He had planned to join Nellie later to hunt for Treeo, but that didn’t look like it was happening. Nellie hadn’t even started yet

Eli: It was really fun raking leaves and we made money for Shlomo’s bike! Can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.

Nellie: Hold on. I’m not raking ANY more leaves. It was BORING. I much rather make a bake sale with my friends while you rake.

Squizzle: And Nellie, can you try to figure out how you found a piece of a treehouse vine in the ground so we can get back there?!

“Wait, this said one teaspoon of salt! Who put a tablespoon in?”

“Who dropped flour all over the floor?”

“Everyone out of the way! Hot stuff coming through!”

Nellie’s friends burst out of the house just as Eli walks in, leaves still stuck in his hair and his muscles subtly aching from the hours spent raking. This afternoon, he’d earned forty dollars raking two backyards – definitely a lot more than Nellie. It was just him this time, which is why it took much longer, but he enjoyed the rhythm of raking himself and the occasional curious bird that stopped by to watch him.

As he enters the chaotic kitchen, Eli takes in the scene with a mixture of amusement and admiration. Nellie is in her element, flour on her nose, trying to juggle everything at once. She mixes a bowl of chocolate brownie batter with one hand, and with another, presses a finger into thumbprint cookies. Miri and Lebee are outside, setting up a table, and even Eli’s older sister, Rikki, has come downstairs to help with the oven and offer the open cookbooks a critical eye. “Chocolate chip blondies are way too nerdy,” she says, tossing her long ponytail. “No one’s going to buy them. Make them into chip sticks. Trust me, it’s what people want.”

He had planned to join Nellie later to hunt for Treeo, but that didn’t look like it was happening. Nellie hadn’t even started yet.