Lucky Charm (14 page)

Charlotte added, “He wanted to write us a check.”

Mr. Ramsey considered this. “A check…for ten thousand dollars. But you girls didn’t take it?”

They all shook their heads.

“Let me get this straight. You didn’t take the check, but he didn’t return Marty? What’s going on here?”

“Dad! Marty is not for sale! We just have to convince Robbie Flores to give him back.” Charlotte sighed. “At least we know that Mr. Flores likes Marty….”

“Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.” Mr. Ramsey looked at Isabel again.

“Perhaps we
should
think it over,” Isabel said softly.

“What! How can you say that?” Avery exclaimed. “It’s Marty. I rescued him from a garbage can. We saved him! He’s our dog!”

“I’m not trying to be rude, Avery, but you don’t know what it’s like to really need money. I mean
really
need it. You live in a nice big house, with a cleaning woman even! And you get money from your parents to buy you anything you want. Where I am from, there just isn’t enough money to go around. My mother’s medical bills are high and we…” Isabel trailed off. “Oh…never mind,” she said, looking embarrassed.

Avery didn’t know what to say in response to Isabel’s outburst. She couldn’t help that she lived in a big house. Did
that mean she would have to give up a dog she loved? Avery looked at Charlotte. Char looked stricken too.

Maeve understood Isabel’s situation, but still, it didn’t quite seem fair. “So you think
you
should take the money?”

“We could divide it five ways. Two thousand dollars would go a long way to help with my mother’s medical expenses or pay for airline tickets so my father can visit for the holidays.”

Mr. Ramsey placed his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “How about we sleep on this, girls?” The BSG said nothing. As they proceeded out of the ballpark—one father, one tired eight-year-old, and four solemn girls—Charlotte wondered, would any amount of sleep make all five members of the BSG agree with one another?

C
harlotte, breakfast!” Mr. Ramsey called.

Charlotte groaned and rolled over, pulling the pillow on top of her head. She’d been vaguely aware her dad was up to something in the kitchen. She could hear the clanging of pots and pans and eggs cracking on the countertop. The air was pungent with coffee and bacon.

“I made your favorite—chocolate chip pancakes. Hurry up, Char, they’re going to get cold.”

Charlotte didn’t want to eat. She didn’t want to get out of bed. She had been up all night tossing and turning. She couldn’t stop thinking about Marty, the ten thousand dollars, Isabel and her family, and Katani and Kelley’s riding stable. Life was so complicated sometimes. She didn’t want to lose Marty, but what about Isabel and Kelley?
Was it easier for grownups to make these decisions?
she wondered.

“Rough night?” Mr. Ramsey asked when Charlotte stumbled into the kitchen.

Charlotte nodded and sat silently at the table, staring blankly at the stack of pancakes in front of her.

They looked yummy. Charlotte didn’t have the heart to tell her dad she wasn’t hungry. He drenched the pancakes with syrup and divided them into pizza-shaped slices. Instead of eating, however, she just pushed the little triangles around on her plate.

“Do you think I’m mean?” she finally asked.

“Why would you say that?”

Charlotte sighed and placed her fork on the side of her plate. “About wanting to keep Marty and not take the money?”

“No, honey. This is an impossible situation. In the end, money doesn’t buy what’s really important in life, which is love. You love Marty,” Mr. Ramsey said, taking a sip of coffee.

“But the money sure seemed important to Isabel and Katani yesterday.”

“I know, honey, but two or even ten thousand dollars isn’t going to make Isabel’s mother get better…and Kelley will always be autistic,” Mr. Ramsey said.

“But would it help?” Charlotte asked.

Mr. Ramsey shrugged. “Of course it would help both of them. But Charlotte, people are always going to need money for a worthwhile cause. What was Katani saying yesterday? Something about a miracle? I don’t think anyone would want a child to give up a beloved pet.”

Charlotte blinked. She had not forgotten the pre-game quarrel with Katani.

