Arden browsed the library shelves. Sim had taken a section and Terry took another section. The librarian hadn't been much help, though Arden wondered if she was trying to make sure the three didn't find what they were looking for. But she didn't know that the Pentville Pals were serious and would find what they were looking for. Plus, reinforcements were on their way. Ethel had slept in late, but would be on her way once she had gotten breakfast. Ethel's roommates, Jane's roommates, and Jane herself weren't as interested, but certainly seemed interested enough to promise to keep their ears open for any other strange occurrences.

Mary Louise, Eileen, and Josie were also on their way. While Josie was not going to take charge of solving the mystery, she was more than willing to offer help wherever she could. And Mary Louise and Eileen were definitely intrigued by the whole thing. Louise, Sally, Kit, Maurice, and Jim had already made other plans for the day and couldn't join them at the library, but offered to help whenever they could.

"Do you think Miss Witherspoon is a member of the secret society?" whispered Terry as they moved from one bookshelf to another. She nodded at the librarian sitting at the front desk, trying to discreetly watch them while attending to her duties.

"I wouldn't be surprised," whispered Arden. "She seemed pretty adamant about there not being anything on the so-called secret society."

"Especially in present tense," remarked Sim softly. "But she's also not making any moves to stop us from finding out more, so whatever the library has won't endanger the society, I guess."

"Though what's it in danger from, being laughed at?" quipped Terry.

Arden's eyebrows furrowed as she glanced around at the library. "But if there's nothing in here to endanger the society, why wouldn't she tell us anything? That makes it look like there's another reason."

Sim nodded slowly as she browsed the titles on a shelf. "Right. And if anything, the society might want to keep anyone from finding out that the sprites are real. Mermaids have just recently revealed their presence, that doesn't mean every mythical race wants to be known."

"That might be it," said Arden. "If she pushes us too hard to keep from looking, we could start suspecting that sprites are indeed real." She chuckled softly. "Though the reveal of mermaids did more of that than anything else."

Sim scoffed. "No kidding."

Terry shrugged. "Well, whatever the case may be, she's still not doing herself any favors." She let out a huff. "And where are Mary Louise and Eileen? They said they were going to help. This library isn't the Library of Congress, but it's a bit bigger than I thought."

Arden patted her shoulder. "I'm sure they'll get here soon, just give them a bit more time."

Sim chuckled softly. "Yeah Terry, we've only looked through one bookshelf. They wouldn't have gotten here that quickly."

Terry sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, but looking through this library is still kind of daunting."

"If you were looking by yourself, sure, but there's more of us working on it. We'll find what we're looking for, I know it."

"And you can stop panicking over it, it looks like reinforcements just arrived," said Sim. She pointed to the front, then waved. Mary Louise and Eileen were making their way towards them.

"Oh good, you're here," said Terry.

"See, told you they would," remarked Arden with a smile. She turned to Mary Louise and Eileen. "Where's Josie?"

"Josie will be joining us in a bit," said Mary Louise, "she got a call she couldn't miss."

"But we're here, reporting for duty!" whispered Eileen, giving Arden a salute.

Arden grinned. "And I'm grateful for it. Ethel's on her way, but in the meantime, maybe you two can take a bookshelf and start looking." She pointed at the one they just finished. "We've already looked through that one."

Mary Louise and Eileen nodded. "On it."

At that moment, Ethel came running up, breathless. "So sorry I'm late! I stayed up late, thinking you were going to text me last night!"

Terry put her hands on her hips. "You mean this morning," she mumbled.

Arden chuckled nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that, I didn't even think about it and just went to bed."

"Well, now that Ethel is here, why don't we split up in groups of two?" suggested Sim. "Ethel and I can take a section of the library, Mary Louise and Eileen can take a section, and you two can take another section."

"But what about Josie?" asked Eileen.

Arden snapped her fingers. "Actually, that's perfect!" She turned and pointed towards a part of the library that had study rooms. "We can have Josie hold one of the rooms for us! And as soon as we've finished looking, we take whatever books we find and bring them to that room and we'll look over them."

"That's an excellent idea," said Eileen.

"I'll go get Josie, she can finish her call in the room, I'm sure," said Mary Louise.

"Great, and I'll get started looking," said Eileen as she pushed her wheelchair towards one of the bookshelves. Mary Louise nodded and took off back through the library.

"Come on Ethel," said Sim, grabbing a hold of Ethel's arm and practically dragging her towards a section of the library. Terry cast Arden a worried glance before the two took off to scour the shelves.

"Is it me, or is Sim acting stranger than usual?" Terry whispered.

Arden pursed her lips. It really wasn't any weirder than usual, but Arden knew their friend had a secret, and she had surmised long ago that Ethel was the only one who knew it. "Maybe just a bit more, but I wonder if it's because the pool is out of order and she would have to travel into town for a swim."

Terry rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You know it's more than that, but we'll go ahead and ignore it again."

"Thanks, Terry. Sim will let us in on her secret when she's ready."

"Yeah, I guess so. Come on, let's get through these shelves. There's a mall calling my name."

