by Jill Diamond
“Okay, okay.” Principal Garcia held up his hands to cut Kyle off. Kyle’s statements always sounded more like tattles than official reports. “This certainly is a mess. But it seems like it was an accident,” said Principal Garcia. He looked at Lou Lou a little less sternly. In fact, Lou Lou could tell he was trying not to smile under his bushy mustache. That’s probably why he has that mustache, Lou Lou thought. It was a good disguise for when he was laughing at the wrong time.
“You girls should try to be nicer to each other,” said Principal Garcia. Danielle rolled her eyes and pouted.
“But since this doesn’t seem to be either one of your faults, and neither of you make much trouble for me, I will let you off with a warning. Danielle, do you have gym clothes in your locker?” Danielle paled at this question, horrified by the thought of wearing gym clothes outside of Gym. But she nodded yes.
“Okay, then. Shoo and dry off.” Principal Garcia waved the unwelcome guests out of his office. “Lou Lou, you go with Danielle and help her. Find her a towel or something. Maybe try to become friends. Kyle, you, too. Make sure they stay out of trouble.”
Once again, Lou Lou found herself following Danielle down the hall, this time to Danielle’s locker, with Kyle tagging along at the rear and talking to his two offenders.
“No funny business, guys. You know I’m in charge of these halls. Principal Garcia even said so. Well, sort of. He said I could be a hall monitor with no special privileges, but you know what that means, right?” Both Danielle and Lou Lou were ignoring him.
Danielle’s locker was decorated with glittery stickers that said Shelly Rules! Sherry Is Cool! and I Heart Sugar Mountain! Danielle worked the lock, glancing suspiciously at Lou Lou and Kyle to make sure they weren’t trying to memorize her combination. How ridiculous, thought Lou Lou. She would never steal, and certainly not whatever Danielle kept in her locker.
“Would you get a move on, Danielle?” said Kyle. “It’s almost lunch period. And it’s spaghetti day so I need to get there on time.”
Danielle began to rummage through her locker more slowly to annoy Kyle. Finally, she pulled out pink sweatpants with Sweet spelled out in shiny letters along the leg, and a matching T-shirt.
Lou Lou turned to walk away, as she supposed her work “helping” Danielle was done. She liked spaghetti day, too, and the best meatballs were claimed early. Lou Lou had only taken one step when she heard thunk, thunk, clatter, clatter. She turned around to find Danielle throwing things out of her locker. She’d tossed out all her books (the thunks) and had moved on to school supplies like pencil holders and staplers (the clatters). Lou Lou narrowly dodged a flying box of markers.
“What are you doing, Danielle?” Lou Lou exclaimed. “Can’t you just change quietly so we can all get some spaghetti without getting into more trouble?” Danielle didn’t answer. She made high-pitched noises of frustration as she furiously riffled through her locker. Danielle dumped out the entire contents of her purse, and Lou Lou resisted the urge to crunch a cherry-cola lip gloss with her shoe.
“C’mon, Danielle!” said Kyle impatiently.
“I lost it! It’s gone!” Danielle threw up her hands and flopped down onto her knees. She looked as if she might cry.
Lou Lou was curious. “Lost what?”
“My best-friends shining-star necklace!” Danielle pointed to a photo of herself and her friends, taped to the inside of her locker. Lou Lou looked closely.
“You mean the pink necklace with four stars?” she asked. Each girl in the photo wore the same one. “That’s what you lost?”
“It’s not pink! It’s rose gold! Because ‘Best friends are as pretty as roses and as precious as gold’!” Danielle shrieked. The necklace seemed to have been inspired by the Sugar Mountain Sisters, Shelly and Sherry. Lou Lou wanted to roll her eyes, but Danielle’s mention of best friends reminded her of Pea.
“It was in its special pocket in my purse,” Danielle went on. “I wasn’t wearing it today because it’s raining and I have Gym later and I didn’t want it to get dirty or broken or wet.” She looked down at her soaked sweater in disgust. “But it’s not there! It’s not in my locker! It’s not anywhere!” Danielle put her face in her hands and started to cry.
For once, Lou Lou felt bad for her sworn enemy. She seemed so pathetic—wet and crying on the floor over her jewelry. Lou Lou could sympathize, as she had with Magdalena, about losing something important. She thought of Pinky and bit her lip so it wouldn’t tremble.
