The Best Week of the Year (So Far)

Zoo Vegas never slept, but Ms. Art Sheep's School for the Creative came close on Sunday mornings — and that was exactly how Ms. Art Sheep liked it.

She floated six inches off the polished hallway floor, a steaming mug of chamomile balanced between her hooves, and surveyed the school she loved. Painted murals covered every wall — a tiger in a cape, a fox mid-cartwheel, a fox kit blowing rainbow bubbles. Every one made by her students.

"Gorgeous," she said to nobody in particular.

"You say that every Sunday," said a voice behind her.

Ms. Art Sheep turned. Dotty, her assistant — a small, bespectacled hedgehog in a blue-and-black student uniform — stood holding a clipboard and looking extremely official.

"The Art Show setup crew arrives Tuesday," Dotty announced. "The judges on Friday. And the whole city is coming."

Ms. Art Sheep smiled wide.

"Then this is going to be the best week this school has ever had."

A Very Wrong Tuesday

Tuesday arrived the way good news does — loud and fast.

The setup crew rolled in at eight sharp: a team of six students pushing carts loaded with display stands, velvet ropes, and little gold labels for each artwork. Ms. Art Sheep flew above them down the main corridor, pointing left and right, directing traffic like a very woolly air-traffic controller.

"Careful with the pedestals! Not too close to the windows!"

Dotty, the small hedgehog with the round glasses and the clipboard, trotted behind her, checking off items.

"All fourteen pieces are logged," Dotty said proudly. "Every student's artwork confirmed in storage Room B."

Ms. Art Sheep nodded. "Let's go take a look."

They opened Room B together.

The first painting was wrong. Instead of Pico the rabbit's careful watercolor cityscape, there was a crayon drawing of a giant cheese wedge with googly eyes, signed: *"By Gorgeous Gary."*

The second was wrong, too. A foam noodle shaped like a duck, wrapped in glitter tape.

Ms. Art Sheep stared.

"Dotty," she said quietly. "Who is Gorgeous Gary?"

Dotty flipped through every page on her clipboard.