Puppy Love Read online

  “No,” said Shan. “And I hope she doesn’t. She’s finding enough things to criticize about me.”

  “But you’re perfect,” I teased.

  “Tell her that,” Shan said. “So far, I don’t know how to cook, I laugh too much, and my feet are way too big.”

  “Well, they are sort of huge,” I said.

  “She’s only teasing,” said Shan, ignoring me. “I know she doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s like a game Chinese grannies play. She had this friend over last night, and she brought her granddaughter with her. We had to sit in the living room and drink tea with them, and the whole time my grandmother and her friend talked to each other about how this other girl and I need to improve ourselves.”

  “Who won?” I asked.

  “I think I did,” said Shan. “I may have big feet, but apparently the other girl is lousy at playing the piano and she bites her nails.”

  “Ouch,” I said. “Hey, I bet Hector doesn’t mind your gigantic feet.”

  “We haven’t discussed it,” said Shan. “But he did ask me to go to a movie this week.”

  “How are you going to manage that?” I asked her.

  “There’s a Chinese film festival playing here,” Shan said. “I might say I’m going to that.”

  “Lying and subterfuge!” I said. “I’m shocked and appalled.”

  “So am I,” Shan said. “It’s not like me.”

  “See what boys will do?” I told her. “We’re better off without them.”

  “If they were all like your jerkboy, I’d have to agree with you,” Shan said. “I hate to say it, but maybe you should just give up on him.”

  “I keep telling myself that too,” I said.

  We talked a little longer, then Shan had to go. Before I went to sleep, I thought about our different problems. She had a boy she liked, who liked her, but who she couldn’t see without getting into trouble. I had a boy I saw a lot, and I thought maybe I liked him and maybe he liked me, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know who had the bigger problem, me or Shan.

  On Monday morning I arrived at Perfect Paws and looked at the sign-up sheet for the day care program. I saw a couple of familiar names, as well as a few new ones. That made me feel better. At least one thing in my life was going well.

  I started organizing things for the day, putting out toys for the dogs and filling water bowls. As customers came in, I put the dogs in the back and watched to make sure they all got along. Rufus was there, along with Py and the Chihuahuas. The two new dogs, a corgi named Dash and an Irish setter called Maggie, had settled into the group right away, so I left everyone to play and went inside to see if my mother needed any help.

  When I walked in, I saw her standing at the counter talking to Megan and Jack. Barkley and Tallulah were there, too.

  “So, you’ll be back around six then,” my mother said as I stood behind them, not sure whether I should say something or just run back out into the yard.

  Before I could decide, Jack turned around and his eyes looked right into mine. “Hey, Allie,” he said, smiling a little.

  “Hey,” I replied. I couldn’t help but notice how cute Jack looked. He was wearing shorts again, only this time he had on a Modest Mouse T-shirt. They’re pretty much my favorite band ever, and finding out that Jack apparently liked them too made me like him even more.

  Megan turned too, only she didn’t say anything. Instead, she stepped closer to Jack. “We’re going to Magic Mountain,” she announced.

  “Oh,” I said. Megan was looking at me as if I should have more to say than that. But I didn’t.

  “You’re going to love it,” she said to Jack when I didn’t respond to her. “We are going to have the best day. But you have to hold my hand on the roller coaster. I’m such a baby when it comes to those.”

  “Right,” Jack said.

  Megan looked at me and shook her head so that her hair fanned out over her shoulders. I thought about my hair. I hadn’t even washed it that morning. I’d gotten up late, and had just managed to pull it back into a ponytail. I knew it didn’t look so great, and Megan knew it too. Her hair-shaking was her way of letting me know she was prettier than I was, like a peacock spreading its tail.

  “We should get going,” Megan said. “We want to be there right when it opens. That way we have the whole day together.”

  Jack nodded good-bye, but didn’t say anything. He and Megan left, and my mother handed Tallulah and Barkley to me. “What an attractive couple,” she said.

  “The people or their dogs?” I muttered.

