Look at Lucy! Read online

  With great thanks to Jennifer Arena—

  who loves Lucy almost as much as I do.

  —I.C.

  To our beloved dog, Mary

  —D.M.

  Contents

  1. School Blues

  2. Pet-O-Rama

  3. Spokespet

  4. Mrs. Lee’s Room

  5. Troubles

  6. The Dreaded Oral Report

  7. Contest Day

  8. Uh-oh!

  9. Starring Lucy and Bobby

  10. And the Winner Is …

  School Blues

  Bobby Quinn sat on the front steps of his house. He watched one tired leaf float down from the big oak tree in the yard.

  “Uh-oh,” said Bobby. Falling leaves. Okay, one leaf. But many more were sure to follow. Bobby knew what that meant. School would start soon.

  School. Bobby didn’t want to think about school.

  And for just that moment he didn’t have to. A bark came from behind the screen door. It was Lucy. Lucy was a brown and white beagle with black spots and eyes the color of chocolate kisses.

  Bobby’s parents had given Lucy to him for his eighth birthday, earlier in the summer. She was absolutely the best dog ever! Absolutely was Bobby’s favorite word.

  “A-hooo! A-hooo!” Lucy’s bark turned into a howl. A howl meant she wanted out of the house, and she wanted out right now.

  “Okay, girl,” Bobby said with a smile. “You can come and sit with me.”

  But Lucy wasn’t the kind of dog who liked to sit. She was the kind of dog who liked to run and jump. She liked to run so much that a few weeks ago she had run away. Bobby and his friend Shawn had to chase her all around their town. For a few anxious moments, Bobby had been afraid he might not see Lucy again.

  Just the thought of that day gave him a stomachache. Since then, Bobby hadn’t taken any chances. He hurried to shut the gate before he let Lucy out of the house.

  When Lucy was free, she leapt down the steps into the yard. Yipping and yapping, she stood next to the Frisbee that Bobby had dropped in the grass the day before. Lucy looked at Bobby with her big brown eyes. Pick it up! Throw it! That was what her barks seemed to say.

  Bobby didn’t have to be asked twice. He hurled the red Frisbee, and Lucy went on the chase. Bobby threw. Lucy chased. Every time Lucy brought back the Frisbee, she pranced around, waiting for the next toss.

  School might be starting soon, but it was still summer, and it was hot. Bobby wondered where Lucy got all her energy. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

  “Hi, Bobby,” a voice called.

  Bobby looked up and saw his friend Shawn at the gate. Shawn had moved in across the street over the summer, and Lucy had brought the two shy boys together.

  Bobby wasn’t as shy as he used to be. But when he thought about school, he got nervous. He didn’t really have any friends in his class. He had always been too shy to talk to the other kids. Would things be any better this year?

  “Hey, Shawn. Come in,” Bobby said.

  Shawn opened the gate and carefully closed it behind him. Chasing Lucy all over town was still very clear in his mind, too. He didn’t want to go through that again.

  Lucy ran over to Shawn and sniffed his hand. She dashed back to the Frisbee. She looked first at Bobby, then at Shawn. Well? Let’s play, she seemed to say.

  Instead Bobby said, “It’s too hot, Lucy.” He turned to Shawn. “Let’s go inside and have some lemonade.”

  “Okay. I have something to tell you.”

  As Bobby and Shawn headed for the door, Lucy started barking again. She wasn’t going to give up playtime that easily.

  Sometimes Bobby gave in to Lucy’s wishes, but not today. He opened the door wide. “Come in, Lucy.”

  What could a dog do? She dashed past the boys and led the way into the house.

  Bobby went right to the refrigerator and opened it. The cold air hit him. It felt great. He grabbed the lemonade pitcher and brought it to the table. Then he took a couple of glasses off the counter and poured the lemonade.

  “So what’s up, Shawn?” he asked.

  Shawn took a glass. “My parents said I could get a pet.”

  “A dog?” Bobby knew Shawn had wanted a dog for a long time.

  Shawn shook his head. “No. They said I should start with something small.”

  “A hamster? A turtle? A bird?” Bobby asked.

