Ninety-Nine looked at his own blocks. Nine rows of eleven. Suddenly, he had an idea. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Instead of staying as a solid rectangle, he split his top row of eleven into 10 and 1. Then he shifted the 1 down. He took another row and did the same.
Slowly, beautifully, Ninety-Nine rearranged himself not into one shape, but into nine separate, smaller Numberblocks, each one a neat "11." They stood in a line, then stacked like a totem, then fanned out.
Then, little Seven piped up. "Don't be sad, Ninety-Nine! You’re almost One Hundred! And you know what’s super special about you?" numberblocks 99
Numberblock Ninety-Nine was nervous. He was a tall, two-digit block, colored a deep, thoughtful indigo with nine rows of eleven blocks, arranged as a perfect 9x11 rectangle. He watched as smaller blocks like Seven twirled into a hexagon, and Twelve bustled into three different rectangles (3x4, 2x6, and 1x12) in a flash.
"You’re the biggest Numberblock that is one less than a hundred!" Seven said. "When you’re around, One Hundred feels complete. But also… you can make rain!" Ninety-Nine looked at his own blocks
The result was a shimmering waterfall of blocks—a "Rainbow of Ninety-Nine." The tens glittered like a ramp, and the ones tumbled down like glowing rain.
"Rain?" Ninety-Nine blinked.
Ninety-Nine tried again. He flipped into 11 blocks wide and 9 blocks tall. "Same thing," whispered Thirty-Three (3x11). "Just turned around."