Free Katy Kelly_Lucy Rose 01 by Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me

mugs so we could all drink while we looked, even the grown-ups. We made a big inspection of Madam and Pop's room and my room and Madam's office and the bathroom and the closets and we did not see him. Then I realized that the problem was that while we were moving, Jake was probably moving too and I didn't know if we would ever find him. “I wish I had listened to you, Pop,” I said.“Me too,” Jonique told Pop.“Some temptations are hard to resist, girls,” Pop said.“This was one of those,” I said.
    Finally at 10:30 my mom said we had to go to bed and that we would start fresh in the morning. So Jonique and I got under the estate sale quilt and I told her the truth. “This is my worst mistake ever.”“Mine too,” Jonique said.“Worse than the licorice,” I told her.“Worse than the time I said that really bad word,” she said.“What word?” I asked her.“That would be saying it twice,” Jonique said.
    “What if I have to tell Mr. Welsh?” I asked her. “I promised I would keep Jake safe.”“That is a hard thing to think about,” Jonique said.“What if Jake doesn't know where he is and gets scared?” I said. “What if we never get him back?”“The only single thing I can think of to say is that I will help you every minute until we find him,” Jonique said.
    I told Jonique that she is what my mom calls a tough-times friend and that is somebody who sticks with you always, even when something bad that happens is actually your fault.
    And Jonique said, “Of course I am, Lucy Rose. You are my best friend.”
    Even though I felt misery inside I also felt a little good from hearing that.

April 19
    When I woke up this morning I had a plan. I went down to the kitchen with Jonique and I told Madam and Pop and my mom, “Everybody, I have a serious thing to say.”
    “Let's hear it,” Pop said.
    So I told them, “I know what I have to do.”
    And everybody waited and I said, “I have to call Adam Melon. And I have to ask him to come over and help.”
    Jonique made a breath-sucking sound. And Madam made her wise eyes. And my mom nodded her head.“Problem solving is rarely easy,” Pop said.
    Then I did call and I told Mrs. Melon about the emergency and she said she would bring Adam right over. She did and I was thinking that Melonhead was going to be mean about it but he was actually nice.“The next class of Mr. Welsh's should give Jake the name of Harry Houdini after that old-time magician who could escape from everything,” he said.
    That made me feel better because it made it sound like we would find Jake. And then Melonhead said, “I have practice capturing guinea pigs because last week when I was in charge, Jake got away from me.”“This is the greatest news,” I said. “How did you get him back?”
    “It was easier to capture him because before I took him out of the cage I shut the door to the room,” Melonhead told me.“I wish I had thought about doing that,” I said.
    It was Melonhead's idea that Jake would probably look for a hiding place and we should start in the basement and work our way up to the top floor. “This is a search-and-rescue mission,” he told Madam. “We will need a flashlight.”
    Madam gave him the one she keeps for if the electricity goes out and then he put guinea pig food in his pockets and Melonhead and Jonique and I went downstairs and we climbed all around the picture frame room and flashed the flashlight at all of the frames and looked hard but we did not find any clues at all. “One thing to look for is poop,” Melonhead said. “Jake will probably poop wherever he goes. Guinea pigs are like that.”
    Jonique said, “Yuck.”
    But I said, “I would be happy for any clue, even if it's poop.”
    And then we went in the furnace room which is the scariest room in the house and we saw nothing. And Melonhead said we had to be very quiet andlisten for scritching noises so we all held our breath and waited but we didn't hear one single scritch. But then