Girls Just Wanna Have Pugs

by J. J. Howard

  We got out of the cab, and I spotted Taz waving to us on the corner of 76th Street in front of Central Park.

  “We just heard from a jogger in the park who thinks he saw something that could have been Charlie!” she called. “So now everyone is looking around this part of the park. Just be sure to call or text me if you think you see anything—or if you get any more tips. This could be it!”

  “Great!” Mom said.

  I felt a cautious rush of hope. Central Park is huge—it stretches all the way from 59th Street to 110th Street. But the fact that someone had just seen a dog that looked like Charlie in the area around 76th Street meant that—maybe—the little pup hadn’t gone too far.

  I pictured being the one to find Charlie. And boom—at that moment I had an idea. I remembered the morning I had helped find Meatball, and suddenly I knew what I needed to do. I glanced around. There were no stores along Central Park West. But I knew there was a bodega over on Columbus Avenue, one avenue away. They sold sandwiches, and I could only hope that some of those sandwiches were made with chicken. Charlie really, really loved chicken.

  Quickly, I explained my plan to Mom and Micki, and soon the three of us were racing over to Columbus Avenue and the bodega on the corner.

  We stepped inside and I looked around frantically. Luckily the place wasn’t crowded, so I wouldn’t need Micki to put on one of her performances and clear the line. I spotted what I was looking for: a tray of grilled chicken tenders.

  “Can I have a lot—maybe a pound?—of those tenders?” I asked the man behind the counter.

  He nodded and started to wrap them up nicely. “Can you just throw them into a bag?” I asked. “I’m in a hurry. They’re to help find a lost dog. I mean, no offense, they look delicious. I’d like to come back and try them myself once we find him.”

  The man laughed. “No offense taken. Is this for the lost Chihuahua?” I nodded. “I’ve seen the flyers. These are on the house, as long as you do come back and try them later. And give me an update on the dog?”

  I nodded gratefully. “Thank you so much! You’re like a New York miracle.”

  The man laughed. “No big,” he said, handing over the chicken. “Good luck!”

  “That man was so nice,” Mom remarked as we all rushed out of the store. I nodded; it felt good to see the neighborhood come together for the sake of Charlie.

  Mom, Micki, and I rushed back to the park to hand out chicken to all the searchers. I only hoped my plan would work.

  As we entered the park, I spotted Lucy and her mom walking along one of the paths. Lucy still looked pale and upset, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

  “Luce!” I called, running over and holding up the bag of grilled chicken tenders. “I have something.”

  Lucy stopped moving when she heard my voice. “Hey, Kat. I’m—I’m really sorry about this,” Lucy said. “About … losing Charlie. I realize I didn’t say it yesterday.”

  “Lucy’s been devastated,” her mom said, putting her hand on Lucy’s shoulder.

  I shook my head. “Let’s not worry about any of that now. Here, I got some of Charlie’s favorite: chicken. I thought if he’s anywhere hiding in the trees or bushes we could use the smell to lure him out.”

  “That’s such a great idea,” Lucy’s mom said. Lucy took the chicken from me without saying anything else. We all split up and started circling the edge of the park, calling Charlie’s name and holding pieces of grilled chicken in our hands.

  Some people walking through the park stopped to ask us if we were looking for a lost pet. A few stayed to help for a little while; most wished us luck in finding him and went on their way. No one complained about us yelling “Charlie” over and over.

  I kept walking along the edge of the park, my hand full of chicken, tree branches sharp against my skin. One even cut into my cheek, and it began to sting. But I couldn’t stop. We had to find Charlie.

  Suddenly I thought I saw a flash of brown fur among some bushes up ahead, and I called out to Lucy, who was walking several steps in front of me.

  “If it was him, he’s headed your way,” I said.

  I knew I might have just spotted a possum or even a remarkably large rat, but what if it had been Charlie?

  Lucy nodded and hurried into the bushes. As soon as I heard her whoop of joy, I knew she’d found Charlie. We all came running: the Porters, Mom, Micki, Lucy’s mom, Taz and her parents and one of her sisters—and there was Declan, who I didn’t even know had made it back to look, too.

