Operation Twin Trouble Page 2
“Good morning, Charlotte. Good morning, Cathy,” said Ira. “Would you both like your usual bowl of Cosmic Crispies?”
“Sure. Thanks, Ira,” said Charlotte. She was still beaming from her time onstage with TBD.
“No,” said Cathy. “If she’s having that, then I want something else. I’ll have nebu-cakes, like Zack.”
Charlotte glared at her sister.
“Well, if she’s not having our usual breakfast, I won’t either,” she said. “I’ll have a bowl of Astro-Flakes.”
Mom burst into the kitchen.
“Who wants to go to Cisnos for a quick shopping trip?” she asked, smiling.
“I do!” cried Cathy.
“Me too!” said Charlotte.
“Sure,” said Zack. “I finally have enough on my allowance card to get that retro remote-control space cruiser!” He raced to get his card.
“Well, hurry up, girls, and finish your breakfast,” said Mom. “Then go and brush your teeth.”
After speeding through breakfast—Cathy had nebu-cakes and Charlotte had Astro-Flakes—the girls went to get ready.
A few seconds later, Zack and his mom heard a shriek from upstairs. They rushed to see what had happened.
“Look at this!” Charlotte cried. She held up a shredded scrap of clothing. “Luna chewed up my favorite scarf!”
Luna, the Nelson’s dog, was still chomping on a piece of the scarf.
“Now no one will be able to tell me apart from Cathy.”
“Why don’t we get you a new scarf?” Mom suggested.
“If she gets something new to wear, I want something new to wear too!” said Cathy.
“Of course, honey,” said Mom.
Zack rolled his eyes and headed downstairs.
After a short space flight, Zack, Mom, and the twins arrived at the Cisnos Mondo-Mall.
Zack had almost forgotten how huge the mall was. Stores spread out in every direction. The mall was ten stories tall.
“I want to go to Celestial Clothes!” Cathy shouted. She pulled on Mom’s left arm.
“I want to go to Orbital Outfits!” shouted Charlotte. “I like the clothes there much better.” She pulled on Mom’s right arm.
“I’ll see you guys later,” said Zack. He wanted to get as far away from his stressed sisters as possible.
Zack remembered that the Mondo-Mall had Midge—the Mall Interactive Directory Guide Escort. It helped shoppers find whatever they were looking for. It also guided family members back to a meeting point when they were finished shopping.
“Midge, where can I find the retro remote-control space cruiser?” asked Zack.
A small round metal ball appeared, floating in the air.
“I am Midge,” said a voice coming from a speaker on the flying ball. “I am here to help you. Simply follow your name, Zack.”
Zack’s name appeared on the floor. His name started moving.
“Meet you later, Mom!” he said. Then he took off.
Zack worked his way through the mall, heading toward the toy store. He thought about his sisters. He wished that they would start getting along again.
At first, their arguing was kind of funny. After all, they’ve always been more like one person than two. But now, this was really becoming a problem. And Zack saw that it really bothered Mom. Maybe he could fix the problem!
It was time for: Operation Twin Trouble!
Chapter 7
Operation Twin Trouble
Zack finally arrived at Terrifically Tremendous Toys, the biggest toy store in the Mondo-Mall.
“Wow!” he said, looking around at the cool gadgets. He saw a jet pack, a robot, a holographic car, and so many other incredible toys.
Zack wanted everything. But this store was very expensive. It took him weeks to save up enough for the retro remote-control space cruiser. But it only took a few seconds to find it.
Zack grabbed one of the boxes and headed to the counter to pay.
“Thank you for shopping at our Terrifically Tremendous Toys,” said the sales clerk. “As a bonus, everyone who buys a toy today gets a free Cosmic Karen doll.”
Maybe this doll can help bring my sisters back together, Zack thought. Operation Twin Trouble is underway.
“Thanks,” he said to the clerk.
Zack hurried out of the store.
“Midge, please take me to my mom and sisters,” he said.
“Certainly,” said Midge. Zack’s name appeared on the floor.
Midge led Zack to the Orbital Outfits clothing store. He found his mom slouched in a chair. She looked exhausted.
“How’s the shopping going, Mom?” Zack asked.
Before Mom could answer, Charlotte popped out of a dressing room. Cathy stepped out of the dressing room next-door.
Charlotte was wearing a new scarf and a long skirt with flowers that moved. They looked as if they were blowing in a gentle breeze.
Cathy, on the other hand, wore a pair of jeans covered in what looked like soft fur.
“My skirt is so much cooler than your jeans,” said Charlotte.
“No way!” Cathy shouted. “My jeans are as soft as Luna’s fur!”
