"Where is it?" Connie asked herself as she rummaged through her belongings. Holly suddenly appeared behind her. She, too, seemed to be looking for something.
"Hey, Holly," Connie said walking down the stairs.
"Connie, have you seen one of my gadgets around here?" Holly asked as she continued to look around.
"No," Connie said. "Have you seen my new phone. My dad just bought it for me after my last one got possessed by that weird smoke monster."
"Sorry, Connie," Holly said directing her attention to the girl. "I haven't seen your phone. I'm going to look around town for my gadget. Come and find me if you see it." Holly left the beach house and headed for the boardwalk.
"Okay," Connie called after her. She continued to look round for a second then it hit her.
"Oh man," Connie said to herself. "I don't even know what Holly's gadget looks like."
Connie quickly slipped on her jacket and headed down to the boardwalk.
"Holly," Connie called out. "Holly. She might be looking on the other side of town by now."
"I'm telling you, 'I don't know'!" Connie heard someone yell. She heard it come from the Funland Arcade. She took a peek inside to see the Smiley sisters, Rona and Paige, were arguing.
"Well, you obviously have to know where it is!" Rona yelled.
"Why would I know?!" Paige asked.
"Well, I haven't even seen it all day, so I haven't touched it," Rona said. "So, you had had to be the one who took it."
"Yeah, you're one to talk," Paige said. "You keeping your head wrapped around that phone of yours. How do I know someone else didn't just take it while you weren't looking?"
"Woah, guys," Connie said running up to the two. "What's going on?"
"Rona is trying to blame me for her mistakes again," Paige said.
"My mistakes?" Rona asked. "You're the one who lost it."
"For the last time," Paige said. "I haven't seen it."
"Haven't seen what?" Connie asked.
"Our mom's first dollar," Paige said. "She always keeps it on display right here." Paige pointed to an empty display case on the wall, near the ticket stand. "But now it's gone."
"What if someone else took it while you guys weren't looking," Connie said.
"That's likely possible," Rona said. "I was here for a few hours, working the morning shift then when Paige showed up, I took my break. When I came back to the stand, Paige and the dollar were gone."
"I told you," Paige said. "Someone asked me for assistance while you were on break. I didn't steal the dollar."
"What type of dollar was it?" Connie asked.
"It was a one-dollar-bill," Paige said.
"Why would someone want to steal one dollar?" Connie asked.
"I don't know," Rona said. "Would you have any ideas, Paige?"
"Do we have to go over this again?" Paige said in a mix of anger and annoyance.
"Guys!" Connie exclaimed. The sisters stopped arguing and stared at Connie. "I get that you're both upset, but if we continue to just argue, we won't figure anything out. So, let's handle this logically. Paige, when did you show up to the arcade?"
"Around 10:30," Paige said.
"Rona," Connie said. "Did you take your break immediately after Paige showed up?"
"Well, no," Rona said. "I stayed at the stand with her for about fifteen minutes before taking a break."
"How long were you on break?" Connie asked.
"Around thirteen minutes," Rona answered.
"Paige, when did you leave to help someone?" Connie asked.
"About 11:00," Paige said.
"Rona, what time was it by the time you made it back to the stand?" Connie asked.
"11:01," Rona said.
"But that can't be," Connie said. "Whoever stole the dollar had to have done it in seconds flat in order to not be seen."
"But if it took them less than a minute to get into the arcade, steal the dollar, and get out, doesn't that mean they could be anywhere now?" Paige asked.
"Not unless they were already in the arcade," Connie said.
"But I told you, Connie," Paige said. "I didn't steal it."
"I know," Connie said. "You're not the one who took it. I'm saying that someone could have been hiding in the arcade and when you two were gone, they took it as their chance and stole the dollar. In order to not be seen, they likely ducked back into their hiding spot. It's only 11:06. That means the thief might still be in here, waiting for the perfect moment to-"
Before Connie could finish her sentence, they all heard a trash can topple over and saw a shadow leave the arcade.
"That's gotta be the culprit!" Connie exclaimed.
"Get back here you thief!" Rona shouted as she chased after the shadow.
"Wait for us!" Paige called after Rona as she and Connie followed her.
They chased the strange shadow for several minutes before they followed it to an alley with a dead end.
"This is it!" Rona exclaimed. "We got him!"
The three of them walked down the alley to see the culprit more clearly. As they got closer, Connie could have sworn she saw blue lights. It suddenly hit her.
"Rona! Paige! Wait!" Connie exclaimed. "Don't get near that thing!" It was too late.
Large, metal hands wrapped around Rona and Page and stuffed them in a large containment vessel.
"Holly's gadget!" Connie exclaimed. As she finished her sentence, the gadget started to reach for her.
Suddenly, a light blue electric whip wrapped around the gadget's arms.
"Connie!" Holly exclaimed as she came into view. "It's a good thing I showed up when I did."
"Holly, what is that thing?!" Connie asked.
"It's a gadget gone wrong," Holly said. "It's supposed to find and collect things that are lost, but it malfunctioned. Now it just steals whatever object it can get its hands on."
"How do we stop it?" Connie asked.
"There's only one way," Holly said. "There's a self-destruction button on its head. You have to press it while I hold it off."
"But Rona and Paige are in it!" Connie exclaimed.
"What?!" Holly panicked. "But it's not supposed to collect people."
"Well, it likes to against programming apparently," Connie said.
"I don't know what we need to do," Holly sadly said.
Connie suddenly started to run strait for the gadget's containment vessel. "Connie!" Holly exclaimed.
Connie jumped onto the gadget and started to pull with all her might on the panel that covered the containment vessel. Connie's hands suddenly felt cold. She looked down to see her ice powers were coming back. She seized this as her opportunity and freezes the panel off. Rona and Paige came bursting out.
"Hurry, Connie!" Holly exclaimed. "I don't know if I can hold it off much longer!"
"But our stuff," Connie said.
"Press the button!" Holly yelled.
Connie did as she was told and quickly ran as far away from the gadget as she could. Holly, Rona, and Paige quickly followed behind her.
After a minute, the gadget exploded, leaving behind shredded pieces of a dollar and several parts of a cell phone.
"The dollar!" Paige exclaimed. "Oh my gosh! Mom is going to kill us!"
"Paige," Rona calmly said placing her hand on Paige's shoulder.
"Not now!" Paige exclaimed as she ran around trying to collect all the pieces of the destroyed dollar.
"Paige, it's okay," Rona said.
"No! No it's not!" Paige yelled. "I only had one job, and I couldn't even do that right."
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Rona said.
"What?" Paige asked.
"I shouldn't have blamed you right away about the dollar," Rona said. "It was wrong, and I should have had more trust in you."
"Really?" Paige asked.
"Really. Really," Rona said with a smile. "I'm here for ya, sis." Rona held up her hand. Paige smiled and gave Rona a high five.
Connie watched over the scene with a smile. "Holly, I think our job here is done," Connie said.
"We still have to clean up the debris, Connie," Holly said walking toward the mess.
"Oh, right," Connie said.