Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush by Jackie Hirtz

Author:Jackie Hirtz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brown Girls Publishing

Chapter 9

“Thief!” seethed Lola when she saw Buck’s new neon flyers tacked on telephone poles throughout the neighborhood. “Slime stole my idea,” she told Melanie, pointing to the words “Buck’s Purifying Brew” on one of the leaflets featuring a computer graphic of Slime, the lemonade czar, serving up cups of “energy-enhancing” lemonade to famous and sweaty basketball jocks. “If I wasn’t a nonviolent, spider-saver lifesaver, I’d strangle him,” Lola told Melanie as the two roller skated back up Salt Flat Road early in the morning. It was only a few hours before the thirsty hoards seeking purification were expected to arrive.

“I can’t figure it out,” said Melanie. “How did he know your plan?”

“He spied,” said Lola, putting the puzzle pieces together. “He was the kid who complained to the usher at the movie house.”

“The rat,” said Melanie.

“And let’s not forget the lemon-seed missile.”

“Uckbay?”

“That’s ightray,” said Lola. “Buck, the King of Limesay. She paused, then said, “Do you remember hearing beeping at the Unity Center?”

“I thought it was a signal, from the Palm Tree God,” said Melanie.

“No, just Slime Bucket’s cell,” clarified Lola, adding, “He forgot to turn the sound off…in church, no less.”

“No respect.” Melanie scowled.

“That word is not in his vocabulary,” said Lola, narrowing her eyes into little beads.

“What are we going to do now, Lo?” asked Melanie.

“Squeeze on,” said Lola, opening the front door of her house and heading straight for the kitchen. She passed Bowzer snoozing on the sofa, her father cruising for jobs on his laptop, her mother practicing her spreadsheet skills on the computer in the den. Diane Zola would start working for Slime’s father on Monday. It was Saturday and Lola was beginning to panic.

“How’s the business world, girls?” asked Lola’s father, smiling.

“It’s gopher-eat-gopher,” said Lola, walking with Melanie into the kitchen.

Bowzer lifted his head long enough to hiss at the mention of the word gopher. The cat held a grudge.

Lola, her stomach growling, told herself she wasn’t hungry. First of all, there wasn’t time for breakfast. Second of all, her mother’s budgeting combined with the space-hogging lemons left the fridge almost empty.

“Have you seen my chili peppers?” asked Lola’s mother from the living room. “I’ve been looking all over for them.”

“I’ll explain later, Mom,” said Lola, standing on a stool in the kitchen. She reached up high and opened a cupboard, grabbing a can of peppers hidden behind a ceramic bowl.

Diane Zola stopped typing, leafed through the Cactus Springs News, and immersed herself in an article on unusual second careers. She had never thought about becoming a singing telegram.

As the two girls squeezed lemons and chopped chili peppers, the Wemblys’ stretch limo pulled up in front of Hot Dog’s house across the street. Buck’s voice could be heard over the car’s speaker system.

“Mighty Miragers, try my lip-smacking, thirst-packing lemonade—the only lemonade in the land worth sipping,” he pronounced.

“Burp alert, burp alert, burp alert,” announced Agent 002 to her ZIA (Zola Inter-Spy Agency) confidant, burping three times to officially mark the arrival of the most despised slab of slime.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.