Preview 1
Preview 2
Preview 3
Based on the book by me! Coming early 2012
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
New Blog!
Isabelle's Stories is my new blog. I've filled it with a bunch of stories that I've posted on here, and some that I've never posted.
It has 5 pages, Home, and a page for each age category. The different age categories are 3 - 6, 6 - 8, 7 - 10, and 8 - 12. Each page has links to the stories for that age category. You can also look through all my stories on the home page.
Some of my stories are by my couisns. I already have one story on there by Diana, The Leaf Ghost.
If you like to read, you should go to my new story blog!
Isabelle's Stories
It has 5 pages, Home, and a page for each age category. The different age categories are 3 - 6, 6 - 8, 7 - 10, and 8 - 12. Each page has links to the stories for that age category. You can also look through all my stories on the home page.
Some of my stories are by my couisns. I already have one story on there by Diana, The Leaf Ghost.
If you like to read, you should go to my new story blog!
Isabelle's Stories
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Hmm. . .
I don't know what to post about! It seems like ALL my ideas got used up in my 300-something posts. Or maybe it's because I'm writing 5 books at the same time. Maybe I should stop writing one. Or two. . . maybe three. Or maybe I should just hurry up and finish them all. But that would still take a long time. Maybe I should find a magical pen that reads your story and then writes the rest for you. Maybe I should type them so I don't have to write them. Maybe I should relax and not write anything in my stories for a few weeks. Maybe I should post more. Maybe I should stop writing this post. It's getting boring.
OH!!! I KNOW!!! I SHOULD WRITE MY NEW STORY!!! THE SEQUEL TO LIFE ON A SHIP!!! IT'S CALLED LIFE ON AN ISLAND!!! BYE I HAVE TO START TYPING IT!!!
OH!!! I KNOW!!! I SHOULD WRITE MY NEW STORY!!! THE SEQUEL TO LIFE ON A SHIP!!! IT'S CALLED LIFE ON AN ISLAND!!! BYE I HAVE TO START TYPING IT!!!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
LSA Adventures: A Guide to Spying
This is the LSA members here with your guide to spying! Just so you know. . . the LSA is real, it's a spy agency I made up. Whenever we're together, we find a place in the basement (a table by the closet, like in the story). We grab some walkie-talkies, binoculars, a magnifying glass, the LSA folder, some pens and paper, and we get to work! But it's not as easy as it sounds - there's a lot of stuff you need to know before you make your own spy agency!
Spy Dictionary (or make up your own):
Bean: Agent that lies to people who ask what you are doing to protect the agency and the case.
Chestnut: An agent that hides below or behind an object to listen to unordinary-chit-chat.*
Unordinary-chit-chat: Suspicious activity or talking by people outside of the agency.
Antique: Agent that gets information from the chestnut* then writes it down to pass onto Leadspy.*
Codecorrum: Agent that selects numbers and letters and combines them into passwords for other agents.
ex:136Lettuce912
Leadspy: Leader of the agency. After getting information from the antique*, she/he puts all the other spies to work, including her/himself.
Cover: An agent's password.
Meat: Hideout. Leadspy* calls meeting to order in the assigned hideout.
Fly: Finds suspicious items and brings to Leadspy*. The fly is always at work.
Nightspy: Looks through the house at night when people are asleep, comes back upstairs by 4:30 AM. You have to be very daring for this job.
Codecheck: Agent who looks at and edits codes from codecorrum*, decides if codes are hard to guess. if easy, she/he edits them. Also helps codecorrum* create passwords if she/he needs help.
Color code: An agent's assigned sock color.
Colorcorrum: Chooses color codes for all the agents. ex: yellow and orange
Spy Tips and Tricks (you can get creative and make your own, too):
1. Somebody's hurt!
Level: Medium
Go upstairs with another agent. Find a heavy book and have the other agent lay on the floor. Drop the book on the floor and have the other agent scream. Pick up the book and run downstairs quickly, before everyone else runs upstairs to see what happened. While everyone is upstairs, you can investigate downstairs.
2. Who's There?
Level: Easy
Knock on the front door and run to an empty room. Investigate quickly while people go to see who's at the door.
Spy Testing (you can also make up your own tests):
Spy testing is to see how high you can jump and how low you can crawl.
Jump: Have two other agents hold out a jump rope, starting at 6 inches off the ground. Jump over the rope. If you make it without tripping on it or touching it, the other agents raise the rope an inch or so. Keep doing this until you can't get over the rope without touching it. When you touch the rope, the measurement for how high you can jump is where the rope previously was. Repeat this with all other agents.
Crawl: Have two other agents hold a jump rope, starting with 2 feet above the ground. Crawl under the rope. If you make it under the rope without your head or back touching it, the other agents lower the rope and inch or so. Keep doing this until you can't get under the rope without touching it. When you touch it, the measurement for the lowest you can crawl is where the rope previously was. Repeat this with all the other agents.
Write down the test scores and put them in your spy folder. Take this test two or three times a year.
