Lucky Charm

by Annie Bryant

  Charlotte gasped. “Which means that…”

  “MARTY ISN’T THE LUCKY CHARM!” Charlotte and Avery cried at the same time.

  “If that’s true, we can forget about the ten thousand dollars, I guess. Katani is going to be really disappointed,” Avery reasoned.

  Charlotte realized she was right. “I think maybe it would be a good idea if we waited ’til tomorrow and told the BSG in person.”

  “Agreed!” said Avery.

  Just then, Charlotte thought of something. “Hey, Avery, remember how scared we were when we couldn’t find Marty? Do you think Robbie Flores is going through the same thing right now?” she asked.

  “Maybe…”

  “I’d better call him.”

  “Charlotte, NO!” Avery exclaimed. “What if he wants to take him back?”

  “Trust me,” Charlotte said. “I don’t think we’ll have that problem.”

  When Charlotte told her father, he agreed that it was a good idea. She called the number that Robbie Flores left on her answering machine, but there was no answer. Flores’s voicemail picked up the call.

  Charlotte waited for the beep, then spoke. “Hi. This is Charlotte, one of the girls who owns Marty. I called to tell you that I know where he is…Marty, that is…I mean, Lucky Charm. Anyway, please call back,” she said and left her number.

  Charlotte was asleep when the phone rang at midnight.

  “Hello?” she mumbled.

  “This is Robbie Flores. I am going to the airport soon. Quick, please, I need my Lucky Charm. I can’t go anywhere without him.”

  This was the moment Charlotte had been waiting for. “Mr. Flores, Marty isn’t your lucky charm. He was already here when you hit your home run tonight,” Charlotte said.

  There was stunned silence on the other end of the phone.

  Charlotte had a flash of inspiration. She continued, “You are welcome to keep Happy Lucky Thingy, though.”

  “What?”

  “You know, the little pink toy that Marty had when you found him?”

  “Sí,” Mr. Flores replied.

  “Well, if Marty was here when you won, he’s not the lucky charm. It’s Happy Lucky Thingy! That’s the charm you’ve had the whole time!”

  “You mean the toy, the one with the funny name, that is my lucky charm?” Robbie Flores asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “My friend Katani is making you your own special Happy Lucky Thingy as we speak!” Charlotte crossed her fingers behind her back. “When you come back, we will have the most beautiful Happy Lucky for you.”

  “You know what? Maybe you’re right! It was, how you say, Happy Lucky Thingy. Thank you, Charlotte. It is because of you and your friends that the Red Sox can win. I owe you all much. Please tell me what I can do to repay you for your help.”

  Charlotte paused. She called up her bravest self. “I’m really happy that Marty is back. And that you still have your lucky charm. So I guess we can both be happy. But some of my friends really wanted you to keep Marty. You see, for them, the ten thousand dollars would have made a big difference. My friend Katani’s sister is autistic, and her therapeutic riding stable might have to close down. You know, the money would have been their lucky charm,” she said. She absolutely couldn’t believe that she managed to get her speech out. Her heart was pounding.

  Charlotte briefly described the High Hopes therapeutic riding program and the urgent need for funds. “I’m glad Marty came home, because we couldn’t figure out how to work it out. But I know that Katani and Isabel would have been happy if things had been…different,” she said. She bit her lip, unsure of what Robbie would do.

  “I will think more about this. I must go now though—the plane is waiting for me. Thank you again, Charlotte. Take good care of Lucky Charm…I mean, Marty. I’ll miss that little dude.”

  Charlotte snuggled her face in Marty’s wiggly little body.

  CHAPTER

  21

  Red Sox Fever

  Charlotte woke up to something that had been missing for a long time: little wet kisses all over her face. Marty nuzzled into her chin and danced around on the bed until she got up and took him for a walk. This time she made sure his collar was on tight. Avery met her in the park and the two of them watched as the little dude checked in with his posse: Bella, Louie, Fly, Harley, Rosie, and of course, La Fanny. Marty did double flips for his friends, and a great deal of barking and tail wagging ensued.

