by Cari Simmons
“Almost all she ever does is agree with something you said, Bails. It’s sketchy,” Tess said.
“It is strange,” Vivi agreed. “It’s like she’s tofu. She doesn’t have any flavor of her own. It’s almost like she’d just sit there saying nothing and doing nothing if you weren’t around for her to copy.”
“I would have told you we were meeting up,” Olivia said. “But I thought your mom would have made you invite Hannah.”
“She might have,” Bailey admitted. She was still trying to take in the fact that her friends had left her out.
“Well, you’re here now!” Olivia patted the chair next to her. “Sit down!”
Before Bailey could, her phone rang. She checked the screen. “My mom,” she told her friends.
“Where are you?” her mother demanded as soon as Bailey answered. “I just called your grandmother’s and you aren’t there.”
“I’m at Gianni’s with Olivia and Tess and Vivi,” Bailey explained.
“Well, come home. You know you’re not supposed to go anywhere but your grandparents’ without permission,” her mother told her.
“I have to go,” Bailey announced. “Have fun,” she forced herself to add. Tears stung her eyes as she headed to the door. She blinked them away. There was nothing to cry about. Her friends were still her friends.
Even though they were avoiding her.
“Sorry, Mom,” Bailey said as soon as she stepped into the house. “I just really wanted to see Olivia, and I thought I could catch her on her way out of karate.”
“Next time, ask first,” her mother said.
“I will.”
Bailey thought about trying something else on her list of how to cheer up after a hard day, but her day had been so hard, she was sure nothing would help. Then she heard the yips, yaps, and woofs that meant Gus was nearby with his pack of hellhounds.
“Is it okay if I go meet up with Gus?” Bailey asked. When it looked like her mother was about to say no, Bailey quickly added, “We’ll be right in the neighborhood.”
“Okay,” her mother said. “Be back for dinner.”
“I will, probably with Gus,” Bailey promised, then hurried back outside. She really needed to be with a friend right now. She didn’t care if Gus spent the whole time talking about monster movies and telling fart jokes.
She quickly tracked him down. He was standing in front of the Averys’ house. They were the ones who had Hans and Franz. George was probably trying to go pick up the wiener dogs, but it seemed like Bruce was having some kind of sit-down strike. When the massive Saint Bernard decided he didn’t want to move, everybody had to wait.
“Hey!” she called over the dogs’ enthusiastic greetings.
“You can walk one dog. One,” Gus told her. He handed her Ginger’s leash. The reddish dog was the most obedient one in the pack. Then he stared at Bailey. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re about to puke.”
It was like the question smashed a wall inside her and all these words came spilling out. “None of my friends want to hang out with me even Oh because wherever I go Hannah goes and they all think she’s so annoying because she copies me all the time and it’s like she’s tofu and I don’t know what to do because Hannah’s my cousin and I know it’s a hard time for her but now she’s making me as crazy as everyone else and—”
Gus held out his hand like a crossing guard stopping traffic. “I thought you just ate a bad hot dog or something. You can’t talk about this—”
“I have to talk about it and I know you hate stupid girly drama but all my other friends are involved in the stupid girly drama which isn’t stupid by the way it’s my life and so you have to let me talk about it because—”
“Hannah, Bailey’s coming with us!” Gus yelled.
What? Hannah?
“Great!” Hannah called back. She was crossing the Averys’ front lawn with Hans and Franz. The volume of the dogs’ barking went up, and Ginger flopped down onto her back as soon as Hannah joined them. “You want belly scratchies, huh?” Hannah asked.
She dropped to her knees on the sidewalk. Hans and Franz immediately started competing to see who could lick her face the most times, while Bruce dripped drool on the top of her head.
Franz got jealous as Hannah started scratching Ginger, and he gave one of Ginger’s back paws a little nip. “Shhhpt!” The shushing sound Hannah made got Franz’s attention. She pointed at him. “None of that,” she told him, her voice low and calm. And Franz obeyed!
