Bonnie Gremlin's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Bonnie Gremlin pressed her pink nose against the crack in the bathroom wall. Through the gap, she watched Dottie apply her morning face cream in perfect circles. Bonnie's large ears twitched with excitement. She wanted to learn every step of Dottie's beauty routine—the creams, the tools, the secret techniques. But Dottie protected her bathroom like a fortress. Trip wires hung across doorways. Pressure plates hid under rugs. Motion sensors blinked red in dark corners. Bonnie pulled back from the wall and smiled. She would figure it out. One way or another, those beauty secrets would be hers. Bonnie crept down the dusty hallway and peeked out a window. Dottie's white house sat in the middle of the desert like a pearl in sand. The 1950s home had charm, but it also had problems—for Bonnie, at least. Every room held a new trap. Every doorway meant danger. Bonnie's polka-dot dress swished as she moved to the kitchen. She grabbed a notebook from her hiding spot behind the breadbox. Inside, she had drawn maps of the house and written down everything she had seen so far. Step one: face cream in circles. Step two: unknown. Bonnie tapped her pencil against her pink nose. She needed to get closer to that bathroom. She needed to see the whole routine from start to finish. Outside, the morning sun heated the desert sand. Bonnie slipped through a window and landed softly on the ground. She pulled a brass spyglass from her dress pocket and extended it with a soft click. The leather grip felt warm in her small paws. She aimed it at the white house and watched Dottie move from room to room. Through the lens, Bonnie could see the bathroom window. She could see shelves lined with bottles and jars. Her heart beat faster. Every bottle held a secret. Every jar meant another step to learn. Bonnie collapsed the spyglass and tucked it away. She would watch and wait. She would learn the patterns. And when the time was right, she would sneak past every single trap. Bonnie walked across the hot sand toward the edge of town. A metal trash can sat near an old building, stuffed full of magazines. She pulled out a stack and flipped through the glossy pages. Beauty tips covered every page—face masks, hair styles, makeup tricks. Bonnie tucked three magazines under her arm and headed back toward the desert. She had Dottie's house to watch. She had her spyglass to see with. She had her notebook to record everything. And now she had magazines to study between visits. Bonnie looked back at the white house in the distance. That building held everything she wanted to know. Soon, she would know it all.