by Bentley, Sue
Lola felt a faint tingling sensation down her spine and a few gold sparks fizzed out of the ends of Storm’s floppy little triangular ears. “It is done!” he yapped.
As Lola went outside with the playful pup, she felt her spirits beginning to rise. She might not wear cool clothes like Carly or be in the popular group, but she had something really special—a secret furry friend.
Chapter
*THREE*
Lola woke early the following Monday morning, feeling rather hot. She put her hands up to push away her comforter and found that she seemed to be wearing a fluffy scarf, which was snoring very softly.
Storm! Lola grinned. She stroked the sleeping puppy, who was draped across her chest with his little head tucked up close under her chin.
Storm lifted his head and yawned.
“Pew!” Lola said, giggling as she fanned away a warm blast of fishy puppy breath. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes I did. I like it here. It is a safe place,” Storm woofed happily.
Lola gave him a cuddle. “Good. Because I love having you living with me, too! This weekend has been great.”
Lola gently moved Storm aside before throwing back the comforter and putting on her school uniform. She fed the tiny puppy and then washed his food bowl and hid it in the bottom of her wardrobe with his cans of food, before going to get her breakfast.
Storm scampered into the kitchen beside her and then curled up invisibly on Lola’s lap while she ate. Lola smiled to herself as she looked across the table at her mom and dad. She imagined the looks on their faces if she told them that a magic puppy was sitting only a foot away!
Fifteen minutes later, Lola put her book bag by the front door. She popped her head into the kitchen. “Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad. See you later.”
“Bye, honey,” her dad called.
Her mom smiled. “Have a good day at school!”
Lola turned back into the hall to see that Storm had jumped into her open bag. He was sitting next to her books, with an eager expression on his face.
“I am ready!”
Lola laughed delightedly. “I’d love you to come to school. But you’ll have to keep out of Ms. Dobson’s way. She’s our teacher, and she’s quite strict.”
Storm’s midnight blue eyes twinkled. “I promise.”
The sinking feeling that Lola usually felt at the thought of another day of Carly’s teasing suddenly didn’t seem quite so bad as she made her way to school with Storm peering out of her bag. Lola held her book bag steady as she walked into the classroom. Storm sat with his paws looped over the top of the bag. His black button nose twitched as he snuffed up the interesting smells all around him.
Even though he was invisible, Lola was still a bit nervous about the teacher or one of her classmates noticing the tiny puppy. But when no one paid Storm any attention, she felt herself starting to relax.
Once the class was settled at their desks, Ms. Dobson took attendance. Lola noticed that when the teacher called Jaidon’s name, there was no answer, and his seat at the nearby desk was still empty.
Storm jumped out of her bag and went off to explore the room. Lola smiled to herself as she watched his sturdy little form snuffling about under the desks and poking inquiringly into other open school bags.
Ms. Dobson put the register away and looked up. “Has everyone brought something for the display table?”
“I have!” Carly jumped to her feet, holding a cereal box. She went straight over and put it on the display table.
“That’s a great start, Carly,” Ms. Dobson praised. “You get one point for your team. Recycling cardboard and paper packaging means fewer trees need to be cut down.”
Looking pleased with herself, Carly took her seat again.
Other kids were producing plastic food trays, tinfoil, and all kinds of packaging. The display table began to fill up, and Ms. Dobson doled out more team points. Kids went forward and crowded around to study the wall chart and see who’d been awarded the most points.
Lola would normally have been up there with the other kids, but she was watching out for Storm, who was nosing into an open floor cupboard. He suddenly leaped sideways as the door swung open and an avalanche of paper spilled out onto the floor.
A girl standing nearby frowned in puzzlement. “How did that happen?” she said, bending down to put the paper back into the cupboard.
Lola had just reassured herself that Storm was unharmed when Carly called out in a loud voice: “What did you bring, Lola?”
Lola nearly jumped out of her skin. She suddenly realized that with the excitement of finding Storm, she had forgotten to bring anything for the display table. She slid down in her seat and pretended that she hadn’t heard.
