Ava and Taco Cat Read Free Page B

nothing is ugly pretty .
    This is my eel poem:
    E is for electric eel.
    The electric eel looks like a worm or a snake.
    Beware, beware of the shock it can make.
    I wish I could shock my parents and tell them that we are adopting a cat, instead of having to ask (or beg).
    Ava, Asking About Adopting an Animal

12/30
right before dinner
Dear Diary,
    Pip and I didn’t know whether to tell Mom and Dad that we went to the rescue center. We didn’t want to lie, but we also didn’t want to get in trouble if they found out.
    Finally I decided to spill all to Dad. A few weeks ago, Mom and Dad both said I should speak my mind. Besides, my birthday is in two days, and parents don’t ground kids right before their birthdays, do they?
    While Dad was paying bills, I got out thirteen index cards and wrote one letter on each. When I finished, I made a fan out of them so Dad could see it was a palindrome: W-A-S-I-T-A-C-A-T-I-S-A-W.
    â€œWas it a cat I saw?” Dad read. “Good one, Ava!”
    â€œDad, Pip and I did see a cat,” I said. “We went looking for that injured cat Mom told us about. And we found him!”
    â€œWhat do you mean ‘found’ him?”
    â€œAt the rescue center.”
    Dad looked more puzzled than mad. Maybe now that Pip is a teenager and not as shy as she used to be, he doesn’t object to our doing some things on our own?
    Weird that Pip is old enough to be independent and wear a bra and have a boyfriend!
    I don’t want to be independent or wear a bra or have a boyfriend. I just want Taco Cat!
    I told Dad all about him, even his name.
    â€œT-A-C-O-C-A-T? That’s clever.” Dad laughed. “But Ava, you know Mom doesn’t want a pet.”
    â€œI know.” I wanted to add that it’s not fair that Mom gets to spend all day with tons of animals when we don’t even have one. “But I almost wish we had a mouse problem,” I said. “Like, an explosion of mice.”
    And that’s when I got an idea. An amazing idea. It was so amazing, I decided to call Maybelle and ask her to come over and help me with an “art project.” (Dad said we could have a short after-dinner playdate since it’s still vacation.)
    But when I called Maybelle, she said, “Zara asked if she could sleep over, and I said okay and now we’re about to have dinner. Can she come too?”
    â€œI guess,” I mumbled, surprised that Maybelle was having a sleepover with Zara, a girl who had just moved to Misty Oaks in September. Since when did my best-friend-since-first-grade have sleepovers with anyone besides me ? To be honest, the thought of Maybelle and Zara having dinner together or even microwaving marshmallows made my stomach lurch.
    Next I called my neighbors, Carmen and Lucia. I could hear Carmen asking her mom in Spanish if they could come over. Their parents are from Peru. Carmen and Lucia are twins and they each have a Paddington Bear. They say their bears are twins from Peru too.
    I wish I could speak Spanish. I wish I were bilingual instead of just lingual. People say I have a “way with words,” but I know only one language—so far.
    I went into Pip’s room. She was illustrating our F page:
    F is for flying fish.
    This lucky fast fish has wings and can fly.
    When mean fish swim close, it jumps ten feet high.
    â€œPip,” I asked, “do you know how to draw mice?”
    She made a face and said, “Duh.”
    â€œGood,” I said and told her my amazing idea—my amazing plan . She said it sounded dumb—but she got right to work.
    Ava the Amazing

12/30
9:09 p.m.
Dear Diary,
    Six people in one bedroom is pretty squooshy, but we sat in a circle: Pip and me, Carmen and Lucia, Maybelle and Zara. Pip showed us all her life-size drawing of a model house mouse. It had dot eyes, round ears, short whiskers, a curly tail, and (I don’t know how Pip does this) kind of a cute personality. I gave