and raced toward
his house, dragging a giggling Marie on the leash behind him.
Noelle dashed after them. “See you next week!”
Within minutes, the dog had slid onto the Earls’ porch.
“Uh-oh, trouble,” Noelle said, pointing to the garden.
A huge brown mutt sniffed and sifted through Mrs. Earl’s tomato
patch, ignoring the girls. “Think he’ll fight with Ralphie?” asked
Noelle.
“I doubt it,” Marie said, “but we’d better be careful—”
Suddenly, before Marie could finish, Ralphie jerked the leash out
of her hand and charged at the brown dog. The brown dog looked up,
barked, and raced after Ralphie.
“Stop!” Marie shouted. “Ralphie, stop!”
But Ralphie didn’t stop. He leaped at the other dog and put two
front paws on the brown dog’s side. Then the two dogs nipped at each
other’s necks. The dogs fell onto the lawn, wrestling and growling.
“Oh, no!” cried Noelle.
When the dogs heard Noelle, they stopped playing and turned to
the girls, their tongues dangling in excitement.
“They’re friends!” Noelle said.
“Who are you, big guy?” Marie asked.
“No name, but look!” Noelle pointed to a gold metal charm that
dangled from the collar. “Madeleine’s trained him.”
“Hey, poochie. Where do you live?” Marie asked.
Ralphie jumped on top of the brown dog. After the girls laughed,
he leaped on Noelle. “Down, Ralphie!” Noelle said. “Sit.”
Ralphie sat. And so did the brown dog.
“See?” Noelle said. “Trained.”
“Let me try something.” Marie held out her hand to the brown dog
and said firmly, “Shake.”
The brown dog held out its paw. Ralphie held out his paw, too.
Marie stood up. “Roll over. Play dead. Speak.” Both dogs obeyed
each command.
“Madeleine has trained this dog,” said Marie. “We could ask her
where it lives, but we don’t know where she lives.”
“If Madeleine’s trained this dog, then it knows her commands,”
said Noelle.
“And?”
“And we’ll find out where it lives,” Noelle said.
“How?”
“You’ll see,” said Noelle.
How did Noelle find out where the brown dog lived? Tap here for the answer.
An Elephant for
President?
Someone’s trying to ruin Marie and Noelle’s
campaign. Could it be . . . the boys?
The campaign poster showed an elephant with a girl’s head on it.
A long trunk stretched out from the girl’s head. The caption read, “Vote
for Marie Cantu—she nose what to do.”
Marie admitted it was a clever idea, but she really was planning
to run for student body president, and this silly poster could hurt her
chances.
“Cute,” said Noelle. “I’ve never seen a brown-haired elephant.”
“Let me show you something really bad.” Noelle dragged Marie
down the hall to another taped-up poster. This one had a hippopotamus
with Noelle’s head on it. Noelle’s curly brown hair hung to the ground.
This campaign slogan said, “Hippo, Hippo, Hurray! Noelle Dee for
Lincoln Middle School Vice President!”
“That is bad,” Marie said. “They’re all over the school. Everyone’s
seen them!”
“Who do you think did it?” asked Noelle.
“I have no idea, but it’s someone who doesn’t want us—”
“—elected.” Noelle broke in, finishing Marie’s sentence as she often
did. The girls dropped their notebooks to take the posters down, but just
then the bell rang. School was starting. The posters would have to wait.
At morning recess, Marie and Noelle grabbed three of their
friends—Rose James, Sage Matthews, and Faith Peterson—to help take
down posters. But as they walked up and down the halls, they found that
the posters were already gone.
“Did you see them?” asked Marie.
“Everybody saw them,” said Faith.
“Thank goodness the custodian took them down.”
“Too bad,” said Faith. “I wanted one as a souvenir. They were
funny.”
The girls talked as they walked out to the playground.
“They were funny,” said Noelle, “but they might cost Marie and me
the election. We want to find out who put them up.”
“Probably one of the boys,” said Sage.
“Possibly,” added Marie. “But it looks like the poster maker knew
we were planning to run, and we’ve told only a few friends.”
“Couldn’t have been me,” said Sage. “I’m not a good enough artist
to have made those posters. Rose, you’re a great artist. You could have
made the posters.”
Rose flipped her dark brown hair defiantly. “I’ve been staying with
my grandma all week, and all my art supplies are at home, so I couldn’t
have made the posters.”
“What posters?” Hope Harrison asked as she walked up to the
group.
“Where’ve you been?” asked Sage. “The posters. They were
plastered all over the school. Of Marie and Noelle running for
president and vice president.”
“I