Bulldog Won't Budge

  “Yeah, I did that on purpose,” I said.

  “Sure you did,” he said.

  “If you don’t give me back my shoe right now,” I said, “I’m going to tell everyone at school that you’re secretly in love with me.”

  “Like anyone would believe that, when I’m so far out of your league,” Avery said, but he was frowning. “Hey, I have an idea. Since you like dogs so much, how about, if you want it — then you can fetch it!” He turned and threw my sneaker as hard as he could. It flew up in a huge arc, up and up and up and way out across the field.

  “Avery!” I shouted, but then suddenly there was a huge rustling sound, and something exploded out of the bushes. A blur of black-and-white fur flew out, shot past Avery, and zoomed across the grass. Before my sneaker even hit the ground, the fur blur was halfway to where it was going to land.

  I gasped.

  It was a dog — the biggest, furriest dog I’d ever seen.

  Avery’s mouth was wide open. I’m sure mine was, too. We stared as the dog pounced on my sneaker, wrapped his massive jaws around it, and came trotting back toward us. His glorious black tail swung back and forth like a giant flag in a parade. He held his head up high and his long fur swished shaggily as he pranced over the grass.

  He was gorgeous.

  The dog trotted right past Avery and over to me. He was so huge, his head was even with my knees even though I was sitting up on a wall. The dog dropped my sneaker right in my lap, nudged my knee with his nose, and looked up at me with the biggest, softest brown eyes I’d ever seen. A long pink tongue hung out of his mouth and he looked like he was smiling all over his shaggy black face.

  My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when he looked at me. It was like we could read each other’s minds, and they were saying the same thing: Hey there, best friend.

  In addition to the New York Times- and USA Today-bestselling Wings of Fire series, Tui T. Sutherland is the author of several books for young readers, including the Menagerie trilogy, the Pet Trouble series, and three books in the bestselling Seekers series (as part of the Erin Hunter team). In 2009, she was a two-day champion on Jeopardy! She lives in Massachusetts with her wonderful husband, two adorable sons, and one very patient dog. To learn more about Tui’s books, visit her online at www.tuibooks.com.

  Copyright © 2009 by Tui T. Sutherland

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

  SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, November 2009

  Cover photo by Michael Frost

  Cover design by Yaffa Jaskoll

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-30035-3

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.