It was a dark and stormy night. Someone came out of the air dunce, broke into the freezer at Roadhouse Fantasia, and tampered it with all the food.
XxoxX
In the morning, the Annual Lititz Heights Food Festival was going on. There were stands for all the restaurants in town, including Holman's, Hong Kong House of Chow, and El Pueblo De Pepper. "After all those finals studying," Tania said, "I think I need a food festival."
"You can say that again," Estrella replied.
"That's just Erik," Peter said. "He used to work for Roadhouse Fantasia until he left."
"What have we here?" asked Billie as she was accompanied by Miley, Zara, and Isla, "The Food Poison Patrol."
"Why on earth would you say that?" asked Paige.
"We saw your dad on the ground after he ate some of the food he food your family prepared last night," Miley explained "Maybe your restaurant should be renamed 'Roadhouse Flimflamtasia'."
By the time they went to the Roadhouse Fantasia, they saw Mr. Hayato having abdominal pain. "Dad!" shouted Paige and Peter as they came to comfort their father.
"Are you okay, Dad?" asked Peter.
"Not really," answered Mr. Hayato. "Someone has tampered the food."
"We better take care of the food before someone else gets sick," Rusty suggested.
"I'm afraid we're too late," Mr. Phelps answered as he pointed to the other stands with people getting sick.
As Leah was looking at the food stands that have tainted, she saw that the only stands that weren't poisoned were Jaxon's Sub-Stances, Nayeli's herbal stand, and Naples Piatto.
"We got our suspects, girls," Leah replied. "Now all we need now are the clues."
"Only one," Mrs. Hayato said as she showed the crowbar. "We found this while getting the food."
On the crowbar, Leah saw that it had an E carving on it, feeling like it belonged to someone with the initial E.
XxoxX
Later, Paige was looking for clues by the Jukebox Rock stand when she saw three boys eating the tainted food. One was a Latino boy with a soul patch and an orange plaid vest, one had blonde hair, whiskers, and had a blue hoodie, and another had red hair with sideburns and a green shirt. "Those are just Peter's idiot friends: Santiago, Hoodster, and Maniac Mel. "Oh, no," Paige said to herself. "Not Peter's dimwitted friends."
"Hey, fellas," declared Santiago. "Look who showed up from the Roadhouse stand?"
"Hey, hey, Paige Hayato," Hoodster and Maniac Mel said. "How much food did you throw to go?"
"A lot," growled Paige. "Everyone is leaving the festival because of the food poisoning. Normally Peter is strong to it, but this has gone too far."
"You're telling me," said a handsome man with brown hair and glasses.
"Hello, Erik," Paige replied. "How are things at Clifton Creeks Middle School?"
"Kind of crazy," kids replied. "Chemical prank wars, the principal going bald, and hamster fur turning blue from the chemicals."
"Oh, my," Paige said.
"Are you crazy?" Peter replied. "Turning hamster blue is radical."
"So what brings you back to Lititz Heights?" asked Santiago.
"Ugh," said Erik. "I'm going to test out my nanobots."
As Paige looked down, she saw that his hands were purple, which was the same coloring the tampered food was. Then he made a run for it.
"You know what, dudes?" asked Maniac Mel. "We should practice our skateboarding for the Lititz Heights Skateboarding Competition."
"Yeah," Hoodster replied. "First prize is tickets to Shredfest in Pittsburgh."
One by one, the boys took off on their skateboards. Peter had a sushi skateboard, Santiago had a pizza skateboard, Hoodster had a taco skateboard, and Maniac Mel had a hot dog skateboard.
*I should go interview Nayeli*, Paige thought to herself, *before more food poisoning gets out of hand*.
Paige and Kaylin arrived at Nayeli's stand. She was an herbal doctor from Africa who didn't seem to be getting so much attention at her stand every year.
"Maybe I can be of assistance to your father, dear Paige," said Nayeli. She got out some African herbs and made a healing ointment for the food poisoning. "Back in Kenya," she explained, "we used herbal remedies to cure the sick. I cured most sick people form low-income families before I moved here."
"Is that why you don't get many visitors to your stand each year?" Paige asked. "Because they think it's some of your medicine? You do work at the local doctor's offices for the low-income neighborhoods?"
"So you didn't cause the food poisoning here?" asked Kaylin.
"I would never do such a thing," Nayeli replied. "It's disrespectful to the culinary programs."
XxoxX
Meanwhile, Kirby, Leah, and Tania were at the stand to Naples Piatto. "Mr. Benbow?" asked Tania to ask Mr. Benbow came out freaking out.
Mr. Benbow was a middle-aged man wearing a blue plaid shirt, black pants, and loafers, and was looking crazy. "Back off!" he shouted. "Did you come to taint my lasagna?"
"Wow," Leah said. "Must've drinking five cups of coffee again."
"Sorry, Leah," said Mr. Benbow. "Ever since people started getting food poisoning, I was afraid that someone would poison my wife's cooking."
"It's okay, Dad," Christian replied as he and his mother came with some extra saran wrap. "The Klue Queens are investigating the food poisoning."
Christian's mother, Arabella, was pudgy and wore 1960s clothing. "Si, si, Conrad," she said in an Italian accent. "We want to save the leftovers for later. We want you to stay strong."
Kirby tried to eat the lasagna, but Leah stopped him. "Kirby," she replied, "not here." Kirby started to look disappointed.
