Disclaimer: If I owned Hamtaro, I would not be sitting in my bedroom on my computer writing a story about it to put on ff.net. I would be making episodes out the wazoo. Please, if you happen to own Hamtaro, don't sue me since I don't. I do own David and Jimmy, though.

Hamtaro's Greatest Adventure! Chapter 4: Suspicious Activities

It's December 21st. It's the last day of school before Christmas break, so the hamsters are exchanging gifts now since some of them may not be around during the holiday vacation. Hamtaro was waiting outside the entrance to the tunnel for Bijou. He had stopped by her house to get her so they could walk together, but Maria was late for school, so she told Hamtaro to go on ahead.

"Boy, it's cold out here. I wish Bijou would hurry up a little," shivered Hamtaro. He suddenly caught sight of her on the end of the field. "There she is! Kushi Kushi," Hamtaro said as he began fixing his hair. "Hamtaro, here I am!" Bijou said as she ran to him. She hugged him and they walked in together, hand in hand.

When they entered, they began to exchange gifts. Sandy got Maxwell a book on Einstein's theory of relativity. Maxwell gave Sandy a new pink ribbon, which was twice as long as her old one. Dexter got Pashmina a pair of pink sunglasses. Howdy gave her a gift certificate for his human's store. Boss got Bijou a necklace. Bijou gave Boss a bow tie. Hamtaro gave Bijou new bows for her hair in 3 different colors: deep red, purple, and pink. "Oh Hamtaro! These ribbons are beautiful! I love you, Hamtaro!" Bijou wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, on the lips this time. Hamtaro was so flustered that he couldn't stand up straight. When Bijou let him go, he fell over. He quickly stood up and fixed himself up. "Kushi Kushi. I love you too, Bijou. Your gift was the best one yet!" "But I have not given you my gift yet," Bijou laughed. Bijou's gift to Hamtaro was an entire bag of sunflower seeds. "Bijou, I love your gift, and I love you." Hamtaro then kissed Bijou, and it was Bijou's turn to become flustered.

Everyone exchanged all of their gifts (I'm not going to tell you anymore, do you know how long that would take? Use your imagination or something). Everyone was quite happy with what they received. Everyone got Oxnard sunflower seeds, of course. Now it was time to have dinner. It was a traditional feast with all varieties of nuts and seeds. There were even some pistachio nuts, which were very rare in the ham-ham world. With their meal, they had some seed-nog. David got up and went into the study. "But you hardly touched your seeds," Howdy said. "I'm not hungry," David sighed as he went through the door to the study.

"Boss, why don't you go see what's the matter with David," Pashmina suggested. Penelope added an "Ookyoo" of agreement. Boss nodded and got up. He walked towards the door and was just about to open it when the door opened and slammed Boss in the face. He fell over behind the door as David ran out. "All of our gifts are gone!" David shouted. Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran to the study, where they had put their gifts. Sure enough, everything was gone.

Everyone immediately began searching for the pilfered presents. They searched high and searched low, but they could not find a trace of the gifts. Bijou and Hamtaro searched together. At the end of the day, though, there wasn't any sign of their gifts.

"It is hopeless!" Bijou sighed as she slid into a chair, exhausted. "The thief is probably long gone by now," sighed Panda. "I hate to admit it, but I'm about ready to give up," Hamtaro said. "I am so sorry Hamtaro. Now I will never be able to wear your beautiful ribbons," Bijou said as Hamtaro sat down next to her. "It's ok Bijou. It's not your fault," Hamtaro assured her. Bijou blushed and snuggled closer to him. "Schmubby-wubby," they both said as they cuddled together.

Hamtaro stood up. "I'm going outside to look for clues. We can't just give up!" "Are you crazy?" Howdy laughed. "Yer tail will be a block of ice in minutes!" Hamtaro's whiskers drooped. "What if there are footprints in the snow? I can't let my dear Pashmina's gifts be purloined from under her without even trying to help," Dexter said at last. "Great! Let's go looking for those presents!" Hamtaro said as he jumped up and walked to the door.

