The Blue Mystery
We were at Gnarly Woods school today. It was class picture day for Alfred and his class, but two of the classmates were missing. "Hey where's Camille and Cynthia?" Milo asked.
Alfred looked around as well as Ms. Russard. "Cynthia? Camille?"
"Here I am, Mr. Russard." Cynthia said. Mr Russard turned around and saw Cynthia wearing a scarf around her face and large sunglasses. "Okay... that's odd."
"Come on Cynthia, it's the class picture not a carnival take off that scarf."
Cynthia took off the scarf and everyone gasped in horror. Cynthia was completely blue! "Oh, I hop it's not contagious." one bird said.
That's when Ren, Jack, Jamie, Nicole, Rantaro, Carrie, Mason, Kaede and Camillie appeared. "Sorry, we're late." More gasps were heard.
"What?" Camille asked. "What are you all looking at?"
"Umm.... guys... did you to look in the mirror this morning?" I asked.
"No, why?" Ren asked.
"Well um... you all are... blue."
"WHAT?!" The gang looked at their hands and gasped. "What the hell happened?" Jack exclaimed. Alfred and Milo came up then. "This isn't a joke?" Alfred asked.
"No." They all said.
"Well we can't take the class picture under these conditions this is a real mystery." Mr Russard claimed.
The class was scared. Alfred that they were going to turn blue as well and they scattered. "This is serious mysterious." Alfred said. We all went to Headquaters where Alfred took small pieces of hair from the gang. He put them in a test tube and into a system that was linked to his computer. "So what does it say?" Jamie asked.
"It says the blue's origin is plant based." Alfred said.
"Plant based? So it came from a plant?" Mason asked. Alfred nodded. "And that is our first clue. Can any you remeber what you did this morning?"
"This morning? ... Let's see." Ren started but Cynthia cut him off, "Well, I went to have my breakfast I couldn't decided between ceral or fruit so I had some of both, it was awfully good-"
"Yes, ou had breakfast, then what?" Alfred asked.
"After? Let's see after. Oh yeah, I took my shower, but then it's when I looked in the mirror to see how goo I'd look that I discovered that... AAHHH! I was all blue!" Cynthia exclaimed.
"We had breakfast too and took a shower." Ren said.
"And you guys didn't notice anything?" Milo inquired.
"No, we didn't look in the mirror." Kaede said.
"Hmm..." I said. "There must be a clue somewhere. A detail, a smell maybe."
"Yes a bad smell." My friends and Cynthia said in unison.
"Maybe it was the smell from your shampoo." Milo suggested.
"I don't think so."
"What did it smell like?" Alfred asked.
"Disgusting."
"Then that's it the bad smell is our second clue." Alfred declared.
"So now what?" Milo asked.
"Now we have to go back to the source of the problem by following the pipes from the water to the showers. Maybe they were damaged in someway and that caused them to turn blue." Alfred said. "Come on." We all exited HQ and went to the pipes. I didn't see any dents or cracks in the pipe at all. "Hmm... nothing damaged that I can see." All the pipes lead to a large sister in the woods. "All the pipes lead into this sister."
"But how could someone get blue dye in there?" Camille asked. Then we heard whistling and saw Rudy coming our way holding a shovel. "Hey everyone." he said.
"Hi Rudy, what are you doing?" Alfred asked.
"I was just finished cleaning Dr. Anna's garden with that storm last week it's a real mess."
"Rudy, is it possible for someone to put something in the water?" Milo sat down on a rock nearby.
"You mean in the tank? No, it's impossible, you would need a crazy tall ladder to get up there."
"Okay, thanks Rudy." Rudy walked away. "Now what do we frigging do?" Jack asked.
"We go back to HQ." Camille said.
We all went back to HQ, "Okay, the first clue we have is that the blue dye's origin is plant based and the second clue is the bad smell you guys smelt in your showers." Alfred reviewed. "We need another clue." Then we heard Cynthia laughing, "Do I have a hole where?" Milo said.
He turned around and saw a leaf on his pants and blue dye as well. "Now they're all stained, yuk."
"Big blue stains!" Camille and Alfred exclaimed.
"You must have dirtied them when you sat on that stuff beside the sister." Alfred said as he picked it up. "Hey look, it turned my fingers blue."
"Like our hair." Carrie said.
"Good work Milo, you found of third clue." Alfred said.
"But how can a plant make blue dye and how did it get in our showers?" Ren inquired. "Did you guys see blue pants around the pipes?"
"No but maybe this was blown in by the wind. Remember there was a big storm last week. Rudy even mentioned the mess it made in Dr. Anna's garden." Camille reminded.
"Dr Anna? She is so nice. She once made me a remedy for my allergies." Cynthia said.
"Allergies?" Nicole asked.
"Well, I was sneezing alot and my eyes were really puffy."
Rantaro shook his head. "What about that remedy she made you?"
"Oh, I don't know, she uses plants in her garden. Who knows what hey are." Cynthia replied. Alfred looked it up on his computer. "Hmm... medicinal plants... hmm.. vegetative coloration, bad smell... Got it! Everything points to this leaf."
"It does?!" Everyone exclaimed.
"Yes. Come on." Alfred said as he walked towards the door. "I am completely lost." Kaede admitted.
"You're not the only one." Milo added.
Dr. Anna's
We went to Dr.Anna's place and Alfred knocked on the door. "Hello Alfred." Dr. Anna is a fox with a light tan muzzle and neck and a light brown nose. She possesses dark gray eyebrows and light green eyes and has noticeable fangs and nails. Her tail is very bushy and has dark gray coloring around the edge. "Hello Dr. Anna, we need your help. Camille, Cynthia and Sarah's friends have turned blue. We searched for clues and our investigation points to this leaf." Alfred had the leaf in a bag and Dr. Anna took a look at it. "Hm... Woad."
"Woad? What's that?" Milo asked.
"This way." Dr. Anna led us into her garden where we found Rudy again. "Woad is a medicinal plant that I grow with Rudy's help I use the roots to make medicine. It's excellent for sore throats, for example." I went over to Rudy who was picking up some roots. "rudy when you were picking up the roots for Dr. Anna, where did you put them?"
"Well... in that wheelbarrow." Rudy pointed over to a wheel barrow that was flipped on it's side!
"The storm must have knocked the wheel barrow over and the woad were knocked into the sister." I concluded.
"But the heck did we turn blue?" Jack asked.
"During my research I found out that woad makes a lovely blue dye so when you took your showers this morning you were all dyed blue." Alfred explained.
"But son;t worry a nice warm bath should clear everything up." Dr. Anna reassured.
Ren sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. I did not want to be blue forever."
"Me either."
"And the bad smell? Does that come from Woad?" Carrie asked.
"Yes, when the plants are wet and fermenting. Fermentation stinks." Alfred said.
"Nice you two." Milo said. "Another mystery solved."
Two Days later
Dr. Anna's advice worked and everyone was not blue anymore and now we were all at school for the class picture. We were included too, even though we didn't go to the school but Mr. Russard said it wouldn't be right to leave us out. Anyway, we all sat on the steps of the school and Mr. Russard started the camera. "Alright everyone.. three.. two.. one."
Click
The camera flashed and it was a great school photo.