the most leaves! We'll each rake as many leaves as we can into our own piles, until all the leaves are gone. Whoever's pile is the biggest, wins!"

Reynie gave Kate an uneasy look, and a look of shock at her leaf pile.

Reynie didn't think it would be much of a contest. Kate's pile was probably twice the size as his and Sticky's, combined!

"Kate, I'm pretty sure none of us can beat you…"

Kate loved winning, and always half-expected herself to win. She knew it wasn't very good to think so much of herself, but sometimes she couldn't help it.

Reynie couldn't deny that a game was a good way to make working fun.

"Okay, fine. Let's do it!"

Sticky stopped, and groaned.

"We will?!"

Reynie nodded.

"Yeah. But, just to make it interesting, how about you, me, and Constance team up against Kate?!"

Kate grinned, and crossed her arms.

"Challenge accepted."

Constance and Sticky groaned.

"We don't stand a chance..."

Constance said, not realizing that she admitted Kate's superior abilities.

Reynie frowned at his friend's reluctance to participate, and tried his best to encourage his 'team'.

"If we work together I bet we could at least tie with Kate!"

They hesitantly agreed — Although, Constance thought that Reyne's encouragement wasn't encouraging at all — and Reynie turned back around to see a very confident looking Kate.

"Okay Kate. It's us against you. Starting our leaf piles from scratch, okay?"

Kate looked at her precious leaf pile, and back at Reynie.

"It's all the same to me! Besides, I could beat you with a blindfold on!"

Reynie thought Kate could probably beat them with a blindfold on and her hands tied behind her back, but he tried nevertheless.

"On your marks. Get set. Go!"

Kate instantly began raking up leaves at a record speed. In just a minute or two, she had a decently large pile. Large enough to intimidate her competitors, who could barely keep up with her.

Reynie tried to pick up the speed, along with Constance and Sticky. (Well, Constance sorta tried.)

Before they knew it, all the leaves had disappeared. They were all panting and gasping for air, even Kate had worn herself out.

"Good-" Kate gasped for air, "-job..."

"Yeah, you-" Reynie inhaled, and exhaled. "-too."

Kate gave an exhausted laugh, and collapsed into her leaf pile.

"So who-" She panted again. "-won?"

Reynie inspected Kate's leaf pile, then his team's pile.

"I think-" He paused again, to catch his breath. "-we should declare a tie..."

Constance, Sticky and Kate — Who were much too tired to argue — agreed unanimously.

The group of friends gave themselves a few minutes of rest, and began to bag the leaves. Afterwards, the Society admired the clean yard from the comforts of the Benedict house — With some hot chocolate, of course.

Kate — who was still quite proud of herself for tying with the others — sighed with satisfaction of a job well done.

"So Reynie, do you think that tops our leaf raking record?"

Reynie glanced at his watch, and smiled.

"Definitely By at least half an hour."

Kate grinned widely, and sipped her Hot chocolate.

"Y'know, I'm still surprised you tied with me in the leaf raking contest… Are you sure your judging was fair?"

Kate was kidding, of course.

Reynie raised an eyebrow, and would've commented if Constance hadn't interjected.

"Oh please, Kate Wetherall. We probably beat you! Reynie just didn't wanna hurt your feelings.'

Kate crossed her arms — After she had placed her hot chocolate mug on the table beside her — and smirked with an 'Oh really' face.

"Is that true, Connie Girl?"

Constance nodded as she took a large sip of her Hot Chocolate, leaving a quite humorous Hot Chocolate mustache. Kate shook her head, and laughed.

"Then why did I catch you trying to steal leaves from my pile, Constance?"

Constance's face went to a deep shade of red, she frowned and diverted her eyes from Kate's.

"I wasn't stealing them.. I was.. Uh.. Borrowing them…"

Kate and Constance continued to banter as only they could, while Reynie and Sticky were in a discussion about the specimen of the tree in the yard. Although, stopping after Constance told them to be quiet. ("I'd rather sleep in a bed of cactuses, than hear one more word about coniferous plant-thingys." ,Constance had said.)

From that point on, the Society just enjoyed their Hot Chocolate and each other's company. Constance was trying to guess what was inside her presents. Sticky was trying to convince Constance that his present to her was not a book, even though it was, and Kate and Reynie started a game of Connect Four.

It would have been the perfect ending to the society's fall evening. Unfortunately, it wasn't the ending at all.

When everyone had finished their hot chocolate, Reynie had collected the leftover mugs and headed to the kitchen to wash them.

He was putting the mugs away, when he heard the adults talking from a room near the kitchen. They were speaking in hushed tones, and sounded quite serious.

"Do you think the children could be in danger?"

Reynie recognized that muffled voice to be Number Two.

"It's quite possible..

And that had to be Mr. Benedict.

Reynie stopped himself. He was eavesdropping, wasn't he?... He considered listening a little bit longer, but thought better of it. He put away the last mug, and began to walk back to the Society.

'Danger? Why would we be in danger?'

Reynie thought to himself as he walked back to the Society. He could count the numerous possibilities of what, or who could be the threat.

Uh, oh! I wonder what will happen to the Mysterious Benedict Society next! What about you? Stay tuned for the next chapter! It'll be out as soon as I finish it! (And figure out how to add another chapter. XD)