Earthling Ambassador (Space Brigade 1)

"Think of something extra nice," advised Mully. "You'll need your strength for seeing Princess Petronella tomorrow."

"Well, okay," said Nicola. She closed her eyes tight and tried to think as hard as she could about her favorite dinner, which was All Day Lasagna. It was called All Day Lasagna because Dad always said it was a good thing everyone liked it so much because it took him ALL DAY to cook it.Whenever he made it, everyone had to clap and shout things like, Yay! Go, Super Dad! as he served up each plate.Then he did a big bow from the waist. He made quite a fuss about it.

Nicola imagined All Day Lasagna as hard as she could: the bubbling lid of cheese, the paper-thin layers of pastry, and the tasty tomato-y sauce.The problem was that other thoughts kept coming into her mind. She thought about how she was in charge of saving the planet and wished she wasn't. She thought about how much fun cloud-swimming had been that day. She thought about the expression on Mrs. Zucchini's face when Georgio first came into the classroom.

She heard Mully cough and say politely, "Okay, Nicola, I'm sure it's got the message now.You can press the red button."

Nicola opened her eyes and nervously pressed the red button.

A tray slid out.

"Oh yuck!" cried Shimlara

.

"My goodness," said Georgio. "Is that really what you'd like for dinner?'

Nicola looked with horror at the tray.There was an enormous plate of mashed-up bright green zucchini mixed with something that looked at first like ice cream, but which Nicola recognized as cloud. Next to it was a large tall glass of black goopy liquid. A label on the glass read: 100 PERCENT PURE WORRY.The only sign of anything remotely resembling lasagna was a single tomato sitting sadly on a saucer.

"The Earthling has to eat her dinner!" crowed Squid, banging his spoon on the table. "Eat it, Earthling! Eat it!"

"Quiet now, Squid," said Mully. "Don't worry, Nicola. The Telepathy Chef has been messing up recently. I think it's time we got a new one. Shimlara, why don't you order your own favorite dinner for Nicola and give her a taste of Globagaskarian food?"

"Okay," said Shimlara cheerfully. She opened and shut her eyes so fast it practically counted as a blink and then banged her fist on the red button.

"No need to show off, Shimlara," scolded Georgio.

Nicola's gasped when she saw the plate.

It was her dad's All Day Lasagna. Actually it was an even better version because, to be honest, her dad's All Day Lasagna was always just a little burned on top.This was because her dad always treated himself to a "little rest" after he'd been cooking all day and would go off and read one of his big fat library books until he would lift his head, twitch his nostrils, and go running wildly through the house, yelling "FRIZZLE!" But this lasagna was perfectly cooked and next to it was a thick chocolate shake, which Nicola was never allowed to have with lasagna, because her mom said the thought of the two things combined made her sick, a fact Nicola didn't consider to be all that relevant.

"But this is my favorite dinner, too!" she said to Shimlara.

"What a coincidence!" said Shimlara.

"Oh, Shimlara-Anne," said Mully in a disappointed tone.

Nicola saw that Georgio and Mully were both looking at Shimlara with exactly the same expression on their faces that her own parents got when she was trying to explain why she hadn't got around to unloading the dishwasher, or why it really hadn't been her fault when she threw her basketball in the hallway and shattered Mom's favorite vase.

"You know better than that," said Georgio. "Reading people's minds without their permission is the height of rudeness!"

"Rude dude! Rude dude! Shimlara was being a rude dude!" sang Squid.

"Be quiet, Squid!" snapped Georgio. Squid dropped his voice but kept singing the song under his breath.

Shimlara hung her head. "But Mom, I just wanted to give her the dinner I knew she really wanted!"

"Darling, I understand you wanted to make Nicola happy," said Mully. "But you should have just asked her! You can't go poking around in somebody's mind all willy-nilly, you know that!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to go to your room," said Georgio. He was talking in the same deep, serious voice that Nicola's own dad used when he was angry, as if he were an anchorman on the evening news. It really irritated Nicola and she could tell Shimlara had the same feeling by the way she scratched hard at her arm.

"Can you read people's minds on this planet?" asked Nicola. She turned to Georgio. "Is that how you knew I was wondering if it mattered how well I could Rollerblade backward and about everyone teasing me for not being able to do a cartwheel?"

There was a sudden, very uncomfortable silence at the dinner table.

"AHA!" cried Shimlara. "Dad has been reading Nicola's mind all day, but now when I do it, it's rude! Well, you know what that is? That's hypocritical, Dad!"

"Daddy has a red face. Like a tomato!" Squid looked very interested as he peered over at Georgio.