“He’s not on any of these ones either,” Hannah sighed. She turned away from the message board and all the Lost & Found posters. A picture of Basil wasn’t amongst them.
“Maybe he’s not missing then,” Veronica said. “Perhaps he was never owned by anyone in the first place?”
“He misses someone, he had to be part of a family.”
“And you know this, how?”
Hannah shrugged. “I just know, okay? Maybe I’m psychic or something.”
Veronica rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. They finally sat on the bench outside the supermarket in defeat. Hannah was all out of ideas. She couldn’t get Basil’s sad eyes out of her mind and it was driving her crazy. It was like having the pieces of a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle and not having the complete picture. In other words: Impossible.
Across the parking lot, Hannah spotted someone waving. She looked at him, trying to focus across the distance. She realized it was Harry.
“Is that guy waving at us?” Veronica asked.
Hannah shyly waved back, feeling like an idiot for not seeing him sooner. “Yeah, but don’t look at him.”
“Why? He’s cute. How do you know him?” She waved too, even though he wasn’t paying any attention to her. She didn’t notice.
“He volunteers at the shelter too, his name’s Harry.”
“Harry the hottie. Please tell me you’ve been flirting with him.”
Hannah could feel the familiar heat crossing over her face as she blushed with the thought. “No, of course not. He wouldn’t be into a girl like me. Guys that nice and good looking go for the popular girls. Not the nerdy, clumsy girls.”
“There’s no harm in a little flirting,” Veronica replied resolutely. She was always trying to pull her best friend out of her shell but never really managed it.
“I don’t even know how to flirt.” Hannah stood, signaling the end of the conversation. Her love life, or lack of it, was not open for discussion. “Are you coming?”
“Fine.” Veronica sighed as she followed.
They spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. Hannah slathered herself in sunscreen and sat under the shade of an umbrella while Veronica basked in the sun in her bikini.
By the time evening rolled around, Hannah was glad to retreat back to her home. Veronica may be a great friend, but she was relentless in her attempts to get her to have fun.
“You’re finally home, how was it at the shelter today?” Coco called from the kitchen. Hannah stopped, regretting not coming in through the back door.
“Fine.”
Her mother leant against the kitchen door to speak with her, standing between her and the stairs. Hannah wasn’t going to be able to pass without having a conversation.
“I’m pleased you’re spending your time volunteering and helping the animals.”
“Yeah, it’s great.” She made a move for the stairs but her mother wasn’t quite done yet.
“I hope you realize that you need to do more than spend all your summer at the shelter.” She scrutinized her daughter, searching for a reaction. “You need to spend time having fun too, socializing and enjoying being young. You’re not going to be fifteen ever again, you do realize that, right?”
She couldn’t help it, Hannah rolled her eyes. Perhaps Veronica would make a better daughter for Coco, they certainly had the same soundtrack. “I don’t like going to parties, Mom, you should be happy about that.”
“Normal teenagers go to parties, you should want to.”
“What’s so great about being normal?” Hannah stood there, waiting for an answer. Finally, Coco was lost for words.
Eventually, she replied. “Dinner is on in half an hour, go wash up.”
Hannah smiled, one win for her, zero for her mother. It was a rare occasion when she actually won a discussion with Coco. Whenever she thought she was losing, her mother would just make something up and run with it.
After dinner, Hannah logged onto her laptop and spent hours looking for missing dog posts. She checked everywhere she could think of – Facebook, Twitter, forums, the local council message board, she even Googled it. Her final resort was searching through Instagram for any dogs that might look similar.
It was a fruitless search. Basil didn’t appear to be anywhere. Perhaps she was wrong, maybe the dog was just sad because he was in the shelter. Perhaps it had nothing to do with missing his family.
The idea didn’t sit right with her, but she couldn’t think of what else to do. If he had anything on him to tell her more about where he had come from, it would have been easier. She doubted Basil was his real name, despite what Harry said. If only he had worn a collar with a tag on it, anything with a clue.
Closing her laptop shut, Hannah threw herself on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, her mind drifted from Basil to Harry. He had been really nice to her, he seemed like a genuine guy. Plus, he had waved when he could have just ignored her. It was sweet.
But it was also ridiculous to be thinking of him. It would do as much good as searching for Basil’s owners – a whole big load of nothing. He probably had a girlfriend anyway. A guy that nice and good looking wouldn’t be single. She was probably gorgeous with long blonde hair in a perky ponytail and a giggly voice. The complete opposite of her short, boring brown hair and sensible voice. She didn’t stand a chance.
CHAPTER 4