by Daphne Maple
But when Mrs. Benson took roll call in homeroom, Sasha’s seat was empty.
“Watch it,” Brianna snapped at me as I rounded the corner and nearly bumped into her. Although when I jumped back, I realized we were actually pretty far apart. She was just acting like I’d nearly plowed her over because that’s what she always did. At least with me.
“Sorry,” I said, not wanting to make a big thing of it.
“You need to look where you’re going,” she said disdainfully. “You’re so clumsy you could really hurt someone.”
I drew in a breath at that, as though she’d hit me. Which was kind of how it felt. Yes, I sometimes tripped, but everyone did; it didn’t make me a klutz. Did it?
“Oh, and how’s business at your little dog club?” Brianna asked, a sly smile spreading over her face.
As seemed to always be the case with Brianna, I had no idea why she was asking and no idea how to respond. “Um, fine,” I said.
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Brianna said. “Because my mom’s new doggy day care is going to put you guys out of business.”
That news made my stomach drop. If Brianna’s mom was anything like her daughter, we really were in trouble.
But Brianna wasn’t done yet. “Maybe you can use the free time to take dance classes or something, so you can stop slamming into people.” With that she flounced off down the hall and I heard her calling a friendly greeting to a couple of girls in our English class. Her voice was warm, not all ice and sharp edges the way it was when she talked to me.
I was standing in the hall as the girls passed and said hi. I did my best to act normal but I was still feeling shaky. Plus something ugly was beginning to worm its way into my mind. Brianna was nice to these girls, who all had one thing in common: they were white. I didn’t like to jump to conclusions but I was starting to wonder if part of Brianna’s problem with me was my race. I mean, I hadn’t done anything to her and we’d never really even said hello before she started making mean remarks when I passed. It was possible she didn’t like something else about me, but the fact was, it was also possible that she had issues with black people. And that thought was like a cold wind blowing right through me.
“Hey, aren’t you coming to lunch?” Sasha asked, coming up behind me. She’d arrived ten minutes after school began, breathless and near tears. But now she looked calm.
“Do you think I’m clumsy?” I blurted out.
“What? No, you’re perfect,” Sasha said.
“You’re my friend, so you have to say nice things,” I told her as we started walking toward the cafeteria.
“Um, actually I don’t,” Sasha said seriously. “You’re tall and graceful and no clumsier than anyone else, I promise.”
Her words made me feel a million times better. “Thanks,” I said, giving her a hug.
She squeezed me back but she was frowning. “What made you ask about that anyway?”
“Oh, nothing important,” I said. The encounter with Brianna still needled at me but I didn’t want to think about it now.
The cafeteria smelled of boiled greens and old meat, not exactly appetizing. Sasha and I bypassed the steaming trays of hot entrees and headed to our usual station, the salad bar. Sasha threw together a spinach-and-tuna salad while I grabbed a strawberry yogurt with granola to mix in.
Once we paid for our food, we headed to our table on the back wall by the window. Kim was already there, turkey sandwich in front of her. She was chatting with our friends at the neighboring table, Naomi, Emily, Rachel, and Dana.
“Hey, guys,” Emily said as Sasha and I sat down next to Kim. “What’s shaking?”
“That would be me and Dana,” Sasha said with a grin. They were both in the company at their dance school, which was pretty cool; a lot of girls had tried out but only a few got in. It meant dance classes three times a week and extra performances, but Sasha always managed her busy schedule just fine. Well, she had until this morning anyway.
“How are things at the garden?” I asked as I sat down next to Kim and began peeling the foil top off my yogurt. The four of them had signed up to do their seventh-grade volunteer work at the town garden on the edge of the park. It had started as an assignment but lately they had been getting excited about the fall planting and late harvest they were doing.
“We’re going to be planting winter radishes today,” Rachel said enthusiastically. “Luciana says they taste great in salads.”
“Sounds good,” Sasha said, crunching on a snap pea. “Be sure to bring some in when they’re ready.” We often brought in food to share with each other.
