Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"She's going too fast," said Greta. "She's going to--"

The boogie board flipped over and the princess flew through the air, her arms and legs flailing before she crashed into the water.

"Ouch," winced Shimlara.

"Uh-oh," said Katie.

They watched Tyler paddling his board over to the princess.

"You've made a lot of mistakes, but I'd say that was your worst yet, Nicola," remarked Greta in a satisfied way.

"I'm sorry, Nic," said Sean glumly.

Suddenly the princess erupted out of the water. She caught sight of Tyler and lunged toward him, dragging her boogie board behind her, yelling something they couldn't understand.

"Quick! She's going to kill him," said Nicola. She started to swim over to them, but Sean grabbed her arm, holding her back. He was smiling.What was there to smile about? This was no time for jokes!

"Listen," he said.

Nicola listened.

The princess was shouting, "Again! Again! I want to do it again!"

CHAPTER 34

It was much later that day, and the Space Brigade and Princess Petronella sat on the beach wearing old sweats from the trailer. Greta had surprised them by efficiently finding firewood and building a perfect campfire the way she'd learned to in Girl Scouts.

After swimming, they'd all gone food shopping at the local supermarket (where a girl had approached the princess and Shimlara and begged them to consider joining her basketball team).

Now Tyler was showing Shimlara how to fry sausages, while Sean toasted bread rolls on the fire, and Katie and Nicola chopped tomatoes. Greta was making disapproving remarks about their cooking techniques and everybody was ignoring her.

"So every single time you want something to eat you have to cook it yourself?"The princess was stunned that they didn't have Telepathy Chefs on Earth yet.

"Cooking is fun,"Tyler told the princess. "You can help us by buttering the rolls if you like."

"I am not trained in the art of'buttering a roll,' Tyler," said the princess. Her hair had fallen out of its bun and was curling in messy tendrils all around her shoulders. She actually looked rather pretty in the crackling light of the fire.

"You just dip the knife in the butter, like so," demonstrated Sean. "And then smear across the toast. Not too thick. Not too thin. It's not exactly an art."

To everyone's surprise, the princess took the knife from him and tentatively began buttering the rolls.

"Oh, look, the colors of the sky are changing!" Shimlara pointed at the horizon, where the sky was turning pink and gold. She explained, "The suns on Globagaskar don't go down slowly like that each night.They just disappear at six o'clock, as if someone has switched off a light."

Nicola said, "Every time there's an extra beautiful sunset, our mom makes us run outside to watch."

"Yeah, she won't even let us wait for the commercial break," complained Sean.

"It's really beautiful," said the princess quietly, almost as if she were speaking to herself.

"Go, Earth!" whispered Shimlara, while Sean did a silent victory punch in the air behind the princess's back.

Something is probably about to go wrong again, thought Nicola. But her luck must have been changing, because at that moment she felt a delicate flutter against the top of her hand. It was a butterfly. Its wings were black with an intricate pattern of blue spots like wrapping paper.

"Oh look, a butterfly," said Nicola casually. "Do you have butterflies on Globagaskar, Princess Petronella?" Of course, she knew perfectly well that they didn't. She held out her wrist to the princess.

"No, we don't have flying butters."The princess looked enchanted as the butterfly flew straight onto her hand, almost as if it knew it had to help out with the mission. It flew up near the princess's face and caressed her cheek with its wings before it flew off.That butterfly deserved a medal.

"You just got a butterfly kiss," said Katie. "Now you'll have good luck."