Puppy Love

by Jenny Collins

  Even if I hadn’t heard her hinting to Jack about the corsage, I would have known he got it for her, because he was standing next to her. He was staring at me, too, as if he couldn’t believe I would copy Megan. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was sort of hanging open.

  “Oooh,” Megan said, stamping her foot. “I should have known you’d try to ruin this for me. You ruin everything. Why can’t you just disappear?” She grabbed Jack’s hand. “Come on,” she said. “I can’t stand to look at her.”

  Jack hesitated, like he wanted to say something to me. But he wasn’t there with me; he was there with Megan. The two of them walked off together.

  I stood there, alone, not knowing what to do. I didn’t have another dress to change into. Besides, I liked the one I had on. It wasn’t my fault that stupid Megan had picked out the same one. Like everything lately, it was just another accident.

  All I could do was walk around the party, watching other people have a good time while I got more and more upset. All around me, people were laughing and enjoying themselves. But I just felt defeated. No matter what I did, it turned out wrong. I was, I felt certain, destined to be a loser girl forever. Shan would run off with Hector and then I’d have no one. It would just be me and Rufus.

  Speaking of Rufus, he had disappeared. I decided to go looking for him, afraid he might have gone after a squirrel or something. The last thing I needed was another Regrettable Incident to deal with.

  I found him by the pond, which didn’t surprise me. Labs love water, and he’d gone right to it. There were a couple of other dogs there with him, and they were splashing around in the shallow water. Out on the pond, about a dozen rowboats were floating lazily. Each one had a couple in it. I watched them having fun, rowing around in circles while I stood on the shore, alone.

  In one of the boats, Megan and Jack sat with Tallulah and Barkley. Megan was holding Tallulah, who was still blue, on her lap while Barkley hung his nose over the side, looking at the water. I could see that Megan had dressed Tallulah in some stupid outfit. She had apparently gotten over our dress disaster, because she was talking a mile a minute, waving at some of the Megbots who were in other boats with their dates.

  “I can’t believe he’s here with her,” I said. And I couldn’t. For the life of me, I didn’t understand what Jack was doing with Megan. It just made no sense. But it didn’t really matter anymore. He was there with her, and I was all by myself.

  I heard a whoosh as someone behind me let off a bottle rocket. I saw it whiz up over the pond and explode in a shower of sparks. Barking excitedly, some of the dogs started running around. Then another bottle rocket went off, and another. A series of explosions popped and whistled as they sailed over the pond.

  I heard a dog start yapping loudly. I thought it sounded familiar, and looked around to see where it was coming from. Out on the pond, I spied Tallulah jumping up and down in the rowboat. Megan was trying to catch her, but she was too worked up. She was running hysterically from one end of the boat to the other.

  Then she jumped over the side. I watched as Megan stood up, trying to catch her. It was too late, though. Tallulah was already in the water, splashing her paws frantically as she tried to swim. Megan leaned over, trying to reach her, and that’s when the whole boat turned sideways.

  It seemed to hang there for a second. Then I heard Megan shriek, and the boat turned over. Megan, Jack, and Barkley were dumped into the pond along with Tallulah. I saw Megan’s head disappear under the water, then bob back up. She was screaming and thrashing around.

  Jack swam over to her and tried to calm her down. Barkley, being a spaniel, simply swam for shore, his body moving smoothly and calmly through the water. But I couldn’t see Tallulah. She had disappeared. I knew she couldn’t have made it to shore already, so I searched the pond for her.

  I finally spotted her, about fifty feet from shore. Only her nose was above the water. She was struggling. It looked like her paws had gotten stuck in her costume. She was sinking, and unless someone got to her soon, she was going to drown. The people in the boats were too busy watching Megan to notice her.

  “Her dog!” I shouted. “Help her dog!”

  Three of the Megbots turned and looked at me. I pointed to Tallulah, who was quickly sinking. They just stared, doing nothing. I couldn’t believe it!

