I don’t know if Odysseus had forgotten that Meatball would be there or what. He arched his back and screeched like he was being murdered. In half a second he was flying off the bed again and charging out the door between Mercy’s feet.
“Oh my God!” Mercy shrieked. “Did you see that? Faith, come quick! That dog totally attacked Odysseus! Mom!”
Tony came to the door of their bedroom as Mom hurried up from downstairs.
Mercy pointed dramatically at Odysseus’s tail, vanishing under the bed in Faith’s room. “Look how scared he is! It’s all that dog’s fault! He’s a violent beast!”
“I knew it!” Faith said, jumping up from her desk and running into the hall. “I knew that dog was dangerous! Poor Odysseus! No wonder he’s so terrified!”
“Meatball’s not dangerous!” I protested. “He was just trying to play, I swear!” Meatball cocked his head to one side so his left ear drooped down. He blinked at me, looking confused, like What’s all the yelling about? Where’d my furry little friend go?
“See, Mom?” Mercy said triumphantly. “We have to get rid of the dog. He’s a menace to the cats.”
“Oh, dear,” Mom said. “Eric —”
“Wait,” Tony said. “Let me get this straight. Meatball was minding his own business in Eric’s room. Where Odysseus is not supposed to go — right? So how did the cat even get in there?”
Mom looked at Mercy. My sister folded her arms and shrugged. “I was just asking Eric a question,” she said defiantly. “I didn’t know the cat was around.”
“So it was an accident,” Tony said. “And not really Meatball’s fault at all.” He gave Mercy a look that said I’m giving you one chance to get out of this.
Mercy opened and closed her mouth, then scowled at him.
“The point is, that dog could be violent,” Faith insisted.
“He doesn’t look too violent to me,” Tony said, glancing at Meatball’s goofy face.
“I don’t get that impression either,” Mom said. “And Mercy, you know we have to keep the cats out of Eric’s room.”
Mercy scowled harder and kicked the carpet. “It was an accident,” she muttered.
Right. I’m sure.
“That’s OK,” Tony said. “Just be more careful next time.” He leaned into my room to grab the door handle and gave me a wink as he pulled it shut.
I went over to the bed and checked the pillow. Totally dry. It was a miracle.
“Thanks, Meatball,” I said, scratching under his chin. “You saved the day.”
He panted and grinned at me.
Then I realized he’d left a puddle of drool on my other pillow. So … he wasn’t quite perfect. But remembering the look on Mercy’s face, I decided to forgive him, just this once.
As I fell asleep that night, though, I wondered what I really wanted. I tried to think about the pros and cons of keeping Meatball. I had a lot of time to think about it, because his snoring kept me up for a while. Which really didn’t help his case.
Was there a better dog for me out there? A dog that would walk like a normal dog and not slobber all over the girl I liked?
Meatball snorted and rested his head on my foot. On the other hand, I’d never had better protection against the cats. And how sad would he be if I abandoned him too?
What was I going to do?
On the way to school the next morning, Parker suggested that we take all our dogs to the park in the afternoon.
“Yeah! Then Meatball can meet Buttons,” Danny said to me. “I just have to get her and Rosie away from Miguel. He usually takes them to the park on Thursdays to lure cheerleaders. It’s ridiculous. I’m glad none of us are that dopey about girls … Eric.”
“Shut up,” I said. “I’m not dopey.”
“Then we can find out if Meatball is also better at playing fetch than Merlin,” Parker joked, steering the conversation back to the dogs. Buttons was, like, a master fetcher, which was kind of hilarious because Merlin was so bad at bringing the tennis ball back.
Troy kicked a pile of leaves, frowning. I guessed what he was thinking.
“You’ll get a dog soon,” I said to him. “Besides, we might not even keep Meatball.”
“What?” Parker said. “You have to keep Meatball! He’s awesome!”
“I don’t know about awesome,” I said. “I mean … he snores a lot. Like, really loud.” I didn’t want to tell them about the bigger problem, which was Meatball’s stubbornness. I try not to let the guys know how much my sisters (and their cats) push me around. I didn’t want them to know that my dog was doing the same thing.
