Free Cody by Ellen Miles Page A

you could wait until you’re
asked
for your opinion, instead of just offering it like that.”
    Lizzie stared at Maria. “You’re
embarrassed
?” she asked. “Why?”
    “Because I’m your best friend, I guess.” Maria frowned and waved her hand as if trying to get rid of a bad smell in the air. “Look, forget it. Let’s go back to talking about costumes.”
    Lizzie did go back to talking about costumes. But she did not “forget it.” She couldn’t. This was not the first time that somebody had told Lizzie that she was too outspoken. Her mom had said so more than once, and even her dadhad mentioned it, laughingly. “That’s our Lizzie!” he’d said. “Always has an opinion — and she’s always ready to share it!”
    As she and Maria talked, Lizzie felt hot all over, even though it was cool in the kitchen. Silently, she vowed yet again to work harder at keeping her opinions to herself, at least until somebody
begged
for her thoughts.
    “Hey!” Charles came into the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. “Wait’ll you hear
this
one!”
    Maria and Lizzie both groaned. Lately, Charles and his best friend, Sammy, had been driving everybody
crazy
— in a new way. It was bad enough when they were going through their knock-knock joke phase. But now they had decided to write a book:
101 Dog Jokes,
it was going to be called. Lizzie figured she had already heard about
five
hundred and one.
    “Okay, ready?” Charles asked. He was already giggling. “What kind of dog does Dracula have?”He finally managed to squeak out the question. Charles was always his own best audience.
    “I give up,” Lizzie said.
    “Me, too,” Maria agreed.
    “A bloodhound!” Charles crowed. He cracked up, barely seeming to notice that the two girls were groaning, not laughing. “That’s definitely one for the book!” Still laughing, he went to the fridge to look for a snack.
    “Where’s Sammy?” Lizzie asked.
    “Home,” Charles mumbled, around a mouthful of grapes. “Working on his poster for Fire Prevention Week. He really wants to win the contest this year.”
    Lizzie and Maria had already made their posters, even though they both knew that Noah Burke would win the contest in their grade. He always did. Noah was the best artist at Littleton Elementary.
    “Where are Mom and the Bean?” Charles asked.
    “Upstairs. Mom’s working on an article and theBean’s taking a nap.” Mrs. Peterson was a reporter for the Littleton newspaper. Lizzie held up a hand. “Toss me one of those grapes.”
    Charles tossed. Lizzie caught the grape and ate it.
Yum.
“Try getting one in my mouth,” she said. She opened wide and Charles lobbed a grape in a high arc. It missed by a mile.
    Buddy tried to scramble off Lizzie’s lap to chase after the grape. “Oh, no, you don’t,” said Lizzie, holding him tightly. Maria knelt down to find the grape, which had rolled under the table. Lizzie and Maria had recently learned on the Internet that grapes were not good for dogs.
    Just then, the doorbell rang. “Who’s
that
?” Lizzie said. Hardly anybody ever used the front door at their house.
    “Lizzie, can you see who’s there?” Mom called from upstairs.
    Lizzie put Buddy down and headed for the door. Buddy followed right at her heels. “You stayinside,” she told him, holding him back with her foot as she opened the door.
    There on the porch stood Sammy from next door, along with his mom. Sammy was grinning. His mom was not. She was holding a braided leather leash. And at the other end of the leash was a puppy! A panting, pulling puppy. “We just found this guy tied to the apple tree in our front yard,” said Sammy’s mom. “I think whoever left him didn’t have the address quite right,” she added. She handed the leash to Lizzie, along with a big white envelope. The envelope was addressed
“To the People Who Take Care of Puppies.
“

CHAPTER TWO
    The puppy started to bark and pull at the leash as soon as he saw Lizzie. He