Zoo Breath (10 page)

I ran back out and set the bowl on the
grass. I grinned. Wouldn’t it be funny if Streak really could gargle? But wait. What if she just drank it up? Would it hurt her? Naah. It’d only be a sip.

Streak headed right for it. I grabbed her. “Hang on, girl. First Julio has to test your breath so we can see if this makes it better.”

Julio grinned. “Nice try.”

“Fine.” I faked a scowl. “Streak. Open up.”

I put my face close to hers. She licked my
nose. Streak just smelled like a dog. I didn’t know what Mom and Stella were complaining about.

“Stink?” Julio asked.

“Little bit fishy, but … no.”

“Huh.”

“You try,” I said. “Just to be sure.”

He hesitated, then leaned in. “Yack!” he spat, wiping his lips when Streak licked them.

“So?” I asked.

“That was sick.”

Streak, meanwhile, lapped up the mouthwash.

“Hey!” I pulled her away.

Streak worked her mouth, like she had something stuck to her tongue.

“I don’t think she liked it.”

“Check her now,” Julio said.

I did. She’d never smelled so good.

“WHAT are you DOING?” someone snapped.

I jumped and fell back.

Stella hovered over us, looking down with
her hands on her hips. “Did you just smell that dog’s breath?”

I shook my head. “No.”

Stella grinned. “Did you kiss her?”

“NO!”

Stella threw her head back and laughed. She headed into the house, singing, “Calvin kissed her on the lips, now the dog is gonna get sick! Calvin kissed her on the—”

“STOP!”

The screen door slapped shut. I could hear her cackling, even in the house.

Darci ran to the window like, What’s going on out there?

Mom called from the garage. “Calvin!”

I turned. “Yeah, Mom?”

“Could you come here a minute? There’s something dead.”

I
headed over to Mom, still angry at Stella.

Mom put her hand on my shoulder. “A very bad smell drifted through my bedroom window all night long. Can you boys find out where it’s coming from and remove it?”

“Sure, Mom.” I grabbed the shovel from the garage in case we had to bury something.

Then I got an idea.

“Hey, Mom, I bet Streak can find it. She has a nose for stuff.” The more good things I could say about Streak the better.

“I believe that one hundred percent, Cal.”

Me, Julio, and Streak set out with our noses and the shovel.

I’d forgotten all about Stella until I saw her in the window making kissy faces at me.

I held up the pooper scooper shovel blade and pretended to lick it.

Her kissy face froze. “That is so disgusting!” she shouted, her voice muffled by the window.

Julio tapped my arm. “Look. I think your dog found it.”

Just outside Mom’s
window a dead toad lay bloated and maggoty on the grass. Streak crept up to it.

“No!” I said. “Come away from that.”

Streak backed off.

Julio pulled his T-shirt up over his nose. “I bet that’s what she rolled in. Man, that stinks.”

I grunted and shoveled up the dead bufo. “Should we put it in a jar?”

“Sheese, Calvin! Toss that thing.”

I catapulted it into the bushes. “Boing.”

“You prob’ly should have buried it,” Julio said. “Still going stink.”

“Too late now. No way I’m going in those bushes looking for it.”

Julio tapped my arm. “Check out who’s here.”

I turned to see.

Maya headed into the yard from the street. “Hey,” she said. “What are you doing?”

“Scooping up dead stuff. What are
you
doing?”

“Nothing. I’m bored.”

Julio glanced up the street. “Where’s Shayla?”

“Home, I guess.”

I squinted at her. “Why were you spying on us?”

Maya gave us a surprised, innocent look. “Spying?”

“You and Shayla. Spying by the golf course. Spying in the bushes.”

She glanced at the dog-doo bushes and frowned. “You must be thinking of someone else. Why would we spy on you? I can just walk up and see you anytime I want.”

Julio scoffed. “We saw it was you.”

Maya shook her head. “A case of mistaken identity.”

This was going nowhere. “Okay, fine,” I said. “We know it was you, but forget it. What are you and Shayla working on for your research project?”

Maya smiled. “Secret.”

“Come on,” Julio said. “We won’t steal it.”

“Tell me yours first.”

I shook my head. “Can’t. Secret.”

“Well, there you go,” Maya said.

We looked at each other.

“So,” Maya said.

“So,” I said back.

Julio stepped in. “So this: How come Shayla was over at your house? You like her now, or what?”

Maya grinned. “She likes Calvin.”

“Shuddup!” I said.

Maya laughed. “She’s not so bad.”

Julio’s jaw dropped. “Not so bad? Are you kidding? She’s snoopy. She’s annoying. She’s a pest.”

“She’s kind of sad.”

That jolted me.
“Sad?
Why?”

Maya bunched her lips. “No brothers and sisters, no friends, really … and her dad just left to go live somewhere else for a while.”

“How come?” Julio asked.

Maya shrugged.

I could understand the part about Shayla’s dad leaving. “Too bad,” I said.

Julio nodded. “Well … she’s smart, I guess. Even if she is weird.”

“She’s not weird,” Maya said. “And don’t talk about my research partner like that.”

Julio put his hands up in surrender.

Maya punched him in the gut. But not hard.

“Hey!”

“Sorry to break up such a fun time,” I said. “But me and Julio got our project to do.”

“So what is it?”

I smiled. “What’s yours?”

Maya scoffed and headed away. Over her shoulder she said, “Whatever yours is, ours is better! In fact, if I was you two I wouldn’t even come to school on Tuesday!”

“What does that mean?”

She laughed, and jogged up the street.

“I didn’t like the sound of that.”

Streak barked once, then cocked her head.

Julio snorted. “Streak didn’t like it, either.”

O
n Monday Mr. Tanaka (the rock star librarian who had musical instruments set up all over the school library) let me, Julio, Willy, and Rubin work on our projects during recess. We had things to look up, ideas to nail down. We hunched around a table.

“You guys have any props?” Willy asked.

I reached into my backpack, pulled out the jar, and held it up.