THE MISSING SKATEBOARD

Cat knows she left her skateboard by the jungle gym, so where did it go?

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Cat yelled to her best friend Olivia, as the twosome sped toward the park on their skateboards. “Watch where you’re going, Cat, and wait for me,” Olivia yelled back.

It was the first day of spring, and the girls couldn’t wait to break out their boards and head to the park. They’d both begged their parents for skateboards last year after their favorite neighborhood spot had put in a skateboarding ramp. They even had matching boards. Well, sort of — Cat’s board is yellow with pink stripes and Olivia’s board is yellow with orange stripes.

“You were going way too fast, Cat,” Olivia complained once they reached the park.

“You’re just jealous because I always beat you,” Cat stuck out her tongue playfully.

Liv rolled her eyes. “What are we hitting first she asked?” she asked. “The ramp, the swings, the jungle gym?”

She barely got out the question before Cat raced over to the skating section of the park.

An hour later, they were exhuasted, so they left their boards near the jungle gym and went to their second favorite spot in the park: the swings. That’s when Cat remembered something.

“Hey, wait a second,” she turned to her bestie and asked. “Why isn’t your cousin with us?”

Cat had only ever seen pictures of Liv’s cousin Rayna, but she knew they were all the same age. Liv had mentioned she’d be in town this weekend because her parents were considering moving to be closer to family.

“She’s mad at me,” Olivia said sounding annoyed. “At least I think she is. She didn’t want to come for bubble tea with us yesterday, and when I tried to tell her about how much fun we had last night, she was barely paying attention.” “Weird,” Cat said.

“And then earlier, I found her rolling around on my skateboard in the garage. I thought she was going to come here with me, but she got an attitude when I asked her to come with us.”

“Huh? That’s ...” Cat started to say, but then both girls got distracted by the noise coming from their left.

Cat spotted her brother, Brian, and his friends walking towards the soccer field at the other side of the park.

Olivia stood up, clearly going to hang out with Brian like they normally would, but Cat held her back.

“Brian and I got in a big fight last night,” she told her bestie. “He wouldn’t let me watch Encanto in the family room because his show was on, but I totally called it.”

“And?” Olivia prompted her to go on, knowing there was more to the story.

“And I may have complained to Mom, saying I’d called the room, so she’d let me take it. Brendan got so angry. He went to his room and I haven’t seen him since.”

Olivia put her head in her hands. “It’s always something with you two.”

“Hey, Brian,” Cat called out cautiously, trying to make peace.

He clearly wasn’t feeling it. He looked over at his sister and said nothing.

“He’s still mad at you?” Liv asked. “That feels unnecessary.”

“Who’s that girl with him and his friends?” Cat wondered out loud.

But Liv wasn’t paying attention because she got a text from her mom.

She looks familiar, but I don’t remember her and Brian being friends.

Before Cat could give it more thought, she heard Liv groan.

“My mom is mad at me,” she explained. “Why?” Cat asked.

“I’ve been spending too much time with you and talking about you apparently.”

“Huh?” Cat was confused.

“Whatever, let’s just pretend neither of us have family members who are mad at us and have fun until we have to head home.”

Cat could do that. “Let’s have a swinging competition,” she suggested. “Whoever swings the highest gets to pick the pizza topping for our next movie night!”

Before long, they were clowning around and having the best time. It’s amazing what jumping off a swing 10 times in a row will do for your mood.

At 5:30 p.m., Cat’s watch beeped. It was time to head back home for dinner.

She turned to where she’d left her skateboard, and her mouth dropped open.

“Where’s my board?” I asked, panicking. “Oh, no!” Olivia said. “You left it right next to mine. Who would have taken it?”

My eyes immediately flew to the soccer field, and so did Liv’s. We ran over and both began to speak.

“Hey, Brian!”

“Cat, wait, don’t go accusing him of ...” Liv tried to say.

“No, don’t defend him!” Cat cut her off. “Brian, what did you do with my skateboard?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cat,” her brother said, looking confused.

“It wasn’t him,” said Liv. “I know who did it.” Is Liv right? Try to solve the mystery yourself before reading below.