Rachel Takes the Lead Page 3

  “Isn’t it strange how every morning Mr. Lowell’s secretary asks ‘May I have your attention for the morning’s announcements?’ Why does she make it a question when we can’t answer?”

  “We could answer,” Kiara said. “We could all say yes or no.”

  “But what would be the point if she couldn’t hear us? Why doesn’t she just say ‘Please give me your attention for the morning announcements’? Like, be more, more—I can’t think of the word.”

  Kiara, of course, came up with the word immediately. “Assertive.” Then she looked at me suspiciously. “Is this a grammar question?”

  That pretty much killed the conversation, and we walked the rest of the way in silence.

  That was actually fine with me, though. Because by the time we all reached Ellie’s, I’d thought of another, more interesting subject to discuss with everyone, just as soon as we all settled down on the beanbag chairs in Ellie’s turret. I didn’t want to be pushy—that’s not me. I just wanted to be more assertive, like Kiara had said. So before anyone started talking about anything else, I spoke.

  “Why do students get detention when they break a rule?”

  “It’s the standard punishment, I think,” Ellie said, reaching behind her to turn on a string of twinkle lights.

  “But this punishment doesn’t make sense,” I said. “I mean, the kids have to stay after school and sit in the cafeteria for an hour. So what? They could spend that time reading or doing their homework or whatever.”

  “Except they can’t,” Alyssa told her. “I got detention once last year.”

  “For what?” Kiara asked.

  “The teacher in my social studies class was talking about the Salem witchcraft trials and how some women who were accused of being witches were drowned. Some guy in the class suggested drowning me. So I suggested doing something to him.”

  “Did he get detention too?” Kiara asked.

  “No. Because he whispered his insult and the teacher didn’t hear him. I, on the other hand, responded very loudly. With really bad language.”

  We all nodded with understanding. Because of her goth look, Alyssa gets teased—but usually in a whisper or when a teacher can’t hear. It’s typical Alyssa to respond like this. She’d want everyone to know what she thought.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “when you’re in detention, you can’t read or do homework. There’s a monitor in the room watching everyone. You can either spend the time writing a one-page essay about what you did wrong, or just sit there and be bored. Obviously nobody chose the writing assignment, so we sat there for an hour doing nothing. It was dumb.”

  I didn’t think just sitting would bother me so much. I could easily daydream for an hour.

  “Mike told me he had detention once,” Ellie reported. “When the monitor wasn’t looking, he stuck his earbuds in so he could listen to music on his phone. He said kids do that all the time.”

  “So basically,” I said, “all detention does is waste everyone’s time.” I shook my head. “If there has to be detention, why not make it so it actually accomplishes something? Like making our school better.” I sat up straighter in my beanbag chair. “Think about it. If you get detention for writing graffiti on a wall or whatever, then you should spend detention cleaning it up, not sitting around being bored and doing nothing. And if they won’t even let us do homework, they could at least make the essay mandatory, so people have to think about what they did and why they’re being punished for it. The monitor could actually help with that, instead of just acting like a babysitter.”

  “That’s a notable point,” Kiara said. “It’s logical.”

  I went on. “Or how about this? Two kids get into a fistfight. So then they have to sit together and discuss why they were fighting and what else they could have done to fix whatever they were fighting about.”

  Alyssa and Ellie shrugged, but it wasn’t negative, it was more like a “yes, maybe” shrug, and I was pleased. I’d started a conversation! Maybe I should keep going and talk about the other things I had on my mind. But I didn’t want to be pushy. And besides, Ellie took over at that point.

  “Let’s look in the spyglass,” she said. “Maybe we’ll actually have some luck today.”

  We pulled ourselves out of our beanbag chairs and gathered around the heavy base. Ellie swiveled the narrow end of the shining brass spyglass to me. “You go first, Rachel.”

  Was that my reward for being assertive? If so, I accepted it. I adjusted the height of the spyglass so I could see through the eyepiece. Slowly, I moved it around town.