  I took Barkley and Tallulah into the yard and let them loose. Barkley, wagging his tail, went over to Dash. Tallulah took off after the Chihuahuas, who were playing with a red rubber ball. Tallulah snatched it and darted away, while Frida and Diego stood there, wondering what had happened.

  Once again, I couldn’t help thinking how much the dogs were like their owners. Like Megan, Tallulah was snippy and mean. Barkley, on the other hand, was playing gently with Dash, as if he was welcoming the new kid on the first day of school.

  Was Jack really like him? I wondered. He sometimes seemed to be. But then I thought about him and Megan at Magic Mountain. I pictured them buying hot dogs and funnel cakes and going on rides together. I knew Megan had made up the story about being afraid of roller coasters. I’d gone to Magic Mountain with her once on a school trip, and she’d insisted on sitting in the very first car and holding her arms up on all the hills. She was just trying to get Jack to hold her hand.

  That was the worst thing. Why couldn’t Jack see what she was doing? Why was he falling for all of her tricks? Any girl could see right through Megan and her fakeness. Why couldn’t a guy like Jack? He didn’t seem stupid.

  The only answer was that he didn’t want to see through her. Like so many other guys, he wanted to think she was the perfect girl. It didn’t matter that she was mean and spiteful and a liar. She was pretty, and that, apparently, was enough to make her worth going out with.

  The Chihuahuas had gone after their ball. They were standing near Tallulah, and Diego kept reaching his nose toward the ball. Every time he did, Tallulah snarled at him. Diego sat down and looked at Frida, as if he didn’t know what else to do. I felt bad for them. All they wanted to do was play, and Tallulah was ruining their fun. She didn’t even want the ball; she just didn’t want them to have it.

  While I watched, Barkley came over to the other three dogs. He walked right up to Tallulah, bent down, and started to take the ball in his mouth. Tallulah snapped at him. Instead of backing down, Barkley barked at her. Tallulah sat down, as if she couldn’t believe anyone had woofed at her. Barkley picked the ball up, turned around, and dropped it in front of Frida and Diego. They looked at him, then at Tallulah. Then Frida took the ball, and the two of them ran off to play.

  Barkley came over to me and sat down. I reached over and rubbed his big, soft ears. “That was a really nice thing you did,” I told him.

  He snuffled at my hand with his nose. Tallulah was looking at us with a nasty expression on her face, as if she wanted to bite us both.

  “Why can’t Jack be as smart as you?” I asked Barkley.

  He looked up at me, woofed once, and wagged his stub of a tail. Then he ran off to see what Rufus and Py were doing, while I sat there and felt sorry for myself.

  Chapter Nine

  As I stood in front of the door to Megan’s house and rang the buzzer, I felt like I was standing at the entrance to Dracula’s castle. I would rather have been anywhere else than there, and I probably would have left, except my mother was with me and I couldn’t exactly take off and leave her there by herself. Instead, I pasted a fake smile on my face, so that when Mrs. Fitzmartin opened the door, I would at least look like I wasn’t in the middle of my worst nightmare.

  “Hi,” Mrs. Fitzmartin said as my mom and I walked into the house. “Allie, Megan and the others are in the living room. You can just go on in.”

  “Thanks,” I said, wishing I’d brou
ght a garlic necklace and a long wooden stake with me, in case Megan turned out to be a vampire.

  When I entered the living room, I saw Megan sitting on a big, white couch. She was surrounded by a bunch of girls I knew because we all went to the same school, but who I’d barely said six words to since first grade. They were Megan’s best friends. Instead of using their real names, Shan and I called them the Megbots, since they all tried really hard to be exactly like Megan. They wore their hair like her. They dressed like her. And worst of all, they acted like her.

  When they saw me, the Megbots looked at me for a second, then went right back to whatever it was they were talking about, as if I didn’t exist. That was fine with me. I sat down in a chair as far away from them as I could get and waited for something to happen.

