by Jill Diamond
“I’m not lonely!” Amanda overheard and stopped hopping. “I hang out with my daddy and well … my daddy and … okay, maybe I am … WHATEVER! I didn’t come here to talk about that. I came to tell you something important.”
“What exactly would that be?” Lou Lou put her hands on her hips and gave Amanda a hard stare.
“I thought you might want to know that I love the cupcakes at Cupcake Cabana,” Amanda replied. “My favorite flavor is mud pie. I go to Cupcake Cabana every Saturday to get a mud pie cupcake.”
“We often go on Saturdays, too. Maybe we can go together sometime.” Pea tried to be friendly.
“Wha…? You’d really want to go with me?” Amanda said. Then she shuddered as if she was shaking off a bee. “That’s not the point!” she screeched.
“So what is the point?” asked Lou Lou.
“The point is that I was at Cupcake Cabana this past Saturday. You didn’t see me, but I saw you.”
“And?” It took Lou Lou a moment to realize the significance of this. When she did, she said, “Oh. Oh no.”
“That’s right. I heard everything you said. Everything.”
Pea’s eyes went wide and Lou Lou’s ears were aflame. Chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum, she thought, but this didn’t make her any calmer.
“Daddy changed the diary to say that honeysuckle is the secret ingredient in caracoles. I guess we got it wrong when we wrote agave, so thanks for the correction.” Amanda’s tone made it clear that this wasn’t a real thank-you.
“So you admit that you and your father wrote the diary! Meaning that it is a fake!” Lou Lou tried not to shout.
“Maybe.” Amanda smirked. “But that doesn’t matter anymore, does it? Now that we fixed our mistake, you have no proof. It’s just your word against ours. And who is going to believe you two over my daddy, the vice-mayor of the city?”
Lou Lou didn’t know what to say. Amanda was right. No one would believe Lou Lou and Pea, particularly since they’d already gotten in trouble for accidentally borrowing the diary. All Lou Lou’s hopes of reclaiming the Bonanza flew off toward Verde Valley. She looked at Pea, who was at a similar loss for words.
“And since I know the secret ingredient, now I can definitely win the caracoles contest. Daddy decided that only Verde Valley contestants can enter.” Amanda’s news kept getting worse. “So you can tell your spooky friend with the weird hair to give up. Bye-bye!” As always, Amanda whipped her braids around when she began to leave. Then she turned back, whipping them in the opposite direction.
“Is that a Bonanza hat you’re holding?” She pointed at the red vaquera hat. Pea clutched it protectively to her chest and shook her head. “That better be true, because the hats don’t belong to you anymore. That reminds me, all of your hats look super-amazing on me!” Amanda added insult to injury.
Pea regained her powers of speech. “Yves Saint Laurent said, ‘Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.’ The same is true for girls and hats, Amanda. So maybe you should focus less on the Bonanza hats and more on being nicer to people.”
“Good quote, Pea,” Lou Lou said. She looked at Amanda. “And as Petunia Prairie said, ‘Make sure to let your succulents dry out completely between waterings.’”
“Huh?” said Amanda.
“Never mind,” Lou Lou replied.
Amanda whipped her braids around a third time and set off down the block.
Lou Lou’s knees felt weak. She had to sit down on Pea’s steps.
“This is so unfair! Our whole plan is ruined,” she said. Then Lou Lou noticed Pea’s tears.
“My hats,” said Pea. “They’re gone forever.”
Lou Lou jumped up and hugged her best friend. “No!” she said. “There’s got to be a way to fix this!”
“I’m not sure there is,” replied Pea. “I’m afraid the bad guys might win this time, Lou Lou.”
“We won’t let that happen!” Lou Lou assured Pea, but she had no idea how they’d pull this off. Still, they couldn’t let the bad guys win. Not on Lou Lou and Pea’s watch.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Celebrar and Esperanza
Despite the horrible encounter with Amanda, Lou Lou and Pea still went to visit Abuela Josie. They decided not to ask for her help with reclaiming the Bonanza now that they had no way to expose the Argyles’ lies. It was best not to risk getting into diary-related trouble again for no reason. But they wanted to give Pea’s abuela her new hat and share Jeremy’s caracoles.
