Free The Mighty Quinn by Robyn Parnell

was no reward for participating, aside from “the respect of our peers,” as Matt Barker scornfully put it. Josh, of course, agreed with Matt, but Tay did too, and even Sam. And so Quinn felt like a dork for caring about some stupid class project ...
    â€œ... but I do.”
    â€œExcuse me?” Neally elbowed Quinn. “You do what?”
    Quinn realized he must have spoken out loud. “Nothing.” Quinn glanced at the clock on Neally’s kitchen wall. “If Sam isn’t here in ten minutes, can we take his muffin to Mickey?”

14
THE HAMSTER PATCH QUILT

    â€œThanks for the bag of muffins.” Quinn waved goodbye to Mr. Standers, who stood on his front porch and blew a kiss to his daughter as Neally and Quinn set off for Quinn’s house.
    â€œMickey loves muffins. Mickey loves anything she can chew. She’ll be so excited for the treat she might forget about not getting to come to your house and see your cats.”
    â€œShe can come over next time,” Neally said. “She can have Sam’s muffin too, if he’s a no-show again. What did he say when you called?”
    â€œHe said he can’t find his piano books, and that he’ll meet us later at my house. I didn’t know you lived so close; you’re just three blocks away.” Quinn looked up at the soft, silvery clouds and shifted his book pack to his other shoulder. “Think it’s gonna rain?”
    â€œYep.” Neally lifted her hands, as if to push up the sky. “Sooner or later, it always does.”
    No one responded to Quinn’s I’m home! when he and Neally opened the front door. “Mom’s probably out back. You can leave your jacket here.” Quinn dropped his pack on a wooden bench in the entryway. “I’ll show you Mickey’s room, upstairs. That’s where the rodents are.”
    Neally bounded up the stairs. “I’ve always wanted a hamster, or a guinea pig. I’d settle for a mouse, but Mom says Yin and Yang would find a way to break into the cage, and the mouse would soon be mincemeat.”
    It was neither Quinn’s hamster nor Mickey’s rat that caught Neally’s attention when she entered Mickey’s room. “Fantabulous!” She pointed to the wall by the closet, where a quilt hung from a wooden rod nailed across the top of the wall. The quilt covered the entire wall, down to the carpet. The quilt’s background was a pink cotton cloth, with an overlay pattern composed of a series of interlocking circles made from patches of multicolored fabrics.
    â€œGrandma Andrews, my dad’s mom, made it for me before I was born,” Quinn said. “See how the circles overlap? That’s called a double wedding ring, which is a famous quilt pattern. We call this the Hamster Patch Quilt. Grandma told dad she knew his first child would be a girl ...”
    â€œHa! What’d I tell you? Adults think they know everything, even when they’re wrong.”
    â€œ... so she made the quilt’s background pink.”

    â€œWhy is it the Hamster Patch Quilt? The circles don’t look like hamsters.”
    â€œI used to keep the cage on a table at the end of my bed. One day, Peppy the First ...”
    â€œThe First?”
    â€œAll of our hamsters have been named Peppy. It’s a tradition. Anyway, I used to have the quilt for a bedspread, and one morning I threw the covers back too far, and Peppy reached through the bars of his cage and got hold of the quilt. When I got home from school, Mom said I had to check out the fanciest hamster nest in the world. A bunch of colored shreds were mixed in with the wood shavings in his cage; Peppy had made his nest from parts of the quilt he’d chewed off! He was so proud of what he’d done. He kept running onto his wheel and then back to his nest, to make sure I saw it.”
    â€œYou have to be kidding me.”
    â€œI kid you not.” Quinn pointed