“Bring him to the park today,” Parker said. “Once you see how much fun he is, you’ll totally want to keep him.”
“Hey, there’s Heidi!” Danny said. I looked up and saw a blue bike half a block ahead of us. Heidi’s red-blond hair was sticking out from under the bike helmet. “Heidi!” Danny shouted. “Wait up!”
Troy elbowed Parker and nodded at Danny with a grin, but luckily Danny didn’t notice. And he said I was dopey about girls!
Heidi looked over her shoulder and saw us. She yelled, “Oh, awesome, hey guys!” and tried to wave, and then her bike went one way and she went another, and with a huge CRASH! Heidi flew over the handlebars and ended up sprawled across someone’s lawn.
We all ran up to her. Danny got there first and helped her to her feet. Her helmet was askew and dirt was scraped across the knees of her jeans. I noticed that she was wearing differently colored socks — one dark blue and one yellow with black polka dots — and I wondered if she’d done that on purpose or by accident. With Heidi it could really be either.
“Oh, man, are you OK?” Parker asked. He went over to pick up her bike.
Heidi started laughing. “Can you believe I did that?” she said. “Jeez, Danny, you should know better than to distract me while I’m biking. Or walking. Or eating. Or doing anything, really. Look at what a disaster I am.” She brushed at her jeans and shook her head ruefully when she found a small hole in one knee. “Mom is going to kill me. She just bought me these last week.”
“Sorry,” Danny said, running one hand through his hair.
“I’ll forgive you if you finally let me meet your dog,” Heidi said with a grin. She took off her bike helmet and shook out her hair, which was all tangled and messy. Danny took her bike from Parker and started pushing it along beside us as we all walked together.
“How about today?” Danny said. “We’re all going to the park after school. You can meet Buttons then, if you want to come.” I was impressed at how casually he asked her. If he did like her, he was hiding it well. He acted like he was just one friend talking to another.
“YES!” Heidi nearly shouted. “Seriously? That would be so awesome! Can Ella and Trumpet come?”
Danny looked at us nervously. We hadn’t exactly discussed inviting a whole bunch of girls along. Troy and I shrugged.
“Yeah, of course,” Parker said. “Eric’s dog will be there, too.”
“What?” Heidi grabbed my arm and I jumped. “Eric! No way! You have a dog too? What kind?”
“Sort of,” I said. “If we keep him. He’s a bulldog.”
“Isn’t that so unfair?” Troy said.
“Aaah, I love bulldogs! What’s his name?” Heidi demanded. “I can’t believe Cadence was right for once! Maybe she really is psychic.”
“Cadence?” I echoed.
“She was telling us yesterday in PE that the vibrations of the universe had told her you’d just gotten a new pet, probably a dog. I was like, no way, I would totally know, all dog news goes through me.” Heidi punched Danny’s shoulder. “Except apparently when certain of my best friends are involved, Danny.”
“I said I was sorry about that!” Danny protested. “I didn’t think Buttons was a real dog at first!”
“You’re a small dog-ist,” Heidi said to him. “Small dogs are cute, you dork. And any kind of dog is better than no dog.”
“Yeah,” Troy said gluml
y. I wondered if that was true. Would even Heidi want a dog who snored and drooled and refused to walk, like Meatball?
“Cadence isn’t psychic,” I said. “She saw the dog hair on my jacket on Tuesday.”
Heidi laughed. “Silly Cadence,” she said, like she thought Cadence was funny instead of crazy and nosy and gossipy.
Danny parked Heidi’s bike in the bike racks and she hung her helmet in the bike lock as she locked it up. As we came up the steps into the school, we heard shouting from the sixth-grade hallway. Heidi looked worried and sped up. I recognized the voices of Avery Lafitte and Rory Mason. They were standing in front of our lockers, near Mr. Peary’s classroom, yelling at each other. There was a huge crowd of kids standing around watching them fight.
I think I’ve mentioned Avery before: He’s mean all the time, to everyone, for no reason at all. In PE last year, he used to throw any ball he had at me or Troy, acting like it was dodgeball no matter what the game really was. That’s until Parker and Danny started doing the same thing to him, and he finally stopped. I’m glad he’s in Miss Woodhull’s class this year instead of ours.