  Someone had to do something or Tallulah was going to drown. I looked around, but nobody was going to help her. You have to do it, I told myself.

  Trying not to think about my dress, I slipped off my shoes and ran into the water. It was cold, but I ignored that and started swimming. I kicked as hard as I could, heading for Tallulah. I hoped I could get to her in time.

  I reached her just as she was going under. Just as I’d thought, her little feet were all wrapped up in the stupid striped sweater Megan had put on her. She was whimpering, and for the first time ever, I felt sorry for her.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I pulled her to my chest and held her. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re safe now.”

  Tallulah pressed against me, shivering, as I swam with her back to shore. A crowd had gathered to watch what was going on, and when I walked out of the pond, water dripping from my dress and my hair plastered flat against my head, everyone clapped. Even the dogs barked, like they knew I had helped one of them.

  I pulled the sweater off of Tallulah. Someone handed me a towel and I wrapped her in it, drying her little body while she continued to shake. Slowly, as she realized she wasn’t in the water anymore, she settled down.

  My mother came over and wrapped a second towel around me. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I think the dress has had it, though.”

  “You can always get another dress,” said my mother. She looked at Tallulah. “You can’t replace her.”

  “No, you can’t,” I said, looking at the little blue dog. “She’s definitely one of a kind.”

  “Look at my dress!” I heard Megan’s voice. She was coming out of the water. Jack was behind her, but she ignored him. She was trying to wring the water out of her dress. She didn’t even notice that I was holding Tallulah until Jack pointed to us. Then all Megan did was come over, snatch Tallulah out of my arms, and flounce off.

  “You’re welcome,” I said as my mother shook her head.

  Jack looked at me, then at Megan’s retreating back. “That was a cool thing you did,” he said to me.

  All of a sudden I felt cold. My dress was clinging to my body, and it felt clammy and awful. Even though it was warm out, I was shivering. I wished Jack would hold me and make me feel warmer, the same way I had Tallulah. I even thought he might.

  Then my mother said, “We need to get you out of that wet dress.”

  Leaving Jack, we walked up to the clubhouse. I hadn’t brought any other clothes with me, but my mother found a T-shirt and some shorts in the lost and found box, and I put those on. They looked ridiculous on me, but at least I was dry again.

  “How’s it feel to be a hero?” my father asked when I came back outside.

  “Wet,” I said. He laughed. Then he put his arm around me and hugged me. “I’m proud of you,” he said.

  That warmed me up even more. But I was still depressed. It felt good to have saved Tallulah, but my makeover was ruined. Megan was still a jerk, and Jack was, well, I didn’t know what Jack was.

  “Can we go home?” I asked my parents.

  My father looked at me. “You’ll miss the fireworks,” he said.

  I groaned. “I think I’ve had enough fireworks for one day,” I told him.

  Chapter Twenty

  When we got home, the first thing I did was take a hot bath. A long one. I even filled the tub with bubbles, and when the water cooled down, I let it out and filled it again. That’s how depressed I was.

  Wait. It gets worse. After the bath, I ate almost an entire pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. By myself. Alone in my room, finishing Pride & Prejudice. And I cried through the w
hole last chapter, snuffling into my ice cream and wishing my life could end as happily as Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s.

  I know that earlier I said that when I’m depressed I take Rufus for a walk and it cheers me up. Well, apparently sometimes you do need to just wallow around in self-pity. If Shan had been there, I know she would have joined me for the ice cream. And we would have talked about how boys suck and mean girls suck and being the girl that bad things always happen to sucks.

  But Shan wasn’t there. She was at a Fourth of July picnic with Hector, which I knew because I’d tried calling her and got her grandfather again. I bet she’s already kissed him, I thought. Great.

  Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that being alone on the Fourth of July is hardly the same as being alone on, say, Valentine’s Day. But it was still a downer. Big-time. Because the thing was, I should have been having a great time. I should have been watching fireworks, in my beautiful dress, with Jack McKenna sitting next to me thinking how great I looked and how he really, really wanted to lean over and kiss me. And then, right when the biggest, brightest, most sparkly fireworks exploded right over our heads, he would kiss me.

