14 The Thorny Rose

The Thorny Rose Bethany woke up late in the sweetshop with the worst sugar hangover in the world, because Miss Muddle had kept bringing her treats throughout the night. She was surrounded by empty mugs of Super-Duper Deluxe Muddle Hot Chocolate and several empty packets of the top-shelf dark cocoa bars that Miss Muddle only cracked open for special occasions. "Stinking sugar mice—my head hurts," groaned Miss Muddle.

"Keep it down, Muddle—my ears just can't take loud noises right now," Bethany mumbled. She lifted her heavy head off a worktop and saw yet more evidence of their revelry from the night before. All the messy hot chocolate equipment had been left out, and there were two broken mixing bowls on the floor from when Bethany and Miss Muddle had used whisks as microphones to sing "Hurricane Picnic" at each other. "Jeepers, this place is a dump," said Bethany. "Don't say that. It's got to be party-ready in forty-eight hours," said Miss Muddle. "The RSVPs have already started coming in, and it looks like pretty much the whole

neighborhood's going to show up to hear how wonderful you are." Bethany still felt weird about the idea of people coming to the shop to praise her. It was a good kind of weird, though. "Want a hand clearing it up?" she asked. "Jingling jelly babies, no!" said Miss Muddle. "We can't have the guest of honor preparing her own party. Not after I've already ruined the surprise for you." Bethany smirked gratefully and headed for the door. She had decided that she couldn't run away from her problems anymore. "SEE YA, MUDDLE!" she shouted on her way out. "Oww, please keep it down," begged Miss Muddle.

Bethany left the chaos of the sweetshop behind her and scooted back to the fifteen-story house. She immediately spotted the canoe-shaped hole in the door. What the flip had caused that? Climbing through the hole, she was surprised to find that the house was empty. "GITFACE?" she shouted, as she searched the floors. "NICKLE?… BEAST?" Her first thought was that the beast had eaten everyone and was now hiding somewhere in the house. Before she had time to think another thought, there was a knock at the front door. Eduardo Barnacle was poking his head through the canoe hole, with a beautiful rose in his mouth. He removed the rose, so he could speak to Bethany.

"I just came to present this to the house," he said, wiggling the rose at her. "It's for your charming doggy. Its gifts have completely cured my weedy woes." "You what?" said Bethany. "We don't have a dog." "I think you'll find that you most certainly do," said Eduardo. "Ebenezer brought it around this morning, and he's just taken it on

the town. That vomiting trick it does is really most impressive." "The vomiting what?!" asked Bethany. "You know, the humming-and-wiggling business. It's much better than anything I've ever seen at the neighborhood dog show," said Eduardo. "Hasn't Ebenezer showed you?" Bethany couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was sure that Eduardo must have got it wrong. "This doggy—did Ebenezer say whether it has a name?" she asked. "Why, of course," said Eduardo, with a nasal laugh. "I think he said it was called… the beast."