Sound Off! by James Ponti Read Free Book Online

this later.”
    They didn’t need to be told twice. “Thanks, Mom,” Mitchie said. Turning to her team, she gestured for them to follow her.
    The four girls walked into the dining room to think about the clue some more. Once again they tried to hum it out to see if the notes could mean something else. But they couldn’t quite get it.
    â€œI need the piano,” Mitchie said as she moved over to the instrument on the other side of the room. “I think it went like this.”
    She played four notes. First she tried them slow. Then she tried them fast. But they didn’t register with anybody.
    â€œAre you sure those are the notes?” Ella asked.
    â€œPretty sure,” Mitchie said. “The first note was C. Then B. Then G and E.” She played the notes as she said them.
    Tess shook her head. “I don’t think the second note was a B. I think it was an A.”
    Mitchie tried it and nodded. “You’re right. It was an A.”
    â€œPlay that a couple times,” Lorraine said.
    Mitchie played it through a few more times at different speeds.
    â€œStop!” Tess said as she smiled. “I know where the keys are.”
    â€œYou do?” Mitchie said.
    Tess nodded. “Let me sit down.”
    Mitchie got up from the piano bench, and Tess sat down. She played the four notes. “It’s not a song,” Tess said. “It’s a word.”
    She played them again. Only, this time, she said the name of each note as she played it. “C.A.G.E. Cage.”
    â€œThat is so cool!” Mitchie said. “It’s hidden in a cage!”Then she paused. “Wait. What cage?”
    Lorraine and Ella both spoke at the same time. “Rockin’ Robin!”
    Mitchie’s eyes grew wide. That had to be it! One of the decorations that Brown had put up in B-Note—the camp’s hangout and snack bar—was a stuffed bird that played the song “Rockin’ Robin” if you pressed a button. The bird was in a big plastic cage.
    In order to keep from attracting attention, most of the girls went in the wrong direction, acting as if they were looking for the keys in one of the rehearsal rooms. Tess, meanwhile, slipped unseen into B-Note and found the keys hidden in the bottom of Rockin’ Robin’s cage.
    Just as the thirty minutes were about to expire, Tess hurried up to the tour bus, unlocked the door, and sounded the horn.
    In a matter of seconds, the other campers surrounded the bus, amazed to see Tess standing inside it alone.

C HAPTER E IGHT

    B ecause they had won the Capture the Tour Bus Keys event, the girls from the Vibe team were treated to a rock-star lunch on the bus along with the guys from Connect Three. The food was the same as the food that the other campers were having in the mess hall, but the surroundings made all the difference.
    â€œI cannot believe how cool this bus is,” Mitchie said as she took a bite of her grilled-cheese sandwich. “It’s like a real house with wheels.”
    â€œYeah,” Ella added, looking at all of the fancy gadgets and electronics. “A totally nice and blinged-out house.”
    Ella wasn’t joking. The bus was fully loaded with comfy couches, flat-screen televisions, video-game consoles, and a rockin’ sound system that was currently playing a Justin Timberlake dance tune.
    â€œAnd to think,” Mitchie said, soaking it all in, “we wouldn’t be here if Tess hadn’t been a total genius and solved that clue.”
    â€œLet’s hear it for Tess,” Lorraine said raising her cup of lemonade for a toast.
    â€œTess!” the others responded.
    Normally, Tess would have been basking in the glow of this sort of attention. But, she hadn’t even heard a word of it. She was busy studying the list of remaining events and doing some quick math on a scrap of paper.
    â€œWhat’s that about?” Mitchie asked, pointing to the paper.
    Tess