Meanwhile,
in Another Part of Town
While all this was happening at Kiki’s house, something very different was happening at Lester’s house. At Lester’s house the surprises were not the good kind.
Lester’s little sister surprised Leon by telling him . . .
Our
Fashion Kitty
marshmallow
statue is . . .
And your name
doesn’t get to be
on it, because you
didn’t help.
Guess what?
I don’t care!
. . . going to
be at the
school
fashion
show.
Leon surprised Lester by carrying something that looked awfully familiar. . . .
No! It’s mine. I found it!
Under your bed. I need it for my project.
Hey! That’s my book!
Where?
The Eiffel Tower is my new favorite tall thing.
It’s exactly
what I need to get noticed.
And Lester’s dad surprised Lester’s mom by telling her. . . .
After all the surprises were done, four kitties were very unhappy.
Sometimes it’s a relief to see the sun fade away and the moon take over the sky—especially after a hard day.
It’s a hair curler. You’ll love it.
Hmm . . . I
think it still
needs work.
It didn’t curl?
Ahhhh!
I found
this old thing and made this.
Old thing?
That’s my new
colander!
But I already had curly hair.
Oops! That
was not a good
invention.
Leon stole
my idea!! He’s so mean.
Dumb
Fashion Kitty statue.
Father
Lambaster
Mother
Lambaster
Lester
Leon
Lester and his mother looked out the window together.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Everyone has bad days. Tomorrow will be better.” She struggled to get her crazy new curls under a scarf.
Lester nodded his head. He didn’t say anything, but tonight the full moon looked just like the inside of a giant yellow colander. He couldn’t be sure, but somehow he was worried that it was a bad sign.
Back to School
“I’m almost finished!”
Those were the first words June said to Kiki when she saw her the next morning. As always they were walking to school together.
“What? Already?” Kiki couldn’t believe it. “But yesterday you didn’t even have an idea.”
“I know,” said June. “But sometimes good things happen fast. Do you want to know what I picked? Can I tell you? Can I? Can I? Can I?”
Kiki stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Yes! Tell me! Please!” she said. “I’m dying to know.”
It was the exact right thing for a best friend to say.
It’s this book, Hawaiian
Girl . It’s so good.
. . . And an exploding volcano
of fire.
I’m going
to have
tropical
fish. . .
and a hula
skirt and
flowers.
Kiki and June looked over at the interrupting kitty. He was scowling. He scowled some more when he saw them looking.
“Lester! We know it’s you,” laughed June. “You can’t make us think you’re Leon.”
Lester looked disappointed. “How come nobody else can tell us apart?”
“I don’t know,” said Kiki, “but to me you hardly look like Leon at all.”
“Thanks,” said Lester, but he didn’t look any happier. He took a deep breath and then, because he needed to tell someone, he told Kiki and June all about Leon taking his Eiffel Tower T-shirt idea.
This is what Kiki and June wished they could have said to Lester.
Leon is the worst
kitty ever! I wish a
truckload of . . .
Leon is awful!
He doesn’t deserve to have you as
a brother.
. . . stinky
fish would
fall on his
head.
There’s not
one good
thing about
him .
But even though they felt like saying these things they stopped themselves, because friends don’t say mean things about a friend’s brother—even if the brother 110 percent deserves it.
So this is what they said instead.
Knowing “what” to say, and when to say the “what” part, is a skill. Not everyone is good at it. Lucky for Lester, Kiki and June were very skilled. They said the exact right thing at the exact right time. This made a big difference.
For the rest of the walk to school, Lester felt a lot better.
Do you want us to come over after school to help you think of something new?
Okay, thanks.
Sorry
about
the
volcano,
June.
It’s okay.
I know.
Lucky Leon
Lester couldn’t believe how good he felt. Right at lunchtime he decided he had to say something about his happy mood out loud, so everyone else could know it too.
You know, I thought for sure that today was going to be a crummy day, but it’s not.
Zack
Mouth full of food
Mfmthm
Lester wasn’t the only one having a good day. Leon was having one as well.
He still didn’t have a Catch Fashion Kitty Plan, but that didn’t stop him from being excited and doing a lot of bragging.
Lester wasn’t the only one having a good day. Leon was having one as well.
He still didn’t have a Catch Fashion Kitty Plan, but that didn’t stop him from being excited and doing a lot of bragging.
Lester wasn’t the only one having a good day. Leon was having one as well.
He still didn’t have a Catch Fashion Kitty Plan, but that didn’t stop him from being excited and doing a lot of bragging.
This part whispered
It’s a secret.
You’ll have to
So,
what’s the plan?
It’s going to
be amazing!
I promise!
This part shouted
Here. Take a free club T-shirt.
When everyone in the group had a T-shirt, Leon held up his hands for quiet, and then he slowly and showily took off his jacket. It was a real ta-da moment!
“You can draw on yours too!” said Leon, and he proudly stuck out his kitty chest.
The little group of kitties gasped, put their paws to their mouths, and took a step back.
For a second, Leon was worried, but then one of the kitties stepped forward and said, “Where can I get a marker?”
And that was all it took. Soon, everyone was drawing and smiling and laughing. There were a lot of creative ideas.
Leon was so happy he could hardly speak, but he could think. And he had one big thought in his head.
I am a
supergenius.
TT I s for
Terrible T-Shirts
Complete disbelief can affect not only the body, but also the brain. Sometimes, it can even cause all the words in a head to instantly and completely disappear. This is what happened to Kiki the second she saw her first C. F.K. Club T-shirt.
