The right of Serena Patel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
The name Usborne and the Balloon logo are Trade Marks of Usborne Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 9781805312437
SERENA PATEL
illustrated by Emma McCann
CHAPTER ONE DOGGY DI l EMMA!
“Pia, turn the TV down, will you? I’m on the phone!”
Anjali, my VERY annoying, older, but definitely not wiser sister, yells from the living room.
I yell back, “Feel free to move to another room and it’s not THAT loud anyway!”
“Well, there aren’t that many rooms to go to anymore. If you hadn’t noticed, we’re in a flat now!”
Anjali screams and slams the living-room door.
I pull a face at the wall and turn the volume up even more instead. Anjali is SO annoying.
It’s Monday and only the third day of the summer holidays and I am SO bored! I can’t believe there’s
another six weeks of this. Since Saturday, I’ve watched three wildlife documentaries, listened to my favourite podcast 101 Pet Facts You Didn’t Know You Needed To Know and watched two episodes of my favourite ever TV programme, Pet Club! I’m at Dad’s flat, but he’s at work today. He has a job with the Post Office but he’s not a postman. He has a job with a big supermarket working in finance which is all to do with the money he says. As far as I can see, it just means he looks at his laptop a lot and has phone calls about something called a budget. BORING!
When my programme finishes, I turn off the TV, pick up my phone and type a text message.
“Dad, I’m bored.”
I wait for the little blue ticks that mean he’s read it, but they don’t come.
Dad, are you there?
I type again and send. Nothing.
Dad
Dad
Dad
The blue ticks all show at once and now he’s typing.
Pia, I’m at work, as you know. Why don’t you tidy your room? Unpack those boxes in the corner that have been sitting there for the last four weeks?
Not helpful
I’m sure I can find something more interesting than that to do.
I put the phone down and lay back on my bed staring at the ceiling for a while. That’s a bit boring too. Dad only moved in here a month ago. Before that we all lived in a house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage.
But then Mum and Dad separated and we had to sell the old house and move into two new smaller homes. Dad moved here to an apartment in Willow House. Mum bought a little terraced house on Lea Lane, about ten minutes’ walk from here. I’m okay with the separation; it was sad at first but they’re so much happier apart, so I guess I’m happy for them. And having two homes is mostly better than I thought it would be. I get two bedrooms, which is cool, but sometimes confusing trying to remember which house I left my stuff at. My room at Dad’s is definitely the messier one. Mum would NOT let me keep my room at her house like this.
I look around at the boxes and piles of clothes I
haven’t put away yet. I decide to re-organize my room. I open the first box – ooh it’s my animal posters! An excellent place to start. I find a big blob of Blu-Tack in the bottom of the box and unroll the first poster. It’s got a cute puppy on it sitting in a basket. The next one I unroll is a fluffy kitten with big blue eyes. How do I decide which one goes in the middle of the wall? This could take a while…
I need background noise, so I put another episode of Pet Club on my tablet. It’s the one with the hamsters! I’ve watched all of the episodes loads of times, but this is one of my favourites.
PIA’S PET FACT!
You might know that hamsters use their cheeks to store food, but did you know they also can fill up their cheeks with air so they can float in water? I wish I could do that – I’m not very good at swimming!
I work on arranging my posters for a bit until my tummy starts rumbling. But when I get up to go and grab a snack, I stub my toe on the corner of my bed. OUCH! Anjali hears me scream and comes in. Does she help me though? No, she just stands there and laughs! I envy people who are the only child in their house.
Anjali is almost sixteen and thinks she knows everything – she doesn’t. But because she’s older
than me, Mum and Dad think it’s fine for her to look after me when they’re at work. I’m almost nine, I don’t need looking after. I can make toast and a milkshake without help – I’m practically parenting myself at this point!
Anyway, as I said, we’re staying at my dad’s place for a few days and I’m going back to Mum’s tomorrow. That’s basically what I’ll be doing all summer which will hopefully make the long holidays interesting. Usually, I’d be hanging out with Kemi, my best friend from school. But she and her family are on holiday in Turkey for two whole weeks. That’s like, for ever! I can’t be mad at her though, Kemi’s family are so cool. They even invited me to go with them, but Mum said no because it was too far for me to go by myself. I tried to explain I’d be with Kemi and her family, but Mum just said I didn’t understand. She says that about a lot of stuff.