“Oh my! ¡Es muy hermoso!” Abuela Josie said when Pea presented the vaquera hat. A tear fell from her eye and she kissed both Lou Lou and Pea on the cheek. “I have the best granddaughter in the world. And honorary granddaughter.” Abuela Josie winked at Lou Lou. Lou Lou felt special being included in Pea’s family, but she didn’t think it was fair to take credit for her best friend’s creation.
“The hat was all Pea,” she said.
Pea patted Lou Lou’s hand. “Thank you, but that’s not true. You did an expert job with the rhinestones, Lou Lou!”
While it made Lou Lou and Pea happy to give Abuela Josie her new hat, they couldn’t deny their sadness about the Bonanza. “Why the long faces?” Pea’s abuela asked as they drank glasses of mango agua fresca and Abuela Josie sampled one of Jeremy’s pastries. “Are you feeling down about the celebration?” Lou Lou and Pea nodded. Abuela Josie didn’t even know the half of it.
“Estoy triste también.” Abuela Josie sighed. “I was really looking forward to doing my stunt.”
“Maybe you could perform it at my quinceañera,” said Pea.
“Ah, perhaps. Pero, no me estoy haciendo más joven.”
“No matter how old you are, you will always be la mejor abuela!” said Pea.
“Yeah!” agreed Lou Lou, silently apologizing to her Grandma Bombay, who was a pretty amazing grandmother, too.
Pea asked Abuela Josie to drop them off at Marvelous Millinery, even though dusting the cabinet was unnecessary now that the hats weren’t coming back. When they got there, Mr. Vila was running an errand, so Pea used her key to unlock the door, told Lou Lou to wait in the showroom, and went straight to the workshop. She came back with a burgundy hat covered in magenta silk camellia blooms.
“I made this for you as a half-birthday present. I call it Pride of Pinky.” Pinky was Lou Lou’s blue ribbon–worthy camellia that had met an untimely end last fall.
“Oh, Pea, it’s beautiful!” Lou Lou said.
“Put it on,” Pea urged. “Marc Jacobs said, ‘Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.’”
Lou Lou was too busy admiring herself in the mirror to think up a horticulture quote.
“Did you make a new one for yourself to replace…” Lou Lou trailed off, not wanting to mention the hat that Amanda Argyle had snatched from Pea.
“No,” Pea replied. “I thought about it. But then I found the caracoles error in the diary, and I figured I would just get mine back before the Bonanza. I guess that’s not true anymore.” Pea took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“How about we go see Rosa and Helado?” Lou Lou suggested to take Pea’s mind off the hat.
“That sounds nice. They always cheer me up,” Pea replied.
When Lou Lou and Pea left Marvelous Millinery, they saw Rosa down the block. She was sweeping the sidewalk outside the candle shop’s entrance with her bunny at her feet. Rosa looked up as Lou Lou and Pea approached and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. The fringe on the arm of her crimson blouse blew in the breeze.
“Hola, chicas!” Rosa called. “What a wonderful hat you have on, Lou Lou. ¡Me gusta mucho!”
“Gracias,” Lou Lou, the hat-wearer, and Pea, the hatmaker, said simultaneously. Pea reached down to pat Helado’s head.
“It was a half-birthday gift from Pea,” Lou Lou added, and gently touched the hat’s silk flowers.
“Have you burned your Celebrar candle?” Rosa asked.
“Not yet,” replied Pea. “I’m afraid we’re no closer to celebrating anything than we were when you gave it to us.”
“Un momento, por favor.” Rosa disappeared into the candle shop. She returned with a yellow candle that had a picture of a sun, a star, and the word Esperanza on the glass holder. Rosa handed it to Lou Lou.
“This one is for hope. Burn it along with the Celebrar candle and good things may come your way.”
“You don’t have to give us another candle,” said Pea. Rosa was always giving Lou Lou and Pea candles. She said it was because they’d helped her in the past, but Rosa was actually just a nice person.
“It’s nothing. Consider it a small gift for Lou Lou’s half birthday,” Rosa said.
“Do you really think it will help?” Lou Lou asked.
“It might,” Rosa said. “And you know that tengo la intuición.” She echoed a phrase that her tía Elmira had sometimes used.
“Muchas gracias, Rosa,” Lou Lou said.