  Shawn shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”

  Mrs. Quinn came into the kitchen. “Bobby,” she said, “we need to go to the mall and pick up some things for school. And I need to stop at Pet-O-Rama and buy some food for Lucy.”

  School. There was that word again. Then he had a thought. “Can Shawn come with us, Mom? He’s looking for a pet,” Bobby informed his mother. “He doesn’t know what kind yet. A trip to Pet-O-Rama will give him some ideas.”

  “Okay. We’re leaving in a few minutes. I’ll call your mother, Shawn, and make sure it’s fine for you to come with us,” Bobby’s mother said.

  Shawn nodded. Like Bobby, he didn’t find it easy to speak up.

  Bobby looked at Shawn. Is Shawn worried about school starting, too? Bobby wondered.

  It was hard to be the new kid. But in a way, Bobby wished he could be the new kid. He would like a fresh start. He was sure plenty of his classmates remembered that in kindergarten he was so shy, he used to cry. His nickname was Cry Bobby.

  “Shawn …,” Bobby began.

  “What?”

  “School is starting soon.”

  “I know,” Shawn answered quietly. “How could I forget?”

  From the look on Shawn’s face, Bobby had his answer. Shawn wasn’t any happier about school than he was.

  Pet-O-Rama

  Pencils. Notebooks. Crayons. Bobby and his mother filled up a shopping cart with school supplies. Shawn’s mother had said he should buy some things, too. So Shawn added his items to the cart.

  “Mom, when will we find out if Shawn and I are in the same classroom?” Bobby asked.

  “We should hear in the next few days,” Mrs. Quinn said as she pushed the cart down the crowded aisles.

  “I sure hope we’re in the same room,” Bobby told Shawn.

  “Me too,” Shawn answered. “At least you know some kids at school. I don’t know anybody.”

  “You know Candy,” Mrs. Quinn reminded Shawn. “She’s in our school district now. She might be in your class.”

  Candy was a new friend Bobby had made in dog obedience class. Lucy wasn’t a very good student, but Candy’s dog, Butch, was terrible. He sat when he was told to stand. He sat when he was asked to fetch. Sometimes in the middle of class he just lay down and closed his eyes.

  “It would be great if Candy ends up in our classroom,” Bobby said. “She talks so much, we wouldn’t have to talk at all.”

  The boys grinned at each other. They both liked Candy, but sometimes it was hard to get a word in edgewise.

  Shawn and Candy in his room. Bobby wondered what it would be like to have two friends in class. Then his smile faded. What if they wanted Bobby to introduce them to the other kids? Bobby barely knew the boys and girls who had been with him in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Most of the kids ignored him.

  Bobby started to feel funny. Maybe it wouldn’t be so great to have Shawn and Candy as classmates. He didn’t want them to know how unpopular he was.

  “Bobby? You haven’t heard a word I’ve said,” his mother told him.

  Bobby shrugged. It was true. He hadn’t.

  “I want to do a little clothes shopping,” his mother repeated.

  Bobby groaned.

  “We’ll get to the pet store soon,” Mrs. Quinn said. She was already pushing her cart toward the kids’ clothin
g section.

  Bobby sighed. The best thing to do was to make clothes shopping go as fast as possible.

  Bobby picked out a blue shirt. And a sweatshirt with a football helmet on it.

  His mother put the clothes in the cart. “All right. Would you like to try on some jeans?”

  Bobby and Shawn looked at each other. That could take forever.

  Mrs. Quinn gave up. “I can see you’re not in the mood to try on jeans right now.”

  Right now? Bobby thought. I’ll never be in the mood for that.

  “Let’s check out,” Mrs. Quinn said. “Then we’ll go to the pet store.”

  “Finally,” Bobby whispered to Shawn. Shawn just nodded.

  But they weren’t out of the store yet. There was a long checkout line, and it was moving slowly.

  “Mom …,” Bobby pleaded.

  “All right,” Mrs. Quinn said. “Pet-O-Rama is right next door. Go to the pet section and meet me there. Stick together!”

  “We will!” Bobby and Shawn couldn’t get out of the store fast enough.

  Pet-O-Rama was a big, brightly lit store. One half of it was packed with pet supplies. It had everything from dog food to kitty litter to mealworms. Once Bobby had picked up a container of the bugs and asked his dad what they were for.