I open my messages to the last one from Kemi. She texted yesterday with a picture of them all on a boat in the bluest sea. It looks amazing. The message says, “Wish you were here!” Yeah, so do I, I think to myself.
Kemi has two goldfish called Mario and Luigi, a cat named Pickles and a lizard called Arthur. She’s so lucky. I offered to look after the pets while Kemi’s away, but her neighbour usually does it. Plus Mum’s face when I even suggested it gave her answer pretty quickly!
When I come back to my room with my snack and sore toe, I look at the pile of posters on the
floor. Maybe I’ll finish those later. I glance at the clock. It’s only 10.30 a.m.! What else can I do until Dad comes back from work?
Hanging out with Anjali is not an option. Mum’s always saying we used to be best friends and played together all the time, but I can’t remember that. These days, Anjali barely notices me except to shout at me or laugh in my face. Some best friend!
My hamster programme ends so I close the app and go to my favourite website, Pet Planet. As you might have noticed, I’m obsessed with pets. It’s kind of my thing. I don’t own any pets YET but I’m trying to convince my parents. I don’t even really mind what kind of pet I get, but my number one choice would be a dog. I do research on all sorts of animals, and I keep a file so I’m prepared for any kind of pet emergency. You just never know when one might happen! I have PowerPoint presentations I’ve made and everything.
REASONS WHY PIA SHOULD BE ALLOWED A PET! I LOVE PETS.
I know EVERYTHING about them.
A pet would be more fun than Anjali…
I guess it really all started when I was about six and our old neighbour, Mrs Jones, got a bearded dragon named Bert. She used to bring him out to sit in the garden sometimes and I’d talk to them over the fence. Bert was the best. Mrs Jones used to
let me hold him sometimes and he’d just fall asleep in my hands – so sweet! I asked Mum and Dad if I could get a Bert and of course they said no. Ever since, I’ve been trying to persuade them to let me have a pet. It’s weird, the more they say no, the more I want to try and convince them.
It’s my birthday this Saturday and the only present I ever really want in the whole wide world is a pet. Every year I drop hints, but it never works.
This year I’ve just given my parents a list (with one thing on it) and I’ve cleared a space in both of my bedrooms – all in the hope that they’ll do the right thing and get me a pet – any pet! It’s not
looking good though. Mum says no and won’t discuss it AT ALL and Dad just shrugs and says we live in an apartment now so it’s out of his hands, whatever that means. Parents can be so annoying!
Anyway, back to today. I can hear Anjali in the next room on the phone to her friends. They’re talking about some art show she’s taking part in over the summer. It’s all she ever goes on about now. SO boring. I mean, I don’t mind art, I quite like it when we do it at school, but the way Anjali talks about it makes it not fun at all. She thinks she knows so much about lines and light and colour and hidden meanings. Sometimes a flower is just a flower!
As I start replying to Kemi’s message to tell her how dull it is without her, I hear a weird noise outside. Maybe something interesting is finally going on around here! Wait, it sounds like…
Is that barking?
CHAPTER TWO PUPPY PROB L EM!
I run over to my window to see where the noise came from and look out at the shared garden below: it’s a dog! I’m so excited! Actually it’s a boy and a dog!
Wait, I know him…the boy, not the dog! We’re in the same year at school. What’s his name? Larry? Barry? No, Hari! I didn’t know he lived here or that he had a dog. I think it’s a Labrador puppy.
Hari is raising his hand to get the dog to sit but the pup keeps jumping up excitedly. I’ve watched lots of videos about puppy training – maybe I should go and see if he needs help? Is that weird though? I don’t really know him. But we do go to the same school. And it would be nice to hang out with someone my own age. Plus, I haven’t even had a chance to go down to the gardens yet.
I shout to Anjali that I’m going downstairs (not that she’s listening) and let myself out. Mum doesn’t like me wandering off alone, but the garden is still part of the building, right? Dad’s apartment is on the third floor. I hate the lift, it’s old and rickety and makes a weird noise. Dad says it’s charming. I call it creepy!
So, I take the stairs and pass a couple of our neighbours on my way down. Mrs Baxter, who’s from the second floor and always looks grumpy, glares at me and says, “No running on the stairs!”
“Sorry!” I shout back as I whiz past her.
Then I see Mr and Mrs Dhaliwal from the first floor – they’re so nice. “Hi Pia! Bye Pia!” they chuckle as I skip over two steps.
