Friday night after PSPP, Lou Lou stayed over at Pea’s house. Lou Lou was going to miss her mom’s Saturday-morning banana pancakes and a visit with her beloved garden at first light. But she got to have a sleepover with her best friend, and that was just as good.
Lou Lou woke up to find Pea’s cat Dos resting his bushy tail on her forehead. She brushed it aside before she sat up in bed. Dos meowed in protest.
Lou Lou rubbed the sleep from her hazel eyes and looked around. Sunlight streamed in through gauzy navy curtains, sending crisscrossed beams along the blue walls. Pea’s room was always tidy and clean. Her books were alphabetized on the shelf, her clothes were organized by shade of blue in the closet, and every corner was dusted and spotless. Lou Lou didn’t share Pea’s love of cleaning, just like Pea didn’t share Lou Lou’s enjoyment of gardening. But the friends had many things in common, including an appreciation for each other’s differences.
Lou Lou watched the clock until it struck eight, which she thought was a perfectly reasonable time to wake her best friend.
“Pea.” Lou Lou tapped lightly on Pea’s polka-dot-pajamaed shoulder. Uno, Pea’s other cat, woke up, glared at Lou Lou, and scampered off Pea’s chest. “Pea!” Lou Lou spoke louder and tapped a bit harder.
“Mmmhmph,” Pea mumbled. She was definitely not a morning person. “Ese sombrero necesita más plumas antes de estar listo para la koala.” Lou Lou wasn’t sure what Pea had said exactly, but it was something about a hat and a koala. Lou Lou was sure that Pea was dreaming.
“Wake up,” Lou Lou said. “We have to go to the park!” Pea finally opened her eyes.
“Good morning.” Pea yawned. “I was having such a funny dream.”
Lou Lou laughed. “I could tell. Let’s get dressed and go!” Pea nodded and fifteen minutes later, the girls were out the door.
It was a dry April, which was good for after-school strolls and PSPP tea in Lou Lou’s garden. But it also meant that Lou Lou and Juan had to regularly water the Bonanza honeysuckle.
When they reached Limonero Park, Lou Lou said, “Kyle alert!” and pointed at the ruddy-faced boy she and Pea had known forever.
Pea wrinkled her nose. “Not just Kyle alert! Kyle and his goats alert!”
Kyle Longfellow was standing in the center of a messy ring of five goats, waving his hands like he was conducting a goat symphony. The goats were wearing tinfoil hats decorated with wire shaped to look like stars and planets.
“No, Jupiter!” Kyle said to one of the goats as Lou Lou and Pea approached. “Don’t eat your supersonic satellite helmet!” Jupiter had managed to shake off his hat and was munching on the tinfoil. “C’mon, Jupiter! Comet Cop’s celestial sheep warriors would never do that!” The goat ignored Kyle’s scolding and kept nibbling. Kyle always wanted to be just like his favorite comic book superhero, Comet Cop, who had a battalion of sheep warriors to accompany him on space patrols. Kyle planned to show off his own warriors at the Bonanza, but he could only find goats to play the role.
Kyle noticed Lou Lou and Pea. He straightened up and cleared his throat loudly. “Caprine troops! Fall into line!” he commanded the goats, using his deeper Comet Cop voice. They responded by grazing on the park grass. Another one shook off his hat and joined Jupiter in a tinfoil snack.
The scene reminded Lou Lou of something, and Pea had the same thought. “Abuela Josie’s hat! Lou Lou, do you think a goat—” Pea started, but Lou Lou was already marching toward Kyle.
“Kyle!” Lou Lou called. “Did one of your goats eat a lucky hat?”
“What? Of course not! These are very responsible goats, Lou Lou Bombay! They clean up our city’s parking lots and hillsides.” Kyle’s dad was in charge of the official city goat-landscaping program and had let Kyle borrow the goats for the Bonanza. “And now they are my special space forces. They would never eat a hat!” Lou Lou raised an eyebrow at Jupiter, who was still munching on his foil helmet.
“It was my abuela’s hat,” Pea explained, coming to stand next to Lou Lou. “She needs it so she can perform her stunt, and it was ruined.”
“Oh. Sorry, Peacock.” Kyle patted Pea’s arm awkwardly. He had an obvious crush on Pea, even though Pea never wanted to acknowledge it. “But it definitely wasn’t one of my space goats. Maybe a stray from a renegade battalion. As you can see, my goats are very obedient. OW!” Jupiter stepped on Kyle’s foot.
“They don’t appear to be paying much attention to you,” Lou Lou observed.
“Don’t you worry, they’ll be in tip-top shape and ready for space patrol before the Bonanza. If you guys stick around, maybe I can get Mercury to do his bleat-and-retreat maneuver.” Mercury butted Kyle in the leg with his head.
“No, gracias.” Pea moved back a few steps. As much as Pea liked animals, she wasn’t particularly fond of ones that ate garbage and were always rather dirty.
Kyle tried a different tactic. “Hey, did you guys read the book about the peacock?” He loved to make bad jokes about Pea’s name. “It’s a lovely tail!” Kyle delivered the punch line without waiting for an answer. “Get it? I said tail, like what a peacock has, but it also means tale, like a story.”
“I got it, Kyle,” Lou Lou said.
“What about you, Peacock? Did you think my joke was funny?”
Pea smiled politely. “It wasn’t the worst joke I’ve ever heard,” she said. That seemed to satisfy Kyle, who puffed out his chest and cleared his throat.