  It was mid-March and there was no snow left on the ground, but it wasn’t yet springtime, so the trees were still bare and I didn’t see any flowers. It was cloudy too, so Lakeside looked pretty dull. There were cars moving and people walking around, but they weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary. For one brief moment, I thought I saw a daffodil, but when I moved the magnifying wheel, it turned out to be just a crumpled yellow bag.

  Alyssa went next. She surveyed the area and shook her head. “Nothing interesting.”

  Kiara took her turn. After only a second, she drew in her breath and exclaimed, “Outstanding!”

  We crowded around her. “What?” we all cried out in excitement.

  “The Lakeside Museum has an exhibit on artificial intelligence and technology!”

  We stepped back.

  “It’s turned into a regular old telescope,” Alyssa declared. “Maybe we used up all the magic.”

  “I’m not giving up on it yet.” Ellie stepped up to the spyglass. “My turn.”

  “Anything?” I asked.

  “Just another dog. What’s with all the dogs lately?… Wait a minute. The season’s changed! It looks like it’s really spring out there now. Hey, you guys, this is a vision!”

  “Is the dog with the same walker you saw this morning?” Alyssa asked.

  “No! I think… oh, wow, I think it’s with Rachel!”

  I could feel my heart beating faster as we crowded around the spyglass again. Alyssa practically shoved Ellie aside so she could look.

  “It is Rachel!” she exclaimed. “Rachel, you’re walking a dog!”

  “Let me see,” I pleaded, and Alyssa turned the spyglass over to me.

  And there I was, ambling through the park, a lead in my hand and an adorable little dog with straight light brown fur at the end of it. And it was definitely springtime—the sun was out, and I was wearing my favorite spring dress, light blue with a pattern of daisies.

  I let Kiara take a look.

  “You don’t have a dog, do you?” she asked me, adjusting the focus.

  “No!”

  She stepped away. “So you just really want one and that’s why we’re seeing this.”

  I took her place and watched myself some more. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it much. But I loved books about dogs when I was little. Old Yeller, Lassie, The Incredible Journey, Because of Winn-Dixie. And whenever I saw a dog on the street, I wanted to pet it. Of course, Mom and Mami wouldn’t let me. They were afraid it might bite.”

  “But you never asked your parents if you could have one?” Ellie asked.

  I shook my head. “I never even considered it.”

  “But why?”

  “I guess I always assumed they’d say a dog would be too much trouble. They’re both really busy, and maybe they thought I wouldn’t be able to take care of it. And they wouldn’t let me walk the dog, not on my own.”

  “Even now?” Alyssa asked. “For crying out loud, Rachel, you’re twelve years old!”

  I faced them. “You know how they are,” I said simply. “You know about my sister. They don’t want to lose me.”

  “Do they really think you’ll be hit by a car too?” Alyssa asked.

  I shrugged. “Or drown in a swimming pool. Or get kidnapped by a criminal. Or fall off a cliff.”

  “There are no cliffs in Lakeside,” Kiara said.

  I almost smiled. “That’
s not the point, Kiara.”

  “But they can’t watch over you forever,” Ellie declared. “Aren’t they ever going to let you grow up?”

  “I don’t know.”

  They were all suddenly quiet. They’re feeling sorry for me, I thought. I didn’t like that at all.

  Ellie broke the silence. “Who’s hungry?”

  I took one more look through the spyglass, but both the dog and I were gone, and only the real-and-current Lakeside could be seen. I followed the others out of the turret, wondering as we headed downstairs about the vision and about what we’d find in Ellie’s pantry.

  Back home, when I get out of school, it’s usually only Mom there, so my snacks are fruit or something else natural. When I first started hanging out with the sisterhood, Ellie was worried that my super-healthy eating habits meant I wouldn’t want the kind of snacks she liked—chips, cookies, stuff like that. Since I didn’t want to offend her, I ate whatever she offered and discovered that while certain snacks might not be too good for you, they certainly can taste good.

