The Scruffy Puppy

Chapter Six

The girls went downstairs to borrow Bella’s mum’s computer to find out if there was a dog show nearby that they could go to.

“Oh, look, click on that one! That’s in Lace Hill, not far away,” Sarah pointed out excitedly.

“Yes!” Bella opened up the page, and the two girls peered at it eagerly.

“That’s in a couple of weeks,” Bella said thoughtfully. “I bet it’s the same one Megan’s entering Coco in. She said it was two weeks on Saturday.”

“What does ‘Open Show’ mean?” Sarah asked, frowning.

“It means that any dog can enter – they don’t have to have won a show somewhere else already,” a voice came from behind them.

Bella and Sarah jumped – they hadn’t heard Bella’s dad come in, even though Sid was happily sniffing at him. They’d been too busy looking at the website.

“Oh… How did you know that, Dad?” asked Bella.

“I’ve been to that show before – ages ago, Bella, before you were born. Mum and I went with your gran. They’re right, it’s a great day out! Some people take it quite seriously, though.”

“But there are fun classes, too,” Bella said. “It says so. Sarah was telling me about a show she’d been to where the dogs had to catch sausages. It sounded great!”

Her dad laughed and pointed to the computer. “Click on the novelty classes. It should tell you what they are.”

Bella clicked where her dad had pointed. The screen flashed up with another page.

“‘Waggiest tail’ – oh, Sid could win that!” Bella giggled as she read down the list of classes. She turned to look at Sid, who was leaning against Dad’s legs and gazing up at him adoringly. Dad had taken to giving him a treat when he came in from work, and Sid wasn’t going to let him forget. His fluffy, feathery tail was sweeping back and forth across the carpet.

Sarah laughed. “He has got a lovely big tail. You couldn’t miss it! What else is there?”

“‘Golden Oldie’ – oh, that’s for older dogs, of course. ‘Prettiest Female’, ‘Most Handsome Dog’…” Bella looked thoughtfully at Sid. “Well. Maybe not. But he could definitely enter this one – listen! ‘Dog that the judges would most like to take home’!”

“It says no dogs under six months can compete at the show,” Sarah said. “But Sid’s older than that, isn’t he?”

“I think so.” Bella looked round at Dad questioningly. “They weren’t exactly sure at the shelter.”

“He’s definitely more than six months, Bella, don’t worry,” said Dad. “Is this the show that you said Megan was entering?” he asked. “Isn’t her dog very little? I guess she might just have turned six months old by the time of the show – it’s not for another couple of weeks, after all.”

Bella nodded. “So, Dad… Would you take me and Sid to the show? Pleeeaase?”

Dad grinned. “I think we should all go. Maybe you could come with us, Sarah. If your mum would let you.”

Sarah looked delighted. “I’ll ask her. So, which classes do you think you’ll enter, Bella?”

Bella frowned at the computer. “I like the idea of ‘Best Trick’. Except Sid hasn’t got one… But we’ve got two weeks to learn. I could teach him a trick. I bet I could!”

“Oh, I watched that class at the dog show I went to with Grandad and Alfie!” said Sarah.

“What sort of tricks did the dogs do?” Bella asked anxiously. She wasn’t sure she could teach Sid anything really complicated.

“A couple of dogs did a trick where their owners put a treat down right in front of them. Then they had to wait to eat it until their owners gave a signal.”

Bella looked at Sid doubtfully. That sounded quite hard. Sid loved his treats. She couldn’t imagine him leaving one uneaten.

“The dog that won stood on her hind legs and walked across the field,” Sarah said, frowning as she tried to remember. “Oh, and then at the end, her owner kind of leaned back and stretched his leg out, and she ran up his leg so he could cuddle her! But she was tiny – she was a King Charles spaniel. I think it would be hard for Sid to do that bit. I bet he could walk on his hind legs, though. You’d just need to hold a treat up for him.”

Bella looked hopefully at Sarah. “Do you want to come into the garden and see if we can get him to stand up?”

Dad laughed. “If this involves dog treats, it’s going to be his new favourite game!”

Because it had been Sarah’s idea to teach Sid how to walk on his hind legs, it seemed only fair to let her share in his training. Besides, even though Bella hadn’t been looking forward to Sarah coming to her house, they’d ended up having a really good time. Sarah might be quiet, and not at all like Megan, but she was funny, and Bella liked her a lot.

Over the next two weeks they met up a couple of times to go to the park and practise Sid’s special trick. Sarah’s mum came with them. She said that Sid was the funniest thing she had ever seen. She thought he was bound to win. Sarah came to tea the next Friday as well, and they had another practice session in the garden.

Bella was working at home with Sid, too, although she had made her mum and dad and Tom promise not to watch them in the garden – she wanted Sid’s trick to be a surprise. So of course when she got to school, she couldn’t wait to update Sarah on how they were doing – which meant that they spent a lot of time chatting to each other in the corner of the playground, and laughing at whatever silly thing had happened the night before.

That morning, they were giggling together all over again. As they hurried into the cloakroom to hang their coats up, Bella heard an upset sort of yelp behind her, and she swung round in surprise. Sarah was in the doorway, holding her arm, and Megan was next to her. Her old friend looked guilty.

“What did you do, Megan?” Bella demanded. “Sarah, are you OK?”

“Yeah, I just banged my arm…”

“You mean she banged it!” Bella snapped. “Did Megan shove you into the door, Sarah? You did, didn’t you?” she said, turning angrily to Megan. “What was that for?”

“It was an accident.” Megan shrugged, but she didn’t look very convincing.

“Yeah, right! Come on, Sarah. We’ll ask Mr Peters for an ice pack. Don’t let Megan get to you.” Bella looked at Megan, skulking miserably by the door, and suddenly realized what was going on. “You’re jealous,” she gasped, with surprise in her voice. It was true, she was sure.

“What, of you?” Megan was trying to sound sneery, but she only managed to sound as though she was about to cry.

“You’re jealous because I’m friends with someone else,” said Bella. “Why don’t you go and hang around with Lara and Chloe.” She shook her head crossly, but as she walked with Sarah down the corridor to their classroom, she glanced back. Megan was actually crying.

Bella felt bad. She had been friends with Megan for years. Even though Megan was being totally horrible, she still couldn’t help worrying about her.