After about 10 minutes, it was pretty obvious that the only footprints in the snow were of the ham-hams when they came to the clubhouse that morning. "Maybe he is still hiding in the tunnels?" Bijou suggested. Everyone decided to check the tunnels that led to the clubhouse.

"Hamtaro, everyone, come here quickly!" Sandy shouted from one of the tunnels. It took about 15 minutes to find the tunnel she was in, but they finally did. In the tunnel behind Sandy were all of the gifts. "I use this tunnel as a storage closet during the summer. I wonder how all of the gifts wound up here..." Boss mused. "I bet Penelope did it," Maxwell put forward. "We all know how she likes to hide things. Penelope shook her head 'no' and jumped up and down. "Penelope didn't do it, Maxwell," Pashmina sighed. "Well that makes this mystery all the more mysterious," Cappy said.

Everyone was suspicious of everyone else as they returned to the clubhouse. Since the only entrance to the "supply closet" was through the clubhouse, they knew it had to be one of their own who betrayed them. The hamsters who were considered suspects were Dexter, Stan, Howdy, Snoozer, Penelope, Boss, and David. Each of them denied emphatically that they had anything to do with the situation, but could not come up with a good alibi. According to each of the suspects, at the supposed time of the thieving (which was just before dinner), Dexter was cleaning his glasses, Howdy was washing his apron, Stan was adjusting a loose handle on one of his maracas, Snoozer was "out of sight out of mind" in the corner asleep, Penelope was napping on the sofa, Boss was writing in his journal, and David was *ahem* using the facilities.

By the end of the day, the list of suspects was narrowed down to 3. Dexter showed the others the cloth he used for his glasses, and since he wasn't out of anyone's sight all day besides for that time, they cleared him. Stan showed the group his maracas, where he had left them when David made the announcement that the gifts were gone. Howdy showed everyone that his apron was still in the washing machine, and Boss yelled at Howdy for using his good detergent. And it was discovered that Snoozer hadn't even shifted position once all day long. In order to steal something, his blanket/sock would have had to move at least a little.

"I hate to admit it, but we're going to have to postpone this mystery for another day," Hamtaro sighed. "School is about to get out and most of us have to leave." Everyone said their good-byes and gathered their gifts to take home. As David was walking out the door, Boss stopped him. "I know it had to have been you. I know everyone else enough that they would never do anything like this." David looked at him. "All I know is that it wasn't me, so evidently you don't know everyone quite as well as you thought, or else you did it yourself." Boss grimaced. "I'm going to keep my eye on you, David. Don't think you'll be able to slip out of my sight for a second." David walked past him and out the door.

"That Boss, how dare he accuse me of that fiasco," David thought to himself as he walked home. "Someone should have taught him a lesson long ago. If I were strong enough, I'd fix him good." David crawled through the mail slot on the front door. He ran into Jimmy's room and scampered into the cage just in time to hear the front door open. "Mom, I'm home!" Jimmy yelled through the door.

"Hamtaro, what are we going to do about the thief?" Bijou asked. Hamtaro was walking Bijou home. Hand in hand, they finally arrived at her house. "I don't know," he answered, "but I do know that it's going to be hard to get out for awhile now that school is out for vacation." "I'll try and come and visit you every chance I can," Bijou said. "I'll try to come and visit you, too," Hamtaro replied. They rubbed noses and then kissed lightly on the lips. Bijou winked at him and ran into her house. Hamtaro waited for a few seconds and then walked home.

"Guess what Hamtaro! Today is the last day of school until after the New Year's holiday! I'm so glad I can finally sleep in for a change!" Laura said in one breath. Laura pulled her journal out of her desk drawer and started writing. She let Hamtaro run up the side of her desk and sit with her as she wrote the day's happenings down in her private notebook. "Hamtaro, today was pretty good, but I bet tomorrow will be way better!"

TO BE CONTINUED...