“Yeti?” Parker said. “Like Bigfoot?”
“Well, that’s a bad sign,” said Kristal.
“Heidi, where’s your lunch?” Ella asked in her quiet, practical way.
“Oh,” I said, looking down at the empty table in front of me. “I forgot. I gave it to Yeti last night. That’s OK, I’m not hungry.”
RRRRRRROOOWWWRRRRRRRRLLL went my stomach. I started laughing, and so did Danny and Ella, who were sitting closest to me and could hear it.
“Here,” Ella said, handing me half of her turkey sandwich. Danny gave me his apple juice and half of his cookie, which for some reason made Troy give Danny a really weird eyebrows-wiggling face, but I figured that was just boy stuff and ignored it.
“Thanks, guys,” I said. “Anyway, how are your dogs?”
“Oh, we are so not done talking about Yeti,” said Parker. “How are you going to take care of him without your parents finding out?”
“And where did he come from?” Troy asked. “Doesn’t he have an owner?”
I told them all about finding Yeti in the park, leaving out the bit about how Avery was with me. I got halfway through the story before I realized I’d have to mention Avery’s shed. I tried to be like: “So I just hid him overnight,” but Troy really wanted to know exactly where, and of course when I said, “Um … my neighbor’s shed,” Kristal was immediately like, “You don’t mean Avery, do you?” And then Ella was like, “Wait, Avery lives next door to you?” and Danny was like, “Whoa, tough break. Can you smell him from your room?” and I was like, “Oh, whatever, don’t be mean, and it’s not like they use that shed, so they won’t care,” which I figured was a pretty good way to get around explaining that Avery had said I could use it in the first place.
“Yeeeee,” Ella said with a little shiver. “I had no idea I was so close to evil when I came over to your house.”
“When were you at Heidi’s house?” Kristal asked, poking her mac and cheese with her fork.
“To rehearse for the talent show,” Ella said. “I’m so glad we didn’t see him! That would have been terrible. Heidi, I’m not sure I’ll ever feel safe at your house again.”
“So, about my dog,” I said, trying to get off the topic of my oh-so-sinister secret friend. “I kind of need to borrow some dog food. And maybe a leash and a collar. Would that be OK, Ella? I could buy one with my allowance that I’ve been saving, but I’d have to go into town to do that and I won’t have time today because of detention after school.”
Ella shook her head. “I can loan you dog food, but we only have one leash. And I’m guessing Trumpet’s collar would never fit on a Newfoundland.”
“I have a spare collar and leash for Merlin,” Parker said. “You can have those. But Heidi, maybe you should put up posters or something — you know, ‘Is This Your Dog?’, that kind of thing.”
“I bet Eric’s mom might know about a lost Newfoundland,” Troy said, whipping out a notebook and scribbling in it. Dr. Lee is a vet. I realized that was a pretty good idea, which made me nervous. I didn’t really want to find Yeti’s owners. But Troy was in mystery-solving mode. “Don’t worry, Heidi, we’re on the case!” he said, pushing up his glasses.
“Um, OK,” I said. “But it’s no big deal, you know….”
“Heidi, you’re hiding a ginormous dog in Avery’s shed so your mom won’t find out about it,” Kristal said. “Sounds like a big deal to me. Do you even know if it has fleas or anything? It’s, like, totally dangerous to make friends with stray dogs.”
“Not this stray dog,” I said, feeling a twinge of guilt. OK, so yeah, Mom has lectured me about saying hi to every dog in the world, and yes, I know you’re supposed to be careful, but I hadn’t even thought about it with Yeti. He was so clearly perfect and sweet and good.
Fleas hadn’t occurred to me, though. Of course, as soon as I thought about it, I started itching everywhere. I scratched my foot under the table, hoping Kristal wouldn’t notice.
“Maybe I can bike over and get the leash on my way home,” I said to Parker. “That shouldn’t make me too late.”
“I have a better idea,” Danny said. “I’ll go get the food and the leash after school, and then I’ll bike over to your place and meet you there when you’re done with detention. Then I can meet this dog, too. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
“Um,” I said, distracted by the crazy eyebrow-waggling that Troy was doing at Parker. “That’s really nice of you, Danny.” But if Danny and Avery ran into each other … well, there’d pretty definitely be trouble. “But —”
“No arguments,” Danny said, stealing back part of the cookie he’d given me. “I’ll meet you there.”
