Henry looked where Maggie was pointing.
A teenage boy had just walked up behind the lemonade stand.
He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, and he had a tattoo of a snake on his arm.
"It's okay, Maggie," Henry said quickly.
The teenager looked pretty tough, and Henry didn't want to cause trouble.
"I'm sure he wasn't spying on us."
Maggie frowned. "How do you know?
Maybe he's building a float for the parade, and he was eavesdropping so he can steal our ideas."
The teenager laughed. "Actually, my rock band is entering a float.
But we're not doing any silly lemon stuff.
We're going to make our float look like a concert stage.
Then we're going to play our music during the parade. It will be awesome!"
"Do you live in Belltown?" Henry asked.
"I moved here at the beginning of the summer," the teenager said.
"My name is Stan, but everyone calls me Snake."
"Welcome to Belltown, Snake." Cole poured a cup of lemonade.
"Here's some lemonade—on the house."
"Thanks." Snake drank the lemonade.
"Maybe my band will stop by later to buy more.
We'll probably be thirsty after we practice.
That reminds me—I have to go."
Soon there were no customers in sight.
"Hey, Nathan, can you watch the lemonade stand for a while?" Henry asked.
"We should go work on our float. We only have two more days to finish it."
"Yeah." Maggie picked up the laptop.
"Plus, my mom doesn't know I have her computer."
"Sure," Nathan said. "Have fun."
The papier-mâché lemon was in Maggie's house.
When it was finished, the kids were planning to attach it to a garden cart.
Maggie's father would pull the cart behind his lawn tractor.
"It looks awesome," Cole said.
"But we still need to attach Sherlock Holmes' hat."
Maggie dug into their craft supply box. "I think we're out of glue."
"I'll go buy some," Henry offered. "You guys can keep working."
Henry's house was right next door.
He grabbed his bike and rode toward Main Street.
On the way there, he heard loud rock music.
It was coming from the garage of a nearby house.
The garage door was open, so Henry stopped and looked in.
Four teenagers were inside playing instruments.
One of the musicians was Snake. There were two other boys and a girl.
Snake saw Henry looking in.
He held up a hand, and the band stopped playing.
The other three teens stared at Henry.
Henry knew the drummer's name was Eddie and that this was his house.
He also recognized the other two teens as students from the high school.
But he didn't know any of them well.
"Hey, it's the lemonade kid," Snake called with a smile.
"Did you bring us a drink?"
"No," Henry said. "I like your music, though."
"Cool," one of the other boys said with a grin. "You have good taste."
Henry glanced at the girl. He was pretty sure her name was Jade.
She was ignoring everyone else as she tuned her guitar.
"Are you here to spy on us, Lemonade Kid?"
Snake laughed and glanced at the others with a grin.
"He and his friends are making a float too."
"Uh-oh," Eddie said. "So he's our competition for the prizes, huh?"
"No way," the other boy said.
"Our float is going to be awesome! We'll win for sure."
Jade looked up from her guitar with a frown.
"Can we get back to practicing?" she said. "I have to go to work soon."
"Okay, okay." Snake strummed his bass guitar.
"See you at the parade, Lemonade Kid."
"See you." Henry hurried on as the music started again.
"May I be excused, Mom?" Henry asked.
It was the next day, and he'd just finished eating lunch.
"Of course," his mother said. "Put your dishes in the sink.
Are you going back to Maggie's house to work on your float?"
Henry carried his plate and glass to the sink.
"No, we worked on it all morning.
I'm supposed to meet Maggie and Cole at the lemonade stand."
When Henry reached the lemonade stand, his friends were already there.
Maggie had her mother's laptop again.
"What are you doing?" Henry asked her.
"I want to leave a comment on the town website about our float," Maggie said.
"Then people will look for us during the parade."
"Are a lot of people leaving comments?" Cole asked.
He and Henry watched as Maggie scrolled down to the comment section.
Henry's eyes widened when he saw the latest comment.
"Look at that!" he exclaimed.
The comment was typed in capital letters.
THE SUMMER PARADE IS FOR LOSERS.
THE MAYOR SHOULD CANCEL IT—OR ELSE!