Purple Nails and Puppy Tails (8 page)

But then she turned to her parents. “Mom! Dad!”
she said. “We have to go look at the dogs.”

“We have to! Now!” Brooke added.

The Tanners made their way into the old-timers' room. There were so many people there, and so many of the dogs were out of their cages. Aly tried to get through to Sparky's cage, but first she and Brooke were stopped by Anjuli, the goalie from the soccer team, who was adopting the tiny Yorkie named Reginald, and then Mrs. Bass, a True Colors customer, who seemed to be considering adopting Murphy, the bulldog.

Mom started talking to Mrs. Bass.

“I'm going to die of slowness!” Brooke whispered to Aly.

But Aly was thinking that she might die of worry. All around her, dogs seemed to be getting adopted. Lucas, whom half the sixth-grade soccer team had a crush on, was playing with Laces, the
big golden retriever. Heather Davis's friend Jayden and a girl in Aly's grade named Annie were petting Penny the poodle.

Aly started to feel a little panicky. What if Sparky had been adopted? What if someone was playing with him right now and thinking about taking him home? What if he already found another family, before Brooke and Aly got to make their case for the dog? Aly checked her pocket for the list, just to make sure it was still there.

“Let's hold hands and push through the crowd,” Aly told her sister. “We need to see if Sparky's still here. And if he is, then we can show him to Mom and Dad.”

Brooke looked at Aly with terror in her eyes. “Do you think he could be gone?”

Aly took a deep breath. “I don't know, Brookster. I just don't know.”

But just before they could start pushing their way to Sparky's cage, Irena saw them.

“Girls,” she called “I'm so glad you made it! Look at what you've done. All these dogs are going to have homes because of you and your friends.”

Aly and Brooke smiled and thanked her, but Aly couldn't stop her leg from bouncing with impatience. They
had
to find Sparky.

“You know, I think this is a record. All the dogs but one have been spoken for, and it's not even noon yet,” Irena said.

Aly felt her heart start to race. “All but one have been adopted?”

Irena nodded, the beads on her braids clicking. “Isn't that wonderful?”

Brooke grabbed Aly's hand and squeezed it hard.

Aly swallowed.

“Which one—” she started to say, but the words
got caught in her throat, so she tried again. “Which one is left?”

Irena looked down at her clipboard.

Aly held her breath.
Please don't be adopted, please don't be adopted, please don't be adopted
, she wished.

L
et's see,” Irena said. “It looks like the only one left is . . . Sparky.” She smiled at the girls. “Maybe he's just a little too small for most people. It's a shame, though, because he's such a sweet dog.”

Aly let out her breath in a whoosh. Thank goodness.

“Wewanthim!” Brooke blurted out so fast that her words ran together. “Please don't let anyone take him. We want him.”

“Oh!” Irena looked surprised. “I thought you girls weren't allowed to have a dog.”

“Would we be able to see him?” Aly asked. “So we can show him to our parents?”

“Of course,” Irena said. “I'll go get him myself, for our star fund-raisers.”

Irena left, and Aly pulled the list out of her pocket. “Okay, Brooke,” she said. “I'm going to go get Mom and Dad away from Mrs. Bass. You wait here and hold Sparky when Irena comes back. Got it?”

“Got it,” Brooke answered.

Weaving through the crowd, Aly made her way over to her parents. Mom was still in deep conversation with Mrs. Bass, but Dad was kneeling on the floor, petting Murphy, while Mrs. Bass's sons filled out the adoption papers. Aly kneeled down next to him and gave Murphy a pat. He was a really sweet dog and hadn't minded at all when his nails were painted.

“Hey, Dad,” Aly said. “Brooke and I want you to meet someone.”

“Hey, Alligator,” he said. “This guy looks great.” He gave Murphy another scratch behind his ears. “Who do you want me to meet?”

“It's a surprise,” Aly told him. “Come with me.”

Dad followed, and Aly threaded through the crowd of people and dogs and cages back to where Brooke was standing. She was holding Sparky, who kept trying to lick her face. His rainbow collar shone.

“You want me to meet Brooke?” Dad asked.

Aly started laughing. “No, Dad! We want you to meet Sparky.”

“That little guy? Is he actually a dog?” Dad was joking, but Brooke didn't like it.

“Of course he's a dog!” she said, and handed Sparky over to her father. Dad was so much bigger than the tiny dog that Sparky fit right in the crook of his elbow. Sparky wasn't anything like Dad's dog
Mouse, but when he turned his head and licked Dad's fingers, Dad smiled.

“He's really sweet,” Dad said. “Was he your favorite?”

Aly nodded.

Brooke said, “Well, not at first, but at second, yeah. And now I love him the most.”

Dad looked down at Sparky. “So is one of your friends adopting him?” he asked.

Brooke looked at Aly. Aly cleared her throat. “We thought maybe we could adopt him,” she said.

“There you are, girls. I thought I'd lost you,” Mom said, walking over to Aly and Brooke. Then she saw the dog in Dad's arms. “Who's that?” she asked.

