by Jill Diamond
Lou Lou put her arm around her best friend. “Don’t worry. I don’t know much about hat-making, but I’ll try to help. We’ll figure it out together!”
“I suppose you’re right,” Pea said. She still sounded concerned, but at least she’d unclenched her fists.
“¡Perfecto!” said Lou Lou. “It’s not a hatastrophe, Pea! Now we’d better get to the candle shop. PSPP is almost over!”
CHAPTER THREE
Candles and Caracoles
When they arrived at the candle shop, Lou Lou and Pea were greeted by Rosa’s pet bunny, Helado. He bounded over, cocked his head, and gave Lou Lou a once-over with his amber eyes, then jumped directly into Pea’s arms. Lou Lou didn’t mind. It wasn’t as if Helado didn’t like her—she’d once helped rescue him from a nasty bunnynapping—but Pea had a way with animals.
“Hola, mi pequeño.” Pea kissed the bunny’s ears and placed him gently on the floor.
Lou Lou and Pea looked around the candle shop. It had changed a lot since Rosa had taken it over. The shop was still dim, and the tall, brightly colored candles provided most of the light, creating a sense of mysticism. But much to Pea’s delight the shelves were now spotless, and Rosa had carefully arranged the candles by category.
Today, Rosa was nowhere to be seen, but her cousin Jeremy was behind the shop’s counter. As usual, he was dressed in all black, so Lou Lou nearly missed him in the shadowy space.
“Buenas tardes, Jeremy,” Pea called. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Hiya, Peacock!”
“You dyed your hair!” Lou Lou exclaimed. “When did you do that?” She’d run into Jeremy just yesterday when he was leaving his sixth-grade homeroom, and his hair had been the same as always.
Jeremy laughed at Lou Lou’s outburst. “Hello to you, too, Lou Lou Bombay! And yep, I dyed it last night. I needed a change.” Jeremy rolled his fingers around a piece of his bright-red spiky hair. His studded metal bracelet gleamed in the flickering candlelight. “Didn’t want people thinking I was feeling blue all the time.” He winked. “Whaddya guys think?”
“It looks good,” Lou Lou said. Pea smiled but looked down. Lou Lou knew that she much preferred Jeremy’s blue hair—it was her favorite color, after all—but she was way too polite to tell him. When Pea looked up again, she said, “According to Christian Dior, red is ‘a very energetic and beneficial color.’”
“Cool. If Mr. Dior approves, that’s good enough for me,” Jeremy replied.
“Where’s Rosa?” asked Lou Lou.
“She had to deliver a candle to a customer,” Jeremy said. “So I’m minding the shop and bunnysitting. Hey, how were my currant scones?”
“Delisho!” replied Lou Lou.
“She means delicioso,” said Pea.
“As long as she’s saying they’re yummy, I’ll take the compliment,” said Jeremy. “Rosa and I were just discussing my baking. I’m still working on the caracoles for the Bonanza and I can’t figure out el último ingrediente. You know, the one that gives it that extra kick!” To illustrate his point Jeremy kicked his foot up into the air, nearly hitting Helado’s floppy ear with a black leather boot.
“Have you tried honey?” asked Lou Lou. “Or maybe agave?”
“Yes, and just about everything else I can think of,” Jeremy said. “So far, no luck. They have to be ready in a few weeks for the caracoles contest!” Lou Lou nodded. The caracoles contest was in the morning on the day of the Bonanza. The winner would receive a trophy and the honor of serving caracoles, the city’s signature pastry, at the celebration later that afternoon. “My caracoles taste good, just not like the ones that Señora Basa used to make. And I want them to be killer!”
“Why would you want your caracoles to kill people?” Pea asked.
Jeremy laughed. “I meant killer as in awesome and super-duper and out-of-this-world. I brought the latest batch for Rosa to sample, if you guys feel like trying ’em out.”
“Sure!” Lou Lou was full from Jeremy’s PSPP scones, but she couldn’t resist a nibble.
Jeremy opened a paper bag on the candle shop counter and pulled out two caracoles, handing one each to Lou Lou and Pea. “Tell me whatcha think. And be honest even if you hate them. I suppose I can take it.” He sighed theatrically.
Lou Lou laughed at Jeremy’s drama. “Since when have we ever hated anything you baked, Jeremy? I mean, it’s true your blueberry muffins could use some work, but still…”
“There’s a first time for everything,” replied Jeremy. “Now enough chatting—more munching.” Lou Lou turned her caracol over in her hand. It was a long length of flaky sweet dough wound into the shape of a snail. In the center of the caracol’s doughy shell was a little well of custardy cream. This was Lou Lou’s favorite part, and she usually licked out the cream before eating the rest. But this time, she bit straight into the dough, taking her role as a taste tester very seriously.
“It’s really good,” she said, forgetting to not talk with her mouth full.
“Yes,” Pea agreed, dabbing her lip with her blue handkerchief.
“But…” Lou Lou said, just as Pea said, “Pero…”
“… they don’t taste like Señora Basa’s caracoles.” Jeremy finished their sentences.
“Right,” agreed Lou Lou, thinking back to the perfect caracoles from the Panadería Basa, El Corazón’s beloved Mexican bakery, which had been owned by Pea’s abuela’s cousin. Lou Lou and Pea had spent many happy hours at the panadería, feasting on caracoles, conchas, and tres leches cake, as well as enjoying the company of Señora Basa, who always had a good story about the old days in El Corazón or the history of Pea’s family. Unfortunately, Señora Basa had passed away last year, taking the secret caracoles recipe with her.
Jeremy threw his hands in the air, startling Helado. “Woe!” he cried ridiculously, and Lou Lou couldn’t help but laugh.
“Don’t worry, they’re still muy sabroso!” Pea could never bear the thought of hurting a friend’s feelings.
“But they need to be perfect for the Bonanza,” replied Jeremy. “I might as well just make my mediocre blueberry muffins if I can’t get the caracoles recipe right.”
“Well, as someone—I can’t remember who—said, ‘Always fertilize your peonies in the daytime,’” Lou Lou said, trying a horticulture quote. Jeremy looked puzzled.
“Maybe a candle would help,” Pea said. She went to the shelf marked Velas Artes y Transformación. Lou Lou and Pea owned many candles from this group, including a Moda Fabulosa candle for Pea’s design endeavors and a Floración candle to help Lou Lou’s honeysuckle bloom. Pea held up a Gastrónomo candle with a picture of a chef on its glass holder.
“Rosa suggested that one, too. I’ll try it, but it’s also back to the kitchen for me,” said Jeremy.
The clock on the wall struck the quarter hour. “Lou Lou, we’d better get going,” Pea said. “PSPP is almost over. ¡Adiós, Jeremy!”
“Good luck with that secret-ingredient thing!” Lou Lou called to Jeremy as she followed Pea outside. “You’ll get it right!” Like Pea, Jeremy seemed to need some encouragement.
“I sure do hope so, Lou Lou Bombay!” Jeremy called back.
Outside, Lou Lou linked arms with Pea for the stroll back to the SS Lucky Alley. Despite today’s obstacles, Lou Lou felt like the Bonanza preparations were progressing wonderfully. She and Juan were horticulture masters of the honeysuckle, Jeremy was on the road to making killer caracoles, and she was sure Pea would find a creative way to fix Abuela Josie’s hat. However, come next Friday’s PSPP, everything would be different in a way Lou Lou could never have predicted.
CHAPTER FOUR
Coco Chanel or Coconut
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 re
sting 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,” A
manda 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.