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Nikki hurried to the mailbox. It would come today, it had to come today. Kid Kewl told her exactly what to do.
Her parents had been scared at first, then madder than she'd ever seen. She couldn't explain why, either, and that made it worse. At least she hadn't been driving when the cops pulled them over. Melinda being a cop's kid meant she embarrassed her dad. That couldn’t be good.
At first, Mom said Nikki couldn't volunteer at the vet clinic anymore. She thought she'd die. Nikki called up Doc Eugene to tell him, and instead Robin got on the phone and gave her what for. Doc Eugene must have found out, because then he came over and talked to her folks, said how much he depended on her, especially now that Rotten Robin was gone. Wow. How lucky, to have a friend like him, otherwise, she'd still be grounded until she was old, like thirty or something.
But after today, it'd be worth all the upset. Between the money they'd found in Sunny's truck, and the cash Steven found in the Doctor's car, her parents would be rich.
It made her guilty the others insisted she take it all. Melinda called it blood money, and said she couldn't touch it because it could get her dad in hellacious trouble if somebody found out. Tracy and Lenny only wanted pills. Nikki guessed that's what happened when you got addicted.
She could care less if the money had blood on it, or not. It spent the same. But Nikki knew her parents would question where it came from. Kid Kewl had promised to help. So, she asked him what to do.
"Send a little in a letter,
And that riddle makes it better.
A bit won't alarm or do any harm.
A little at a time will be just fine.”
So she decided to mail cash, a few hundred dollars at a time, to her parents. She used Doc Eugene's printer to address a bunch of envelopes. And every couple of weeks, she'd stick one in the mail from the clinic, addressed to her folks.
Kid Kewl said he read the idea in a fiction book. He must be really smart. She saw the mail truck coming down the street. Now, she and her parents wouldn't be a charity case anymore. Heck, they could even give to charity if they wanted to.
***
Tracy ran and jumped into Daddy's arms and hugged him tight-tight-tight. Too bad he still acted sad all the time, and she wondered when Mommy would come home.
He hadn't asked how she got so many bottles of magic pills. A bunch spilled out somewhere during the adventure, and the police people tried to take them from her. So, she made lots of noise and screamed and Grooby might even have bit someone. But they let her keep two bottles.
Kid Kewl said it was enough. He said twice-exceptional kids like them made exceptional things happen. She liked being a 2e kid.
Tracy excelled at numbers the same way Lenny aced maps and other kids shined at different stuff like peeping inside long-distance computers, tracking phone calls and postal codes, making art and singing, and bunches of other things Tracy didn't understand. Twice-exceptional, her teacher said. But that was okay. A single kid alone got ignored. But all together they fixed things for their parents and for themselves.
Grownups said she and Lenny and the others were different than everybody else like it was a bad thing, but Tracy knew better. We're exactly the same, only different. With their magic pills, they'd still be twice-exceptional kewl-kids, too. Tracy couldn't wait.
Daddy set her down without a word, and walked to the clock on the counter. It had stopped. He wound it up tight, so it made the tick-tick-tick sound she liked. "Time to take your medicine, Tracy."
She smiled, and ran to him and opened her mouth. Instead of one pill every twelve hours, she’d take 1/2 pill every eight hours. She'd number-juggled the days-minutes-seconds for new medicine times. Before long, she'd need less and less. And soon, very soon, no more pills at all. Kid Kewl had everything planned.
She still hadn't told Daddy about the secret. The adventure had barely begun.
Have you read the other books in the September Day series? Ask your favorite booksellers for your copies today!
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...fills in the blanks of Shadow's missing week from SHOW AND TELL
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When a violent flood sweeps Shadow away, he must save himself—and others—to find his way home.
A THREAT FROM THE PAST seeks deadly revenge.
A MENACING SECRET terrorizes children.
AND A LOST DOG braves fire...to find true love.
