Purple Nails and Puppy Tails (3 page)

Sadie's tail was wagging so hard, Brooke almost got a splotch of paw-lish on Sadie's fur.

“Stop moving!” Brooke laughed. “You'll ruin your pet-icure!”

Lily gave Sadie her treat and then said, “Maybe we can visit the shelter tomorrow. My brother's allergic, but, Charlotte, maybe you could adopt another dog to be friends with Minerva.”

“Maybe,” Charlotte said. “Sometimes I worry that she gets lonely when Caleb and I are at school.”

“That's such a great idea,” Brooke said. “Can we go too?”

Aly nodded. “We're open today, so closed tomorrow. Let's do it.”

“That would be lovely, ladies,” Mrs. Franklin said. “And thank you all so much for making Sadie a star.”

Just before they left, Isaac had Aly, Brooke, Sophie, Lily, and Charlotte pose around Sadie for one last photo. “Say ‘puppies'!” he said.

All the girls said “PUPPIES”—Brooke the loudest.

What a fun morning!
Aly thought. But now she
and Brooke had to get ready for some human customers. Two new girls from school—twins—who had asked for matching Blueberry Blue birthday pedicures. Aly hoped the two-legged customers were as well-behaved as the four-legged one!

I
s it just me, or does this place smell a little?” Lily asked the next day, when Aly, Brooke, Lily, Charlotte, and Sophie were dropped off at Paws for Love.

Brooke sniffed loudly.

“Ewww. It does smell,” Brooke said.

Aly looked around, trying to figure out where they should go, when she saw a very familiar ponytail.

“Jenica?” she said.

Jenica put a bag of dog food she was carrying down on the tile floor. “Hi,” she said. “What are you
all doing here? How did Sadie's pedicure go?”

“The pet-icure,” Brooke corrected her. “And it was awesome!”

Jenica raised an eyebrow.

“It was,” Aly said. “Sadie was really well-behaved. And Mrs. Franklin told us all about Adoption Day. She said we should come meet the dogs that need to get adopted.”

Jenica picked up the bag of dog food again. “Come with me. I was just bringing this food over to that part of the shelter. Are you guys thinking of adopting a dog?”

“Maybe,” Brooke said.

Aly shot her a look. “We're not allowed,” Aly said. “But Charlotte might.”

“If I can get my parents to agree that two dogs are better than one,” Charlotte added. “I mean,
I
think that's true.”

“Me too,” Jenica said. “I have two dogs. And two cats—all from here.”

“I wish I could have that many pets,” Sophie said. “All I have is a gerbil.”

Jenica dropped off the dog food and led the girls into a room with ten cages. “These are our old-timers,” she said. “They're not really old, but they've been here so long we gave them temporary shelter names. They all answer to them now.”

Brooke raced over to a cage with a sign that said
MELVIN
. Inside was a super-slobbery-looking dog.

“Look at this one,” she said. “Hi, Melvin. Don't you wish we could have him, Aly?”

Aly looked at the dog. He had soft brown eyes and a wagging tail, but his slobber would be everywhere! No wonder he was an old-timer. She didn't want him.

Then Aly spotted a teeny-tiny dog curled up in the back corner of a cage. He was all eyes and ears
with a curly little tail, and he was shaking. Shivering, really. The sign on his cage read
SPARKY
. He was the cutest dog Aly had ever seen. And clearly, he needed someone to love him.

“Actually,” Aly said, “this is the one I wish we could have.” She kneeled down next to Sparky's cage and put her fingertips near the bars. Sparky sniffed her fingers with the tiniest nose ever—one that was cold and just a tiny bit wet—and then licked the tip of Aly's pinkie. Aly melted. How could she leave this dog here? She hated the No Dogs Allowed rule more than ever!

“That one?” Brooke made a face. “He looks like a rat.”

“A what?” Aly wanted to yell at Brooke, but instead all she said was, “I think he's cute.”

And for the rest of the shelter visit, Aly ignored Brooke. She ignored her while they met the
other old-timers: Laces and Sneaker and Bob and Murphy and Reginald and Penny and Marjorie and Frida. She even ignored Brooke when she started telling Sophie how she was going to get her mom to change the rule so they could adopt Melvin. Aly knew the rule couldn't be changed. And she knew that even if it could, Mom would never agree to disgusting, slobbery Melvin.

Jenica came into the room with a tall lady who had long braids with beads on the ends that clicked together when she moved. “Everyone, this is Irena. I told her you were the ones who painted Sadie's nails, and she wanted me to introduce her to you.”

“It's so nice to meet you girls,” Irena said. “Sadie looked beautiful with her nails polished.”

“I loved her bows, too,” Charlotte said.

“Me too.” Irena looked at the cages around her. “It's too bad these puppies can't all get pampered like
Sadie. It might improve their chances of finding a home.”

Aly looked around the room. Irena was right. These dogs really could use some spiffing up.

“Ah, well,” Irena continued. “Let's hope the Adoption Day campaign will bring in so many people that each dog will find its perfect match.”

Aly hoped so. She really hoped so for Sparky. He needed an owner to love him. Aly kind of thought he needed
her
to love him, but that wasn't even worth thinking about. She looked at her purple polka-dot watch. Almost two o'clock. Time to head back to True Colors for the weekly Sunday Pizza Picnic with Joan.

“That would be great,” Aly told Irena. “It was really nice to meet you and the dogs.”

“Especially Melvin,” Brooke said. “I love Melvin.”