  “I think lizards eat them,” his father had said.

  Lizards. Bobby was glad he didn’t have a lizard for a pet.

  The other side of the store was much more interesting. That was where the animals were kept.

  “Let’s go over there,” Bobby said to Shawn. He pointed in the direction of several large birdcages.

  Bobby had never really spent much time on the pet side of Pet-O-Rama. As they walked up and down the aisles, he was surprised by how many choices there were.

  “Do you want a bird?” Bobby asked.

  They stopped in front of several large glass cases full of birds. There were parakeets in different shades of blue and green. Small songbirds chirped away. In a corner cage, standing proudly on his perch, was a big, colorful parrot.

  “I wouldn’t know which one to pick,” Shawn said.

  The boys were drawn to a glass-walled room with some cages on tall shelves. Inside the cages, several cats roamed. One black cat batted a toy mouse back and forth. A fluffy white cat nibbled on some dry food. And two kittens tussled with each other in a corner of one of the cages.

  “Can you have a cat?” Bobby asked.

  Shawn shook his head. “My sister is allergic to cat hair,” he explained.

  “Too bad.” If Bobby didn’t have Lucy, he might like to own a cat.

  “My mom said I should look at small pets,” Shawn said.

  So the boys checked out the hamsters, guinea pigs, and turtles. Shawn seemed a little dazed. “So many choices,” he murmured. He almost seemed relieved when Mrs. Quinn came up to the boys.

  “Have you made any decisions?” she asked Shawn.

  He shook his head.

  “Well, think about it.” Mrs. Quinn looked at her watch. “Let’s go buy Lucy’s food and get home.”

  On the way out, a large, colorful poster taller than the boys caught Bobby’s eye.

  The poster had a drawing of different kinds of animals crowded together in front of a television camera. Across the top were the words WANTED: SPOKESPET FOR PET-O-RAMA! Under the picture of the animals it said, “Is your pet cute? Smart? Funny? Enter the Pet-O-Rama spokespet contest and your pet could be on TV!”

  Bobby read the poster carefully. Cute, smart, funny? That described Lucy! She could win the spokespet contest, easy!

  Spokespet

  Big news! Bobby heard all kinds of big news on Friday.

  First, a letter came in the mail. In the corner of the envelope it said, “Wildwood Elementary School.”

  “Does it say what room I’m going to be in?” Bobby asked with excitement.

  “Let’s see.” Mrs. Quinn sat down at the kitchen table and opened the letter. Bobby sat next to her. Lucy joined them. She stretched up, putting her front paws on Bobby’s knees. Her head strained toward the table. She wanted to hear the big news.

  “You’re in Mrs. Lee’s room,” Bobby’s mother told him.

  “Yeah!” Bobby said. Shawn had gotten his letter yesterday. He was in Mrs. Lee’s room, too.

  “Woof!” Lucy barked. “Woof!” Then she scooted off.

  Bobby laughed. “Lucy must know that Mrs. Lee is the teacher I wanted.”

  “I’ve heard she’s very good,” Mrs. Quinn said. She read the rest of the letter. “I see there are a few more supplies to pick up. We’ll have to go back to the mall. We can do a little more clothes shopping.”

  Bobby groaned. He thought he was done with shopping. What was next? New underwear? Then Bobby had a thought. There was a good reason to go to the mall. He could go to Pet-O-Rama and get an entry form for the contest.

  “When can we go?” Bobby asked.

  Mrs. Quinn looked at Bobby with surprise. “How about right now?” she asked.

  “First I have to call Shawn,” Bobby said. Shawn wasn’t home. So he left a message. “I’m in Mrs. Lee’s room, too!”

  At the mall Bobby suffered through trying on new shoes. But he came home with the prize—the entry form for the Pet-O-Rama contest.

  The next big news came from Shawn. That afternoon, he came over to Bobby’s house with a big smile on his face and something behind his back.

  “Did you get my message?” Bobby asked.

  “Yep.” He and Bobby high-fived. “And I got something else, too,” said Shawn. He pulled a small wire cage from behind his back.

  At first Bobby didn’t see anything in the cage. Then he looked more closely. Huddled under a pile of shredded newspapers was a small, furry body with a long, long tail. “A mouse?” Bobby asked.