Rylie and Estrella were both looking for clues while Swinger found some purple bugs heading for Jaxon's Sub-Stances stand. When he got there, he started growling at the stand.
"Hey, hey, hey!" shouted a sharp man as he hit Swinger with a broomstick. "No monkeys near my subs!"
"Jaxon," Estrella said as Swinger crawled up to him. "Forgive Swinger. My mono gets testy when there's something wrong. We were wondering if you knew anything about the food poisoning."
"Once," Jaxon said, "the teenagers I hired in the summer of 2004, they had summer colds and sneezed all over the placed. I was bankrupt for weeks. Everything changed when I hired those college kids and business was booming again."
While they were interviewing Jaxon, the purple bugs started getting near the sandwiches. Swinger spotted the bug and pushed Jaxon out of the way. Unfortunately, the bug was out of control.
Kirby flew in and smooshed the bug. Everyone cheered, except for Swinger. Kirby looked at his foot to see that it wasn't a real bug, it was a nano bug with a purple chemical inside, "My nanobots" shouted Erik, "You're destroying my babies."
"So your the one who's been tampering the food at the festival," Rylie said.
"Yeah," Erik replied. "Good way to get back for my embarrassment."
The girls didn't know what to do, then Rylie spotted a fruit stand and got an idea. "Kirby," she shouted, "suck this melon!" With a gulp of the watermelon, Kirby turned into Ball Kirby. He bounced all around until he knocked out Erik.
"Go, Kirby!" shouted Estrella. "Bounce up and down!"
XxoxX
Later, they tied Erik to a tree and explained the situation to the frantic Mayor Hess and Mr. Hayato that Erik was responsible for the food poisoning. "Lucky for us," Rylie said, "his tampered purple hands blew his cover. We assumed he used purple food coloring for the chemical."
"Plus they found a crowbar with an E carved into it," Tania recalled. "And most of the food we found was purple. Also, the mini-nanobots all had a purple dot in the middle, but when it got into the food, it was black."
"I wanted to get revenge for being fired from my job," Erik explained. "After college, no one would wanna hire an expert on chemicals like me. Unfortunately, Roadhouse Fantasia was the only job in the county that would hire me. They say that cooks and chemists are alike. I needed more money for my chemistry hobbies, so I stole money from the place. Unfortunately, that big mouth Howard Downs fired me for doing it. I waited a long time for my vengeance, perfecting the perfect food poisoning chemical to tamper all the food here and reclaim my money."
"Food poisoning is no joke, Erik," Leah replied. "People would know the difference."
"I've eaten 5-year-old burritos before and my boys and I rarely get poisoned," Peter explained as he and his friends came in, "but you have gone too far messing with my dad's new business. He's been like making things better ever since Downs got arrested."
"What I don't get is," said Estrella, "why would you not contaminate the stands for Naples Piatto, Nayeli's herbal stand, and Jaxon's Sub-Stances?"
"Because I hate Italian food," Erik explained. "I can't get the flavoring in the mouth, Nayeli's herbs look disgusting to me, and Jaxon and I were rivals back in the days as Chef's Club members. See who's the better cook. I lost to his sandwich skills."
Officer Downs came in and cuffed Erik. "Ricardo," replied Erik. "Haven't seen you since your police academy graduation."
"Well," Ricardo said, "maybe a little time in the pokey could teach you not to ruin a town festival." Ricardo and Chief Hess carried Erik away to the police car.
"Man," replied Maniac Mel. "You girls know how to catch culprits."
"We knew that you four wouldn't solve the mystery," Estrella said. "You ninos would mistake bananas for a clue, unless it's a trail of bananas."
"Adios, amigos," Santiago replied. "I promised Abuelita Jimena to give out dog treats at the pet food stand."
"Well, I gotta help my parents repaint the living room," Maniac Mel replied. "And I just love to get dirty."
"For me, dudes," Hoodster replied, "I gotta watch that Tony Hawk movie marathon. I've been planning this for weeks."
Maniac Mel, Hoodster, and Santiago took off while Peter waved at them goodbye. "As for me, Man" he said, "I'm going to take care of my dad while he recovers from the food poisoning. I may be sloppy and lazy, but I care about you guys, especially Paige."
"Oh, Peter," said Paige as she hugged her brother.
"Sweet!" shouted Mrs. Benbow. "Since my ristorante is the only one without the food poisoning, we're going give away all desserts for free tomorrow."
XxoxX
The next day at Naples Piatto, the place was packed with people who weren't poisoned from the food festival. Mrs. Benbow was giving out tiramisus, cannolis, and panna cottas to everyone. "Sulla casa, everyone!" she shouted as she gave out another cannoli.
At a table, Tania was studying for her finals and eating a tiramisu at the same time when Christian came in. "Hey, Tania," he said with a frown. "Can we talk?"
"Sure, Christian," Tania answered.
Christian sat down sadly and sighed. "You've been busy with your Italian restaurant and I've been busy doing my studies and mystery-solving," he explained. "I think we should stay friends."
"Really?" Tania asked. "Well, I understand. When people grow distant, they start losing touch with each other. I hope you understand."
By the karaoke machine, Arabella said, "Alright, everyone. It's time for karaoke. Since the Klue Queens saved the day again, Kirby will go first."
Kirby rushed up to the machine, gulped the microphone, and turned into Mic Kirby. He started to sing "Carnival of Venice" so loud, that it broke all the windows and glass in the restaurant.
"I need to remind myself to never let Kirby sing karaoke here again," Arabella mumbled.
The End.