“Hi, sorry, can’t stop!” I shout over my shoulder. I’m just at the ground floor when I see someone sitting there on the bottom step. It’s a boy I don’t know, but I have seen him around when I’ve been coming in and out of Willow House. We’ve always been in a hurry, so I haven’t had a chance to say hi. He’s around my age, I think. He has blond spiky hair, he’s wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts and he’s just sitting there
bouncing a small ball off the wall in front of him.
“Hey,” I say, excited to make another friend. “I’m Pia.”
He looks up at me, frowns and then just goes back to bouncing his ball. I guess he doesn’t want to tell me his name. Rude!
I shrug, duck past him, and push open the door that leads out to the gardens at the back of the building. The smell of cut grass and the warmth of the sunshine hits me straight away. Wow, the garden is huge. There’s a huge willow tree, which I guess is the reason it’s called Willow House. One corner of the garden has wildflowers of all colours – so pretty! There’s tall grass along the right-hand side of the garden, and hedges and a wall the other side. I can hear birds singing and a bee buzzes right past my nose. I step outside and immediately almost trip over a large sleeping dog. Aw, it’s a Basset Hound, an old one, I think. Basset Hounds
are usually known for being good hunters, but this one is snoring with one big ear flopping over its eyes. Super cute!
“Careful!” a voice calls out. I look up and see it’s Hari, who’s still wrestling with the puppy. It’s a Labrador – a girl (don’t ask how I know this) – and she’s yapping loudly at Hari and rolling around on the floor with her legs in the air. She gets up when she sees me and I notice she’s wearing a harness, which is like a sleeveless jacket for a dog. I’ve read they’re good for training pups. There’s a long lead attached to the harness, and Hari’s holding the other end, but I realize it’s causing them a bit of trouble. The pup is running round Hari in circles, which means he’s turning round and around too!
Uh-oh – his foot gets caught up in the lead which
wraps round and around again and now he’s all tangled up!
“Are you okay?” I ask, running over to try and help.
“Umm, yeah, this is not as bad as it looks. I mean, I’m training her. She’s just a bit excited, that’s all.” Hari grimaces as the pup yanks him forwards and he falls flat on his face on the
grass. The lead is wrapped all round his body and he looks kind of like an Egyptian mummy!
I help him up and start to unwrap the lead by spinning him round in the other direction. “What are their names?” I ask, gesturing at the two very different dogs.
“The Basset Hound you almost tripped over is Raja. We’ve had him, well, all my life I think! And this is our new dog, she’s called Luna. She’s only six months old,” Hari tells me as he manages to untangle himself. Unfortunately, Luna decides to take this opportunity to make a run for it towards me. Hari realizes too late that he doesn’t have hold of the lead any more and Luna is free! I kneel down to meet her but misjudge how fast she’s racing and she almost knocks me flying. Before I can even get
my balance back, she licks my face and wags her tail.
“She likes you.” Hari laughs.
“I like her too.” I grin, tickling Luna's tummy.
Hari’s face changes then. “Shame my mum doesn’t like her.”
“What? Why not?” I ask as Luna forces me to the floor and rolls all over me.
I don’t mind though – she’s warm and soft and so cuddly!
“Luna, stop!” Hari scolds. “Sorry, she thinks you’re another puppy. Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.” I laugh, picking myself up, “That was fun!”
Hari smiles. “Yeah, I thought it was you moving in here a few weeks ago. My mum wants to invite you guys round for dinner. We have Patels on my mum’s side of the family and she got so excited that some other Patels are moving into Willow House.”
“How does she know we’re Patels?” I ask.
“Community grapevine, innit. Mum knows your dad’s auntie’s cousin’s friend or something.”
I laugh. “Sounds about right. My dad knows someone everywhere we go!”
“I saw your dad and you’ve got a sister, right? Is it just you three?” Hari asks.
“Yeah, my parents are separated. I live half the time with Mum and half the time with Dad,” I explain. “Mum’s house is just round the corner from here, so I only have a five-minute walk between my two homes.”
“Isn’t it weird having two homes though?”
“People always think I must be really miserable, and it was weird and a bit sad at first. But I’m close to them both so that’s made it much easier. Plus, they both seem happier apart. At some point you just have to let them live their lives, you know?” I say wisely. “There are downsides though, like two bedrooms to tidy.”
Hari nods. “One is bad enough. My mum is always on at me to pick up my socks, especially now because Luna likes to eat them otherwise.”
“Eww!” I say.
“Exactly!” agrees Hari.
