On Friday evening, Lou Lou crossed her fingers and pitched the idea of shortening her punishment to her parents. She could barely wait another day to hear Pea’s news, let alone two! She held her breath while she waited for their decision.
“You have been extraordinarily helpful this week, Lou Lou,” said her mom. She nodded at Lou Lou’s dad and Lou Lou exhaled. It was a good sign that her mom hadn’t called her Louise.
“As of the end of morning watch tomorrow, you are no longer grounded,” said her dad. Translated from nautical-speak, this meant that Lou Lou was free after eight a.m.
“Thank you!” Lou Lou hugged her parents.
With her parents’ permission, Lou Lou headed to Cupcake Cabana the next morning. She left a few minutes early so she could see the finished Bonanza mural on the way. The artists had decided to complete the painting as planned, even though Verde Valley had taken over the celebration.
The Bonanza mural was huge, colorful, and richly detailed. In the painting, Limonero Park was crowded with smiling people, many of whom were wearing Pea’s fancy hats. Skilled brushstrokes were used to show the park’s lemon trees and Lou Lou’s honeysuckle. Abuela Josie was performing her famous stunt and Ella Divine sang in the gazebo. As she gazed at the mural, Lou Lou sighed and felt a familiar twinge of sadness. She hoped Pea had some good news.
Lou Lou was the first to arrive at Cupcake Cabana, with Jeremy right behind her. The shop was crowded, but they found a table and sat down to eat their cupcakes—vanilla with buttercream frosting for Lou Lou and chocolate double fudge for Jeremy. After what seemed like five eternities, Kyle arrived, followed by Pea.
“I missed you so much!” Lou Lou hopped up from her chair. It felt like ten eternities since she’d seen Pea, even though it had only been a week.
“Me too!” Pea said, readjusting her cardigan after Lou Lou’s hug.
“Now tell me—” Lou Lou stopped herself. The polite thing to do was to ask if Pea wanted a cupcake.
As often happened, Pea read Lou Lou’s thoughts. “It’s okay.” Pea smiled. “I’ll get one after.” She sat down in the empty chair between Lou Lou and Jeremy. “Hola, Jeremy. Hi, Kyle,” Pea said. “Thank you for coming.”
“I’m so glad you asked—” Kyle started enthusiastically. But then he quickly changed to his Comet Cop voice: “I mean, you’re welcome, Earthling. I had to make time in my busy cosmic crime–fighting schedule, but that’s acceptable.”
“No prob!” Jeremy said. He wiped a white spot off his black leather jacket with his finger and stuck it in his mouth. Pea crinkled her nose ever so slightly.
“Powdered sugar,” explained Jeremy. “I was making Mexican wedding cookies this morning.”
Pea pulled two sheets of paper from her bag. At the top of one, Lou Lou saw the words Penmanship Practice.
“What does that have to do with the Bonanza?” Lou Lou asked impatiently. “Sorry,” she added when she realized she was being impolite again.
“Before we had to give the diary back to the Argyles, I copied a bit as penmanship practice, remember?” Pea said.
“Yes,” said Lou Lou. So much had happened in the past week, she’d forgotten about this.
“When I looked back at my work, I realized something important.” Pea placed the top sheet of paper in the middle of the table so that everyone could see. “Look here.” She pointed to a paragraph and read aloud:
“Date: The second of May.
Dearest Diary,
Alice is settling into Verde Valley quite nicely. She called our dwellings ‘crude,’ but I am sure she meant it in a charming way. I pointed out that we have many conveniences; we even built an oven so Diego could bake his scrumptious caracoles, a pastry he just created! Alice loved the caracoles, and her goats quickly gobbled them up! Diego said agave is the secret ingredient that makes the caracoles so delicious.”
Pea looked up expectantly.
“I don’t get it. How does this help?” asked Lou Lou. “Wait, I know! The diary is clearly a fake because goats don’t eat pastries!”
“No—” started Pea.
Kyle cleared his throat loudly. “I can tell you from my extensive experience with my goat battalion that they will eat absolutely anything. That includes space helmets, limited edition comic books, and superhero underwear.”
“I’m confused,” said Jeremy. “I tried agave in my caracoles and it didn’t work.”
“I remembered you told us that in the candle shop,” Pea said. “So—
“Agave is the wrong ingredient!” Lou Lou said. “The diary is a fake because it’s wrong about the caracoles! This is exactly what we’ve been looking for!” In her excitement, Lou Lou was almost shouting. She realized that she was attracting attention from people at nearby tables. “This is exactly what we’ve been looking for,” Lou Lou said in a much quieter voice. “El Corazón can finally take back the Bonanza!”
“It’s a cosmic miracle!” added Kyle.
“Hey, guys,” Jeremy said. “This is really great. And I don’t mean to be a downer, but—” Lou Lou held her breath. She didn’t like the but—. “We still don’t know the actual secret ingredient. So won’t the Argyles say the diary is right about the agave and I’m just a bad baker? Even though that’s clearly untrue.”
“I was worried about that, too,” Pea replied. “But then something extraordinary happened.” Pea showed them the second sheet of paper she’d taken from her bag. It was worn and fraying at the edges, and the writing was faded. Lou Lou could make out most of the black-inked words, but they were in Spanish, so she wasn’t sure what she was reading. At the top of the page was written Mi Receta followed by what appeared to be a list. Jeremy read aloud:
“Harina, azúcar, huevos, mantequilla…”
“Aren’t those foods?” asked Lou Lou. She didn’t recognize all the words, but she knew that azúcar meant sugar and huevos meant eggs.
Pea nodded. She was smiling, and her blue eyes sparkled.
“It’s the recipe!” Jeremy said, looking up from the page. “For caracoles!”
“¡Exactamente!” said Pea. “The original recipe complete with the actual secret ingredient!”
Jeremy grinned from ear to ear. “Peacock Pearl,” he said, “I do believe that you have saved the day!”