And then the bell rang for the end of lunch, so I really couldn’t argue with him.
I tried to tell myself that there was nothing to worry about. Danny would drop off the dog stuff and go, and I’d get to hang out with Yeti all weekend. Only a few more hours and I’d be home with my dog again.
But I had a weird feeling in my stomach. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but something told me … trouble was coming.
My plan was to go straight over and visit Yeti before I went inside, but when I got home, Dad’s car was just pulling into the driveway, so I couldn’t escape. I glanced at my wrist, and then remembered that I’d lost my watch a couple weeks earlier — probably at the YMCA pool, but really it could have been anywhere. That was maybe the fourth watch I’d lost already this year. I had a feeling Mom wouldn’t be getting me a new one anytime soon, which if you ask me means it’s not really my fault when I’m late all the time.
“Hey kiddo,” Dad said as he popped out of the car.
“Aren’t you home early?” I asked. I glanced over at Avery’s yard, but there was no sign of him or Yeti.
“Nice to see you, too,” he said. “Your mom and I have that party tonight, remember?”
I wrinkled my nose, trying to remember if I’d heard anything about a party. Every Sunday night, Mom and Dad go over the schedule for the week to make sure we all know who has to be at soccer practice or PTA meetings or whatever, but of course I don’t remember it all by Friday night. I mean, that’s days of keeping something in my brain! I have too much other stuff in there!
“Really?” Dad said as we walked my bike into the garage. “You were so excited about Ashley coming over to babysit.”
“Oh,” I said. That did sound familiar. “Something about … art.”
Dad laughed. “Yes, it’s a fund-raising gala at the museum. Your mom’s been planning it for weeks. It’s the opening of the new exhibit for that sculptor Mementa — you may remember her.”
“Oh, yeah. Her work made a big impression on me,” I said, and Dad laughed and laughed. He was still laughing as we came into the kitchen, where Mom was pacing back and forth beside the counter. She was wearing a long shimmery green dress with a pattern of silver feathers that you could only see in the right light. Her hair was down with a little spray of silver feathers pulling it back behind one ear, and she was wearing small emerald earrings and an emerald-and-diamond necklace that matched the color of the dress exactly. She didn’t even look like a mom; she looked like a maharani in an Indian fairy tale.
“Wow,” Dad and I said at the same time.
Mom actually kind of blushed. “Don’t you ‘wow’ me,” she said to Dad. “We’re going to be late! Quick, your tuxedo is up on the bed.” She whapped his shoulder with her little silver purse. “Quit staring and get dressed, you ninny.”
“Ninny,” I giggled as Dad hurried off upstairs. “Mom, you look awesome.”
“Ah-ah, do not hug me with those hands,” Mom said, giving my dirty fingernails a horrified look. “Ashley should be here any minute. We’ve left money for you guys to get pizza. No horror movies this time, OK? Do I need to call her and tell her that?”
“I promise,” I said. “We only watched that one because it’s British. We didn’t know there were going to be so many zombies in it.”
M
y babysitter Ashley says she’s an “Anglophile,” which means she loves everything about England, like scones and tea and the queen and saying “What what?” and shiny red double-decker buses. At least, that’s what I remember from when we went to England; I’m sure she remembers a lot more, since I was only six when we went, but Ashley just went a couple years ago.
She even ended up with a British accent, although it doesn’t sound quite like the ones on Doctor Who, which we watch a lot when she comes over, because that totally doesn’t count as a horror movie, and I think the parts I can understand are funny.
Ashley has a real job during the day at a clothing store in town, which Danny’s mom runs. She’s a very cool grown-up, at least according to me, because she talks to me like a regular person instead of like I’m just a kid, and also she has spiky blue hair. (Mom said “absolutely not” when I asked if I could do that. Although that’s probably mostly because she knows I’d get blue hair dye all over the bathroom.)
But would Ashley understand if I told her about Yeti?