Rachel nodded. “And how’s the Dog Club?” Of course the four of them knew all about it.
Kim pressed her lips together for a second. “Good, but we could use a few new clients.”
“We’ll help spread the word,” Naomi said. “Advertising is everything.”
Dana was nodding. “Do you guys have any extra flyers? We can put a few up at the garden.”
Now Kim was smiling. “That would be awesome. I think we have some extras at my house. I’ll bring them tomorrow.”
I remembered what Brianna had said about her mom owning Pampered Puppy and I wondered if I should mention it. But since I didn’t feel like talking about Brianna, I decided to let it go for now.
“Rough morning, huh,” Kim said sympathetically to Sasha, who shook her head.
“You have no idea,” she said, spearing a grape tomato with her fork. “Everything that could go wrong did: my alarm didn’t go off, I couldn’t find Mr. S’s leash, he threw up right after he ate, all over the living room rug, and my mom left early for a meeting, so she couldn’t help me with any of it. Though maybe that’s a good thing—I think she’d have freaked out over the puke on her favorite rug.”
Sasha’s mom really loved Mr. S (who wouldn’t?) but she was still getting used to the messy side of owning a pet.
“Did you get it clean?” I asked. “Because I have a few tips if you need them. Last year I got grape jelly on our sofa and I learned a lot about getting out stains.” Anna had told me I’d never get the stain out, so I spent the entire day researching on the internet and finally managed to get it off with vinegar and a baking soda scrub.
Sasha nodded. “Yeah. But I may be calling you soon if I keep having mornings like this one.”
“It seems like the biggest problem was the alarm clock,” I said. “Once you have that one fixed, at least you’ll have time to deal with everything else.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Sasha said. “Though lately it seems like I don’t have enough time for anything.”
Kim and I exchanged a look. It wasn’t like Sasha to sound so down.
But a second later she was grinning. “Oh, but I have some good news,” she said. “Alice forwarded me another call from a dog owner interested in our club.”
“Great,” Kim said, her eyes lighting up.
“That’s two calls in two days,” I said, feeling happy. “We’re on a roll.”
“Now we just need them to sign up,” Kim said.
She looked slightly anxious and I knew she was thinking about Pampered Puppy. But I was certain she had nothing to worry about; once the potential clients saw our website and how sweet our dogs were, they’d be signing up in no time.
5
“Hey, wait up,” Kim called.
It was a perfect sunny day and I’d just picked up Coco and was heading toward the shelter. I turned and waited as Kim and Gus trotted up.
“Hi,” I said to both of them, reaching down to pet Gus, who wriggled joyfully.
Kim rubbed Coco’s ears, and the big black and brown dog panted happily.
Greetings done, we headed into town, the dogs prancing beside us.
“I can’t believe how much reading we have for English tonight,” Kim said with a sigh. We’d just started a nonfiction unit and were reading a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Yeah, it’s a lot,” I agreed. “And that book is tough going.
It always puts me to sleep after about three pages.”
Kim gave a lopsided grin. “I’m glad I’m not the only one,” she said. “Eleanor Roosevelt seems really interesting; you’d think the book wouldn’t be such a snooze.”
I was about to agree when I saw something that made me draw in a sharp breath. We’d just turned onto Main Street, where there were five bright flyers stapled to the bulletin board in front of the town hall. Five flyers advertising Pampered Puppy’s Doggy Day Care.
“They’re everywhere,” Kim said, sounding slightly in awe. Sure enough, every free space along Main Street was papered with a colorful ad for the new doggy day care. As we began walking slowly down the street, we saw that they weren’t all the same flyer, the way ours were. There were a bunch of different ones—some with photos, others with cute drawings, and all of them announcing the doggy day care as the most amazing place ever.
“These flyers are so much better than ours,” I said, looking at one with a picture of a smiling staff member, adult of course, playing with a Jack Russell. The photo, the font, the way it was all put together looked sleek, like something you’d see in a magazine. And pretty much the opposite of our homemade black-and-white flyers, which didn’t have pictures or anything. Even the paper they were printed on was thicker and nicer than ours.
