The Next Thing You Know by Jessica Strawser

Author:Jessica Strawser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

21

Willow

THEN

“He’s a dead ringer!”

“He’s a doppelgänger!”

“A dog-elgänger!”

Willow dropped to her knees in the patchy brown-green grass, laughing, and the terrier ran into her lap, snuffling and trembling with overexcitement. Travis, the Tin Man, had invited them over after play practice to meet the new rescue his family was fostering, and they couldn’t believe their luck. The dog really did look exactly like Toto.

Maya—who was such a good Scarecrow, Willow could no longer imagine a boy in the role—bounced a tennis ball across the front lawn toward Nolan, their Cowardly Lion, and Toto scrambled after it. “The fab four gets a mascot.” Maya giggled, and Willow looked around at the circle of them and felt she might burst with happiness. It wasn’t just the spring bulbs pushing through the flower beds at last, or the tangle of coats they’d flung in the driveway—we don’t need you anymore! She’d been bit by the theater bug, hard—not by acting itself, but the shared experience of it all. She hadn’t known it was possible to get so tight with new friends so fast. As soon as the final bell rang on practice days, they’d meet at the vending machine and pool their change to share cans of cherry Pepsi (Mom would flip) and bags of cheddar popcorn. They were onstage a lot, but when the director pivoted to the Munchkins or flying monkeys, they’d run lines, tag-team homework, split earbuds and lip sync to Taylor Swift. They had so many inside jokes, the rest of the cast called them the Funny Four. You had to be in the four to call it fab.

Even in the excitement for the show’s three-night run, Willow didn’t want this to end. She guessed she was a little scared it would. Summer would come, and then what? Would they all go back to what she thought of as their “original friends”? The next auditions weren’t until fall, with no guarantee they’d all get cast so well again. Nothing could ever duplicate these magic months. She wanted to hang onto them, stretch them out.

“Mascots are cool,” Nolan agreed, “but I’d still rather become the fab five.”

“I’m telling you, I think my mom is going to let us adopt.” Travis scooped up the dog and cradled it like a baby. “Who could turn this guy over to someone else?”

“Mrs. Oden, apparently.” Maya scowled. “I can’t believe she won’t even let us try.”

“I’ll get you, my pretty!” called a witchy voice from the road behind them. “And your little dog, too!” Willow whipped around to find Nova grinning at her from the sidewalk. That Jeep Willow had seen in their driveway was parked at the curb, and Willow took her first good look at the guy who owned it. He was hanging back, looking around at the neighborhood, which Willow’s mom said had been all the rage in the eighties. Willow loved visiting friends in this subdivision. The split-level houses had easy access to basement fridges stocked with Popsicles, all the overgrown shrubs made for killer hide-and-seek, and most driveways had basketball hoops.

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