Free Cody by Ellen Miles

CHAPTER ONE
    “How about Dorothy and the Scarecrow?” Lizzie asked.
    “Hmmm . . .” Maria considered the idea.
    “It would be great!” Lizzie’s eyes lit up. “Buddy could be Toto. I could carry him in a picnic basket, just like Dorothy does in
The Wizard of Oz.”
    Lizzie Peterson loved Halloween. It was fun to dream up great costumes — even though she usually ended up being something simple, like a gypsy or a hobo. It was fun to be out in the streets of Littleton after dark on a fall evening — even though it was usually so cold or rainy that Mom made her wear a jacket over her costume. And, of course, it was fun to watch her trick-or-treat bag fill up little by little until it was bulging withcandy — even though Lizzie and her brothers were only allowed to eat two pieces a day. By Thanksgiving, whatever was left was stale and hardly worth unwrapping and chewing.
    Halloween this year would be even more fun than usual, for two reasons. First of all, Lizzie and her best friend, Maria, (and Charles and the Bean, Lizzie’s younger brothers) had been invited to ride on Chief Olson’s fire truck in the Littleton Halloween parade. Lizzie knew Chief Olson because her dad was a firefighter, too. But the truck that they’d be riding on wasn’t one of the town’s regular fire trucks. No, this was a really cool antique fire truck that belonged to Chief Olson. He kept it inside a giant garage behind his house. Lizzie could not wait to see how jealous everybody would be when they watched her drive by on the gleaming red truck, with its shiny brass fittings. That’s why she just
had
to come up with an especially good costume this year.
    The other reason Halloween would be specialwas because this year Buddy would be part of it. Buddy was the Petersons’ little brown puppy, and Lizzie loved him more than anything.
    The Peterson family had fostered lots of puppies who needed homes — taking care of them until they found the perfect forever family for each one — but although Buddy had started out as a foster puppy, he had ended up as a permanent member of the family. Which still felt so, so amazing to Lizzie. She and Charles and the Bean (whose real name was Adam) had wanted a dog of their own for so long, and now they had one! Not only that, they had
Buddy,
the best dog
ever.
    “I love you, Buddy,” Lizzie whispered right then, into her puppy’s silky ear. He was curled up all warm and sleepy on her lap at that very moment, while she and her best friend sat at the kitchen table after school eating apples and string cheese and planning their costumes.
    Maria was still thinking about Lizzie’s idea. She reached over and patted Buddy’s soft fur.“Why do
you
get to be Dorothy?” she asked. “What if I want to be Dorothy?”
    Lizzie thought for a moment. Maybe
The Wizard of Oz
theme wasn’t the best plan after all. “Okay, how about this? We could be fairies. Buddy could be an elf or a toadstool or something.”
    “Maybe,” Maria said. “But I thought you said fairies were stupid costumes.”
    “What?” Lizzie looked confused.
    “During lunch today, at school. Remember? We were all talking about costumes, and you said how sick you were of everybody being fairies, and how fairy costumes were totally
over.”
    “Oh. Right.” Lizzie sort of remembered.
    Maria frowned at her. “You don’t even remember? You were spouting off opinions all over the place. Not that anybody even
asked
your opinion. In fact, Shanna Garbeck told me afterward that she felt like an idiot because she had been planning on being a fairy.”
    Oops. “Oh, well.” Lizzie shrugged and stuck hernose into the soft, sweet-smelling fur on Buddy’s neck. She kissed him five times in a row. Buddy was so lovable!
    “You know . . .” Maria said. She looked down at the table and spoke very carefully. “Sometimes I’m almost a little embarrassed when you do that. I mean, it’s cool that you have strong opinions, but maybe it would be nice if