Bailey looked between her cousin and Gus. It felt like someone was working on her brain with a curling iron. She could hardly form a thought. Gus and Hannah were, what, friends now? She thought they’d only seen each other that one night at the party. “So do you guys do this a lot?” she managed to ask. “Walk the dogs together?”
“She’s helped me out a few times. And she went to the shelter with me a couple days ago. Turns out Hannah’s like the dog whisperer,” Gus told her.
“Actually, I think positive reinforcement is better than some of the Dog Whisperer’s methods. I mean, he gets amazing results, but I think a few treats can make dogs learn almost as fast,” Hannah answered. It was like being around the dogs had flipped a switch in her, making her relaxed, without the need to look at Bailey before she opened her mouth.
“I’m with you,” Gus said to Hannah. “I always have a pocketful of treats.” He glanced at the beagle near the front of his group. “I’m going to have problems with him if I don’t get moving.”
“I, uh, I should get home. I told my mom I’d only be out for a couple minutes,” Bailey mumbled.
“We’ll walk that way and drop you off,” Gus volunteered.
“Yeah! Let us walk you,” Hannah said eagerly.
“No, it’s okay. I’ve got to go.”
If she stood there one more second, she’d start crying. She’d really, really needed to talk to a friend. But Hannah had taken over Gus, the way she’d taken over everything.
She hadn’t just ruined Olivia’s birthday, she was ruining Bailey’s whole life!
CHAPTER 11
HOW TO START A FANTASTIC CLUB
1.Come up with an idea that a lot of people are interested in.
2.Find a teacher sponsor who kids like.
3.Get publicity so everyone who might be interested knows about the club.
4.Ask potential members what they’d like the club to do.
5.Get a couple people to help you organize everything.
6.Find a business to sponsor you.
Bailey needed a list for how to sleep when you were too upset to fall asleep. That was definitely her problem tonight.
Olivia had called after dinner to apologize again for not telling Bailey that she and the others were meeting up at Gianni’s. Bailey said she understood. She did. Hannah was her cousin. Bailey was stuck with her. That didn’t mean her friends should have to be stuck with her too.
She had the opposite problem with Gus. He liked Hannah too much! She couldn’t believe the two of them had been hanging out without either of them even mentioning it to her. How was she supposed to talk to him about all her Hannah problems now that Hannah was suddenly his favorite gal pal?
Bailey knew Gus had tons of friends at his school. But he was still hers. It was her house he walked into without knocking. Her house where he showed up for dinner without being invited. They’d taken baths together when they were babies! She shouldn’t have to share Gus with Hannah.
Except you’re the one who introduced them, a little voice whispered in her head.
Bailey groaned and flopped over onto her stomach, pulling the pillow over her head, as if that would shut up the horrible little voice. It didn’t. You did even more than that, it continued. You pushed them together, making them bring the food down to the party. It’s not fair to be mad at either of them for being friends.
She rolled over onto her back. It didn’t help. She got up and headed over to her desk. She flipped open the notebook whe
re she made her lists. Making a list always made her feel more relaxed. But she couldn’t think of a list she needed.
Then inspiration hit her. How My Life Would Be Better If Hannah Wasn’t Here she wrote. She knew it wasn’t nice, but the list was just for her. She hadn’t been able to vent to her friends, but she could vent on paper. She wrote the number one, and her hand began to fly across the page.
A knock pulled her out of her thoughts. She grinned when she heard two more quick knocks, followed by a pause and two slow ones. It was her and Gus’s secret signal. She rushed over to the window and pulled it open. “Hi.”
“Hey,” Gus answered, jamming his hands into the kangaroo pouch of his sweatshirt. “I wanted to see if you were still in the middle of a meltdown.”
She sighed. “I think I’m completely melted.” It wasn’t really true, but it wasn’t like she could tell him how much she wished Hannah would just go back where she came from.
Gus shuffled his feet. “Okay, so what was the deal? Olivia doesn’t want to hang out with you because she’s afraid you’ll bring Hannah?”
