DÉJÀ POO

That was fast,” Mom said when I came into the house. She and Grandma and Georgia were on the couch watching The Princess Bride, even though they’ve all seen it about a hundred times. “Did you forget something?”

“No, I just, um… I mean, yeah. I forgot to walk Junior,” I said.

“No, you didn’t,” Georgia said. “You walked him right after dinner.”

“Well, as long as I’m here…” I said. “Here, boy!”

I couldn’t even think about answering any questions right now. So I clipped on Junior’s leash. A few seconds later, I was on my way back out the door.

“Rafe?” Mom said.

When I looked at her, I could tell she knew something was up. Mom’s psychic, in that typical Mom kind of way. But she didn’t make a big deal out of it.

“Just around the block, okay?” she said.

I told her that was no problem and headed out.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped watching where I was going and Junior took over. When I looked up again, we were almost all the way to his favorite place on earth—the dog park. You can always tell you’re getting close because he starts pulling on the leash like he’s going to die if we get there a second later than we have to.

I figured it couldn’t hurt to make a quick stop. It wasn’t that late, and it looked like there were still a lot of people out with their dogs.

Then my mind just started cranking, and not with happy smiley thoughts.

Mostly, I wished I’d never gotten invited to Quinn’s party. It was like my whole life had turned into a game of Chutes and Ladders. Just when things were heading up, up, up, I had to go and land on a big fat slide, all the way back to the bottom.