Free Howl by Karen Hood-Caddy Page A

went to the back of the barn and made up Mukwa’s formula, then pulled on the oven mitts and tattered old coat that hung beside his enclosure and went in. Mukwa hopped into her lap the moment she sat down. Because of his cast, it was difficult for him to hold the bottle, so she helped him get it into his mouth and held it in place. He made happy little grunting noises as he sucked, and his claws clicked on the plastic sides of the bottle. Feeling his heat through the coat, she relaxed, and a lovely contented feeling moved through her body.
    When he was finished with the bottle, he crawled down from her lap and scampered around the enclosure, chasing a ball. It wouldn’t roll any more, because he’d inadvertently punctured it, but he swatted it with his cast and chased it around.
    “I’ll bring you a new one tomorrow,” she promised and went to feed the dogs.
    The puppies were getting some solid food now, and as soon as she set the bowls on the floor, Greedy Guts tried to eat both her own food and the food of the puppy next to her. Robin picked her up and set her bowl away from the others. When they were all done eating, she took them outside in batches. Relentless trotted beside her, corralling any puppies that strayed.
    After the animals were fed, she quickly changed and ran to the bus. Squirm and Ari were already there. Ari’s bus came first. When Ari got on, Robin heard some kids call out her name. Then she saw Conner waving her over to sit beside him.
    Her own bus was right behind. She got on and sat with Squirm. One or two kids said hi to Squirm, but no one made a special point of saying hi to her. They probably all thought she was weird once that photo of her in the ketchup-soaked shirt had been plastered all over the Internet. She sighed and looked out the window. Would she ever make friends? There were only two possibilities: Brodie and Zo-Zo. Brodie was out of bounds, and even though she often had lunch with Zo-Zo, she didn’t feel relaxed with the girl. How could she? Zo-Zo had put that picture of her with ketchup down her front on her blog. What kind of person would do that? No one she could trust.
    Her stomach did a flip as she remembered what was going to happen at school. Today was the day she and Zo-Zo and Brodie were meeting about the environmental project. They were supposed to meet last week, but Mr. Lynch had been sick and they’d had a substitute teacher. She groaned. Why, why, why had she and her family ever moved here?
    It wasn’t until after recess that Mr. Lynch instructed them to get into their small groups. Robin positioned her chair as far away from the other two as she could.
    Zo-Zo tapped her pen on the desk. “Okay, so we’ve got to come up with a game to make the school greener.”
    Brodie nodded.
    Zo-Zo turned to Robin. “You’re the Green Girl — got any ideas?”
    Robin tilted her chair back, crossed her arms, and said nothing.
    Zo-Zo dug the end of her pen into her palm and stared at Robin. “You’re mad, aren’t you? About me putting that picture on my blog?”
    Robin mashed her lips together. She was going to keep her mouth shut.
    Brodie looked at Robin. She felt her stomach drop, just the way it did when she was on the roller coaster at the fair. They both blushed and looked away.
    Brodie cleared his throat. “If someone posted a picture of me with ketchup all over my shirt, I wouldn’t like it either.”
    Zo-Zo shot forward in her chair. “I — I just wanted people to see how mean Brittany can be. The brat — I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, I …”
    Mr. Lynch walked by their table. “Stay on track,” he warned.
    Brodie nodded. “Yes, sir.”
    Zo-Zo’s eyes didn’t move from Robin. “Please don’t be mad. You’re my hero! You’re famous! My dad and I looked you up in the news archives! Your picture was in the paper and everything.” She turned to Brodie. “She got this big award.”
    Robin willed herself not to blush, but she could feel heat rising