we now have a spare locker, if your brother would be interested in having his own…”

“Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. Pomeroy.” Kit said respectfully. “Chris and I already decided that we would share my locker.”   

“Hmm, very well.” Mr. Pomeroy said dismissively, and the Cloudkicker brothers walked on in the direction of their homeroom. “Just a moment, Cunningham,” he said, standing in front of Jeffery. “Cornmat was unable to pay his debt, so here,” he handed Jeffery twenty-five dollars. “His parents would have to pay me back for this later, but at least you won’t have to see them or Gorgon Cornmat again.”

“Thank you, sir.” Jeffery said respectfully, glad for a reason not to see Gorgon again. He accepted the money before following after his two cousins to their homeroom.

Later, during a five minute break between first and second period, Kit, Chris and Jeffery were out in the hall, showing Chris around a bit more.

“Hey guys, look!” Chris exclaimed, pointing at a notice on the bulletin board. “The school’s having a talent show soon. Hey, maybe you and Jeffery should enter, big brother.”

“I dunno, Chris—” Kit started to say, but he was cut off by Jeffery swinging an arm around his shoulders.

“Of course we’ll enter, cuz!” Jeffery declared to Chris. “But we won’t do it unless you do it with us.”

“Okay! I’ll join too!” said Chris excitedly, delighted to be included in something with his brother and cousin.

“But, Jeff, I don’t know what I should do for a talent show and I doubt they’ll allow cloudsurfing.” Kit said.

“Kit, you’ve got more talents than just cloudsurfing.” Jeffery told him firmly. “Remember, you’ll be learning magic from me and my Mom, and maybe you’ll be ready to do a few tricks before the talent show starts. You can be the magician with Chris and me as your assistants.”

“I dunno, Jeff, magic is more of your thing…” Kit said doubtfully.

 “Oh come on, Kit! I know you have what it takes, trust me on this one, cuz.” Jeffery said, looking hopeful.

“Yeah Kit, our cousin is right, you’ve already shown me you had the talent to be a wonderful magician!” Chris said, smiling encouragingly at his brother. “Remember the coin trick you taught me? And the key trick?”

“Chris is right, cuz, you do have many more talents than just cloudsurfing. Look at how well you acted out the sawing in half trick last night.” Jeffery said, smiling slyly.

“Acted? ... ACTED?” Kit exclaimed in exasperation and indignation. “I wasn’t acting! I really was scared for my life! I thought I was goner there!” he glared indignantly at Jeffery for a moment and then said: “Jeff, Chris, I’m not sure, I just really don’t know yet…” Kit added, scratching his head in confusion, unsure of what he wanted to do.

“PLEEEEEEEEEASE!!” Chris and Jeffery begged in unison with the puppy dog look.

Kit couldn’t stand it; they’ve struck gold with their puppy-dog faces. Blue and hazel blue eyes in a puppy-dog pout wins just about every time!

“Aww, okay, okay! Stop it you two, before you embarrass us.” Kit said as a girl he knew and has a crush on walk by. He watched her go with a dreamy expression.

She walked past them without even looking at them,

“Hey Kit, earth to Kit! Hello, are you in there?” Jeffery and Chris yelled in unison, waving a hand in Kit’s face, each trying to get his attention.

Kit shook his head, snapping out of his trance.

“Huh? Oh sorry guys… Okay, I’ll do it, but you two have to be willing to do any trick I want.” Kit said.

“Deal!” Jeffery and Chris said together. “We would both be happy to, Kit.”

“We should call you the Amazing Cloudkicker, or Kit the Great.” Chris said excitedly. “Oh! Oh! I got it!—the Great, Amazing and Wonderful Kit Cloudkicker, the Magician!!”

“That one’s too long, cuz,” Jeffery said to Chris, shaking his head. “Kit, the Magician sounds good though.”

“Besides, I’m not exactly amazing, great or wonderful,” Kit said. “Not yet anyway, I’m only a beginner magician.”

“Kit, the Magician…” Chris repeated, trying the name out for size and ignoring Kit. “I like it, it’s got a nice sound to it.”

“I knew you’d agree with me, cuz!” Jeffery shouted joyfully.