“We can always contact Mr. Flores,” Mr. Ramsey told her.
“If you believe that bringing Marty home is best, I will stand by you, and we will get him back. I miss the little guy, too.”

For the first time since last night, Charlotte felt okay. Marty was in her heart.
Still, everyone in the BSG is important to me
, she thought as she scraped the pancake remains off of her plate and then put it in the dishwasher.

After cleaning up, Charlotte left the kitchen and went up to her room to call Katani.

“Hello, Mrs. Summers? This is Charlotte Ramsey. Is Katani there?”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Mrs. Summers said. “Katani’s not here right now. She’s still at the stable with her sister, Kelley. Can I take a message?”

“No…that’s okay. I’ll call back later,” Charlotte promised Mrs. Summers and then hung up the phone.

She was about to crawl back into her bed for the rest of the day and read—reading was her salvation—when suddenly she had an idea. Charlotte picked up the phone one more time and dialed.

When the doorbell rang an hour later, Charlotte dashed to the front door. Maeve Kaplan-Taylor was standing on the steps wearing a lime green jacket and holding a little white bag.

“I stopped by Montoya’s and picked up two cherry turnovers,” she said as she came in. “I thought that might cheer you up.”

Charlotte smiled.

“The only thing I could think of to make you even cheerier is if I had Nick deliver the turnovers in person,” Maeve said with a twinkle in her eye.

“Thank goodness you didn’t!” Charlotte gasped. “Look at me! I have a severe case of bedhead.” Charlotte shook her head to demonstrate to Maeve the mass of cowlicks in her hair. Suddenly a scary thought dawned on her…“Maeve, you didn’t! Tell me he isn’t here!”

Maeve chuckled. “No, no, he isn’t here,” Maeve assured her friend. “But I still think Nick would have done the trick. Come on, let’s go to the Tower. Things always look better from up there.”

Charlotte brought up two glasses of apple cider and Maeve brought the cherry turnovers.

“By the way, have you talked to Katani?” Charlotte asked as she munched away on her pastry. It was so delicious. Mrs. Montoya should have her own baking show. She was the best baker in the world. Nick had once told her that his mother perfected all the recipes in the shop.

“Actually, I did talk to her for a while online last night,” Maeve said.

“Did she tell you what exactly she meant by miracle?”

Maeve licked some gooey cherry off her fingers. “Yes. The health department is making High Hopes repair their stable. The only thing is, the repairs will cost just over ten thousand dollars. If they don’t get the money by next week they’ll have to move to another location. But Katani said it is too far away for her grandma to drive to. You have to admit that it’s pretty ironic, Charlotte,” Maeve said.

“What do you mean?”

“Robbie Flores is offering us almost the exact amount that Katani needs. It’s just such a weird coincidence,” Maeve said.

Then it dawned on Charlotte. “Are you saying that we should give up Marty so Katani’s riding program can have the money?”

Maeve shrugged and looked down. “I dunno. Maybe if you heard it from Katani’s point of view…”

Charlotte couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But Maeve, what about my point of view? When I was little I lost my mother. Then in France I lost my cat. I’m just…I’m just…” Her lip began to tremble. “I’m just so sick of losing everything I love.” Charlotte sniffled back tears. She would not let herself cry again. “Besides, if you love something or someone, you don’t just sell it because someone offers you a lot of money. Not if you love it.”

“I didn’t mean…” Maeve trailed off. “This is so awful, Charlotte. I can see everybody’s point of view. Marty should be here, but Isabel and Katani could use the money.”

Silence.

“Listen, Charlotte. I love Marty just as much as you do.”

Charlotte gave her a look.

“What? I do. And I promise that whatever you decide I’ll support you. But…”

“But what?”

“Well, when we found Marty we did agree that he belonged to all of us. Maybe the right thing to do is to vote on it.”

“Vote? Vote! I think that’s an awful idea!” Charlotte cried.