But Carly wasn’t going to be put off. “I said—WHAT DID YOU BRING, LOLA?”
Lola rolled her eyes. “If you must know, I . . . er . . . didn’t have time to . . .”
“She forgot! What a dummy!” Carly hooted, with a smug grin.
Ms. Dobson glanced at Lola with raised eyebrows. “It’s a pretty poor showing. I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a bit more of an effort if you want to win the prize.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lola said quietly.
A few moments later, Storm padded across the classroom. He jumped straight up in a whoosh of tiny sparks to sit on Lola’s desk. She made sure that no one was looking before she reached out and stroked him.
The tiny puppy tilted his head and blinked at her with bright eyes. “Is something wrong, Lola?”
Lola sighed and nodded her head slowly. “It’s no big deal. It was my fault for forgetting to bring something for our project. But Carly deliberately made a big fuss about it, so I got into trouble with Ms. Dobson.”
“Who is Carly?” Storm yapped.
“That’s her over there.” Lola pointed toward the other girl, who had just sat back down at her own desk. She was slowly running her special purple brush through her long blond hair.
Lola didn’t notice the thoughtful look on Storm’s face because, at that moment, the classroom door opened and Jaidon rushed in, looking hot and flustered.
Chapter
*FOUR*
“Sorry, I’m . . . um . . . late, ma’am,” Jaidon murmured. “Dad’s van broke down—again.”
Ms. Dobson nodded. “All right. But this is the third time you’ve been late in a month. If it happens again, I’ll need you to bring me a letter from home.”
Jaidon flushed bright red. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry,” he mumbled again, pushing back his damp curly hair.
“I feel bad for him—he couldn’t help being late,” Lola whispered to Storm as Jaidon walked toward her on his way to his own desk. “I know how horrible it is when the whole class is looking at you.”
“Hi, Jaidon,” she called, smiling, to try to make him feel a bit better.
Jaidon looked surprised. But Lola was delighted when she was rewarded with a shy grin back. “Hi, Lola. I’ve . . . er . . . brought this for the display table.” Taking something out of his school bag, he shoved it across the desk toward her.
It was a pen-holder made out of a cut-up plastic soda bottle, decorated with colorful swirls of acrylic paint.
“Wow! That’s really good!” Lola said, her eyes widening. “Where did you get it?
“I made it last night. Should we put it on the table with the other stuff?”
“You bet!” Lola jumped to her feet, pleased that Jaidon was turning out to be quite a good partner! Storm leaped down from the desk and padded after them.
Carly got up, too, and zoomed back toward the table to see what was going on. The kids who were still there moved aside as Jaidon put the pen-holder with the other stuff.
Ms. Dobson leaned over to look at it. “That’s very inventive: a fine example of recycling something old into something new. Double points to Lola and Jaid
on’s team!”
“Double points? That’s not fair,” Carly complained.
Lola felt like jumping up and down with joy, but Storm was standing close to her ankles and she didn’t want to step on him. She was wondering how to warn him to stay under the table, without attracting attention, when Carly impatiently elbowed her aside.
“Let me see that pen-holder!” Carly demanded, accidentally stepping on one of Storm’s paws.
Yipe! Yipe! Storm yelped in pain.
“Watch out!” Lola warned, giving Carly a gentle nudge, so that she’d shift over and release Storm’s paw.
“Oh!” Carly cried. She flung up both arms and spun around dramatically. Pretending to lose her balance, she sprawled right across the table. Paper, cardboard, and plastic went flying and bounced on to the floor.
Ms. Dobson looked up and her eyebrows knitted in a frown. “Whatever’s going on over there?”
“Lola pushed me over!” Carly accused. “I didn’t do anything to her. She’s just jealous because I’ve got a top team, and she’s stuck with wimpy old Jaidon!”
