• Chase ran. He ran as fast as he could. He had to catch up with the class, or find Hunter, at least. The black haired 17 year old was interested in flirting with girls or sleeping, much more than the warm sparkly feeling you get at the George Washington memorial.
    "More like a memorial to Bill Clinton to me." Hunter had said when Chase last saw him.
    Chase found Hunter lying on the grass asleep and was about to kick him awake when he tripped over nothing and fell on him. Hunter opened one eye to glare at the black and blond haired 16 year old.
    "What. The. Heck."
    Chase blushed in embarrassment "Do you know where our class is?"


    Hunter closed his eye "Don't know, don't care."
    "Hunter!"
    "Don't worry, they won't leave without us."
    Chase groaned, sitting up, almost straddling Hunter.
    "Ugh, you're so lazy; I'm surprised you even got up this morning."
    Hunter chuckled "We have a trip to the white house today, we can't mess up our plan, and the president will be back from Asheville, NC in two days."
    Chase's eyes went wide "That's our next stop!"
    Hunter stood straight up, throwing Chase over his shoulder like a potato sack and headed in the direction of the bus.
    "Put me down!" chase yelled fidgeting madly, trying to get out
    of Hunter's grasp.


    "No. You're always so klutzy, you'll only fall and slow me down." Chase couldn't argue that, Hunter was always picking him up.
    Hunter quickly found the bus, boarded, and sat the still annoyed Chase next to him. Hunter laughed loudly "You're so stubborn, Chase!" the bus began to move, zooming towards there next destination.
    "Look," Chase said quietly, "the Whitehouse." The bus pulled through clearance and screeched to a halt at the drop off point. Everyone got off the bus and started heading into the main entrance. Hunter and Chase kept there distance, finalizing their plans. The tour went only to certain places. Lame places. Hunter and Chase wanted to see the oval office. When they had visited the library of congress the day before, they had easily snuck away from the group. Hunter's vast knowledge of books quickly led them to the Whitehouse blueprints, which showed them the ventilation system.

    Chase, with his photographic memory, easily drew a copy of it for their use.
    Their group was now entering the green room, Hunter and Chase's que to leave. They quietly snuck away from the group, headed to the nearest Janitor's closet, and picked the lock. Then, they opened the vent in the ceiling and tossed a grenade-like bottle of Hunter's "heat shield", a blend of non toxic chemicals that would hide their presence in case of a heat detection system. They then shimmied up the ventilation 1 floor and out, into the vice president's office. Chase pulled out there checklist of things to do.
    1. Spin in Presidents chair
    2. Read the letter passed between Presidents
    3. Jump on couches
    5. Steal a pen


    "I came up with the smoke; I should be the one to open the door!" Hunter snarled softly.
    "No! I'm the one who came up with the idea in the first place. I should do it!" Chase whined.
    Hunter rolled his eyes "Fine, we'll open it together."
    Chase and Hunter Gripped the gold doorknob and turned it, giving it a gentle push then letting it swing open by itself. Hunter and Chase walked around the room; the view before them was fascinating, yet disgusting. All the Presidents furniture had been replaced with life sized replicas, all made out of pink chewing gum.
    "The President," Chase stuttered slowly "wouldn't do this, would he?"
    Hunter shook his head. "I don't think so." Both of them froze. They could swear they had heard muffled voices. The situation hit Hunter first. He grabbed Chase around his middle and ran


    back into the VP's room. Hunter, holding chase over his shoulder, wrenched open a window and jumped, landing on the green lawn with a solid "Thud".
    Hunter ran in the direction of the bus pausing to silence a giggling Chase. "I can not believe it! We just-" Hunter put his hand over Chase's mouth, growling and glaring at him. " And if you tell anyone, they'll think it was us!"
    Hunter removed his hand and Chase started up again "Hunt-er! We could solve it! We could solve it! Oh, Hunter! It would be just like back home! But, with bigger rewards! Hunter, we've gotten to solve mysteries before, but this is a huge op-portunity! We would be stupid not to try!" Hunter sighed, "Fine.''
    It was free time the next day and Hunter and Chase were in a cyber café downtown, working on the case. Hunter was currently hacking into the Whitehouse's main frame, with


    chase standing behind him impatiently.
    Hunter smiled "I'm in."
    Chase rolled his eyes "Finally!"
    Hunter quickly found the information he was looking for "O k, while almost everyone was working the previous night, only three people would have had access to the Oval Office."
    Chase smiled, "Well that narrows it down!"
    "The three people are, a secret service agent, the secretary, and the janitor, Mr. Puxley. The secretary and the secret ser-vice agent would have an alibi since they were in plain sight of each other." Said Hunter
    "Unless, of course, it was a conspiracy!"
    "You and your conspiracy theories!"
    Chase's teal eyes lit up. "But what if!"


    Hunter put his hand on chase's mouth. "Hey. This isn't National Treasure or anything."
    Chase calmed down. "So if it wasn't either of them, it had to be the Puxley dude?"
    Hunter smiled. "I believe so. All we need is a motive."
    Chase put his hands on his hips. "Well, let's see if he has any connection to the President."
    "Yeah. Hey," Hunter turned to face Chase. "If we do solve this thing, how are we going to tell the authorities about it?" Chase thought a second. "Doesn't Nicolae have a brother who works for the FBI?"
    Hunter nodded. "Yeah, his name is Rupert. He is the head of the FBI." Hunter turned back to his computer screen. "Ok according to this website, Puxley went to high school with the President. In high school and middle school, his peers teased him. They used to put chewed gum on the back of his tee


    shirt. Even the President did it."
    Chase started jumping up and down wildly. "We did it! We did it, Hunter! We solved it!" Chase started dancing around in a circle while Hunter chuckled softly.
    "Hey, we're going to visit the FBI tomorrow, right? We can sneak away from the group and go see Rupert. How does that sound?"
    Chase was still dancing. "Great!"
    The next day Hunter and Chase snuck away from the group, past the secretary, and into Rupert's office. He recognized them at once.
    "Well, if it isn't the New Jersey Hardy Boys, you haven't gone and solved our "gum problem" have you?" the boys nodded. They proceeded to tell Rupert everything, how they got into the oval office, how Hunter hacked into the main frame, everything. And Rupert believed them!


    He agreed to every statement they said, nodding and smiling. "Well it looks like you two have done a good job; we'll go arrest Mr. Puxley now. And alert the president to your findings. Rest easy boys, I'm sure your reward will be sweet."



    EPILOGUE:
    Hunter and Chase were each given medals and a monetary reward. Mr. Puxley stood trial in the Supreme Court and was sentenced to 8 years in jail. The Presidents furniture was found in an abandoned bubblegum factory.