Free Bella by Ellen Miles

CHAPTER ONE
    “Happy birthday, dear Maria,” sang Lizzie, along with everyone else. “Happy birthday to you!”
    Lizzie gave Maria a special smile as she sang. There were a lot of kids at the party — almost everybody in their class was there — but everyone knew that Lizzie Peterson and Maria Santiago were best friends. They sat next to each other in class, played on the same kickball team at recess, and always ate lunch together. They had the same favorite color (purple) and the same lucky number (eight). They both loved fudge ripple ice cream, cool socks, snowstorms, and reading.
    Most of all, Lizzie and Maria loved animals. That was why Maria had decided to have herbirthday party at Caring Paws, the animal shelter where she and Lizzie both volunteered. It was Lizzie’s idea: she had gotten all excited when she had read about a boy who had his party at a shelter. “Instead of presents,” she’d told Maria, “everybody brought donations for the animals.”
    Maria wasn’t so sure at first. “Why don’t you do it for
your
birthday?” she’d asked Lizzie.
    “I will, but mine’s not for months and yours is coming right up. I know your real birthday isn’t until Monday, but we can have the party on Saturday. Come on, it’ll be fun! We can play animal-themed games, and decorate the meeting room with colorful paw prints, and have a dog bone–shaped cake, and everything.” Lizzie was full of ideas, and she could be very convincing. “It’s a great Caring Club activity, too. Think of all the donations you’ll get for the shelter.Ms. Dobbins will be very happy.” Ms. Dobbins was the shelter’s director.
    When Lizzie had started the Caring Club, Maria had been one of the first to join. Caring Club was for kids who loved animals and wanted to help them.
    Maria’s favorite animals were horses. She loved to ride, and she spent a lot of time at the stable. Lizzie had gone with her a few times, and had even taken riding lessons for a while, but she had never learned to love horses as much as she loved dogs.
    Lizzie really, really loved dogs.
    In fact, Lizzie was dog-crazy.
    She collected model dogs. She had a whole shelf of books about dogs and dog training. She had a “Dog Breeds of the World” poster hanging over her bed. And, best of all, she had a dog of her very own: Buddy, the cutest puppy in the history of theuniverse. Buddy was a sweet, gentle, funny, medium-sized mutt, mostly brown but with a heart-shaped white patch on his chest. Lizzie adored him, and so did the rest of the family: her mom, her dad, and her younger brothers, Charles and the Bean (whose actual name was Adam).
    The Petersons had first met Buddy when he came to them as a foster puppy along with his two sisters and their dog mom. The Petersons had fostered lots of puppies; that meant they took care of puppies who needed homes, just until they found each puppy the perfect forever family. But they had all fallen in love with Buddy, so they had decided to keep him.
    Maria had a dog, too — or rather, her mother did. Simba, a big yellow Lab, was a Seeing Eye dog. He was trained to help Mrs. Santiago, who was blind. With Simba, Mrs. Santiago could cross busy streets, do grocery shopping, go for a hike in the woods — anything! Simba wasn’t exactly apet, but he was a smart, good dog. He was there now at Maria’s birthday party, helping guide Mrs. Santiago as she carried a bone-shaped chocolate cake to the table while everyone sang.
    Maria shut her eyes, made a wish (Lizzie knew it was for a horse of her own), and blew out the candles. She had just started to cut the first slice when Ms. Dobbins opened the door and poked her head into the room. “I can tell you’re having a good time in here,” she said, smiling. “I wanted to thank you all for the donations. The animals and I appreciate your generosity.” She waved a hand at the pile of donations that the party guests had brought. It took up a whole corner of the room.
    Lizzie looked