“Saint Lill…”, was about the only thing a human could say when speaking of the ancient looking Saint Lilly Scout Mansion. Rumor has that if someone was to say “Saint Lilly Scout” on Halloween night the ghost of Lilly Scout herself would steal your soul and leave you to disintegrate in the mansion’s large graveyard. Of course this was only a rumor says the one person who didn’t believe it, Holly Nimble-Son. Holly was the 5th grade investigative sluether in Monarke Elementary School and she could take on the biggest challenges that came towards her. But don’t think Holly was on her own because she had the ultimate sleuthing crew. Holly had the best of the best in her squad. Ashley Monarke, the Principal’s daughter, was the team’s journalist. She wrote wrote down every detail and every clue of the  investigative mission. Holly’s other teammate, Nick Unther, was the team’s crashing dummy. He would take the bullets for any emergency, yet he didn’t do this again and again without a reward because he was granted permission by Ashley to have full access to the soda machine in the teacher’s lounge. Together, Holly, Ashley, and Nick called themselves “The Slueths Three”.

Holly walked to the  school bus stop at Harvey road, three blocks from her neighborhood. She waited patiently for the bus as many colored cars came passing by. Once the old, yellow bus stopped all the students glued their faces to the windows, looking at the oh so intriguing, Holly Nimble-Son. You might know by now that being a investigative “Sleuth-ER”, had it’s rewards. Including twenty four hour popularity treatments. But as always, Holly ignored the many school bus offers to sit by second graders, and the occasional begs to do her homework by third graders, and decided to sit with her “sleuths three” partners, Nick and Ashley. “So, what’s the scoop?” said Ashley, referring to their latest mission. “Well I think you’ll be very impressed to know that I caught the mailbox thief.” “Who is it?” said Nick anxiously. “It was Mr. Lookens, he was trying to steal our rental DVDs!” said Holly, almost yelling. ” It just goes to show that you can’t trust anyone.” said Ashley. “Yeah I thought he a was really nice guy, to bad” said Nick, Sighing. Then Holly stood up on her seat and yelled, “Yet another mystery has been solved!”. All the kids cheered until Luke, the school bully yelled back, “If you guys are such good Mystery solvers then your going to  have to prove it!”.  ”How shall I prove it Luke”, replied Holly sarcastically. “Well, Halloween is coming up in a few days and everyone is talking about the Saint  Lilly Scout Mansion, so how about you guys solve the mystery to whether there really is a ghost of Lilly Scout by saying her name on Halloween night.” “Are you kidding me, I don’t want to have my soul stolen!” said Ashley. Holly meant to say something like “Sure we can do it”! but couldn’t.

“Well, are we going to do it?” said nick. Holly acted as if she was choking on a nut. She didn’t reply but but nothing more was said on the topic. Luke was now positive that he had given the “Sleuths Three” their biggest challenge yet and was very happy about it. When the children arrived at school they were very quiet. The only things said were school related. Holly’s frustration kept growing inside of her. Finally in math class when Holly felt she was going to explode she screamed, “That’s it!” “I Have to go to the mansion, if I don’t Luke will forever pester me and ruin the reputation of  “The Sleuths Three!” The class was shocked. Holly, forgetting that she wax in math class had a stare down with Mrs. Lynn, who was quite irritated. At recess Ashley and Nick immediately approached Holly on the swings.  “What happened back there”? said Nick shyly. “Yeah, you seemed a little off your game”said Ashley. A silent pause followed. Then Holly slowly rose to her feet. “I guess I just was so spooked about the whole Saint Lilly Scout mansion situation, that I needed to get my anger out. “You realise that we don’t have to go to the mansion” Said Nick. “Yes we do” said Holly firmly. “Not just for the sake of our reputation, but to also prove to myself that I’m not a chicken”. “you’ll never  be a chicken”said Ashley. Luke is just trying to intimidate you. “Yeah, I bet Luke is to scared to go to the mansion himself” said Nick. The group all shared a needed laugh.

“There is one thing you don’t understand though” said Holly. “What?” said Ashley. “I still want to go to the mansion” Holly declared. “Why in the world would you want to go to that horrid place?!” said Nick in a surprised tone. “Well just think about it guys,”The Sleuths Three” in the Saint Lilly Scout Mansion said Holly enthusiastically. “Who knows what we could discover!” “Yeah, but I still don’t want to have my soul stolen if I accidentally say her name at night” said Ashley. “If one goes down all of us go down, and I’m ready to take that risk” said Holly convincingly. “Well…. I don’t know, it seems really dangerous” said Ashley “Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Holly said smiling with her dimples showing.  “I’m fully up to going if you are” Nick exclaimed. “Alright, alright, we can  go,” said Ashley giving up. “Yes!” screamed Holly. “I’ve already got a plan” Holly announced. The group walked down to a picnic table and Holly unfolded a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. “What’s that?” said Ashley, curiously eyeing the paper. “This, is an entire map of the mansion” said Holly proudly. “I hope I don’t regret asking this but, how did you get a map of the mansion”? Um…, Holly paused shyly.

“Well” said Holly slowly. You know my Uncle, Stan Marley? asked Holly. ”Yeah” replied Ashley with a confused expression. “Uncle Marley is the McGester County Assessor and he takes pictures of all the houses in the county”. “Where are you going with this?” said Nick. “I kind of got Uncle Stan to teach me about the designs of houses on the McGester County website, and he showed me a map-like picture of the house. So, I thought that we could use the map to help us on Halloween Night when we go there. “Why would we need a map of the mansion?” I thought we were only going to say her name in the house, test the rumor, and get the heck out!” said Ashley now kicking at the dirt on the ground.  “Oh come on, what’s the fun in that? Besides, I googled Saint Lilly Scout and found out that there is said to be a mysterious treasure in Lilly Scout’s bedroom, leading me to why I need the map”. “That’s ridiculous!” said Nick infuriated. “You were the one scared to death of going to the mansion in the first place and now you want to steal Lilly Scout’s so called “Treasure”!” Holly looked down, for she did not have strong enough words to reply.  “Nick, please, I just want to try and find the treasure and I can’t do that alone”. Nick sighed and sat down on top of the picnic table. I’ll try to help you but have you ever considered that our parents might not let us go?” said Nick breathing heavily with his eyes looking at the old brick school building. “Of course they’ll let us go because they trust us”, said Holly.  “I sure hope so” said Ashley sarcastically under her breathe. “We can do this,”said Holly in a confident tone. “Okay” Nick agrred . Well if we’re going to do this we’ll need a some  spy gear” said Ashley smiling. With the three minutes left until recess was over they got out their walkie talkies, their small web- cam computers imported from Japan and last but not least, their favorite tool, the bungee cords. They tested their gadgets and put them back into their back- packs. The school bell rang and the three friends joyfully ran back to class.