They followed the route back along the same humps and dips and turns. Past the spot where Tubbs had elbowed him in the ribs, on by the place where Fester had also pooped on the run. They slid over the mess, leaving smears in the snow behind them.
They kept running. Each time they arrived at a new twist in the trail, Matt stopped the team and everyone listened.
“Lily!” Matt called desperately. He gripped the handlebar tighter with each passing minute.
On the last stretch of trail before home, the dogs broke into a lope. This was where Matt usually told the team to go faster. The dogs were used to the routine.
Bandit ran with abandon, his legs flying out in all directions. He glanced over his shoulder at Matt, seeming to check that he was doing well. His tail rose in hesitation.
“You’re okay, Bandit. You’re safe,” Matt assured him.
Bandit straightened out his tail again and continued pulling.
“At least we haven’t seen her lying on the trail,” Alex said. “If she’s not out here, that must mean she went home.”
Matt forced himself to breathe. Alex was right. That’s where Lily would be, back in the dog yard where he’d left her. She might even try to pretend she hadn’t come after them—what with her wiping out and losing Bandit. She was probably worried she’d be in trouble. And when Matt got his hands on her, she would be.
They broke through the trees and into the yard. The rest of the dogs started a welcome howl. Matt stopped in front of the barn and sank the hook. He jumped off the runners and ran straight into the barn.
“Lily!” he called. “Lil?”
It took a while for the three of them to search through the barn and kiln shed and inside the house before they realized she wasn’t here.
Lily was still missing.
Thirteen
“I’ll have to go back out,” Matt said, as he unhooked a few of the dogs. His head throbbed with each pounding heartbeat.
Bandit shook and puffed out his chest. He pranced and panted happily, victorious. Matt spent a few precious seconds praising him.
“I’ll keep my four regular dogs to go back over our trail,” Matt told Tubbs.
“Should we tell your dad?” Tubbs asked.
Matt cringed at his question. If they told him, that would somehow make it real. Lily wasn’t lost, she was just . . . missing. And Dad would be so angry. Maybe Matt could find her before his dad had to know.
“Let’s try again first. She’s got to be on the trail somewhere.”
“If she is, then how did we miss her?” Tubbs asked.
“Maybe she took a wrong turn,” Matt said. Maybe she’d been lying in the snow, freezing to death, somewhere on a different trail all this time. Matt’s hands shook with panic as he tried to change the gang line to a four-dog setup.
“We’ll come help,” Alex said. “Perhaps she’s just hiding from you because she thinks you’re mad at her. Maybe she’ll come out for me?”
“Why would she do that?” Matt asked, angry.
“I’m a girl. I’m the youngest in my family. I can relate to her.”
“You have an older brother?”
“Sister. Samantha is sixteen.”
“Sam and Alex?” Tubbs asked. “Did your parents want boys or something?”
Alex heaved the bag of chicken that she’d taken out of the sled at him.
“Ready?” Matt called to the team.
Foo hesitated, glancing back at him. Leaving again so soon confused the dog.
“All right,” Matt said. “Ahead, Foo. We’ve got to hurry.”
Foo led the team out fast, sensing the urgency in Matt’s voice.
“We’ll try searching the trails we didn’t go on,” Matt said. “Maybe Lily didn’t know where we turned. But after she fell off, Bandit knew where to find us by smelling our tracks.”
As the dogs pulled them silently, they all peered into the trees along the trail. The only sound was the shush of the runners sliding across the snow and the tinkling of the dogs’ neckline clips.
Into the tense quiet, Alex said, “When I was Lily’s age, Sam was my hero. To me, she was like an idol that I looked up to. I wanted to be everywhere she was, do everything she was doing. She was always smarter than me. Better and faster, and I tried to keep up.”
Guilt crept up Matt’s throat. Lily just wanted to be with him. He had let her down. Why did he let everyone down?
And he couldn’t imagine anyone smarter than Alex.
“Lily!” Matt called, over and over until he was hoarse.
They ran all the loops on the trail system, traveling only as far as Matt felt Lily might’ve gone and then turning around to head down another path.
Matt didn’t realize how long their search was taking until he noticed the sun. It dipped low over the trees. Lily was still nowhere to be seen. And it was getting colder out. The wind pushed snow across the crusty surface of the trail, making hissing snow snakes.
Now Matt didn’t care how much trouble he got into. He had to tell Dad. They had to find her.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
They climbed the last hill before the straight stretch, by the big pine where he could see the road to the mailboxes.
Alex suddenly called out, “Stop!”
Matt slammed the brake to stop the dogs, scanning for Lily. “What? Did you see something?” He sunk the snow hook.
Alex pointed up.
Tucked into the branches of the pine tree, Matt saw a blob of blue. He felt his chest explode.
“Lily!” he yelled, and raced toward the tree, leaving the team with Tubbs and Alex.
The blue blob stirred and Lily’s head popped out. She stared down at Matt with bleary eyes.
“Lily! You . . . you fell asleep?” Matt was suddenly furious. “What the . . . ? Why are you . . . ? We were looking everywhere for you!”
