Prologue
My name is Yatra, and I am a nosy person.
Don’t blame me though! Blame the library!
I grew up reading all of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, and it made me wonder if perhaps I could solve mysteries like they did!
When I was still very young, I would do things like bug the living room where Mom and Dad would often talk at night once I was already asleep.
I learned lots of interesting things, including that they and a lot of other parents were planning on booby-trapping my friend Hal’s house because they were upset with his parents.
When I discovered this, I left a letter in their mailbox that warned them to watch out for booby traps, and I later overheard my parents complaining that none of their booby traps had been successful!
I was very proud of myself for having thwarted the dastardly plans of my parents and their friends, and I knew that my life of being a secret detective had only just begun!
I decided to bug Hal’s locker next, and I ended up discovering that he had a crush on me!
This came as quite a shock to me because we were both not even in middle school yet and I hadn’t wanted to date until middle school.
I ended up deciding that I liked him though, and so I decided that I’d let him know that I liked him.
He was very happy when I told him, and we both promised that we’d remain thick as thieves forever and would eventually get married like our moms and dads had.
My parents decided to move away to another state while I was still in 5th grade though, and so Hal and I had to keep our friendship going from afar until we’d get old enough that we could start dating and eventually move to the same place.
We eventually both turned 18, and we promptly moved away from our homes and created a new home of our own.
Between 5th grade and when I had moved in with Hal, I had done lots of snooping and had thwarted lots of villainous schemes that I had discovered had been underway.
I told Hal about the many mysteries that I’d solved over the years, and I even showed him the notebook where I had documented each one.
He laughed when he saw that the first one that I had solved had been warning his parents that other parents had been trying to booby trap them!
As he continued reading, however, he grew more and more astonished at the impressive amount of cases that I’d solved over the years and said that he’d be stoked to be the Watson and me the Sherlock (so to speak); and I happily agreed and was very glad to have a partner in solving-crime who would always be right there when I needed him!…
