Battle of the Brightest Read online

  Veronica nodded. “We can always come back and try it the other way if it’s a dead end.”

  Willow took the lead and began to measure steady, even paces with her feet, which took them on the path that led into the fruit garden.

  “Is this where George Washington chopped down the cherry tree?” Aaron joked as he eyed the fruit trees growing next to the path. Veronica shushed him. Willow was still counting.

  “Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!” Willow stopped.

  They stood at an intersection of the path, which now branched off in four different directions.

  “North is left, Willow,” Jasmine said. “Turn to the left and count out two hundred more steps. We’re right behind you.”

  Willow turned and began her slow, steady counting as the others trailed behind. Jasmine felt her stomach flutter. They might be about to make the greatest discovery of their lives! Lili saw the look on her face and grabbed Jasmine’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. They smiled at one another. This was it!

  As Willow counted higher, they saw the path was leading them directly to a small red brick building with an old metal door.

  “Gothic chic,” Jasmine whispered to Lili, who smiled right back at her.

  “One ninety-eight, one ninety-nine, two hundred!” Willow said triumphantly. She stood only a foot away from the front wall of the tiny structure.

  “Is the treasure going to appear out of thin air now?” Aaron wondered, jokingly.

  Willow consulted her visitor’s guide. “It’s called the Old Tomb. Washington wanted to be buried at Mount Vernon, but this tomb was deteriorating so he asked for a new one to be built. His body was moved to the new tomb after 1831, along with the remains of Martha and his other family members.” Willow glanced up at the aged and weathered building. “So George and Martha were buried here before being moved to the new tomb, which I guess is why they call it the Old Tomb.”

  “That leaves us with the last clue from the sapphire,” Lili said. “The Pythagorean or Masonic symbol, whatever you want to call it.” She held up her hand. On it she had once again drawn the image found on the sapphire: three squares of different sizes, their corners touching so that the three linked sides of the squares formed a triangle. She shivered as she looked at the old building. “Will we have to go inside?”

  Ryan shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll have to figure out the final clue first.”

  Willow turned so that she was once again facing the red brick front of the Old Tomb. “Let’s look around.”

  They all fanned out across the small front wall, looking intently at every nook and cranny in the brick surface.

  “Nothing here.” Ryan shook his head.

  Aaron studied the old metal door with its rusty hinges. He threw his hands in the air. “Nothing on the door.”

  Veronica peered closer at a brick that was at about shoulder level. She squinted closely at it. “Guys! I think I found something!”

  They hurriedly gathered around to peek over her shoulder. The brick she was staring at had a small, faded design carved into the upper right corner. It was the same symbol as on the sapphire!

  Lili squealed and Jasmine felt her heart skip a beat.

  Ryan reached out and gently touched the brick. It moved in the wall.

  “It’s loose!” Willow said. She looked around to make sure no other visitors were nearby. “Ryan, try and take it out.”

  Jasmine looked around nervously. “Some of us should shield him, in case somebody comes along.”

  Lili and Veronica quickly flanked Jasmine, blocking Ryan from anyone who might come down the path.

  Ryan carefully pried the brick from the wall. It slid easily into his hands and he placed it on the ground. Willow and Aaron crowded around to peer into the hole. Willow used the flashlight app on her phone to illuminate the dark space. Another, older brick sat recessed in the wall. As the light beam travelled along it, they saw it had the same Masonic symbol as the outer brick had.

  “Wow! I feel like I’m in a movie or something,” Aaron said breathlessly.

  Ryan grabbed the second brick and pulled it. Pieces broke off and crumbled as it came sliding out of the wall. He laid the second brick on the ground next to the first.

  Willow aimed the light back into the hole. A mysterious bundle, wrapped carefully in decaying fabric, sat inside.

  “I think we found it!” Willow cried.

  Jasmine turned around to look. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure,” Willow replied.

  Willow and Ryan both started to reach their hands in at the same time.

  Ryan quickly pulled his away. “Go for it, Willow,” he said with a smile.