  Of course, Ellie’s parents buy healthier foods too, and raiding the kitchen that day, we found a bowl of fruit salad and carrot sticks with a yogurt dip. While a bag of chips and cans of soda could be carried back up to the turret, these snacks required bowls and utensils, so we took it all to the dining table.

  We ate and talked and were generally having a good time when we heard the front door open and a voice call out, “Anyone home?”

  “In here, Dad,” Ellie called back.

  Ellie’s father came into the dining room and beamed at us. “Hello, girls.”

  “Hi, Mr. Marks,” we replied in unison.

  He looked over the goodies on the table. “May I?”

  “Help yourself,” Ellie replied. “We’re all stuffed.”

  He filled a bowl with some fruit salad. “I’ll take this back to my office.” He started off but then turned back.

  “Oh, Ellie, before I forget. I’ve got another meeting downtown tomorrow that’s going to last till at least five o’clock, and I’m expecting a package to be delivered around four. You’ll be home to sign for it, right?”

  We all looked at Ellie and watched her face fall. I could see the lump in her throat as she swallowed, hard.

  “I—I can’t tomorrow, Dad. I won’t be home.” She swallowed again. “I’ve got detention.”

  His brow furrowed. “Detention! Why?”

  “I was late for school today.”

  Again, looking more disturbed, he asked, “Why?”

  She glanced at us. Of course, since the spyglass was a secret, she couldn’t tell him the real reason.

  “I guess I was just dawdling.”

  Now Mr. Marks looked very serious. But since he was a nice person, he didn’t start yelling at Ellie in front of her friends.

  “We’ll discuss this when your mother gets home” was all he said before leaving the dining room.

  The second silence of the day fell over us, but this time all eyes were on Ellie. I could see her try to smile, but it turned into a grimace.

  Alyssa looked up at the clock on the wall. It wasn’t yet our usual time to leave, but she stood up. “Well, I have to pick up Ethan at the Lakeside Playhouse. Maybe I should get there a little early and watch some of his rehearsal.”

  Kiara stood up too. “I’ve got some errands to run on Main Street.”

  Ellie didn’t encourage us to stay. She just nodded glumly, and we all went to the rack by the door to gather our coats.

  With both Alyssa and Kiara going in the opposite direction, there would be no one to walk me home. In that situation, I knew I should immediately call Mom to come pick me up.

  But I didn’t. This was what I’d been thinking about ever since we had that discussion in English class. What I never got a chance to bring up with the girls. A lie of omission might not have worked for Ellie, but maybe it would work for me.

  We said our goodbyes. Alyssa and Kiara took off one way and I started off in the other direction.

  It felt strange and sort of amazing to find myself walking alone. I wasn’t nervous at all. It was still light out. There were cars moving on the street and people on the sidewalks. I felt perfectly safe, and even a little light-headed. Like I was suddenly free or something!

  I couldn’t help but think that part of feeling good also came from how I’d spoken up with the sisterhood. It was the first time I’d ever talked so much at one of our gatherings. They’d listened to me. And then, seeing myself in the spyglass, becoming the center of attention… I might not have enjoyed the sisterhood feeling sorry for me about the way my parents hovered over me, but I realized that it felt good that they were interested in what I said, like they respected me! And I definitely prefer respect to pity.

  In a way, it was funny that this would make me feel good. Usually, I never want to be noticed; I’m perfectly content with being invisible. But today… well, to be honest, being in the spotlight had been kind of nice.

  I just hoped neither Mom nor Mami would ask how I got home that day. If they did, I’d have to tell the truth, and I knew how upset they would be. But maybe they wouldn’t ask. As I walked, I tried not to think about it, but it was hard. I love them both so much, I can’t bear to make them sad or worried. But I had a sudden vision of myself, as an adult, with Mom and Mami still walking alongside me. Ellie’s question echoed in my mind. Would they ever let me grow up? I needed to show them that I didn’t always need their protection, that I could manage stuff on my own. But how could I, when they never gave me the opportunity?

