Picture's Worth a Thousand Clues

Picture's Worth a Thousand Clues — page 1
CHAPTER ONE Look at what I found Ten-year-old Michael Wilson popped his head out from the large gray metal dumpster His brown eyes twinkled This is the best day ever Michael’s cousin Liv Hernandez and best friend Leo Hammer were waiting for him They were in a narrow alley behind a long row of shops Liv leaned against the dumpster Leo stood to the side his hands tucked into his khaki pockets I thought yesterday was the best day ever Liv told Michael Her dark ponytails jiggled when she laughed You were super excited when we found those wooden clothespins in the dry cleaner’s trash Leo said He was nine a year younger than Michael and Liv Yep Yesterday was good But today’s better Michael said He was wearing his favorite baseball cap pulled low over his dark brown hair Leo had created a computer program that tracked the garbage trucks in town They were using it to track down the fullest dumpsters Yesterday was the dry cleaners Today Michael was in the big bin behind Patsy’s Arts and Crafts He held up two paintbrushes crusted with thick brown paint One was very small for fine lines The other was big for large blocks of color Michael pressed his fingers against the smaller brush The paint crumbled like a dirt clump into dust That’s some weird paint he observed wiping his hands on his pants He tossed the brushes to Leo in the alley Leo missed them But Liv managed to dive in for a save Ah man I bought new paintbrushes just like these yesterday she exclaimed