THE NEXT MORNING, I HAD TO ADMIT THAT there was a benefit to having a mother who insisted on walking me to school. Otherwise, I would have been late and I would have ended up getting detention like Ellie.

I’d had my breakfast, I was dressed and ready to leave, but I got a little distracted taking photos of Fifi on my cell phone. She was treating it like a game—every time I aimed the phone in her direction, she took off before I could get a decent shot.

“Rachel!” Mom yelled. “We should have left five minutes ago!”

I stuffed my phone in my pocket, blew a kiss at Fifi, grabbed my backpack, and ran out.

“Now, we should be looking for posters,” Mom said as we walked.

“Posters?”

“Or flyers, notices. Fifi’s owner might have put up signs about her. So keep your eyes open.”

“Oh, sure,” I said without much enthusiasm.

“Here, let’s check these out,” she said as we passed a bulletin board outside a drugstore. I crossed my fingers as we looked the notices over. There was nothing about a lost dog.

“Have you made up flyers?” Mom asked me when we resumed walking.

I couldn’t meet her eyes. “Um, no, not yet.”

“Well, for now, when you’re talking to people at school, be sure to tell them about the dog,” she said. “She might belong to one of them.”

“But you like having Fifi around, don’t you, Mom?”

She smiled. “Well, yes, of course, it’s a pleasure. But I’m also thinking about some person here in Lakeside who might be missing her. Someone who might be very sad right now.”

I hadn’t felt much sympathy for that someone last night in Pet Palace, but this morning, as much as I hated to admit it, I knew Mom was right. “Okay, I will,” I said. But considering the fact that the only classmates I ever spoke to were the other members of the sisterhood, I felt pretty safe promising to do that.

“Can I invite my friends over after school to see Fifi?” I asked.

“Of course you can!” Mom was obviously very pleased with the idea. Since she couldn’t know about the secret spyglass, she never understood why we always met at Ellie’s.

I saw Alyssa and Kiara in front of the school entrance when we got there. I said a quick goodbye to Mom and ran to join them. But I couldn’t even get the words “Guess what” out of my mouth before Ellie appeared, looking positively devastated.

“I’m grounded!” she wailed. “For the rest of the week! Including the weekend!”

“Because of detention?” Alyssa asked.

“Yeah. Mom kept asking why I dawdled, and of course I couldn’t tell her the real reason.”

Kiara frowned. “So, no spyglass this week?”

“I’m not sure,” Ellie said. “I had to promise I wouldn’t go out, but they didn’t say anything about having people come over.”

Alyssa looked thoughtful. “You know, if you don’t ask, and they’re not home when we come, it would just be a lie of omission.…”

I felt sorry for Ellie, but I was getting a little impatient with her detention drama. I had something important to tell them too. I reached into my backpack for my phone. “Listen, you guys, wait till you see—”

But before I could get another word out, the warning bell rang and we were suddenly caught up in the mass of students streaming into the building. I’d have to wait to tell them about Fifi when we met before third period. Except that two hours later, when I arrived at English class, the three of them were standing with a bunch of other kids at Ms. Gonzalez’s desk, where she was handing out brochures about books available for students to buy at a discount.

I admit I was feeling pretty frustrated by lunchtime, which was the next opportunity I had to share my news. At our table, while I waited impatiently for the others to show up with their lunches, I carefully slid my phone out of my pocket. We weren’t actually supposed to have our phones out in school at all, but my friends needed to see this to believe it. I tapped on Photos and allowed myself a small smile at the sight of Fifi. By the time the sisterhood arrived, I was more excited than ever to tell them about her.

“You’re not going to believe what happened in my science class this morning,” Alyssa was saying as they sat down.

“WAIT!” I exclaimed. Was this the first time I’d ever interrupted any of them? It must have been, because three pairs of eyes opened wide.

I lowered my voice. “I need to tell you something important that can’t wait. It’s about the spyglass.”

At that, Alyssa immediately shoved her lunch tray aside and leaned forward. Kiara and Ellie did too, and I lowered my voice even further. “Remember that vision we saw in the spyglass yesterday? Me, walking a dog?”

They nodded. Carefully, I extended my phone toward them so they could see the photo. “Look.”

Now three mouths fell open. “It’s the same dog!” Ellie exclaimed.

“Shh!” Alyssa hissed.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Ellie’s voice had caught the attention of the lunchroom monitor, who was now making her way to our table.

“No cell phones in the cafeteria!” she snapped as she reached out to take it away from me. Luckily, some eighth grader chose that very moment to have some fun by throwing one of the rolls that always appeared on the trays with the cafeteria lunches. I’d never eaten one, but my friends had complained about how hard they were, like rocks. And sure enough, the monitor let out a yelp when it hit her on the arm. I was pretty sure it was an accident, but the look on her face told me she felt otherwise. She spun around and went after the culprit.

