Free Hopping Mad by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

happy to have been pulled off the stage. Joe would have bet his favorite baseball mitt that that had been Adam’s goal from the very beginning.
    Next up, three girls from the fifth grade did a dance routine to a Madonna song. It was pretty good, but the audience didn’t love it as much as they had loved Adam’s jokes. After them a boy played the violin. It was beautiful—but not the sort of thing that won a talent show. Frank and Joe were feeling pretty good about their odds of winning … and pretty nervous!
    Behind him, Frank heard a strange noise. Heturned around and saw Mina, Adam’s sister, crying on Principal Butler’s shoulder.
    â€œI can’t do it!” she said. “I’m too scared.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” said Principal Butler. “You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”
    It seemed like she had a bad case of stage fright! Frank understood how she felt. Still, he wasn’t going to give up yet. Principal Butler got Mina to stop crying and sent her back into the audience. That made one less performance.
    Now it was Cissy’s turn. She walked onstage wearing her Bayport Bandits hat and clutching a baseball in each hand. Her hands were so small, the baseballs barely fit. She was the shortest student in their entire grade, but she made up for it by being twice as fast as anyone else. Whether she was running, talking, or pitching, she did everything double time. She began to juggle the two balls in one hand. The audience was not impressed.
    â€œI thought she was going to juggle four balls,” Joe whispered to Frank.
    â€œMe too,” said Frank.
    After a minute she looked over at Principal Butler and nodded her head. Principal Butler bent down and rolled a baseball toward her. Right as it got to her foot, Cissy kicked the ball like a Hacky Sack. It flipped up into the air—and she caught it! The audience cheered. Just like that, she went from juggling two balls to juggling three.
    She juggled for a few minutes, sending the balls flying high and low. Sometimes she caught them under her legs or behind her back. She shifted the patterns they flew in. Each time she changed directions, the crowd cheered. She had them now!
    Cissy switched to juggling all three balls with one hand. With her other, she reached up and pulled off her hat. Balanced on her head was thefourth baseball. She plucked it off her head and began to juggle all four!
    â€œYay, Cissy!” yelled Frank and Joe. They’d known she was good with a baseball, but they’d never known she was this good! She was going to give them a run for their money—but they wouldn’t be sad if they lost to her. She deserved it.
    Finally, Cissy caught all four balls in her hands and bowed. The crowd cheered. She walked off the stage. The boys grabbed her and congratulated her. She was smiling so wide, she couldn’t even speak. It was the first time the boys had ever seen her speechless.
    Now there was just one more act before Frank and Joe. They peeked out from behind the curtain. The school auditorium was packed! There must have been hundreds of people there. They had never before realized just how big their school was… .
    â€œWe should get ready,” said Joe. Frank nodded.But it wasn’t until Melissa and Todd pushed past them that the boys were able to stop staring at the size of the audience.
    â€œNo competition here,” Melissa said with a sniff as she walked onstage. Todd nodded.
    They were wearing matching gold and black outfits. They looked kind of like taxicabs. They didn’t seem impressed with any of the other acts. They always thought they were the best—and usually they were. They’d won the last two school-wide talent competitions.
    They took their places. Melissa was standing in the middle of the stage, and Todd was a little bit behind her. Sweeping music started pouring from the sound system. Melissa looked up toward the