Keeping the Agency Secret and Hideouts coming soon
Spy Dictionary (or make up your own):
Bean: Agent that lies to people who ask what you are doing to protect the agency and the case.
Chestnut: An agent that hides below or behind an object to listen to unordinary-chit-chat.*
Unordinary-chit-chat: Suspicious activity or talking by people outside of the agency.
Antique: Agent that gets information from the chestnut* then writes it down to pass onto Leadspy.*
Codecorrum: Agent that selects numbers and letters and combines them into passwords for other agents.
ex:136Lettuce912
Leadspy: Leader of the agency. After getting information from the antique*, she/he puts all the other spies to work, including her/himself.
Cover: An agent's password.
Meat: Hideout. Leadspy* calls meeting to order in the assigned hideout.
Fly: Finds suspicious items and brings to Leadspy*. The fly is always at work.
Nightspy: Looks through the house at night when people are asleep, comes back upstairs by 4:30 AM. You have to be very daring for this job.
Codecheck: Agent who looks at and edits codes from codecorrum*, decides if codes are hard to guess. if easy, she/he edits them. Also helps codecorrum* create passwords if she/he needs help.
Color code: An agent's assigned sock color.
Colorcorrum: Chooses color codes for all the agents. ex: yellow and orange
Spy Tips and Tricks (you can get creative and make your own, too):
1. Somebody's hurt!
Level: Medium
Go upstairs with another agent. Find a heavy book and have the other agent lay on the floor. Drop the book on the floor and have the other agent scream. Pick up the book and run downstairs quickly, before everyone else runs upstairs to see what happened. While everyone is upstairs, you can investigate downstairs.
2. Who's There?
Level: Easy
Knock on the front door and run to an empty room. Investigate quickly while people go to see who's at the door.
Spy Testing (you can also make up your own tests):
Spy testing is to see how high you can jump and how low you can crawl.
Jump: Have two other agents hold out a jump rope, starting at 6 inches off the ground. Jump over the rope. If you make it without tripping on it or touching it, the other agents raise the rope an inch or so. Keep doing this until you can't get over the rope without touching it. When you touch the rope, the measurement for how high you can jump is where the rope previously was. Repeat this with all other agents.
Crawl: Have two other agents hold a jump rope, starting with 2 feet above the ground. Crawl under the rope. If you make it under the rope without your head or back touching it, the other agents lower the rope and inch or so. Keep doing this until you can't get under the rope without touching it. When you touch it, the measurement for the lowest you can crawl is where the rope previously was. Repeat this with all the other agents.
Write down the test scores and put them in your spy folder. Take this test two or three times a year.
Keeping the Agency Secret and Hideouts coming soon
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sorry
It may seem like I've barely posted anything this year, which is true, but I've actually been posting new chapters on LSA Adventures almost every day. From now on, I'll post more stuff from now on! Promise!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
LeadSpy: The Autobiography of an LSA Agent
Chapter 1: The Story Behind the LSA
LSA Adventures is a partially true story based on the pretend spy agency I run with my cousins, Jack and Diana. The only part that isn't true about the story is being a spy agency established by the UNSA (I made that up, too). Everything else is true.
I have been planning to write this story for over a year, but I have never gotten around to it until now. It's not my longest story, but it is one of my favorites. I plan on writing a longer sequel, and maybe a third book.
I am also typing this story on Microsoft Works Task Launcher. It will have less chapters, because I am putting four or five chapters on this blog into each chapter in my document.
I have been the LeadSpy (leader) of the LSA for the past two years. I keep a folder of all the spy adventures we have, spying techniques, spy words, and notes, which helps me to write my stories.
We had all kinds of crazy ideas for the LSA, but some of the ideas we couldn't use, since my cousins live so far away. Sometimes, E-Mail just isn't the best way to express your ideas. One of the ideas we did get to use was Spy Training. It was a series of tests to see how high you could jump, how low you could crawl, how long you could spy without getting caught, and how many notes you could take in one minute.
Every time I went to my cousins' house, we had a meeting at one of our meats (secret meeting places). When a spy was late to a meeting, they would have to knock on the door and state their name and password, and we would let them in if they got it right.
Our spy agency might have been just for fun, but we (Jack, Diana, the Junior Agents, and I) took it VERY seriously.
Chapter 2: The Secret Club
One time in 2008, I was at my cousins' house, and we were all playing in the basement, bored. I walked over to the toy box, and I found a pair of binoculars. I looked through them, and the idea came to me. We should play spies!
I told my cousins about my idea, and they liked it. We played for hours, from 9:30 until lunch at 12:30. We were all sad when lunch time came around, and we decided we would play more when we were finished.
What started out as a simple game became more of our secret business. We played spies in the basement everyday, taking turns going upstairs, talking on the walkie talkies. We made lists and letters about nonexistent criminals and spy gear. We would write notes for hours on end. Every time we had the chance, we ran to the basement to work at our spy agency.
One day, after lunch, we decided upon a name for our secret club - the LSA, or Little Spy Agency. We had thought about many other options, such as ASK (Awesome Spy Kids) and SSS (Small Super Spies), but we all thought LSA sounded the best.
