Purple Nails and Puppy Tails (2 page)

Mrs. Franklin shook her head again. “It's not that,” she said. “Sadie was just groomed this morning. She has a dog-modeling job tomorrow at three o'clock. She's the new spokes-dog for the shelter on Taft Street, Paws for Love. They're planning to photograph her for a poster to promote pet adoption. And she's a mess! I'm even going to have to clean her toenails.”

Sadie was finally quiet, happy to be in Mrs. Franklin's arms. It was funny how they kind of looked alike. They both had fluffy hair that was mostly white, and Sadie's red collar matched the red sweater Mrs. Franklin had draped over her shoulders.

“Hey, that's the shelter I volunteer at,” Jenica said, still rifling through her duffel bag for shorts. “I
didn't realize Sadie was the dog that was going to be on the Adoption Day posters.”

“Mrs. Franklin? Are dog toenails like people toenails?” Brooke asked. She dropped the wet towels she was holding into the basin and walked over to inspect Sadie. Aly followed her. She'd never really looked closely at a dog's toenails before either.

Mrs. Franklin held up Sadie's paw. “Here they are,” she said. “Different from ours.”

Brooke took Sadie's paw in her hand. And then she looked at Aly. She was wearing a face that said:
I have
an idea!

“Do you think . . . ,” Brooke began. “Do you think we could give Sadie a pedicure tomorrow?” Then she started laughing. “Not a pedicure . . . a pet-icure! Get it?”

Aly got it, and she giggled for a second too. But
then she stopped. She wasn't sure this was the best idea Brooke had ever had. Brooke had lots of ideas all the time. Some were really good, like the name Sparkle Spa. But a puppy pedicure? That sounded like trouble.

A
ly bit her lip. She looked at the mess around her. “I, um, I think we have to talk this over, Brooke,” she said. “We've never even done a pet-icure.”

From her perch on the pedicure chair, Sophie said, “I'll help!”

“Me too!” said Charlotte.

“And me,” said Lily, who was behind a closet door, changing into Jenica's shorts.

“I wish I could,” Jenica said. “But we have a soccer game.”

Aly knew they would have to check with Mom first, but she figured that five of them would hopefully be enough to handle Sadie.

Mrs. Franklin smiled. “Thank you, girls. I'm—or rather, Sadie is—willing to give it a try. Why don't you ask your mother and let me know. Here's my phone number,” said Mrs. Franklin, handing them a business card with Sadie's picture on it. “Now say good-bye, Sadie.”

Sadie wagged her tail and yipped twice.

Mrs. Franklin, Sadie, and Jamie returned to True Colors. “Would you still like your manicure?” Jamie asked as they walked out the door.

Mrs. Franklin looked down at her nails and sighed. “I think I'll reschedule for early next week and come
without
Sadie.”

Aly thought that was a very good idea. Maybe there should be a rule about no pets in the salon. In
fact, Aly was surprised her mother hadn't come up with that rule already, since Mom was kind of the queen of rules—there was even a No Dogs Allowed rule in their house. Would she make a rule about pet-icures?

Aly woke up Saturday morning with a knot in her stomach. She couldn't believe Mom had actually said yes to Sadie's pet-icure, that “one little dog, one time, would be fine.”

Brooke, still asleep, rolled over in her bed across the room. She squeezed her stuffed monkey, George.

Aly loved Brooke—more than anyone else on the planet, really—but lately it seemed like Brooke was coming up with one crazy plan after another, and then it was Aly's job to make sure that they didn't turn into total disasters.

There was Heather Davis's birthday party, which
Brooke agreed to before the Sparkle Spa was even open for business. And then there was last week's fiasco, when Brooke added Red-Hot Pepper polish to the hand lotion so it would turn pink. The problem was that it also turned people's hands pink. And their arms. And feet, too. It took a lot of polish remover to get their skin back to normal.

The best way Aly knew to try to avoid disasters was to prepare herself as much as possible. So she got up super quietly from her bed and tiptoed over to her desk. She pulled out a piece of paper and a sparkly gel pen—her favorite kind—and started a list:

Perfect Pet-icure Rules

1. No running in Sparkle Spa (people or dogs)

2. No fur polishing (people)

3. No biting (dogs)

4. No chewing chairs, pillows, flip-flops (dogs)

Aly chewed on the cap of the pen. Writing the list had made her a little less worried. As long as she had a plan, she was pretty sure she could handle anything. Even polishing a puppy's nails.

A few hours later Aly and Brooke were in True Colors with their mom. Luckily, they didn't have any appointments at the Sparkle Spa until eleven o'clock, so they'd told Mrs. Franklin to bring Sadie early.