“I hardly touched her! She stepped on my friend’s . . .” Lola stopped as she realized that she couldn’t explain without mentioning Storm. “On my foot. I was just trying to get her to move.”
Ms. Dobson looked at Carly. “Is this true?”
“No! She deliberately pushed me—really hard!” Carly fibbed. Lola opened her mouth to speak and then changed her mind. What was the point? Everyone was going to believe Carly.
“I saw what happened,” Jaidon said unexpectedly. “Lola only gave her a gentle nudge. Carly made it look much worse than it was.”
Lola looked at Jaidon in surprise. It was the most she had ever heard him say at one time. She smiled gratefully at him.
“It sounds to me like this was a storm in a teacup,” Ms. Dobson said. “We’ll say no more about it. Can we all clean up this mess, please? And then will you get out your workbooks?”
Everyone began picking things up. While no one was looking, Lola quickly bent down to check that Storm wasn’t hurt. “How’s your paw? Is it sore?” she whispered to him.
“My paw is already starting to feel better now,” he woofed, wagging his tail.
Once the display table was neat and tidy, kids began to file back to their desks and start work.
Carly paused to smirk at Lola and Jaidon on her way back to her desk. “You might have gotten out of trouble this time, but I’m going to win this competition. You just see if I don’t!” Plonking herself down in her seat, she took out her shiny pink metal pencil case.
Storm frowned. Lola felt a faint tingling feeling down her spine and gasped as she saw gold sparkles blooming in his black-and-white fur. What was happening? Suddenly Carly’s pencil case unclipped itself and all her pencils, pens, and felt tips sprayed into the air.
“Eek!” Carly shrieked in surprise, ducking as they bounced onto her desk with a loud rattling noise.
“Stop messing around, Carly!” Ms. Dobson said crossly. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you today!”
Lola tried not laugh. “Storm! That was naughty! But actually it did serve her right.”
Carly gathered up her pens in moody silence.
Lola really enjoyed having Storm with her at school the following day. She always liked Tuesdays. They had gym in the mornings and then reading in the afternoon—her two favorite things. The day seemed to fly by.
As the bell rang for the end of the day, Lola stacked her books in her bag and then made room for Storm to jump inside. “See you tomorrow,” she called to Jaidon on her way out of the classroom. “Unless you . . . um . . . feel like walking home with me,” she said as a sudden afterthought.
“I live too far away to walk, right across town,” Jaidon told her. “My dad’s picking me up.”
At first, Lola wondered if Jaidon had found out that she lived in the messy, rundown neighborhood and didn’t want to go home that way. But then she decided that he didn’t seem like that sort of boy. The last couple of days, he had really come out of his shell, and it had been nice to have someone to talk to—even if it had been mainly about the project. Lola had decided that Jaidon just must have been a bit shy.
“Where’s your house, then?” she asked, thinking that maybe he lived in one of the big houses near Carly.
“It’s . . . er . . . not exactly a house. We live in . . . a place you wouldn’t have heard of!” Jaidon shot away out of the school gates. “See you!”
Lola raised her eyebrows. “I don’t get it,” she whispered to Storm. “One minute I think Jaidon’s starting to be friendlier, and the next he’s running off again.”
They had turned the corner now and were out of sight of school. Just in case anyone was looking, Lola pretended to fiddle about with her school books as she put her bag down so that Storm could jump out.
He shook himself and then trotted beside her down the street. “I think Jaidon is a kind boy,” he woofed decisively. “Perhaps there is some reason for the way he is.”
Lola hadn’t thought of that. She wondered if the magic puppy might be right. Storm stopped to sniff the wall of a store. Lola paused to wait for him. There were some unusual metal lanterns with lacy cut-out shapes in the window display. “Those are pretty. It’s Mom’s birthday soon. I’d love to buy her one of those.”
Storm reared up on to his back legs and put his front paws on the glass to look in the store window. Lola smiled, feeling a rush of affection for her tiny friend. Sometimes it was hard to believe that Storm was really a wild and powerful young wolf. She bent down to stroke the puppy’s fluffy black-and-white fur. “Let’s go. No point looking at things I’d have to save for a whole year to be able to buy.”