“Is that why your mum doesn’t like Luna?”
Hari sighs. “Kind of. She says Luna is too disruptive. And she has a point,” Hari says sadly. “I mean, she did try to drink out of the toilet this morning…while I was on it.”
I snort. “You’re joking!”
“That’s not the worst thing she’s done either,”
Hari confesses. “She races round the house knocking everything over and she’s always trying to jump up when you’re eating at the table. She barges into poor Raja and steals his favourite chew toy. She drinks out of his bowl. He mostly ignores Luna, but Mum said she can tell it’s making him sad.”
“Aw that’s hard. Luna’s only young though, isn’t she? I read all puppies tend to be destructive and Labradors can stay that way for up to two years,” I say.
Hari looks horrified for a moment, then hopeful. “Hang on, you know a lot about dogs. Do you have one?”
“No, I’m not allowed,” I reply glumly. “But I do know lots about them. I’m a bit obsessed actually,” I admit.
Hari smiles. “Dogs are pretty cool. I get why you’re obsessed.”
“You’re so lucky to be allowed two, I can’t even get one!” I say. “I’ve always wanted a pet but both my parents are dead against it. I thought maybe with the separation they might let me – you know, to keep me company since we’re not together all the time now. But Mum just won’t ever talk about it and Dad says now we’re in this building we’re not allowed a pet. But hang on – you have dogs here. How come?”
“I dunno. We’ve never had a problem,” Hari replies. “We’re on the ground floor though. Maybe they think upstairs wouldn’t be so good for a dog? But I can’t see why not – lots of people have dogs who live in flats. Hey, what about suggesting another pet to your mum and dad? A hamster or something?”
“I tried! I said what about a lizard, or a teeny snake? They both say no to all my suggestions. But don’t worry, I don’t give up easily. I really, truly
have my heart set on a dog. Plus, it’s my birthday on Saturday, so you never know…” I say, looking longingly at Luna.
Just then Raja, who I’d totally forgotten about, rolls over in his sleep and farts loudly.
Hari laughs. “He does that a lot!”
“What did he eat for lunch?!” I say, holding my nose.
Luna woofs in agreement.
“You know, as you know so much about dogs, maybe you could help me train Luna?” Hari asks hopefully. “I need all the advice I can get! I’m kind of on a deadline too,” he adds, throwing the ball for Luna, who chases it to the other end of the garden. When she reaches it, she just lies down and starts chewing the ball. The full name of Luna’s breed is Labrador Retriever because they’re meant to be good at bringing things back to their humans. Hari has got a lot of training to do!
“Deadline?” I ask.
“Yeah. So, my nani is coming over from India and staying with us for a month. She’s having work
done on her house over there and she hasn’t been to this country for a long time. I’ve only met her once when I was little. But Mum’s worried Luna will be too hyper when she comes. If she knocks Nani over or jumps up and hurts her by accident, then it could be bad. Between that and the effect she’s having on Raja, Mum said I have four weeks to train Luna or she has to go.”
“Four weeks is plenty of time,” I say. Hari looks panicked. “She said that three weeks ago. I have till this weekend!”
Now I get why he’s so stressed.
“Oh! Okay that might be a problem. Why did your mum even let you have a second dog if she’s just going to make you give her up?” I ask. “That’s not nice at all!”
“Well, I don’t think that’s how she planned it. She really just wanted to get me off my computer. She says I spend too much time playing games
with my friends. Raja isn’t really that active these days. He just falls asleep by my chair. Mum thought if she got me a puppy then that would get me outside more – but we had no idea how much work she would be… And I really do love Luna, but now I might lose her!”
I shake my head. “That’s awful. You can’t just send her away because she's difficult to train.”
“That’s what I said,” Hari replies. “Mum’s not having any of it though. She said unless Luna behaves, then that’s it. She’ll give Luna back to the breeder we bought her from. She’s set three targets that Luna has to meet before Nani arrives on Saturday! That’s only like, five days away – four if you don’t count today!”
“Okay, so what are the three targets?” I ask, determined to help.
“Luna has to learn to sit and stay on command. She has to learn not to react to noise, because at
the moment she barks at every little thing. And finally, she has to get along with Raja and not stress him out,” Hari says. “How am I going to teach her all that in four days?”
Hari looks miserable. I make a decision there and then.
“I’ll help you,” I say. “We’ll train Luna together. We’ll get her and Raja to be best friends and when your nani comes, Luna will be the best good dog ever!”
