TWENTY-ONE
Rule 21: You must always look beyond extraordinary in the company of The Ex.
The next weekend, Kelly got a call from Morris at the animal shelter asking her to come in an hour early. She’d agreed, but the loss of an hour was throwing her completely off schedule.
“Where are my crappy clothes?” she yelled up the basement stairs.
“You have special crappy clothes?” Todd appeared at the top of the steps. “I thought all of your clothes were crappy clothes.”
“Ha-ha,” she muttered as she picked through three laundry baskets full of clean clothes. Her mother always had the laundry done. But this week, she’d been busy putting together a baby shower for one of her friends, so the laundry was behind. Kelly had only thirty minutes before her shift started. That wasn’t enough time to wash and dry her crappy clothes. Well, crappy as in she only wore them to the shelter, but they were still okay clothes. Just a pair of old jeans and an old Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt. Crappy, but still fashionable.
“Whatchya doin’?” Monica asked as she made her way down the basement steps. She was still in her pajamas, a pair of shorts and a tank top that said BRAT across the front in gold glitter. Her sandy-blond hair was in a tight French braid.
“Looking for my clothes.”
Monica went to the overflowing dirty clothes hamper. “These ones?” she said, holding up a pair of jeans that had dog hair all over them.
“Yes.” Kelly sighed, plopping her butt on the floor. She’d already looked in the hamper. How did she miss them? Monica brought the jeans over. “Thanks.” Kelly held them up in front of her. There was a mixture of golden dog hair and black cat hair, dirty paw prints, something crusty on the knee (probably dog food) that had dried like a rock. She couldn’t wear those, no matter how dirty her job was.
She ran upstairs and rummaged through the bottom of her closet. Finding nothing but a pair of holey boxers, she went to her dresser next and opened the pants drawer. She pulled out a pair of drawstring khakis that she wore last in sixth grade, when she was as big as a house.
Glancing at her clock, she realized she didn’t have time to screw around anymore. She got into the pants and tied the drawstring tight around her waist. For a shirt she wore the black one her mother had bought at Goodwill. It was an ‘N Sync shirt. Her mother was so out of touch with the present-day. She’d thought Kelly would love the shirt since she used to love the band. Yeah, like in elementary school.
But, today the shirt would suffice. She didn’t have anyone to impress anyway. She’d switched days, so she and Will didn’t work together. Today was going to be a quiet, relaxing Sunday at the animal shelter.
The baying of puppies, twenty-three of them to be exact, was starting to give Kelly a headache. So much for a quiet, relaxing afternoon at the animal shelter. After several weeks’ worth of work, animal control busted an older couple for running a puppy mill.
The twenty-three puppies were now safe in the holding room, but there was still a ton of work to be done. The vet was giving each animal a checkup. They all had to be cleaned and fed. On top of that, Kelly still had all the other dogs to attend to.
“I’ll go call someone in,” Morris said, heading off to the front desk.
Kelly barely noticed him leave. There was a black Lab mix running around her legs, nipping at her heels. She scooped him up and scratched behind his ears, trying to settle him down. It worked. He was so settled he peed on her.
“Oh!” She put him on the floor, but by that time he had already done his business. Of course. His siblings were running in circles now, chasing after each other. Using some paper towels, she cleaned up as best she could since she didn’t have another shirt with her. And why not? It wasn’t the first time she’d been peed on. She kept meaning to throw an extra set of clothes in her car for this very reason. As soon as she got home, she was putting together an emergency animal shelter outfit and throwing it in the trunk of her car.
“Dr. Burne?” Kelly said. “Are you done with the black Labs?”
“Yes.” He pushed the sleeves of his plaid shirt up before grabbing another puppy. “You can get them settled in the kennel.”
Thank God.
The timid, all-black female was easy to catch. She’d hardly moved since arriving. The other female, who had a white spot on her toe, was more rambunctious than her sister, but with a little luck, Kelly was able to grab her next and get her in the kennel.
The two remaining boys were probably going to be trouble. Right now they were running the perimeter of the holding room, barking at the other dogs and getting everyone riled up. Their long nails clicked along the concrete floor.
Just as she dove to corner one of the puppies, Will walked in looking extremely good in a pair of worn jeans and a long-sleeved brown shirt. “Hi,” he said, giving her a crooked smile. “You look like you’ve been struggling. Let me get them.”
She stood, smoothing the front of her pee-stained shirt. Hair hung in her eyes as she watched him. With slow steps, he came up on one of the puppies, then lunged at it, scooping the puppy up in his arms.
