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onions. And smoke.
    “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Aneta’s voice, rising to a shriek, came in loud and clear as Vee neared the kitchen.
    “Help! Fire!” came Sunny’s voice from somewhere. The next moment, something hit Vee behind the knees, and she flew forward. Only it wasn’t like she’d ever expected flying to be. Rather, she leapfrogged awkwardly into the air, letting go of the boxes, collapsing on her hands and knees. Right before a wheelchair ran over her, pinning her to the floor.
    “Yikes! Sorry! Sorry!” It was Sunny’s voice again.
    The boxes, released into flight, moved like a slo-mo commercial—bashing into Esther who had stepped out of the audio-visual room with an old lady. The stocky girl tipped over like a bowling pin on Family Fun Night. A grunt escaped her. Vee winced. Those boxes were heavy.
    Trying to get her brain to remember where her legs and arms were so she could stand up and help Aneta, who was still screaming, and somehow stop the smoke that still poured out of the kitchen, Vee thought of Math Man. She could not be late. But it was more important that she find out if Sunny was hurt. Was Esther okay? Wasn’t anyone going to stop that smoke?
Beetle!
How much worse could it get?
    “Just what is going on here?” A sharp voice punched through the chaotic yelling and groaning.
    Vee peered up at the senior center director standing with Hermann, and the Animal Control officer. Oh, it could get plenty worse.

Chapter 9

Where’s the Curious Kitten?
    T he next day, as Vee approached what she considered “Squad” steps after school, she looked at the Dumpster. About half the cats were lying on the lid of the Dumpster in the sun. There was no sight of the curious kitten. Something clutched in her stomach.
    Arriving late for Math Man after the disaster at the senior center yesterday, he’d yapped about how she had one time left to be late. Vee, explaining that it had been a matter of life and death with smoke and onions and wheelchairs and murderous boxes and the really mad senior center director, hadn’t moved Math Man.
    The Squad hadn’t talked to each other last night. That meant everyone was either busy or in trouble for getting kicked out of the senior center. Or both. With Vee, it had been both. Her mother had called her dad; both had said they were disappointed in her and they hoped she would use better judgment in the future. And of course, there was math homework.
    The girls were there already, sitting off to the side of the library steps, as far away from the senior center as you could get and still be at the community center.
    Esther leaned back on her elbows. Vee saw her point toward the Dumpster. That Cat Woman was there, preparing her pie pans of kitty food.
    “Have you seen the curious kitten?” Vee asked, dropping down next to Esther.
    Sunny turned toward the Dumpster. “You mean your under-the-bush buddy? Nope. Looks like some others are missing, too.”
    “You don’t think the Animal Control officer got them already, do you?” Vee remembered the Animal Control officer in the senior center yesterday.
    “Don’t worry.” Esther stretched out her solid legs on the step below. “Don’t you think we would’ve heard Cat Woman if he was doing that?”
    “Hmmm,” was all Vee said.
    After a few moments of quietly watching the cats, Vee started the conversation they were all avoiding. “You won’t believe what my mother is making me do.”
    “What?” Aneta asked.
    “My mom says I have to find a new project at the senior center.” Vee waited for the girls to freak that Mom was making Vee go back to where certain death awaited.
    Sunny halted her spinning and staggered in a circle. “You’re kidding. So did mine.”
    Aneta said, “My mom said it would be a redemption, whatever that means.”
    Esther began laughing. “Mine,
too.
It’s never good for us when they start talking.”
    “How can we go back in there? They hate us!” Vee’s voice was loud.
    A long, large car, the