A lightbulb went off in my head. While Mom and Dad were out — maybe I could give Yeti a bath! He really needed it … especially if I was ever going to introduce him to Mom and Dad. If I took him straight up to my bathroom, and then straight out again … what could possibly go wrong?
I know. I seriously said that to myself.
“Mom, I don’t really need a babysitter anymore,” I said, pulling off my shoes. “I’m practically old enough to babysit other kids now.”
Mom stopped checking her BlackBerry and gave me a puzzled look. “I thought you liked Ashley coming over.”
“I do!” I said. “Just, you know, if you wanted, it’s OK, I don’t, like, need her here —”
Of course, then the doorbell rang, and I couldn’t make Ashley go away once she was already there. That would have been totally rude.
“’Allo, luv,” Ashley said, bopping me on the head as she came in. “Look what I’ve got.” She pulled a DVD set out of her big floppy black purse, the one that has ducks all over it. I took the DVDs and read the cover.
“Robin Hood?” I said. “I didn’t know there was a TV show. I saw the Disney movie — the cartoon where they’re foxes. Mom won’t let me watch the Kevin Costner one yet.”
“This one’s much better,” Ashley promised. “They’ve all got proper English accents, and look how spiffing the Robin Hood bloke is.” She meant he was cute, and yeah, he really was.
“Hmmm,” Mom said, plucking the DVD out of my hands and studying it with a skeptical expression.
“No zombies,” Ashley said with a big smile. “Cross my heart.”
“All right,” Dad called, charging down the stairs in his tuxedo. “Ready to go!”
“Wow, Dad, you look just like James Bond,” I said.
“No hugging him either!” Mom said to me. “Oh, Heidi, is that apple juice on your shirt?”
“Um,” I said, examining the spot she was pointing at, which I had totally not even noticed before. I thought about my mini-lunch. “Probably.” RrrrrrrOOOWRRRrrrl went my stomach again at the thought of food.
“We’d better order that pizza, quick!” Ashley joked.
“Arthur, would you get the Mementa bowls from the garage?” Mom said, checking her makeup in the mirror.
“Ooooh, for the lucky raffle winners,” Dad said. He rubbed his hands together as he went out the door.
Suddenly I realized what she’d said and my heart stopped. Bowls! Oh no! Was she talking about the ones I’d borrowed for Yeti? Were those supposed to be … art?
Well, I guess it was safe to say they weren’t supposed to be dog dishes.
We heard some clattering from the garage, and then Dad stuck his head back in. “I don’t see them out here, Sarah.”
Mom looked confused. “But — of course they are. In a cardboard box, all wrapped up. Check again.”
I wanted to sink into the kitchen tiles and disappear. What could I do? Be like, “Oh, those bowls? Just hang on a second while I pop over to Avery’s, clean out the peanut butter, and get them for you. P.S. Don’t mind the dog.” I mean, seriously! But was I going to ruin Mom’s gala if I didn’t?
“Heidi, stop fidgeting,” Mom said, snapping her purse shut again. “You’ll knock something over.” I promptly knocked over a box of crackers and they scattered all over the floor. Mom sighed.
“I’ll clean it up!” I said quickly. At least on the floor I could hide my guilty expression.
“I really don’t see them, Sarah,” Dad said, coming back inside. Oh, man. I was the worst daughter ever.
“Maybe I took them to the museum already,” Mom said with a little frown. “That’s so odd, I was sure I left them here. Well, we’d better go. We mustn’t be late.” She straightened Dad’s bow tie and he offered her his arm like a gentleman out of a movie.
“ ’Bye, Mom and Dad!” I called, still picking up crackers. Inside I was in total agony. I couldn’t confess about the bowls, could I? But I didn’t want to destroy their raffle! I didn’t know what to do.
“See you in a few hours,” Mom said. “Be good! Ashley, we’ll be home around eleven, I should think.”
“Have fun, kids!” Dad added.
And then, before I could think of a solution, they were gone.
I stood up and dumped the crackers in the trash (or as Ashley would call it, “the rubbish bin”). Now all I had to do was (a) sneak the bowls back into the garage, (b) keep Danny and Avery from running into each other, and (c) slip Yeti into the house, up the stairs, into the bathtub, and back out again without Ashley noticing.
