Boys Are Dogs by Leslie Margolis

Author:Leslie Margolis
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2010-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Hmm. That didn’t exactly apply. Erik was no stranger. Just someone who I wished was a stranger. Especially since he was clearly the dominant dog in the Corn Dog Boy pack. And of course, I’d no interest in petting him.

I flipped to the next page.

Well, that might work . . .

As a backup plan, I pulled a few pieces of Swiss chocolate out of my lunch bag. I didn’t want to give up any more, but I couldn’t deny that it’d worked like magic last week.

I approached the Corn Dog Boys carefully, not actually putting out my hand for them to sniff, of course, but sort of pretending to, just like I had with my pointy ears. When I got close enough I called out, “Hey.”

Busy pelting each other with Cool Ranch Doritos, the boys didn’t hear me. Or maybe they ignored me on purpose. Either way, I couldn’t give up that easily. “Hey, Erik,” I said, louder this time.

Erik finally looked up, but didn’t say a word. Someone had cut his bangs, so now only the tips had a tint of faded green.

I started moving closer but stopped because I didn’t want to startle him.

“Um, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“What?” he asked, sharply.

Don’t ask, tell. I needed to be better about following the rules. I waved him closer. “Come here.”

Erik rolled his eyes and started to stand up. But then Joe whispered something in his ear. The two of them laughed. I felt my cheeks heat up. I told myself I was lucky I didn’t know what he said, that it didn’t matter. Words were just words. I needed action.

“Come on, Erik.” I used my most commanding tone of voice, pretending that I’d just caught Pepper chewing up my favorite T-shirt.

Amazingly, Erik stood up and headed over.

“What do you want?” He seemed annoyed, like his time was so precious and I’d interrupted his very important baloney sandwich consumption.

I leaned against the tree, like that could protect me, and glanced over my shoulder. My friends watched from a safe distance. By now Yumi had joined them. This didn’t seem to be working, which made me want to give up, but it was too late. Turning back to face him, I took a deep breath and tried to make my case. “Um, we’ve been sitting there since the beginning of school, and since you’re only four people taking up the whole table, I was wondering . . . Well, we were kind of hoping you and your friends could maybe move over. Just a little.”

“We were here first.”

There was too much hesitation in my voice, so I tried again. “There’s room for everyone.”

“Whatever.” He turned to go.

“No, wait.” I grabbed the sleeve of his T-shirt. He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. Gasping, I dropped my hand, since you should never touch a strange dog.

If Erik actually were a strange dog, I’d hold out my hand for him to sniff. So that’s what I did. Except since he’s a boy, I kept my palm up and made sure there was chocolate inside.

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