  Willow reached inside and very gingerly pulled out the bundle. In the light of day, they could see the aged yellow fabric surrounding whatever was hidden inside. Overwhelmed by curiosity, Lili, Jasmine, and Veronica gathered around to look.

  “Whatever it is, it’s old,” Veronica remarked.

  Willow cautiously began to unwrap the fabric, some of it crumbling to dust in her hand when she touched it. As the fabric fell away, the rays of sun began to play on the item hidden inside, making it sparkle and glow.

  The last piece of fabric fell off. They all gasped as they looked at the treasure cradled in Willow’s hands. The smooth stone, the size of a golf ball, was like nothing Willow had ever seen before. It looked like it contained a glittering galaxy of swirling comets and stars in deep, beautiful colors: blue, red, purple, and green.

  “Oh my gosh, it’s a black opal!” Jasmine said excitedly. “I’ve never seen or heard of one this big.”

  “We did it!” Willow cried.

  “Yes!” Ryan echoed.

  Lili began jumping up and down in pure joy. Veronica beamed and grabbed Aaron in a huge hug. Everyone started laughing and cheering. They had found the treasure!

  Aaron looked at the magnificent black opal, which seemed the opposite of its name as it dazzled in the sunlight. “Dude,” he said to Ryan. “No wonder your uncle wanted this. It must be worth a fortune!”

  A dark shadow descended over them, blocking out the sunlight.

  “It is,” Arthur said with an evil smile. “Hand it over.”

  Willow quickly put her hands behind her back.

  “No,” she said firmly. “This isn’t Atkinson Prep. You’re not the boss here.”

  Atkinson laughed. “You all seem to forget that you are children. Clever children, maybe, but still children.”

  “We’re smarter than you,” Ryan said angrily. “You wouldn’t have anything if it weren’t for us!”

  “Again, you forget yourselves. I am the one who set you on this path to begin with,” Atkinson smoothly argued. “I have known of the treasure for years … years! When I learned of the four jewels, I knew they must lead to something valuable beyond measure. And it looks as though I was right.”

  “This doesn’t belong to any of us,” Jasmine boldly argued. “It belongs to the Washingtons.”

  “You know what they say: finders, keepers …” Atkinson said, taking a step closer. “And I’m afraid I can’t wait much longer. The salary of a school director is laughable, I’m afraid, and since my family insists on excluding me from the more profitable businesses, I must find additional streams of income.”

  “So you chose stealing? Nice,” Jasmine said.

  “It will be nice indeed, when I can stop babysitting a school full of snot-nosed brats and retire to the tropics,” he said. “A black opal this size, and with this historical significance, could be worth millions.”

  “Too bad it’s not yours,” Ryan told him.

  “That can easily be arranged,” he said, charging toward Willow. “Give it to me!”

  He was inches from Willow when she grinned and held up her hands — both empty. A look of anger and confusion crossed Atkinson’s face. From the corner of his eye he saw Ryan sprinting away. Realizing that Willow must have handed the opal to him, he quickly lunged after his nephew, tackling him to t
he ground. Ryan pushed his uncle off and started to run again, but Atkinson grabbed his ankle, holding him down.

  “Arthur Atkinson, you will stand down!”

  Startled, Atkinson looked up toward the sound of the powerful female voice. A middle-aged woman marched up to him and pulled him off Ryan.

  “Principal Frederickson!” Jasmine cried.

  “Stay out of this!” Atkinson barked at the principal. “The boy has my treasure.”

  Ryan jumped up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Then he grinned and turned out his empty jeans pockets.

  “Treasure? What treasure?” he asked.

  Erin and Isabel came running up next, followed by Ms. Keatley and Mr. Haverford — and two burly security guards.

  “Is everything all right here?” one of the guards asked.

  “This man just attacked this young boy,” Principal Frederickson said. “He needs to be escorted from the grounds, if not arrested.”

  “That is ridiculous!” Arthur Atkinson fumed. “That is my nephew, and he stole my treasure.”

  “I told you, I don’t have any treasure,” Ryan said. “Honestly, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

  “You guys found the treasure?” Erin blurted out.

