Jenny Goebel - Pigture Perfect

To my beloved grandmothers, Evelyn and Betty

hen I saw the sticky note tucked in my stepdads desk drawer, I felt a prickle of excitement. The note read: Peak Veterinary Clinic. Id found dozens of yellow sticky notes all over Mr. Pines house since Mom and I had moved in. Some of his notes were reminders like Change the furnace filter or Pick up laundry from the dry cleaners. Others were more random: the name of a series he wanted to watch on Netflix or the date of an upcoming meteor shower. However, not one of the other notes had been anywhere near as intriguing as this one.

My stepdads sticky note obsession seemed slightly out of character considering he was such a neat freak. But Mom said organization wasnt the point of all his notes. She thought he developed the habit because hed lived alone too longwhich I found troubling. If things had been so boring that sticky notes had counted as conversation, well, it was no wonder I was causing such a disruption to his life. Mom thought it might help us get used to each other if I called him Nathan or Dad, but since I couldnt see me or my stepdad ever feeling comfortable with that, Id stuck with Mr. Pine.

Did you find one? Moms voice rang from down the hall and I sprang back. It felt like Id been caught in the act, but I hadnt been snooping. Mom had sent me rummaging through my stepdads desk in search of a red pen.

Not yet, I called absently. My thoughts were still on the sticky note. There were no pets in the house, not even a goldfish, so why would Mr. Pine have the name of a vet written down? My heart thundered in my ears as I peeled back the first note and found a second one beneath: AppointmentDecember 27, 11:00 a.m.

An appointment. At a veterinary clinic. Two days after Christmas. It could only mean one thingI was finally getting a dog! In less than a week, there would be a cuddly four-legged companion waiting for me beneath the Christmas tree.

A squeal threatened to burst from my lungs, but I didnt want to ruin the surprise, and I didnt want to alarm Mr. Pine, who was sleeping right down the hall. I managed to swallow it back, but something like a whimper escaped my lips.

This was going to be the most spectacular, most amazing, most extraordinary Christmas ever. Not only was there snow in the forecast, for the first time in my life, Mom and I were living in a house instead of an apartmentwhich meant we had a yard. A big, canine-friendly yard. Moms standard excuse for why we couldnt have a dog had been erased when she got married two months ago and we moved in with Mr. Pine. Unlike our cramped apartment, his larger home had a fence all the way around the property.

Grace? Moms footsteps sounded on the hardwood right outside the office. I flipped the sticky notepad over and slid it back inside the drawer barely a second before Mom peeked her head around the corner and said, Grace? again.

I flashed her an unnatural smile.

Mom sized me up. She was dressed for work in a smart pantsuit and was holding a stack of holiday cards for all my teachers. She wanted the cards to have a festive feelhence the need for a red pen. Are you feeling all right?

She stepped closer and placed a hand on my forehead. Her touch was warm and smooth. It quieted the bubbles fizzling inside me, and I felt my smile relax into something more normal. Im fine, I said. Just anxious for winter break, thats all.

Mom nodded, clearly relieved. She glanced down at the open drawer and fished out a blue ballpoint pen before ramming the drawer shut. This will have to do. Then she quickly scribbled names on all the cards before handing me the stack. You better get going. Youll miss the bus.

I took the cards, pecked her on the cheek, and bounded out of the room. Hopefully, she attributed the extra spring in my step to the fact that I was mere hours away from the freedom that came with winter break and didnt suspect that Id uncovered the best Christmas surprise of my life.

Mom asked me to make a Christmas list every year. For the past seven yearsever since I learned to writethe number one thing on my list had been the samea doodle dog. Labradoodle, Goldendoodle, Dalmadoodle, Sheepadoodle, Great DanoodleId take any one of them. Really, Id take any dog, but I knew a doodle dog would be hypoallergenic, and that was important because Mom had an intense sneezing reaction to anything with fur.

But this year, she hadnt asked me to make a list. I thought it was because shed been too preoccupied with all the traveling shed been doing since her big promotion at work. But the notes in Mr. Pines desk drawer revealed the real reason. She hadnt needed me to. Mom already knew what I wanted.

Now that Id uncovered the secret, it would kill me to hold it in until Christmas morning. I had to tell someone, and my best friend, Sydney, immediately sprang to mind. Most days, I didnt see her until lunchtime at school. Today, I needed to find her before first period. This was too important to wait.

I walked on air to the bus stop and was so fidgety while waiting that I might as well have been dancing. When the bus pulled up, I accidently made eye contact with Liam Rossi through one of the rectangular windows. He wiped away a thin layer of fog with his shirtsleeve, and his lips quirked into a goofy smile. I immediately felt self-conscious. Thankfully, it was only Liam who had witnessed my silly behavior. He was a little on the weird side, so I doubted hed be one to judge me for acting strangely. Still, I reined in my Muppet arms and boarded at once.

I slid into my usual seat next to Jana. Unlike Liam, Jana was too wrapped up in her own anticipation to notice I could hardly sit still. Her family was traveling to New York City for the holidays. They had tickets for two Broadway shows and, more importantly, to see the Rockettes in Radio Citys Christmas Spectacular.

With Jana babbling about her trip, I managed to bottle up my own excitement for the entire bus ride. Really, it was for the best. Sydney would not be happy if I told Jana something this big before I told her.

As soon as the bus arrived at Riverbend Middle, I shot from my seat and raced down the sidewalk and through the glass doors. Once inside, I immediately began scanning for my best friend. I hated not being able to walk to school with her now that I rode the bus.

Last year, when Sydney and I were in fifth grade at Riverbend Elementary, we were both in the same homeroom and we hardly spent a moment apart all day long. Now that we were in middle school, we only had two classes together. They were both in the afternoon. The first day of middle school had been sheer misery when I realized I wouldnt see her all morning. Three different elementary schools fed into Riverbend Middle. So, many of the faces in my classes had been new. I didnt automatically have the status of being Sydneys best friend. And the students I didnt know, even some of the teachers, had treated me differently. My jokes werent as funny; at least I didnt get the same responses. When I spoke, no one seemed to care what I had to say. Nobody was clamoring to be with me for group work. Without Sydney, I wasnt as bright or smart or worthy.