During my week at their house, we searched for spy gear. We found walkie talkies, magnifying glasses, binoculars, and a folder. I filled the folder with notes about the LSA and our adventures. Our club was very special to us, and I didn't want to forget about it.
Chapter 3 Coming Soon
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Story 9: LSA Adventures (ages 8-12)
Chapter 1
SECRET DOCUMENT
Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
I am the founder of the UNSA, United National Spy Agency.
We need your help. Please form a spy agency of your own, the LSA, Little Spy Agency. Please help us.
-John Norman Rocktem
It all began with that letter. And contributing to that, those four simple words - we need your help. I can't figure out why we, being me, Jack, and Diana, have been chosen for such an important position. . . are we. . . special? I can't think of a reason for us to have been chosen. . . but we have to do this.
Chapter 2
"Jack. Jack, wake up," I whispered into Jack's ear. I had to tell him about the letter, but there was one problem - he wouldn't wake up. He was in such a deep sleep, I almost thought he was dead. "Jack!" I yelled. Erg. He was still sleeping. I pulled his blankets off and tickled his feet. EVERYONE has ticklish feet. . . at least I think so. He started laughing and he opened his eyes. "Isabelle? What?" he said. He looked at his alarm clock. It was 6:00 Saturday morning. "Why are you up so early?!" he was almost yelling now. I should've known this was going to happen. "I have to show you something," I said. Jack rolled his eyes. "What could be SO important that you have to wake me up at 6 am?!" Jack said. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Come on," I said, tugging on his arm. "No! No no no!" he yelled like a 2-year-old. I personally don't think he's mature enough to be a spy. "Get up or I'm going to pour water over your head," I said. "Fine!" Jack yells. And then he finally got out of bed.
When we got to the basement, I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the envelope. "What's that?" Jack asked curiously. "You'll see," I said. I gave it to Jack so he could open it. He opened the envelope and slowly unfolded the letter. He read it carefully. "Isabelle, I know you wrote this," Jack said. We both sighed. "I didn't write it, Jack. I found it in the mail yesterday," I said. Jack looked at the address on the envelope. "Are you going to show Diana?" he asked. "I'm going to show her after breakfast." I said. Jack folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. He handed it to me and I put it back in the drawer. We walked back upstairs.
Jack decided that since it was 6:30, we should just watch TV in his room until breakfast. And we did. Kind of. We were mostly just talking about the letter. "So we can't tell anybody about the LSA?" Jack asked. "Yep," I said. We must have lost track of time, because before we knew it, it was 9:30. We'd been talking about the spy agency for hours. We yawned and went downstairs for breakfast. When we got downstairs, Aunt Kristy was setting bowls of apple oatmeal on the table, and Diana was helping her. We sat down at the table and quickly ate our oatmeal. It was time to tell Diana about the LSA.
Chapter 3
"Diana, we have to show you something," I said as we walked towards the basement. "What?" she asked. "You'll see," Jack said. We opened the door and walked downstairs. I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the letter from the UNSA. "What's this?" Diana asked, studying the envelope carefully and reading the address. "Open it," Jack said. Diana opened the envelope and slid out the letter. She gently unfolded it, read it, and then started cracking up.
"You want me to believe the UNSA wants US to form a spy agency?! Yeah right!" she said, still laughing."I found the letter in the mailbox yesterday afternoon," I said. "We're not kidding," Jack said in agreement. "You mean. . . you're serious?" Diana asked quietly. "Yep," I said. Diana frowned. She looked really confused. "How are we going to make our own spy agency. . . I mean. . . isn't. . . won't that be a lot of work?" Diana asked worriedly. She bit her lip and frowned at the same time. "We have to go to school," she said. I frowned, too. "Oh yeahhh. . . I forgot about that," I said.
Jack frowned, but then he smiled a little bit. "Well, I guess we could work on our code and stuff during the weekends, and then we do our actual spying after school," Jack suggested. I though about it. It actually sounded like a pretty good plan. Maybe he IS mature enough after all. "Yeah. That's a good plan. We can do that," I said. We turned to Diana. "Well. . . sure!" Diana said. We all smiled. I guess this could be fun.
Chapter 4
On Saturday, we all went downstairs after breakfast to plan the LSA. I guess it was our first spy meeting. We all sat at the table by the closet. I brought a few notebooks and pens for all of us to write down our ideas in. "OK. . . now what?" Jack said. "Hmm. . . good question," I replied, sighing. I had no idea what to do. I mean, I knew what things we could talk about, I just didn't know which one to talk about first. "Should we talk about our jobs?" Diana asked. "What jobs?" I said. "You know. . . like. . . one of us does one thing, someone else does another thing. . ." Diana replied. "Oh yeah!" I said, "But first we should come up with the code words for them." Jack and Diana nodded in agreement. "I think we should all have 2 or 3 jobs," Jack suggested. "Good idea," I said.
