Chapter 6

Chapter six, "Ashley," I whispered as soon as we walked into the ninety-nine-cent store, "your job is to take Emily over there, to the art-supply section. That way, Frankie and I can pick out the snake without her seeing us." "How am I supposed to do that?" Ashley asked. "You know Emily. She's going to want to go to the snake section." "Tell her that you heard there's a new reptile sticker book," I suggested. "Then go look for it. And take your time." "Right-o, Captain Hank. I'm on it," Ashley said, giving me a salute. I watched her go up to Emily and whisper something in her ear. Emily nodded happily, and the two of them set off for the other side of the store. My dad had already found the crossword

puzzle book section, and stuck his nose into one of the display books. "Dad," I said. "Frankie and I will be in aisle three if you need us." He was so involved in a puzzle that all he did was grunt. We ran up and down the aisles, looking for the rubber-snake bin. It turned out it was actually in aisle three, between the canned artichokes and the tugboat toothbrushes, just like I remembered. We both dug into the bin, sorting through fat snakes, short ones, green ones... until we came across a black and orange and yellow striped one.

"Ginger!" I said. "Hey, nice to see you again." "Don't tell me you and this snake have had pizza together," Frankie said, shooting me a look. "Of course not. Everyone knows rubber snakes can't digest cheese." Frankie burst out laughing. So did I. Unfortunately, we were a little too loud and attracted the attention of a certain almost- seven-year-old sister of mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emily hurrying over to our

aisle, with Ashley following close behind. "I'll distract her," I whispered to Frankie. "You go buy Ginger. I'll pay you back later." With that, I spun around and raced down the aisle toward Emily. "I want to see what's so funny!" she demanded. I put myself right in front of her and tried to puff up my chest so she couldn't see around me. My chest doesn't puff up all that much, so instead, I started talking as fast as I could.

"Oh my gosh," I said, pointing to an entire shelf filled with baby shoes. "Look at those. Aren't they the cutest little things you've ever seen?" Emily turned around and looked at the display of baby shoes. Ashley understood what I was doing and jumped right in. "Oh, Emily, those baby shoes would look so perfect on your iguana," she said. "Of course, you'd have to buy two pairs."

"No problem," I said. "I've saved some allowance money. I'd like to get something for Katherine." "Do you have a fever, Hank?" Emily asked. "I've never heard you say anything nice about Katherine in my entire life." "Well, it's time I did," I said. "She is one lovely lizard." I took Emily by the hand and dragged her over to the baby shoes. I glanced at Frankie and saw that he was heading to the cash register, but he wasn't there yet. I had to stall for a little while longer. So I reached out and picked up two pairs of pink baby sneakers that had rainbow-colored ponies on them. I slipped each shoe onto one of my fingers and moved them up and down like they were dancing. "Hi, Emily," I said in a high squeaky voice. "It's me, Katherine. I'm a happy little iguana because I'm dancing in these baby sneakers. They're so soft, my claws feel like they're walking on pillows." Emily squinted at me like I had lost my