Pru, rise and shine!” Abigail was standing over Pru’s bed.

“Neigh!” Lucky tried to sound like Chica Linda.

“You can’t fool me,” Pru told Lucky, laughing. “But nice try.” She yawned and checked the time. “Oh, wow. Thanks for getting me up. Since Lydia’s going to be working on her article tonight, there’s a lot to do before the performance.” The clown exhibition was one of the final shows before the closing ceremony. Tomorrow, the circuses would all pack up and be back on the road.

Pru looked at her friends. They were both ready for the day. “You’re going to practice with me, right?” Pru asked. “We’re in this together now.”

“Of course,” Lucky assured her. “It’s going to be the greatest clown exhibition ever.”

“We’ll all be in the newspaper,” Abigail said, feeling certain. “My mom and dad will be so surprised. And then I bet Snips will proudly take our article and run around town, gushing about us and showing everyone, like Turo and Maricela and Miss Flores and Mr. Winthrop, too…” She paused and shrugged. “Or Snips might just use the paper to clean his boots. It could go either way.”

Pru got dressed and ready for the day. “So what’s got you two so excited to wake me up?”

“Well,” Lucky said, stalling a little, and blocking the door to the outside.

“We found your letter,” Abigail blurted out. At Lucky’s glance she said, “Sorry, Lucky. You were just talking so slowly.”

“What letter?” Pru asked. “I didn’t write—” Then she remembered. “I thought I lost that.”

“It was in Boomerang’s saddlebag,” Lucky said, bringing the letter out from behind her back.

Abigail took the letter and said, “Sorry, Pru. We didn’t realize it was private until we hit the green-bean part.” She sniffled. “It was so touching.”

Pru wasn’t mad they’d read her letter. They were her friends and meant well.

“Are you still homesick?” Lucky asked.

“Not really,” Pru admitted. “But we’ve been so busy with the exhibition and everything, I kind of forgot about it.”

At that, Abigail frowned. Then her face lit up. “Well, okay. In case it happens again, we made you a surprise!” Abigail said.

“Surprise?” Pru echoed cautiously. She didn’t really like surprises all that much.

Lucky moved away from the door and Abigail opened it.

Pru peeked out. “Am I supposed to see something?”

“Oh yeah,” Abigail said. “We have to walk to the corral.” She grinned sheepishly.

They led Pru the short distance to the corral. There was a big curtain at the side of the fence. It blocked Pru’s view.

“Where are Chica Linda, Boomerang, and Spirit?” she asked. “Are they all right?”

“Ta-da!” Abigail and Pru cheered as Solana stepped around the curtain and pulled it aside.

“Oh wow!” Pru felt tears in her eyes as she saw what her friends had done.

Using wooden boards, they’d created stalls for the horses. And not just any stalls, but they’d decorated them to look exactly like the barn at home. The horses were each in their stall, looking happy, and gazing at Pru as if they’d helped with the surprise.

“I can’t believe it,” Pru said, rushing up to Chica Linda for a hug. She was under her nameplate, just as if they were at home. She gave loving rubs to Spirit and Boomerang, too.

“You guys…” Pru gushed. “You’re the best friends I could ever have.”

“We’re better than best,” Lucky assured her. “There’s more.”

“Okay, so we know it’s breakfast time, but because of the practice today and the show later, we didn’t have another time to do this, so—surprise!” Abigail reached down and took a pan out of a small bag. She set the pan on a nearby picnic table and swept off the cover with flair.

“Is that my mom’s green-bean casserole?” Pru held back another wave of happy tears.

“I had the recipe,” Abigail said proudly. “We didn’t have all the ingredients, so it’s almost your mom’s casserole.”

Pru hugged Abigail. “I never really liked it anyway. It just reminded me of home.”

They all laughed.

“Oh, good then,” Lucky said, getting another pan out of the bag. “We can have eggs instead.”

“Boomerang and I made the casserole,” Abigail protested. “We’re all eating it. In honor of Pru’s big show.”

No one refused, and the truth was, the casserole was better than Pru’s mom had ever made it.

“You all made the circus feel just like home,” Pru said before eating another bite of the casserole. “Thank you so…” Her voice faded. She stared at the beans on her fork.

“What?” Abigail asked. “Do you feel okay, Pru? I mean, I picked wild mushrooms, but the cook promised they were the good kind, not the poison kind.” She put a hand to her forehead. “Oh no! We made this nice surprise, and I poisoned my friends.” She started to collect plates. “No one eat the casserole!” Abigail rushed to take back the plate she’d given to Boomerang.

“It’s not that,” Pru said. “No poison. All is fine. Good. Great.” She paused as her thoughts came together. “It’s just that the casserole and the stalls—it made me think of something.” She got up and gave Lucky the rest of her food. “Save this for me. I’ll be right back!”

And with that, Pru ran away.