by PD Kiernan
Cassidy Dibella was worn out. She had been up for only an hour but it seemed like all day. It all started when the little girl who lived next door, Sarah, couldn’t wait to play with her that morning. Sarah was a couple of years younger than Cassidy, but Cass was a little small for her age and kept her blonde hair short which made her look even younger and close to Sarah’s age. They liked playing together, so they didn’t care about the age difference most of the time.
Cassidy really liked Sarah’s dog, Cody. He was a little Yorkie who yelped a little too much but was still a ton of fun, especially playing tag. It was almost like he knew the rules. He knew what was base, which changed often, and who was it, which was Cody himself most of the time. Cassidy asked her dad every other day for a dog like Cody. His answer was always the same: why did they need another Cody when there was a perfectly good one next door.
Playing with Cody was really the only thing that lured Cass out of bed when Sarah knocked at her door as the sun came up. It wasn’t too long before they were running around playing tag with Cody. Cassidy had no idea her best friend Suzie had pulled up on her bike, but Sarah knew.
Over the tops of the bushes that lined the front yard Sarah caught a glimpse of the rainbow sheen of a butterfly stickered helmet. She saw the streams of curly red hair swirling in the wind. She jumped up, put her arms out to her sides like an airplane, and began to run around the yard, yelling at the top of her lungs.
“Snaggle! Snaggle! Snaggletoooooooooooooooth! Snaggletoooooooooooooooth!” She ran across the yard and back, and ran along the side of the house towards the front, yelling even louder.
“Suzie, Suzie, Suzie Snaggletooo-” Sarah stumbled over a tree root, stood back up and continued, “ooooooooooooooooooooooth!”
One of the upper windows of the old Victorian house banged open. Out popped the half asleep head of Mrs. Simmons, Sarah’s mom, along with the sprawling mess of her dark pillow-pressed hair.
“Sarah Elizabeth! You stop yelling this instant!” she yelled. “People are sleeping! Do you hear me?”
“But mom, it’s Suuuuzieeee!” she cried as she ran into the front yard, jumping and waving her arms around frantically. “Suzieeeeeeeeee!”
Even before the monumental episodes awaiting in this book, Suzie was a bit of a celebrity, especially with the younger crowd. She had a passion for justice that was never more evident than the time she stood down some sixth grade boys who were ganging up on some third graders earlier that year.
It was right after school one day and the older boys had stumbled into a group of third graders playing outside the school yard. They thought it would be fun to start picking on them. As fate would have it, Suzie was walking nearby. The moment she saw what was going on she knew it looked wrong and stepped in between them.
“Hey, they don’t like that. Why don’t you turn around and walk on outta here,” she said with a gulp in her throat. She stood her ground and the sixth graders stood theirs. It made for some very tense moments. At that time she was still a fifth grader, so it was understandable when the third graders were stunned by her brave defense. Slowly, one by one, the brutes peeled away. As he walked on in defeat, one of the sixth grade boys started name calling.
“Ya gonna get yours someday, Snaggletooth!” he bellowed out, causing all of his gang to burst out laughing.
“Hey, wait!” Suzie yelled. They all stopped and went silent as Suzie’s face lit up. “I like that! Suzie Snaggletooth! That’s brilliant!” This caused them to turn away and further retreat in utter confusion.
To Suzie, the nickname fit perfectly. She had always had a crooked tooth to the left of her two big front teeth. It has been that way since she could remember. Plus it sounded so cool, like the saber toothed tiger she had learned about in school who roamed this land in the distant past. Who’s going to mess with a saber toothed fifth grader. Nice!
So by the time little Sarah and her second grade buddies got wind of the tale, Suzie was a legend. In their version she single-handedly fought back an army of bullies by snarling and baring her Snaggletooth, saving half the third grade. This gave her the reputation as the go-to person for super-fun adventure.
It was with this excited expectation that Sarah opened her front gate and ran over to see Suzie. Sarah hugged the legend so hard Suzie nearly tumbled over off her bike.
“Whoa there!” she yelled as she braced herself. “Hiya Sarah!”
“Hey Snaggle!” Sarah replied.
“Seen Cass around?” asked Suzie.
“Am I glad to see you!” yelled out a voice from behind the tall bushes next door. It was Cassidy, and as she ran out she tilted her head with a nod towards Sarah. That meant she needed a break from Sarah and Suzie arrived just in time.
Cassidy didn’t close the Simmons’ metal gate behind her all of the way. It bounced back open ever so slightly, leaving a gap. That small gap would bring forth great consequences for Cassidy, Suzie and everyone around them.
“This is going to be the bestest play date ever!” Sarah exclaimed.
