Flower Power

Chapter 1: The Flower Show "Aren't these the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen?"Eight-year-old Bess Marvin was sitting in the backseat of the Fayne family's car. She held up a flowerpot containing a bunch of frilly pink daisies.Nancy Drew, who was sitting next to her, nodded. "Definitely! I think we're going to win first prize.""I know we're going to win first prize," George Fayne piped up from the front seat. George's real name was Georgia. She and Bess were cousins, and Nancy's two best friends.Mrs. Fayne, who was driving the car, smiled at her daughter. "Now, don't you girls get your hopes up too high. You're facing a lot of competition, you know.""No problem," George said. "Our Pink Princess daisies rule!""Yeah!" Bess agreed.Nancy giggled. George and Bess were right. Their Pink Princess daisies really were the best.Mrs. Fayne was the vice president of the River Heights Garden Club. The club was sponsoring a flower show at the Civic Center. The show was opening in just three days.Lots of prizes were going to be given at the flower show. There were two special children's prizes for flowers grown from seed: most beautiful flower and most original flower.Three months earlier -- way back in winter -- Mrs. Fayne had tried to convince George to grow a flower for the show. At first George hadn't been too excited about the idea. She was more into sports than flowers and gardening.Then one day Nancy, Bess, and their friend Julia Santos had been at George's house. The four of them happened to leaf through one of Mrs. Fayne's seed catalogs. They saw an ad for a rare type of daisy called the Pink Princess daisy. It was being sold with a limited-time offer. That meant that they could buy the seeds only for a short amount of time.Right then and there, they decided to pool their money, order the seeds, and enter the contest together.Now it was April, and the daisies were in full bloom. Nancy, George, Bess, and Julia had been passing the pot around for the last three months to water and fertilize it. Bess had had it for the past week, during most of the girls' spring vacation from school. Now it was Julia's turn."Here we are at the Civic Center!" Mrs. Fayne announced, turning the car into the parking lot.Mrs. Fayne was going to help the other garden club members set up for the flower show. George and her friends would get a sneak peek at the exhibit. Julia's mom was driving Julia there separately. The four girls planned to meet in the lobby.The Civic Center was a big, important-looking building in downtown River Heights. An enormous green, pink, and white banner was draped across the front of it. It said: THIS FRIDAY, SATURDAY, AND SUNDAYTHE FLOWER SHOWSPONSORED BY THE RIVER HEIGHTS GARDEN CLUB Nancy felt a shiver of excitement as she got out of the car. She had never entered a flower contest before. Entering this one would be extra-fun because she was doing it with her friends.As Mrs. Fayne and the girls walked into the Civic Center, Bess hugged the Pink Princess daisies to her chest. George turned to Bess and said, "Why did you bring them here, anyway? The flower show doesn't open for three more days.""I don't like to let them out of my sight," Bess said. "What if something happens to them?"George rolled her eyes. "Oh, brother.""Besides, I told Julia I'd bring them with me. That way she can take them home with her," Bess went on. "It's her turn to take care of them, until Friday."Just then Nancy spotted Julia standing in the corner of the lobby. Julia waved and rushed up to Nancy and her friends. "Hi!" she said, smiling."Hi," Nancy said, smiling back.Julia reached out to take the daisies from Bess. "Here, I'll take them now."But Bess clung to the pot. "Uh, that's okay," she said. "I can carry them until we're all ready to go home."Julia looked a little surprised. "Keene, Carolyn is the author of 'Flower Power' with ISBN 9780743406642 and ISBN 0743406648.