Mystery #33: Stacey and the Stolen Hearts
I don’t know what the big mystery is. Stacey stole MY heart years ago…
Ha. Actually, Stacey and Pete Black have cooked up a lil eighth-grade fundraiser: for Valentine’s Day, they’re going to sell valentine-grams. Students pay $1 to fill out a v-gram to be delivered to the fellow student of their choice on Valentine’s Day. It’s going really well — lots of kids are buying and sending v-grams — until someone steals all of them right out from under Stacey’s nose.
As if that isn’t bad enough (because how DARE they cross Ms. McGill like that), the culprit starts posting fliers on lockers saying who sent whom messages, or photocopies of actual v-grams. The first target is Cokie Mason, so everyone’s pretty chill about it, because she’s a stone-cold bitch who deserves most things that come her way. But then the culprit targets Jacqui Grant, who has a crush on Stacey’s ex, Robert. Robert’s been seeming supes depressed lately, so Stacey wanted to talk to him anyway. He seems relieved that someone blew up Jacqui’s spot because he doesn’t like her and he wants her to leave him alone, so at one point Stacey suspects him of being the culprit, but she quickly shakes that off. She and Robert agree to become friends again (hmmm… sorry, Ethan) and Stacey moves on to other suspects.
Namely, Cary Retlin. He’s a creep and always seems sus, but in this instance he has an alibi. That said, he gives Stacey some very specific clues that lead her to everyone’s favorite damaged slimeball, Alan Gray. Turns out, Alan overheard some girls talking about how they’d sent him prank v-grams, and he was embarrassed because he sent one of them a real v-gram, so he snapped and stole everything and put the prankers on blast.
Stacey feels bad for him, because she’s a good person with impeccable style, looks, hair, and judgment, so instead of busting him she is basically like, “give back the v-grams and I won’t tell anyone” and she sticks to her word, natch. The v-grams are back, everyone gets theirs and is happy, and the BSC (mainly Stacey) saves the day once again.