“But Charlotte, it’s the only fair way…”

“This is great, just great. Well, I know how Isabel and Katani are going to vote. And by the way you’ve been talking,
I guess I know how you’re going to vote too. So that leaves me and Avery. Three to two. I better get used to being pet-less again.”

S
o how was your weekend, class?” Ms. Rodriguez asked as the Monday morning bell rang to start homeroom.

Katani’s weekend had been partly wonderful, but in a way it was more horrible than she could have imagined.

Yesterday she went riding, and that had been amazing. When Penelope saw Katani standing at the corral, she lifted her head as if to say “What’s up, girl?” and nickered softly. Nickering was what Claudia McClelland had called that soft, low horse sound that came from deep inside Penelope. It was different from a whinny, which was louder and shriller. A nicker meant: “Hello! I see you by the fence. How are you?”

But Penelope didn’t just nicker. She trotted right over to the fence and nuzzled her velvety nose into Katani’s shoulder. She never thought her stable chores, like cleaning out a stall, could be an act of love, but to Penelope, they truly were. The sooner Katani got the stall mucked out, the sooner she could curry Penelope and ride her. Currying was okay, but
riding her was the best thing in the whole world. On top of Penelope, Katani felt she could conquer the world. Plus, riding was just so much fun. Her dad always called Katani his serious daughter. Until she met the BSG, Katani had been all work. Now she had friends and Penelope.

Katani suddenly realized that she had completely spaced out on Ms. Rodriguez as Joey Peppertone shouted, “It was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen!”

Pete Wexler mimed hitting a ball.

It didn’t take long for Katani to figure out they were talking about Saturday’s baseball game.

Joey’s comment about the Red Sox game reminded her of the other half of her weekend—the horrible half. She remembered that stupid fight before the baseball game. Katani felt bad that she had stormed off in a fit. At the time she just couldn’t help herself. The thought that the stable might close seemed so unfair.

The $10,000 that Robbie Flores offered for Marty would mean so much to so many kids at High Hopes, including her sister, not to mention herself. Did she want the money for herself so she could continue to ride Penelope? Katani felt a sudden stab of guilt.

She loved riding so much that maybe she really wanted the stable to stay open for herself. But Katani also knew that as wonderful as riding was for her, it was ten times more important to Kelley.

Why, she couldn’t completely understand, but the horses had helped. Katani understood exactly what her sister was going through. On horseback, she wasn’t just Katani Summers, the non-athletic one of the family, and her sister wasn’t
Kelley Summers, the autistic one of the family. They were both something much, much more.

But the offer of $10,000 had changed everything. How could Avery and Charlotte give up such an amazing chance to help so many people? And then there was Marty. Marty was the sixth member of the BSG. Katani shook herself. This was all becoming way too complicated. She had a headache thinking about it all.

Suddenly the class broke out into laughter. Katani snapped out of her thoughts about the weekend. What were they all talking about? What was so funny? She turned to listen to Dillon, super jock.

“Socks! What do you mean he hasn’t washed his socks?” Dillon asked Pete.

“Well, you know how superstitious ball players are. Remember the 2004 Red Sox team? A lot of them didn’t shave or cut their hair because they were afraid they’d bring on the curse of the Great Bambino,” Pete told him.

“What does that have to do with Robbie Flores, though?” Dillon demanded.

“Well, Flores is shaven and it looks like he just got his hair cut. So I was thinking maybe his socks are his lucky charm,” Peter suggested. He pulled his socks up over the ends of his pants and pretended to hit a home run. Then he waved his hand in front of his face and held his nose as if his socks were the stinkiest things he’d ever smelled. The class burst into hysterical laughter.

“Hey, quiet down!” Avery commanded. Everyone stopped laughing immediately.

Katani was shocked. Avery never wanted the laughter to
die down when it came to sports talk, especially sports talk about the Red Sox.

“You guys, I know what Robbie Flores’s lucky charm is and believe me, it’s not a pair of socks.”

“Well, what is it?” Peter asked.