  Then I saw the dog.

  It was coming toward me, this little puppy with long, straight light brown fur hanging over its eyes. I didn’t really know anything about dog breeds, but he looked awfully cute.

  And exactly like the dog I’d seen myself walking in the spyglass vision.

  He stopped in front of me and looked up. I knew that dogs couldn’t really smile, but I couldn’t help thinking that this one was smiling at me. He just seemed so happy to see me.

  “Hi there,” I said softly. I bent down to pet him gently, and that’s when I saw that the dog was actually female. She didn’t shrink away from me, so I kept petting her.

  “Who do you belong to?” I asked. I looked around, but there was no one coming after her. She wasn’t dragging a lead behind her, and she wasn’t wearing a collar.

  I looked at my watch. Since we’d left Ellie’s earlier than usual, I didn’t have to hurry to be home at my usual time. So I picked up a twig from under a tree and threw it into a nearby yard. The dog immediately went after it, took the twig in her mouth, and brought it directly back to me.

  “Good girl!” I exclaimed, and threw it again, a little farther this time. Once again, she retrieved it and returned to me. I could tell she was having fun, so I kept tossing the twig and she kept chasing after it.

  After fifteen minutes of playing fetch with her, and enjoying every second, I knew I had to move on. But still, no one had appeared to claim her. I started walking and she trotted along beside me, as if that was where she was supposed to be.

  And she was still there when I reached my house.

  THE DOG FOLLOWED ME UP THE STEPS TO THE porch and stopped. Wagging her tail, she looked up at me, and I looked down at her. Then I opened the door, and she trotted in without any hesitation, just as if she thought this was her home.

  Mom must have heard the door, because she came out of her office.

  “Hi, honey,” she said automatically, but then, instead of hurrying toward me for a hug, she stood still. I knew then I wouldn’t have to worry about her asking me how I got home. The cute little creature who had accompanied me grabbed all her attention.

  “What’s—what do you have there?”

  “A dog, Mom.”

  “Yes, I can see that. But what’s he doing here?”

  “She,” I corrected her.

  I gathered the object of her question up in my arms.

  “Be c
areful,” Mom said.

  “She won’t bite,” I assured her. The dog didn’t resist at all—in fact, she snuggled close to me. It was the strangest sensation. I couldn’t remember ever picking up a dog before, and I wondered if this action always felt so good, so natural, to everyone.

  “She followed me home,” I said, and immediately thought I should have said “us,” so Mom wouldn’t think I’d walked on my own. Fortunately, she didn’t notice, and I was relieved to see that she didn’t look upset at all about the dog. Just curious.

  “Let me look at her,” she said. I put the dog down, and she went directly to Mom, who knelt, patted her, and looked her over.

  “She’s probably not a stray. She’s very clean, and she looks well cared for. She must belong to someone.”

  “There was no one with her,” I said. “I waited and looked around, but no one came after her.”

  “Hmm. She must have run off, then. I’m surprised she’s not on a leash.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe she was in her owner’s backyard and ran out.”

  Mom frowned. “But she’s not even wearing a collar. That’s strange. Why don’t you look on the online community bulletin board? I’ll bet someone’s already reported her missing. And I’ll get her some water.”

  I went to my room and logged on to my laptop. As I entered the Lakeside community website, I found myself hoping no one had posted anything about a lost dog yet. And I was in luck—no one had. The only missing pet reported was a cat. Of course, if the dog had scampered out of a backyard, there was a chance that the owner hadn’t yet discovered she was missing. On the other hand, it was already a half hour since I’d found her, and who knew how long she’d been wandering before that? If I had a dog like this, I’d know where she was every minute.

  Mom appeared at my doorway. “I think she’s hungry. Honey, could you check and see if it’s okay to give a dog quinoa?”