Free Howl by Karen Hood-Caddy Page B

on her face.
    “Cool,” Brodie said. “So it is true.”
    “Did Big Brat Brittany say it wasn’t?” Zo-Zo rammed her goggle-like glasses back up her nose.
    Robin blushed with anger.
    Brodie shrugged. “She didn’t say it wasn’t true. She just said she wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t. How was she to know?”
    “She could have checked it out, like I did,” Zo-Zo said, staring him down.
    Mr. Lynch walked over to their group again and stood listening.
    Brodie made his voice sound authoritative. “I was thinking we could do a contest instead of a game.” Mr. Lynch walked away, but Brodie carried on talking about how the contest could work. “We could design an eco-contest. Something that would get people motivated to be greener.”
    Robin watched as Brodie’s face lit up. Her mother’s face used to do that. The memory squeezed at her chest. She bit her thumbnail.
    Zo-Zo grabbed her pen. “The contest could give points for things like hanging out laundry and turning off the water when you’re brushing your teeth. The person with the most points could win something.” She grinned, exposing a mouth full of braces. “My dad would donate some prizes. He’s a sucker for green stuff.”
    Robin put her face in her hands. This was all such a waste of time.
    “It would be really cool to actually get people doing green things,” Brodie said. “Like walking to school —”
    “Your girlfriend won’t be happy about that one,” Zo-Zo said, looking from Brodie to Robin. “Brittany’s dad drives a Hummer. My dad says it must come with its own oil well.”
    Brodie’s face darkened. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
    Brodie wasn’t Brittany’s boyfriend? Robin’s stomach did another dip.
    Zo-Zo let out a snort of air. “She sure acts like she is.”
    “I know. I wish she’d stop.”
    “Five more minutes,” Mr. Lynch called.
    Zo-Zo began writing down the ideas they’d come up with. “We could have points for when people use a clothesline instead of a dryer.”
    “Yeah,” said Brodie. “That’s good.”
    Zo-Zo turned to Robin. “You make a suggestion. You’re the expert.”
    Robin sat on her hands. “What good is getting a few people to hang out laundry going to do?” She shook her head. It was like splashing drops of water on a bonfire.
    Brodie’s brow furrowed. “So we should do nothing?”
    Robin looked into his earth brown eyes. “There’s no point. It’s too late — things have gone too far.”
    A muscle in Brodie’s jaw twitched. “You can’t know that. No one can.”
    Robin sighed. Once upon a time she’d believed there was hope, too. Once upon a time she’d thought that if everyone took action, the planet might survive. She didn’t believe that any more.
    Brodie sat forward. “Look, even if the odds are bad, we still have to try. We can’t just stand by and let bad things happen. I can’t, anyway.”
    Robin shrugged and said nothing.
    Brodie was talking to Zo-Zo now. “I just think we have to do everything we can.”
    Zo-Zo shrugged. “Listen, you guys, whether we can save the planet or not, we still have a project to do!”
    Robin yawned and gave a small nod. She wasn’t going to risk failing the assignment just because she thought it was a waste of time. Feeling a sneeze coming, she reached into her pocket for a tissue. When she pulled it out, some dog biscuits came too.
    Zo-Zo beamed at her. “Oh yeah, you’ve got puppies, don’t you?”
    “Puppies?” Brodie asked.
    “Didn’t you hear? Robin crawled on the ice and saved a dog. A dog that then had a bunch of puppies, right? That’s what my brother said your brother told him and —”
    Robin was going to strangle Squirm the moment she got home.
    Brodie eyed her with interest. “Wow. You rescued a dog?”
    “Can I see the puppies?” Zo-Zo pleaded. “I’ll take some pictures, and we can put them up on the Internet instead of that one of you wearing ketchup.”
    “Sure,” Robin said. Anything to get rid of