It didn’t help that the kitty wearing the T-shirt was smiling and happy. He was feeling clever and artful, but Kiki didn’t know that. To her he looked like he had just
one thing on his mind.
Complete disbelief doesn’t last forever. Slowly, a brain recovers. Sometimes the stage after complete disbelief is Hyperchat. Hyperchat is not mysterious or dangerous, it’s just superfast talking.
It didn’t take Kiki and June long to get to the
Hyperchat stage.
I don’t
like Fashion
Kitty.
Why would he not like
Fashion Kitty?
A Sample of Hyperchat
(This conversation took 12 seconds.)
Kiki: Did you see the shirts?
June: What’s it all about?
Kiki: I don’t know.
June: Do you think Fashion Kitty did something bad?
Kiki: No! Absolutely not! Not in a million years.
June: Maybe someone saw her do something?
Kiki: Maybe she has a new enemy?
June: Like another superhero?
Kiki: We have to find out.
Kiki and June weren’t the only ones wondering what was going on. Soon the whole school was talking about the C. F.K. Club. And even though they were probably asked a thousand times, not one single kitty in the club gave away the secret of what the letter C stood for. This was amazing and surprising.
Don’t say anything.
Don’t say anything.
What is the “C” for? Is it for colorful?
How
about
cathartic?
Is it for
commission?
Or
captain?
I don’t
even know
what those
words mean.
The House of
Inventions
Mysteries can be fun if you don’t have to wait too long to find out the ending. Mysteries that stay mysteries for a long period of time are not so fun. They are frustrating and worrisome. This is how Kiki felt at the end of the day—frustrated and worried.
Worried
Frustrated
Is there a supervillain out there waiting for Fashion Kitt y?
Why can’t I figure this out?
She did not feel like going to Lester’s house to help him with his T-shirt project. But she was a good friend, so she followed June and Lester and tried to be helpful.
“Me, too,” said June.
“Let’s think about shirt ideas for Lester instead,” said Kiki.
It was a good idea. By the time they got to Lester’s front door they had already come up with eight new ideas about France.
They were all good ideas, but unfortunately not one of them seemed as special as the Eiffel Tower. A large tower soaring above a city is a hard thing to beat. When they got to Lester’s house, Lester held up his hands to stop them.
“Wait,” said Lester. “Before we go in, I have to tell you something.”
Kiki smiled. Lester’s speech was helpful. Inventions were interesting, and thinking about them helped Kiki forget her own problems. She couldn’t wait to see some.
When they got inside Kiki could see that Lester’s warnings had been a good idea. There were yellow things everywhere.
Be careful of anything yellow. If it’s yellow it’s probably an invention.
It’s probably
better to just not touch yellow stuff.
That’s what I do.
Lester pulled on a yellow cord and immediately a basket of muffins dropped from the ceiling right into his hands.
“Muffin?” He held out the basket for Kiki and June.
“Some inventions are still getting worked on,” said Lester.
“Like that one.” He pointed to a ball of yellow string in a jar. Lester put on some big gloves and pulled out the string.
Lester held up a can. It had a big 6 printed on the side.
“This is the special spray that goes with the string. It makes the string feel normal and keeps it from evaporating. The six means it is supposed to last for six hours.”
I have to use these special gloves, because it’s
super slippery.
But it
doesn’t
really work right yet.
It’s called evaporating knot string.
Lester went into a long complicated description of how the string and spray were supposed to work together, but Kiki wasn’t really listening. She was looking around the room instead.
There were lots of interesting things to look at, but in the background of her thoughts she could still hear Lester.
It’s
amazing.
Wow. I can’t believe all this yellow stuff.
Spray
Knot
Tie knots in the string. Not easy to do with the
big gloves.
Spray string with special holding spray.
Hold the string with gloves. (slimy string)
String is now
not slimy.
Knot cannot come undone.
Knot will stay in string until it is supposed to dissolve.
When Kiki started paying attention again Lester was just finishing up his long explanation.
“If the string invention worked I could use it to lace my shoes with a knot in the morning, spray them, and
then when I got home from school six hours later my laces would automatically dissolve. I’d never ever have to untie a shoelace knot again.”
“Cool,” said June.
“Yeah it would be, but right now the spray stuff works for six days, not six hours. That’s way too long to wear my shoes!”
“What’s that?” interrupted Kiki. She pointed to a yellow-looking upside-down hat on the counter. It looked more exciting than string.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Lester. “It’s my mom’s second new colander, and nobody is allowed to touch it. Not even my dad.”
Huh, thought Kiki. I wonder why.
Careful, the yellow will come off on your paw.
Ooooh. It is slippery.
Lester dropped the string on the floor and put the gloves away.
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.
“You forgot the string,” said June. She pointed to the ball of string on the floor.
“It’s fine, said Lester. “In five minutes it’ll dissolve away into nothing but a yellow splotch. I didn’t spray it. Remember?”
“Oh,” said June. “Well, I guess that explains all the yellow polka dots.”
I wonder if it has special powers.
Lester’s room was large and comfy, and Kiki was happy to see that he didn’t have to share it with Leon. She was not in the mood to be bumping into Leon.
“Here are the books I read,” said Lester. He dumped a large stack on the table.
“I’m sure Leon is doing something with the Eiffel Tower. I heard him talking to himself. Of course he took the best French thing for himself!” Lester looked glumly at the floor.
Kiki thought that maybe she saw a little tear, but she wasn’t sure.
The B ig White Surprise