Smart Dog by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online Page A

looked at Amy.
    Across the room, one of the boys at Kaitlyn's table called out in a singsong rhyme:
    "Minneh, Minneh!
Take your tray,
and go away!"
    This was followed by loud laughter, as though the silly rhyme was something clever.
    "May I sit with you?" Minneh asked in such a little voice that Amy went ahead and nodded, even though she and Sean had more to talk about. Minneh put her tray down, then sat quietly for a moment, not saying anything and not looking at either of them. Finally, staring down at her food, she said, "Kaitlyn said I couldn't sit at her table."
    Of course Kaitlyn had more people wanting to sit at her table than there could ever be room for, but Minneh was one of the regulars, one of—Amy had thought—Kaitlyn's best friends.
    Sean, being a boy and not having the sense to be polite, asked the question Amy Was dying to ask: "How come?"
    "Because I walked home with Amy yesterday."
    Amy remembered Minneh had been there but waited for her to explain more.
    Minneh stared at a spot between Amy and Sean. "See, I live on Ravenwood Terrace, which runs between Thurston Road and Genesee Park Boulevard, so I can walk home on either street, except that I always go on the boulevard, with Kaitlyn. But yesterday Amy had all those people with her, laughing and having fun with her dog doing tricks and everything, and I said to Kaitlyn that for just this once I thought I'd walk down Thurston. Just to be sure, I even asked if that was OK."
    She asked for permission?
Amy thought in wonder.
    "And Kaitlyn said"—Minneh tossed her head—"'Do what you think is best.' Which I thought meant she didn't mind." Minneh went back to staring down at her food. "But this morning she wouldn't talk to me at all, and when I went to take my usual seat, she said..."
    Amy leaned closer. "She said..." she prompted, as tactless as Sean because she was dying to know.
    Minneh mumbled, "'Nobody here wants your company. Go see if the lovebirds are willing to take you.'" She looked up at Amy and Sean quickly, as though afraid she'd offended them by repeating this. "I was so afraid you'd say I couldn't sit here, and then I wouldn't have known what to do. Everybody was watching, sure you'd tell me to go away, and then there I'd be, holding my lunch, and no place to sit down."
    Amy saw that Kaitlyn and her crowd
were
watching, ready to laugh. "We
did
have a good time yesterday, didn't we?" Amy said. "With those fourth graders howling?"
    A bubble of laughter burst from Minneh. She quickly put her hands over her mouth.
    "Howling?" Sean asked.
    "You know," Amy said. She demonstrated, whisper fashion.
    People at the surrounding tables turned to look.
    Minneh covered her mouth again, for people in Kaitlyn's crowd always wanted to appear at their sophisticated best. But her eyes sparkled with amusement.
    "That's not a howl," Sean said. "That's a pathetic little yodel." He threw his head back and
howled.
    Everyone
turned to look.
    Minneh joined in, hesitantly, unsure at first, then louder.
    Why not?
Amy thought, and howled along with them until Sister Mary Grace came over and asked, "Is that absolutely necessary?"
    They stopped howling, but found other things to laugh about until—how could the half hour have gone by so quickly?—the bell rang and they had to scramble to clear the table.

Being Watched
    "I can't ever remember laughing so much," Minneh told Amy as the fifth-grade classes filed outside to the playground.
    "Nonsense," Amy said. "Kaitlyn and her crowd are always laughing."
    Minneh became thoughtful. "Yeah, well," she said slowly, "with Kaitlyn, we're always laughing
at
other people. You know, Kaitlyn can be hysterically funny—if you're not the one she's poking fun at."
    "Hmm," Amy said.
Is that why she's so popular?
she wondered.
Do people always want to be around her just to lessen the chance that they'll be the one she's laughing at?
    Minneh finished, "But you're not so much funny, as fun."
    Amy didn't know what to say, but she was pleased.