stood a white duck kid, who took a bow before a second cloud of smoke engulfed him. And when the smoke faded away, the duck kid was gone.

“That was William Mallard, who just demonstrated his smoky entrance and exit act.” said Mr. Pomeroy, applauding along with everybody else.  

And then there was a geeky chicken girl with black pigtails and purple diamond-shape glasses, who claimed to be a turtle trainer and that she taught her turtle to jump through the hoop. She held the hoop close to her turtle and ordered it to jump. The turtle did not move, but to just stared at her, looking rather bored.

“Heh-heh,” the chicken girl chuckled nervously, uncomfortably aware that the audience was starting to buzz like a thousand crickets. “JUMP THROUGH THE HOOP!” she screamed at her turtle, which remained immovable. “WHY AREN’T YOU JUMPING?!”

“That will do, Miss Little.” Mr. Pomeroy said kindly, gently pushing her off the stage with her so-called jumping turtle, and she left, crying uncontrollably.    

“Who’s that?” Kit asked, feeling sorry for the chicken girl.

“Who, that lame-o turtle trainer?” Ernie asked, pointing a thumb at her. “That’s Tootie Little and she’s weird. I’d avoid her if I were you.”

“Ernie!” Kit exclaimed reprovingly.

“What?” said Ernie defensively. “She is weird, how many people do you know try to train a turtle to jump through hoops?”

“I know, but you didn’t have to be mean about it.” Kit said, deciding not to introduce Chris and Jeffery to the Jungle Aces, not with the way Ernie was behaving.

Next to come up on stage was a panda girl, who demonstrated her talent by walking around on the stage, balancing five heavy books on her head. She walked until her time was up and not once did the books wiggled on her head or even threatens to fall off. To show the audience that the books weren’t glued together, she took the books off her head one by one.  

“That was Linda Ping,” Mr. Pomeroy said as Linda departed from the stage. “Marvelous wasn’t she, folks? And now, may I present…he’s a model student, five-time winner of the honor roll and only been given detention once! Give it up for Kit Cloudkicker!” 

In the audience, Baloo looked sheepish while Rebecca and Melissa glared daggers at him, clearly saying without speaking: ‘that detention was your fault!’

Kit blushed at the introduction his principal made out for him. He gulped before moving forward, Jeffery right behind him, rolling the cart with the Saw-in-Half box on top of it. 

“Were you really in detention?” Jeffery whispered as he pushed the cart.

“That was Baloo’s fault; and I got in trouble for covering for him.” Kit whispered back.

At the center of the stage, Kit stopped and so did Jeffery. He spread his arms wide as if to embrace to the whole audience, his wand held tightly in his right hand.

“I am….” Kit paused for what appeared to be dramatic effect, but it was actually a pause to swallow the lump in his throat, his wand still held high. “KIT, THE MAGICIAN!” he shouted, bringing his wand swishing down through the air to point at the audience, and a shower of ribbons and confetti  shot out of it with the sound of a firework, which left the crowd exclaiming in awe. The cheers and applause that followed made Kit feel better and calmed his nerves.

“And his assistance— Star Bear!” Jeffery shouted with a bow to the audience. He wasn’t as nervous as Kit, he’d been on stage a thousand times and so he’s not the least bit stage shy. 

“And for my first trick,” Kit said, holding a hand out to Jeffery and Jeffery handed him three rings that were joined together. “I’ll separate these rings!” He separated the three rings, to which, the audience applauded. He put the rings back together and gave them to Jeffery, who tucked them away in the bag-o-tricks.

“Kit, there’s something up your sleeve.” Jeffery said, reaching into Kit’s jacket sleeve and withdrew a red scarf. He pulled it out and behind the red scarf was a blue one that was tied to the red. He pulled out the blue and behind the blue were orange, then yellow, then green, purple, red, pink, black and finally white, which was the end of the scarves line.   

 Kit laughed. “You finally found my handkerchief. Now let me find yours.”

Kit raised the wand and pointed it at Jeffery’s sleeves. At once, playing cards shot out of both sleeves.

“Oops, wrong spell.” Kit said, smiling slyly. 

“Oh gee, thanks, Kit…” Jeffery said very sarcastically. “I’ve always wanted to be a living card trick.” He held up his arms so that he was showering the audience with playing cards.