Irena's eyes lit up. “Would you like to adopt him?”

Before Brooke could answer, Aly said, “Our parents won't let us have a dog. Even though we wish they would.”

“I'm going to talk to my parents about this one, though,” Charlotte said, pointing to Bob, a black poodle. “I think he and my dog Minerva might get along. She's a poodle too, but a brown one.”

“Bob is a sweetheart. I'll keep my fingers crossed,” Irena said.

As the girls made their way back through the shelter, they ran into Miss Nina, Mrs. Franklin, and Isaac, who were choosing which pictures of Sadie to use for the Adoption Day advertising.

Aly never thought that today would end with
both
sisters wanting to adopt old-timers. It turned out there were a lot of nice surprises in a smelly shelter.

O
n Tuesday, after school, Brooke and Aly were in the Sparkle Spa, finishing up their homework—Sparkle Spa Rule Number 1—before opening for business.

Brooke hadn't mentioned Melvin all day, so Aly didn't say anything about Sparky. Aly hated being mad at her sister, and she figured that as long as they didn't talk about dogs, she wouldn't have to be. But that didn't mean she'd stopped thinking about shelter pups, especially Sparky. It made it
kind of hard to concentrate on homework.

“Aly?” Brooke asked, looking up from her worksheet. “Did you have to do decimals in third grade?”

Aly stuck her finger on the word “secret” in her copy of
Bridge to Terabithia
to save her place. Chapter four was her fifth-grade assigned reading homework, and she was almost finished.

“Everyone at Auden Elementary has to do decimals in third grade,” she said. “How come?”

Brooke pushed her glasses up to the top of her nose. “Decimals go with money, right? That's how you add up all the donations in our jar?”

Aly nodded. “Uh-huh. We studied money in third grade too. Like, how many nickels are in a dollar and all that. . . . The answer is twenty, in case you're wondering.”

“How many nickels are in ten dollars?” Brooke asked.

Aly looked down at her finger, which was still resting on the word “secret.” Then she looked at her watch. “How about I tell you after we finish our homework? We need to open the Sparkle Spa in five minutes—Tuesday is Soccer Team Rainbow Pedicure Day.”

“Oops,” said Brooke, looking back at her worksheet. “I forgot. I'd better finish this math sheet.”

Aly closed her eyes for a long second and opened them again. Sometimes it seemed like there were so many ideas whirling around in Brooke's brain that she forgot regular stuff that had to happen. But today she really couldn't blame her sister. She wondered if Brooke was thinking about the shelter dogs too.

A few minutes later, just when the girls had finished their homework and started setting up for the soccer team's pedicures, Joan stuck her head into the Sparkle Spa.

“Joanie Macaroni!” Brooke said, smiling. “You weren't here when we came in after school.”

“Brookie Cookie!” Joan laughed. “I was delivering brownies for a party tonight at the Paws for Love animal shelter.”

Aly finished the last word of chapter four and looked up. Joan was the best baker she and Brooke knew. Sometimes Joan baked cookies and brownies for special events like birthday parties and anniversaries. But Joan baking brownies for the Paws for Love was something new. “That's the same shelter that Sadie's the spokes-dog for!” Aly said.

“I know,” Joan said. “It's all Mrs. Franklin has been talking about.” She handed Aly a small plastic bag with two brownies inside. “Here's one for each of you. I have to do Mrs. Howard's nails now. See you both later.”

By the time Joan was out the door, Brooke was
already standing next to Aly, waiting for her brownie.

“This is soooo good,” Brooke said after she swallowed her first bite. “It's really chocolatey, but I think there's also something a little salty in there.”

“And maybe some caramel? I like the crunch.” Aly examined the size of the brownie. “It could be a little bigger, though.”

“Do you think people would pay money for Joan's brownies?” Brooke asked through her second mouthful.

Aly swallowed. “They already do,” she told her sister. “I bet Paws for Love paid a lot to have her brownies at their party.”

Brooke shook her head. “I mean regular people. What if Joan made brownies and we sold them in True Colors? Then maybe we could give the money to Paws for Love to get bows and pretty collars for the old-timer dogs.”

Aly stopped mid-chew. She didn't want to talk
about dogs with Brooke, but this was an awesome idea. “I wonder . . . ,” Aly said. “I wonder if Joan can make cookies for dogs, too, and their owners could buy them. And maybe if we raise enough money, we could get puppy polish and give all the dogs pedicures.”

“You mean ‘paw-lish' and ‘pet-icures,' ” Brooke said with a smile. “Awesome!”

“Hi, guys.”

The sisters turned around. They'd been so excited that they hadn't noticed that Jenica and Bethany, the first two soccer players with appointments, had arrived.

“What's up?” Jenica asked. She and Bethany climbed up into the pedicure chairs and Aly filled them in. Brooke interrupted every five seconds with “It was my idea.”

Aly would have to tell Brooke later that it wasn't
really polite to brag. “We also thought we could give them all pet-icures,” she said.

“I love that idea!” Jenica said. “The dogs need baths, too.”

“And maybe little sweaters,” Bethany added. “I mean, if you want them to look their best, they need cute outfits.”

Brooke clapped her hands. “They totally need outfits!”

Aly thought about bows and outfits and fancy new collars, maybe even bandanas for the boy dogs, then all the paw-lish they'd need for ten dogs. “I'm not sure if Joan's brownies or doggie treats will make us enough money for all that,” she said.