Andi Unstoppable Read online

  Colin dropped his bike and, with the hugest grin on his face I had ever seen, ran up the three steps to the porch. The giant woman wrapped her arms around him and squeezed so tight I had to look away just in case she crushed Colin’s bones. Finally, she let him go. “Are you still getting straight A’s?” she asked.

  Colin nodded but didn’t answer, probably because she squeezed all the wind out of him. I was impressed he was still upright after that hug.

  “Good.” She let go of his shoulders. “If I ever hear about your grades slipping, you will have to answer to me, understood?”

  Colin nodded dumbly again.

  She examined me over his head. “You must be Andi. I have heard quite a bit about you from my sister and my nephew here. Quite a bit. You’ve led Colin into some tight scrapes these last few months.”

  I opened my mouth to argue. The scrapes Colin and I had had been a team effort. I didn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to, and we hadn’t done anything too dangerous . . . at least not that often.

  The woman let go of Colin. “Come up here so I can give you a hug too.”

  I hesitated. A cracked rib didn’t sound like that much fun to me.

  “I won’t bite,” she said.

  I dropped my backpack next to my bike and climbed up the steps. The woman wrapped me into a surprisingly gentle hug. I hugged her back even though I still had no idea who she was.

  “Andi,” Colin said after the large women let me go. “This is my great-aunt Claudette. She’s my grandma Bergita’s sister.”

  Claudette punched her fists into her wide hips. “Did you have to add the great on there? I refuse to be old and the great makes me sound old.”

  Colin laughed. “You’re not old, Claudette.”

  She pointed a finger at him. “You got that right, and I have no intention of ever being old.”

  “What are you doing here?” Colin asked. “You haven’t come to visit in ages.”

  She nodded. “I know. I should visit more often, but the birds are always calling me. Who knew that they would call me here?”

  “You’re birding?” Colin asked. “In Killdeer?”

  She nodded as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Yep, and I’ll be here for a few days. Bergita will break the news to your parents.”

  “You came because of the Kirtland’s warbler?” I asked.

  Claudette’s entire face lit up when I mentioned the Kirtland’s. It reminded me of Colin’s when he had a new and exciting idea to share. Even though she was his great aunt, it was easy to see the two of them were related. “Yes. That’s exactly why I’m here. I shouldn’t be a bit surprised that the two of you know about it too considering how smart Bergita claims you are.”

  Colin’s grandmother Bergita came out the front door. “Oh good. You’re home from school. Andi, I see you have had a chance to meet my sister. I hope she didn’t squeeze you too tight. Her hugs are known to be dangerous.”

  Claudette snorted. “Don’t scare the poor girl.”

  Bergita laughed. “Andi, why don’t you run over to your house and ask Bethany if she wants to come over for a bit too? Amelie called me and she’s going to be home late from work, so I’m inviting you girls over for dinner.”

  I tried to hide my frown. Amelie always called and said that she was going to be late. There always seemed to be a meeting or a paper to grade that kept her on campus just a bit longer. “Bethany isn’t going to want to come over.” I knew my sister. She was probably already online Skyping with one of her friends from our old school. Bethany hated Killdeer and was already counting the days until she graduated high school and could leave, and she was only in the ninth grade.

  Bergita folded her arms. “Ask her anyway. Bethany shouldn’t spend so much time alone in the house.”

  I sighed. “Okay.” I would much rather have stayed at the Carters’ and learned about Colin’s birding great-aunt Claudette. If she helped us look for the Kirtland’s, we would definitely earn all the extra credit points.

  On the way across the yard to my driveway, I picked up my bike and backpack. I parked the bike in the garage and headed inside. Mr. Rochester greeted me at the front door with a yowl. Unlike my sister, he hated to be shut up alone in the house all day. I scratched him under the chin. “Want an afternoon snack, Mr. Rochester?”

  He began to purr. I took that as a ‘yes.’ I dropped my backpack on the couch and headed to the kitchen where Bethany sat on the counter eating Doritos. Her long legs hung over the counter and the heels of her feet beat a rhythm into the cupboard below. She licked Dorito cheese from her fingers. “What are you all excited about?”

  “Who said I was excited?” I asked as I removed the cat treats from the overhead cupboard. We had to keep them there because somehow Mr. Rochester had figured out how to open the lower cupboards with his paws. We discovered this after he had gotten sick from eating an entire box of cat treats that Amelie had hidden under the sink.

  Bethany rolled her eyes. “I can tell when you’re hyper about something. What happened at school? Did you win the science fair or something?”

  It wasn’t often my older sister asked me what I was up to, so I didn’t want to jinx it. “Have you seen the birders in town?”

  “Huh?”

  “The birders,” I said. “Didn’t you see people with binoculars wandering around downtown when you walked home from school?”

  “Well, yeah,” she admitted. “But I thought it was a bunch of lost old people. Maybe they escaped from a nursing home.”

