Mrs. De La Crème "corrects" the Scout, saying that she obviously wants Myrracle instead of Tookie. A piece of paper materializes in the Scout's hand, and she studies it.
Myrracle tries to snatch the paper, but the Scout jerks back and Myrracle gets hit with the Scout's necklaces.
Creamy is showing compassion? Yes! Finally she shows a shred of humanity!
Never mind. False alarm.
"Yes I do," Tookie said softly. "Not that any of you have ever asked."
Tookie starts to take the Scout's hand, but Creamy pushes her off the roof of the car. Sadly, this does not result in the Scout vaporizing Creamy with Super Special Awesome Modeling Powers.
"Oh, so now the circus freak is your daughter?"
"Tookie, don't listen to her. You know I love you, right? Always have, always will. You're Daddy's special baby girl."
"Just go," Mr. De La Crème told Tookie. "For all of us."
Tookie then notices that she's on one of the giant TV screens. She then remembers the words of Encouraging Homeless Man.
Tookie takes the Scout's hand. Fabric "spews" from the Scout's fingers and envelops them in a "translucent mesh pouch." They then fly away.
I don't get it. Why are they flying? The other Scouts just teleported out. I guess Tookie is just that special.
As they fly, the Scout keeps her arms in a V, since the fabric of the pouch is still apparently attached to her fingers.
"I just flew in from LaDorno, and boy are my arms tired!"
Sorry. Couldn't resist.
Tookie watches LaDorno go by below her.
Ooh! Which Flash is it? Barry? Wally? Jay?
"Lizzie!" Tookie's jaw dropped. "We have to stop!"
Tookie tries to tear open the pouch to get to Lizzie.
Oh, don't even try to pull this crap. You came along willingly, knowing that it meant you'd be leaving Lizzie alone. You may not have planned to miss the meeting with Lizzie in the morning, but you chose to take the Scout's hand. You could have refused and apologized to Lizzie when you saw her later, explaining what happened. But, nope! You decided you're dreams of becoming a super-powered supermodel were more important than your mentally ill friend being left on the streets to fend for herself.
Yeah, that's not going to get my sympathy. Tookie might get my sympathy if she demands to be taken back or attempts to run away from Modelland to get back to Lizzie. Otherwise, Tookie is a lousy friend, and Lizzie deserved much better.
They fly to the Obscure Obelisks and then head straight down, passing through the sidewalk and into a tunnel. (Why did it take them so long to get to the Obelisks? They were right there when the De La Crème's arrived for T-DOD.)
They go to a giant mall that is so huge that people have houses in between the aisles. I swear on all that's holy, I am not making that up.
The name of the mall is the Bou-Big-Tique Nation.
If there aren't any bookstores or computer stores, that would be my own personal hell.
Bou-Big-Tique is in a different time zone, so T-DOD is still going on.
Hold the phone.
At LaDorno, there were hundreds of view screens showing places all over the world who were taking part in T-DOD. Why were those screens even there if they were in different time zones? It's silly and pointless to broadcast the video of a bunch of locations where people haven't even arrived yet.
At Bou-Big-Tique Nation, all the girls are wearing single color outfits for some reason. The Scout homes in on one girl in particular. Tookie is amazed that she can see and hear everything the Scout does. Tookie? You're standing right next to her. Unless you have hearing or vision problems, this is completely normal.
The Scout heads towards a girl in the customer service department who is wearing a nametag that says "Dylan." We get a long, detailed description of her appearance, so we know she's important.
"Lavender-blue"? If this were a fanfic, this would be a warning of a possible Sue. But in Modelland, this kind of thing seems to be normal.
Thanks, book. Now I'm imagining Dylan as Sailor Moon.
So the customer service department dress code requires fanservice outfits? Not very professional.
Dylan's five year old sister, DeeDee asks why she isn't allowed to walk like the other girls. (She's been practicing her "strutty-strut"!) Dylan points out she's too young, and I breathe a sigh of relief. This T-DOD stuff is creepy enough with all the underage girls disrobing on international TV. No need to drag a 5 year old into this.
Ugh. The narrator's bad enough. We don't need more people with stupid accents. I do like Dylan's attitude towards T-DOD, though.
But she gives into her sister's pouting and let's her walk with her.
Then a fight breaks out when one girl accuses another of stealing her "walking style." They knock over a display of motor oil, and are soon fighting in it.
With scenes like this, I keep expecting this book to devolve into soft-core porn.
Ew. I guess sexual harassment is A-OK in the Modelland universe.
"Strawberry" ends up punching a security guard who tries to break up the fight. Strangely enough, this does not get her tazed or pepper-sprayed.
Dylan somehow manages to break up the fight with her words of wisdom.
I have no clue why wombat milk was chosen over any other milk, other than the fact it sounds different. It also sounds monumentally stupid.
Do you know why cow and goat milk are so common? Cows and goats are easy to raise, produce a lot of milk, and the milk is easily accessible. Wombats are fairly small animals, meaning they wouldn't produce much milk. They are also marsupials, making the milk hard to get to. Oh, and adult wombats are aggressive, territorial and have sharp claws. Good luck milking them without getting mauled.
I couldn't find anything about humans drinking wombat milk online. (Just a few people wondering if it could be done.) I did learn that they make artificial wombat milk to help with orphaned baby wombats, due to some species of wombat being endangered. For some reason, I can't imagine an endangered species being a good source of milk.
Thank you, book, for making me waste almost 30 minutes looking up information on wombat milk. I shudder to think what kind of ads I'm going to be getting now.
Ugh.
Dylan tells the two girls who were fighting that they should go back to walking, even if they now look "busted-lookin'."
Is it wrong that I'm already hoping for Dylan's death? The only reason I don't hate her completely is because she thinks T-DOD is stupid.
The Scout goes over to Dylan, who apparently does want to go to Modelland, in spite of her earlier comment.
Just abandon them like Tookie did Lizzie. It's easy.
Actually, Dylan's mother appears and says that she'll look after the kids without her. I'll assume that her father is either dead or a deadbeat, since there's no mention of him.
Dylan then promptly faints. She's okay, though. She just faints when she's nervous.
The Scout carries her into the pouch, and Dylan immediately regains consciousness. Dylan asks who Tookie is, and says that she's never seen anyone with eyes like Tookie's before.
The chapter ends. As far as I can tell, its only purpose was to introduce Dylan, which could have been done in a single page if we weren't too busy obsessing over every detail of the Bou-Big-Tique Nation.
At this rate, we'll reach Modelland sometime around Chapter 20.
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