  “Yep,” said a pleased Shawn. “A mouse.”

  Bobby was surprised. They had looked at lots of animals at Pet-O-Rama, but no mice.

  Shawn laughed. “I know. I didn’t think I was going to get a mouse, either. But when I went back to Pet-O-Rama, I saw a glass cage with a couple of mice in it. I knocked on it, and this guy came right to me. It was like he was saying, ‘Take me home.’ So I did.”

  “He’s white,” Bobby said. He thought mice were brown.

  “Yep, a white mouse with a pink nose and a pink tail.”

  “And tiny paws,” Bobby said. “What’s his name?”

  “Twitch. Because of the way he twitches his whiskers,” Shawn replied.

  Bobby put his finger up to the wire cage. Sure enough, the little white mouse twitched his long whiskers before giving Bobby a sniff.

  Last autumn several mice had made a home under the kitchen sink. One day, Mrs. Quinn opened the door, and four brown mice came running out. Bobby’s mother had let out a shriek that could compete with one of Lucy’s howls. She wouldn’t go back in the kitchen until Bobby’s father swore he had caught them all in a shoe box. Mr. Quinn had let them go in the empty lot down the street.

  “Twitch is kind of cute,” Bobby admitted.

  “Mice are great,” Shawn told him. “Think of all the great mice in history. There’s Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, the Mouse and the Motorcycle.”

  Bobby was catching some of Shawn’s excitement. “Maybe we could buy Twitch a toy motorcycle.”

  “Or build him a house. A mouse house,” Shawn said.

  Bobby was glad he had a dog for a pet, but playing with a mouse might be fun, too.

  Just then, the last bit of news came in with a bang. Candy came bursting in the door. Her dog, Butch, was right on her heels.

  “Hey, did you hear? I’m in Mrs. Lee’s room, too!” she said.

  Bobby was about to say, “Cool,” but Candy plowed on. “At first I was mad when my mom told us we were moving, even though it was just a couple of blocks away. ‘Cause I had to change schools and go to Wildwood. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like Wildwood. No friends. But now I know you guys, and you’re my friends, right? An
d it turns out I’m going to be in your room, which is good. Mrs. Lee is nice, right?”

  “Right,” Shawn said quickly before Candy could get started again.

  Lucy bounded up from the basement, where she had followed a ball that had bounced down the stairs. She didn’t notice Twitch, but when she saw Butch she gave a sharp bark. Butch barked right back. Lucy offered up a howl.

  Shawn put Twitch’s cage on the patio table. Candy stuck her face close to the cage. “A mouse, huh?”

  “His name is Twitch,” Shawn told her.

  “Twitch, that’s cute. ‘Cause of the whiskers, I bet,” Candy said. “I’m not much for rodents. Mice are rodents, you know. So are rats, and hamsters, and guinea pigs—”

  “Yeah, they are,” Bobby agreed. He hoped Candy didn’t know any more rodents.

  “And gerbils. Gerbils are rodents, too. Maybe chinchillas. I’m not sure,” Candy told the boys. “Well, I’ve never been a big fan of rodents. But Twitch might change my mind. White’s a nice color, for a mouse, and that little pink nose—”

  Shawn interrupted Candy. “Twitch is so fine, I’m going to enter him in a contest.”

  “What contest?” Candy asked.

  “It’s a contest they’re having at Pet-O-Rama,” Shawn explained.

  “The spokespet contest?” Bobby asked.

  Candy looked confused. “A spokespet? Is that even a word? What’s a spokespet?”

  Bobby laughed. It was a funny word. A funny idea, too, he guessed. “Well, you’ve heard of a spokesperson?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Candy answered. “Like when a company has a movie star or somebody famous do their commercials.”

  “Right,” Bobby said. “Well, Pet-O-Rama doesn’t want a person in their commercials. They want a pet.”

  “Uh, news flash. Pets can’t talk,” Candy said.

  Bobby pulled the contest entry form from his pocket. “ ‘The winning pet from this store will move on to the regional contest,’ ” he read. “ ‘The winner of that contest will be featured in print and television ads.’ ” Bobby looked up. “See, the winner doesn’t have to talk. She just has to look good for the cameras.”