We talked and wrote until lunch. By noon, we had all the jobs planned out, and we had code words for them, too. We ran upstairs, ate our macaroni as fast as possible, and ran back downstairs to work on our passwords. We took our seats at the table. "How do our passwords work?" Jack asked. "Well, we could just take a few letters or words and put those together, and then add a few numbers, I guess," I said. Diana wrote that down in her notebook. We'd decided she was in charge of making our passwords. "Can I start writing passwords now?" Diana asked. "Yep," I replied. We sat in silence for a few minutes while Diana wrote down our passwords. "I'm done!" she said, "Jack is sparklyunicorn74, you're weathergirl29, and I'm DMballet52." I nodded in agreement. Jack started laughing. "I'm a sparkly unicorn!!! Yay!!!" he said, laughing. Oh, Jack. . .
Chapter 5
Our first day of actual work was Monday. Jack, Diana, and I set our alarm clocks for 5:00, so that we could get some work done before everyone wakes up. Since it was Christmas break, we could work all day, but we wanted to get some things done without having to crawl around everywhere. I grabbed my notebook and pen and we went downstairs.
"So what's the plan?" Jack asked. "This is the plan," I said, holding up my notebook. "You mean you stayed up late last night and wrote a plan?" Diana asked. "Yep," I said, "After you fell asleep." I opened the basement door and we ran downstairs and sat down at the table. I pulled out my notebook and read the plan. "Well, I think everyone will be up around 8:00, so that gives us 3 hours to work," I said. Jack and Diana nodded. "We can examine the contents of the desk first, then we can go upstairs and look on the counter, and then we can look under couches and stuff," I said. "That's fine with me," Jack said, "Diana? What do you think?" Diana nodded. "I think it's a pretty good plan," she said, smiling.
Since nobody was awake yet except us, we couldn't do our normal jobs. We all had to be a fly, a spy that looks for suspicious or interesting objects. It's normally Diana's job, but we didn't have a choice, because we couldn't listen in on any conversations. We didn't find anything interesting on the desk, but I found something REALLY interesting on the counter upstairs.
I pushed away a mountain of Christmas cards, and I saw a box. A small black box. "Guys, come here," I said, "I think I found something!" Jack and Diana, who were checking out the other counter, ran over to me. "What's the box?" Jack said. "Should we open it?" Diana asked. I picked up the box and shook it. It sounded like a maraca. I slowly opened the box, and you would have never guessed what was inside. I showed it to Jack and Diana - it was a pearl necklace.
Chapter 6
“Wow. . .” Jack said. Diana was about to scream, but Jack clamped his hand over her mouth. “Be quiet!” He said. He took away his hand and Diana calmed down. It was strangely quiet. Diana finally said something to break the silence. “I wonder who the pearl necklace is for,” Diana said, puzzled. We nodded. “I think before we figure out who it’s for, we should figure out who it’s from,” Jack said. We nodded again.
We were looking through the kitchen cabinets when we heard footsteps. We all jumped up and ran around the kitchen putting everything back where it was. We put the necklace back in the box and covered it in Christmas cards, closed the cabinets, and ran to the basement as fast as we could. As soon as we plopped down on the couch, I heard footsteps walking past the basement door. “That was REALLY close,” I said. I got up and checked the computer clock. “It’s only 6:15!” I almost yelled. “Maybe somebody is sleepwalking,” Diana suggested. I couldn‘t think of very many other reasons, so I guess it kind of made sense. “I guess we have another mystery to solve,” Jack said. Diana frowned. “I thought detectives solve mysteries,” she said. I nodded. “They do, but I guess spies can, too,” I said. Jack grabbed the remote and we watched TV downstairs until everyone else woke up.
Chapter 7
After breakfast on Wednesday morning, I decided we had some serious spying to do after not doing any on Tuesday. We finished our pancakes, put our plates on the counter, and ran downstairs. “Can we do some actual SPYING today?” Jack asked. I nodded. We were doing too much detective work. “Doesn’t papa have a pair of walkie talkies?” I asked. “I think so,” Diana replied quietly. “Want me to go ask?” I thought about it for a second. “What if he asks why we want them?” I said. For a minute we just stood there, waiting for Diana to answer. “I’ll tell him we’re playing a game,” she finally said. She ran up the stairs and out the door before we had a chance to say anything else. “I have some binoculars in my suitcase,” Jack said. “Why do you have binoculars in your suitcase???” I asked. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I just do.” He ran upstairs, too. I sighed. I grabbed some paper and a pen and got to work on a checklist of things we would need to spy until they came back.
Chapter 8
When Jack and Diana came back downstairs, I showed them the checklist. It looked kind of like this:
Chapter 9
After a full five minutes, I FINALLY got an idea. “Hey!!!” I said. Jack and Diana looked at me. “I know what we can do!!!” Diana covered her ears. “You don’t have to yell!” she said quietly. I frowned. “Sorry. I just got really excited,” I said. “So anyway, Jack, you can take one of the walkie talkies and hide it under the couch, and you bring the other walkie talkie down here and turn the volume up kind of loud, and we can listen to what everyone is saying.” Jack nodded. Diana smiled. “Sounds like a plan!”