“They really are,” Kim said. The corners of her mouth were turning down as she stared at them.
Coco gave a short bark. Clearly she thought we were moving too slowly.
“Let’s get to the shelter,” I said, picking up the pace. “We can talk about it there.”
When we opened the door, we were greeted by cheerful barks from the shelter dogs as well as Daisy, who’d already been dropped off, and Popsicle, Mr. S, and Humphrey, who had already arrived with Sasha. Gus and Coco raced off to join their friends, all happy and excited. But when I looked around at Caley, Tim, and Sasha, I could tell from their glum expressions that they had seen the flyers too. Though that wasn’t really surprising—you’d have to be walking through town blindfolded to miss them.
“So Pampered Puppy is serious about their doggy day care,” Caley said with a sigh. Her red hair was in a bun held together with black chopsticks and she reached up to tighten it. “And they want the whole town to know.”
“I know—it seems like they killed an entire forest to put all those up,” Tim said, shaking his head as he bent down to scratch Humphrey’s belly.
“Everyone knows about their doggy day care now for sure,” Sasha said. She was on the floor cuddling Mr. S and Popsicle.
Lily came over and pressed against my leg, looking up at me with her big brown eyes. It was as though she could tell I needed cheering up. Dogs were amazing like that. I sat down, my backpack still on, and gave her a big hug.
“What if people start calling them instead of us?” Kim fretted. “And what if our customers start going to Pampered Puppy because it’s better?”
“Whoa, hold on there,” Tim said, putting up a hand that Boxer, who was standing next to him, licked. “Let’s not get into the what-if game.”
Caley had a hand on her hip and she gave Kim a stern look. “And who said anything about them being better? Fancier, maybe, but we offer the best care around.”
“And I bet we have the better price,” Sasha said, suddenly sounding more cheerful.
“That’s a great point,” I said, my hands buried in Lily’s soft fur. “We offer good care at a good rate and there’s no way Pampered Puppy can say that, not when they have all those professionals to pay.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“But we do need new clients,” Kim said, her forehead creased. “Sash, have those people called you back to sign up yet?”
For a moment Sasha frowned. “No, but I bet they will.”
“Me too,” I said. “And remember, Rachel and those guys are going to put up some flyers for us. We’re getting the word out about our club too.”
That seemed to comfort Kim, who finally smiled.
Just then the door opened and we all turned to see the Wongs. “Is it okay if we come in for a bit?” Ms. Wong asked, tucking a strand of long black hair behind one ear. “We didn’t call Alice but we’re still planning to adopt one of the dogs and we had a few minutes to come by and see them.”
“She’s at a meeting,” Tim said. “But come on in.”
“The dogs are always happy to have friends stop by,” I added, standing up and brushing Lily’s fur off my shirt. I headed to Alice’s office to stow my bag, then went back out into the main room, where the Wongs were already playing fetch with Hattie and Lily. Tim was still down on the floor with Humphrey, and Mr. S had come over for a tummy rub of his own. Kim was throwing a ball for Gus and Daisy, while Sasha was snuggling with Gracie.
Boxer came up to me, his favorite green Frisbee in his mouth, a glint in his eye.
“Let’s get that in the air,” I told him. He dropped it at my feet with a short bark, his eyes glued to the disc as I raised it up and sent it sailing across the room. Boxer flew after it.
I was still worried about Pampered Puppy; I knew we all were. But as the afternoon passed with the dogs, it was impossible not to feel cheered up. And by the time we left, worn out but happy the way only dogs can make you happy, I barely noticed the flyers covering the town.
I was thinking about them later that night though, when I was supposed to be reading the Eleanor Roosevelt biography. Naomi’s words about advertising being everything were haunting me. If she was right, we were in trouble.
