Celebrate the Season--The Twelve Pets of Christmas by Taylor Garland

Author:Taylor Garland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

The moment the bell rang after school on Monday, Quinn powered up her cell phone. Her fingers drummed the desk excitedly as she waited for an Internet connection. On Mondays and Thursdays, there was this perfect window of time—immediately following school for Quinn and right before lunch for Annabelle—when the girls could text for a few minutes. Quinn looked forward to it all week.

Annabelle: Q??? you there???

Quinn: yes heyyyy! How r u?

Annabelle: pretty good. We started swimming today in PE my hair is like dripping everywhere

Quinn: PE?

Annabelle: Gym. They call it Physical Education here

Annabelle: guess i’m picking up the language lol

Annabelle: so what’s up with u???

Quinn: Busy busy busy. Off 2 shelter in a min

Annabelle: aww! Adopting lots of pets??

Quinn: yup!

Quinn: 12 Pets of Xmas is going so great! 5 pets adopted, 7 2 go

Annabelle: yayyyyy! Did u get my msg last nite?

Quinn: not until this morning. Sorry i didn’t call u back. Is everything ok?

Annabelle: yeah. i have a super special surprise for you for xmas

Quinn: you don’t have 2 get me anything!

Annabelle: too late and IM NOT TELLING

Quinn grinned as she read Annabelle’s text. Then she started typing.

Quinn: Surprise sounds good. I have one 4 u 2. It’s not big so don’t get 2 excited or anything

Quinn couldn’t help giggling to herself. Technically, a plane ticket wasn’t that big—even if a trip to California would be!

Annabelle: Ooh ooh ooh is it one of your ornaments? With bumblebee’s picture painted on it?

Quinn: I’ll never tell

Annabelle: fine be that way. Are u going caroling soon

Quinn: probably but it won’t be the same without u

Annabelle: well duh. How could it be. Lol

Quinn: seriously tho. i miss you. Let’s video chat soon.

Annabelle: next weekend?

Quinn: for sure. I gotta get to the shelter… mrs. alvarez is expecting me…

Annabelle: bye q catch you later

Quinn: byeeeee

Quinn tucked her phone in her pocket, still grinning. Annabelle was going to be shocked when she told her about the plane ticket! All her hard work painting ornaments was paying off, too. She only had about ten more to paint before she would earn enough for a ticket to California!

When Quinn arrived at the shelter, though, she could tell something was wrong. Mrs. Alvarez and Tommy were staring at the computer with worried looks on their faces. They didn’t even notice when Quinn walked in.

“Hey,” she said awkwardly. “Um—is everything—”

Mrs. Alvarez looked up and managed a smile. “Hi, Quinn. How was school today?” she asked.

Quinn shrugged. “It was good. How is everything here?”

Tommy’s forehead was wrinkled from his deep frown. “You want to tell her, Ma, or should I?”

“Tell me what?” Quinn asked nervously. Was one of the animals sick? Or—Quinn didn’t want to think about it—had one of the recent adoptions failed?

“It’s the kittens.” Mrs. Alvarez sighed. “We had a lot of visitors over the weekend, and some adoption inquiries for the kittens.”

Quinn was surprised. “But—that’s good news, right?”

“Two kittens. Two families,” Tommy explained. “We tried to convince them to take the pair together—or take a kitten and their mama—but nobody would budge.

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