Fight for Life by Laurie Halse Anderson

Author:Laurie Halse Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.

Brenna follows me to the boarding kennels, where I show her the cupboard that contains the food bowls and giant bags of dry food.

“Each dog gets fresh water, and the older dogs get a special feed. We aren’t boarding any puppies, so you don’t have to worry about them. Regular-size dogs like Mitzy get two and a half scoops of dry food and four little dog biscuits a day. If we had a big dog, like a Great Dane, it could eat as much as six scoops a day. Don’t give them too much—that makes them sick. And don’t give them too little, or they’ll wake us up howling in the middle of the night.”

“Hold it,” Brenna says. “You’re going way too fast. I’ll never remember this. Don’t you have notes or something?”

“I never use notes. I just remember it.”

“You do this every day. This is my first time. Just write it down.”

“Do you want a report, too?” I ask as I slam the cupboard shut.

Brenna puts her hands on her hips. “Timeout!” she calls. “What’s going on?”

“Everything! Gran has banned me from the clinic until my grades come up. I live here, but I can’t work here. I have to write a stupid report or I’ll flunk social studies. What’s worse, there’s a guy running a puppy mill around here somewhere. Who knows how many puppies need to be rescued. And oh yeah, I almost forgot, my starstruck cousin from New York is coming to stay with us for a while. Gran is expecting me to wait on her hand and foot. Yippee.”

“Wow. That’s a lot.” She sits cross-legged on the floor. “The report is the easiest thing to fix. Work hard and you’ll get a good grade. Then Dr. Mac will let you back in the clinic.”

“You don’t get it. Even when I work hard, I get Ds and Fs.” I can feel my face turning red. “School is what I have to sit through until I can come back home. I could study twenty-four hours a day and I would still fail. I am not a good student. I know it. My teachers know it. I wish Gran would just accept it and leave me alone.”

We both stare at the same spot on the floor for a minute.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “It’s not your fault. Here.” I grab a piece of paper and quickly jot down some numbers. “This is what you need to feed the boarders.”

Before Brenna can say anything, David and Sunita walk in with Gran close behind. She has a “to do” list for each of them. David has to scrub the boarding kennels, and Sunita can watch Gran operate the autoclave, the machine that sterilizes Gran’s instruments.

“All right. Let’s get to work, everybody,” Gran says. “Maggie—in the house.”

From the look in her eye, I know better than to argue. I turn and leave without saying a word.

Banished, that’s what I am.

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