As workers were putting up the final pieces of the Lititz Heights Summer Carnival, some of them thought they could use a lemonade break. By the time they got their lemonade, they saw a ghost clown and they ran off.
XxoxX
In the morning, the Klue Queens were heading off to the 100th Annual Lititz Heights Carnival. "Looks like Kirby is ready to play at the carnival," said Estrella.
"Poyo! (Hooray!)" shouted Kirby.
"Kirby, self-control," Leah replied as she grabbed the little alien.
By the time they got to the carnival, they saw that the coworkers were all petrified by the ghost that they saw. Everyone was complaining about the ghost attack the night before. "Calm down, everyone," said a diminutive carney. "I'm sure these are just coincidental accidents."
"It's no accident, Mr. Carnival," said a carney. "If you don't take care of this, I'm going back to my old job as a bus driver."
"It's Car-Ne-Val-E," corrected Mr. Carnevale, "and this isn't haunted."
The Klue Queens were surprised that the carnival is going to close early. The only ones who were willing to go to the carnival were Aranea, Norma Jean, and Charlotte. Aranea, Norma Jean, and Charlotte were heading off to their summer job at Jukebox Rock when they heard the workers complaining. All three of them were wearing yellow '50s-style waitress outfits for their jobs. Aranea didn't care for the bright colors, but needed to get the money for a new phone. "It's like they've seen the ghost of Glitbert the Clown," she suggested.
"Glitbert?" asked Estrella. "Never heard of him."
Everyone was horrified by hearing the name of Glitbert the Clown. "Now, now," Mr. Carnevale said. "We usually do that around Halloween."
"Aranea is the keeper of the tale," Norma Jean explained, "so she should tell the story."
Mr. Carnevale didn't have a choice, so he let Aranea tell the tale.
It all started in the late 1910s, around the same time that the Lititz Heights Carnival. The original barker was presenting a new act into the show: Glitbert the Clown. He performed the best acts from juggling glitter balls to making glitter jokes. One night, he was going to perform his juggling act on a horse. Unfortunately, he accidentally got some glitter into the horse's eyes, which made them crash into the carousel. The horse was okay, but Glitbert died crashing into the carousel too hard. They say his ghosts still haunt the carnival. Every year, on the anniversary of the first final day of the carnival, there were four signs of the ghosts haunting. First, sounds of horses would appear out of nowhere; second, cold air would go through; third, trails of glitter would come out of nowhere; and finally, the ghost of Glitbert would come up and turn their victims into glitter.
This horrified the Klue Queens and the barkers. Norma Jean and Charlotte were both paralyzed a bit. "Come on, Norma Jean," Aranea encouraged. "You too, Charlotte."
"I know," replied Norma Jean.
"They're worse than that frog hag who came earlier today." Mr. Carnevale explained. "Earlier today, she was on a morning jog when she saw us. Then she started complaining about how the carnival is going to distract her summer school students from their studies."
The Klue Queens knew only one person who had a frog tied into her name: Principal Hopkins. They remembered that every year, she ran the summer school program for any troublemakers around the school.
Paige got out some kites since she promised Kirby that they would go kite-flying on a really windy day. Paige's had hippie patterns, and the other kite for Kirby had a star with mud stains on it. It was originally Peter's, but he didn't use it anymore.
Meanwhile, Rylie, Tania, Kaylin, Estrella, and Leah wrote down the suspects to the whole ghost charade.
Suspects
Aranea Jameson - Expert on the clown ghost.
Mr. Carnevale - Claims that the place isn't haunted and isn't satisfied with the ghost story.
Principal Hopkins - Doesn't want the students in the summer school program to get distracted.
XxoxX
"Mr. Carnevale," said a bunch of carnies, "Jordyn has gone missing from the carousel."
"Jordyn?" asked Paige.
"She operates the carousel who's obsessed with glitter," Mr. Carnevale explained. "All she ever does is play with it." He came up to the carney and asked if he saw Jordyn's kidnapper. Unfortunately, he didn't see the kidnapper, because the fog was blocking his view.