“Not just Olivia—Tess and Vivi too!” Bailey burst out, since he’d asked. “Don’t tell Hannah.”
Gus snorted. “Yeah, I was planning to text her as soon as I got home to say everybody hates her.”
“Not hates her,” Bailey said, feeling a little stab of guilt. “She’s just annoying some . . . a lot . . . of the time.”
“She seems okay to me. She’s great with the dogs, and everybody at the shelter likes her,” Gus answered. “You should hear what she says about you. She’s always going on about how great you are, how nice you are to her. She says it’s been so much easier starting a new school because of you.”
The little stab of guilt turned into a big one. Bailey tried to ignore it. “Yeah, well it’s costing me all my friends.”
“There’s still me,” Gus told her.
But only when you aren’t with Hannah, Bailey thought.
“Guess what? I made myself a list like the ones you do,” Hannah told Bailey two days later in homeroom.
Bailey was glad Hannah hadn’t mentioned that when they’d walked to school with Olivia that morning. Olivia had a Bailey-style list going too—a list of the ways Hannah was taking over Bailey’s life.
“What’s the list for?” Bailey asked, trying to sound interested, trying to be interested. After she’d talked to Gus, she’d thought about how hard Hannah’s life was right now. Bailey felt like her life was falling apart, but it was Hannah’s parents who were getting a divorce, Hannah who was at a new school in a new town.
“You’ll see in a few minutes,” Hannah answered.
Maybe Bailey could talk to Hannah about some of the things her friends—and, yes, Bailey herself—found annoying. She’d have to be really careful how she said it. She didn’t want to hurt Hannah’s feelings.
Ms. Brower, their homeroom teacher, walked into the class. Hannah pulled a list out of her backpack and gave it a little wave in Bailey’s direction before smoothing it out on her desk.
As soon as Ms. Brower finished calling roll, Hannah raised her hand. “I’d like to know the rules for starting a club at school. Our website didn’t give all the details.”
Bailey stared at her cousin. Hannah wanted to start a club? How had that happened? Bailey hadn’t said anything about wanting to start one.
“First, there’s a form you’d have to fill out for Principal Lopez, and if she approves it, you’d have to show that there are enough students who’d want to join. You’d have to have a minimum of five to start. And you’d need to find a teacher or administrator to sponsor your group.” Ms. Brower smiled. “What kind of club are you wanting to start, Hannah?”
Hannah glanced down at her list. “A club that supports the animal shelter on Moss Street. One idea I had was that the club could start a program where walking the dogs would be a possible choice for P.E. The dogs don’t get enough exercise, and that can lead to behavior problems, which makes it harder to find people who want to adopt them.”
Her voice was a little higher than usual, and she sounded a little breathless, but Bailey thought she’d done great.
Penelope, the girl who was the best actress in drama class, raised her hand. “I’d want to join a group like that. I think it’s an amazing idea,” she said when Ms. Brower nodded at her. “We got my dog from that shelter.” Penelope smiled at Hannah.
“I’d join too,” said a boy named Taylor, who Bailey didn’t really know, without bothering to raise his hand.
“Walking dogs for P.E. I’d love that!” someone else cried.
“Interesting idea,” Ms. Brower said. She opened her desk, rifled through a file, then removed a sheet of paper and gave it to Hannah. “I have an idea or two about sponsors, if you get that far. Let me look into it.”
Bailey couldn’t stop staring at Hannah. She was still having trouble accepting that it was her cousin who’d brought up the idea.
As soon as Bailey got to the cafeteria that day, she rushed to the usual table. Hannah was already there—the first one—and Bailey couldn’t wait to talk to her. They hadn’t had time between any of their classes.
“Hannah! I love the idea for the club!” Bailey exclaimed. She did love it. She also loved the fact that if her cousin got her club going, Bailey would have time to spend with her friends without Hannah.
“Did I sound nervous when I asked Ms. Brower about it? I was really nervous,” Hannah said.
“Hardly at all. Drama class is paying off,” Bailey answered.