Chapter 10
When Jack came back downstairs, we listened to hear if anything was going on upstairs. We couldn’t hear anything yet. We waited a few minutes, and the walkie talkie started making noise. We could hear footsteps. Diana grabbed the walkie talkie and took it over to the couch. “Be quiet, they can hear us, too,” Jack said. We heard talking. “Where are the kids?” Someone said. “I think that’s nana,” Jack whispered. “They’re in the basement,” papa said. “PLEASE don’t come down here,” Diana whispered. “I should start making lunch,” nana said. We sighed. Well this just got boring. “Sure, sure, you do that,” papa said. “You’ll never guess what I got you for Valentine’s day.” We all gasped. “Well this just got interesting,” Jack said. “I bet papa got the pearl necklace for nana.” We listened some more. “Let me guess,” nana said. “The new Harry Potter book.” Papa laughed. “Yep. How’d you know?” We sighed. “Aw, man,” Jack said angrily. He shut off the walkie talkie. “I guess it’s not papa.”
Chapter 11
“Now what do we do?” Diana asked. I grabbed some legos. “We could make a map of the basement,” I suggested. Jack nodded and grabbed some more legos and a lego tray. We took them over to the table. I made the stairs, desk, bookshelf, and TV. Jack made the couches, toy box, and counter. Diana made the table, pool table, doors, and chairs.
“Looks pretty good,” Jack said, nodding. After that we took some lego people heads and put them on little legos to be all the LSA members. Jack’s body was blue, mine was yellow, and Diana’s was red. We put the our lego selves in the chairs at the table, where we were. “Cool!” Diana said. “It’s a complete map of the basement. With us too!”
Chapter 12
On Thursday afternoon, we had our first spy meeting, in the Mickey room, one of the guest bedrooms. After lunch, we told nana we were going to the basement. We walked over to the basement, opened the door, and closed it again. Then we quietly walked upstairs into the Mickey room. We quietly shut the door, so nobody would realize we were in there. “Okay,” I said, sitting on the bed. Jack and Diana looked at me anxiously. I opened up the spy folder I had been working on all night and slid it across the comforter.
Jack picked it up and flipped through the pages. On the sixth page, he stopped and leaned over to read the small words I had written. “Spy tricks,” he read to himself. His eyes moved across the page. Diana and I patiently waited for him to say something. He put it down. “Awesome,” he said. I nodded. “If we ever need to investigate in a room full of people, we can just use one of those.” Some of the tricks I wrote down were knocking on the door so people would come to answer it, and dropping a heavy book upstairs to make it sound like something fell. Diana smiled. “Brilliant!” she said, in her best English accent.
Chapter 13
5 hours after our meeting ended, it was time for dinner. And a 5 hours after dinner, it was 12:30. It was time for Jack to do his job for the first time - nightspy.
His alarm clock went off and he woke us up to tell us he was going to do his job. “You have to be back at 4:30,” Diana reminded him through a yawn. Jack nodded and pointed to his wrist. “I got my watch,” he said. I nodded and flopped back onto my pillow. He quietly walked out and shut the door.
Chapter 14
At 4:30, we woke up when Jack walked in. He looked at us. “Hey guys,” he said. We nodded. “We’re not guys, we’re girls,” Diana reminded him. Jack laughed and rolled his eyes. “Well anyway. . .” he said, “I found something.”
He took a crumpled up envelope out of his pocket and set it on the foot of Diana’s bed. “It was on the porch.” Diana stared at it. “What is it?” she asked. “Why do you always ask so many questions? Just open it!” Jack replied anxiously. Diana grumbled and wiggled out from under the covers. She crawled over to the mysterious envelope, picked it up, and opened it, all in slow motion to build suspense. There was a small square of paper inside it. Her eyes moved quickly across the note.
When she reached the end, her eyes widened. “From JOHN NORMAN ROCKTEM?!” she yelled. “Isn’t that the spy-guy from the NSA?” We nodded. What did he say? She read my mind. “He has a mission for us.”
Chapter 15
Diana didn’t tell us everything the note said. We were too tired to listen, so she had to tell us Friday morning after breakfast. We ran to the basement at lightning speed. Diana led us to the couch. We plopped down and grabbed some pillows. “What’d it say?” Jack said impatiently, as Diana slowly unfolded the note. “Hold on! I’m getting it,” Diana mumbled. Diana held up the note and started reading it.
“Mission, blah blah blah, thief, blah blah blah, mail, blah blah blah...” Jack was getting mad. “Can you read it without the blah blah blahs, please?!” Diana gave him an evil look. “There are WAY too many details, and a lot of this probably isn’t important. Duh.” Jack made a puppy dog face and forced tears into his eyes. “PWEASE? PWETTY PWEASE?” Diana sighed and rolled her eyes. She threw the note at Jack. “Read it yourself!”
Chapter 16
After Jack read it, it was my turn.
SECRET DOCUMENT
Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
I have a mission for you. Recently, there have been mailbox burglaries in your neighborhood. A boy, about 9, has been seen stealing from your mailbox, as well as numerous others on your street, for the past 2 weeks. Watch for him, find out his name, and see if you can report him to the police and return the mail he has stolen.