Since they were close to Lou Lou’s house, Lou Lou and Pea went to the SS Lucky Alley to call Jeremy. Instead of congratulating him, they had to break the bad news about the caracoles contest. Lou Lou scurried up the rope ladder to grab the Celebrar candle from the crow’s nest and they took the candles, the phone, and a snack—Lou Lou’s dad’s buoy chop suey—out to the backyard.
“This is terrible,” said Pea. She carefully cut up her noodles while Lou Lou slurped hers down whole.
“It’s not my favorite dish, but I don’t think it’s that bad,” replied Lou Lou.
“Not the buoy chop suey, the caracoles contest,” Pea said. “Jeremy was so excited about perfecting the recipe, and now he’ll be heartbroken. I know just how he feels.” She glanced at the Pride of Pinky hat that Lou Lou was still wearing.
“Do you want me to take it off?” Lou Lou put her hand to her head.
“Of course not,” said Pea. “I miss my hats, but it makes me happy to see you wearing one.”
“Okay,” said Lou Lou, who’d been hoping Pea would say that. She loved her new hat and had even been wondering if she could wear it to school. El Corazón Public had a no-hats rule but surely they meant boring old baseball caps, not fabulous works of head art.
“Should we get this over with?” Pea nodded at the phone.
“Yes, but first…” Lou Lou slurped another noodle from her bowl and lit the Celebrar and Esperanza candles. She called Jeremy’s number and held the phone out so Pea could hear, too.
“Hola, habla el mejor panadero del mundo,” a voice said on the other end of the line.
“I think we have the wrong—” Lou Lou started to say.
“Hola, Jeremy,” Pea said. “It’s Lou Lou and Peacock. Do you always answer the phone with ‘the best baker in the world speaking’?”
“Only since I perfected my caracoles recipe thanks to you two! How were they? Killer and contest-winning, I presume.”
“They were perfect!” said Lou Lou. “But we have some bad news.” She looked at the Celebrar and Esperanza candles and hoped for a last-minute miracle, but nothing happened.
Lou Lou and Pea told Jeremy the whole story about Amanda, the diary, and the caracoles contest. When they were finished, Jeremy was quiet. Lou Lou knew he was really disappointed because, like her, Jeremy always had something to say.
Finally he spoke. “Peacock, you won’t get your hats back?” Lou Lou thought how nice it was of Jeremy to ask about Pea before thinking of himself.
“I’m afraid not.” Pea’s voice shook a little.
“And no one at the Bonanza will know that I mastered the caracoles recipe.”
“At least we appreciate how great they are,” replied Lou Lou. “I’m sure Rosa and Kyle will, too. You could give some to Clara the mailwoman, Mr. Vila, and even Mayor Montoya when she gets back. There’s no reason not to share them with the city even if you can’t enter the contest.”
Pea’s eyes lit up. “You’re right! That’s a great idea.” Lou Lou wasn’t sure what part of her idea was great, but she always liked being right. “Jeremy should share his caracoles. He can pass out samples at the Bonanza even if he can’t officially enter the contest. Lou Lou, you can wear the Pride of Pinky hat. And we’ll all join in the celebration even though we’re not hosting. It’s still open to the whole city, right?”
“I think so,” replied Lou Lou. “Andy Argyle can take the Bonanza away from El Corazoń, but he hasn’t said we can’t attend. It’s the birthday of the entire city, so we’re all a part of it.”
“Exactly!” said Pea. “Maybe we need to change the way we look at this. The Bonanza is not about El Corazón versus Verde Valley, it’s about celebrating our entire city.”
“That’s a lovely thought, Peacock Pearl!” Jeremy said. “And it sounds reasonable to me. Especially if I get to bring my killer caracoles! Let’s go show our city pride!”
“I’m sure we can get other people to come, too! What do you think, Lou Lou?” asked Pea.
Lou Lou admired Pea’s generous spirit, and she knew what Pea said made sense. She saw no way to stop the Argyles, so they should make the best of the Bonanza situation. Lou Lou was still angry that the vice-mayor was being so unfair, and this felt like letting the Argyles win. But wouldn’t Amanda and her father be winning even bigger if she and Pea moped around and didn’t go to their city’s birthday celebration? Lou Lou looked at the Celebrar and Esperanza candles. This wasn’t the miracle she’d hoped for, but maybe it was good enough.