It had been Jasmine’s night to cook and she’d baked a peach cobbler for dessert that had been delish. I set down my book, deciding that it would be easier to work more and worry less if I had some more cobbler. There was probably some whipped cream left too.
I hurried down to the kitchen but stopped in the doorway. Anna was sitting at the island, feet wrapped around her stool as she ate the last of the cobbler from the glass pie plate. The empty bowl of whipped cream sat next to it.
“Hey, I wanted that,” I accused, walking in.
Anna smiled lazily, then licked her fork. “I guess you should have been faster then,” she said. She had a point but she didn’t need to be so smug about it.
I began pawing through the cabinet for something sweet, but nothing looked as good as fresh cobbler. “You didn’t have to pig the whole thing,” I grumbled at Anna, pulling out a box of chocolate chip cookies.
She was rinsing the dishes at the sink but paused to glare at me. “For your information, there wasn’t much left,” she said. “Probably because you pigged so much at dinner.”
“I only had one serving, unlike some people,” I said snidely, feeling pleased when her cheeks flushed. When she was this annoying, all I wanted to do was annoy her back, and it looked like I’d succeeded.
“At least I didn’t completely inhale the whipped cream,” she snapped. “You hardly left any for Dad.”
Now my cheeks were burning and she was the one smiling. “I did not,” I said hotly, my hands on my hips. “There was some left over, wasn’t there?”
“What is going on in here?”
Anna and I both turned to see Tasha in the doorway looking just as annoyed as we were.
“Taylor came in and picked a fight,” Anna said, just as I said, “Anna ate all the leftover cobbler.”
“Stop yelling,” Tasha said irritably, with no trace of her social worker tone. “Some of us are trying to get homework done.”
I hadn’t realized Anna and I were yelling but I was kind of out of breath.
“Tell her to stop bothering me then,” Anna crabbed, turning back to finish cleaning off her dishes.
“I’m not bothering anyone, I’m just trying to get a snack in my own kitchen,” I said, feeling fed up with Anna.
Tasha shook her head. “You two are impossible,” she said, heading back upstairs.
“You’re the impossible one,” Anna said, drying her hands and nearly running out so she could have the last
word.
But this time I followed her. “She was talking about you!” I shouted after her.
Then I headed back to the kitchen for the cookies, which weren’t cobbler but would be sweetened by the fact that I’d won this round.
6
I was glad to see Sasha waiting at the corner of Spring Street the next morning.
“Your alarm was working?” I asked as I came up. There was a chilly wind blowing and I hugged my baby-blue hoodie tight around me.
Sasha grinned. “Actually, Mr. S woke me up with kisses, which is the best wake-up ever,” she said.
“Definitely,” I agreed as Kim arrived. She had dark circles under her eyes and was yawning.
“Late night?” I asked her.
She nodded and rolled her eyes as we started walking. “Yeah, it took me forever to finish the reading for English.”
Sasha gasped.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Kim said, her brows knit together. “I just went to bed a little later than usual.”
“No, it’s not that,” Sasha said, sounding panicked. “I totally forgot to read the assignment last night, and you know Mrs. Benson will be giving us a quiz.”
Kim looked at me, eyes wide. Because yes, Mrs. Benson was the queen of pop quizzes, and since we hadn’t had one yesterday we were definitely getting one today. And it had been a lot of reading.
“Let’s get moving,” I said, starting to jog toward school. “Maybe you can read it before homeroom starts.”
“It was a lot though,” Sasha said anxiously. “I don’t think I can finish it.”
“But reading some of it is better than none,” I pointed out. “Maybe most of the questions will be from the first part or something.”
“Maybe,” Sasha said, but her face was tight.
“What happened?” Kim asked as we came to a stop at the corner and waited while a pickup truck drove past. “Did you forget about it or something?”
“I just, I don’t know,” Sasha said, chewing on her lip for a moment and then going back through her night. “I got home from dance and walked Mr. S and fed him, and then we had dinner and I helped my mom clean up. I did my math and social studies but I was so tired after that I just went to bed.”