“It's Sparky,” Brooke said. “He's the last dog left that doesn't have a family.”

Aly handed Mom her list. “These are all the reasons why we think he'd be the perfect dog for us,” she said.

Mom looked at the paper, then stepped closer to Dad so he could read it too. “You girls must've been thinking about this for a while,” she said.

Brooke pushed her glasses up on her nose. “We have. For a very long time. At first I wanted Melvin, but he's really slobbery and too big, and Aly knew all along that Sparky would be the best one.”

“He really is, Mom,” Aly added. “And we think he'd be a great puppy for our family.”

Mom looked down at the paper in her hand again and started reading it over carefully.

“Hi, everyone,” Joan said, walking over to the Tanners. “Guess what? I just sold out of all the Joan's Bones.” She was smiling.

“That's great news,” Mom said.

Brooke couldn't wait another second. “Mom! We want a dog,” she said. “The one Dad's holding.”

Mom gave Dad and Joan a look. “I'm not sure if our
house can handle a dog. And he'd be home alone all day. That's not a very nice way for a dog to spend his time.”

Aly hadn't thought of that. That was a problem. She didn't want Sparky to be alone all day. There had to be a way to make this work. She had to think fast.

“How about the Sparkle Spa?” Aly said. “What if he lives at the Sparkle Spa during the day? We could get him a bed and toys, and he could live in the corner next to the pedicure chairs. We could even get him an enclosure gate so he won't be able to go into the main salon and wander around.”

Mom tilted her head sideways. She raised her eyebrows at Dad. Brooke started bouncing on her toes.

“Who would walk him?” Mom said. “While you girls are at school?”

“Um . . . ,” Aly began.

Joan raised her hand. “I could do it,” she said.

“Really?”
Brooke asked, throwing her arms around Joan. “You'd do that?”

“Sure,” Joan answered. “I love dogs. It would be fun to have one at the salon.”

Dad cleared his throat. “You girls have been so responsible with the fund-raiser and the shelter dogs, I bet you'd do a great job with Sparky. But you know I'm not around very much, so this decision is really up to your mom.”

“I promise we'll take such good care of him,” Aly said. “You won't have to do a thing!”

Brooke nodded. Then she took Sparky out of Dad's arms and handed him over to their mom.

Mom's face looked soft and sweet. The girls knew they had her—it was love at first sight. Or first cuddle.

“Well . . .” Mom looked at Joan again. “You're sure you want to take on the dog-walking responsibility?”

Joan ruffled Aly's hair. “Absolutely,” she said.

“You girls
have
been very responsible,” Mom said. “And since Joan is willing to help, I say okay.”

Brooke screamed and threw her arms around Mom and Sparky. “Thank you, Mommy!” Then she hugged her dad.

But Aly turned and hugged Joan. “Thank
you
,” she said quietly. “Mom never would've agreed otherwise.”

“My pleasure,” Joan said as she gave Aly a squeeze. Then Aly went to hug her parents, too. She was smiling so wide, her cheeks were hurting a bit, but she couldn't stop. Other than the day she and Brooke got Mom to agree to the Sparkle Spa, this was one of the happiest days of Aly's life.

When they had all the adoption papers signed and the coupon for a free year of dog food from Pups 'n' Stuff in hand, the Tanners—along with Joan and, of
course, Sparky—walked over to True Colors. Dad had already taken the car and would meet up with them at the salon.

Aly was holding Sparky's leash, the sparkly rainbow one that she'd picked out herself, and Brooke was telling Sparky all about the salon.

“There's lots of nail polish there,” she was saying, “but it's not the kind for you. You have special nail polish. This kind at the Sparkle Spa is just for people.”

Sparky twitched his ears. Aly started laughing.

When they reached True Colors, Aly and Brooke sat outside on the Blue Skies bench. Aly held Sparky on her lap, and while she rubbed his belly, she couldn't help but come up with a good, better, and best for today:

Good was that she and Brooke were friends again, no matter what.

Better was that all the old-timers were adopted into loving homes.

And best was that the cutest old-timer of all was their brand-new dog.

Brooke interrupted her thoughts. “Aly? Let's take Sparky into the Sparkle Spa so he can see how cool it is.” The sisters walked into True Colors and headed for the back room. They watched Sparky sniff around, getting to know his new home.

“Can you believe Mom really agreed?” Brooke asked.

Aly shook her head. “It's kind of a miracle.”

“There's one thing,” Brooke said.

“What's that?” Aly asked.

“I think we have to change his name.”

“Change his name?” Aly asked. “Won't that be confusing for him?”

“Not change it
too
much,” Brooke said. She was
over near the polish display, grabbing a bottle out of the silver section. “Here!” she said. She ran over and gave the polish to Aly.

“Call Me Sparkly,” Aly read. “I forgot about this color.”

“See?” Brooke said. “His name
should
be Sparkly.”

Aly smiled. As usual, Brooke's ideas turned out perfectly in the end. Sparkly it would be.