Rory is our baseball coach’s daughter; she’s in Mr. Guare’s class, and she’s good friends with Heidi. They were in the talent show with Ella and her dog, and they actually won with this really funny song.
“She says you took it, Avery!” Rory yelled. Her long brown hair was coming loose from the ponytail she always wears. She usually has a baseball cap on, too, but we’re not allowed to wear hats in school.
“I didn’t!” Avery yelled back. “She’s lying!”
“Cameron wouldn’t lie!” Rory shoved him in the chest. She’s, like, a foot shorter than Avery, but he still staggered back a step.
“Yeah!” cried a little redheaded girl in the crowd around them. She looked about eight years old. “So there! Meanie!”
“I don’t need her stupid lunch money!” Avery shouted. His face was turning red.
“What’s going on?” Parker asked Ella, who was standing near the door of our classroom, drumming her fingers nervously on the wall. Nikos Stavros was leaning against the wall beside her with his arms folded.
“Something about Rory’s stepsister,” Ella said, nodding at the red-haired girl. “I guess she says Avery took her lunch money.”
“Jeez, way to be a cliché, Avery,” said Nikos. “It’s like he has a ‘How to Be a Bully’ checklist.”
“Give it back, Avery!” Danny called. Heidi gave him a weird look, but he didn’t see it — I think I was the only one who did.
“Yeah, Avery, stop being a jerk!” Tara Washington yelled.
“How much was it?” Brett Arbus asked, stepping up behind Rory. He pulled out a real wallet from his back pocket and shook back the lock of blond hair that’s always falling over his eyes. “I’d be happy to buy this little lady her lunch.” He gave Rory and Cameron his charming grin. I didn’t think a stunt like that would work on a girl like Rory, but she actually kind of half smiled at him before turning back to Avery.
“It’s not about the money,” she said. “It’s about pushing around a little girl! What kind of freak-show coward are you, Avery?”
Avery clenched his fists. I wondered if he would actually hit Rory. She sure didn’t look worried about it. She had her hands on her hips and she was glaring right up at him.
You know what I would never do? Pick a fight with Avery Lafitte. First of all, he’s enormous, and second of all, I’ve heard that he actually takes karate or something. Then again, Rory probably does, too, and nothing seems to scare her.
Danny turned around to say something to Heidi and we realized she wasn’t next to us anymore. I saw her pushing through the crowd until she popped out behind Avery. She grabbed Avery’s upper arm and he jerked away, but when he saw it was her he stepped back and unclenched his hands.
“Stop fighting!” Heidi said, looking from Avery to Rory. “You guys are both going to get in trouble again!” It’s true; the two of them get in trouble all the time — Avery for being mean, and Rory for doing crazy things like skateboarding down the front steps or climbing out a window on the second floor to catch a snail.
Avery kicked the nearest locker so hard I thought he must have broken his toe. “I didn’t steal any stupid lunch money,” he said to Heidi.
“Cameron says he did!” Rory snapped. “Why would she lie about that?”
“Maybe there’s a mistake,” Heidi said, looking flustered. She crouched down to talk to Rory’s stepsister. “Hey, Cameron, did you maybe just lose it?”
“No!” Cameron said, twirling a lock of red hair around one finger. “It was in my backpack and then it was gone! He took it!” She pointed dramatically at Avery, who made a horrible scowly face at her.
“Out of your backpack?” Rory said. “I thought you said he took it from you.”
“He did!” Cameron protested. “It was mine!”
“But did you see him take it out of your backpack?” Heidi asked.
Cameron stamped her foot and scrunched up her face like she was about to cry. “I know he did! I know he took it! He’s mean!”
Rory ran her hand over the top of her head like she wasn’t sure what to do.
“What is all this?” a new voice boomed. Vice Principal Taney was charging down the hall toward us from his office. His long sharp nose was like an arrow aimed straight at Rory and Avery, and his white eyebrows were frowning so hard it looked like they might just crawl right off his face.