  We all surrounded Lucy, who was holding tight to Charlie. The poor little guy was shaking but otherwise seemed okay. When Mr. and Mrs. Porter rushed over to him, Charlie started crying loudly, a high-pitched keening sound that would have been terrible except that it meant that he was being reunited with his parents.

  After she handed Charlie to the Porters, Lucy sat down on the grass, right where she’d been standing, like her legs had given out from under her. She put her head in her hands, and I knew that she was crying. Hesitantly, I walked over to her and sat beside her. I put my hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t look up.

  Lucy’s mom pulled her up a few moments later and led her away, as though she were much younger.

  “That was a great idea, getting the chicken,” Declan said. I started a little; I hadn’t realized he had come up to stand beside me. “I think Charlie smelled it and that’s why he came out.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, standing up. “I’m just glad we found him.” I saw that the Porters were already walking toward the park exit, taking Charlie home.

  Mom was pretending to show Micki something so I could finish talking to Declan. I had to smile at that.

  “And thanks for coming back out to help,” I said to Declan. “It was really nice of you.”

  “Well, Misty basically begged me to stay and rehearse with her, and since she has such a big part, I felt like I should stay for a little while. But I’m really glad I could be here to see Charlie get found.” Declan smiled. “Now, I have a puppy of my own at home who needs some dinner and a walk.”

  I froze. I’d been so focused on the search for Charlie that I hadn’t even looked at today’s schedule for Four Paws. I pulled out my phone and quickly scanned the calendar. We were only late for one of our clients—Kekáki—and then Meatball also needed to be walked, but not until a little later.

  “Do you need me to take one of the walks?” Declan asked, pulling up the Four Paws app on his phone, too.

  I shook my head. As the president of Four Paws, I felt it was my responsibility to explain to the clients why we were late—even if that meant admitting what had happened with Charlie. My stomach twisted. I could only hope Four Paws wouldn’t suffer as a result.

  * * *

  As soon as I got back to the Burgundy, I knocked on Mrs. Galanis’s door to pick up Kekáki.

  “Hi,” I said. “I’m sorry to be late walking Kekáki. Unavoidable issue today, but I promise it won’t happen again.”

  Mrs. Galanis frowned. “I heard about your ‘unavoidable issue,’” she told me. “I think you should be honest with people that you kids lost someone’s dog.”

  My heart sank. “I wasn’t trying to be dishonest, Mrs. Galanis, I swear. It … it just happened yesterday, so we’ve been spending all our energy on finding him. I’ve been trying to get everything back on track.”

  Mrs. Galanis folded her arms across her chest. “Well, I can’t say that I feel comfortable letting you girls take out Kekáki, not under these circumstances. You can take us off your list.”

  She shut the door before I even knew what had happened.

  I felt sick. Mrs. Galanis had been sort of cold and awful and hadn’t even let me explain, but she wasn’t actually wrong—we had lost one of our dogs, for more than twenty-four hours. It was only luck (and some chicken tenders) that had brought him home. If I were a grown-up who lived in the Burgundy, and I had a dog, would I let the Four Paws members walk my pup after what had just happ
ened?

  My heart sank even further when I thought about the next door I had to knock on: Meatball’s.

  What if the Thompsons said the same thing to me as Mrs. Galanis had? What if I never got the chance to spend any time at all with Meatball? This was the worst feeling yet.

  I got in the elevator, thoughts racing. Should I straight-out tell the Thompsons what had happened? Mrs. Galanis seemed to be mad not just because we’d lost Charlie, but because I hadn’t told her about it.

  Or should I wait until things at the building died down a little before bringing it up to the Thompsons? Unlike Mrs. Galanis, who was always home, Sarah and Dan were always running around. Maybe they didn’t even know anything about what had happened, and then I’d be foolish to bring it up—opening a can of worms that I didn’t need to open.

  Oh, what to do? The elevator doors opened. Decision time.

  I knocked on the Thompsons’ door. When Sarah answered, I said in a rush, “Hi, Sarah. I have to tell you something. We were looking for a dog that got away from one of us yesterday, but we found him.”