“It’s our dog! Marty!” Avery cried.

Suddenly the room was agog with curious chatter.

Ms. Rodriguez looked skeptical. “The one that’s missing? Avery, are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure! Robbie Flores invited us to the game on Saturday and we got to meet him afterwards.”

“
You
got to meet
Robbie Flores
?” Dillon asked. This was the moment Avery had been waiting for.

“Really?” Peter wanted to know.

“Really.” Charlotte was right there to back up the claim. “We saw Marty on Saturday. He was there at the game. Robbie keeps him in the dugout.”

“Hey! I did see a little dog in the dugout during the game! Jerry Remy and the other announcers were talking about the dog,” Pete said. “That’s really Marty?”

Avery nodded. “Flores thinks he’s out of his slump because he found Marty and now he doesn’t want to give him back!”

Don’t say a word
, Katani told herself as she listened to all this. She pretended to act disinterested. But Avery was going on and on, making it sound like Robbie Flores wasn’t playing fair because he didn’t want to give back Marty. Katani thought of his generous offer, and it all became too much for her to handle.

“First of all, Robbie Flores
didn’t
steal Marty,” Katani
snapped. “He found him running loose in the park with no collar and called when he found a number on Happy Lucky Thingy’s tag. He did call, because he wanted us to know that Marty was okay. And now you are making him out to be selfish. Marty is the hero of Boston! And Robbie is willing to pay ten thousand dollars for his ‘Lucky Charm’ and that money could help a lot of people…” Katani had stood up and raised her voice so the whole class could hear. A hush fell over the room.

“Robbie Flores wants to pay you ten thousand dollars to keep your dog?” Dillon asked.

Avery and Charlotte stared at Katani in disbelief.
Is Katani even a BSG anymore?
wondered Avery.

Everyone started talking at once. Everyone had his or her own opinion.

“Okay, people, settle down,” Ms. Rodriguez said as she walked up and down the aisles. “Katani, it seems like you feel pretty strongly about this. Why do you think you girls should accept the money?”

Katani felt everyone’s eyes upon her. She tried to summon the confidence she felt while she was on Penelope, remembering what it was like to be on top of her horse and feeling like she was on top of the world.

“A lot of you guys know I have a sister at this school, Kelley. And if you know Kelley, you know that she is…extraordinary. The reason why Kelley seems different than us is because she’s autistic,” Katani explained. She couldn’t believe she was standing in front of her seventh-grade homeroom talking about Kelley. But this was important, and she needed her classmates to understand why. “Well, Kelley just
started a new therapy, horseback-riding therapy, and it’s helping her a lot. Horseback-riding riding is good for autistic kids—not just physically, but socially and emotionally, too. You wouldn’t believe how much of a difference it has made in just the short time she’s been riding.”

Everyone in the room was hanging on her every word, even Anna and Joline. Katani took a deep breath and continued. “But last week I learned that the stable, the High Hopes Riding Stable, is going to be shut down. They need to make repairs, which will cost more than ten thousand dollars. There isn’t time for a fund-raiser or anything. They need the money now. And then this miracle comes along—Robbie Flores is offering us that exact amount! That money would keep, not just Kelley, but lots of kids like Kelley, learning and improving every day.”

Charlotte was sure there was something wrong with that argument, but she just couldn’t figure out what it was. Katani had a right to care about her sister, but didn’t she care at all about Marty and what he meant to her, Avery, and the BSG? Charlotte wasn’t even mad at Katani anymore. She was just confused. She wondered if Katani had ever cared about Marty.

Katani turned to Avery and Charlotte, who were sitting together. “There are plenty of cute dogs at the shelter that need a good home. Giving Marty to Robbie Flores would do a world of good for a lot of people.”

Katani sat down. The room was eerily quiet.

“That was a very thoughtful plea, Katani,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “But on the other hand, the love of a pet is a powerful thing. Animals can be like a part of the family.”

Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at Avery and Charlotte.