The audience laughed and clapped, while Kit pushed Jeffery’s arms down, He then raised the wand again, and the flow of cards stopped abruptly. And then they both bowed to audience.

“And now for my next trick,” Kit said, taking off his top hat and setting it on the table while  Jeffery pulled a broom out from within his suit and started sweeping the cards off the stage. “I’ll pull a rabbit out of my hat.”

“Be careful, O great magician.” Jeffery said, still sweeping cards off the floor. “Remember the last bunny you pulled out of that hat? It was enormous and it tried to eat me!”

“Aw, it was just trying to give you a hug, Star Bear.” Kit said as he plunged an arm down his seemingly bottomless hat.

“It had my head in its mouth and you called that a hug?!”

The audience burst out laughing at Jeffery’s words.

Kit groped around inside the hat and then paused, pressing a finger to his lip.

“Shh… this bunny is very sensitive, so please don’t scare it off.” 

As the audience held its breath, Kit gave a great tug and out of the hat, came the head of a bear cub in a rabbit suit—Bunny Rabbit Chris!

“Ta-da!” Chris exclaimed cutely.

“Aww…” cooed the audience

“See Jeffery? He’s not going to eat you.” Kit said, pulling Chris’ torso and arms out of the hat along with his head. “He just wants a hug.”

“Well, this bunny is different,” Jeffery said, coming out from behind Kit’s back. “It was monstrous and hungry, not like this one, this one is cute and cuddly.” And he wrapped his arms around the torso of Bunny Chris, and Chris hugged back.

“Aww…” The audience cooed again

Chris jumped and stared wide-eyed at the crowd like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Uh-oh, folks, you scared the bunny.” Kit said, and he pushed Chris’ head gently back down the hat, trying to protect Chris from becoming more scared.

“Aww…” the audience said, this time in disappointment. They all loved the bunny rabbit Chris.

Upon hearing the “aww” of disappointment, Chris shyly poked his head and arm out of the hat to wave at the crowd in thanks.

“Isn’t he cute?” Kit asked, patting Chris on the head, between the rabbit ears. He then pushed Chris back down the hat, took the hat off the table and pushed the table to Jeffery, who wheeled it off backstage, with Chris secretly inside the table. “And now…” he said, pulling a sheet out of his pocket. “I’ll make my assistant, Star Bear, disappear before your very eyes.”

He threw the sheet over Jeffery, who stood there, looking like a classic sheet ghost.

“Send me to someplace warm, cuz.” Jeffery said. “If you send me to Thembria, I will turn you into a rabbit and I will not turn you back into a boy again….” 

“Fine, fine, fine,” said Kit airily, and he tapped Jeffery’s head three times with his wand. “Hocus pocus, twinkle toes, send Star Bear to a desert island!” He shouted, waving his wand and then pointed it at Jeffery.

Everyone started laughing at Kit’s choice of magic words, but stopped when the body inside the sheet vanished, causing the sheet to fall to the floor in a heap.

Kit picked up the sheet and held it up. Then he bowed to the audience, which started applauding loudly. Over the cheering and clapping, Kit could’ve sworn he heard Baloo chuckled: “Twinkle toes…hoo-hoo., oh Kit-boy, you are something else.” 

Kit smiled as he straightened up. Just then, Jeffery’s voice filled the whole room,

“Nice one, cuz…” Jeffery said approvingly. “Though, next time you decide to send me to Louie’s, tell me ahead of time. I had to charge my sundae on Uncle Baloo’s tab.”

In the audience, Baloo groaned and banged his head on the seat in front of him. Rebecca and Melissa glanced at him, half amused, half sympathetic. Molly, who was sitting on Rebecca’s lap, pouted and mumbled something about not getting her some ice cream too.

In a cloud of purple smoke, Jeffery reappeared on stage with half a coconut shell in his hand as a bowl for his ice cream. He took one last bite, saying: “Mmm, good!” before he discard his coconut shell bowl in a random direction and took a bow with Kit as the crowd applauded wildly.

“Thank you! Ladies and gentleman.” Kit and Jeffery shout in unison.

 “And now, for our next trick I'm going to try and have Kit escape this trunk while handcuffed and placed in a magic bag.” Jeffery announced smiling broadly. He pointed his wand at Kit and