Free Welcome to Dog Beach by Lisa Greenwald Page A

schedules, she likes to daydream about redecorating.
    If it were up to her, she’d redecorate every year. She loves changing things up. And I’m exactly the opposite. If it were up to me, my room on Seagate would still look the way it did when Grandma owned the house. And my room in Manhattan would look the same way it did when I was a little girl.
    I just like things to stay the same.
    â€œOh, hey, Rem,” Bennett says. Is it possible that he’s gotten taller in just one day? Looking at him sitting in one of our wooden kitchen chairs, it seems like his head is a whole foot above Micayla’s. I wonder if it was always like this and I just didn’t notice. “People are setting up the Sandcastle Contest and I said I’d help. Micayla’s in too. You’re gonna come, right?”
    We always help set up the Sandcastle Contest. We help get all the supplies organized and hang the banners and walk around Seagate getting people to sign up. But I’d totally forgotten about it. I need to go to Dawn’s and tell her that I will help with Oscar.
    Then I realize that Bennett and I never officially said we were going to watch Oscar together, but Dawn asked him too—not just me. In my head, I made the decision that I’d do it, but I don’t know if he did. And he’s actually the one who found Oscar in the first place.
    I reach into the box for a handful of Cheerios. I never get sick of cereal. I could eat cereal all day, every day, and be fine with it.
    â€œOh, what’d you decide to do about watching Oscar?” Bennett asks as if he read my mind. “I really want to, but it’s going to be hard on the days I have to walk Asher to and from camp. My mom ended up taking him today because I forgot about the Sandcastle Contest.”
    â€œI want to do it,” I tell them with my mouth full of Cheerios.It sounds gross, but sometimes it’s okay to be gross with your best friends.
    â€œWhat are you guys talking about?” Micayla asks. “Anything I should know about?”
    Micayla was out to dinner at Picnic last night for her parents’ anniversary. Picnic is Seagate’s fanciest restaurant, and it’s a really ironic name. When people think about picnics, they think casual and sitting on the grass and stuff, but this place is super fancy—white tablecloths, tall crystal glasses just for water, and even the salads cost a lot of money. The food is good, but it’s the kind of place where you have to whisper during the meal, and eating there always takes forever. It’s not really my kind of restaurant.
    So we tell Micayla the whole story, and she says, “Well, I want to watch Oscar too!”
    I look at Bennett and he looks at me and again I wonder if we’re talking with our eyes or not. We’re going to have to have a real conversation with words about whether we can still talk with our eyes.
    â€œRemember how I was the one who was really able to communicate with Danish?” Micayla reminds us. “I mean, I have a gift. I’m practically Mary Poppins.”
    We were obsessed with that movie when we were little, especially the parts when Mary was able to communicate with Andrew, the dog. So over the years, Micayla convinced us that she was able to have conversations with dogs too.
    Danish would bark, and Micayla would talk, and thenDanish would bark back. But his pitch would always change, and it really seemed like Micayla understood what his barks meant, and that Danish understood Micayla’s words.
    I had totally forgotten about that, even though I have conversations with Marilyn Monroe all the time. But I didn’t think I had magical powers—the conversations just seemed normal to me.
    â€œI don’t think Dawn would mind,” Bennett says. “And it would really help to have more people, especially when I have to watch Asher and you guys have to do, um, more lying on the beach.”
    We both hit