I might not have a dog YET, but I do know a lot about them and I can help Hari with this problem. Plus, it’ll be great practice for when I do eventually get one and prove to my parents that I can be a responsible pet owner! This is going to be awesome!
CHAPTER THREE TIME TO TR A IN!
The next morning, I’m awake early and I’m
EXCITED! I stayed up late researching puppy training tricks, even though I already have a fact file full of doggy data. I even made a list of the three targets Hari’s mum gave him so we can tick them off one by one as we achieve them. For the first time ever, I actually get to do something amazing with all my pet knowledge!
I go into the kitchen, where Dad’s drinking his coffee and scrolling on his phone as usual. I sit down at the table to pour out some breakfast. Space Hoops, my favourite! I start to tell Dad all about
meeting Hari and Raja and Luna yesterday through a mouthful of cereal. I would have told him last night but Anjali was showing him some stuff online about the university she wants to go to. They were looking at it for ages so I didn’t get to talk about my stuff, as usual!
“Now don’t get any ideas about having a pet. I know what you’re like,” Dad warns, taking a big sip from his mug.
“Would it be SUCH a bad thing if I had a pet of my own to love and look after?” I ask, like I always do every time this subject comes up. “And it IS my birthday this week. You know, the time of year when you get me a gift? Doesn’t have to be big, could just be something small and maybe fluffy.” I grin hopefully.
“Don’t even go there. You already know how your mum feels about pets,” Dad reminds me with a sigh.
“Actually, I don’t. She just says no and doesn’t give any reason why not! Plus, if I had a pet here, Mum wouldn’t even have to see it or look after it at all. It’s so unfair! I’ve never had a good explanation why I can’t have a pet!” I huff.
Dad splutters. “Well, err, you know your mum, she has her reasons and I’m sure they are good ones. I would let you have one, but it’s the people who run the building, sweetheart, they just won’t allow pets.”
“Well, I think we should ask the building manager again,” I say. “Hari has two dogs and they’ve lived here for ages. Maybe you got it wrong.”
“Umm, well, they are very busy people, we can’t just walk in there and ask things. Anyway, we don’t
have much space here, do we? And you only live here half the week, Pia. What would happen when you’re not here and I’m at work?”
I sense Dad is dodging my questions, but I actually don’t have an answer for that one, so I change the subject. “Well, anyway, Luna and Raja are lovely, and Hari seems cool. And now that I’m helping Hari, you’ll see how good I am with pets. Maybe we could invite them round sometime? You could make your famous tandoori chicken. Dad?
Dad? Did you hear me?”
“That’s nice, sweetheart,” Dad replies distractedly as he scrolls through the news. “Ooh, did you know there’s a local choir round here? They’re performing at the community centre fun day next month. I might see if I can join! I was quite a singer in my day, you know. And I’ve been thinking about getting my drums out of storage too. Maybe they need a drummer to accompany the
choir?” He waffles on completely ignoring what I was saying to him. Grown-ups NEVER listen properly, it’s SO annoying!
“Did you hear what I said?” I ask, tapping my fingers on the counter.
“Hmm? Oh yes, something about a boy and you’re meeting up today,” Dad answers, still not looking up.
Anjali – my annoying big sister – snorts as she walks into the kitchen.
“YOU’RE meeting a boy????”
“Yes, and what? We’re training his puppy together,” I say, ignoring the fact that Anjali clearly thinks it’s hilarious that I’m meeting up
with a boy. Probably because she’s totally obsessed with one in her year. I overheard her the other week, squealing at her friend about how the boy had said he liked her drawing in art class. I just don’t get it at all.
“I know you’re like obsessed with animals, Pia, but what do you actually know about training a puppy?” Anjali smirks.
“A lot actually!” I reply, sticking my tongue out at her.
Dad has still barely looked up so I add, “Yeah and while we’re at it we’re going to train next door’s angry lion. And across the street they have a tiger that has real behaviour problems. I hope it doesn’t BITE me.”
Dad’s head jerks up. “Bite? What, someone has a tiger!? That can’t be right!”
“Oh, so you did hear some of what I was saying then,” I say, putting my spoon down. “Don’t worry,
I was just saying that to test you. You failed, by the way.”
“But I heard you!” Dad protests.
“You might have heard the words, but you never listen. You and Mum are just the same.” I sigh.
“See you all later, I’ll be in the garden, teaching a grizzly bear to play fetch.”
