CHAPTER 24

Chloe

“Ready to be famous and rich?” Lucy asked Chloe.

“Famous, yes,” Chloe answered. “Rich, no.”

Lucy didn’t understand. But that’s because she didn’t understand Chloe.

Chloe cared deeply—about everything. She never met a can she didn’t want to donate, or a tree she didn’t want to plant, or a paper she didn’t want to recycle. Chloe loved her causes. Why? Because…

Chloe cared.

“I want to make the world a better place,” Chloe explained to Lucy.

“I don’t get you, kid,” Lucy said.

“I have an idea. It’s a nonprofit charity called the Care-plane Society,” Chloe said. “Like airplane, only it’s Care-plane, because we care—”

“Yeah, I got it,” Lucy snipped.

“So what we do is the Ace Agent Agency buys an airplane, and I’ll fill it with food and medicine and school supplies. Then we fly the plane all over the world, dropping off goods to those in need. We would put it up on social media and get people to donate food and medicine and school supplies. Or they can just donate money—”

That got Lucy’s attention.

“I like money!” Lucy squealed. “Hmmm. I suppose this would be a huge tax break for the Ace Agent Agency. My boss will like that. Genius!”

“That’s not what I meant,” Chloe whispered. But she went along with it so that she could make the Care-plane idea into a real thing. People in need would have food and medicine and school supplies, and that’s what really counted.

Chloe organized everything. There were places to drop off food, hospitals that would donate medicine, and large companies to provide free school supplies. But Chloe needed someone to run the website for money donations. She looked online and found a successful New York businessman to organize the donations. His name was Jeremiah Jerk.

“It’s pronounced Jerr,” he explained. “The k is silent.”

Then Chloe and Lucy put together a huge celebrity bash to raise awareness about the Care-plane Society. Together, they raised millions and millions of dollars. Chloe couldn’t believe it. Her dream to help others was about to come true.

Only it wasn’t.

It turns out Jeremiah Jerr really was Jeremiah Jerk, famous con man. He wasn’t putting the money in the Care-plane Society’s account. He was putting it into his own pockets. He stole the money, then stole the actual Care-plane. He flew it out of the country and didn’t drop a single dollar, canned good, medicine, or school supply on anyone’s head—rich or poor.

He was never heard from again.

The Care-plane Society was now penniless, planeless, and helpless. And Chloe—poor Chloe who cared so much—was known, infamously, as a thief.