  I sighed. “No, those are birders. They’re here because a really rare bird, a Kirtland’s warbler, was seen in the Shalley Park woods. People are coming from all over to catch a glimpse of it. Colin and I are going to find it. If we get a photograph of it, we’ll earn twenty extra credit points on our science project.”

  “You’re all jazzed up because you can get extra credit for a class you are already acing? That’s overkill in my opinion.”

  I dropped the treats on the floor for Mr. Rochester. The orange tabby pounced on them. “Then, I guess it’s good I didn’t ask your opinion.”

  Bethany snorted.

  “Amelie is going to be late, so Bergita sent me over here to ask if you want to go over there for dinner.”

  “What else is new? Tell Bergita I’m fine with my Doritos.”

  “Bergita’s sister, Claudette, is there right now. She’s a big-time birder and came to town to see the Kirtland’s.”

  “I’ll pass. I’m not that interested in listening to you all talk about birds.”

  I grabbed a package of fruit snacks from the cupboard for myself and shrugged as if I didn’t care. “Fine. I’m going to Colin’s.”

  “Are you and Colin going to have one of your little investigations about the birds?” She smirked. “You’re in seventh grade now, Andi. Don’t you think you’re a little old to be playing detective?”

  I gritted my teeth. “This isn’t an investigation.”

  At the time, I had been telling the truth.

  CASE FILE NO. 3

  I stomped from the kitchen and headed to my attic bedroom. Mr. Rochester always knew when I was headed upstairs. He beat me every time no matter where he was in the house.

  I climbed the second set of stairs to my room. When my dad was growing up in the old Boggs family home, the attic had been his room. With Colin’s help, I had spent most of the summer turning the neglected space back into a bedroom.

  I threw my backpack on my bed and took out my books. I would need to pack for the birding expedition.

  The only item that I kn
ew I definitely would need was binoculars. I knelt down and yanked out a plastic box from under the bed. I sat back on my heels. Mr. Rochester leaned over the bed and watched me. I eyed him. “I don’t know if I’m ready to see this stuff,” I confided to the orange tabby.

  The box contained some of my parents’ things that I saved from our old house. Bethany insisted that she didn’t want anything from our parents, but I had kept a few memories that weren’t worth anything to anyone but me. I knew Amelie saved some items for Bethany too. She was waiting to give them to my sister at “the right time.”

  “Here goes,” I said after a deep breath.

  I opened the box and the smell of my father’s soap hit me like a bowling ball directly to the stomach. I tried not to look at any of the items in the box for long and just find what I needed. I rooted through the box until I came up with Dad’s binoculars. As soon as I found them, I ripped them from the box, slammed the box shut, and shoved it back underneath the bed. I did it all so fast that Mr. Rochester meowed in protest.

  I fell backward onto my butt and caught my breath. Mr. Rochester jumped on the floor and nosed my arm, purring softly. I don’t know if he did that to comfort me or himself. I wiped a tear from my eye that I hadn’t even known was there. The binoculars were in my lap. They were high-powered but lighter than you would think. My father had used them on his research trips dozens of times, and they were the only item that came back from their last trip to Central America.

  I shoved the binoculars into my backpack and was about to head for the stairs when I decided to take one more thing. The casebook. Colin and I hadn’t used it since the summer, when we solved a case on Michael Pike’s campus. I told Bethany that Colin and I weren’t on a case, but it couldn’t hurt to take the casebook with me.

  I gave Mr. Rochester one more pat on the head before I left my bedroom. Outside, I ran across the front lawn from my yard to Colin’s. Colin was waiting for me on the front porch, standing in front of the door.

  I skipped up the three steps.

  Colin didn’t open the door.

  I held onto the straps of my pack. “What’s going on? Why don’t we go in?”

  “We will. I have to warn you. Claudette can be a little intense.” He wrinkled his nose.

  I laughed and adjusted my backpack higher up on my shoulder. “I got that when I met her. I saw her almost squeeze you to death, remember?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “But she can be really intense about birds. I mean, this is her life, so just watch what you say about them to her.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to start insulting cardinals or something. Can we go in now?”

  He nodded and opened the door. I followed him through the living room into the kitchen. The Carters’ kitchen was the biggest room in their house, which was good because it was where Bergita spent most of her time baking.

  In the kitchen, Bergita and her sister sat at the table. The most surprising thing about the two sisters was how little they looked alike. Claudette was wide and had that buzzed hair while Bergita was tall and lanky. She divided her white hair into pigtails and wore denim overalls over a tie-dye T-shirt.

  A large map was spread in front of them on the table. Claudette stabbed her blunt index finger onto the table with so much force I was surprised she didn’t break it. Her features were squished together and red, reminding me of the inside of a tomato. “Bergita, I can take care of myself. I always have.”

  Bergita sighed. “I know you have, but you aren’t getting any younger. Shouldn’t you be thinking about your future? You have spent every penny you have searching the globe for birds. I’m afraid you will have nothing left to live off of. I had to send you money to fly home from Papua, New Guinea last month, didn’t I?”

