“Ugh, not again,” sighs Mei.  Her dark brown hair bounces as she runs down stairs in her fairy costume.  Mei is an intelligent girl who works as her school’s detective, and it is her job to solve everyone’s cases.  Mei’s school in New Orleans is losing things very frequently.  The Halloween festival is coming up, and every club in school is expected to prepare a booth for the event. 
“Why,” yells Mei, “can’t this wait until tomorrow?”  Her irate attitude is slowly getting out of control. 
“Mei,” says Christen, Mei’s best friend.  “We have a big dilemma.  The Literary club’s decorations have gone missing, and this time there is a note and a brochure for the fair!” 
Mei picks up the note and reads it.  “During the festival, I will be around. Keep an eye out for me. -X” 
“This is the fourth time this has happened,” says Christen.  This tantalized Mei.
Shortly after, the Fitness club and Celebration’s items disappeared with the same notes left behind with the fair’s brochure.  Altercations broke out as people worried about the school’s thief.  Mei could not find any connections between the notes, brochures, and the thief.  She thought to herself, “what is the meaning behind X?”  She was very circumspect while coming up with a solution.  “X could either stand for the thief's name or for the Roman numeral ten.”  Then, Mei tried to connect her theories to the brochure.  She could not find anything with X in the

brochure or ten.
“Wait, a minute,” said Mei. “The fourth club listed in the brochure is the Literary club, and the fifth and sixth club listed are the Fitness club and Celebration! I better tell this to Christen!”
Mei remembered that as a child she called Christen “Ten” because she could not pronounce her name.  “Oh no,” said Mei, “what if Christen is the thief?”  By the end of the day there were a total of nine clubs with items stolen. “There’s only one way to find out if Christen is the thief or not.  We have to wait at the tenth club listed on the brochure and catch the thief in their act.” On the day of the festival, Mei waited at Key club’s booth and saw Christen grab the club’s refreshments.  “Christen, you are caught,” said Mei. Mei surmounted the case of Thief X.