“Man, if I were you, I’d take the money,” Dillon said. “He already has the dog, right? So he has all the bargaining power. If you don’t take the dough you might end up with nothing.”

“We’ll just see about that!” Avery growled. “I’ll call every paper in Boston. I’ll write a blog. Wait until everyone in the world finds out that Robbie Flores took a dog away from a group of kids.” Avery rubbed her hands together with a mischievous twinkle in her eye and added, “We’ll see who has bargaining power then!”

The bell rang and the students shuffled off to first-hour class. Ms. Rodriguez pulled Avery back from jogging out the door and called the BSG to her desk.

“I can see that you are all very emotional and upset about what happened over the weekend,” Ms. R said in a calm, quiet voice. “You are all very creative individuals. I’m sure there’s some type of solution. Why not put your heads together? All of you.” She made eye contact with each of the girls as she spoke. “See what you can come up with.”

“But Robbie Flores is leaving town tomorrow night,” Avery protested.

“With Marty,” added Charlotte. “It doesn’t seem fair that he can do that. It’s not even his dog. He just found him. We could call the police and my father said he would help me if that was what I wanted to do.”

All the BSG stared at Charlotte. Calling the police would be a really big deal.

“Well, he’s got to come back to Boston eventually, right?” Ms. Rodriguez asked.

“But he’s going to Baltimore for a three-game series. He’ll be gone for another week,” Charlotte said. “With Marty.”

“All the more reason for you to put your heads together now. Start working together instead of against each other,” Ms. Rodriguez told them. “If you want to have a solution by tomorrow night, then make tomorrow night your deadline. Sometimes the pressure of a deadline helps sharpen your thinking and gets those creative juices flowing. Now get going, ladies. You have no time to lose!”

Katani held her stack of books tightly to her chest and rushed to her first-period class. She hated being late. Plus, she didn’t feel like talking to her friends right now. What if they had seen right through her speech and knew the truth: She wanted the riding lessons to continue for herself as much as for Kelley. Katani felt ashamed and just wanted to go concentrate on something she could do well, like math. Algebra was easy. You just had to follow the formula and it would usually come out right.
Why can’t life be more like math?
she sighed.

Lunch a Bunch

Katani sat down at the BSG table, but she didn’t even know where to begin. But neither did anyone else. The five friends began to eat in silence. It was Maeve who finally broke the ice.

She set down her milk with a small thud. Her friends looked up from their assorted yogurts and cafeteria cardboard sandwiches. “I’ve been thinking about our problem all day. Maybe Ms. Rodriguez has a point. Let’s make tomorrow night our deadline. We can do this! We have to think of a solution. We’re the BSG. We don’t give up on each
other. We stay loyal and we solve the problem.”

The group stared at Maeve doubtfully.

“C’mon, girls, people have had to figure out harder problems than this!” Maeve said. “Remember
Titanic
? That was a serious deadline and a much bigger problem.”

“Uh, Maeve?” Avery giggled. “Didn’t the
Titanic
sink?”

“Well, there were
some
survivors.”

Avery rolled her eyes and Katani finally melted. She let out a big Katani guffaw.
Leave it to Maeve to break the ice with a movie reference!

“Maeve, you should definitely write a book someday,” Katani said.

“
Moi
?” Maeve asked with an innocent look.

“Yes,” Katani answered emphatically. “It should be called
Watch a Movie—Solve a Problem
!”

Maeve’s face beamed. No one had ever suggested that she write a book before! She couldn’t wait to tell her mother.

“We haven’t exactly solved anything,” the ever practical Avery interjected.

“True, but at least we have some hope now,” Charlotte observed. “We just have to think about it some more.”

“Maybe we should meet after school at Montoya’s,” Isabel suggested. “Nothing gets the ideas flowing like cookies and hot chocolate.”

“Yum, I can taste those biscotti now!” Charlotte agreed. It was a date. Charlotte felt relieved. The BSG were together again. They would fix this and Marty would be home. She was convinced of it.