Arden chuckled. "Of course there is." The two quickly went to work looking through the shelves. They only paused when Mary Louise came to tell them which room Josie was holding for them, then they were back at it.

After several minutes of searching, the three groups finally converged in the room. They were promptly introduced to Josie O'Gorman, a young lady with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.

"And real quick, I would like to invite you to my birthday party. It won't be for a couple of months, but I wanted to let you know in advance so you could plan for it," said Josie while everyone put the books they gathered on the table.

"Oh, that's really sweet of you! But are you sure? We have only just met," said Terry.

Josie grinned. "I'm sure. I've been working with my dad this past year to tell fairly quickly if I can trust someone."

"Wowee, you worked with your dad while finishing up high school? That must have been hard," said Terry.

Josie shook her head. "Oh no, I took a year off specifically to work with him."

"And I'm glad of it because we get to be roommates," said Mary Louise with a smile.

Josie chuckled. "Yes, indeed."

"That's excellent," said Sim. "And I'll go, as long as there's swimming."

Josie laughed. "Duly noted. Seeing as it's an autumn party …"

Sim waved her hands. "Oh no, I meant it as a joke!" She laughed. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to slide that in before Terry had a chance to." The others laughed, but Arden noticed the look Josie gave Sim as she chuckled. That detective's mind was already noting her friend's strange behavior. She felt the need to change the subject. Not only did Arden want to solve that mystery herself, she also wanted Sim to reveal her secret when she felt comfortable to do so. But how to do it without Josie noticing that?

"Well, for once, you did," said Terry.

"Yes, yes, and as a reward, you can go to Pixie's for a swim instead of the mall," said Arden with a smirk.

"Ooh, speaking of the mall," said Terry as she pulled out her phone and glanced at the time. "We should get going on these books and see what we find."

"Good idea," mumbled Ethel. The group dove into the books, anything they could find about the school, sprites, and the bell. After a few minutes of skimming through books, Eileen let out a little squeal. The others crowded around her.

"What is it?" Terry asked.

"What did you find?" asked Sim, perhaps a little too worriedly. Arden glanced at her friend before sneaking a look out of the corner of her eye at Josie. Josie seemed to be paying close attention to Sim. But there was someone else in on Sim's secret who Josie didn't seem to pay too much attention to. Arden took a quick glance at Ethel. She too seemed worried.

"I think I found some more information on the legend of the girl spirit!"

"Really?" the others exclaimed.

"What about it?" Josie asked before glancing back at the book she had been looking through, seemingly not concerned with it.

"Well, I think we can eliminate that as an option," said Eileen with a smirk. "Apparently the legend came about because of Sarah Jane Twomley. She was the courageous young lady who rang the bell until everyone was out."

"So it's true?" said Terry.

Eileen nodded. "It was, but listen to this. 'Sarah Jane was reportedly in love with a young pilot from Sanford named Harold Evans, a romance her family disapproved of. The two would sneak out late at night to see each other, which many think was the reason for Sarah Jane's presence on the grounds that night. She saw and smelled the smoke and rang the bell. But no one saw her leave the grounds.'"

Terry gasped. "She eloped with Harold! She didn't die in the fire!"

Eileen pointed at her and nodded, a smirk playing on her face. "That's what I'm thinking. It says here that Harold married a woman named Sally, but since Sally is a nickname for Sarah …"

"It makes sense that she would disappear so her parents wouldn't know so that they couldn't find them!" said Terry.

Eileen's smirk widened. "Exactly."

Terry gave a romantic sigh. "Oh how romantic."

Arden tapped her chin. "So, then the ghost story, as interesting as it is, is not the reason for the mysterious bell ringing. Anyone find anything about the secret society or the sprites?"

Ethel sighed as she picked up a book. "No, not yet."

Mary Louise gasped. "I have something!" The others crowded around her, except Josie. She was still reading her book.

"What, what did you find?" Sim asked. Josie's head lifted a little to glance at Sim and Mary Louise.

"A senator named John Reeve and his wife Caroline met at Cedar Ridge. They were also part of the secret society!"

Josie blinked and shrugged a little. "Um, ok?"

Mary Louise looked at her with wide eyes. "They buried a treasure at Cedar Ridge, and apparently the sprites know a clue to where it is!"

(Author's Note: Hello rosy readers! Ooh, we have a clue! And I had so wanted to have the next chapters in both the Hardy boys and the Nancy Drew mystery uploaded as well today, but last week was just so busy that I haven't had much time to work on anything, just so much travelling. Went to my brother's graduation on Saturday, didn't get back home until 1 am Wednesday morning, worked Wednesday and Thursday, went to a Civil War reenactment/fair on Friday where we also visited with friends, then my mom and I left Saturday afternoon and stayed at my mom's aunt's house so we could go to the family reunion on Sunday, getting back home after 7. So, yeah, busy week. I just feel like crashing this week, lol. So far, nothing else planned this week, so I want to get as much writing done as possible, and I'm planning on keeping my social media interaction down to a minimum. Can't check it if I'm not signed in, right? ;P However, I could get distracted by the Sims, but that's usually helped more than hindered, so we'll see, lol. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful holiday! God bless!)