-John Norman Rocktem
Our first official mission.
SECRET DOCUMENT
Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
I am the founder of the UNSA, United National Spy Agency.
We need your help. Please form a spy agency of your own, the LSA, Little Spy Agency. Please help us.
-John Norman Rocktem
It all began with that letter. And contributing to that, those four simple words - we need your help. I can't figure out why we, being me, Jack, and Diana, have been chosen for such an important position. . . are we. . . special? I can't think of a reason for us to have been chosen. . . but we have to do this.
Chapter 2
"Jack. Jack, wake up," I whispered into Jack's ear. I had to tell him about the letter, but there was one problem - he wouldn't wake up. He was in such a deep sleep, I almost thought he was dead. "Jack!" I yelled. Erg. He was still sleeping. I pulled his blankets off and tickled his feet. EVERYONE has ticklish feet. . . at least I think so. He started laughing and he opened his eyes. "Isabelle? What?" he said. He looked at his alarm clock. It was 6:00 Saturday morning. "Why are you up so early?!" he was almost yelling now. I should've known this was going to happen. "I have to show you something," I said. Jack rolled his eyes. "What could be SO important that you have to wake me up at 6 am?!" Jack said. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Come on," I said, tugging on his arm. "No! No no no!" he yelled like a 2-year-old. I personally don't think he's mature enough to be a spy. "Get up or I'm going to pour water over your head," I said. "Fine!" Jack yells. And then he finally got out of bed.
When we got to the basement, I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the envelope. "What's that?" Jack asked curiously. "You'll see," I said. I gave it to Jack so he could open it. He opened the envelope and slowly unfolded the letter. He read it carefully. "Isabelle, I know you wrote this," Jack said. We both sighed. "I didn't write it, Jack. I found it in the mail yesterday," I said. Jack looked at the address on the envelope. "Are you going to show Diana?" he asked. "I'm going to show her after breakfast." I said. Jack folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. He handed it to me and I put it back in the drawer. We walked back upstairs.
Jack decided that since it was 6:30, we should just watch TV in his room until breakfast. And we did. Kind of. We were mostly just talking about the letter. "So we can't tell anybody about the LSA?" Jack asked. "Yep," I said. We must have lost track of time, because before we knew it, it was 9:30. We'd been talking about the spy agency for hours. We yawned and went downstairs for breakfast. When we got downstairs, Aunt Kristy was setting bowls of apple oatmeal on the table, and Diana was helping her. We sat down at the table and quickly ate our oatmeal. It was time to tell Diana about the LSA.
Chapter 3
"Diana, we have to show you something," I said as we walked towards the basement. "What?" she asked. "You'll see," Jack said. We opened the door and walked downstairs. I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the letter from the UNSA. "What's this?" Diana asked, studying the envelope carefully and reading the address. "Open it," Jack said. Diana opened the envelope and slid out the letter. She gently unfolded it, read it, and then started cracking up.
"You want me to believe the UNSA wants US to form a spy agency?! Yeah right!" she said, still laughing."I found the letter in the mailbox yesterday afternoon," I said. "We're not kidding," Jack said in agreement. "You mean. . . you're serious?" Diana asked quietly. "Yep," I said. Diana frowned. She looked really confused. "How are we going to make our own spy agency. . . I mean. . . isn't. . . won't that be a lot of work?" Diana asked worriedly. She bit her lip and frowned at the same time. "We have to go to school," she said. I frowned, too. "Oh yeahhh. . . I forgot about that," I said.
Jack frowned, but then he smiled a little bit. "Well, I guess we could work on our code and stuff during the weekends, and then we do our actual spying after school," Jack suggested. I though about it. It actually sounded like a pretty good plan. Maybe he IS mature enough after all. "Yeah. That's a good plan. We can do that," I said. We turned to Diana. "Well. . . sure!" Diana said. We all smiled. I guess this could be fun.
Chapter 4
On Saturday, we all went downstairs after breakfast to plan the LSA. I guess it was our first spy meeting. We all sat at the table by the closet. I brought a few notebooks and pens for all of us to write down our ideas in. "OK. . . now what?" Jack said. "Hmm. . . good question," I replied, sighing. I had no idea what to do. I mean, I knew what things we could talk about, I just didn't know which one to talk about first. "Should we talk about our jobs?" Diana asked. "What jobs?" I said. "You know. . . like. . . one of us does one thing, someone else does another thing. . ." Diana replied. "Oh yeah!" I said, "But first we should come up with the code words for them." Jack and Diana nodded in agreement. "I think we should all have 2 or 3 jobs," Jack suggested. "Good idea," I said.
We talked and wrote until lunch. By noon, we had all the jobs planned out, and we had code words for them, too. We ran upstairs, ate our macaroni as fast as possible, and ran back downstairs to work on our passwords. We took our seats at the table. "How do our passwords work?" Jack asked. "Well, we could just take a few letters or words and put those together, and then add a few numbers, I guess," I said. Diana wrote that down in her notebook. We'd decided she was in charge of making our passwords. "Can I start writing passwords now?" Diana asked. "Yep," I replied. We sat in silence for a few minutes while Diana wrote down our passwords. "I'm done!" she said, "Jack is sparklyunicorn74, you're weathergirl29, and I'm DMballet52." I nodded in agreement. Jack started laughing. "I'm a sparkly unicorn!!! Yay!!!" he said, laughing. Oh, Jack. . .