“Girls, really,” Mom said. “Can’t you both have nice outfits? Why does one have to be better?”
“I think I have a way to make both of you happy,” said Zack. He pulled the Cosmic Karen doll from his bag. “A brand-new Cosmic Karen doll!”
Cathy snatched the doll out of Zack’s hands. She gave him a big hug.
“Thanks, Zack,” she squealed. “You are best brother ever!”
Charlotte grabbed the doll and tried to yank it away from Cathy.
“Obviously, Zack got the doll for me, not you!” Charlotte said. She pulled hard. One of Cosmic Karen’s arms snapped right off.
“That’s enough,” said Mom. “You girls need to share.”
“I’m tired of sharing everything just because we’re twins!” both girls said angrily.
Operation Twin Trouble is off to a shaky start, thought Zack.
Chapter 8
Phase Two
Back at home, Zack decided to work extra hard to help his sisters be friends again. He found Cathy in her room.
“Remember how I used to joke about you and Charlotte finishing each other’s sentences?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Cathy.
“Well, now I miss that,” said Zack. “I think it would be great if you two got along again.”
“Why should we?” asked Cathy.
“Well, you are sisters,” said Zack. “You’ve been together every minute of your life for eleven years. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Yeah, it counts for lots of time I wasted,” said Cathy.
“But you’ve always liked to play together,” said Zack. “Like, all the dolls you’ve shared.”
“If they are dolls that she liked, I don’t want them!” said Cathy.
She went into her closet and pulled out a big box of dolls. She sorted through them, handing some to Zack.
“I don’t want this one . . . or this one . . . or, oh, this one was her favorite,” said Cathy. “She can have all of these. Just give them to her.”
Zack’s arms were full of dolls. The pile reached up to his nose. He had to look over it to see where he was going.
Zack stumbled downstairs, bumping into walls. He tried not to drop the stack of dolls. Even Luna had to help him. Charlotte was sorting through piles of clothes in the Nelson’s playroom.
“What are those?” Charlotte asked.
“These are dolls that Cathy thought you might like,” said Zack. He knew that this was not exactly what Cathy had said. But he hoped that the dolls could bring some peace between the sisters.
Charlotte leaned in close to her brother. “If they were hers, I don’t want them!” she said.
Zack took a step back and tripped over a pile of clothes on the floor. He fell back. The dolls scattered all over the room.
“I’m getting rid of all my cl
othes that are the same as Cathy’s,” Charlotte said.
She gathered up a big bundle and shoved the clothes into Zack’s arms.
“Here, I don’t want to wear these anymore,” said Charlotte. “Give them to Cathy.
Once again Zack had his arms full with a pile that nearly covered his eyes. Stumbling back upstairs, he went to Cathy’s room.
“What are you holding?” Cathy asked.
“Clothes that Charlotte thought you would like,” Zack said. He hoped this plan, which didn’t work so well on Charlotte, might work on Cathy.
No such luck.
“I don’t want these outfits if they came from her!” shouted Cathy.
She quickly pulled out a shirt from the bottom of the pile in Zack’s arms. The whole bundle of clothing tumbled to the floor.
“I don’t want any of this stuff,” said Cathy.
Zack went to his room. He laid down on his bed. Luna sat beside him.
“I don’t know what to do, Luna,” he said, scratching her head. “I’m exhausted from going back and forth, trying to patch things up. And nothing I do seems to work. Operation Twin Trouble is a failure!”
Chapter 9
The Longest Dinner
That night at dinner, Zack sat between Charlotte and Cathy. They had always sat next to each other. Since returning from Mirer, they had been sitting apart. And they refused to speak to each other.
“Zack, can you ask my sister to pass the peas?” Cathy said.
“Charlotte, can you pass the peas?” Zack asked.
Charlotte handed the bowl of peas to Zack. He then passed it on to Cathy.
Maybe this might help bring them together, Zack secretly hoped.
“Zack, will you ask my sister to pass the bread?” Charlotte said.
“Cathy, can you pass the bread?” Zack asked.
“Zack, can you tell my sister that I haven’t taken my piece of bread yet,” said Cathy.
“Zack, can you tell my sister that she has had the bread for half the meal,” said Charlotte. “Tell her she should learn to share.”
“Me? Learn to share?” shouted Cathy. “I’m not the one who got to dance with TBD.”
“Girls, I do wish you would try to get along,” said Mom. “Just the other day you were working together as a great team when we were playing Space Charades.”
Maybe that’s it, thought Zack. Maybe playing a game can bring them back together!
“Speaking of Space Charades,” Zack said, “why don’t we play after dinner? I can ask Drake to come by.”
“That’s a wonderful idea, Zack,” said Mom.