  “What’s all this about a treasure?” Ms. Keatley asked.

  Principal Frederickson looked at Willow. “Is it true? Did you really find it?”

  Jasmine stepped forward and held out her hand. The black opal glittered in the sunlight.

  “It’s true,” she said.

  “I’m very glad I decided to check up on you girls,” Principal Frederickson said. “Things could have become very unfortunate for everyone.”

  A large group of people was gathered in the Martha Washington School library, where everything had started — the Jewels, Eli, the Rivals, Principal Frederickson, Ms. Keatley, Mr. Haverford, and the new acting director of Atkinson Preparatory School, Ryan’s dad. After the chaotic events of the day before, they had agreed to meet and finally sort things out.

  “I still don’t understand,” Erin said. “How did you show up at Mount Vernon at exactly the right time?”

  “I never got over the feeling that you girls were still searching for the final jewel, and the treasure,” she replied. “If I were your age, I would certainly find it hard to resist. Then when I saw your field trip scheduled, I thought you might be looking for clues again. I decided to go to Mount Vernon myself, and when I pulled into the parking lot, I saw Arthur Atkinson charging into the orientation center. By the time I caught up to him, he was assaulting poor Ryan.”

  “He didn’t hurt me,” Ryan said. “Anyway, I knew by running away I would distract him from whoever Willow had really given the treasure to.”

  “That was really smart,” Willow said admiringly.

  Principal Frederickson turned to Ms. Keatley. “And I would like to know why you and Mr. Haverford were not with the students.”

  Ms. Keatley looked a little uncomfortable. “Erin and Isabel got into a heated argument, and we tried to break it up. By the time we realized the others were gone we had lost them.”

  “Sorry about that,” Erin said, a little sheepishly. “We knew we’d need something good to distract you with, and Isabel and I had gotten pretty good at arguing.”

  “Even though you always lose,” Isabel said with a grin, and Erin smiled back.

  “But remember, they found us again,” Lili said. “All because of my awesome big brother.”

  Eli shrugged. “I never trusted Arthur Atkinson, so I got some of my Memento Mori friends to help me put a GPS on him. When I saw he was headed for Mount Vernon, I texted all the Jewels.”

  “As soon as I saw the text, I told Ms. Keatley and Mr. Haverford that the other kids were in trouble,” Erin said. “Eli helped us find them because he’d pinpointed Atkinson’s location. We grabbed the security guards on the way.”

  Ms. Keatley chimed in next. “So the whole time we’ve been ‘immersion learning’ you’ve really been looking for clues to a treasure?” She sounded a little hurt.

  “Well, yes, but we learned a lot of stuff along the way, too,” Erin said. “It helped us do better in quiz bowl, honest.”

  “It’s still amazing to me that you guys actually found the treasure,” said Mr. Haverford, holding up the Sunday newspaper. “You’re famous!”

  SIXTH GRADERS FIND LOST WASHINGTON TREASURE ON VERNON ESTATE, read the headline, with a picture of the black opal underneath.

  Erin grinned. “Yeah, I’m glad those guards didn’t believe Atkinson’s story that the treasure was his.”

  “And I’m glad they bought our story that we saw that the brick was loose and the treasure dropped into our hands,” Ryan added.

  “I still can’t believe we found such a huge black opal,” Jasmine said. “No wonder Martha was keeping it hidden. They probably could have financed a whole army with it back then.”

  “Maybe, but I’ve been doing some research,” Erin said. “There are some cool legends about black opals. One is that they mean bad luck for monarchs — like, for example, King George III of England. He was king during the Revolutionary War.”

  Veronica nodded. “I get it. So maybe it was, like, some kind of good luck charm for the Americans or something.”

  “Maybe we’ll never know why they went to all that trouble to hide it,” Lili said with a dreamy look in her eyes. “Maybe the real motive will always be a mystery.”

  “Whatever the reason, I’m so glad the opal will stay in Mount Vernon, where it belongs,” said Jasmine. She gazed over at the empty case that once held the Martha Washington ruby. “It’s too bad we don’t know what Arthur Atkinson did with the other four jewels, though.”

