A Super Weird! Mystery: Danger at Donut Diner. Jim Smith

      Rhubarb thought for a second. ‘Plus I suppose all the excitement’s gone once you’ve opened it,’ she said.

      smiled Melvin.

      Violet stared down at the two of them. ‘She’s almost as cool as you, Melv,’ she chuckled. ‘Say, be a good little brother and grab my bags from the car, wouldya?’

      Rhubarb opened her mouth. ‘What’s it like?’ she said. ‘Hokum City, I mean.’

      Violet looked around. ‘Better than this place,’ she grumbled.

      Rhubarb’s face went all serious and she leaned forwards. ‘Donut’s not an ordinary town,’ she whispered, so only Melvin could hear.

      ‘What does that mean?’ asked Melvin. ‘Not that I care or anything,’ he added, trying to sound a bit cooler.

      ‘I’ll tell you tomorrow,’ said Rhubarb, marching off, but not very far, seeing as she only lived next door.

      It was the next morning and Melvin was walking to school with Rhubarb Plonsky.

      As they turned onto Donut High Street, Melvin peered around at the dusty old shops. Each one had the word ‘Donut’ written on its sign, then the name of the thing it sold next to that.

      There was Donut Butchers, Donut Books and a shop called Donut Toys. Next door to that was Donut Funerals and across the street, next to Donut Magazines, was Donut Hamburgers.

      ‘Donut Hairdressers,’ said Melvin, reading what the nearest shop was called. ‘Who goes in there, little hairy donuts who want a haircut?’

      Rhubarb sniggered. ‘Ooh, I like people who try and be funny!’ she said, giving him a nudge, and he boinked into a blue lamppost which had ‘Donut Electric Co’ written on it in dented-in letters.

      At the end of the road stood a low, round building with an enormous plastic donut sitting on top of it.

      The words ‘DONUT DINER’ were printed on the gigantic snack in huge yellow capitals.

      Behind the building was a great big circle of scrubby-looking land with a wire fence all the way round it.

      ‘That’s where the hole used to be,’ said Rhubarb, spotting where Melvin was looking.

      ‘The hole?’ said Melvin.

      Rhubarb nodded. ‘Why do you think it’s called Donut Island?’ she said. ‘A donut’s not a donut without a hole!’

      ‘Unless it’s a jam one,’ said Melvin. ‘So what happened to this hole?’

      ‘They filled it in,’ said Rhubarb. ‘Spose it was a bit dangerous, having a great big hole sitting there in the middle of town.’

      Melvin zoomed his eyes in on the filled-in hole. There was a zig-zaggy crack in the middle, kind of like a lightning bolt had hit it.

      He remembered the enormous

      from the night before and a bubble popped in his tummy, like he was a can of donut-flavour cola or something.

      ‘That thing you mentioned yesterday,’ he said. ‘About Donut not being an ordinary town . . .’

      Rhubarb smiled. ‘Bet you were thinking about that all night, weren’t you?’

      ‘Not in the slightest at all,’ said Melvin, trying to sound cool. ‘What did it mean, though?’

      Rhubarb leaned towards him. ‘Do you like mysteries?’ she asked.

      ‘Do I like mysteries?’ said Melvin. ‘Didn’t you ask me that already?’

      ‘I dunno, did I?’ said Rhubarb, stuffing her hand into her rucksack and pulling out a few sheets of folded-in-half paper that’d been stapled together into a homemade newspaper.

      ‘Ta da!’ said Rhubarb. ‘All the latest Donut Island mysteries, hot off the press every Friday morning!’

      ‘What is it?’ asked Melvin, even though it was pretty obvious.

      ‘It’s my newspaper, stupid!’ said Rhubarb.

      Melvin peered at the hand-drawn headline on the front page. This is what it said:

       The Mystery Of The Cat That Disappeared In Mysterious Circumstances

      Rhubarb scratched her bum. ‘Ooh that’s a good one,’ she said. ‘There was this cat right, and it went missing . . .’

      ‘What happened?’ said Melvin.

      Rhubarb leaned forwards, dialling the volume on her voice down to a three. ‘Turns out,’ she whispered, ‘the cat’d gone for a really long walk.’

      ‘That’s it?’ said Melvin.

      ‘There’s even better ones than that,’ said Rhubarb, flicking to another page.

      The headline on this one said:

      ‘Okay I admit it, that’s pretty weird,’ said Melvin. ‘So what happened?’

      ‘The granny hadn’t got stuck at all,’ smiled Rhubarb. ‘All she’d done was pop to the loo. Meanwhile, her husband decided she’d been sucked into the picture frame on the mantelpiece.’

      ‘Well that makes sense,’ said Melvin.

      Rhubarb turned to a different page. This one read:

       The Curious Incident Of The Murdered Hamster

      ‘Let me guess,’ Melvin said. ‘It died of old age?’

      ‘Ooh, you’re good,’ said Rhubarb.

      ‘I think I’m going off mysteries,’ said Melvin.

      ‘But mysteries are the best!’ said Rhubarb. ‘Tell you what, we’re having a Daily Donut meeting at mine after school. Why don’t you come along?’

      ‘Let me check my diary,’ said Melvin, as they walked up to the gates of Donut Juniors.