As she walked up the school steps the next morning with Caitlin, Natalia’s phone buzzed in her backpack.

“Go ahead,” she told Caitlin. “I’ll catch up in a minute.” Zoe had already disappeared into school with her friends Louise and Ava.

Stepping to the side, Natalia dug out her phone and read her new text. It was from her mom.

The bride and groom are coming this afternoon! The text was followed by emojis of champagne glasses. Natalia chuckled and rolled her eyes. Her mom was such a dork sometimes.

The phone beeped again. They’re bringing the dogs, so come over after school! They want to meet you. Tell Zoe and Emma. Several dog-face emojis followed.

Grinning, Natalia texted back, We’ll be there! then turned off the phone. They were allowed to take their phones into school, but they weren’t allowed to have them on once classes started.

I can’t wait, Natalia thought as she sat down in math class. Yesterday afternoon had been a total success. They’d taken the dogs for a long walk, and then thrown balls for them on the long lawn of Seaview House. Jasper had been amazing, leaping in the air to catch any ball that went near him. Daisy, with her shorter legs, had trundled busily behind him each time they threw the ball, returning panting happily without the ball after Jasper caught it.

Emma, who liked things to be fair, had thrown the ball directly to Daisy several times, but she had just dropped it immediately, cocking her head expectantly at them. She didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Then Jasper had stolen it from her, and she had been happy again.

It had been a lot of fun. And today would be even better—two more dogs for the three of them to play with!

Or maybe even the four of them … four dogs and four girls would be perfect.

“They were so cute,” she told Caitlin, who was lining up her school supplies as usual. “I bet the new dogs will have a ton of fun with them. I wish you’d change your mind and help us with the dog walking. Emma and Zoe are both so busy, they won’t mind splitting the money four ways.”

“I’m just as busy as they are,” Caitlin said. “And you should be, too. This dog stuff is going to take up more time than you think it is.”

Caitlin is being so negative, Natalia thought, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. If she worries about everything, she’s going to miss out on a lot.

“Settle down, everyone,” Ms. Patel said at the front of the classroom. “Get out your homework from last night and we’ll go over it.”

Natalia froze, her heart sinking. She had completely forgotten her math homework. She’d scribbled the answers to a social studies worksheet before the theater club meeting, but she hadn’t had a chance to do her math, too. Then, by the time they’d finished with the dogs, she’d totally forgotten. Forgotten until now.

Natalia pulled out her folder and pretended to shuffle through the papers inside. Was it possible she’d done her math homework and forgotten? Definitely not, and, to prove it, there was nothing inside that looked anything like the homework. Shoot.

Beside her, Caitlin had her homework laid out on her desk, ready to be corrected. Ms. Patel was on the other side of the room, going up and down the rows of desks, checking to see that everyone had completed the assignment. Natalia felt sick.

She glanced back toward Emma. Her homework was on her desk, too. Of course. Emma would never forget an assignment. Natalia’s cousin was the most responsible kid she knew. Zoe, also, had pulled some papers out of her folder. For a moment, Natalia felt resentful. If she had known Zoe was doing her math homework, Natalia would have remembered she had to do it, too. But then she remembered that Zoe had been working right before theater club—she must have had time to do the math problems while Natalia was daydreaming about dogs and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Natalia knew she didn’t have anyone but herself to blame.

Ms. Patel arrived in front of her desk. “Where’s your homework, Natalia?” she asked, nicely enough.

Natalia’s mouth went dry. She always did her homework. She didn’t always do it well, but she always had something to turn in. “I forgot it,” she said in a small voice.

Ms. Patel frowned. “Did you leave it at home?”

“No.” Natalia gulped. “I forgot to do it.”

Ms. Patel’s face was stern. “Natalia,” she said, softly enough that most of the class couldn’t hear it, although Natalia was sure Caitlin was listening. “This isn’t like you. You seem like you’ve been struggling in class lately, and it’s really important that you keep up with homework. I expect it on my desk first thing tomorrow. If I don’t see that you’re catching up with the rest of the class, I’m going to email your parents about getting you some extra help.”

As Ms. Patel returned to the front of the room, Natalia dropped her head down on her desk with a groan. If her parents thought she was doing badly in school, they might make her quit theater club. And they might decide taking care of the dogs was too much for her.

It wasn’t fair. She could absolutely catch up. Easily. She knew it; she just needed to study a little bit. Hot tears prickled Natalia’s eyes, and she quickly wiped them away before they started to fall.

Caitlin reached between their desks and squeezed Natalia’s hand. “I’ll tutor you if you want,” she whispered.

Natalia sniffed and gave her a tiny, watery smile. “Thanks. But I’ll be fine.”

She knew she could bring her math grade up by herself.

“All that for one homework assignment?” Zoe said, frowning. “It seems like she’s kind of overreacting.” They were standing in front of the school waiting for Emma, and Natalia had told Zoe exactly what Ms. Patel had said.

“Well …” Natalia said reluctantly. She could feel her cheeks getting hot. “I haven’t done the best job on my homework lately. And I did pretty badly on that pop quiz she gave us last week.”

“Yikes.” Zoe made a face. “Want to do our homework together tonight? I can show you how to do the problems.”

“I guess,” Natalia said. “If we have time.” She didn’t really want to talk about math. She was more interested in getting to know the dogs that would be waiting for them at Seaview House.

“Maybe we can practice lines for The Wizard of Oz audition, too,” Zoe said, her face brightening.