  Instead I was sitting at home, feeling bloated from eating so much ice cream and thinking about the two dresses I’d managed to ruin. And when Shan called later to tell me that she and Hector had kissed, I would have to pretend to be happy for her instead of getting to tell her that Jack and I had kissed too and comparing our first real kisses. Well, I just wouldn’t answer the phone.

  I went to bed as soon as it was dark enough to count as nighttime. When I woke up the next morning, I could tell I was getting a cold. I felt a little feverish, and my nose was stuffed up. Great, I thought. Now I get to be sick on top of everything else. I rolled over, pulled the blankets around me, and tried to go back to sleep. But I couldn’t, so I got up and went downstairs to scrounge up some breakfast.

  My father had already gone to work, but my mother was frying bacon at the stove. Rufus was sitting right next to her, hoping she might drop a piece. I flopped down in a chair and put my head on the table. “I don’t feel so good,” I said. “I mean well,” I corrected myself, thinking of Shan. “I don’t feel so well.”

  “You probably caught a chill from being in the water,” my mother said, setting a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of me. “Eat. It will make you feel better.”

  I picked up a piece of bacon and bit into it. Normally I’m not a big fan of eating animals, but sometimes I can’t help myself. I know that’s not an excuse or anything, but give me a break. Sometimes a girl needs her bacon.

  I finished the bacon and poked at the eggs. Those I wasn’t so excited about. But I put some ketchup on them and they weren’t too bad. And my mom was right; I did feel better once I’d eaten something. I could still feel the cold trying to creep up on me, but it didn’t seem quite so bad.

  “I think I’m going to take Rufus for a walk,” I said.

  “If you can get him away from the bacon,” said my mother.

  I went and put on my sneakers, but left on the sweatpants and T-shirt I’d worn to bed. I was just going out for a walk, not a date, and Ruf didn’t care what I wore. He was just happy to be going out.

  Rufus pulled me down the sidewalk toward the park. “No, boy,” I said, making him stop. “I was thinking more like around the block. Maybe two blocks.”

  Rufus whined. He looked at me with his big, sad eyes and wagged his tail. I sighed. “Fine,” I said. “We’ll go to the park.”

  He practically dragged me there, he was so excited. I trotted along behind him, glad that I’d worn my sneakers. When we reached the park, I looked around to make sure there was nobody for Rufus to bother, then let him off his leash. Almost immediately, he took off. I saw a fluffy tail streaking away in front of him. I should have seen that coming, I thought as Rufus and the squirrel disappeared in the direction of the Dog Bowl.

  I ran after him. When I reached the Bowl, I looked down and saw him playing with a familiar black-and-white dog. It was Barkley. And if Barkley was there, that meant that…

  “Hi,” Jack said, making me jump. He was standing behind me.

  “Hi,” I muttered, trying not to look at him.

  “Isn’t this how we met?” he said, looking at Rufus and Barkley playing together.

  “I’m surprised you remember,” I said. “You certainly didn’t remember me when you saw me at the shelter.” I was suddenly very much aware that I was wearing old sweatpants, and found myself pushing my hair behind my ears.

  “You mean when you came to pick up your best friend’s dog,” Jack said.

  I felt my cheeks burn. “So I didn’t exactly tell the truth,” I said. “You didn’t have to rat on me to Megan.”

  “What?” said Jack, looking confused.

  I turned on him. “Come on,” I said. “I know you called Megan that day and told her Tallulah was there. How else would she have found out?”

  Jack shook his head. “You think I would do that?” he asked.

  “Well, didn’t you?” I demanded.

  “No,” he answered. “Tallulah has a microchip.”

  I looked at him, not understanding.

  “A Home Again microchip,” Jack repeated. “The kind you put in dogs in case they get lost. The chip has the owner’s information on it. We put them in every dog that gets adopted from the shelter.”

