by Abby Klein
“Meow. I am a kitty. Meow.”
“Meow. Meow,” said Kenny, laughing.
“You are teaching your brother the worst things! Now get your head out of the glass before it spills!”
Kelly pulled her head out.
“We’re going to be learning about pets at school,” I told Mom.
“I think we have more pets than anyone else in the class,” Kelly said.
“I’m sure you do,” said Mom. “It’s like a mini-zoo around here!”
“That’s what Mr. Lopez said!”
“Are you going to bring any of them in for show-and-tell?” Mom asked.
“We are actually going to have a Pet Day, and all of the kids can bring their pets to school.”
“That sounds like a great idea!” she said.
“It was Kasey’s idea. Mr. Lopez asked Mrs. Trumball, and she said it was okay.”
“But smaller animals have to be in a cage or tank,” I said.
“So who are you going to bring?” asked our mom.
We shrugged our shoulders.
“We don’t know yet,” I said.
Pete jumped onto my lap.
Mom laughed. “It looks like Pete would like to go. Maybe you should take him.”
CHAPTER 4
Shake, Rocky, Shake
As we were finishing our snack, we heard a bark outside in the yard.
“It sounds like Rocky,” I said.
“Roc-ky! Roc-ky!” said Kenny, and he climbed out of his booster seat.
When I opened the back door, Rocky ran in. He jumped on Kenny and covered him with wet, slobbery kisses.
Kenny giggled. “More! More!” he said.
Jake was standing on our back porch. “Hey, guys, can you come out here a minute?” he asked. “I need your help.”
“Sure,” we said.
“Me go! Me go!” said Kenny.
“No, you’re staying here with me,” said our mom as she picked him up off the floor. “I don’t want your sisters teaching you how to lift your leg on a tree.”
We all laughed.
“See you in a little while, Mom,” Kelly and I said.
We went out the back door and walked next door to Jake’s house.
“What do you need help with?” I asked.
“I have to teach Rocky how to do a trick before Pet Day tomorrow.”
“We can help you with that,” said Kelly. “What trick do you want to teach him?”
“Remember how Jasmine told us that her dog can balance a ball on his nose? That sounds pretty cool. Let’s try that,” said Jake.
Kelly picked up an old tennis ball from the grass and tried balancing it on her nose. Every time she put the ball on the end of her nose, it fell right back down onto the grass. “Hey, this is harder than it looks,” she said. “I think we should try something else.”
“Like what?” asked Jake.
“How about …,” said Kelly.
“Shaking hands?” I said, finishing her sentence.
We looked at each other and laughed.
“You guys really freak me out sometimes,” said Jake. “It’s like you can read each other’s minds.”
“It’s a twin thing,” we said.
“We taught Mike and Ike to shake hands,” said Kelly. “I bet we can teach Rocky, no problem.”
“Then when you bring Rocky to school, he can go around the circle and shake everybody’s hand,” I said.
“Good idea!” said Jake. “Let’s get started. Rocky! Rocky! Come here, boy.”
Rocky ignored Jake. As usual, he was in the back of the yard eating grass.
“Rocky, moo-oooo! Moo-oooo!” I called.
Rocky came running over.
“See, I told you he was part cow,” I said to Jake.
Jake just shook his head. “So, what do we have to do first?” he asked.
“Before he can shake hands, Rocky has to sit,” said Kelly.
“Good luck with that,” said Jake. “I’ve tried teaching him that before, but he just doesn’t get it.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. “All dogs know how to sit.” I walked over to Rocky. I snapped my fingers above his nose and said, “Rocky, sit.”
Rocky just blinked his eyes and wagged his tail.
“Let me try,” said Kelly. “Rocky, sit.”
More tail wagging.
“See what I mean?” said Jake.
“Well, if he doesn’t sit when you tell him to, then you can always get him to sit by pushing on his butt,” said Kelly.
“What?” said Jake.
