Chapter 4

Claudia was at home living her everyday life like she used to, except now she didn't go to the library after her chores and schoolwork. She just climbed their tree in their backyard and stared up at the sky. Claudia's mom also noticed something was wrong with her, she knew Claudia always went to the library after she was done with her work.

The next morning, when Claudia's mom took Claudia to school, she went to see her teacher before Claudia's class started.

"Hi Mrs. Kincaid! How are you?"

"I'm doing fine! What about you?"

"I'm fine, but there are some things I want to talk about. I have seen a shift in Claudia's behaviour in the past few weeks. Is there anything that's happening to Claudia at school? Loneliness? Bullying? Anything?"

"Well yes. I have also noticed a difference in her behaviour. She usually is quiet and reserved, that's nothing new, and there's no bullying. But she usually reads a book during recess. Lately, she hasn't brought any books to class, and often seems to be staring off into the distance. Everything seems to be going well. Claudia is doing well with her new homework buddy Valentina. She was the sister of the twins who got kidnapped a while ago. But, she hasn't picked any books from the class library either."

Claudia's mom started to become more concerned about Claudia. Then she suddenly remembered about the black sparkly notebook that she bought a few weeks ago with her allowance. "Has Claudia taken a black notebook of some sort to school lately?"

"Well… yes, come to think of it. She did bring it once a few weeks ago, and was staring at it all recess. But other than that, I haven't seen it."

"Ok…"

"I'll let you know if anything else happens to Claudia at school, and if there is anything out of the ordinary that happens."

"Ok, thanks. Sorry for taking up your time, but I've also got to get to work. Bye! Have a nice day!"

"Bye! You too!"

Claudia's mom went into the car and started driving. She looked at the time and realized that she had 2 minutes to get to work. She decided to call it a day off and went to an ice cream shop to think about what had happened to Claudia. She went inside the store and sat down on the counter and decided to get a new flavor called Galaxy. Something that Mrs. Kincaid had said today started bugging her, but she didn't know what. She sat down and stared at the ice cream, replaying everything that had happened in the last few weeks when it struck her. It happened in the past few weeks, it had happened years before. Claudia had always wanted to be a detective like her father. Not a lot of people knew that. She also realized that she'd never done anything to support Claudia's dream. She probably was trying to figure out the case that happened a few weeks ago. But why would Claudia stop her reading? It was her escape from reality. And why would she stare off into space. Claudia's mom thought it would just be best to ask her when Claudia got home from school.