Crushing It by Joanne Levy

Author:Joanne Levy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Tyler showed up a little while later, let himself into the house like he always did, and followed the voices to find us in the kitchen.

“Oh, hi, Tyler!” Olivia said, gliding over to him, carrying the package of oatmeal-raisin cookies I’d made for him. “I remembered oatmeal-raisin is your favorite.”

He smiled at her and even blushed a little as he thanked her. He took the cookies and stuffed them into his pocket. “So, you excited for today?” he asked.

I looked at Olivia, wondering how she was going to answer, but before she got the chance, Mom rushed into the room, keys in hand and purse over her shoulder. “Okay, let’s go,” she said, not even slowing down on her way to the garage door.

Olivia turned and followed as though she’d been distracted away from Tyler’s question. But I had a suspicion she’d used the interruption as an excuse to not have to answer.

We piled into the car—me in front and Tyler and Olivia in the back—and buckled in for the short drive to the animal shelter. Mom and Olivia talked about the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars, discussing who should win this season. I had no idea who the people were that they were talking about, so I turned in my seat and rolled my eyes at Tyler. He grinned back at me and then pushed his fingers through his hair. But that little piece fell back down onto his forehead, and I had to turn back around to look out the front or he was going to see me blushing.

Finally, we arrived at the shelter. The three of us got out of the car after Mom promised she’d be back at two. We led Olivia toward the volunteer desk to sign in and get our badges.

I barely even noticed the echoes of all the dogs barking—we’d gotten used to it quickly last week—but it was all new for Olivia, who had never set foot in a shelter before that moment.

“Gah! It’s so loud in here!” she yelled, pressing her hands over her ears.

I exchanged glances with Tyler. Yeah it was loud, but that was all part of it. What did she think, that a shelter full of dogs was going to be like a library?

“You’ll get used to it,” he said to her. “Come on, we’d better sign in.”

Olivia gave me a sideways look that I knew meant Help me! but what could I do? I’d warned her and had even given her a last chance to bail, but here she was anyway. Maybe I could try to make the best of it for her somehow.

I stepped ahead of her at the sign-up desk. “Hi,” I said to Justine, the volunteer coordinator I remembered from the week before. “This is Olivia—today’s her first day. Maybe she should start off in the cat room?”

Justine smiled at Olivia as she got badges out of a drawer and slid them across the desk at us. “Welcome, Olivia. A cat lover, are you?”

Olivia quickly glanced at Tyler before she smiled at Justine.

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