Normally, if you were to look at the surrounding grounds of a middle school, you'd find things like rocks, lost homework, and disgusting gum wads. It's another thing when you find a whole discarded boot just beside the steps.

When Abby entered the building, she found her friends. "I found this shoe laying outside the door," she said, showing them the boot.

The squad all looked at it, confused. "Why was there just one shoe lying around?"

"What do I look like, a god? I don't know."

"It's tiny," said Miriam. "Why would a six year old's boot be outside a middle school?"

"Maybe it belonged to a ghost," suggested Priya.

Abby cocked an eyebrow. "Ghosts don't wear clothes."

"Who says she was wearing it?" Priya took on a very dark tone. "Perhaps it was the last remnant of her unhappy childhood, before her untimely demise."

"Maybe someone's sibling was with them when they got dropped off and they lost it," said Miriam. "That's sad, she probably loves these boots."

"Or maybe their sibling stole it to mess with them," suggested Tyler.

"Guys, could you lighten up a little?" Mei cut in.

Miriam shrugged. "I don't know. We should probably just go to class before we're late." The five of them split off, and Abby stuffed the boot into her book bag to continue the discussion later.

At lunchtime, when the squad reunited, they met in the library to use one of the computers to look up child clothing catalogues to try and identify the boot.

"Here it is." Priya pointed to an item on the Sears catalogue; a pair of boots identical to the one Abby found. "So we know where it came from. Now we just have to figure out how it got to our school."

"Let's ask if people around here have siblings. Maybe one of theirs lost it, like Miriam suggested this morning." Mei corralled her friends together, and they entered the hallway.

Once again, the gang split up to ask other students about their siblings. Mei got a gentle no from two sophomore girls, Miriam got growled at by a senior with only older brothers, and Tyler got a half-joking "maybe in six years" by a junior with a baby sister.

Eventually, Priya, who had taken the boot, ran into Stacy. "Do you have any siblings?"

"No," Stacy answered innocently. "Why?"

"We're trying to find who owns this boot," explained Priya, showing her the lost footwear.

"Oh! I saw someone throw that out their car window when I got to school today." Stacy flicked a lock of hair out of her face. "You should bring that to the elementary school's after-school program when class gets out; maybe one of the kids there owns it."

"Copy that." Priya then herded the rest of the squad together. "We have a lead, comrades."

When school had ended, Miriam and Priya went by the elementary school to give them the boot. A teacher saw Miriam waving her over, and went to the fence. "Can I help you?"

"Does this belong to any of your kids?" Priya showed her the boot.

"Why, yes." The teacher got a good look at the boot. "Our Daniella was telling us this morning that she couldn't find one of her rain boots this morning. She's been mopey all day. Thank you for finding this!"

Almost on cue, a little kindergarten girl toddled over to her teacher. "My boot!"

Her teacher handed it to her. "These two girls found it for you."

"Thank you, nice girls!" Daniella then ran back off to continue playing.

As the teacher left, Miriam turned to Priya. "It feels nice to help people out."

Priya smirked. "It brings a bit of light to my dark soul."