It was 3:37 p.m. on Friday, and Lou Lou Bombay was where she belonged—in her sunlit garden, talking to her fall-blooming camellia.
“I love Fridays, Pinky,” Lou Lou said as she pruned a stray branch. “It’s not the weekend but it’s the almost-weekend. When you know there are two empty days ahead and anything can happen.” Lou Lou stood on her tiptoes to examine a cluster of magenta flowers in full bloom. Pinky was a marvelous specimen—a camellia of the autumn queen variety and taller than Lou Lou by a full two feet. Lou Lou reached high to check the glossy leaves for aphids and other insect pests. Finding none, she smiled and thought about the upcoming garden show.
“You’re going to win Best in Show for Flowering Bushes and Shrubs this year, Pinky. I just know it!” said Lou Lou. “Hello Horticulture! Society Annual Conference, here we come!” A breeze blew through the garden, and one of Pinky’s branches bobbed at Lou Lou in agreement.
Just then, Lou Lou heard a knock at the backyard gate.
“Gotta go, Pinky. Happy PSPP!” Pinky’s branch bobbed again as if to say, Happy PSPP to you, too.
PSPP (Post-School-Pre-Parents) was a glorious hour and twenty-three minutes of Lou Lou’s Friday. School was over for the week, and from the time Lou Lou hopped off the bus on Lucky Alley until her parents came home from work at their architecture office, she had the house and the afternoon almost entirely to herself. The only other person she was guaranteed to see was a small brown-haired girl wearing a crisp school uniform. She was standing outside the gate now.
“Hi, Pea! I mean, welcome to my humble garden, Miss Peacock Pearl.” Lou Lou remembered to greet her best friend with customary PSPP formality.
“Thank you, Miss Lou Lou Bombay! I am very pleased to be here,” Pea said.
“I do hope your journey was not long,” said Lou Lou, although she knew it was only a ten-minute bus ride from Pea’s school to Lou Lou’s house.
“Not at all,” Pea replied with a dismissive wave. “Shall we?”
“Yeah, I’m starving!” answered Lou Lou, forgetting her manners as usual. Pea blinked her bright blue eyes at her best friend. Unlike Lou Lou, Pea was always polite, although she was extra, extra polite during PSPP.
“I mean, certainly, my dear. Please come in for a bite to eat and a spot of tea.” Lou Lou pointed at the little table at the edge of her backyard. She’d laid out tea and scones, a PSPP tradition born after a rainy day spent watching an old movie about dignified British ladies. Lou Lou and Pea had agreed that it would be quite lovely to have their own weekly afternoon tea and scones.
Pea sat down and wiped her hands on a navy handkerchief embroidered with her initials. Lou Lou poured tea into mismatched cups, added a sprig of fresh mint from her garden to each, and handed Pea the blue one.
“What interesting things happened at your school today, Miss Pearl?” Lou Lou asked. Lou Lou and Pea had once gone to the same neighborhood school where they met in the first week of first grade. But two years ago, right before third grade, Pea had transferred to a creative arts school to pursue her passions, painting and fashion design.
“We have a new teacher in my Fun with Textiles class and she called me ‘Pea.’” She carefully spread jam on her scone, avoiding potential finger stickiness. Lou Lou, who was licking jam off her wrist, stared at Pea with wide eyes. “It was annoying!” added Pea, who seemed to be finished with formal speech for today.
“Mmyeah,” Lou Lou sympathized, her mouth filled with scone. Only Pea’s family and Lou Lou were allowed to use Pea’s nickname. Lou Lou, on the other hand, preferred her nickname and insisted that no one was to call her Louise.
“But I got my new color swatch book!” Pea pulled The Definitive Book of Color from her schoolbag. Lou Lou leaned closer as Pea showed her the different shades.
“Lots of the purples have flower names!” Lou Lou observed as they looked at a swatch of violet and another of wisteria.
“I know,” Pea said. “And there are so many beautiful blues. Cerulean, ultramarine, azure…”
The breeze picked up again and riffled the pages of the latest issue of the Hello Horticulture! Society magazine. Since Pea was still perusing the blue color swatches, Lou Lou couldn’t resist a quick peek at the Perfect Perennials section of the magazine.
“And how was your day?” Pea asked.
Lou Lou looked up from an article about the underappreciated ornamental onion. Nothing that had happened to her at school seemed as interesting as the onion’s resistance to deer, voles, and rabbits.
“Same old, same old. Kyle Longfellow was irritating. The mac and cheese was cold at lunch. Danielle Desserts called me ‘Lou Lou Loser’ in front of our whole Science class. But I got an A-minus on my math test and an A on my book report.”
Pea sipped her tea. “Danielle is always so childish. But that is good news about your grades. Are you almost ready for the Hello Horticulture! Society Annual Conference? It’s only a few weeks away!”
“Yes! I’m going to photograph Pinky’s flowers soon,” Lou Lou said. “I went to see Juan at Green Thumb Nursery earlier this week. He has a customer with a forsythia who thinks he’ll win the competition, but Juan says the forsythia doesn’t have a chance with Pinky in the running!” She winked at her camellia.
“Wonderful, Lou Lou!” replied Pea. Gardening was too dirty for her taste but she supported her best friend. “Now how about a stroll?” Pea suggested another PSPP tradition.
“Certainly.” Lou Lou drained the final drop from her cup.
“Candles or cupcakes?” Pea asked. Here was the usual dilemma. Should they head to Cupcake Cabana for their favorite frosted treats, or should they pay Elmira the Candle Lady a visit?
Before Lou Lou could answer, Pea’s phone rang.
“¡Hola, Mamá!” Pea said, answering the call. Then she frowned. “¿Qué? ¿Qué? ¿Magdalena? ¿Su vestido? ¡Pobrecita! Sí, Mamá. Hasta luego.”
“What happened? Is Magdalena okay?” Lou Lou didn’t speak a lot of Spanish, but she recognized Pea’s cousin’s name.
“Magdalena is fine, but her quinceañera dress is not,” Pea replied. “It was in my tía Marie’s car. She left the window open by mistake and when she came back from running errands, there was a giant purple stain down the front of the dress!”
“From what? A sudden purple rainstorm? A mad magician’s purple spell?”
“Nothing that weird. My mother said it smelled like grape juice. On second thought, that is weird. Why would someone pour grape juice on a quinceañera dress through a car window?”
“I don’t know,” Lou Lou said. “Maybe it was an accident? Otherwise, it’s a really mean thing to do.”
“Hopefully, the dress is not ruined,” said Pea. “Magdalena’s quinceañera is on Sunday! Tía Marie took the dress to Sparkle ’N Clean this morning, and now my mother wants me to pick it up before they close.”
“I guess that means candles today,” said Lou Lou. Sparkle ’N Clean was on the same block as the candle shop. “We’ll get Magdalena’s dress, then we’ll visit Elmira. Don’t worry, Pea. It will all work out!”
With that, it was decided. Before they left for their stroll, Lou Lou left a message for her mom and dad with the details of their afternoon plan. Then she took one last peek at Pinky.
“See you tomorrow morning,” she said to her camellia. “Stay beautiful!”
I will, Lou Lou, a bobbing branch seemed to say in reply.