Standing at the base of the tree, Matt held up his arms. He was going to murder her. Lily hopped down into them.
When Matt felt her body solid and real, he hugged her tightly. She’s okay. His little sister was safe and not broken or bleeding or frozen. He must have held her a little too long, because she started to wriggle. Then he remembered he had an audience.
“Alex found you,” Matt said. Then he paused to wonder about that. How had she known to look up into the trees, of all places?
“I knew she would,” Lily said, running toward Alex.
“We went past here three times,” Matt said. “Alex, I. . .” He didn’t even know what to say.
“Think like a girl.” Alex tapped her head. “When you’re lost, go high. Nothing can get you up there. Also, you have a better view of your surroundings. It’s simple logic.”
Matt was so relieved to have found his sister that he didn’t care how smart Alex was. Or how well she could run dogs. He was glad she was on his side.
“It’s getting dark,” Tubbs said.
Matt looked up and noticed that Tubbs was right. “Oh, no.”
“My mom will be waiting.” Tubbs heaved a sigh. “She’ll be steamed.”
“Mine too,” Alex said, looking alarmed. “We should go.”
They started back, none of them looking forward to the reception they would receive.
Fourteen
Just as they feared, their parents were waiting for them at the trailhead when they returned. Dad was hooking up a team, Matt assumed, to go find them. It made even Lily say, “Uh-oh.”
“Yeah,” Matt said.
Lily sat on Tubbs’s lap in the sled. With only four sled dogs, Alex and Matt had been running beside the sled more than sharing the runners. By now, the dogs really needed those snacks.
“Matthew!” Dad yelled. He marched toward them with a mix of worry and fear and something else on his face. Matt was too nervous to try to figure it out.
“Where were you, son? Are you okay?”
“We’re okay,” Matt said, kicking in the hook and walking up the team to praise the dogs for their hard w
ork.
Foo panted hotly in Matt’s face and thumped his tail on the snow. Matt sank his fingers into the thick fur and pressed his forehead to the dog’s. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I promise . . . I. . .” He squeezed his eyes shut. Matt wanted to be worthy of Foo’s trust.
“Why are you so late?” Dad asked. “Mrs. Stevens has been here for a long while.” He nodded at Alex’s mom and then eyed Matt sternly. Matt could imagine how much fun it’d been waiting here with her.
“And Mrs. White was about to call the searchers out for Tyler.”
“Who?” Matt asked.
“That’s me,” said Tubbs with a sigh.
Tubbs’s mom made a sweeping gesture toward their car. “Let’s go, let’s go. You’ve made me late for yoga!”
Alex’s mom pointed a long finger at her daughter. “I don’t believe this is the correct activity for you, Alexandria.” She turned to Dad. “We will be withdrawing from the lessons, Mr. Misco. I’m sure you’ll understand.”
She turned to Matt next and gave him a withering stare. Then he registered what she had said: Matt was losing a client.
No! He needed the sales. He needed to pass this assignment.
“Mrs. Stevens, he’s never done this before, come back so late,” Dad said. “Matt, what the dokee were you thinking, yeah?”
Matt couldn’t think fast enough. He didn’t want Dad to know how badly he’d screwed up with Lily. But his dad was angry already. And all the moms were mad at him.
“It was all my fault we’re late!” Alex blurted. Tubbs and Matt both turned to stare at her.
“It had nothing to do with Matt. He was trying to be a good teacher. But I, well, I wanted to . . . run the team on my own! Yes, I took Lily here and made off with the team and left the boys to walk behind us. It was only a prank. Then I waited for them to catch up so we could all come in together.” Her face was perfectly composed as she explained the situation to her mom.
“I’m going to be quite good at this, Mother. I just need to follow through with the rest of the planned lessons. I’m afraid I was showing off a little.”
This, apparently, was just what Mrs. Stevens wanted to hear. Her demeanor changed. The stiffness of her shoulders relaxed, her mouth turned up in a secret triumphant smile. She nodded a fraction before she stopped herself and smoothed down her long coat, picking off stray dog hairs.
“Well, we can discuss this at home. For now, we’ve been here long enough. If that’s everything, Mr. Misco, we will call later in the week to let you know what we’ve decided.”
Tubbs and Matt shared a look of amazement. First Alex had found Lily, and now she was covering for Matt. He had a new grudging respect for Alex, and he saw in Tubbs’s eyes that he did too.
A horn blared and Tubbs jerked to a hasty shuffle. He retrieved Flute and then scampered toward his mom, who was waiting in the car.
Fifteen
“Whatcha seen, jellybeans?” Mom called when she came home that evening.
“A princess in her castle,” Lily said, making Matt wonder if that was what she had been imagining in the tree.
The way Mom looked at him made him want to confess everything to her.
“A mad dad,” Matt said.
Mom furrowed her brows and looked over at Dad.
He shook his head. “A sad dad.”
“Bad dad,” Lily piped in, not understanding the conversation.
“Is the dad sad about the lad?” Mom asked.
“More . . . glad,” Dad said, crinkling his eyes.
At least Dad seemed to have forgiven Matt for being late and worrying everyone.