“True. I’m getting more used to talking in front of people because of drama,” Hannah agreed. “I never would have taken it if it wasn’t for you. And I definitely would have fainted during that first exercise, the one where we had to be aliens, if you weren’t right there with me. You’ve been great. I was just telling Gus how great you’ve been. You’ve helped me meet so many people. That really helped this morning too. I was talking to people I already know. I’ve never felt like this at a school.”
Bailey felt a mix of pride and guilt. “What are cousins for?” she asked. “Okay, now, the first thing you’ve got to do, after you find a sponsor, is to get a few people to be a sort of committee to get the club up and running. Then—”
“I’ve got it covered,” Hannah told her as Tess slid into the next seat. “Like I said, I did what you always do. I made a list. Gus helped. He said I should make sure to explain how getting dogs more exercise would make it easier to find them homes. I knew exercise improved their behavior, but I hadn’t really thought about it that way.”
“Gus helped,” Bailey repeated, feeling ashamed that the idea stung. Gus wasn’t her personal property. And it really was going to be great to have some time when Hannah was busy with something of her own.
“Yeah,” Hannah answered. “We got to talking about dogs at your party. And then I started helping him with the walking, and after I went to the shelter with him one day, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the dogs there that needed homes. Then I got the idea. He said I should go for it.”
“I already heard about the idea for the club. It’s rad,” Tess told Hannah. “I hate watching those commercials on TV with all those sad dogs in cages.”
“Maybe Tess could be one of your coorganizers,” Bailey suggested. She smiled. Just the possibility of the club had made Hannah stop repeating everything Bailey said. Maybe the Hannah problem would go away now.
“I’d be into that,” Tess answered. “Maybe you could start a cat club, Bailey. You’re more of a cat girl. I bet Kitty City would love that. Although cats don’t need to be walked. You could collect old newspaper for the litter boxes or something.” She turned back to Hannah. “I have a dog that is so completely bad. He’s almost three, and he still chews up everything. Would walking him more help, do you think?”
Hannah launched into an explanation of the best way to stop a dog from chewing. Bailey didn’t have anything she could add. “I’m going to go buy a
drink,” she mumbled, then hurried away. The two of them clearly wouldn’t miss her!
When she returned to the table with a lemonade, Vivi and Olivia were there. So was a teacher she didn’t know. “If you want me to, I can read over the application before you turn it in to Principal Lopez,” he said to Hannah. “I talked to her for a few minutes, and I know she thinks a club like yours could be great for the school.”
“Hannah already has a sponsor, and pretty much guaranteed approval from the principal. Isn’t that amazing?” Tess asked after the teacher walked away. “It turns out Mr. Kelly is an extreme dog lover.”
“That was so fast,” Vivi commented. She started a little cartoon of Hannah in front of a group of kids and dogs. Clearly, Hannah leading the club. “He sounded really excited about it too.”
“Ms. Brower must have been,” Hannah said. “Since she already told him about it.”
“Coolocity,” Olivia commented. “It’s a fantastic idea. I for one would much rather walk a dog than play volleyball. Karate is the only sport where I don’t constantly injure myself.”
“I’m not sure dog walking would be safe for you,” Bailey told her friend. “Some of them pull hard. And knowing you, you’d end up tangled in the leash and dragged down the street.”
“I’d make sure to get a purse dog,” Olivia said.
Didn’t Olivia get that this was Hannah’s club? Why would she want to be in a club with a person who made her crazy? And why hadn’t she realized that if Hannah was busy with a club, Olivia and Bailey would actually be able to hang out by themselves sometimes?
“Here she is.” Penelope ushered a girl who was at least in seventh grade, and maybe eighth, over to the table. “Hannah, this is my big sister, Ash. She’s one of the people who works on the school blog. She wants to write about you and the dog club.”
“I think my cousin’s idea is great,” Bailey said, but Ash didn’t even look at her.
“We’re only starting to figure the club out,” Hannah told Ash. “We don’t have permission to start it yet.” Then Hannah met Ash’s gaze and smiled. “I think I already have a sponsor, though.”