“What are you Earthling civilians doing for the rest of the day?” Kyle asked in his Comet Cop voice. “I was thinking of going on a top-secret cosmic mission. If you want, you can come along.”
“We’re here to water my honeysuckle, so we have to get a move on,” Lou Lou said. “Please make sure your ‘obedient’ goats don’t decide to snack on any of the plants.”
“Okay, maybe another time.” Kyle seemed disappointed.
“Yes,” Pea politely agreed.
Kyle brightened. “Well, then, until I see you again, remember to follow the rules of the universe and never drive your spacecraft to the dark side of the moon without a permit.”
* * *
Lou Lou and Pea headed to the far side of the rectangular park where the honeysuckle grew in a line among the lemon trees. There were twenty or more plants of different varieties, ranging from Mexican honeysuckle with its fiery orange flowers to yellow-flowered common honeysuckle with red berries. Lou Lou quickly watered the plants, and when they’d all had their daily drink, she noticed Pea gazing dreamily around the park.
“What are you looking at?” Lou Lou joined her best friend.
“I’m just imagining how the hats will look on everyone during the Bonanza.”
“Fabulous, clearly,” Lou Lou said. “Limonero Park is a very elegant and fashionable setting.” Lou Lou knew Pea would like this.
“You’re right. ‘Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street. Fashion has to do with the ideas, the way we live, what is happening.’”
Before Lou Lou could reply, a voice behind them said, “Fashion in the sky? Ha! That’s just ridiculous!” Lou Lou and Pea turned and saw a round-faced girl with long hair in braids. She was wearing a red-and-white-diamond-patterned dress and, although she was taller than Lou Lou and Pea, she looked to be a year or two younger. The girl’s childish comment reminded Lou Lou of her former school nemesis, Danielle Desserts. But these days, Danielle was just snobby, and this girl had an edge to her voice that sounded downright mean. “What kind of ninny says stuff like that?” the girl asked Pea.
Pea looked shocked. “It’s a quote from Coco Chanel. One of the most famous fashion designers of all time,” she replied.
“I don’t care if it was Coco Chanel or coconut, it’s still stupid and—”
“I’m sorry. Who are you?” Lou Lou interrupted. Her ears were burning and had turned a cherry color, which happened anytime she was excited or angry.
“Amanda Argyle, of course,” said the girl. “Everyone knows me. Who are you?”
“Lou Lou Bombay and Peacock Pearl,” answered Lou Lou. Pea didn’t chime in with a Pleased to meet you, so Lou Lou knew she was definitely irritated. “Everyone in El Corazón knows us,” Lou Lou added.
“Well, I don’t live in El Corazón. I’m from Verde Valley,” Amanda said. “And nobody has heard of you there.”
“I doubt that’s true,” said Lou Lou. “You probably saw our names in the Bonanza program. My friend—who you were just very rude to—is the apprentice hatter and I’m—”
“Oh, so you’re the Peacock Pearl making the Bonanza hats!” Amanda Argyle sounded interested, but her smile seemed more like a sneer.
“Did you really think there were two people with that name?” asked Lou Lou. Amanda ignored Lou Lou’s question and turned to go. “What are you doing in Limonero Park?”
Amanda turned back. “Checking out Bonanza stuff, duh. The celebration is not just for your precious little neighborhood.” Lou Lou couldn’t argue with this. Even though El Corazón was the official host neighborhood, the Bonanza celebrated the birthday of the whole city, so everyone was invited. “Although you all seem to think so,” Amanda continued. “In fact, El Corazón thinks it’s better than everyone else, what with your murals, and candle shop, and delicious cupcakes, and friendly people.” Despite her harsh tone, Amanda looked wistful.
Lou Lou thought about this. She loved her neighborhood, but she’d never considered it “better” than the other places in the city. “That’s not true,” she said. “No one thinks that.”
“It’s what my daddy says, so it must be true,” Amanda replied. “I’m leaving now. I won’t say it was nice to meet you. But it was certainly interesting.”
“Interesting to—to meet you, too, I suppose,” Pea finally stammered, only partially recovering her politeness. Lou Lou and Pea stared as Amanda Argyle marched away, her long braids swinging behind her. Halfway across the park something fell out of Amanda’s backpack.
“Hey!” Lou Lou yelled, but Amanda kept on going until she reached a car at the park’s entrance. She got in and the car zipped off toward Verde Valley. Lou Lou ran over to see what Amanda had dropped. Much to her surprise, it was a honeysuckle cutting.
“Is that from one of your plants?” asked Pea when she joined Lou Lou.
Lou Lou nodded. “I wonder what she wants with it,” she said. “I mean, our honeysuckle is beautiful, but it seems strange that she’d take a cutting.”
“Maybe she’s a horticulturist like you,” offered Pea.
“Doubtful,” replied Lou Lou. “Horticulturists are never that rude. Except that one boy who insulted someone’s prize ficus and another girl who—” Lou Lou interrupted her own thought. “Actually, they can be rude. But her fingernails were too clean for her to be a horticulturist!”
“Let’s just forget about her,” said Pea. “She was quite unpleasant, and I’d hate for her to ruin our day.”
“I don’t like that she was mean to you and to El Corazón.” Lou Lou wasn’t as good as Pea at letting things go. “But I guess you’re right. Let’s stop at my house before we go to Marvelous Millinery. I bet my dad will make us iceberg burgers for lunch.”
By the time they’d left the park, Lou Lou had successfully put Amanda out of her mind. After all, she and Pea had plenty of better things to think about, not the least of which was the upcoming Bonanza!