Chris and Jeffery then started bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Heh, heh, you two… what am I going to do with you?” Kit said, laughing and placing a hand to his face, smiling but thinking: I really hope Aunt Melissa can teach me what to do; I’d hate to let my brother and cousin down.

“Yay!!!” Jeffery and Chris shouted joyfully as the bell ringed, singling the start of second period,

“We’ll talk more during lunch.” Jeffery said, “Oh and Kit…” he said, leaning close to Kit so to whisper in his ear, so that Chris wouldn’t hear. “Don’t worry, you’re not on cafeteria duty today, it’s me and Oscar.” 

“Okay, sounds good,” Kit whispered back. “Just tell the lunch lady who hired us that I’ll be back later, after I help Chris feel more comfortable around this school and get more adjusted.” Kit then spoke in his normal voice. “Oh and Jeff? Ask Oscar if he lost a gold watch for me, it’s here on the board that someone lost one and I think he’s the one who lost it, so if you don’t mind to ask, that would be a good help.”

“Sure Kit, anything for my cousin.” Jeffery said. “We better head to class or our history teacher will be madder than a hornet at us and neither one of us needs a tardy on us.”

“Agreed,” Kit and Chris nodded in unison as the headed to second period history class.

After a long morning, it was finally lunchtime and the hungry Cloudkicker brothers made their way into the cafeteria with Chris staring around in awe.

Then as he and Kit sat down with their lunch bags on the table in front of them, he asked: “Where’s Jeffery?”  Chris has just now noticed the absence of Jeffery and was looking around for him.

“He’ll turn up,” Kit assured his brother as he took out his sandwich from the paper bag. “Don’t worry, Chris, he’ll be here soon, but for now, let’s eat." And with that, he took a big bite out of his sandwich.

“Hey, there you two are!” Jeffery shouted out, walking over toward his cousin. “Sorry I’m late, we had a major backup of trays in the dishwashing room today, so I was kinda stuck.” He said in explanation of his tardiness. “Took forever to wash most of ‘em, and then Oscar—poor thing—lost his balance on his stool again and broke a few trays.”

“No problem Jeff, we’re just glad you got a break so you can come eat with us.” Kit replied. “Is Oscar alright?”

“Yeah, he’s fine.” Jeffery assured him. “He cried over breaking those trays, but I managed to calm him down and comfort him. But anyway, I thought I was never gonna get outta’ there, the way all the trays kept piling up!” Jeffery laughed as he sat down next to Kit and taking his peanut butter and honey sandwich and milk out of his lunch bag and begin to eat. “Man, I’m starving! And I kinda figured out what Uncle Baloo meant about re-lax-station.” He added, trying to keep his cafeteria apron out of the way of his eating. “Not that I’m allergic to work or anything, but it’s good to get a little R and R every once in a while.”

“R and R?” asked Chris, looking puzzled.

“Rest and relaxation.” Kit explained.

“Oh…” then Chris raised his head up enough to notice his cousin was dressed slightly different. “Hey Jeffery?” he asked, looking puzzled. “What’s up with your outfit, Jeffery, are you the chef or something? And I thought you were wearing your sweater earlier…”

“What, this old thing?” Jeffery said, smiling and tugging at the front of his uniform, “Nah, I’m not a chef, Chris, though I do help with the cooking sometimes. No Chris, I’m a cafeteria volunteer helper, hired by the school lunch staff. Kit and I both do it as part of our extra curricular school activities, though he got off the hook toady.” Jeffery laughed.

“Hey!” Kit said indignantly. “I had to show Chris around and all!  It couldn't be helped, Jeff.” He slightly laughed, happy to see his cousin back to normal after the incident with Gorgon Cornmat earlier that day and Kit was happy he could stick up for his cousin and he always would.

“Wow! That’s neat, Jeffery, so what all do you do as a volunteer cafeteria helper?” Chris asked excitedly. “Is it fun?”

“Oh yes, it is,”  Jeffery replied “but it can get tedious at times, especially like today, the dishwasher broke down and me and Oscar had to wash trays by hand. So that was pretty tedious.” Jeffery sighed, looking tired.

“What’s ‘tedious’?” Chris asked, puzzled.

“It means boring, Chris.” Kit answered gently so not to make his brother feel stupid. “And it does get pretty boring sometimes.”

“As far as my duties…” Jeffery