Amy Namey in Ace Reporter (Judy Moody and Friends) Read online

  Water rippled over the rocks.

  The two girls saw something bob

  up out of the water. It was riding

  the current. And it was heading

  downstream . . . right toward them!

  .

  “Do you see what I see?”

  Amy gulped. “Yes. If what you see is a

  three-humped sea serpent with the head

  of a snake and the tail of an eel!”

  “Do you think it smells my

  sandwich?” Judy asked.

  But Amy wasn’t listening. This

  was it! Her big scoop at last.

  “I have to snap a picture,” Amy said.

  The two girls took a step closer.

  Amy snapped a picture. Something

  slippery brushed against her leg . . .

  again.

  “Judy, stop touching my leg with that

  stick,” she said.

  “Stick? What stick?” said Judy. She

  held up both hands: empty.

  Amy’s heart went thump-thump.

  46

  “TA-BOO!” they both screamed.

  They splished. They splashed. They

  slipped and slid.

  47

  .

  They ran across Amy’s backyard.

  They ran inside Amy’s back door.

  They scrambled up the bank of the

  creek.

  They ran into Amy’s light, bright

  kitchen. “What’s wrong?” asked her mom.

  “Sea s-s-s-serpent!” said Amy, pointing

  to the creek.

  “Big mon-s-s-ster!” said Judy, pointing

  out the back window.

  “TABOO!” they both yelled.

  .

  “Phew. Close call,” said Amy.

  “Double phew,” said Judy.

  Amy held out her camera and

  zoomed in. She zoomed in closer.

  “Hmm,” her mom said. “It might be

  a big monster. Or it might be a

  big . . . imagination?”

  “Mom, I saw it,” said Amy.

  “And don’t forget we heard a big

  splash,” said Judy.

  “Girls,” said Amy’s mom, “do you

  think your sea monster just might be

  a three-humped tree branch?”

  Amy shook her head.

  “No way, no how,” Judy said.

  When Mrs. Namey left the kitchen,

  Amy turned to Judy. “This is big,” she

  whispered. “Really big.”

  51

  .

  Amy Namey, Ace Reporter, took out

  the pencil from behind her ear. Amy

  took out her way-official notebook.

  At last, she had a story. A real

  scoop.

  Even famous Around-the-World

  Reporter Nellie Bly had never had a

  scoop this big. Nellie Bly had never

  spotted her very own sea monster.

  Amy could not wait to write it down.

  Above the Fold

  CHA

  p

  TER

  3

  53

  .

  GREAT VIRGINIA SEA SERPENT SIGHTING

  by Amy Namey, Ace Reporter

  First there was Nessie. Then there was

  Nabau. Now there’s Taboo. Did you know if

  you go monster hunting in Frog Neck Creek,

  you just might get mega-lucky and spot a sea

  monster? It’s true.

  Two girls from Virginia were out monster

  hunting this past Saturday in the Croaker Road

  area when they spotted something large and

  slimy in the creek. Eyewitness Judy Moody said,

  “It looked like a giant snake! No lie! It was SO

  not a tree branch.”

  If you plan to go sea-serpent hunting, take a

  good pair of rain boots. Need bait? Try a baloney

  sandwich.

  And don’t forget to take your camera.

  Taboo, the Great Virginia Sea Serpent, was

  captured on film. (See picture below.) Look closely.

  Stick? Or sea monster? You decide.

  .

  “Wow,” said Amy. “Thanks. Wait

  till I show Judy!”

  “Do you like my story?” she asked

  her mom, bouncing on her tiptoes.

  “I love it,” said her mom, giving

  her a squeeze. “It’s exciting. It held

  my interest. And that ending is what

  we in the newspaper biz call a cliff-

  hanger.”

  56

  Amy Namey, Ace Reporter, ran

  down the street to Judy’s house. She

  showed the story to Judy. She told

  Judy all about cliff-hangers.

  “This is the best front-page above-

  the-fold story ever,” said Judy.

  .

  “I’m up here!” called her mom. “In

  your room.”

  Amy ran back home to make copies

  for all of her friends. “Mom! Can you

  help me type up my story?”

  58

  Amy ran upstairs. Something about

  her room was different.

  .

  A desk! Her room had a desk! An

  old-timey rolltop desk, right in front of

  the window.

  “Every writer needs a desk of her

  own,” said Amy’s mom. “This desk

  was mine when I was a girl.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. It’s been collecting dust up in

  the attic forever,” said her mom. “Do

  you like it?”

  Amy closed her eyes. She smelled

  the old wood. She smelled the stories.

  She smelled the history.

  “Are you kidding?” Amy hugged

  her mom. “I love it to pieces!”

  .

  62

  In one of the cubbies, Amy found a

  bunch of rolled-up papers.

  Amy rolled back the top of the desk.

  Inside were little doors and secret

  drawers and cubbies.

  She pulled them out and unrolled

  them on the bed. “The Tattle Tale,” she

  read aloud.

  .

  “Oh, my old school newspapers!”

  said her mom. “These must be some

  of the first stories I ever wrote.”

  “Nice,” said Amy.

  “Here’s a story I wrote about Fluffy

  the Rabbit, our class pet.”

  “Here’s a poem called Ladybug,

  Ladybug!”

  Together, Amy and her mother

  looked through all the old papers and

  laughed.

  Wait! Something caught Amy’s eye.


  Later, after her mom had left

  the room, Amy sat down at the old

  wooden desk for the first time.

  She pulled open a secret drawer. She

  pulled open a tiny secret door.

  65

  .

  Carved inside the door were some

  letters. Amy leaned in closer and

  touched each letter. They spelled a

  name: E-M-I-L-Y.

  Her mother’s name!

  Amy picked up a pen. She carved

  three more letters into the wood, right

  next to her mother’s: A-M-Y.

  Amy was here.

  66

  .