  “Oh no!” Sarah said. “What happened?”

  A tiny voice inside my head said, See, I told you they wouldn’t know anything about it!

  But the truth was out now. I couldn’t go back. Besides, honesty was always the best policy.

  But I realized that I still didn’t actually know all the details of what had happened with Charlie. Taz had stopped me from asking Lucy yesterday. Now that Charlie was back home safe, I resolved that I was going to hear the rest of the story.

  “He just got away on his walk and ran off,” I said. “But we made flyers right away, we all organized a search, and we found him.”

  Sarah put a hand to her chest. “That’s awful! The dog getting out, I mean, of course. It’s so wonderful you kids all worked together and found him. So glad that story has a happy ending.” Sarah was already taking Meatball’s harness off the hook and handing it to me. “He’s just eating dinner, as you could probably guess since he didn’t come running at the sound of your voice like usual,” Sarah added with a smile.

  I felt shaky with relief. This interaction was very different from the one I’d had with Mrs. Galanis. Was it because I’d told the truth right away? Or because Sarah and Mrs. Galanis were just such different people? I wondered if I’d ever know.

  “Meatball!” Sarah called, and he came ambling out of the kitchen. When he spotted me, he put on the speed and barreled toward me, tiny corkscrew tail going wild.

  “Hey, boy,” I said, a sudden lump forming in my throat at seeing him. All this time with Charlie, I’d been imagining what it would feel like for me if Meatball had gotten lost. Even though he wasn’t really my dog, I loved him just as much as if he were.

  “Come on, boy, it’s time for a walk,” I told him. But he rolled over completely onto his back, all four paws waving in the air and his tongue lolling out. He refused to budge until I knelt down and scratched his belly.

  I looked up and realized Sarah was watching us. “He only does that with you, you know,” she said. I tried not to look surprised. It seemed like pretty regular doggo behavior to me.

  I waved goodbye to Sarah and led Meatball down the hall. Thank goodness I could still be his dog walker.

  While I walked, I texted Lucy to check on her, but she still didn’t send anything back. Had her mom gotten mad about the lost dog and taken her phone?

  I kept Meatball out as long as I thought I reasonably could, then walked home in the almost-dark. It was getting dark a little bit earlier each day. Before I knew it, winter would be here.

  For some reason, thinking about the winter and snow and the holidays made me feel sad. Maybe because everything had been so stressful and confusing with Dad, maybe because my best friend wouldn’t or couldn’t text me back, or maybe just because of all of it.

  When I got back home, I knocked on Micki’s bedroom door. She opened it, looking surprised. It was nice in her room, with only one small lamp on and all the stars and planet stickers on her ceiling glowing softly. “Can I hang out in here?” I asked her.

  Micki blinked. “Course. Let me make some space.” She cleared a pile of books and stuffed animals from one side of her bed and I lay down on my back, gazing up at her stars.

  Micki lay down beside me. “I’m so glad we found Charlie,” she said.

  “Me too.”

  “Maybe we can use the fact that you found him as, like, evidence. With Mom and Dad. For getting our own dog.”

  I noticed she said our dog, but I didn’t mind. “Well, Lucy found Charlie.”

  “But it was your genius idea, with the chicken,” Micki said, and leaned her head on my shoulder.

  “Thanks for saying so. Maybe it did help,” I told her.

  “Of course it did!”

  A few minutes passed, then Micki said, “Kat?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m really glad I’m doing stage crew with you.”

  I felt a warm feeling go through me, pretty much the exact opposite of the horrible cold feeling I’d felt at Mrs. Galanis’s door. “Me too, sis,” I said. “Me too.”

  But then my phone dinged. I sat up and checked the Four Paws app. It was a direct message from Charlotte, Mary-Kate and Ashley’s owner.

  Hi, Kat. This is to let you know we won’t be requiring the services of Four Paws anymore.

  Things only got worse from there. By the next morning, Four Paws had lost three more clients. I felt awful.

  Micki and I waited in the lobby for Lucy and Taz to walk to school. I felt bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. Declan had texted that he’d gone in early to work on his lines with Mr. Cornell. Taz soon joined us, but Lucy didn’t text back, and finally it got too late, so three of us headed off.

