Beatrice More Moves In (3 page)

Edison was a big, lazy, shaggy brown dog. He had sleepy eyes and a very big, very
drooly mouth. He dearly loved sleeping, especially in sunbeams. Napping, resting
and bedtime were three of his favorite activities. He dreaded walks.

“Edison!” yelled Beatrice.

There was no answer. No sound of heavy paws padding down the hall.

“Probably hiding again,” she said. Edison usually “hid” by shoving his head under
a bed or a sofa.

“Mom, have you seen Edison? I can’t find him in all this
mess
.”

Her mother was lying on the couch. She looked up from the book she was reading.

“Oh, he’s around here somewhere,” she said. “Eddie! Ed!”

When he heard the voice of his friend who gave him treats, Edison came lurching up
the stairs.

He stopped when he saw Beatrice with the leash in her hand.

He turned and tried to bolt back downstairs, but she caught him around his middle
and hauled him back. She wrestled him over to the door.

“You silly dog!” Beatrice said cheerfully. She clipped the leash to Edison’s collar.
“You always pretend you don’t want to go.”

Beatrice gave a brisk tug on the leash. Edison sat down heavily, looking back with
pleading eyes toward his treat-giving friend. Beatrice went behind him and pushed
him. She pushed and pulled him out the door.

“We’ll be back soon, Mom,” Beatrice panted. “And then I’ll help you get this house
organized!”

“Mm hmm,” said her mom, flipping a page in her book. “Take your time, Bee.”

Beatrice dragged Edison a few steps down the sidewalk. Then he lurched onto the grass
and lay on his side.

“Every time, Edison. You do this
every single
time,” said Beatrice. She finally reached
into her pocket. “Will a treat help?”

Edison’s eyes brightened. His ears snapped up. He sat clumsily and waved a big paw.
He wolfed the treat down.
Then he shook himself, gobs of drool flying from his mouth.

“I love you, Edison,” said Beatrice as they started to walk, “but you are one slobbery
dog.”

Beatrice looked back at their new house. It was a pretty white house with a blue
front door. Through the big living room windows, all she could see were stacks and
stacks of boxes. She sighed.

“Just a
short
walk, Edison,” she said. “There’s lots to do.”

They came to the school at the end of the street.

“This will be my school in one month, Edison,” Beatrice said. “A brand-new school!
I hope grade three is very, very successful.”

She felt excited. And nervous.

Beatrice started thinking of a list of
Things to Do to Be Successful in Grade Three
.
She had reached number six (
Print business cards
) when she heard a shout behind her.
She swung around.

A huge dog was running toward her and Edison from across the school field.

A huge dog with nobody holding the other end of the leash.

The dog’s tongue flopped and bobbed out the side of its mouth.

Two girls ran after the dog, but they were much slower than he was.

“Peewee! Come! Stop! Stay! Sit! BAD DOG!” one of the girls yelled.

Edison’s ears perked up. For once, Beatrice didn’t have to tug his leash to get him
going. He took off running toward the other dog.

“Wait! Edison, no, wrong way, WRONG WAY!” yelled Beatrice.

Edison ran straight at the wild, monster-sized dog.

“Other way,
other way
!” Beatrice said. She used both hands to hold on to the leash.
Edison pulled and dragged Beatrice along with him. She slipped and skidded in the
grass.

This is highly unprofessional
, she thought. She gritted her teeth as she bumped along.

The two dogs met in a joyful crash. They rolled and wrestled and tumbled together.
Then they flopped down on the grass, panting and wagging their tails. Somehow, Beatrice
had kept hold of Edison’s leash. She flopped down on the grass beside the dogs.

The big dog turned and licked Beatrice’s face with his dripping tongue.

“Ugh,
more
dog drool,” Beatrice said. But she petted his huge head.

Beatrice had green grass stains on her knees. Her favorite purple shirt was torn
and spattered with dog drool. Her face was red and hot. Strands of hair had escaped
her smooth ponytail and stuck to her sweaty face.

She turned to the two girls who ran up.

“Sorry,
sorry
!” said the smaller girl, reaching to help Beatrice to her feet. “Are
you okay?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” said Beatrice with dignity. She smoothed her rumpled shirt.

Beatrice noticed that the smaller girl had perfectly straight
black hair
.
I wonder how many times she brushes it every night?
she thought. The
girl smiled brightly.

“Peewee’s so strong! He saw your dog, gave one big tug and he was gone!”

“Wow, these two sure have made friends,” said the blond girl. She smiled and scratched
Edison behind the ears. “Aww! He’s so cute.”

Beatrice looked at Edison. He was panting. His tongue was hanging out. He was slobbering
all over the place.

Cute? We are both total messes
, Beatrice thought.

“I’m Sue,” said the blond girl. She had a round face and big, friendly blue eyes.

“I’m Jill,” said the dark-haired girl. “And it looks like you’ve met Peewee.” Jill
giggled.

Beatrice smiled. The girls might not be perfect pet owners, but they seemed nice.

“I’m Beatrice. That’s our dog, Edison. We just moved into the house on the corner.”

“Hey! We’re almost next-door neighbors!” said Sue. “I live one house away!”

“I live over there, across the field,” said Jill.

“Do you both go to this school?” asked Beatrice. It would be wonderful to have a
few friends before she even started school. That would be very successful indeed.

“Yep. We’re both going into grade three,” said Jill. “How about you?”

“Same,” said Beatrice happily.

Peewee and Edison got up and shook themselves.

“Well, I guess we should get going,” said Sue. “I’m starving.”

“And I have tennis lessons,” said Jill.

“Hey,” said Beatrice, “why don’t you both come over to our house later? Maybe three
o’clock? We’ll be all unpacked and perfectly organized by then.”

She got a nervous, sinking feeling as she said this.

“Okay.” Jill nodded happily, her black hair bobbing. “See you then!”

“Great!” said Sue, grabbing Peewee’s leash. “See you later, Bee!”

Beatrice watched them walk away. Jill did two perfect cartwheels in the field.

Beatrice
, she said automatically to herself.
My name is Beatrice
.

But her eye didn’t twitch, and she didn’t feel much like exploding. She liked those
girls.

On her first walk in her brand-new neighborhood, she had almost made two new friends.

How successful was that?

“Mom!” Beatrice yelled as she banged the door.

She quickly tucked her shoes side by side in the closet. She unclipped Edison from
his leash. He slunk over to a sunbeam and flopped on his side with a huge sigh.

“
Mom!
”

Her mother struggled up from the couch.

“Mmmph, I’m up, I’m
up
…” she mumbled.

“Hiya, Bee,” said Sophie, who was lying on the living room floor. She was drawing
some fish with huge googly eyes on a big piece of paper. Beatrice could see pink,
green and blue marker smudges on the floor.

Beatrice took a deep breath.

“Mom, have you unpacked
anything
? What have you been doing?”

Her mother yawned and tried to smooth her frizzy hair.

“Oh, I must have dozed off. Sophie, what a beautiful picture!”

Sophie stopped coloring and leaned back to look at her art.

“Yep, Super-Pig sure is beeyootiful,” she agreed, pointing with a grubby finger at
a blue fish. “An’ them’s his fishy friends!” She leaned over and kissed the pink-and-green
fish.

Beatrice ran over to her mother. She put her hands on her mother’s shoulders. She
looked into her face. She spoke slowly.