“Push on his tush,” said Kelly. “Here. I’ll show you. Come over here, sis.”
I walked over to Kelly.
“Get down on your hands and knees.”
I got down on the ground like a dog.
“Kasey, sit,” said Kelly.
I just looked at her and wagged my tail, so she pushed my rear end to the ground.
“See, Jake? Just like that.”
He walked over to Rocky and pushed on his rear end. Rocky sat down in the grass. “Good boy,” Jake said, and patted Rocky’s head.
“Okay, what next?” asked Jake.
“Now, you get down on your knees in front of him. Stick your hand out like you are about to shake someone’s hand and say, ‘Shake,’“ I said.
“And reach your hand toward his paw,” said Kelly.
Jake got down in front of Rocky. He stuck out his hand and said, “Shake.” But instead of giving him his paw, Rocky licked Jake’s face.
“No! No! Silly dog. I didn’t say ‘kiss.’ I said ‘shake’!”
“Try it again,” I said.
Jake tried again. He reached his hand out and said, “Shake.” Rocky kissed him.
“This is not working,” said Jake.
“At least you’re getting your face washed,” Kelly said.
“How many times am I going to have to do this?”
“Hey, you have a dog who thinks he’s a cow,” I said, laughing. “No one said this was going to be easy.”
“Do you have any dog treats?” asked Kelly.
“Yeah. Why?” asked Jake.
“Dogs learn a trick faster if they get a reward for doing it,” said Kelly.
“Good idea!” said Jake. “Rocky loves food. I’ll go get him some treats.” He ran into his house and came back with a handful of treats.
Rocky ran over to him and started drooling on Jake’s shoes.
“You want one of these, boy? Then you have to do the trick.”
“This time when you say ‘shake,’ reach your hand out, grab his paw, and shake it. After you shake it, then give him the treat,” said Kelly.
Jake tried it again … and again … and again.
“Hey, I think he’s getting the hang of it!” he said.
“Great!” we said. “Now do it about fifty more times, and he might just be ready for tomorrow!”
“Thanks, guys,” said Jake.
“Woof! Woof!” Rocky barked and wagged his tail.
“Rocky says thank you, too!”
“No problem,” we said.
“What pets are you going to bring tomorrow?” asked Jake.
“I don’t know,” said Kelly.
“We haven’t decided yet,” I said.
“We’d better get going, so we can figure that out.”
CHAPTER 5
The Race
When we got home from helping Jake and Rocky, we went upstairs to our room. We share a bedroom. In fact, we have always shared a room since the day we were born. Our room is decorated in our two favorite colors: green and yellow. Some people say it’s like lemon and lime. We say bananas and pickles. My bed has yellow sheets and Kelly’s bed has green ones.
We sat down on our beds and stared at all of the animals’ cages.
“So, sis,” said Kelly. “Which pets do you think we should bring tomorrow?”
“Pets?” I said. “Were you planning on bringing more than one? I thought Mr. Lopez said one pet.”
Mr. Fluffy, our cat, walked into the room and jumped on my bed. He started rubbing against me and purring.
“It looks like someone really wants to go to school with you,” said Kelly, laughing.
“Madison is going to put her cat in an outfit, so if Mr. Fluffy comes, he has to be dressed up, too,” I said.
“What kind of outfit could you put him in?”
“I have an idea.” I ran over to my dresser and pulled out a baseball hat and sunglasses. “How about this?” I said, as I put the hat and sunglasses on Mr. Fluffy. “What do you think? Is he a cool cat or what?”
“I think he looks hilarious,” said Kelly, giggling.
Mr. Fluffy shook his head and the hat and sunglasses came flying off. Then he jumped off the bed and left the room.
“I guess he agreed with me,” said Kelly. “He was too embarrassed to go to school looking like that.”
“Oh, well,” I said. “I didn’t really want to bring a cat or a dog anyway. I think most of the kids are going to bring cats and dogs. I wanted to bring something different.”