Chapter 5
Our first day of actual work was Monday. Jack, Diana, and I set our alarm clocks for 5:00, so that we could get some work done before everyone wakes up. Since it was Christmas break, we could work all day, but we wanted to get some things done without having to crawl around everywhere. I grabbed my notebook and pen and we went downstairs.
"So what's the plan?" Jack asked. "This is the plan," I said, holding up my notebook. "You mean you stayed up late last night and wrote a plan?" Diana asked. "Yep," I said, "After you fell asleep." I opened the basement door and we ran downstairs and sat down at the table. I pulled out my notebook and read the plan. "Well, I think everyone will be up around 8:00, so that gives us 3 hours to work," I said. Jack and Diana nodded. "We can examine the contents of the desk first, then we can go upstairs and look on the counter, and then we can look under couches and stuff," I said. "That's fine with me," Jack said, "Diana? What do you think?" Diana nodded. "I think it's a pretty good plan," she said, smiling.
Since nobody was awake yet except us, we couldn't do our normal jobs. We all had to be a fly, a spy that looks for suspicious or interesting objects. It's normally Diana's job, but we didn't have a choice, because we couldn't listen in on any conversations. We didn't find anything interesting on the desk, but I found something REALLY interesting on the counter upstairs.
I pushed away a mountain of Christmas cards, and I saw a box. A small black box. "Guys, come here," I said, "I think I found something!" Jack and Diana, who were checking out the other counter, ran over to me. "What's the box?" Jack said. "Should we open it?" Diana asked. I picked up the box and shook it. It sounded like a maraca. I slowly opened the box, and you would have never guessed what was inside. I showed it to Jack and Diana - it was a pearl necklace.
Chapter 6
“Wow. . .” Jack said. Diana was about to scream, but Jack clamped his hand over her mouth. “Be quiet!” He said. He took away his hand and Diana calmed down. It was strangely quiet. Diana finally said something to break the silence. “I wonder who the pearl necklace is for,” Diana said, puzzled. We nodded. “I think before we figure out who it’s for, we should figure out who it’s from,” Jack said. We nodded again.
We were looking through the kitchen cabinets when we heard footsteps. We all jumped up and ran around the kitchen putting everything back where it was. We put the necklace back in the box and covered it in Christmas cards, closed the cabinets, and ran to the basement as fast as we could. As soon as we plopped down on the couch, I heard footsteps walking past the basement door. “That was REALLY close,” I said. I got up and checked the computer clock. “It’s only 6:15!” I almost yelled. “Maybe somebody is sleepwalking,” Diana suggested. I couldn‘t think of very many other reasons, so I guess it kind of made sense. “I guess we have another mystery to solve,” Jack said. Diana frowned. “I thought detectives solve mysteries,” she said. I nodded. “They do, but I guess spies can, too,” I said. Jack grabbed the remote and we watched TV downstairs until everyone else woke up.
Chapter 7
After breakfast on Wednesday morning, I decided we had some serious spying to do after not doing any on Tuesday. We finished our pancakes, put our plates on the counter, and ran downstairs. “Can we do some actual SPYING today?” Jack asked. I nodded. We were doing too much detective work. “Doesn’t papa have a pair of walkie talkies?” I asked. “I think so,” Diana replied quietly. “Want me to go ask?” I thought about it for a second. “What if he asks why we want them?” I said. For a minute we just stood there, waiting for Diana to answer. “I’ll tell him we’re playing a game,” she finally said. She ran up the stairs and out the door before we had a chance to say anything else. “I have some binoculars in my suitcase,” Jack said. “Why do you have binoculars in your suitcase???” I asked. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I just do.” He ran upstairs, too. I sighed. I grabbed some paper and a pen and got to work on a checklist of things we would need to spy until they came back.
Chapter 8
When Jack and Diana came back downstairs, I showed them the checklist. It looked kind of like this:
- Binoculars
- Magnifying glass
- Walkie talkies
- Notebooks
- Pens
- Pencils
- This checklist!!!!!
Chapter 9
After a full five minutes, I FINALLY got an idea. “Hey!!!” I said. Jack and Diana looked at me. “I know what we can do!!!” Diana covered her ears. “You don’t have to yell!” she said quietly. I frowned. “Sorry. I just got really excited,” I said. “So anyway, Jack, you can take one of the walkie talkies and hide it under the couch, and you bring the other walkie talkie down here and turn the volume up kind of loud, and we can listen to what everyone is saying.” Jack nodded. Diana smiled. “Sounds like a plan!”