I quickly tossed my phone back in my backpack and hoped this new criminal act would make her forget mine.

“Let’s return to the subject of the dog,” Kiara said.

“She followed me home yesterday,” I reported. “She wasn’t wearing a lead or a collar, so I brought her in the house. She’s so cute! I’m calling her Fifi.”

“Wow. Are your mothers going to let you keep her?” Ellie asked.

“That depends on if whoever she belongs to shows up. I checked the online community board, but no one’s reported a missing dog. So she’s with me for now. Want to come over this afternoon and see her?”

“Yes!” Alyssa said, and Kiara echoed that.

“But I’ve got detention!” Ellie complained.

“I know,” I said sympathetically, “and if you’re grounded, you can’t come any other day this week. But don’t worry, you’ll come see her next week.” If I still have her, I added silently. But I immediately pushed that possibility out of my head.

Ellie and Alyssa had come to my house once, over a month ago. Kiara had never been there. I thought again about how pleased Mom and Mami would both be that I’d invited them. They knew that Ellie’s family lived in this old, interesting Victorian house her parents had renovated. Kiara and her father were in that elegant apartment building, and Alyssa’s father had designed the cool modern home they had. I was afraid my parents might think I was ashamed of our small house, which was absolutely not true.

All I considered was our kitchen—there would be no chips or soda to offer Alyssa and Kiara. But this was a Tuesday—perfect! Mami only had a half day at the high school on Tuesdays, and when Mom let her know I was bringing friends home, she’d whip up something amazing for an afternoon snack. Her fabulous oatmeal cookies studded with dried cranberries instead of the usual raisins? Or maybe whole-grain chips with homemade guacamole. Or a pile of fresh-cut veggies and her amazing hummus?

I was still considering the possibilities during last period when, just a few minutes before the final bell, the intercom alert sound came on and we heard Mr. Lowell’s booming voice.

“This is a special announcement for all seventh graders. We have three nominations for your grade representative. Submissions are closed now, and voting will take place one week from today. Your nominees are Paige Nakamura… David Tolliver… and Rachel Levin-Lopez.”

Was I still daydreaming or was something wrong with my ears? A couple of classmates turned and glanced at me with surprise on their faces. Even Mr. Clark, my science teacher, was looking at me with a puzzled expression. Then I knew I’d heard correctly. My name. As a nominee for seventh-grade representative.

The bell rang, Mr. Clark dismissed us, and everyone left their desks and headed to the door. I supposed I was in what they call a state of shock. My brain told me to get up, but my legs wouldn’t move. Finally, my limbs responded, and I rose. As I passed his desk, Mr. Clark smiled at me and said, “Congratulations, Rachel.”

Congratulations? Like this was something I wanted?

There were no words to describe what I was feeling. Stunned? Upset? It was beyond all that. This had to be a mistake. Or maybe it was a joke. Someone was teasing me. But who would do something like that? There was a kid in my English class who sometimes teased me about being teacher’s pet. And Paige, of course—but why would she nominate me? Because she knew she could beat me? But that didn’t make any sense.

And sure enough, when I went to my locker for my coat, Paige herself passed me in the hallway—and looked at me in such surprise that I knew it couldn’t have been her who nominated me.

Alyssa was waiting for me outside, and I immediately saw the shock on her face. Normally, at school, she walks around with a set expression, neither smiling nor frowning or reacting to anything at all. She always tries to look like nothing affects her one way or another. But now her mouth was open, and I had never seen her eyebrows up as high as when she saw me coming.

“What was that all about?” she asked me.

“I—I don’t know!”

Then Kiara appeared. She took in our expressions, which must have registered as very unusual, because she immediately asked, “What’s happened?”

“Didn’t you hear that announcement?” Alyssa demanded. “About Rachel?”

“Of course I did,” Kiara replied.

“And you’re not shocked?”

Kiara shook her head. “No. I already knew.”

“How?” I asked. “Do you know who nominated me?”

Kiara nodded. “I did.”

I stared at her in disbelief, and it took me a moment to find my voice.

“Why?”

Kiara shrugged. “Well, what you said about detention yesterday at Ellie’s, that was very interesting. It made me think you might have other good ideas to improve this school. And that’s what a representative is supposed to do, right?”

“Who’s the other candidate?” Alyssa asked. “David something?”

“Tolliver,” I said. “He’s in my homeroom, and he asked Mr. Greene what student representatives did, so I guess he wants to be one.”

I turned back to Kiara. I wasn’t going to let her off the hook so easily. Kiara always does what she thinks is right, and usually, that’s a good thing. Only this time, she’d gone too far.

“Kiara, listen… you shouldn’t have done that without asking me first. I don’t want to be the seventh-grade representative.”

“Why not?”