  I did know about the chips. Rufus had one. It was really small, about the size of a grain of rice. It was injected under the skin, and anyone with a special scanner could read it if they had to. It was a great way to help lost animals find their owners. It hadn’t occurred to me that Tallulah might have one.

  “Tallulah’s a registered show dog, even though they don’t show her,” Jack continued. “She’s got a microchip. One of the volunteers ran the scanner on her, found the chip, and called Megan before you even came in. I didn’t know, which is why I let you take her. For your information, I’m the one who got in big trouble for letting you have her.”

  I didn’t know what to say. If Jack was telling the truth, I had made a horrible mistake. If he wasn’t, then he was an even bigger jerkboy than I’d thought. Either way, it was bad for me.

  “And by the way, I did recognize you when you came in. I just didn’t want you to know.”

  “What?” I said. I hadn’t really been paying attention. I was too busy trying to decide if he was a liar or not.

  “I did recognize you,” Jack repeated. He sounded mad. “You know, I thought you were different. When I saw how you were with Rufus, I thought you were a girl I could really like. I can usually tell how people are by how they are with their dogs. But I guess I read you wrong.”

  I just stared at him. He’d just said basically the same thing I’d been thinking about him. I’d liked him right away not just because he was cute, but because he had such a sweet dog. Had I been right after all?

  “But Megan…” I said.

  “What about Megan?” Jack asked. He had pulled Barkley’s leash from the belt loop of his jeans and looked like he was about to leave.

  “You like her,” I said.

  He shook his head so that the hair flipped away from his eyes. “Like her?” he said as he waved for Barkley to come to him. “I can barely stand her. All she does is talk about herself, and those friends of hers are so boring I have to tune them out when they start talking.”

  “But you took her to Magic Mountain,” I said. “And the Fourth of July party. You bought her a corsage.”

  Jack held up a finger. “Correction,” he said. “I didn’t take her anywhere. I went with her. And I only did that because my parents made me.”

  “Made you?” I said. “Why would they make you hang out with Megan?”

  “Because my mother works with her father,” said Jack, snapping the leash on Barkley’s collar. “She’s a lawyer at his firm. She thought it would look good if I was nice to his daughter.”

  Suddenly, everything made sense. I couldn’
t believe I hadn’t seen it before. Of course Jack’s parents would want him to be nice to Megan. That totally explained why he’d put up with her. But I’d been so angry, and so focused on how much Megan bugged me, that I hadn’t seen the truth. Now that I did, I was afraid it was too late.

  “I’ve got to go,” said Jack, starting to walk down the hill.

  “Wait,” I called after him, fumbling as I tried to attach Rufus’s leash.

  He turned and looked at me. But I didn’t know what to say. Everything was all mixed up. My feelings were bouncing all over the place and my stomach was in knots. I stared at Jack. In the sun, his eyes sparkled brown and gold. And that’s when I realized: He was my prince. Only he wasn’t about to kiss me, he was about to leave.

  Then you need to kiss him, said the voice in my head. You know, the one that had gotten me into so much trouble already. I didn’t know—should I listen to it one more time? Or was I about to have the biggest Regrettable Incident of my life? I mean, in fairy tales the prince always does the kissing. The princess is just supposed to wait for him.

  Maybe it’s time to rewrite those stories, I thought.

  I ran toward Jack. Only I guess Rufus thought we were playing a game. He ran so quickly that I was pulled along behind him. Instead of stopping in front of Jack, I sort of ran into him. But he caught me. His hands were on my arms, and I was looking into his face. For what seemed like forever, I stared into his eyes. What was I doing? I wondered. I was wearing sweats. My hair was a mess. I had a cold. If I could possibly look worse, I didn’t know how. But I wanted to tell him how I felt, and if I was going to do that, I had to do it now.

  “You weren’t wrong,” I said. “I was. And I’m sorry.”

  Jack didn’t say anything. He just looked back at me. I knew he was thinking about how crazy I was. I was about to tell him not to listen to me, that I was on cold medication and completely out of my mind. I started to pull away, but he pulled me back.