“Absolutely,” Dad agreed. “Especially since Mom and I didn’t get our turn last time!”
“I’ll play, as long as Cathy is not on my team,” said Charlotte.
“I call dibs on Zack,” said Cathy.
“Good. I call dibs on Drake,” said Charlotte.
This was not what Zack had in mind. Still, at least the girls would be playing the same game. He grabbed his hyperphone and sent a message to Drake.
Chapter 10
Teamwork
After dinner Drake arrived. He joined the Nelsons in the living room for a game of Space Charades.
Mom and Dad went first.
Mom took her index finger and her middle finger and made a cutting motion.
“Cut? Chop. Snip?”
Mom shook her head, then repeated the motion.
“Scissors!” Dad shouted.
Mom touched her nose. The she started shaking her head.
“Head? Shake? Ummm . . . No!”
Mom touched her nose.
“Scissor-know,” said Dad. “Scissor know? Cisnos!” he shouted.
“You got it,” said Mom.
Cathy read the floating timer. “Fifty-one seconds,” she said. “Our turn.”
Cathy and Zack stood up. Zack began.
He pretended to put food into his mouth.
“Eat? Chew? Taste?”
Zack shook his head.
He repeated the eating gesture, then pointed at his hand.
“Finger? Food? Fork? Knife? Spoon?”
Zack touched his nose.
“Spoon . . . spoon something.”
Next, Zack opened his mouth and pressed his finger on his tongue.
“Mouth . . . tongue . . . Argh! I don’t know. You are terrible at this game.”
Zack kept trying. The timer passed two minutes, then three, then four.
Cathy threw her hands up in frustration. “I give up.”
“I was going for ‘aah’ like you say when the doctor looks at your throat,” Zack explained. “Spoon-aah.”
“What is ‘spoon-aah’?”
“Sounds like ‘Luna.’ I was going for ‘Luna.’ ”
“All you had to do was pretend you were a dog,” said Cathy. “I would have gotten it in two seconds.”
Charlotte and Drake were next. They didn’t do much better.
Drake was trying to act out the word “hyperphone,” but all his clues left Charlotte staring at him blankly. In the end Charlotte gave up too.
“I guess Mom and I are the winners,” said Dad.
“That’s because . . .”
“. . . boys are really bad at . . .”
“. . . playing Space Charades.” Charlotte and Cathy said.
They looked at each other for a second. They had not finished each other’s sentences in days.
The girls both smiled.
“Let’s play again. This time . . .”
“. . . it’s the boys . . .”
“. . . against the girls!”
“You got it!” said Zack. He was thrilled that the girls were getting along again. And he had never been so excited about losing a game.
CHECK OUT THE NEXT
ADVENTURE!
HERE'S A SNEAK PEEK!
Zack Nelson stood in front of his house on the planet Nebulon. He was waiting for the Sprockets Speedybus to pick him up to go to Sprockets Academy.
Suddenly, a silver blur appeared in the distance.
There’s the bus, he thought.
The blur stopped right in front of Zack. The bus doors opened and he climbed on board.
The bus was filled with kids talking and laughing. As Zack headed toward the back, he overheard a bunch of conversations.
“My idea is to build a robot that can play galactic blast with you and transform into a hover car to take you anywhere you want to go,” said a boy.
“I am going to build a machine that recycles garbage into clean fuel,” said a girl. “Then I am use that fuel for my hyper-ener-verter to power my house.”
“My radioactive Surge-a-Matron will shrink atoms even smaller,” said another boy as Zack walked past.
Zack spotted his friend Drake Taylor. Drake was busy scribbling on his electro-note-screen with his finger.
Zack sat down next to him.
“What’s going on?” asked Zack. “When did everyone at Sprockets Academy become so interested in science?”
Drake looked up. “Ever since this morning when Sprockets was picked to host the Intergalactic Science Fair!” he said excitedly.
RAY O’RYAN has loved space stories ever since he watched the very first episode of Star Trek. He loves to imagine what traveling across the galaxy might be like, and is a bit jealous of Galaxy Zack in this regard. Ray lives in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York with his wife and two lovable, zany cats named Stitch and The Way.
JASON KRAFT grew up with a passion for drawing. He has developed that passion into a humble career that has allowed him to work in all facets of the entertainment field all over the globe—from toy design to feature animation. He has now settled in Ottawa, Ontario, with his wife, Christina.
GalaxyZackBooks.com
visit us at
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Ray-O’Ryan
authors.simonandschuster.com/Jason-Kraft
Little Simon
<
br /> Simon & Schuster New York
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE SIMON
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Little Simon hardcover edition September 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Also available in a Little Simon paperback edition.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Designed by Nicholas Sciacca
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data