"I think we should split up," whispered Leah, "Kaylin, Kirby and I will handle the circus, Paige and Tania will handle the games, and Rylie, Estrella, and Swinger will handle the snack bar."
"Right," the Klue Queens replied.
XxoxX
At the snack bar, they were going around for clues when Swinger spotted a flashlight. Out of the flashlight was a ghost clown. "It's the ghost!" Estrella screamed as she hugged her pet monkey.
"No, it's not," Paige answered as she took the flashlight and turned it off. "It's nothing more than a mere hologram. The culprit must've used the hologram projectors to scare away the guests and workers. They must've like to use this projector to scare them away."
Leah, Kaylin, and Kirby were heading off to the circus, which was at the heart of the carnival. The three of them walked into the place. "A circus in a carnival," Leah said. "That's very rare."
"And look!" Kaylin exclaimed as she pointed to the middle.
In the middle of the circus, an African-American boy and an Italian girl were practicing an aerial acrobat routine while "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" performed. "This is just like the festival of 'The Lion King'," Kaylin smiled. "And this so heartwarming."
After the aerial acrobat, Leah, Kirby, and Kaylin applauded. "You two look sooo cute together," smiled Kaylin. Kirby bounced up and down with excitement.
"Thanks," the boy replied. "I'm Kairo, and this is my girlfriend Zahra."
"What are you to doing here?" Zahra replied. "This place is off limits for rehearsal."
"We're sorry," Leah replied, "but there are sightings of a ghost, and Mr. Carnevale thinks this was all fake."
Zahra rolled her eyes. "Him and his attempts to keep customers," she growled. "Every Halloween, carnies quit because of his extremely scary ghost stories. I just wish he did something for the kids for a change on Halloween. I care about him."
"Well," Kairo said as he took Zahra's hand, "you're the one who saved me from being homeless."
XxoxX
Meanwhile, at the games, Rylie and Tania were both looking for clues when they bumped into Principal Hopkins. "I got a call from Ms. Jameson about your mystery-solving," she explained. "I wanted my husband to come, but he said he had to 'wash his socks'. Frankly he's too scared due to some ghost nonsense."
Rylie and Tania were both annoyed by this because no one liked a tattletale. "Were you complaining about Mr. Carnevale's summer carnival earlier today?" asked Rylie.
"I was," Principal Hopkins answered. "Every year, DeAngelo Carnevale puts up the carnival for two weeks straight. This is a total distraction to our summer school program." She got a little upset and sat down. Rylie and Tania knew that something was wrong.
"Principal Hopkins," Tania said. "I know summer is a time to relax, but you don't need to take summer school seriously."
"You're right," replied Principal Hopkins. "I don't want to get lawsuits like I did last year. Parents were saying that I made the Trojan Horse project too boring."
Tania froze and smiled. "This gives me an idea on how we should infiltrate," Tania whispered to Rylie.
XxoxX
Later that night, Kirby and Swinger were inside a treasure chest they borrowed from Charlotte. Charlotte's Uncle Atticus gave her for her fifth birthday. Kairo found the treasure and placed it in. Kirby and Swinger popped out of the treasure and started looking around for the ghost. Suddenly, Zahra realized that they were trying to help. Zahra rushed out of the circus tent to find the Klue Queens.
On another part of the carnival, the Klue Queens were camping out and sleeping when Mr. Carnevale came up. The Klue Queens woke up from their slumber. "You realize you girls are trespassing," Mr. Carnevale explained. "That's highly illegal."
"We know," replied Leah. "But we need to catch these phony ghosts before the carnival is ruined."
"I'm going for a coffee at the nearest 24-hour diner," groaned Mr. Carnevale.
"Don't listen to him," Zahra said. "He's always being protective of stuff, even to those that are VERY valuable. As for me, I can help you find the culprit."
Zahra explained that a mysterious figure had been leaving behind trails of glitter. She suggested that if they followed the glitter, they could catch who was responsible for the ghost haunts."