  “Lucy hasn’t responded to any of my texts since Sunday,” I said to Taz. I frowned. Saying it out loud made me realize just how bad it felt that my best friend was ignoring me. It was almost like she was mad at me, except that I hadn’t been the one to do anything wrong!

  “Give her a break,” Taz said. “She’s still really upset about losing Charlie.”

  “Is she even coming to school today? The play’s this Saturday. If she misses another rehearsal …”

  “Mr. C is going to lose it!” Micki finished for me.

  I sighed. “Listen,” I told Taz. “We need to have an emergency Four Paws meeting today, after rehearsal. We’ve lost five clients already. We need to figure out a plan to handle the fallout from Lucy losing Charlie.”

  Taz turned to me as we walked. “Kat, just the other day you were saying you were overwhelmed with too many dogs to walk. Isn’t losing five just sort of solving that problem?”

  I felt a surge of frustration. “Taz, the only reason the schedule has been tight last week and this week is because all the Four Paws members are involved in the play. But after Saturday, that’ll be over. And then what about Four Paws? What if we keep losing clients?”

  “I don’t know,” Taz said. “I guess we can discuss everything at the meeting.”

  For some reason it seemed like she was on Lucy’s side in all this, and it felt massively unfair. It was Lucy who had messed up and put us in this position.

  I kept waiting for Lucy to show up in school all morning, but in second period, I heard someone say she was absent.

  It felt very strange that someone other than me was telling the teacher that my best friend was absent. What was going on? Was Lucy still so upset about losing Charlie that she couldn’t come to school? What about the play?

  I thought about sending her another text at lunch, but then I saw on my phone I’d already sent four that she hadn’t answered. It was obviously Lucy’s turn to respond to me.

  But I did go ahead and send out the group text about the emergency meeting to all four Paws. The usual way we responded that we were in for something was to send a thumbs-up. Taz sent one right away. Declan wrote back that his mom was in town, so he couldn’t make it, but to go ahead
without him.

  A few minutes later Lucy sent her own thumbs-up. With the original three Paws in attendance, the emergency meeting was on.

  * * *

  First, though, came rehearsal. It was easy to see that Mr. Cornell was not happy that Lucy was missing another rehearsal. Brooke was filling in for her as Emily, but she didn’t really know any of the lines, or where to stand or move (which I had learned was called blocking). I felt bad for her. Even though she’d been named the understudy, I’m sure Brooke hadn’t thought that she would actually need to play the part of Emily.

  Sparky was at rehearsal today, and I was watching her in the wings, as usual. She seemed a little uncomfortable in her crate, so I took her out to let her stretch after a whole day inside. I didn’t just leave her loose, obviously—I tied her leash to what looked like a big, heavy metal cart. But when Micki asked me to help her find a prop, I turned my back on Sparky for a moment … and then she took off toward Declan onstage. My knot had held just fine, but apparently the cart wasn’t that heavy, since when Sparky started running she dragged the cart along with her. The cart’s wheels made a horrible squeaking sound, and then Sparky started barking. She didn’t actually get too far—she got spooked by the cart and eventually was just hopping around—but by that point everyone onstage had dissolved into a fit of hysterical laughing. Declan, Micki, and I all rushed to Sparky, which scared her more, but Declan managed to scoop her up in his arms to settle her down.

  “Sorry, Mr. C!” I called, my cheeks pink with embarrassment.

  Mr. Cornell let us go early, saying it was to “try to save what’s left of my sanity.”

  I was torn between laughter at Sparky’s thankfully minor disaster and true worry about the rehearsals. We had started so strong, but with Lucy absent, the play didn’t feel right. Hopefully the whole thing would come together by Saturday. And then, of course, I’d failed at my dog-sitting duty. I frowned at that.

  “I’m sorry, Declan,” I told him as we walked out. “I only turned my back for a minute.”

  “It’s totally okay, Kat,” he said, giving Sparky’s head a pat. “It’s not fair to ask you to do your stage crew job and look after Sparky. I’ll see if Dad can stay with her tomorrow.”