Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 Abbi worried Ms. Margery's son might try to run once he realized he'd been caught. Instead, his face crumpled. He fell to a squat and held his head in his hands. "We need the money," Mr. Stevie said through tears. "Mom doesn't want to admit it, but the farm's failing."

"It's failing?" Lydia squealed. "Like it's gonna close down?" He nodded. "Maybe, yeah. It's why I moved back home. I thought if Mom had some extra help, maybe we could…But we failed. I failed." Mr. Stevie sniffled and looked up at the concerned faces watching him. "When I saw the prize money they were offering for the costume contest, I knew it would help. Maybe we could hold on long enough to find a solution." "But you knew there'd be a lot of other alpacas wanting to win, too," Abbi said, putting the pieces together.

He stood up again and looked past Abbi to the alpacas gathered behind them. "I knew Alpaca in Wonderland wouldn't bother following me if I had veggies. It was easy to make sure he was the only one left." Lydia crossed her arms. Her angry face was back. Daniel put a comforting hand on his twin's shoulder. "Your mom almost took the blame, you know," he said. "They thought she'd stolen them."

Somehow Mr. Stevie's face turned even whiter. "No. I didn't mean for it to…I only wanted to help!" "Stevie Ashley Meadows!" Ms. Margery's voice was even louder than the peacock's. She stormed toward them, holding her phone up to her ear. Two of the State Fair staff followed behind her. Lydia showed her own phone screen to Mr. Stevie. "I called her a while ago," Lydia said. "She heard everything." "Everything?" Mr. Stevie whispered.

Lydia nodded. "Afraid so." As Ms. Margery came ever closer, her son stood. He brushed off his pants. "Guess it's time to face the music. Sorry for getting you kids involved." Abbi handed him her bag of alfalfa sprouts. "Here. You can make it up to the alpacas, at least, while they're waiting for their rides home." She looked at her friends and smiled. "Speaking of, let's go find Uncle Walker. I think I've had enough of the fair for one day."