“Girls,” Mom said, “please be extra, extra careful today. I don't want either of you to get hurt, and I don't want the back room destroyed.”

“We will,” Brooke said. “We promise. We'll be the carefullest we've ever been.”

Aly nodded. “Charlotte, Lily, and Sophie are coming to help. Plus Mrs. Franklin. Sadie won't be able to run around. We'll make sure she behaves.”

The front door jangled, and in walked Miss Lulu,
one of the salon regulars. Every Saturday at 9:30 on the dot, she got a pedicure. But for the past two weeks she'd been away on her honeymoon.

“You're back!” Brooke screeched. “Do you have pictures? What color dresses did the flower girls wear? How was Maine? Did you see a moose?” Brooke ran over to Miss Lulu and hugged her.

Mom took her seat at pedicure station number one, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Slow down, Brooke,” she said with a laugh. “I have to do Lulu's toes. You can visit with her while she's drying.”

Brooke gave Miss Lulu a final hug and then headed to the Sparkle Spa with Aly. As they opened the door, Mom called, “Remember what I said. I don't want any surprises next time I come back there!”

But from the minute Mrs. Franklin and Sadie showed up, it was one surprise after another.

First, Mrs. Franklin was late. She came rushing into the spa with Sadie, a little bit out of breath. Sadie had purple bows clipped on top of her ears with rhinestones in the center of each bow. She was also brushed and washed and much fluffier than she'd looked yesterday.

“She's sooo cute!” Sophie said, running over to pet her.

“Do you think I can get bows like that for Minerva?” Charlotte asked. Minerva was Charlotte's poodle and was also the cuddliest dog Aly had ever met. She loved going to Charlotte's house so she could squeeze in as many puppy cuddles as possible.

Back in first grade, when she first started playing with Charlotte and Minerva, Aly asked if the
Tanners could get a dog, but Mom and Dad had said no. That was when the No Dogs Allowed rule was established, and it had been a rule at the Tanner house ever since.

The second surprise was that a man with a camera rushed into the salon after Mrs. Franklin.

“Great news, girls!” Mrs. Franklin said. “Isaac's the photographer who's doing Sadie's photo shoot later. He wanted to take pictures of her getting ready so that Paws for Love can post an Internet feature. Isn't that wonderful?”

Aly started to panic. Wait a minute. This wasn't part of the plan!
They
were going to be in a photo shoot too? Aly checked to make sure she didn't have any nail polish on her clothes. Brooke straightened her glasses. And Charlotte said, “I'm so glad I had my nails done yesterday!”

Aly looked at her own fingers. No polish. She kind
of wished she had time to do her own nails before the photo shoot like she and Brooke did on Saturdays. Or that she was wearing a different shirt—her favorite one with the purple and green stripes.

Finally, Mrs. Franklin handed Aly two tubes filled with Purple Paws puppy polish. It wasn't what Aly expected—the polish wasn't in a bottle like people polish—it looked more like a marker, the kind Aly drew with in art.

Aly uncapped one tube and tried it on her own left thumb just to check it out. It dried in about two seconds.

“You should need only one coat for Sadie's nails,” Mrs. Franklin said. “Or at least that's what Nina at the pet store told me.” Mrs. Franklin handed Sadie to Brooke, who took her to the area they had set up for the pet-icure. Aly followed. She figured they could trust Miss Nina and her polish information
because she was a True Colors regular too.

Sophie sat down, and Brooke put Sadie in her lap.

Charlotte held on tight to her leash.

Lily stood nearby with a just-in-case doggie treat.

Isaac took what seemed like a gazillion photographs.

And Sadie was happy as could be, soaking up all the attention.

Aly pushed the fur out of her way so she could see Sadie's nails better. They were skinny and black and kind of long. The purple color was bright and sparkly, and Miss Nina was definitely right: no second coat needed. It was actually almost easier than doing a pedicure on some people Aly knew—especially ticklish ones.

“This is usually what Sadie's like,” Mrs. Franklin said. “It's why the shelter chose her for the Adoption Day campaign.”

“What is that about, anyway?” Brooke asked. While she was waiting for her turn to polish Sadie's back nails, Brooke was busy making a string of beads—purple, silver, and pink—to wrap around Sadie's collar.

“The shelter is trying to get the ten dogs that have been there the longest adopted,” Mrs. Franklin explained. “And they think that with an adorable spokes-dog like Sadie, people will come running to the shelter. These puppies really need homes, girls. If you met the dogs, you'd understand.”

Aly finished Sadie's left paw just as Brooke finished beading. She sat next to Sadie, took the “paw-lish” from Aly, and started painting.