“Deekra!” Dad calls after me but I ignore him. Mum and Dad started calling me deekra A LOT after the divorce. It basically means “loved one”. They’re all about trying to show me they love me, but never in the ways I actually want. I shrug to myself. Oh well, can’t worry about that now. I’ve got a puppy to help train!
I run to my room and grab the important things I laid out ready last night. I’ve been collecting stuff for a while, you know, just in case my parents change their minds about me having a dog. I used all my Diwali and Christmas money. I’ve got a
whistle, a bag of doggy treats, and a ball that squeaks when you squeeze it. I run down to the garden where Hari is already waiting with Luna.
Luna remembers me right away and comes over wagging her tail.
“No jumping, Luna,” Hari warns her, but she ignores him and leaps up to lick my face anyway.
“Alright Luna, nice to see you too!” I laugh.
Luna barks in agreement and turns her attention to the ball in my hand. I throw it and she bounds after it.
“Nice!” Hari nods. “You might not get it back in one piece though, she chews through everything.
Even my uncle’s special signed cricket ball that I wasn’t supposed to be playing with.”
“Oh dear,” I say.
“Yeah, I got in a lot of trouble for that! It wasn’t Luna’s fault, she doesn’t understand,” Hari says sadly. “I really hope we can train her to be a good dog.”
“We will,” I say confidently, and I mean it. “I know loads about puppies – I’ve read and watched everything on how to train them and I did extra prep last night.” I pull out the list I made of our three targets. “The first goal is getting Luna to sit and stay on command. Come on, let’s get started.”
But getting started is harder than I imagined. First, I stand in front of Luna and say clearly and firmly, “Luna, sit.”
Luna looks up at me and just walks away!
So I try demonstrating. I say the word “sit” and then I sit down to show Luna. Luna barks and
jumps on top of me. I realize quite quickly that Luna doesn’t understand the word “sit”. In fact she basically ignores everything we say and just does whatever she feels like. Since she’s already seen the ball, that’s mainly the thing she’s interested in.
“Maybe before she’ll listen to sit and stay, she might just fetch and bring back the ball? She does seem to like it,” I say. “Then once she’s doing that, we might be able to get her to stay in one place for a few seconds while she waits for us to throw the ball again?”
“It would be a start, I guess,” Hari says, not looking convinced as Luna jumps up and down in front of us.
So, we throw the ball for Luna and try to get her to bring it back. Luna chases the ball but then runs around with it in her mouth, refusing to drop it. Eventually I catch up and try to wrestle it from her, which she thinks is just part of the game. Hari grabs on to me and we pull together, but we pull so hard we both end up falling backwards, into the hedge!
A loud laugh comes from behind us.
“Hahhaaahahahahah!
You’ll never be able to teach that dog to behave.”
We pull ourselves up out of the hedge and look round. It’s that rude spiky-haired boy I saw in the hallway yesterday.
Hari moans as he pulls a twig out of his hair.
“Give it a rest, Leo. You hate dogs, I get it.”
“They’re dangerous and smelly and YOU shouldn’t have THAT out in the garden off a lead,” Leo says in a mean voice.
“Luna’s not dangerous!” I say, brushing leaves off my trousers. “And who are you, boss of the garden?” I cringe inside. That wasn’t my best comeback.
Leo frowns. “Whatever, she’ll be gone soon anyway. I heard Hari’s mum telling my mum she can’t take any more of the dog’s bad behaviour.” He pulls a face and walks away.
“What’s his problem?” I ask.
“Oh, he just doesn’t like dogs, or fun or people,” Hari says.
“Wow,” I say.
“Yeah, wow. He’s always been super annoying like that though, and I’ve known him since reception class. But he’s not wrong about my mum.
I think she is just waiting until she can get rid of Luna.”
“We won’t let it come to that, okay?” I reply.
“Let’s keep going, we can’t just give up already. Let’s hide the ball since it’s too distracting and just concentrate on getting Luna to sit.” I try to sound confident but inside, I’m starting to worry this is going to be harder than I thought. I really don’t
want to let Hari or Luna down.
The rest of the morning goes quickly. At one point, we think we’ve managed to get Luna to listen to us when we say “sit” but then after a second, she lies down on her back and rolls around in the mud.
“Arrgh! Mum will not be happy about that.”
Hari sighs, looking at Luna as she sits angelically, looking like a chocolate Labrador rather than a golden one.