“Okay,” Lou Lou said. “I’m in!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Fellow Feline Fancier
The Bonanza was the following weekend, so Lou Lou and Pea had little time to rally El Corazón friends and neighbors to put aside their hurt feelings and instead show their city pride. It was easy to tell Rosa, Juan, their schoolmates, and other people they saw regularly, but they wanted to reach a bigger crowd. Luckily, Sarah agreed to add a message to the Bonanza mural that said: ¡TODAVÍA SOMOS PARTE DE LA CIUDAD! WE ARE STILL PART OF THE CITY! And in smaller letters: Celebren con Verde Valley el 20 Mayo! Celebrate with Verde Valley on May 20th!
Lou Lou and Pea also pooled their saved allowances to put an announcement in the neighborhood newspaper, La Voz de El Corazón. Between the money in Lou Lou’s whale-shaped silver bank and Pea’s savings from her blue box under her bed, they scraped up twenty-nine dollars and fifty-one cents. Lou Lou thought this was an impressive sum until they arrived at La Voz’s office after school on Monday.
“Sorry, announcements start at thirty-five dollars,” the woman at the front desk said without looking up from her magazine.
“But it’s for something important!” Pea replied.
“About the Bonanza!” Lou Lou added.
“Mmhmm, there’s nothing I can do for you,” said the woman. “Besides, haven’t you heard? The Bonanza belongs to Verde Valley now.”
Pea peeked over the desk at the woman’s magazine. “I see you are reading Cat Connoisseur, Ms.”—Lou Lou nodded at the woman’s nameplate—“Adelaide Stout. Are you a feline fancier?”
“I am.” Adelaide Stout finally looked up. “I have three Persians, two Maine coons, and one British shorthair.”
“What a coincidence. I have both a Persian and a British shorthair,” Pea said.
“¿En serio?” Ms. Stout smiled. “It’s so nice to meet a fellow fancier. What did you say you wanted again?” Pea explained one more time.
“Let’s see about getting that announcement printed!” Ms. Stout said.
* * *
First thing the next morning, Lou Lou grabbed the copy of La Voz from the doorstep of the SS Lucky Alley. Sure enough, on page three, there was their announcement:
COME ONE, COME ALL
COME BIG, COME SMALL
TO MARK OUR CITY’S SPECIAL DAY
ON THE TWENTIETH OF MAY
OUR HOSTING DUTIES MET THEIR END
BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE CAN’T ATTEND
SO EL CORAZÓN, DON’
T DILLYDALLY
GET YOURSELVES TO VERDE VALLEY (FOR THE BICENTENNIAL BONANZA!)
SEE YOU THERE!
YOUR FRIENDS, LOU LOU BOMBAY AND PEACOCK PEARL
Lou Lou smiled. They’d borrowed a bit from Ella Divine’s song, but she and Pea had made up the rest. And it was a pretty good announcement, if Lou Lou did say so herself. They’d wanted to add something about the gazebo, but the only word they could find to rhyme was placebo. Neither of them knew what that meant, so they decided against it.
“I’m proud of you, honey.” Lou Lou hadn’t realized her mom was reading over her shoulder until she spoke. “It’s great you are encouraging everyone to go to the Bonanza this weekend, particularly after that unfortunate business with the diary.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Lou Lou still hoped deep down that they could find a way to foil the Argyles’ scheme, but it felt good to know that they would be celebrating their city’s two hundredth birthday no matter what.
It seemed that Lou Lou and Pea’s announcement caught the attention of more than just Lou Lou’s mom. That week, the neighborhood was abuzz with talk of the Bonanza.
“We’re planning to go,” Lou Lou overheard one woman say at La Frutería when Lou Lou was buying her after-school papaya. “Even though I’m still upset that we won’t have the gazebo for our knitting circle meetings, it’s our city, too, after all.” Pea reported that she’d overheard people on the bus and on the street talking excitedly about the celebration, too.
On Friday, Lou Lou ran into Jeremy in the hall after Math class.
“Hi! What are you doing on the fifth-grade floor?” she asked, narrowly avoiding bumping into him but dropping her math book.
“Looking for you!” Jeremy picked up her book, and a bright red spike of his hair flopped into his face.
“You’re still coming on Saturday, right?”
“Um, yeah!” Jeremy said as if Lou Lou was silly to even ask. “And I’ll be wearing this!” Jeremy opened his leather jacket to reveal a black T-shirt with silver letters that read Jeremy’s Killer Caracoles above a picture of the pastry.