by Daphne Maple
We were at lunch the next day, picking at our food, when Brianna sailed up to our table, a smile on her face. My whole body stiffened as I waited for whatever nasty thing she was about to say.
“My mother told me we have a new client,” she said cheerfully. “A family whose dog used to go to your day care but thought you didn’t do a good job.”
“We know,” Sasha said shortly. “Hattie. And they weren’t upset with us, they were just . . . whatever; it’s complicated.”
Brianna’s forehead wrinkled. “No, it’s not Hattie,” she said. “It’s another dog.”
There was no pretending that we didn’t care about this. The three of us were stricken.
“Who is it?” Kim asked in a tight voice.
Now Brianna was smiling again, knowing she’d gotten to us. “Circa maybe? I forget the dog’s exact name,” she said cheerfully. “We have so many after all.” With that she headed off, leaving the three of us in a panic.
“She has to be lying,” Kim said. “The Cronins and Washingtons would never leave us.”
“The Simmonses either,” I added, thinking of how Coco’s family were always so enthusiastic about the club. But my chest was tight. Clearly Brianna knew something, and that something was not good.
“Maybe she meant Clarabelle?” Kim asked.
Sasha was fumbling in her bag and a moment later she pulled out her phone.
“If an aide sees that, you’ll lose your phone,” Kim said urgently.
“This is an emergency,” Sasha said, quietly turning it on. “You guys keep a lookout while I go to their website and see who the dog is.”
Kim and I kept our eyes glued on the lunch aides, who were busy breaking up a food fight at the other end of the cafeteria. After a moment Sasha sucked in a sharp breath.
“Who is it?” I asked, almost not wanting to know.
Sasha stuffed her phone into her bag, her hands shaking. “It’s Sierra,” she said in a choked voice.
Kim and I looked at each other, eyes wide. Sierra had been the one dog we hadn’t been able to handle, the one dog we’d asked to leave the Dog Club. And now she was at Pampered Puppy. This was even worse than I’d feared.
Sasha went on. “The Finnegans have this quote about how they thought their dog was a lost cause, that no one could handle her, but the professionals”—her voice trembled as she said the word—“at Pampered Puppy totally saved her. She’s obedient and well behaved and they are over the moon about it. That’s what they said: ‘over the moon.’”
We let this dreadful news sink in.
“Do they say anything about how we couldn’t manage Sierra?” Kim finally asked in a small voice.
Sasha shook her head. “No, but people will figure it out.”
Kim nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
The bell rang but none of us moved.
“Everything okay over here?” Rachel asked as she and her friends stood up.
Kim gave her a watery smile. “Just a little problem with the Dog Club.”
“Let us know if we can do anything,” Dana said, patting Kim’s shoulder as she passed.
“You guys will fix it,” Emily said confidently. “You always do.”
The three of us looked at each other and I knew what Sasha and Kim were thinking: Emily was right, we had always figured out how to handle the problems that had faced our club before. But we’d never faced a problem as big as this one.
And it was starting to look like this time there was nothing we could do to fix it.
15
A few days later I was heading to my locker after the final bell when I saw Brianna heading toward me. Without even thinking about it I ducked into the nearest empty classroom to wait while she passed. It was quiet and I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
My eyes flew open. A teacher I didn’t know had come in and was staring at me with a puzzled look.
“Um, no; thanks anyway,” I mumbled, hustling out.
I glanced down the crowded hall and saw that Brianna had passed. And that was when it hit me how bad things were: I was actually hiding from a girl at my school, creeping around like a criminal to avoid running into her. It was absurd, but like the problem with the Dog Club, I had no idea how to fix it.
I walked slowly to my locker and grabbed my stuff, then headed out to meet Kim and Sasha. It was our new habit to meet outside the school so that whoever got there first could turn on her phone and check the Pampered Puppy website to see what new and awful information it held.
Today the first person was Kim. She was standing under an oak tree, phone in hand and a frown on her face.
“More bad news?” I asked as I walked up.
“The same, I guess,” Kim said. “Lots of people saying how much they love Pampered Puppy. They must have almost twenty clients, with more people signing up every day.”
“And no new clients for us,” I said. “Unless Alice sent Sasha a call during the day today.”
“She didn’t,” Sasha said, coming up behind us, slightly breathless. “I just checked.”
“Too bad,” I said, hoisting my bag over my shoulder.
The three of us started down the path together.
“It’s been a day of bad news,” Sasha said gloomily. “I failed my math test and Ms. Rodriguez is calling my mom to talk about it. She says she’s worried about my missed homework and now this.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Sash, what is going on?” I asked.
Kim looked equally troubled as Sasha’s eyes filled with tears. “I just don’t have time to get everything done,” Sasha wailed. “I’m up until midnight every night but then I’m so tired I can’t actually study.”
“Can we help?” Kim asked.
Sasha shook her head and we started walking again. “I need to figure out how to manage everything better,” she said, sniffling a little. “And I know I will. Eventually anyway.” She sighed. “My mom is going to be so mad when she gets that call.”
I squeezed her arm sympathetically.