“Bad, mad, cad, dad,” Lily chanted.
“Egad!” Mom said, and they both laughed loudly.
These were the kinds of conversations that made Matt wonder if he was adopted.
“I’m going to whittle,” he said, heading to his room.
At least Lily hadn’t tattled about their adventure. Matt had prepped her delicately, not wanting to make their version a big deal but trying to keep it a secret between them. It was bad enough he might lose a client and have to start all over with only two weekends left. But Matt had learned something today. And when Tubbs came over the next time, Matt would start doing things right.
In his room, Matt bent over his math book. What did he need for a balance sheet? Profits. How did he figure out profits, again? A pain started in his stomach.
Assets:
dogsleds
harnesses
gang line
sled dogs
Expenses:
coveralls
$29
dog food
$20 per month x dogs = ?
Sales (2 clients):
Tubbs
$30
Alex
$20
total
$50
50 ÷ 29 =
29 ÷ 50 = $0.58
It was no use. Matt knew how to add and subtract well enough. He could multiply as long as he had the times table cheat sheet to check. But when it came to these problems, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Which numbers should he divide by? Or were they supposed to be multiplied?
Matt ripped the sheet out of his workbook and scrunched it into a ball. He picked up his whittling knife. When he began to shape the little wooden dog’s face, everything else seemed to fade.
* * *
“Matt?” Mom’s voice was soft as she knocked on his door. It’d been a few years since she stopped tucking him in at night. He’d told her he was too old for it. But some nights he kind of missed it. Like tonight.
He sat up. “Yeah?”
She slipped in wearing a full-length nightgown with frilly collar, a polka-dot housecoat, and boot liners. Her normal eveningwear. She tiptoed toward the bed as if Matt were sleeping and then pounced on him, tickling him everywhere at once.
“Hey! Mom . . . stop!” he gasped. “Mom, come on!” He wriggled around, fending her off, trying not to laugh.
Mercifully she stopped and sat beside him to catch her breath. “How’s your sled dog school coming along?”
“Good.” He flicked one of the tassels on top of his quilt.
“So, tell me about it.”
Matt shrugged. “Tubbs is cool, but he’s hard to teach. Alex is a pain, but she’s easy to teach.”
Mom nodded sagely. “All teachers face challenges. Did you have a particularly hard day today?”
“Some days are harder than others.”
Mom threw her head back to laugh. “Well said! That’s a known fact.”
She chuckled to herself before becoming serious. “Want to tell me what’s got you so upset? Maybe I can help?”
Matt glanced at the crumpled paper in his trash bin. He considered just telling her everything—how hard math was, how much he wanted to pass, and how scared he was of being sent to the remedial class. How worried he was about disappointing her.
But he couldn’t tell her any of that. She looked at him with that trusting expression, as if he were the smartest person in the world. She wanted him to work out how to fix his own troubles.
Use your mind, she’d said, after he’d gotten into that fight with Jacob.
“I’ll figure it out,” Matt said now.
“I never doubt that. You always deal with your challenges. I know how smart you are.” She tapped his forehead and then brushed his hair off his face. Matt could smell the grapefruit lotion on her hand.
But her words didn’t help. They just made him more anxious. He had to hide the fact that he didn’t understand the formulas they were learning in math. Why didn’t he, when everyone else did?
Matt tugged on the tassel savagely. How would he ace this project when he was supposed to have three clients to report on and now he might have only one?
“There was a hockey game at the arena this weekend,” Destin said as he taped a worksheet to the wall.
“Since my uncle’s store is right beside the arena, my hot chocolate stand was way b
usy. Plus, we added cookies to the menu. We charged more than double the cost of making them because my mom said people would pay fifty cents for a homemade cookie. She was right. We sold out.”
Hot Chocolate Stand by Destin Taylor
Cookie Expenses
cookie mix × 3 packages
$6.72
butter
$4.87
eggs
$1.84
total
$13.43
Cost of each cookie
$13.43 ÷ 72 cookies = $0.19 per cookie
Sales (lots of clients)
cookie price: $0.50 × 72 = $36
hot chocolate price: $0.50 × 100 = $50
Total time to bake and sell
5 hours
Salary
$50.57 net income ÷ 5 hours = $10.11 per hour
Debit
Credit
income
$36.00
$50.00
expenses
$13.43
$22.00
total
$35.43
$86.00
net income
$50.57
“Ha-ha, sucker!” Jacob yelled. “Can I go next, Mr. Moffat? I made way more than that.”
“That’s perfect, Destin,” Mr. Moffat said, ignoring Jacob. “Everyone, take a look at how Destin has made his calculations. Or you can also do this.” He drew on the board:
(SALE PRICE - COST PER CUP) X NUMBER OF CUPS SOLD = PROFIT
“This is what I want to see for all businesses.” Mr. Moffat clapped, then looked at Jacob and sighed. “Very well, Jacob, what do you have?”
Jacob ran to the front of the class as Destin rolled up his worksheet. “My customers told their friends and so this week I did nine houses,” he said, proudly holding up a map of Wallace Street that showed his bottle collection route.
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