Dodger and Me by Jordan Sonnenblick

Author:Jordan Sonnenblick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published: 2011-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Of Fish and Fire

WHEN MY MOM GOT HOME that night, I had cleaned up every square inch of my room. The walls were shiny, the floor was sparkling, and every flat surface was dust-free. The place had a strange odor of chocolate, milk, and lemony freshness, but thankfully, Mom just focused on the cleanliness. She took one look around, sniffed the air, and said, “Good job cleaning your room, William. Is your homework all done? If it is, I might even consider ungrounding you for your baseball game this weekend. Do you think you can avoid destroying anything until then?”

I nodded. Meanwhile, behind her, Dodger was picking little specks of chocolate out of his chest fur and eating them. He looked up at me and winked, then snapped his fingers and disappeared. I had a feeling that avoiding destruction would be harder than she thought.

In the morning, Mom told me that she had a meeting after school, so I should stay at the school after-care room until she picked me up at 5:30. But at lunch, Lizzie told me that I had to sneak out before after-care and go home right at three. She wouldn’t tell me why. I explained the grounding situation yet AGAIN, and even told her that if I got busted for anything before Saturday, my mom wouldn’t let me play my last ball game. I had to play that game. The whole team would think I was a total chicken-weasel if I missed it.

Plus, I never sneak out of anything. I’m not a “breaks the rules” kind of kid—I’m a “terrified of breaking Mom’s rules” kind of kid. I guess I just take after my dad.

But Lizzie didn’t back down. She insisted that she had a plan for getting me more freedom for years to come. I said that she should just go ahead and work on her plan alone if it was so important. Then she replied with the scariest eleven words in the English language: “I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Dodger—in your house!”

So that’s why I was pacing back and forth in the front hallway of my house at ten after three, peeking through the curtains every few seconds for signs of my insane new buddies. I felt like a criminal, and I was about ninety-five percent sure I was going to get busted, big-time. I was also really thirsty after sprinting the ten blocks from school to my house, so I tore myself away from the windows for a moment to get a drink of water from the kitchen. That’s when the doorbell rang.

When I opened the door, I could have screamed. Standing there with loaded shopping bags in their hands were Dodger and Lizzie. They stepped inside, smiling dementedly at me. I slammed the door behind them as quickly as possible.

“Uh, guys? What in the world are you doing here? What’s this plan of yours? I am so dead. If my mom and dad go to pick me up at after-care and I’m not there, I’m dead.

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