  “But we do,” said Ryan’s dad, Charles Atkinson, a blonder and more distinguished-looking version of his brother Arthur.

  He stood up and placed a black briefcase on the table in front of him. Then he opened the case to reveal four jewels on a field of black velvet: the Martha Washington ruby, the diamond, the emerald, and the Atkinson sapphire.

  The room got quiet as everyone stared at the jewels, which gleamed beautifully against the black background.

  “How did you get them?” Erin asked.

  “As you know, there is not enough evidence to prosecute my brother,” Mr. Atkinson answered. “But our family has removed him from his position at the school. And we convinced him to turn over the four jewels, in exchange for not cutting him out of the family completely. Fortunately, he hadn’t sold them yet. He was waiting to make sure you kids were right about the treasure.”

  “So what will happen to them now?” Jasmine asked.

  “The sapphire will remain at Atkinson, of course,” he said. “And the emerald will be returned to its owner, Derrica Girard. Our family has decided to donate the diamond to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was found. And the ruby is now back where it belongs.”

  He reached in the case, picked up the ruby necklace, and handed it to Principal Frederickson. The principal smiled, and gazed happily around at the assembled crowd. Just then she noticed the yearning look in Jasmine’s eyes.

  “Would you like to hold it before I put it back?” she asked.

  “Yes, please,” Jasmine said breathlessly.

  Principal Frederickson gently placed it in Jasmine’s open palm as her friends gathered around her. Jasmine had always admired the stone, sketching it countless times. She had only ever seen it underneath glass.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

  “It is good to have it back here at the school,” Principal Frederickson said. “But even so, I wish you girls had not put yourselves in danger like that. And I am sure your parents feel the same way.”

  The four Jewels exchanged glances. All of their parents had been called to the school once they got back from Mount Vernon, and they had tried to explain the events as best as they could. As a result, they were in varying degrees of trouble. Erin and Willow were both grounded from aft
er-school activities for a week, and Lili’s parents had nearly banned her from participating on the quiz bowl team. Jasmine’s parents were curious, asking question after question. It almost seemed like Jasmine’s mom wished she could have joined in the fun.

  “Don’t worry,” Willow said. “Our days of tracking jewel thieves and chasing treasure are over. We’ve got more important things to worry about.” She looked at her friends.

  “Nationals!” they all cheered at once.

  “We really should be studying for Nationals,” Willow said a little worriedly as the Jewels walked the grounds of Mount Vernon a few days later.

  “Willow, we’ve been studying nonstop for a week,” Erin reminded her. “We need a break.”

  “Besides, we never got a really good look at the treasure,” Jasmine added. “I am dying of curiosity!”

  “It’s amazing that Mount Vernon put it on display so fast,” Lili remarked.

  Willow nodded. “Everyone’s been so curious about it, they decided to put it out to meet the demand,” she said. “Then I read that they’re going to send it on tour to museums around the country.”

  Jasmine shivered. “I still can’t believe that we helped find it. It seems like a dream, doesn’t it?”

  Erin nodded. “It does. And what’s even more unbelievable is that we’re friends with the Rivals.”

  “No kidding,” Lili agreed. “Did I hear you and Isabel making plans for a sleepover the other day?”

  Erin gave a sheepish grin. “There’s a twenty-four-hour Civil War marathon on the History Channel coming up,” she said. “It’s no fun watching those alone.”

  “It’s no fun watching those ever,” Lili teased.

  Jasmine’s mother, who had driven them to the museum, followed behind on the grass-lined path. She nodded toward a small brick building up ahead. “There’s the museum, girls.”

  A line of people snaked outside the entrance to the Donald W. Reynolds Museum.

  “Wow, the black opal is really popular,” Jasmine remarked.

  “Of course it is,” Erin said. “It’s an awesome discovery.”

  The line to see the treasure was a separate line from the museum entrance. Inside the museum, visitors could see personal items that belonged to the Washingtons, as well as paintings and sculptures. But today, everyone had come to see the black opal.