  After returning Marty to the yellow Victorian, Charlotte rushed to gather up her backpack and books. She wanted to get to school early to turn in her article for The Sentinel before class started. While it wasn’t the article she would have written if she had been in charge from the start, Charlotte was confident that with the information she’d been given it was the very best she could do. Besides, she knew that the sooner she left, the sooner she could tell the other BSG about Marty.

  When Charlotte arrived at school, the halls were buzzing with excitement. Red Sox fever had hit Abigail Adams Junior High big time. A group of eighth-grade girls were all wearing pink Red Sox T-shirts with their favorite players’ numbers on the backs. Charlotte passed Pete and Dillon standing at their lockers dressed in white Red Sox team jerseys.

  Before homeroom, Charlotte quietly told Ms. Rodriguez how Marty had found his way home. “That’s incredible news!” Ms. R responded with a big smile. Charlotte wished that telling the rest of the girls would be so easy.

  Despite the wild celebratory attitude in the halls, the BSG table was quiet at lunch. Charlotte definitely felt like she was the goose that swallowed the golden egg. Finally, she cleared her throat to get the girls’ attention.

  “Hear ye, hear ye!” Charlotte said, banging her chocolate milk carton on the table. No one laughed. “I have an important announcement.”

  The girls looked eagerly at Charlotte.

  “Last night…after the Red Sox game…Miss Pierce came upstairs, and guess who she had found?”

  Charlotte let the suspense hang in the air, glanced sideways at Avery, then burst out, “MARTY!”

  Maeve gasped. Isabel and Katani seemed stunned.

  “Marty is back! Oh my goodness, are you serious?” Maeve cried.

  “Wait a minute, what does this mean?” asked Isabel. “Did Robbie Flores give him back?”

  Katani’s voice trembled as she spoke. “Did you tell him that we didn’t want the money? I thought we were going to agree first!” she exclaimed.

  Avery jumped out of her chair. “No, silly, Marty found his way home all by himself!”

  “I called Robbie Flores and told him,” Charlotte added. “Marty was not at Fenway when Robbie hit the grand slam. I convinced Robbie that Happy Lucky Thingy was the real lucky charm. He’s says he wants to repay us. I’m not sure what that means, exactly.”

  “I’ll tell you exactly what it means,” Katani blurted out. “Six tickets to a Sox game AT BEST. Let’s face it…we can forget about saving the stable. But then, I guess you all weren’t really worried about it in the first place.” Katani abruptly got up and left the group.

  Charlotte was completely flabbergasted. She didn’t even get to tell her story before Katani bolted. Avery muttered something about catching up on the game with the guys and left as well.

  Charlotte explained to Isabel and Maeve what happened. While both girls were genuinely thrilled that Marty was safe back home, there was an uncomfortable silence around the reward. Especially when Isabel found out that Charlotte had given up the $10,000 reward and expected Katani to make a new Happy Lucky Thingy for Robbie Flores.

  “But,” Charlotte defended herself, “I told him that the stable needed money, and he said he was going to think about making a donation.”

  “Well,” Maeve exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell us this in the first place?”

  “I was getting to it, but then Katani left in such a huff…” Charlotte put her hand up to stop Maeve from jumping in. “Look, I know she was upset and I am going to go find h
er and explain. I promise. I don’t want her to feel hurt anymore.”

  Avery had spent most of her lunch hour at the boys’ table, laughing and talking about last night’s fantastic come-from-behind Red Sox win. Bits and pieces of the conversation floated over to the BSG table.

  Charlotte thought perhaps Avery had the right idea of staying at the boys’ table. She wished Robbie Flores had never offered them that enormous reward in the first place. Then they could be celebrating Marty’s return instead of wondering what might have been.

  Maeve consoled Charlotte later that day at her locker. “You didn’t make the decision, Charlotte. Marty did, when he came back to you. You can’t help the way things turned out.”

  “Tell that to Katani. Marty’s return means her miracle bubble has burst.”

  “Give her time,” Maeve said. “Listen, I have an idea. Why don’t we throw Marty a homecoming party on Saturday? Katani would come to that, wouldn’t she?”