“Let’s not talk about that anymore,” Sasha said as we crossed the street. The sun was shining and the air smelled like crisp leaves and mowed grass. “What’s the latest on the Pampered Puppy website?”
Kim and I told her about all the new clients the Pampered Puppy had.
Sasha pulled out her phone. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “I bet they’re making some of these people up.”
That made me laugh. “So Mrs. Flynn who says her dog has never been so happy isn’t real?”
“Exactly,” Sasha said firmly, almost tripping over a bump on the sidewalk because she was looking up the Pampered Puppy website on her phone.
“It would be funny if they were all totally pretend and—” I began, but then Sasha gasped.
“What?” I asked, my skin prickling.
“Listen to this,” she said angrily. “It’s their latest ad. ‘Why bother with second-rate care when you can get first-rate professionals to watch over your dog? Come to Pampered Puppy Doggy Day Care, the best doggy daycare in town!’”
“I can’t believe this,” I said, gritting my teeth. “They are totally putting us down.”
“And getting more clients because of it,” Kim said, twisting a lock of hair.
“And of course they have that quote from the Finnegans right under it,” Sasha said bitterly.
“I wish the Finnegans were made-up,” I muttered darkly. The more I thought about all of it, the angrier I got. “You guys, we can’t let Pampered Puppy get away with this. We have to retaliate.”
“We can try to put more content on our website, like they do,” Kim said, looking at me uncertainly. “And update it every day if we can find the time. Is that what you mean?”
“Yes, but more too,” I said. “They keep insulting us, so maybe it’s our turn to say something nasty about them.” As soon as I said the words I felt funny, like I’d swallowed an apple whole. Sasha and Kim looked
uneasy too.
“I’m not sure,” Kim began. “I mean, I see what you’re saying, but it doesn’t feel like us, you know?”
“That’s true,” Sasha said. “But my mom does always say that when it comes to business you need to fight fire with fire.” She didn’t sound fully convinced though.
We’d reached the corner of Montgomery and Elm, where Sasha was turning to go to dance, Kim was going straight to get to the Rox, and I was turning left to go home and start dinner.
“Let’s think about it,” I said. “Because it might not be the way our club does business. But if it’s a choice between that and losing our club . . .” It hurt just to say those words.
“We’ll think about it,” Kim agreed. The corners of her mouth turned down.
We waved and went our separate ways. My whole body felt heavy as I walked. I wished we were heading to the shelter together. Right now I needed some dog time to lift my spirits, which were about as low as they could get.
But instead all that awaited me was an empty house, homework, and a meal to prepare. Oh, and a sister to tease me about it.
This was really turning into a bad day.
And it got worse. I’d gotten distracted looking at examples of advertising, trying to think of a way to drum up business for the club, and the hamburgers I’d been cooking all burned. Anna complained the whole meal, and no one ate very much.
I offered to help Tash wash up since burned pans were such a drag to clean, but she waved me upstairs. An hour later guilt was still gnawing at me, along with something else: hunger. Even I hadn’t eaten much of my awful dinner. So I headed down to the kitchen for a snack.
When I walked in I heard someone rustling in the pantry. I hoped it was Tash or Jasmine, or even my dad, but it was Anna, who came out holding a box of crackers. She scowled when she saw me. “That meal was the worst,” she told me.
“I know,” I said through clenched teeth. “I already said I was sorry like a hundred times.”
Anna was getting some cheese out of the fridge to go with her crackers. I opened a cabinet and pulled out a box of chocolate chip cookies. I was hoping we were done talking, but when Anna saw the cookies she spoke right up.
“Don’t eat all of them,” she said, pointing to the box with a piece of string cheese.
“I won’t,” I grumbled.
“You always say that but then you just go ahead and do whatever you want,” Anna said, making a cheese-and-cracker sandwich. “Like with the cookies Dad brought home from Trattoria Romana. Or when you cut up Your Roxbury Park.”
She never forgot anything! “I said I won’t eat them all,” I huffed. “Do you want me to write out a contract or something?”
Anna shook her head. “You can joke, but seriously, Taylor, try to think about someone other than yourself for once.”
I opened my mouth to respond but suddenly it was all too much: Pampered Puppy, the Finnegans, the new ad, and Brianna, the person who had me cowering in my own school. A fight with Anna was more than I could bear. So instead of answering, I burst into tears. Which shocked me, but not as much as it shocked Anna.
Her mouth actually fell open as I sobbed. “Taylor, it’s okay,” she said, reaching out a hand to touch my arm.
But I jerked away, embarrassed to be falling apart like this but also angry. Really angry. “You’re so mean to me all the time!” I shouted through my tears, my voice snuffly. “Why do you hate me so much?”
Anna sat down on a stool and rubbed her face for a moment. When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. “You’re my sister, Taylor. I don’t hate you.” Her voice wobbled a little.
“You sure act like you do,” I said. My tears were finally slowing down, and I grabbed a napkin to wipe my face.
“Sometimes I get angry but I could never hate you, I promise,” she said.
I shoved the cookies back into the cabinet. I wasn’t hungry anymore and I didn’t want to talk to Anna. I just wanted to go upstairs and hide in my room, possibly forever.