“We could wash her. Have you got a bucket and a sponge?” I ask.
“Yeah, I think so. Hang on.” Hari runs indoors and comes back a few minutes later with a big red bucket filled with water and a yellow sponge. Luna
barks as if to say, “That’s not for me, is it?”
We do our best to clean her off, but she keeps wriggling around trying to escape, and somehow, we get way more wet than Luna! We manage to get most of the mud off though and it’s soon time for me to go to my mum’s. I tell Hari I’ll be back tomorrow, and we can pick up with training Luna then. I hope Mum will be alright with that.
“We have to do better tomorrow. We’ve got three goals to achieve by Saturday and we haven’t even ticked off one yet!” Hari worries.
“I know, but I really feel like Luna is almost ready to learn,” I say hopefully. “Oh by the way, if you get a chance try to watch an episode of Pet Club – it’s a really good TV programme and they’re always giving out useful advice. I’m sure there’s stuff on puppy training, there might be something we’ve missed.”
“Oh, cool, I will! We just have to hope Luna
doesn’t cause more trouble tonight.” Hari sighs.
“Raja really has had enough. He wouldn’t come out from under my bed this morning. He just runs away from her when she’s being too hyper around him.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got this,” I tell him, even though I’m not sure we have.
A little while later, I’m in the living room at Mum’s. My new house with Mum is really different to my home with Dad and really different again to our old house where we all lived together. Mum has an actual house with a red door and a lovely little garden of our own – if you ask me, there’s plenty of space for a cat or a dog or any pet really.
Anjali’s at her friend’s so it’s just me and Mum tonight. I kind of wish Anjali was here though. It’s a bit too quiet without her chattering on like she does, even though it’s annoying because sometimes
it feels like Anjali has way more in common with Mum than I do.
“What do you think of this one?” Mum asks me, holding up a piece of material. “This colour or this colour?” She holds up another piece of material that looks exactly the same as the first one. Anjali would know the difference for sure.
“Umm, they’re both blue, right?” I ask, squinting.
“No, this one is Danish Blue and this one is Beth’s Blue.” Mum sighs. “This is an important decision, Pia. The right curtains can make a room and you know how hard I’ve been working to make this house lovely for us. Personally, I like Beth’s Blue.”
“Who’s Beth?” I ask.
“Never mind!” Mum laughs, putting the fabric swatches down. “So, what’s new with you? How was your time at your dad’s?”
“Great!” I say. “Would you mind if I went back tomorrow?”
“No, I guess not. I was going to ask if you wanted to go to the DIY store and pick out wallpaper with me, but I guess I can just do it. Are you and Dad doing anything nice?”
“I met a boy called Hari and I’m helping him train his puppy,” I explain.
“A puppy? What kind of puppy? Not one of those nasty snarling ones?” Mum panics.
“What? No, she’s a Lab and she’s lovely. She just needs a bit of training,” I say.
“What does that mean? Does she bark a lot? She hasn’t bitten you?” Mum asks, grabbing my hands to look at them.
“Mum, stop! Nothing bad has happened. She’s just a puppy and I’m helping a friend. That’s all.”
Mum sniffs. “You think I’m overreacting. I know. Just promise me you’re not getting any ideas
again about havng a pet. Especially not a dog! We’ve had that discussion already.”
I sit up straighter. “Well it is my birthday on Saturday, and I was just thinking…” Mum starts shaking her head before I can even finish!
“But!” I protest.
“But nothing, Pia, that’s my final word on it. Plus, I already got you the cutest present – you’re going to love it,” Mum says. She holds up the bits of material again. “Hmm, maybe not blue after all. I have those green swatches somewhere, let me find them.”
I sigh. She barely let me tell her anything. It’s always like this recently. Mum’s all excited about the new house and decorating. Dad’s busy with work and his new hobbies. Anjali’s in her own world which I’m not cool enough for. Is anyone actually bothered about me?
The story continues in Out 8th May 2025
MEET THE AUTHOR
Name: Serena Kumari Patel
Lives with: My brilliant family, Deepak, Alyssa and Reiss
Ambitions: To learn to ride a bike (I never learned as a kid).
To keep trying things I’m scared of.
To write lots more books.
MEET THE ILLUSTRATOR
Name: Emma Jane McCann
Lives with: A mysterious Tea Wizard called Granny
Goddy, a family of bats in the attic, and far too many spiders. (I promise I’m not a witch.)