Chapter 10
When Jack came back downstairs, we listened to hear if anything was going on upstairs. We couldn’t hear anything yet. We waited a few minutes, and the walkie talkie started making noise. We could hear footsteps. Diana grabbed the walkie talkie and took it over to the couch. “Be quiet, they can hear us, too,” Jack said. We heard talking. “Where are the kids?” Someone said. “I think that’s nana,” Jack whispered. “They’re in the basement,” papa said. “PLEASE don’t come down here,” Diana whispered. “I should start making lunch,” nana said. We sighed. Well this just got boring. “Sure, sure, you do that,” papa said. “You’ll never guess what I got you for Valentine’s day.” We all gasped. “Well this just got interesting,” Jack said. “I bet papa got the pearl necklace for nana.” We listened some more. “Let me guess,” nana said. “The new Harry Potter book.” Papa laughed. “Yep. How’d you know?” We sighed. “Aw, man,” Jack said angrily. He shut off the walkie talkie. “I guess it’s not papa.”
Chapter 11
“Now what do we do?” Diana asked. I grabbed some legos. “We could make a map of the basement,” I suggested. Jack nodded and grabbed some more legos and a lego tray. We took them over to the table. I made the stairs, desk, bookshelf, and TV. Jack made the couches, toy box, and counter. Diana made the table, pool table, doors, and chairs.
“Looks pretty good,” Jack said, nodding. After that we took some lego people heads and put them on little legos to be all the LSA members. Jack’s body was blue, mine was yellow, and Diana’s was red. We put the our lego selves in the chairs at the table, where we were. “Cool!” Diana said. “It’s a complete map of the basement. With us too!”
Chapter 12
On Thursday afternoon, we had our first spy meeting, in the Mickey room, one of the guest bedrooms. After lunch, we told nana we were going to the basement. We walked over to the basement, opened the door, and closed it again. Then we quietly walked upstairs into the Mickey room. We quietly shut the door, so nobody would realize we were in there. “Okay,” I said, sitting on the bed. Jack and Diana looked at me anxiously. I opened up the spy folder I had been working on all night and slid it across the comforter.
Jack picked it up and flipped through the pages. On the sixth page, he stopped and leaned over to read the small words I had written. “Spy tricks,” he read to himself. His eyes moved across the page. Diana and I patiently waited for him to say something. He put it down. “Awesome,” he said. I nodded. “If we ever need to investigate in a room full of people, we can just use one of those.” Some of the tricks I wrote down were knocking on the door so people would come to answer it, and dropping a heavy book upstairs to make it sound like something fell. Diana smiled. “Brilliant!” she said, in her best English accent.
Chapter 13
5 hours after our meeting ended, it was time for dinner. And a 5 hours after dinner, it was 12:30. It was time for Jack to do his job for the first time - nightspy.
His alarm clock went off and he woke us up to tell us he was going to do his job. “You have to be back at 4:30,” Diana reminded him through a yawn. Jack nodded and pointed to his wrist. “I got my watch,” he said. I nodded and flopped back onto my pillow. He quietly walked out and shut the door.
Chapter 14
At 4:30, we woke up when Jack walked in. He looked at us. “Hey guys,” he said. We nodded. “We’re not guys, we’re girls,” Diana reminded him. Jack laughed and rolled his eyes. “Well anyway. . .” he said, “I found something.”
He took a crumpled up envelope out of his pocket and set it on the foot of Diana’s bed. “It was on the porch.” Diana stared at it. “What is it?” she asked. “Why do you always ask so many questions? Just open it!” Jack replied anxiously. Diana grumbled and wiggled out from under the covers. She crawled over to the mysterious envelope, picked it up, and opened it, all in slow motion to build suspense. There was a small square of paper inside it. Her eyes moved quickly across the note.
When she reached the end, her eyes widened. “From JOHN NORMAN ROCKTEM?!” she yelled. “Isn’t that the spy-guy from the NSA?” We nodded. What did he say? She read my mind. “He has a mission for us.”
Chapter 15
Diana didn’t tell us everything the note said. We were too tired to listen, so she had to tell us Friday morning after breakfast. We ran to the basement at lightning speed. Diana led us to the couch. We plopped down and grabbed some pillows. “What’d it say?” Jack said impatiently, as Diana slowly unfolded the note. “Hold on! I’m getting it,” Diana mumbled. Diana held up the note and started reading it.
“Mission, blah blah blah, thief, blah blah blah, mail, blah blah blah...” Jack was getting mad. “Can you read it without the blah blah blahs, please?!” Diana gave him an evil look. “There are WAY too many details, and a lot of this probably isn’t important. Duh.” Jack made a puppy dog face and forced tears into his eyes. “PWEASE? PWETTY PWEASE?” Diana sighed and rolled her eyes. She threw the note at Jack. “Read it yourself!”
Chapter 16
After Jack read it, it was my turn.
SECRET DOCUMENT
Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
I have a mission for you. Recently, there have been mailbox burglaries in your neighborhood. A boy, about 9, has been seen stealing from your mailbox, as well as numerous others on your street, for the past 2 weeks. Watch for him, find out his name, and see if you can report him to the police and return the mail he has stolen.
-John Norman Rocktem
Our first official mission.
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