  I didn’t have to wait long. About five minutes after I got there, Jack showed up. As soon as he came into the room, Megan and the Megbots all started giggling like a bunch of crazy birds. Megan stood up and said, “Jack! I’m so glad you could come. These are my friends Sarahjessicashaunamelindaamberandbeth.” She said their names like it was one long one, really fast, so that Jack couldn’t really catch any of them. I wondered if she’d done it on purpose, so that she would be the only one who Jack really knew.

  She didn’t mention me at all, of course, and it took a while for Jack to turn and see me. When he did, his face lit up, like he was relieved to see someone he knew besides Megan. “Hey,” he said, starting to come over to me. Before I could answer, Megan grabbed his hand and pulled him down onto the couch beside her.

  “Am I the only guy on the committee?” Jack asked.

  “No,” one of the Megbots informed him. “But you’re the only one coming tonight. The other three are busy with a baseball game or something.”

  “Oh,” said Jack. “Well, lucky me.”

  The Megbots giggled some more. I rolled my eyes and sighed. I wished more than anything that I could just disappear. Since I couldn’t do that, I wished that at least Shan was there with me to provide moral support. But Shan was on her date with Hector. Remembering that made me even more depressed.

  “So then Jessica, not this one, the other one, showed up in exactly the same dress that Anna was wearing. It was so funny. And, of course, they both looked ridiculous in it. I mean, what were they thinking?”

  One of the Megbots was talking. The others were all listening to her like she was telling them the meaning of life or something. Surrounded by them, Jack was nodding and sort of smiling, but it looked like he was starting to fall asleep. They have him under their spell, I thought to myself. In a minute, he’s going to nod off. Then they’ll suck the blood out of him.

  “What I want to know,” Megan said, her voice drowning out everyone else’s, “is how Jessica thought she could have a party and not invite me.” She snorted, as if the idea was completely unbelievable.

  “I know,” said one of the Megbots. “Totally stupid, right?”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey,” I said. “Aren’t we supposed to be talking about the Fourth of July thing?”

  They all turned and stared at me as if I’d grown another head. I stared back, and the Megbots all looked at Megan, like they didn’t know what to do next.

  “We were getting to that,” said Megan. “But you’re new at this, so I guess you don’t know how things work.”

  The Megbots laughed. I saw Jack give me a little smile, as if he felt sorry for me. For some reason, that made me madder at Megan and her friends. I didn’t want Jack to feel sorry for me. I wanted to be able to stand up to the Megbots and show them that I was better than them, and I wanted him to see it too.

  “We really should discuss the Fourth of July,” Megan said, as if I hadn’t said anything and she was the one getting everyone to focus. “We need a theme.”

  The Megbots all looked at one another, waiting for someone to say something. After a minute, one of them said, timidly, “Well, what’s the point of the Fourth of July? That’s when that boat dropped the first settlers off, right? On that rock?”

  “The Maypole,” another Megbot said.

  The first Megbot nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Why don’t we have everyone dress like pilgrims?”

  “The Fourth of July has nothing to do with pilgrims, or the Mayflower,” I said. “It commemorates America’s independence from British rule.”

  The Megbots looked like I’d just said they were all wearing last year’s clothes. But Jack nodded. “Allie’s right,” he said. “That’s why they call it Independence Day.”

  “After the Will Smith movie,” said a Megbot, her eyes going wide as she laughed at her own brilliance.

  “I think it’s the other way around,” Jack told her.

  “Anyway,” said Megan. “Now that Allie’s given us this crucial little history lesson, we still need to think of a theme. Remember, we’re supposed to be raising money for a charity.”

  “I don’t know why we can’t just have a party,” one of the Megbots complained. “Why do we have to help people. It takes all the fun out of everything.”

  “We just do,” Megan said. “Last year they raised money for underprivileged kids. Or maybe it was for old people. Whatever.”

  The Megbots were silent. I guess they were trying to grasp the concept of actually helping other people. Maybe none of them had ever done anything for someone else.