“How about Harry?” said Kelly, taking the tarantula out of his tank and putting it on her head. He started to climb down her hair. “I think one of us should bring the tarantula.”
“I would bring it just to see the look on Madison’s face,” I said.
“I liked Jake’s idea of hiding it in her cubby,” said Kelly. “I bet you’d be able to hear her scream all the way to China!”
“HA HA HA HA HA!”
We both laughed so hard, we almost fell off our beds.
Harry jumped off Kelly’s head and scampered across the floor.
“Quick! Close the door!” I yelled. “Don’t let him out.”
Kelly took a flying leap off her bed and slammed the door closed just in time.
I grabbed Harry, and he climbed onto one of my pigtails. “Nice dive, sis.”
“Whew! That was a close one,” said Kelly. “Remember the last time he got loose? It took us like three hours to catch him.”
“On second thought, maybe we shouldn’t bring him tomorrow,” I said. “I don’t think Mrs. Trumball would like a giant spider running around loose in her school.”
“Probably not,” Kelly said, laughing.
I pulled Harry off my pigtail and put him back in his tank. “Now what?” I asked. “Who’s left?”
“The rabbit, the turtle, the gecko, and the hamster.”
“How are we going to decide who to bring?”
“I have an idea,” said Kelly. “Let’s have a race.”
“A what?”
“A race. The two animals that cross the finish line first will come to school with us tomorrow.”
“I like that idea,” I said.
Kelly and I picked up their cages and lined them up on one side of our room.
“Now we need something to mark the finish line,” said Kelly.
“Hey, sis, come here a minute. I have an idea,” I said. Kelly walked over to me. “Turn around.” “Why?”
“Just turn around.”
She turned around, and I untied the ribbon (green, of course) from one of her pigtails and laid it down on the floor at the other end of the room.
“We’ll open their cages at the same time, and then the two who get across my ribbon first will be the winners,” said Kelly.
“You open Honey Buns’s and Zippy’s cages, and I’ll open Pete’s and Skippy’s cages,” I said. “Ready?”
“Ready!” said Kelly.
“On your mark, get set, go!”
We opened the cages and Honey Buns the rabbit and Pete the gecko ran out first. Skippy the hamster was still running on his wheel, and Zippy the turtle was just sitting in the corner, not moving a muscle.
“Come on, Skippy,” I said to the hamster. “Get off that wheel. It’s not playtime, buddy. It’s race time! Don’t you want to come with me to school tomorrow?” I gently lifted him off the wheel, and he dashed out of his cage.
Kelly tried to get the turtle moving. “Come on, Zippy. Time to get a move on. Haven’t you ever heard of the story ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’? You can’t beat Honey Buns if you never come out of that cage!”
I looked around the room. Pete was about halfway across the floor. “That a boy, Pete! You’re halfway there!” I yelled to the gecko.
Honey Buns had crawled into my fluffy rabbit slipper and curled up to sleep. “No, Honey Buns, no!” I said. “Get up! This is a race!”
I picked him up out of the slipper and put him back on the floor. He started to hop and almost stepped right on Skippy.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” said Kelly. “It’s against the rules to squash the other racers.”
Zippy had finally walked to the edge of his tank, and was about to step out onto the carpet when I said, “Where’s Pete?”
We both looked all over the floor, but we didn’t see him. “Where could he be?” I asked. “He was so close to winning.”
“There he is!” Kelly said, pointing to the wall. “He crawled up there!”
I looked where Kelly was pointing and saw Pete halfway up our bedroom wall.
“You’d better get him down before he crawls up any higher,” said Kelly.
I stood on my bed and pulled Pete off the wall. “Where are you going? You have to stay on the ground.” I put him back on the floor.
As I stood there laughing, Skippy zipped through my legs and crossed the finish line first. I picked him up and held him above my head. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first winner. Skippy the amazing hamster wins first place!”