The Klue Queens followed the trail of glitter to Mr. Carnevale's trailer, where they saw that the door was left open. As they peaked in, they saw that a mysterious masked clown was stealing a safe. Swinger got so mad, he started attacking the masked person.
"Go get them, Swinger!" shouted Estrella.
Unfortunately for Swinger, the clown was too strong. "Swinger could use some help," Estrella suggested as took a loaf baguette bread on Mr. Carnevale's desk. "Kirby, suck it up!"
With a gulp of the baguette bread, Kirby turned into Light Kirby. It blinded the eyes of the mysterious clown with the carnival funds. Swinger grabbed a typewriter prop and tossed it towards the masked clown, making it unconscious. After they unmasked the clown, they found out that the clown was a woman that they didn't know.
"That's Jordyn," said Mr. Carnevale as he came back from the 24-hour cafe, "the carousel worker."
XxoxX
Later, Chief Hess and Deputy Downs were holding a handcuff for Jordyn. Mr. Carnevale was surprised that the missing carny did this. "How did you know I faked my kidnapping and my money-stealing?" asked Jordyn.
"Our first clue was the carney saying that ghosts were appearing near the carousel work, but not seeing the kidnapping," explained Leah. "Then there were the hologram projectors, making it look like the carnys have seen a ghost."
"Plus there was that trail of glitter," recalled Paige. "It leads from the carousel to Mr. Carnevale's trailer where he had his money safe."
"Jordyn wanted to fake her kidnapping so no one would suspect the ghosts," finished Rylie.
"I was tired of my lame old job," Jordyn explained. "All I got was this stupid carnival job and the stupid carousel position. So I decided to take the fundings and burn them on the escorts of town."
"I heard of burning banknotes, but stealing the funds is against the carnival code," Mr. Carnevale growled, "You're fired."
The police took Jordyn away to the police car. "I never liked Jordyn," explained Mr. Carnevale. "She's always lying down on the job. It's a good thing my daughter will be looking for me when she's not performing."
"I didn't know you had kids, Mr. Carnevale," said Kaylin.
"He did," said a female voice. "And nobody makes my father angry. This is his dream."
Behind them, Zahra came to see if her father was alright. "Zahra," Mr. Carnevale beamed as he hugged Zahra. "You know you're my dream too, even if your mother prefers to work as a clerk at a beauty salon in Harrisburg."
"And I found my Kairo while having trouble landing a role in the theater department in Denver," Zahra replied. "I knew that landing a job was hard, so I decided to give him a job at the circus."
"And it was caused by an acrobat audition," Kairo replied.
"I know I only hire the best acts," said Mr. Carnevale, "but Zahra reminded me that unemployment is a big issue and I couldn't see people on the streets." Everyone smiled.
XxoxX
The next night at the carnival Issac and Leah, Rylie and Martin, and Helen and Estrella were heading off to the ferries wheel. One by one, each couple got onto the Ferris wheel and got onto a different platform. "We're glad you guys came when the ghost showed up," Issac said as he took a bite of the popcorn their sharing.
"I know," Leah replied. "We don't want this special town event to go wrong."
Martin and Rylie took pictures of the carnival for Martin's blog and Martin declared, "This is going to be great for my blog."
"I know," Rylie replied. "You take the best blog pics."
After Helen and Estrella got off the Ferris wheel, Mr. Carnevale came up to them. "We just wanted you to know how much we care about you guys and your mystery-solving reputation," he explained. "So Zahra and Kairo are going to perform a little show in the circus."
Inside the circus, Zahra and Kairo were both doing a star aerial acrobat routine, in gratitude for saving the carnival. After they applauded Estrella began to wonder where Kirby went off to.
At the snack bar, Kirby and Swinger wandered off into the kitchen. He looked around to find a bunch of corn. When Kirby held the corn up to the light, the corn turned into popcorn. Since Kirby helped Swinger take care of Jordyn and her money-burning scheme, they decided to celebrate with popcorn-eating contest.
The End.