It wasn’t as impossible as it sounds. Ashley’s a great babysitter, but there’s one thing she does that distracts her so much, I could probably burn the house down without her noticing.
I crossed my fingers behind my back and waited hopefully.
Ashley was scanning the pizza menu. “Let’s see,” she said, “you don’t like mushrooms, and I don’t like pepperoni …”
“Let’s just get what we got last time,” I said.
“Spinach and ricotta?” Ashley said. I nodded. “Cheers. I’ll go ahead and order that. Oh, and then I have to call my mum. You don’t mind, do you, Heidi?”
I grinned. “No, that’s totally fine. Tell her I say hi!” This was exactly what I was hoping for. Ashley talks to her mom on the phone every day for at least an hour. Usually they start off joking and telling stories, and then by the end they’re having a huge shouting fight. But I guess they’re not very serious fights because Ashley always calls her again the next day and they’re back to happy again.
It’s weird, but today it was perfect, because when she’s on the phone with her mom she completely forgets about watching me. I could probably sneak fifteen wet Newfoundlands right past her and she’d just keep talking.
As Ashley pulled out her cell phone, I said, “Oh, Danny might come over for a little while. For homework, uh, stuff. So if you hear any noise, that’s probably just him. You know, being loud. Because he’s a boy. And stuff.”
“Oh, right, and you’re never loud,” Ashley teased. She dialed the pizza place number. I waited until she wandered into the kitchen nook, and then I slipped out through the garage. I couldn’t wait a minute longer. I felt all warm and smiley just thinking about Yeti.
There was no sign of Avery or his mom as I hurried across their garden. Kelly’s car wasn’t in the driveway, and only a couple of lights were on. Maybe she was out. In fact, I realized, Mom had probably invited her to the gala. So the coast was clear.
There was a small hhuuurroof sound from the shed right before I reached the door, like he heard me coming. I unlatched the door, and Yeti burst out of the shed and threw himself on me. We fell over in a tangle of fur and paws. His tongue slurped up and down my face and his tail wagged and wagged and I put my arms around his big shaggy shoulders and thought that this was probably the best moment of my entire life.
He was so happy to see me! Remember what I said about El
la and enthusiasm? Yeti was like a giant shaggy meteor stuffed with enthusiasm. It was the first time I’d ever met someone as excited about something as I was. I wanted to do cartwheels all over the lawn just to let all the happiness inside me loose.
“Jeez,” said Avery. His back door banged shut behind him. “You guys look like idiots.”
“Aww, are we idiots?” I said to Yeti in a mushy voice, hugging his big shaggy head. “Are you the handsomest guy? How was your day? Were you good?” He poked his nose in the crook of my neck and I wriggled away from him, giggling.
“He was fine,” Avery said, crossing his arms and slouching against the wall of his house. “Hey, Mom called the school and made sure they’re going to give me an extra day of detention, since I missed it today. Wasn’t that thoughtful of her?”
“Oh, Kelly,” I said. There was nothing I could say about Avery’s mom. I didn’t get why she was so nice to me and so mean to Avery. Sometimes I don’t even understand why my mom is such good friends with her. Although if you ask my mom, everything that went wrong with that family is Avery’s dad’s fault.
I rolled away from Yeti’s big white paws and stood up, brushing grass off my jeans. He capered around me, poking me with his nose and dancing and jumping. He couldn’t take his eyes off me. I felt the same way. I buried my hands in his fur, grinning at him.
“Did your mom go to my mom’s gala?” I asked Avery.
“Yeah,” he said. “All dressed up. I asked her what I was supposed to do for dinner, and she said I wasn’t an infant, I ought to be able to feed myself. So after she left, I cracked all the eggs in the fridge and poured the rest of her special soy milk down the drain.”
“No way!” I said. “Avery! Are you serious?”
“What?” he said. “She was asking for it.”
I looked down at Yeti and shook my head. “You’re going to get in so much trouble, Avery.” The dog looked back at me like, Can you believe some people?
He shrugged. “Maybe the eggs cracked in the shopping bag. She won’t know. Anyway, I don’t care.”