  Charlotte shrugged. She wasn’t sure that Katani would forgive her now…or ever.

  “Fabulous! Now I don’t want you to worry about the matter anymore. Things will work out okay,” Maeve assured her. Charlotte had to laugh. Charlotte wondered what any of the BSG would do without their lively, redheaded, movie-obsessed friend.

  When Charlotte got home, the first thing she tried was calling Katani, but her mother said she was in her room working on some project and didn’t want to be disturbed.

  Charlotte checked her computer throughout the night hoping that Katani was online. She was not. Time for a global perspective, Charlotte determined.

  To: Sophie

  From: Charlotte

  Subject: Marty

  Sophie-

  You were right. Marty found his way home. But my problems aren’t over. The man who found him wanted to keep him. And he offered $10,000! Isabel and Katani wanted to keep the money—for good reasons. Now that Marty ran away from him and came back to me the deal is off. I’m afraid Katani will never forgive me for this chance at so much money. Katani is really, really upset. I wish things could be like they were before Marty ran away.

  Charlotte

  Avery’s Blog

  Call off the search!

  Marty returned!

  He arrived at Charlotte’s house last night just in time to see Robbie Flores’ game winning, grand slam home run!

  Homecoming party planned for Saturday night.

  Promise I’ll post pictures of the big event on Sunday morning!

  CHAPTER

  22

  Fowl Weather

  As soon as Charlotte walked through the doors of Abigail Adams Junior High on Thursday morning, she knew there was something weird going on.

  “Cluck, cluck, CLUCK,” Pete Wexler said. He folded his arms back, placing his fists in his armpits and flapping his arms like they were wings. “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” he crowed.

  The crowd of kids around him collapsed into laughter, although some of them flapped their arms like wings and clucked and crowed too.

  “Good morning, Peter,” Charlotte said as she passed him. “I guess.”

  As Charlotte made her way down the hall to homeroom, several other groups of people flapped their arms as if they were chicken wings and made bird noises at her.

  Then someone grabbed her elbow from behind.

  Startled, Charlotte turned around. “Jennifer!” she cried. “What’s up?”

  Jennifer glared at Charlotte as if she were an irritating bug she planned on squashing at any moment. “If you try to pin this on me I’ll deny everything,” Jennifer snarled.

  “What are you talking about?” Charlotte sputtered.

  Jennifer let go of her elbow and said breathlessly, “Listen. You can’t win this one. You didn’t have a tape recorder anyway. If you just admit your mistake…” Jennifer broke into a strange smile, “I’m sure this whole little scandal will clear itself up.” Charlotte opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Jennifer had already taken off down the hall.

  What was THAT about? Charlotte wondered as she continued down the hall. Maeve was at Charlotte’s locker and immediately gave her a hug.

  “It’s okay, Charlotte. Believe me, I know all about making stupid spelling mistakes. When you have dyslexia it happens all the time. In fact, I didn’t even notice it until someone pointed it out to me,” Maeve mentioned.

  “Pointed what out?” Charlotte asked.

  “Oh, my gosh! You don’t know? Okay, darling, brace yourself,” Maeve said as she handed Charlotte a copy of The Sentinel, hot off the presses.

  Charlotte unfolded the paper.

  The title of her front-page article read in large print:

  Barlow Shelter: Home for Fowl Weather Friends.

  “Fowl Weather Friends? FOWL WEATHER! But I didn’t write ‘fowl,’ I wrote ‘foul.’ Really! I did!” Charlotte insisted.

  Maeve didn’t say anything. She placed her hand on Charlotte’s shoulder as if to let her know she understood.

  Charlotte didn’t have time to explain any further. The bell rang and the two girls scurried to class.

  When Charlotte entered the classroom, she avoided Ms. Rodriguez. She couldn’t look at Ms. R after what had happened. She was just so ashamed. She went to her seat and pretended to read her day planner.

  English class was a blur—Charlotte couldn’t remember what they learned or discussed. Just after the bell rang, Ms. Rodriguez motioned Charlotte toward her.

  Charlotte timidly made her way to her teacher’s desk. “Yes?” she asked, staring at her shoes.

