The Bonanza was the following weekend, so Lou Lou and Pea had little time to rally El Corazón friends and neighbors to put aside their hurt feelings and instead show their city pride. It was easy to tell Rosa, Juan, their schoolmates, and other people they saw regularly, but they wanted to reach a bigger crowd. Luckily, Sarah agreed to add a message to the Bonanza mural that said: ¡TODAVÍA SOMOS PARTE DE LA CIUDAD! WE ARE STILL PART OF THE CITY! And in smaller letters: Celebren con Verde Valley el 20 Mayo! Celebrate with Verde Valley on May 20th!
Lou Lou and Pea also pooled their saved allowances to put an announcement in the neighborhood newspaper, La Voz de El Corazón. Between the money in Lou Lou’s whale-shaped silver bank and Pea’s savings from her blue box under her bed, they scraped up twenty-nine dollars and fifty-one cents. Lou Lou thought this was an impressive sum until they arrived at La Voz’s office after school on Monday.
“Sorry, announcements start at thirty-five dollars,” the woman at the front desk said without looking up from her magazine.
“But it’s for something important!” Pea replied.
“About the Bonanza!” Lou Lou added.
“Mmhmm, there’s nothing I can do for you,” said the woman. “Besides, haven’t you heard? The Bonanza belongs to Verde Valley now.”
Pea peeked over the desk at the woman’s magazine. “I see you are reading Cat Connoisseur, Ms.”—Lou Lou nodded at the woman’s nameplate—“Adelaide Stout. Are you a feline fancier?”
“I am.” Adelaide Stout finally looked up. “I have three Persians, two Maine coons, and one British shorthair.”
“What a coincidence. I have both a Persian and a British shorthair,” Pea said.
“¿En serio?” Ms. Stout smiled. “It’s so nice to meet a fellow fancier. What did you say you wanted again?” Pea explained one more time.
“Let’s see about getting that announcement printed!” Ms. Stout said.
* * *
First thing the next morning, Lou Lou grabbed the copy of La Voz from the doorstep of the SS Lucky Alley. Sure enough, on page three, there was their announcement:
COME ONE, COME ALL
COME BIG, COME SMALL
TO MARK OUR CITY’S SPECIAL DAY
ON THE TWENTIETH OF MAY
OUR HOSTING DUTIES MET THEIR END
BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE CAN’T ATTEND
SO EL CORAZÓN, DON’T DILLYDALLY
GET YOURSELVES TO VERDE VALLEY (FOR THE BICENTENNIAL BONANZA!)
SEE YOU THERE!
YOUR FRIENDS, LOU LOU BOMBAY AND PEACOCK PEARL
Lou Lou smiled. They’d borrowed a bit from Ella Divine’s song, but she and Pea had made up the rest. And it was a pretty good announcement, if Lou Lou did say so herself. They’d wanted to add something about the gazebo, but the only word they could find to rhyme was placebo. Neither of them knew what that meant, so they decided against it.
“I’m proud of you, honey.” Lou Lou hadn’t realized her mom was reading over her shoulder until she spoke. “It’s great you are encouraging everyone to go to the Bonanza this weekend, particularly after that unfortunate business with the diary.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Lou Lou still hoped deep down that they could find a way to foil the Argyles’ scheme, but it felt good to know that they would be celebrating their city’s two hundredth birthday no matter what.
It seemed that Lou Lou and Pea’s announcement caught the attention of more than just Lou Lou’s mom. That week, the neighborhood was abuzz with talk of the Bonanza.
“We’re planning to go,” Lou Lou overheard one woman say at La Frutería when Lou Lou was buying her after-school papaya. “Even though I’m still upset that we won’t have the gazebo for our knitting circle meetings, it’s our city, too, after all.” Pea reported that she’d overheard people on the bus and on the street talking excitedly about the celebration, too.
On Friday, Lou Lou ran into Jeremy in the hall after Math class.
“Hi! What are you doing on the fifth-grade floor?” she asked, narrowly avoiding bumping into him but dropping her math book.
“Looking for you!” Jeremy picked up her book, and a bright red spike of his hair flopped into his face.
“You’re still coming on Saturday, right?”
“Um, yeah!” Jeremy said as if Lou Lou was silly to even ask. “And I’ll be wearing this!” Jeremy opened his leather jacket to reveal a black T-shirt with silver letters that read Jeremy’s Killer Caracoles above a picture of the pastry.
“I like it!” said Lou Lou.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Jeremy replied. “Because I made one for both you and Peacock.” He opened his messenger bag and pulled out two shirts. One was bright red and the other was light blue, but otherwise they matched Jeremy’s shirt.
“Wow, thanks!” Lou Lou replied, thinking the shirt would look funny with the Pride of Pinky hat she also planned to wear. But Lou Lou didn’t mind looking a little funny.
“Gotta go. I’ve got Music class next, and my fallback profession is rock star if this baker thing doesn’t work out! See you Saturday, Lou Lou Bombay!” Jeremy turned and loped off down the hall. Lou Lou put the blue T-shirt into her satchel and slipped the red one over her flowered sweater. There was no reason to wait until the weekend to show her support for Jeremy’s killer caracoles!