Lou Lou reached out to pat Danielle’s shoulder. But then Danielle looked up at Lou Lou. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and her eyes were filled with rage.
“You! You took it, didn’t you, Lou Lou Bombay? Admit it! You’ve always been jealous of me!” Danielle was practically screaming.
“Chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum,” Lou Lou said under her breath. She tried not to get mad, and instead remember that Danielle was only upset because her special necklace was missing. “Listen, Danielle, I swear I did not take your necklace. In fact, I swear it on my third-grade writing contest trophy,” said Lou Lou. “If you find out I’m lying, I will give you the trophy and tell everyone that you’re the real winner, okay?” Danielle looked less angry.
“I’ll even help you look for it,” Lou Lou offered. She turned to enlist Kyle in the search, but he had trudged off, dreaming of spaghetti. Some interplanetary police officer he’ll be, Lou Lou thought. She knelt down to sort through the mess on the floor.
After ten minutes spent going through Danielle’s purse two more times, shaking out spiral-bound notebooks, and emptying makeup bags, it was clear they weren’t going to find the best-friends shining-star necklace.
“Could you have left it somewhere?” Lou Lou asked. “At home maybe?”
“No! I always keep it in my purse. It was definitely stolen!” She started to cry again. Then, without a word of thanks to Lou Lou, Danielle clomped off to the bathroom to change.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Sugar Skulls
After the Danielle Desserts excitement, the remainder of the school day dragged on. Lou Lou slogged through Music and Social Studies and even had trouble paying attention in English, her favorite class. Finally, the last bell rang. Lou Lou rushed out the front door, barely noticing the rain. This was no ordinary Monday afternoon filled with snacks and homework. She had different plans.
Instead of catching the bus back to the SS Lucky Alley, she was going with Pea to decorate sugar skulls. Lou Lou opened the door of the sky-blue car that was waiting for her in front of her school.
“Hi!” she said to Henry Pearl, as she slid in next to her best friend. “Thanks for coming to pick me up today!”
“Hello there, Lou Lou. You are very welcome,” replied the dapper man in the navy suit. Pea wasn’t the only member of the Pearl family who liked blue.
“Hola, mi amigo,” Lou Lou said to Pea. “Tú te ves muy bonito hoy.” Pea was dressed in her school uniform with an aqua scarf around her neck and her hair coiled in braids.
“Amiga and bonita,” Pea noted. “Because I am a girl. But you were close. Muy bien. And gracias for saying I look pretty.”
During the short ride to the corner of Twenty-First Street, Lou Lou told Pea about Danielle Desserts. Pea was amused by wet Danielle but frowned when Lou Lou mentioned the missing jewelry.
“Maybe she just misplaced—” Pea began.
“No way. I think it was stolen,” interrupted Lou Lou. “She swore she always keeps it in her special purse pocket. It seemed really important to her so I doubt she just lost it.”
“Here we are.” Pea’s father pulled to the curb in front of a red building with a sign that read: SARAH’S STUDIO. “I will call your parents, Lou Lou, to let them know I dropped you off safely. Be back at Lou Lou’s by five, girls.” Pea nodded and gave her father a hug.
“Thanks again, Henry!” Lou Lou said. She put her arm through Pea’s and ducked under her umbrella to get out of the rain. She felt a surge of
excitement. It was time for sugar skulls!
Sugar skulls, or calaveras, were a Día de los Muertos arts and crafts tradition. Sugar was molded into a skull shape the size of a grapefruit and set aside to harden. Once the skull was firm, it was ready for decorating. Paint, glitter, gems, buttons, fabric, pipe cleaners, toothpicks … There were many design choices. Some decorators would create sugar skulls that looked like animals or people, with a name written on the forehead or a headdress of flowers. Other skulls were just adorned with a colorful hodgepodge of odds and ends. The possibilities were unlimited.
Lou Lou and Pea entered the studio, a warmly lit room filled with long tables. Bright tapestries adorned the brick walls and multicolored vases of marigolds sat on each table. Sarah’s Studio was home to many of El Corazón’s community arts and crafts. Lou Lou and Pea had visited to paint colorful Mexican Talavera-style pottery, make batik scarves, and craft Fourth of July decorations. Today, designers of all ages were hard at work on their sugar skull masterpieces. Pea waved to two of Magdalena’s friends.
“¡Hola, Zoe y Sofia!”
“Hi, Peacock!”
