Free Welcome to Dog Beach by Lisa Greenwald

Bennett doesn’t have to take Asher everywhere by himself; he has Micayla and me to go with him.
    It doesn’t really matter what we do together—we always have fun.
    One time we spent a whole afternoon throwing pebbles across the walkway to the beach. It was a rainy day, so no one was really walking there, and we made up this whole game, seeing how far the pebbles could go. Most people would have probably thought it was really dumb, but we loved it.
    That’s just the kind of friends we are.

I don’t really need a day to think about Dawn’s job offer. Of course I am going to watch Oscar. We bonded immediately. I have Marilyn Monroe, and she’s great, but it’s kind of like the saying that you can never have too many friends. You can never have too many dog friends either!
    Plus, I feel a little bit bad for Oscar. He was Dawn’s first baby (she even said it herself), and now she doesn’t really have time for him. I wonder how often dogs are replaced by babies. It makes sense, I guess, but it must be really hard for the dog.
    There should be some kind of doggie support group where they could go and bark as loud and as often as they need to and get out their frustrations. Maybe Oscar ran away because he needed attention and wasn’t getting it.
    Poor guy. I want to help him.
    My Oscar-watching time might cut into my Micayla and Bennett time, but I’m sure we can work it out. We’ve navigated the two mornings I’m with Marilyn Monroe, and we can navigate this too.
    I daydream a perfect schedule while I eat my Froot Loops on the front porch and wait for Bennett and Micayla to get here.
    My parents are at the Seagate Art Festival today. It starts at ten, but they got special passes for the early exhibit that started at eight. I don’t think anything is worth getting up at eight in the morning, but they do. I’m just glad they didn’t make me go with them.
    They are making me meet them there later, to see the special exhibit on Minnie Lions, an artist who spent her whole life on Seagate, photographing everyday objects. My parents are obsessed with her work, and I’m a fan too.
    I’m excited to see it, just not so early in the morning.
    In my perfect schedule, I would watch Oscar in the mornings, bring him back to his home, and then maybe watch him again in the afternoons. That way I can spend the middle chunk of the day with my friends. That’s when we go swimming or surfing or just relax on the beach.
    I finish my Froot Loops and then run upstairs to put on a bathing suit. It’s so easy to get dressed on Seagate. Breakfast in pajamas, never worrying about what to wear for the day—always just a bathing suit with shorts and a T-shirt over it. When I was little, I would walk around Seagate inonly a bathing suit and no one minded, but now it just feels awkward to do that.
    When you think about bathing suits too much, you realize how weird they are. You’re pretty much just wearing underwear, but underwear that everyone can see.
    I’m upstairs changing into my turquoise-and-white two-piece when I hear Bennett and Micayla downstairs. I quickly make sure my door is closed. The safety of Seagate is also a little bit nerve-racking—friends can walk into your house anytime, including when you’re changing!
    When I’m dressed, I find them downstairs looking through one of my mom’s furniture catalogs and eating Cheerios out of the box.
    â€œThis chair is way awesome,” Bennett says. “It’s like a chair bed. Right? Doesn’t it look big enough to sleep on?”
    â€œSure.” Micayla turns the page.
    I wonder how long I can stand here without them noticing me. It’s strange how engrossed they are in this catalog. My mom is obsessed with furniture, so she subscribes to tons of magazines, and pretty much every furniture designer in the world sends her a catalog. The same way I like to imagine perfect