The Case of the Missing Stationery

This is a story that I was assigned to do. It is a detective story.

The Case of the Missing Stationery
By: Niketa Nerurkar

“It’s a new pencil, the Robotic edition.” I patted Freede, the watchman’s dog as I walked past him listening to Nirak’s story. “That’s pretty cool!” I said rolling my eyes and sighing. I had been listening to his chatter from the bus stop all the way till now. I k now it’s only a 5 minute distance but sometimes 5 minutes can be a very long time. Yes! Saved by the bell.

Before ma’am came in everyone huddled around Nirak's shiny pencil. As usual everyone started to get jealous and show their new things like their eraser or their Barbie glo-glitter notebook. Soon, everyone was showing each other their ‘new’ things. Finally it came to an end as our teacher came in and we had no choice but to sit down.

We went for our break and for the first time in the month, everyone came down for breakfast because the menu was a thing we all liked – Pav Bhaji. We then went up after having about 4 servings. Suddenly there was a shriek. It went something like this “Oh my gosh my notebook is missing.” Then another and another and another and before you knew it the room was filled with where’s this and who took that’s. “WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE? EVERYDAY WE COME TO CLASS AND WE SHOUT AT YOU AND IT TAKES 15 MINUTES FOR YOU TO STAY QUIET. I’M TIRED OF LECTURING YOU PEOPLE. BE MATURE AND HAVE SOME DISCIPLINE NA!” “Sorry ma’am.”
“ What was everyone yelling about?” “Actually ma’am, ma’am.” Then again the whole class started like crows. Caw, caw! Caw, caw!






“Oh god, how can you do such a thing children? How could you steal each other’s things? How many times should I tell you people not to touch others things?” “Ma’am, what if it wasn’t us?” “Nonsense!” I am giving everyone a last chance to own up by the end of the period. We saw many people go up to ma’am after that but it seemed like they were speaking about something else. While listening to them, I could tell that ma’am was annoyed as her hand was on her forehead and she was frowning.

Ma’am left abruptly after that and it turned out to be that no one had owned up. She locked the class after that during breaks and we hated it. We missed sitting in the class and laughing and playing tricks on people. We suffered for a long time and each moment of it was boredom. The sad thing was our things kept going missing and ma’am just kept getting angrier and angrier. It was funny as only 2 people were allowed in the maid and the watchman. Every time a robbery would happen an ink bottle would be dropped. But the watchman and the maid were very much trusted. But who could it be? Any guesses?

One day I went down to play with Freede and I saw that he had a thorn stuck in his paw. I tried to remove it and as I removed it I noticed ink on the bottom of Freede’s foot. That reminded me of the robberies but I thought how a dog could steal. Then Freede turned around and I saw him having Nirak’s pencil. “Freede boy, give that here boy.” Woof! Woof! Freede ran like a speedometer and I had no choice but to run after him. A bunch of kids form our class joined me in the chase thinking that he would lead us to the culprit. But he ran towards the laundry room and banged the door opened. Suddenly he dashed behind the hamper and surprisingly we heard other woofs. We looked behind the hamper and saw something very adorable. Freede had used our belongings as a home for his new born puppies.
No one had the heart to take it away from him but we thought about how it had all happened. All of a sudden, it clicked me. Freede comes instead of the watch man! So he might have taken our stuff and knocked the bottle down. Is this what you had guessed???