“It’s a close race for second place,” said Kelly. “Look!”
I looked down at my feet. Pete and Honey Buns were almost tied.
“Come on, Honey Buns!” said Kelly. “You’re almost there!”
“You can do it, Pete!” I yelled. “You can do it!”
Pete crawled across the finish line a second before Honey Buns.
I picked up Pete and Kelly picked up the rabbit. “Great race, guys,” Kelly said.
“Pete, since you came in second, you get to go with us to school tomorrow,” I told him.
“Sorry, Honey Buns,” said Kelly. “Better luck next time.”
We put all of the animals back in their cages and smiled at each other.
“That was probably one of the craziest ideas we’ve ever had,” said Kelly.
“Yep,” I said, laughing. “That was pretty crazy.”
CHAPTER 6
The Big Day
The next morning when I woke up, Pete was curled up on my pillow next to my head.
“Hey, Kelly, check this out,” I whispered, pointing to Pete.
Kelly sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. “Awwww … he looks so cute sleeping there! But how did he get out of his tank?”
“I don’t know. I was wondering the same thing.”
I got out of bed and walked over to Pete’s tank. “The latch is kind of bent, so it’s loose.”
“How did that happen?” asked Kelly.
“Maybe Mom put the tank on the floor when she was cleaning, and Mike or Ike chewed on it?”
“Or maybe it was Kenny the dog,” Kelly said, laughing.
“Well, we’d better fix it quick, because we have to take Pete to school today. Do you have any ideas?” I asked.
Kelly looked around the room. She spotted a pack of bubble gum Jake had given us yesterday. “I think I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“We could chew some bubble gum. Then when it’s all sticky and gooey, we could take it out of our mouths and put it over the latch to hold it down.”
“Great idea!” I said. “You’re a genius!” I went to pick up the pack of bubble gum.
“No! Not yet!” said Kelly. “If we do it now, it might dry out. We have to do it closer to the beginning of school.”
“Mom or Dad has to drive us to school today, so we can do it in the car,” I said.
I gave Kelly a high five.
“Great plan, sis! Great plan!”
“Girls! Girls! Time for breakfast!” our mom called from downstairs.
We heard Kenny shouting, “Pan-cakes! Pan-cakes!”
“Sounds like we’re having pancakes. Let’s go!” I said. I started to run out of the room.
“Uh, sis, haven’t you forgotten something?” said Kelly.
“What?” I looked down at myself and started to laugh. I was still wearing my favorite yellow pajamas, and Kelly still had on her green nightgown.
“It’s Pet Day, not Pajama Day,” Kelly said. “I think we’d better get dressed first.”
We both got dressed quickly. I grabbed a pair of jeans, which is what I wear every day, and Kelly put on a skirt, which is what she wears every day. It makes it easier for people to tell us apart.
“Let’s take Pete and Skippy downstairs with us,” I said. “I don’t want to forget them this morning.”
Kelly walked over to the hamster’s cage. “Are you ready for your big day, Skippers?”
Skippy was curled up in a little ball in his food dish, fast asleep.
I walked over. “Looks like someone had a big night,” I whispered.
Kelly laughed. “He’s getting his beauty sleep. I’ll let him keep sleeping for now, so he has lots of energy when we get to school.”
“Why don’t you bring his ball? Then you can take him out of his cage, but he won’t be loose in the classroom.”
“Good thinking,” said Kelly. She picked up Skippy’s cage in one hand and his ball in the other. “Ready, Freddy?”
I grabbed Pete’s tank. “Hang on. I have to get Pete off my pillow.” I walked over to my bed and kissed Pete on the head.
Kelly giggled. “It’s like ‘The Princess and the Frog’ except it’s the princess and the gecko.”
Pete woke up and ran around in circles on my bed. “Let’s go, buddy,” I said, sticking my arm out so he could crawl onto it. “We’re late.”
Pete ran up my arm and sat on my head.