  “You won’t have to do that again. I’ll find the money.”

  “I don’t mind helping,” Bergita said. “But — ”

  Claudette glared at her older sister. “You don’t know what birding means to me. You never have. It’s everything to me.”

  “I know — ”

  “I don’t want to talk about it any longer.” She jabbed her finger into the large map stretched across the table again. “This is where we should start our search. This is where we’ll find the Kirtland’s.”

  “Did you ask if we could go with them?” I whispered to Colin.

  That was a mistake.

  Claudette’s head snapped in our direction so fast that her glasses flew off her face and fell to the tabletop. Without missing a beat, she snatched them off the map and put them back on her nose. “I’m glad to see you are back, but no one said you’re going with me to see the Kirtland’s. This is serious business, not child’s play. I can’t have anyone slowing me down.”

  I glanced at Colin. “Did you tell them about the assignment?”

  Colin flushed. “I didn’t get a chance.”

  Bergita smiled. “What assignment? Something for school?”

  I nodded and told them about the birding homework we had.

  Claudette smacked the table, and the rest of us jumped. “Hot dog! I’m glad the public school system is finally paying attention to something important like birds.”

  I climbed on a barstool beside the counter. “If we went birding with you, we would be sure to see the Kirtland’s and a whole bunch of other birds.”

  Claudette frowned just for a moment, and I thought she was going to say ‘no.’ Instead she said, “I’m not one to discourage budding birders. Two capable kids like you shouldn’t be too much extra trouble. Yes, you can come with me, but you have to do everything I say to do in the field. Do you understand?”

  Colin and I nodded.

  Bergita left the table and walked to the counter where she started to dice a tomato. A large salad bowl sat next to her cutting board with lettuce, peppers, and mushrooms already cut into it. “This is going to be a great adventure for us all,” Bergita said as if she hadn’t just been in an argument with her sister. “I’ve accompanied my sister on her birding trips a couple of times but never in my hometown.” She glanced up from her tomatoes. “Where’s Bethany?”

  “She’s happy with her Doritos,” I said.

  Bergita shook her head and continued to dice.

  “If you’re going to go out into the field with us, you need to know the plan. We’ll go into the park this way and camp near the old Shalley homestead.” Claudette ran her finger along a trail in the map. I could see that the trail split Shalley Park in two.

  “Shalley homestead?” I spun around in my stool to see Claudette better. “Is that where the ghost lives?”

  Claudette’s head jerked up. “Don’t tell me you listen to those ridiculous stories. I will not tolerate any silly ghost talk on my birding trip.”

  Bergita chuckled. “That ghost story has been around a long time. I remember hearing it as a little girl.”

  “What’s the story?” I asked.

  The doorbell rang and interrupted us. “That must be Ava,” Colin said.

  Bergita put down her knife. “You invited Ava here?”

  “She’s in our birder group too.” I jumped off the stool and followed Colin.

  Claudette called behind me. “I hope you kids can keep up.”

  Colin threw open the door. Jackson, who was snoozing on the couch, barely lifted his head.

  Through the front door, I saw Ava’s brother’s red pickup truck idling on the street. “Does your brother want to come in too?”

  Ava frowned at me. “No. Romero has other stuff he needs to do. He’ll be back in an hour to pick me up.”

 
When Ava stepped into Colin’s home, she looked at everything as though she was taking inventory. She pursed her lips together as if she didn’t like what she saw. I didn’t know what was wrong with it. It was an ordinary living room. Maybe the Drs. Carter had a little too much beige in the place, but it was perfectly tidy.

  “An hour doesn’t give us much time to plan,” Colin said.

  She folded her arms over her notebook. “That’s all the time I have. I have other stuff to do tonight.”

  “What stuff?” I asked. “What could be more important than this birding project right now?”

  Ava scowled at me. “We’re wasting time. I now have fifty-eight minutes. My brother will be back right at five thirty.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said. “Let’s go to the kitchen and introduce you to Claudette. Great news! Colin’s great-aunt — don’t let her hear you say ‘great’ about her — is an expert birder, and she is going to take us out in the field to find the Kirtland’s.”

  Colin waved us across the room. “We’ve already told Bergita and Claudette about our assignment, and they’re on board.”

  When we walked into the kitchen, Bergita pointed to the pizza on the counter. “Ava, I’m so glad you could come over.”

  Ava squinted at Colin’s grandmother as if she was trying to decide if the older woman was lying to her.

  Bergita simply smiled. “I just pulled this out of the oven. You kids help yourselves.”

  I grabbed a piece of pepperoni pizza and placed it on a plate before slipping back onto the stool at the counter. I spun the seat so that I faced Claudette and the map.

  Colin and Ava did the same and perched on stools on either side of me.

  Claudette sat at the dining table and seemed to have no interest in the pizza. She made notes on a yellow legal pad. “Since there will be a group of us going out, we have to rethink our supply list. We should have enough food — I hope you kids like granola — and then there’s always the issue of the amount of toilet paper to bring. You never know.”