Chapter 2
My dad walked over to the front door and peeked through the peephole. He couldn’t see anyone. “Who is it?” he asked.
“It’s Billy,” I called from the living room.
“It’s Billy,” echoed a voice from the other side of the door.
Billy Katsikis lives in the apartment above ours with his parents and his little sister. He has round chipmunk cheeks and messy black hair.
“Good morning, everybody!” Billy cried.
He looked my dad up and down and said, “You’re making French toast, aren’t you?”
Dad smiled. “Why, yes, young man. How did you guess? Are you psychic, like our daughter?”
“No,” Billy said, tapping his nose. “I could smell it from upstairs. I thought I’d come by and help finish any leftovers.”
He rubbed his tummy. It was pushed against his dinosaur pajamas. The buttons looked ready to burst.
I hopped up from the couch and ran over to him. “Since we met you, we haven’t had leftovers,” I said.
“Your parents know you’re here?” asked Mom.
“Yes, Mrs. Ball,” answered Billy. “We already ate, but I still have room for more!”
After breakfast, Billy and I changed out of our pajamas and met at the stairs to the top floor of our building. We were going out onto the roof to play. As always, I had packed a satchel with everything we would need for the day’s adventure.
“My birthday is next week, you know?” I said.
“Oh, yes,” Billy replied. “And last week, your birthday was in two weeks. You made sure not to let me forget. And then, I got your party invitation in the mail a few days later. You know, you could’ve just handed it to me in person.”
What a smart aleck. “If you want to throw a proper party,” I said, “you need to send out handmade invitations by mail. Then you need to decorate and plan lots of fun games with prizes.”
He smiled until his cheeks scrunched his eyes. “What about food? There better be food.”
“You’re driving me crazy,” I told him. “Do you know how big this is? I’m going to be TEN!”
Billy replied, “You’re going to be an old lady.” He laughed and pushed the door open. A gust of wind blasted into the building. “Careful the wind doesn’t blow you away, Granny.”
I ignored him and tied a long colorful scarf over my head. I should’ve tied it over his mouth!
The roof area had a weatherproof table with an umbrella in the center and some chairs.
“Let’s build the spaceship,” Billy said.
Each of us grabbed two patio chairs and placed them a few feet apart from one another. I pulled out an old quilt from my bag.
“Ready?” I called out to Billy. “Catch!”
I tossed one end of the quilt to him, and he draped it over the two chairs.
“Mission accomplished,” Billy announced. Then he bowed like a gentleman. “After you.”
“Why, thank you,” I said, crawling inside.
When Billy entered, I whispered, “What’s on the top-secret agenda for today, Agent Katsikis?”
“Race to outer space, Agent Ball,” Billy said.
We emptied out the contents of our bags. Billy brought his Galaxy Guard action figures.
I, on the other hand, brought my deluxe picture books of outer space. One of them had pop-ups of each planet. How cool is that? I also brought my model rocket that glows in the dark.
“Billy, which planet is your favorite?” I asked.
“That’s easy,” Billy replied. “Jupiter! It’s the biggest one. And it has sixteen moons.”
“That’s cool,” I said. But it wasn’t as cool as my favorite planet. “Mine’s Saturn!” I exclaimed.
I turned to the Saturn page in my pop-up book. “I like it because it wears a giant ring. See? It’s the most stylish of all the planets,” I said, laughing.
Billy laughed too. “Yes, very fashionable.”
“It’s called accessorizing,” I said. Then I gasped. “Oh, that reminds me.”
I rummaged through my bag, looking for all my bright-colored bracelets.
“I can’t very well go into outer space without my Gauntlets of Gravity,” I explained, slipping a stack of them onto each wrist.
“Of course not,” Billy agreed. “Let’s go!”
“Today we’re going to some very glamorous galaxies,” I said, propping up the books. They became the backdrop for our spaceship.
“Keep an eye out for trouble,” Billy said. He pretended to steer the ship toward the Milky Way.
“Uh-oh,” I shouted. “The rocket ship is on a collision course with an asteroid.”
“Mayday! Mayday! Abort! Abort!” Billy cried.
I laughed and tipped backward onto the ground, yelling, “Ka-boom!”
Suddenly, my eyes closed and my body shook.
“Are you okay?” Billy asked.
I snapped out of my trance and opened my eyes. “I had a vision,” I said.
“What was it? What did you see?” Billy asked.
“Cannot predict now,” I replied, dazed. “But I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
Billy said, “Maybe you should have let me finish that last piece of your French toast. It’s probably not agreeing with you.”
“The vision was something about my party, but it was too hazy,” I said. I closed my eyes and tried to bring the vision back, but it was no use.
“Well, maybe we should head inside anyway,” suggested Billy. “I’m getting hungry...again.”
We packed up our belongings and went downstairs.
“I’ll see you later,” I said.
“Yup,” replied Billy, walking into his apartment. “See ya!”
As the door shut, shivers went up and down my spine like prickly little centipedes were crawling on it. “Uh-oh,” I said to myself. “Something big is going to happen…and the outlook is not so good.”