In one corner, a woman with red hair and dark-brown-rimmed glasses was sorting through a basket of beads. She smiled when she saw Lou Lou and Pea.
“Bienvenidas, Lou Lou Bombay and Peacock Pearl! I was hoping you would come today.” The woman was Sugar Skulls Sarah. Or at least that was what Lou Lou and Pea called her. Her name was really just Sarah, but as a genius who molded all the sugar skulls herself, then helped everyone with their decorations, she’d earned her nickname.
“¡Buenas tardes, Sugar Skulls Sarah!” said Pea.
“Yes, yes! ¡Buenas tardes!” echoed Lou Lou.
Sarah handed each of them a bare sugar skull. “I saved some goodies just for you two.” She held out a bowl of shiny sequins, brightly colored feathers, and other treasures. Lou Lou and Pea sat down at the end of a table dusted with gold glitter from the previous artists. Lou Lou sorted through the bowl, picking out anything close to magenta.
“I’m doing a tribute to Pinky to go along with the altar,” she said, arranging small pinkish-purple jewels in a flower shape on the top of her skull.
“Great idea,” replied Pea, busy fastening feathers at various angles. Pea always chose an artful blue-and-green peacock theme for her sugar skull.
They worked quietly for a while, listening to their fellow decorators’ chatter. The room was cozy against the backdrop of the gray rainy day, and Lou Lou was relaxed, a rare feeling for her since Pinky’s planticide. She painted petals on her skull and thought of her autumn queen camellia.
Lou Lou’s calm focus was broken when the door chimed. She glanced up, expecting to see one of her classmates or another neighborhood friend. Instead, to Lou Lou’s surprise, Jeremy strode into the studio. He grinned when Sugar Skulls Sarah handed him a skull, then took a seat at one of the tables.
“Pea,” Lou Lou whispered urgently, feeling her ears prickle with heat.
“What?” Pea concentrated on applying glue to a blue gem.
“That’s him.” Lou Lou jerked her head at Jeremy.
“Who?” asked Pea, still not looking up.
“Jeremy!” Lou Lou hissed too loudly. He looked directly at Lou Lou. She quickly glanced away but it was too late. She’d been spotted.
“Hey there!” called Jeremy from the other end of the table.
Lou Lou knew ignoring him would be useless so she waved halfheartedly. “Hi.”
“How’s it going, neighbor?” asked Jeremy.
“Okay.” Lou Lou hoped this would be the end of their conversation, but Jeremy strode over to Lou Lou and Pea.
“Lou Lou, right?” Jeremy asked.
“Mm-hmm.” She didn’t try to return his friendliness. And Jeremy seemed not to care.
“Hiya,” he said to Pea. “I’m Jeremy.” He reached out his hand to Pea, and Lou Lou looked for streaks of mural paint. There were none, but she noticed that his fingernails were caked with dirt and there were smudges of mud on his wrist.
“Why are your hands so dirty?” Lou Lou asked.
“Dirty?” Jeremy tried to sound innocent. “Oh, I hadn’t really noticed. Must be grease from helping my uncle fix his bike.”
“Um, okay.” Lou Lou wasn’t convinced. She knew the difference between grease and soil, and the spots on Jeremy’s hands definitely looked like soil.
“Like I was saying, I’m Jeremy. And you are…?” he asked Pea. Pea accepted his outstretched hand but let go after one quick shake. Lou Lou saw her wipe her fingers on her handkerchief under the table.
“Peacock Pearl, Lou Lou’s best friend. Very nice to meet you.” Pea couldn’t help but be polite. “I like the color of your hair,” she added.
“Gracias and nice to meetcha, too,” Jeremy replied, sounding fake friendly. And his ear-to-ear smile seemed too big to be real. He’s overdoing it so we won’t suspect he’s a criminal, Lou Lou thought.
“Is there any rhyme to your reason?” Jeremy was speaking to Lou Lou now. She was confused until he pointed at her sugar skull.
“It’s a tribute,” Lou Lou replied warily. It was difficult to talk about the crime and not accuse Jeremy outright. But she needed proof that he was behind Pinky’s death so she didn’t want him to know about her suspicions. At least not yet.
“It’s a tribute to Pinky, my autumn queen camellia.” Lou Lou took a deep breath and said, “Pinky would have won the Hello Horticulture! Society Flowering Bushes and Shrubs blue ribbon this year, if someone hadn’t committed a planticide last weekend.” She waited for Jeremy’s reaction. His eyes widened slightly, and he put his hands behind his back as if to hide the dirty evidence. But when he spoke, he sounded casual and relaxed.