“Right,” said Cassidy as she rolled her eyes a little. “Suzie, I’ve got some big kid stuff to tell you. C’mon into my backyard. Bee right back, Sarah!” she said with a smile to little Sarah, who turned and kicked a rock down the sidewalk.
Cassidy ran ahead up the narrow cement driveway that separated her house from her neighbor and motioned for Suzie to hurry up and follow. Suzie zoomed past Sarah on her bike and caught up to Cass.
“Boy, she’s up pretty early, isn’t she?” Suzie asked as she stood up on her pedals carefully to keep the bike moving next to the walking Cassidy.
“You have no idea! Between Sarah getting me up at the crack of dawn and my crazy uncle coming over last night and stomping around with my dad like elephants, I don’t think I slept more than five minutes!” Cass was waving her arms around as she spoke. She continued, “My mom keeps saying I’m never going to get up for school in a couple of weeks, and ya’ know, I think she’s right.”
“School!” Suzie stopped and dropped her feet down off of the bike pedals. “School?”
“Yeah, what?” asked Cass as she stopped walking.
“We have almost a month left. I mean really, what are you trying to do to me?”
“Nothing- I mean, wait, what?” Cass replied with a scrunched face. “Hey, ya know, you’ve been acting kinda funny lately.”
Suzie looked around and thought for a second. “Right now, people are talking about school and it feels like the summer just started, and now it’s almost over. They have a whole window full of notebooks and backpacks at Kane’s, for cryin’ out loud.” Cass looked at her with a confused look. Suzie continued, “Don’t you want to do make the summer count for something before it just...ends? Something more important. Ya know what I mean?”
Cass shook her head in confusion. “You mean, like, serious stuff? Like, do work, or something? Isn’t that what school is for?”
“I mean do more meaningful-type stuff. Fun stuff,” said Suzie.
“Fun work?” Cass replied and shook her head some more and started to walk back to where Sarah was. “I don’t think you’re going to find that. Play- now that I understand. I don’t think you will find fun work- hey, where did she go?”
Cassidy was referring to the fact Sarah was no longer in her driveway. As they walked out front they could see her running frantically around her house next door. What was even stranger was Mrs. Simmons was now outside in her pink bathrobe and fuzzy white slippers along with her crazy hair, and she was running around as well.
“What’s goin’ on Mrs. Simmons?” Cass called over the fence.
“Someone left the front gate open! We think Cody might have run out. We can’t find him anywhere!”
A horrifying thought raced through Cassidy’s mind. “Oh no,” she said. “When?”
“It must have been right after Sarah ran over to see Suzie,” she answered while looking under her front porch.
“I was the last one ou
t,” Cass said slowly, more to herself than anyone else.
“What was that?” Mrs. Simmons asked. Suzie stepped a little closer to Cass to hear her as well.
“I was the last one out. I thought I shut the gate, now I’m not sure,” Cass said and paused to take a breath. “It was me.”
“He’s nowhere!” Sarah yelled as she ran in from the backyard.
“And the gate was open when I looked out,” Mrs. Simmons said shaking her head squarely at Cass. Cassidy had heard her repeatedly yell at her own kids about the gate, but she didn’t yell at Cassidy. That made her feel even worse. Unfortunately, Cody was the kind of dog who would run and keep running if he ever got loose. They knew that, which is why they were so strict about the gate.
Everyone started to wander down the block, calling out his name, except for Mrs. Simmons. She stayed in front of her own house. She lingered around, calling his name and clapping her hands. By the time they reached the end of the block Cassidy had a sinking feeling. Cody was nowhere to be found. She took a quick look at the heartbroken face of Sarah and turned to Suzie.
“We have to do something,” she said. “This is all my fault.”
“We’re going to make it right,” she calmly said while looking at Cass. “But first, we’re going to need some help.”
They walked Sarah back to her house. They said some reassuring words to Sarah’s mom she barely listened to, mounted their bikes and headed out.
“I guess you got what you wanted, some work to do,” Cassidy said as they rode off together.
Cassidy had more of a dirt bike with a pale yellow frame, knobby tires, and no fenders. There was nothing close to being decorative on it. Her bike was all business. Even though it could out-climb and out-jump anybody, she struggled to keep up with the speedy Snagglemobile in front of her.
“Yeah, but it’s not fun yet. It will be!” Suzie said as she looked back and smiled.
Cassidy smiled a little but kept looking around nervously, looking for the light brown fur of Cody in someone’s backyard or driveway. We have to find him, she thought.
“So, do you have a plan or something?” Cass yelled to Suzie as she pedaled harder to keep up while they flew through another block.
“We need a good old fashioned posse. Like in the old west.” Suzie yelled back.
“A what? Hey, wait up!” she yelled as Suzie was picking up speed. “Where the heck are you racing to?” asked Cass.
“We have to get Pete!”
Chapter 3