“Easy,” he said to Kelly. “You just have to be patient.”
Grumbling, she let him deal with the puppies while she moved on to the adult dogs. A husky mix barked as she neared, accidentally tipping over both his food and water bowl in his eagerness to get her attention.
“I’m coming,” she said, unlatching the door. The husky lunged at her, dirty paw prints now running up the shirt. “Down,” she scolded, pushing the top of his head. The husky obeyed but whined.
Today was just swirling right down the drain, getting worse and worse by the minute.
“So, how have you been?” Will asked, coming up behind her.
“I’ve been fine.”
Will grabbed the broom and started sweeping out the inside of the kennel. “I haven’t talked to you in a while.”
“Yeah.”
“Have I done something wrong?”
She glanced over at him as he leaned on the broom handle, watching. Why today, of all days, did she have to be so unkempt? Dog pee, paw prints, an ‘N Sync T-shirt?
“No,” she answered. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Good.” He smiled, flashing that smile she knew he used to get the upper hand in a situation. It usually worked, too. “Come out with us tonight. We’re going to Emerson’s for dinner.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“My brother. Jessie and Dan. April.” He shrugged. “It’s nothing formal.”
She was so stressed after a crappy day that all she wanted to do was hang out with friends and relax. And Emerson’s had the best chicken sandwich in all of Birch Falls.
If she treated the outing like they were friends, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Would she be breaking The Code? It wasn’t like she was jumping back on the Will bandwagon. Hanging out with some different people sounded like fun and that’s what one of the rules suggested: Do group activities with friends—both girl and guy friends. Was that rule four or five? It was so hard keeping them all straight. She’d yet to make her journal for The Code, which, now that she thought about it, might be the reason why she didn’t know The Code by memory.
Maybe it was time to make her Breakup Code journal? She also had Spanish homework to do tonight. As soon as she got home, she’d do both tasks.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll go.”
Will smiled again. “Great. Meet us at Emerson’s around six.”
Ding.
Raven looked up from the issue of Blender in her hands to her computer screen. A new email blinked, waiting for her attention. She laid the magazine down and scooted into her computer chair.
She was expecting Sydney or Alexia. Instead she read the screen name, Ace23, and her heart tripped in her chest.
Ace23 was Horace.
She knew that because she’d found his profile on MySpace, which listed his Instant Messenger user name and other things. His love of music and his amateur band that didn’t have a name yet. And that his favorite movie was Lost in Translation and his favorite TV show was American Idol and…
Hmmm…maybe she was crossing over the line from curiosity to stalkerosity.
Hey, she typed back.
Ace23: hey how r u?
Ray: fine. how did u find my user name?
Ace23: i asked ben, who asked alexia, who gave it to me. i went to alot of trouble to find ur user name.
Ray: ben as in daniels?
Ace23: yeah
Why would Ben ask Alexia? They weren’t even friends, were they? She’d have to ask Alexia later.
Ray: so what’s up?
Ace23: i need to ask u a huge favor.
The fact that he needed her for something made her grin unexpectedly. The only time Caleb needed her for something was when he wanted to make out.
Oh, great, she just thought about her past with Caleb, which was against Rule 10. She grabbed hold of the four-leaf-clover rubber band and let it snap. “Ewwou.” She rubbed beneath it quickly, trying to stop the stinging sensation. Was Alexia getting off on torturing them?
Ray: what’s the favor?
Ace23: i can’t tell u yet.
Ray: y not?
Ace23: i’m afraid if i tell u right now u’ll say no.
Ray: okay, that doesn’t sound good. u want me to join ur cult or something?
Ace23: ha-ha. no.
Ray: give me a clue and maybe I’ll say yes.
Actually, she was already leaning toward saying yes, but it was fun to tease him. Besides, a clue couldn’t hurt.
Ray: u want 2 start a folk band and u need me 2 play the banjo?
Ace23: close.
Ray: all right, i’m curious. what do u want me 2 do?
Ace23: i knew i could count on u. be at my house at 6?
Ray: sure, as long as there’s no ritual involved.
Ace23: promise, no rituals, and ray?
Ray: yeah?
Ace23: thanks
Ray: ur welcome.
She signed off. The grin grew wider and then she couldn’t turn it off. How cool was it that Horace IMed her for a favor? Not that she was going to allow herself to get overly excited. Well, a little excited. It was cool that he thought of her, whatever the favor was.
The clock said 4:09 P.M. She hurried into the bathroom to check her reflection. Angling her head, she checked her hair. It was iffy. She hadn’t showered yet today. Best get in.