crickets(crash!)and a birthday bash

名称：crickets(crash!)and a birthday bash
内容简介：
By Michelle L. Brown
Art by BB Sams

“Manny!” called my best friend, Blake, from the top of the basement stairs. “What are you doing down there?”

“Trying on my tux.” I fastened a too-tight bow tie.

Blake started down the steps, balancing a Styrofoam crate on one hand. He did his British butler voice. “Sir, has your dragon dined today?”

“Careful with those—”

He tripped on the bottom stair.

“—crickets.”

The crate crashed open. Crickets went crazy.

Blake stood up. “Oops.” He looked around the basement, at the balloons and other decorations. “Whoa! What is all this stuff?”

“Manuel!”Abuelacalled from upstairs.“?Estás listo?”

“Almost ready!” I shouted to my grandmother. I turned to Blake. “Start catching crickets! I’ll be back.”

The tux passed Abuela’s inspection, so I changed into regular clothes and headed back downstairs to help capture the crickets.

Blake was picking up crickets and dropping them into my lizard’s aquarium.

“Stop! She’ll explode.” I started scooping crickets out of the aquarium and putting them back in the crate. “Lizzy’s still a baby.”

“Sorry.” Blake stepped back.

“Hey, what was with you in the tux?”

I pulled a half-eaten cricket from the bearded dragon’s mouth. I didn’t know how many she’d already munched on. “Veronica’squincea?era,remember?”

“Quince-whatta?”

“My sister’s 15th-birthday bash.” I put the lid back on the aquarium. “It’s an old Mexican tradition.”

Blake scanned the sparkly dresses hanging from the rack and the card tables overflowing with flowers. He whistled.

“Check this out.” I pulled aside the curtain that hid the washer and dryer.

“That’s the biggest cake I’ve ever seen,” Blake said.

It was huge. Four tiers dripped with lavender frosting. “My tía Rosa made it.”

“Can I come to the party?”

“Might as well. Everyone we know will be there. That’s why Lizzy and I have been banished to this dungeon. All my girl cousins from Monterrey have invaded my room. They don’t like lizards. . .or crickets.” I caught one climbing into a high-heeled shoe. “Did I mention the limo?”

“A limo? Do you get to ride in it?”

“Probably not. This party is for Veronica and her friends. All I do is run errands and get told to stay out of the kitchen.”

Blake caught a cricket on my cot. “What do boys get when they turn 15?”

“Nada.”I crated the crickets. I leaned against the cool concrete wall. “Nothing for boys. At 15, girls traditionally become ladies and boys become warriors. I’m sure guys used to have some kind of warrior ritual.”

“Well, you may not get to be a warrior, but you’re the only kid I know with a dragon!”

Blake lifted Lizzy’s lid. “Can I hold her?”

“Manuel!” called Mamá.“Te necesito!”

“My mom needs me.” I handed Lizzy to Blake. “Be careful with her,” I said as I headed upstairs, “and stay away from the cake!”

When I got back to the basement, Blake was crawling around under a card table.

“Don’t worry about the crickets,” I said. “We’ll find them all sooner or later. Look at this!” I slid a long saber out of its sheath.

“Whoa!” Blake clocked his head on the card table and nearly knocked everything off. “That’s a real sword!”

“It’s a saber. All the guys are wearing them,” I said, sliding the saber back into its sheath.

“That’s cool, Manny. You’re kind of like a warrior after all.” He glanced at Lizzy’s aquarium.

It was empty.

“Blake, you didn’t.”

“Oops.”

A herd of giggling girls ran overhead. They were coming our way. “Let’s try everything on!” my sister squealed.

“Blake, stall them while I find Lizzy! If they see her and scream, they’ll scare her scales off!”

He rushed up the stairs as the door flew open. Adopting his Butler Blake accent, he said, “Sorry, me ladies. Manny is uh. . .”

“Trying on my tux!” I yelled. “But he just tried it on,” Veronica whined. “No fair!”

“I want to see how it looks with the saber!”

Blake ran back downstairs, gathered the dresses into a heap, and lugged them up to the girls. Then he slammed the door and we scoured the basement for Lizzy. I finally found her dangling by one foot from the curtain over the cake. She was about to plop onto a sea of fake flowers. I caught Lizzy just as she dropped.

“That was close,” I said. The girls were upstairs in my room, trying on their stuff.

“Yeah.” Blake flopped onto the cot. “I wonder if we found all the crickets—”

There was an ear-splitting shriek from upstairs. I smiled at Blake. “Oops.”