Girl's Best Friend by Leslie Margolis

remind her. “Did you know that over thirty-six types of warblers have been spotted in this park?”
    Jane huffed, thoroughly unimpressed with my bird factoid.
    “I’ve only seen two myself, but this is new for me.” I spoke as earnestly as possible, feeling more like someone pretending to be a dork than an actual dork. A subtle but necessary distinction.
    “So you’re still going with the ‘innocent kid’ act?” she asked.
    “Oh, it’s no act. I’m barely twelve, and I’ve never stolen anything in my life. Never broken and entered. Never shoplifted—not even a piece of candy. I’ve never trespassed, as far as I know. I’m a Girl Scout. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I used to be a Girl Scout for real, but that was a long time ago and I always hated the uniform. The cookies were good. Especially the Thin—”
    “Do you have a point?” Jane snapped.
    “Absolutely. I’m not only innocent, I’m the definition of innocence. Look up innocent on Wikipedia; you’ll see my smiling face.” Okay, maybe I got carried away, but I really wanted to be clear with her.
    “I have to work weekends now, just to stay competitive,” Jane said, like she didn’t even hear me.
    She really had a one-track mind. In this woman’s imagination, we were in some major competition and I didn’t know how to convince her otherwise.
    “Look, I’m glad you stopped by to say hello. But I’m kind of busy right now.” I smiled, turned around, and raised my binoculars to my face.
    Meanwhile, Jane still sat next to me, fuming. “Know what, Maggie? You’re treating this like a joke, but there’s nothing funny about this situation and you’d better watch your back.”
    “Okay,” I said. “But right now I’d like to get back to watching birds.” I spotted the right bench and adjusted the binoculars.
    “Do whatever you want to do,” said Jane. “But don’t say you weren’t warned.”
    “Warned?” I tore my gaze from the bench, alarmed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Jane didn’t answer. She couldn’t because she’d already stormed off, pulling that poor basset hound along behind her.
    By the time I turned back to the dog beach, I couldn’t find the right bench. I thought it was the third from the end, but when I focused on it, I couldn’t see an envelope. And it wasn’t on the next one, either.
    “Where were you?” I heard someone ask.
    I spun around, figuring from the angry tone that Jane had returned. But it was only Ivy. An extremely irate Ivy.
    “What?” I asked.
    “Who was it? Where are they?”
    Oh no. I felt a slow, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “You mean it already happened?” I asked. “They took the envelope?”
    “Of course they took it!” Ivy yelled.
    “Then where’s Kermit?” I asked.
    “Don’t know,” said Ivy.
    “But I only looked away for a second … ”
    “And that’s all it took!”
    We both glanced toward the bench, and I suddenly spotted another small blue note card. We ran over. I got there first and pulled it loose. Then Ivy snatched it from me before I had time to read it.
    “ ‘I said to come alone,’ ” Ivy read. She angrily waved the card in my face. “I can’t believe I was so stupid!”
    “This isn’t your fault,” I said.
    “I know that!” screamed Ivy. “I mean I shouldn’t have trusted you. That was my big mistake.”
    “I’m so sorry.” It was all I could manage to say, what with the gigantic lump invading my throat.
    “You said you knew what you were doing!” Ivy yelled.
    My whole body felt heavy with dread. Like I’d had rocks for breakfast instead of that slightly stale English muffin. “Okay, I never said that exactly.”
    “You said you’d help, but actually you made things a thousand times worse! Which is so typical.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Nothing.” Ivy pouted.
    “It’s not over. We can still find him.”
    “How?” asked Ivy. “It’s impossible. And you wonder why I don’t hang