“A planticide, huh? Bummer.”
“Maybe you saw something from your yard?” asked Pea. “Like who did it or what happened?”
“Nope,” replied Jeremy. “Wish I could be more helpful.” He turned to walk away, then looked back and asked, “Any suspects?”
“A few,” said Lou Lou, certain she was looking right at the prime suspect. “You can be sure we’ll figure it out.”
“Yes,” added Pea. “You can count on it.”
“Okay, good luck. I hope it’s not a tough mystery to solve.” Jeremy went back to his sugar skull.
Lou Lou waited until he was immersed in his artwork and then leaned in to whisper to Pea. “He did it! He must have, don’t you think? I hope it’s not a tough mystery to solve,” Lou Lou mimicked Jeremy. “He’s taunting us! He doesn’t want us to solve it! You saw the dirt on his hands. It looks like he’s been in a garden. My garden. Killing Pinky!” Lou Lou whispered. Her ears felt like little flames.
“You really think he hasn’t washed his hands since Saturday?” Pea sounded horrified. Lou Lou ignored the question.
“And the paint, Pea! I told you I saw him at the crafts store buying mural colors. I know he’s up to something with the murals, too. I bet he painted Helado and Magdalena’s dress!”
“How would he know about Magdalena’s dress?” Pea asked.
“He’d know if he’s behind the crime. He is probably the grape-juice-and-dye villain!” replied Lou Lou.
Pea considered this. “Isn’t it possible he’s just painting something else? Maybe a portrait of a friend or a pet?” she asked. Pea had painted many portraits of Lou Lou, Uno, and Dos in different settings and costumes. “Why would he commit crimes and then paint them? And why would he kill Pinky?”
“I don’t know yet,” Lou Lou admitted. “But we’ll find out!”
“We can keep an eye on him,” said Pea. “We have a good view from your window so we can see if he does anything suspicious.”
“Definitely!” Lou Lou replied. “Can you sleep over this weekend?”
“I will have to ask my parents. But probably.”
“It seems like so much bad stuff has happened to people in the last week. Magdalena, Pinky, Danielle Desserts…” Lou Lou said.
“That’s exactly why we need to figure out what’s going on!” said Lou Lou.
Pea nodded and went back to work on her sugar skull. Lou Lou tried to concentrate, but her mind was spinning. Pea was right about Jeremy. He didn’t have an obvious reason to hurt Pinky. It was possible he was just cruel, but Lou Lou felt it was something more. Maybe he had a grudge against camellias? Maybe he traveled around poisoning people’s plants? Maybe the crime was part of an initiation into some secret society like the kind she’d read about in books?
Lou Lou pondered the possibilities until she realized she had been neglecting her sugar skull, and Pea was putting the finishing touches on hers. Lou Lou quickly added the final details to her masterpiece.
“Marvelous,” said Pea when Lou Lou finished the last petal and presented her creation for Pea’s approval. Nearly every inch of the surface was covered in flowers made from beads and small buttons. For the sugar skull’s eyes, Lou Lou used green plastic gems that sparkled as she turned it around. “Pinky would be proud.”
“Yours looks fantastic too, Pea,” Lou Lou said, examining Pea’s blue-and-green sugar skull. It was skillfully covered with green pipe cleaner spirals and bright blue feathers.
“For now. Until Uno and Dos get their paws on it.” Lou Lou laughed. Pea’s cats loved anything sweet, which Pea had discovered when she found a bag of jelly beans almost entirely devoured. The candy had made Uno and Dos sick, and Pea spent an hour cleaning their rainbow vomit off her carpet. Last year she’d caught them licking her sugar skull when they thought she wasn’t looking.
“I almost forgot.” Lou Lou handed Pea the beautiful peacock feather she had bought at the crafts store.
“Thank you!” Pea stuck the feather into the top of her skull as an elegant headdress.
It was time to go. Lou Lou and Pea gently placed their sugar skulls in plastic bags so they wouldn’t melt in the rain. They headed for the door, trying to slip by Jeremy unnoticed. It seemed they were going to be successful until Sugar Skulls Sarah called out, “Lou Lou Bombay and Peacock Pearl! You weren’t going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?”