Chapter
*FIVE*
The display table was filling up with interesting things. There were bookmarks and gift tags made from used greeting cards. Carly had glued matchboxes together into a tiny chest, decorated with pink glitter and stars, for keeping her hair barrettes in.
Even Lola had to admit it looked pretty cool and was worth the extra team points it earned for Carly’s team. As expected, Carly, Treena, and Lee were now way ahead of everyone else on the wall chart.
Lola racked her brain, trying to think of something different that she could make or recycle. After all, Jaidon had come up with the pen-holder, so it was her turn. “I just can’t think of anything that someone hasn’t already done,” she whispered glumly to Storm. “And we really need to earn some more points.”
“I have noticed that human food comes in lots of different containers,” Storm observed. “Perhaps you could use one of those?”
“But which one . . . ?” Lola paused, as a half-formed idea rose into her head. “Yogurt cups! Everyone has tons of those. Maybe we could make something from them. I’ll tell Jaidon at recess. Thanks, Storm!”
Storm’s bright blue eyes twinkled happily. “You are welcome.”
But when Lola told Jaidon, he shook his head. “We don’t buy yogurt in plastic cups. Mom makes it in a dish with milk from our cows—” He stopped as he saw Lola looking curiously at him. “I didn’t mean to tell you that. Now you probably think I’m weird or something.”
“No, I don’t. It sounds great. I don’t know anyone who makes their own yogurt! I’d love to try some,” Lola said.
“Really?” Jaidon said, as if he didn’t quite believe her.
“Really,” Lola repeated. “So, do you live on a farm?”
“Sort of. We grow our own vegetables and sell them and stuff,” Jaidon said. He chewed his lip and seemed to be making up his mind to tell her something. He took a deep breath. “I don’t really like to talk about where I live, because the kids in my old school used to make fun of me when they found out.”
Just like Carly and her friends do with me, Lola thought. “That’s so mean. I can’t
stand kids like that!” she said.
“Me, neither,” Jaidon said, his shy smile broadening.
Lola wondered if Jaidon might tell her more. But as Carly, Treena, and Lee drifted over, laughing and chattering among themselves, Jaidon clammed up again.
“It must be great to grow your own food and keep animals, like Jaidon’s mom and dad,” Lola commented to Storm, before dinner that evening. “But I don’t blame him for not talking to anyone about where he lives, especially after what happened at his old school.”
Storm nodded, his midnight blue eyes gleaming with sympathy. “I think he might eventually tell someone he thinks he can trust.”
“Do you really think so?” Lola asked.
“Yes, Lola! Or maybe someone who can keep a really big secret,” Storm woofed, his tail twirling.
“Like me?” Lola laughed. She threw her arms round her wise little friend and gave him an affectionate cuddle. “You’re the best secret in the whole universe, and you’re all mine!”
After they ate dinner, Lola helped her mom clean up, and then she went into her bedroom with Storm. “I’m going to read for a while and maybe work on my school project,” she told her parents.
Her mom smiled. “All right, honey. I’ll come in and say good night later.”
Lola had only managed to slip a few treats to Storm during supper, so she fed him some more in her bedroom. After he finished eating, Storm padded after her as she slipped quietly into the kitchen to wash out the empty dog-food can and hide it in the recycling bin outside the back door.
“I still can’t decide what to take to school tomorrow. My mind’s gone completely blank,” she said with a groan. “I might as well face it—Carly’s team’s going to win this competition, hands down.”
Storm’s bright blue eyes lit up. “Put the empty can on the floor, please!” Lola was puzzled but she did as he asked. She felt a warm tingling sensation down her spine as gold sparks bloomed in Storm’s black-and-white fur and his ears and tail fizzled with magical power. He pointed one tiny front paw and a fountain of shimmering sparks shot out and swirled around the empty can.