But when I started for the door, Anna stopped me. “Taylor, you’re right; sometimes I am mean,” she said quietly. “And I owe you an apology for that.”
Now I was the one who was shocked. Anna never admitted to doing something wrong, not ever.
“Why do you do it?” I asked, now more curious than anything else.
Anna let out a long sigh, then smiled at me slightly. “I’ll tell you if you eat some cookies,” she said. “I don’t want you starving in your own house because of something I said.”
I could live with that deal. I took the cookies out again and sat on the stool next to Anna.
She stared at her hands for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Honestly, I guess I’m jealous of you,” she said.
I almost choked. “Jealous of me? Why?” I asked. Anna was smart and pretty and popular—she had everything. What could she possibly think I had that she didn’t?
“You’re the baby of the family,” she said. “The cute one. The girl everyone fusses over and takes care of, the one who gets all the attention.”
“Really?” I asked, floored. I never felt like I got all the attention. In fact, it often seemed like my sisters were always talking about things I was too young to understand. I was constantly trying to worm my way into their conversation, to get them to talk about something I was interested in too. Oh. Maybe that was what Anna meant. Because I did do a good job of getting Tash and Jasmine to talk about what I wanted to talk about once I put my mind to it. It had never occurred to me how that might affect Anna.
“Jasmine and Tasha drop everything when you come in,” Anna said, a bitter edge to her voice. “Like tonight they were so nice about you burning dinner. If it was me, they’d have made me cook something new.”
That was probably true. “But isn’t that because you’re older? It seems to me like the three of you are a team and I’m the one tagging along, always behind.”
Anna shook her head. “Tash and Jasmine are the team, and you’re their mascot,” she said. “The one left out is me.”
“They love you though,” I said. I knew that for sure. But the rest of it was kind of hard to wrap my mind around. I’d never thought about Anna as being the fourth wheel. But hearing her talk, it was starting to sound like maybe I’d been missing something. “Why didn’t you ever say anything about this before?”
“Like what?” Anna asked. “‘Pay more attention to me’?”
Somehow that made me laugh, and after a moment Anna joined in. Then she leaned over and patted my arm. This time I let her.
“So you forgive me?” she asked.
I nodded. “As long as you forgive me too,” I said. “I guess I can be an attention hog.”
“And a cookie hog,” Anna said with a smile, gesturing down at the empty box in front of me.
I hadn’t even realized it, but I’d totally eaten all the cookies! “Sorry!”
Anna jokingly rolled her eyes. “Just like I knew you would,” she said.
“I guess I was hungry after than inedible dinner,” I said, standing up and rifling through the cabinet. After a moment I pulled out a box of gingersnaps. “These are all yours,” I said, handing her the box. “I promise not to eat a single one.”
“I think I can share a few,” Anna said, opening the box and holding it out to me.
“Maybe just one,” I said, and we both laughed again.
But then Anna looked serious. “Is something else going on?” she asked me. “Because it seems like you’re upset about more than just me nagging you.”
For a moment I wondered if I should tell Anna about Brianna. It was kind of humiliating to admit that someone at school was picking on me. But then I remembered that Anna had just shared a lot with me. And I liked that she trusted me—it was way better than being teased. So maybe it was worth it to try trusting her back.
I poured out the whole story: the things Brianna said, the ways I’d tried to stop her, and how it seemed to be getting worse and worse. A
nna listened, nodding in the right places and eating her cookies quietly. When I was done I felt tired but also lighter, the way I had after I’d told Kim and Sasha the whole story.
“That’s rough,” Anna said sympathetically.
“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh. “And I don’t know what to do.”
Anna tilted her head thoughtfully. “Why do you think she does it?” she asked. “I mean, why you out of all the students at your school?”
“I don’t know,” I said. I’d expected Anna to give me advice, not ask questions.
“Is it a race thing?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I mean, of course I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. She’s nice to the other black girls in my class. It’s just me she hates.”
“Or is jealous of,” Anna mused.
I suddenly remembered that Kim had said the same thing. “But why would Brianna be jealous of me?” I asked.
Anna shrugged. “That I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s worth thinking about. Because I think the key to getting her to stop picking on you is to figure out why she’s doing it in the first place.”
I nodded slowly because that really did make sense. “Thanks,” I said as we began clearing up the mess from our snacks. “I’m going to think about it.”
“If all else fails,” Anna said, “let me know and I’ll come take care of her. No one messes with my little sister.”
Anna hadn’t ever talked to me like this and it made me feel all warm and cozy. I looked at her putting the cookie box away and suddenly, before I’d considered what might happen, I threw my arms around her.
For a moment Anna froze. The two of us never hugged.
But then she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tight.
“Thanks, little sister,” she said softly into my shoulder. “I really needed that.”
“Me too,” I said. And it was true.
16
“Wow,” Kim said, grinning.
“Taylor, that’s awesome,” Sasha added happily, reaching across our booth at the Rox to squeeze my hand. I’d just told them the whole story about Anna, and they were as pleased about it as I was.