“Because… because that’s not the kind of person I am!”

Kiara frowned. “You’re not the kind of person who has good ideas?”

I knew that was supposed to be a compliment, but I couldn’t deal with her logic at that moment. Instead I just sighed and said, “C’mon, let’s go.”

Walking just behind me, Alyssa and Kiara talked, and I didn’t hear a word they were saying. All I could think about was this awful thing that had just happened to me, and what I could possibly do about it.

I wasn’t angry at Kiara. We’d only known each other for less than two months, and she couldn’t know just how much the idea of running in an election absolutely horrified me. It’s not like we’d ever talked about anything like that. But that didn’t change the fact that just thinking about it made my stomach hurt—which wasn’t good, since I had been so looking forward to whatever Mami was making for our snack. So with more willpower than I’d ever thought I had, I pushed all thoughts of the nomination out of my head and conjured up an image of Fifi, which I managed to hold in my mind right up to the front door of my house.

Mom opened it as I was reaching for the knob, and before she could even greet us, Fifi came running out between her legs and stopped in front of us. Then she stood up on her hind legs and panted. It was like she was saying “I need a hug,” or maybe that was just how I was feeling. In any case, I scooped her up in my arms, she licked my face, and it felt even better than a hug.

“Cute,” Alyssa said, and she didn’t sound the least bit sarcastic. And Kiara reached over and patted Fifi on the head.

Mom was laughing. “Come on in, girls,” she said.

By the time we’d taken off our coats, Mami was coming out of the kitchen with a tray of mini-taco shells piled high and all the fixings to stuff them with.

“I hope you’re hungry!” she sang out.

Once we were all settled at the dining room table, I asked Mom how her first day alone with Fifi had gone.

“It was fine! She stayed out of my way while I was working. Then, when she needed a walk, it was exactly at the moment I needed a break.”

“So you liked having her around,” I said, and Mom nodded.

“I do too,” Mami said. “I’m so happy to finally have a dog.”

Mom gave her a warning look. “Cecilia…”

“I know,” Mami sighed. “We may not be able to keep her. But I checked the online community board today, and still no one has posted a note about her.”

“I don’t suppose you girls heard about any classmate at school missing a dog?” Mom asked.

We all shook our heads. Fortunately, Kiara didn’t find it necessary to tell her that the only classmates we ever spoke to were each other.

“Are you kids going to make up the flyers or posters to put up around town?” Mom asked me.

I made an “mmm” sound which could mean anything.

Fifi began running around the table, pausing by each of us and looking up longingly.

“I think someone wants to play,” Mom said.

We’d sufficiently stuffed ourselves at that point, so my friends and I put our coats back on and Fifi followed us out the back door. Immediately, she spotted a squirrel and tore after it. We watched as the squirrel scurried up a tree and Fifi looked up at it. The squirrel ran down the other side of the tree, and Fifi took off again.

“What do you think she’d do if she caught the squirrel?” Alyssa asked me. “Bite it?”

“No! She doesn’t even want to catch it. She just likes the chase.”

Kiara frowned. “How can you possibly know what she wants?”

“I just do,” I replied simply. “I can feel it. We have a connection.”

“You’ve only had her for a day,” Alyssa pointed out.

I smiled. “But I feel like I’ve had her forever. Like, I don’t know, like we just belong together.”

“Then how are you going to feel when her owner shows up and claims her?” Alyssa asked.

My smile disappeared. “If. If the owner shows up.”

“She’s a very good-looking dog,” Kiara said. “I can’t believe someone isn’t searching for her.”

“Well, whoever that someone is, they can’t be looking very hard,” Alyssa declared. “They haven’t posted anything online or put up lost dog notices.” She looked at me seriously. “Rachel… don’t put up any posters, and don’t hand out flyers.”

I bit my lower lip and turned to her. “Really?”

“Anyone who loses a dog like that doesn’t deserve her,” Alyssa stated flatly.

Of course, the same thought had already crossed my mind, but I tried to be fair. “Maybe they didn’t lose her. Maybe Fifi ran away.”

“Then that person couldn’t have been very nice, if Fifi wanted to escape from them.”

“Maybe… maybe Fifi was just feeling adventurous and wanted to explore,” I said. “And then she got lost.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes, which I secretly appreciated.

I fell silent for a moment and considered Alyssa’s suggestion.

Kiara spoke. “But you have to make flyers.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Didn’t you just tell your mother you’d do exactly that?”

“Well… not really,” I said. “She asked me if we were going to make posters and flyers. And I didn’t really answer.’”

“So she didn’t say she would,” Alyssa told Kiara, and then turned to me. “Is your mom the type who asks you a million times to do something?”

“No.”

“Then maybe she’ll just think you did it.”

“A lie of omission?” I asked.

And two heads bobbed in unison.