Gemma was excited about today’s assembly. An extremely talented artist was coming to school to show everyone his latest masterpiece.

“Good morning children,” he announced. “I would like to introduce myself. I am Sir Waffles.” The children sniggered. He looked ridiculous! He had a huge moustache, over 20 centimetres long! Now that’s a long moustache. Sir Waffles then shouted, “Enjoy my painting.” He removed a cover and the whole school gasped. It was gone!

“What the…!” he screamed in dismay. Gemma thought hard about the incident. How could a painting magically disappear? Time to investigate! Gemma looked at the empty easel and saw a pretty pearl earring. Why would that be in place of a painting?

Gemma reflected on which teacher could have such an expensive earring. Maybe the headteacher, she has lots of money and had recently been acting strangely.

The next day, Gemma and her best friend Rose spied on the headteacher all morning. “It has to be her,”Gemma explained to Rose. But not only did they find that the headteacher was acting normal, but they also discovered that she did not have pierced ears. “Who could it be then?” asked Rose to Gemma. “I don’t know,” she shrugged.

Later, at lunch, Gemma was still thinking about the mystery when she noticed an unusual blob in the lasagne tray. “It’s probably just a crispy lump,”thought Gemma. “Wait that’s it!”shouted Gemma excitedly. The thief must be the dinner lady. The earring is hers! Gemma ran like the wind from the cafeteria and to the headteacher’s office.

“The dinner lady, she’s the robber.” “What?” said the headteacher looking confused. “She stole the painting,” blurted out Gemma. The headteacher marched to the kitchen and dug in the food trays. Suddenly she yanked out something. There it was…the painting!