  “Charlotte, Jennifer has accepted responsibility for the mistake in the paper. After all, copyediting is her job. But she also told me that you turned the article in late. She didn’t have time to give it the proper proofreading that was necessary.” Ms. Rodriguez said. “I am a little disappointed, Charlotte. Can you tell me what happened?”

  Charlotte wanted to sink through the floor. She couldn’t even look at Ms. R. If she defended herself, she would sound like a whiner. So she said nothing.

  Sabotaged

  “I’ll never write again,” Charlotte said to the girls at lunch. “I have to quit the newspaper.”

  “Isn’t that a little extreme?” Maeve asked.

  “Quitters never win and winners never quit,” Avery added knowingly.

  “Look, Charlotte, we all make mistakes…” Maeve started.

  “But it wasn’t a mistake. I think Jennifer did it on purpose,” Charlotte said softly.

  Maeve looked puzzled. “Jennifer seems so nice. Are you sure?”

  “I don’t know,” Isabel said. “I think Charlotte might be right. Ever since that meeting last week, Jennifer has been acting really weird. It’s like I said—I think she’s kind of jealous of Charlotte. Maybe this was her way of getting even.”

  “By purposely misspelling a word?” Maeve asked.

  “No, it’s worse,” Charlotte said. “Did you read this? She totally messed up my article. She added all these random things. She ruined the whole flow of the piece and her phrasing sounds awkward. It’s not even close to the article I turned in. The worst part of all is that my name’s on this. People think I actually wrote this!”

  “I think you should talk to Jennifer. Confront her,” Katani said.

  Charlotte shook her head. “This morning in the hall she told me I can’t win this one. I mean, what’s the point? She’s the editor! I don’t have a chance. If I drop out, then next year when she’s at high school, I can be on the staff again.”

  “Stop writing?” Maeve asked. “Pffft. Writing isn’t what you do, it’s who you ARE! Besides, we need you! The BSG and all the seventh graders! You fought hard to get seventh graders on the staff, and now everyone loves your work. You can’t give it up because of one misspelled word.”

  “Maeve, it wasn’t just a misspelled word. It’s the whole article. Something went really wrong here. I’m afraid that as long as Jennifer is editor, there’s going to be trouble for me,” Charlotte admi
tted.

  Katani tapped Charlotte on the arm. “My riding instructor says when you fall off a horse it’s important to get right back in the saddle. That’s what you have to do.”

  Charlotte smiled, relieved that Katani was offering her advice. Katani had been touched that Charlotte had been brave enough to ask Robbie Flores for the money. As a result, Katani was hard at work on a new Happy Lucky Thingy and was hoping against hope that Robbie would be so grateful that he would offer a donation to save the riding stable.

  “Katani, how do I write another article without Jennifer interfering?” Charlotte asked. She was happy to take Katani’s advice. The Kgirl was really good at problem solving when she put her mind to it. Her executive, take-charge manner might be just what the doctor ordered.

  “Write about something you are passionate about,” Katani suggested. “Something you have the inside scoop on.”

  “Katani’s right. You should do it,” Isabel said.

  “I can write it, but that doesn’t mean Jennifer will publish it,” Charlotte said. “And it also doesn’t mean she won’t put her own twist on it.”

  “Then don’t let her! Write for a different paper instead!” Katani exclaimed. “The Sentinel’s not the only game in town. We’ll read your story. We’ll act as editors and then you can send it to the Beacon Street News, the town newspaper. They take articles from kids!”

  Charlotte was thrilled. Writing for the town newspaper gave her a feeling of exhilaration. She left lunch feeling better about her fowl article, even though kids were still flapping their wings and making chicken noises at her. In fact, when Kiki Underwood walked by and made a chicken sound, Charlotte put her nose in the air and quacked right back. Nick Montoya happened to walk by right then, and he told her that she was a “cool bird.”

  That evening, Charlotte put all her energy into writing. She was glad she had taken her notebook everywhere with her in the past week. It was full of great ideas and lots of details. As Ms. Rodriguez had said, good writing begins in the notebook.