  “What about animals?” Jack suggested.

  The Megbots all looked relieved that someone had said something. “Animals?” Megan asked.

  “Yeah,” said Jack. “We could raise money for the shelter. They always need help. We could, I don’t know, have people bring their dogs to the party or something.”

  “I love it,” Megan said. “Jack, that’s the best idea ever.”

  “It’s just a suggestion,” said Jack. “You guys might have some better ideas.”

  “No,” Megan said firmly. “The animals need our help, right, girls?”

  The Megbots all nodded.

  “I love animals,” Megan said, then paused like she was waiting for someone to congratulate her. When no one did, she said, “Let’s take a vote. All in favor of raising money for the shelter?”

  The Megbots raised their hands, as did Megan and Jack.

  “All right, then,” said Megan. “That’s it.”

  “What about Allie?” Jack said. “She didn’t vote.”

  “Allie?” Megan said in a voice that was supposed to sound friendly. “What’s your vote?”

  “Sure,” I said, surprised that they had even bothered to ask me at all.

  “This is going to be so much fun,” said Megan, going back to ignoring me. Then she gave a little shriek. Everyone looked at her. “Oh, you know what?” she said. “I just had the cutest idea. We can have people dress their dogs in costumes! That would be so great.”

  “Not for the dogs,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

  “Did you say something?” Megan asked me.

  “I said, it wouldn’t be fun for the dogs. Dressing dogs up makes them feel ridiculous.”

  “Really?” Megan said. “And how do you know how dogs feel? Are you a dog?”

  The Megbots giggled. Megan smirked at me.

  “Maybe I know how they feel because I actually pay attention to them,” I shot back. “I don’t treat them like toys.”

  The smile melted from Megan’s face. I could tell she wanted to say something really nasty. But Jack was sitting beside her, and I knew she wouldn’t risk it while he was around.

  “I think costumes would be adorable,” said one of the Megbots. “I think dogs in coats and sweaters and things look sweet. Besides, they’re dogs. They don’t know any better.”

  I stood up. I was just about to tell the Megbot that she was the one who didn’t know any better. But before I could speak, Jack said, “I think costumes is too much. It’s easier if people just bring their dogs without clothes. That way they can run around and play without getting all dirty.”
/>   “Jack’s right,” Megan said instantly. “We want the dogs to be able to play.”

  Jack’s right? I thought angrily. When he said it, Megan acted like it was totally obvious that putting clothes on dogs was a bad idea. When I said it, I was being unreasonable. I looked at Jack. He was looking at me and nodding, as if to say, “We won!” But I wasn’t about to let him think I was grateful, even if I was. He may have spoken up, but he was still sitting next to Megan. He’d taken her to Magic Mountain. And, most important, he’d still ratted me out to her. He could never be on my side if he was already on hers.

  “Now that we have our theme,” Megan said, “we can get back to talking about important stuff. Like what people are going to wear. I think everyone should wear red, white, and blue.”

  “Whatshername from that show was wearing the cutest blue dress in Teen People this week,” one of the Megbots said.

  I tuned them out. Once Megbots started talking about clothes, I knew it was all over. You could set off dynamite next to them and they wouldn’t even notice. It was just clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes. I knew there were other things we needed to talk about, like who was going to do what to actually make sure this event happened. But why should I care? I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t care about their club or their Fourth of July party. I was only there because my mother had made me come.

  After another five minutes, I went to look for my mother. She was in the kitchen with Mrs. Fitzmartin.

  “We’re done,” I told her.

  “Already?” said my mother. “That was fast.”

  I hurried her out and into the car. As we drove home, she asked me about the meeting. “Did you come up with a good idea?”

  “We’re raising money for the animal shelter,” I answered.

  “What a great idea!” said my mother. “I bet that was your idea.”

  I didn’t say anything. The truth is, it was a great idea. It was a fantastic idea. And I was almost mad that I hadn’t thought of it before Jack had. Why did Jack always have to act like he knew more about dogs than I did?