Everybody scattered into their classrooms as fast as they could. Mr. Taney is a scary man. Only Rory, Heidi, Avery, and Cameron stayed where they were. They couldn’t exactly escape — Mr. Taney was pointing right at them.
Parker and Danny and I hurried into Mr. Peary’s classroom, crashing into Ella and Nikos and Rebekah in the doorway. I hadn’t even seen Rebekah arrive with all the commotion. She was wearing a green T-shirt with a gray cat on it.
“Sir, it’s just a misunderstanding —” Heidi was saying in the hall behind us.
“Detention, all of you!” I heard Mr. Taney yell.
“Poor Heidi,” I said. “She was just trying to help.” I thought I was talking to Danny, but when I turned around, he was already halfway across the room, and it was just Rebekah right next to me.
“Seriously!” Rebekah said. “But it’s not like Eyebrows out there is going to care who actually did what.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just shrugged as we sat down at our desks. Mr. Peary hurried in with a stack of books. There was just one minute until the bell rang; usually he’s there way before us.
“Of course he did it,” I heard Brett say to Jonas and Nikos. “It’s totally the kind of thing Avery would do.”
“Innocent until proven guilty,” Nikos said with a shrug.
“Not in sixth grade,” Brett said. “Try telling Taney that.”
“Oh, Eric,” Rebekah said. “I brought you something.” She picked up her purple book bag and started digging through it.
I stared at her. Something for me?
“Here.” She handed me a paperback — The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander. It had a guy in a cloak riding a horse on the cover. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“Oh,” I said, turning it over in my hands. “Uh — I — um —”
“You don’t have to read it,” she said quickly. “Only if you want to. I’m afraid it doesn’t have a bulldog in it, but it does have a pig that can see the future, which is kind of the same, right?”
I could hardly keep up with this conversation. “A pig that can see the future?”
“You’ll like it,” she said, and just then the bell rang.
“Um, OK,” I said. “Thanks.”
Mr. Peary started talking, but I couldn’t concentrate. I was thinking that I should ask Rebekah to come to the park with us, the way Danny had invited Heidi. She could bring Noodles. It would be kind of like asking her out, wouldn’t it? But then I could pretend like that’s not what I meant if she lau
ghed in my face. I just had to sound all casual and “whatever” like Danny did.
I thought about asking her all morning. Finally I decided to ask her at lunch; sometimes she sat with me and the guys if Heidi and Kristal and Ella were sitting with us. But on the way to the cafeteria, Heidi told us she had to spend lunch in the principal’s office.
“Sorry, guys,” she said, looking really upset. “I have to stay for detention after school, so I can’t come to the park with you.”
“Is your mom going to be mad?” Danny asked.
“Oh, yes,” Heidi said. I tried to remember if I’d ever seen Heidi not smiling before. She looked like missing out on our dogs was the saddest thing that had ever happened to her.
“Don’t worry,” Danny said. “We’ll go to the park tomorrow, or this weekend, or sometime soon.”
“If my mom lets me!” Heidi said. “Mr. Taney said we’d have detention for at least a week.”
“That’s so unfair,” Ella said warmly, giving Heidi a one-armed hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Stupid Avery,” Danny said. He sounded really mad.
“It’s not his fault,” Heidi said. “I think Cameron really did just lose her lunch money. She couldn’t explain why she thought he took it. She just kept saying ‘He’s so mean! I know he did!’ over and over.”
“Well, he is mean,” Ella pointed out.
Heidi laughed. “Still,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” Danny said again. “Buttons isn’t going anywhere.”
“Same with Merlin,” Parker said.
They all looked at me. “Uh, yeah. And Meatball,” I said, although I wasn’t sure it was true.
Now I couldn’t ask Rebekah to join us. It would be too weird if she came and no other girls did. Plus I’d never hear the end of it from the guys. And she didn’t sit with us at lunch anyway. Without Heidi around, Ella went to the music room and Kristal and Rebekah sat with their other friends.
I knew I wouldn’t have been able to do it even if everything had turned out right. Every time I thought about how the question would sound, my mouth got dry and my stomach started flapping around like Meatball’s face.