Free Emily's Dream by Holly Webb

please buy it! It’ll look really nice with flowersin – like the barn’s got people here all the time.”
    “Someone’s coming with a dog,” Poppy called from the top of the stepladder. “I can hear barking.”
    “Oh, maybe it’s Lucy,” Emily said, hurrying over to look. “She said she’d come if there weren’t too many people looking round the shelter this afternoon.” Then she squeaked delightedly. “Mrs Everett! And you’ve got Charlie. Mum, look, I know you’ve met Mrs Everett, but this is her gorgeous dog that I’ve been walking.” She made a fuss of Charlie, tickling him under the chin until he rolled over and waved his paws in the air.
    Her mum laughed and crouched down to stroke him. “He’s lovely. You know, your dad had a dog really like Charlie when we first met. He was called Tigger because he bounced everywhere.”
    Emily nodded. “Charlie’s a bit bouncy when he’s about to go for a walk, but most of the time he’s a little star. Aren’t you?”
    Charlie wriggled the right way up, and did his angelic melting-eyed look at Emily’s mum, resting his chin on her knees and staring up at her soulfully.
    Emily looked up anxiously at Mrs Everett. “I’ve just thought. You’ve come a long way. Are you… I mean, is your leg all right?”
    Mrs Everett smiled at her, and sighed. “I might sit down on that bit of wall over there for a bit, Emily. I’m having a good day, and it’s been a lovely walk, but it’s a bit far for me now, to be honest. But haven’t you made the old barn look nice? Cutting the grass has made a huge difference. And the paint! How’s the planning coming along?”
    Emily had told Mrs Everett all about the rescue centre, and the party. Mrs Everett always invited her in after she’d walked Charlie, and she was nice to talk to. She’d had some good ideas for the party already. Emily’s favourite was a craft table for everyone to make animal hats to dress up in.
    “We’re going to have a dog show. Oh! You could enter Charlie, he’d win waggiest tail, no problem. Actually—” Emily looked hopeful. “Would you like to be a judge instead? You’d be really good at it!”
    “Oh, yes.” Poppy nodded, peering down from the ladder. “You, and Lucy from the rescue centre. That would be great.”
    “I’d love to.” Mrs Everett smiled at them all. “I was trying to think of a way I could help you all. Oooh, I’m looking forward to this party now, girls. You’d better decide on a date and get those tickets out there, hadn’t you?”

SEVEN
    Emily and Maya checked with Lucy about the date for the party when she came to see how they were doing later on. She was amazed at how good they’d made the barn look.
    “I wish we’d thought about doing something like this ages ago,” she murmured, wandering around the barn as they told her all their plans.
    “We need you to help us choose when to have the party,” Emily explained. “It would be great if you could help with the dog-show judging – you know loads about dogs. And we’ll need to make sure there’s lots of volunteers at the shelter on the day too, to show people around.”
    They were all really hoping that some party guests would fall in love with the cats and dogs they saw, and that lots of the pets would end up being rehomed.
    “Do you think we can still have the party in half-term?”Izzy suggested. “That’s what you said first of all, wasn’t it? Do you think we can be ready in time? It’s only three weeks from now. Four weeks if we made the party on the second Saturday. And that’s the first of June, so it’ll be an easy date for people to remember, too.”
    Lucy nodded. “That sounds good to me. I’ll let all the volunteers know that it would be great if they could help out then.”
    “And they get to come to the party as well,” Emily added quickly. “Just not all at the same time.”
    Izzy looked down at her notes worriedly. “I really hope it doesn’t rain. I know we wanted the