“Definitely,” Natalia said. She felt better just thinking about it: Soon she’d be the Wicked Witch and she’d be making money taking care of adorable dogs. Maybe this was just the first step and soon she’d have a whole dog-walking business. She imagined herself holding three leashes in each hand, surrounded by happy puppies as she strolled through the center of town. In the daydream, she passed the old theater and saw her face, frightening in green paint, glaring out of a Wizard of Oz poster. “I’ll be a star and an entrepreneur,” she said dreamily.

Zoe raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “Just make sure you’re a math whiz, too, superstar.”

Natalia frowned. “You don’t need to nag,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.”

Emma came up to them, tightening her ponytail. She was in her soccer uniform. “Hi,” she said. “Tell my mom I’ll be home late, okay?”

“What’s going on?” Natalia asked. “I thought you were coming on the bus.”

“We’re having an extra practice,” Emma told them. “Coach says we need to work on our offense.”

Zoe and Natalia both nodded, the way they did whenever Emma talked about soccer. Neither of them knew a thing about it. But Natalia’s stomach sank. “I told my mom we’d come over to Seaview House today,” she confessed. “The people who are getting married are there, and they wanted to meet us.”

“Oh.” Emma twisted her hands together, looking guilty. “If I’d known … but I have to go to practice.”

She looked so sorry that Natalia hurried to reassure her. “It’s okay. They just want to talk about the dogs. Zoe and I can handle it.”

Zoe blew out an irritated breath. “No, we can’t,” she said. “If you had told me, I would have come, but I promised to run lines with Caitlin and some of the other kids in theater club.”

“With Caitlin?” Natalia asked, surprised. “You don’t even like Caitlin.”

“That’s not true,” Zoe said. “Sometimes she gets on my nerves, is all. But I really want to play Dorothy, and so I need to practice before the audition.” She raised an eyebrow at Natalia. “Don’t you think you should come, too?”

Natalia felt a tug of longing. Practicing lines with Zoe and Caitlin and whoever else was getting together with them did sound like fun. Meeting the wedding couple and their dogs had sounded fun, too, but in her imaginings it had been all three of them doing it together. Doing it by herself wouldn’t be as exciting. “I can’t,” she said regretfully. “I told Mom we’d be there.”

Zoe’s face softened. “If you really need me …” she said.

“No.” Natalia shook her head firmly. Zoe wanted to be Dorothy, and Natalia wasn’t going to stand in the way of that. “You’re right, I should have told you guys before. I can handle it.” Meet the dogs, catch up on my math, study my lines. No sweat!

At Seaview House, Natalia’s mom and Aunt Amy were seated with a couple at one of the little round brightly painted tables in the dining room. There were small plates in front of them: Natalia saw Uncle Brian’s special little crab puffs on one, some kind of pasta on another, and what looked like chicken on a third.

They must be taste-testing a wedding menu, Natalia thought.

Natalia’s mom grinned at her and waved her toward the table. Uncle Brian came out from the kitchen with another plate—this one had asparagus on it.

“We were thinking if we hand the hors d’oeuvres around during the cocktail hour, maybe we could go with a buffet for dinner,” Aunt Amy said to the couple, who were both eating the crab puffs and looked like they were enjoying them. They smiled at Natalia.

Suddenly, a big, fluffy white standard poodle popped out from under the table and put her front paws in the woman’s lap, gazing beseechingly up at her.

“Not for you, Ruby!” The woman pulled her hand away, and the dog craned toward it, her frantically wagging tail jarring the table and making the glasses and dishes rattle. Aunt Amy reached out to steady the wineglasses.

“This is my daughter Natalia,” Natalia’s mom said. “Natalia, this is Ms. Akers and her fiancé, Mr. Cooke.”

“Hi,” Natalia said. “Your dog is so cute!”

“Thanks!” The woman was trying to get Ruby to put her paws on the ground, but every time she gently pushed her paws off her lap, Ruby hopped back up, licking eagerly at her hands. “She thinks she’s a lapdog. You can call us Rachel and Mike.”

“I thought you had two dogs, though?” Natalia asked, looking around.

“We do,” Mike told her. He pointed under the table. Another big white poodle was lying calmly with his head on his paws, his eyes closed. “Bandit is the laziest dog in the world. You’d never guess he was Ruby’s brother.” He and Rachel both laughed.

Natalia laughed, as well. “I guess my sister and brothers and I are all pretty different, too,” she said. She knelt and petted Ruby. Ruby gave up trying to climb into Rachel’s lap and licked Natalia’s face instead.

“Speaking of your sister, where are Zoe and Emma?” Aunt Amy asked. “I thought they were coming to meet Ruby and Bandit, too.”

They would if I had remembered to tell them about it before they made other plans, Natalia thought guiltily. Out loud, she said, “They can’t wait to meet Ruby and Bandit! But Emma had an emergency soccer practice and Zoe had to rehearse for her audition.” Seeing her mom looking a little worried, she added quickly, “They’ll definitely be here later to help walk Daisy and Jasper.” Mentally, she made a note that she had better text them both to make sure they came.

“Well, we’re so glad you and your sister and cousin can help out with Ruby and Bandit,” Rachel said. “Once we check in, we’re counting on you to walk the dogs for the days we’re here. And you’ll definitely have to look after them during the wedding.” She looked at Ruby, who was now trying to get her nose on top of the table to investigate the food. “She can be a little rambunctious.”

Ruby gazed at Natalia beseechingly, clearly hoping she would hand her some food. Her curly fur hung down into her big brown eyes, and Natalia’s heart melted. “You’re a good dog, aren’t you?” she said. “We’d love to take care of her.”

“Are Zoe and Emma on board, too?” her mother asked, looking worried. “Taking care of four dogs is too much for just one person.”

“Of course!” Natalia said brightly. “They can’t wait!”

Or at least that’s how they’ll feel once they see how lovable Ruby and Bandit are.