Natalie Wants a Puppy Read Free Page B

Laurie’s mom walks over to the basement steps, where Laurie and I are sitting. “Natalie, how’d you like to come home with Laurie?”
    Most of the times, I would shout, Yes! Only not this time. Mommy and Daddy are going to China tomorrow. “I have to go home,” I tell her.
    “Please? We’d love to have you, Natalie,” Laurie’s mom says. “Your parents have a lot of packing to do. Let’s give them some time, okay?”
    “Come on, Nat!” Laurie says. “It’ll be fun!”
    We push through the crowd and get to my mom. I slip up and hug her. She puts one arm around me, while she keeps saying thank you to people. I don’t think she’ll want me to go to Laurie’s. Sunday is family day at our house.

    Mommy kisses my head. “Be good at Laurie’s, Nat. Have fun.”
    I walk out with Laurie and Sarah. I take a fast look back before we step outside. I see other people and the pile of presents.
    But I can’t even see my mommy.

Chapter 6
The Truth about Brothers and Sisters
    “ You sit in back! I was here first.” Brianna is Laurie’s sister who’s in fifth grade. She locks the front door of Laurie’s van before Sarah can open it.
    “You’re there first because you didn’t help us with the shower!” Sarah shouts.
    “Please, Sarah,” their mom begs, “just get in. You can have front both ways next time.”
    Sarah scoots into the backseat. Laurie and I scoot in after her. “Brianna always gets her way,” Sarah mutters. She tosses a big Bible into the front seat. It lands on Brianna.
    “Stop it!” Brianna shouts.
    “It’s your Bible!” Sarah shouts. “We’re crowded back here.”
    Brianna tosses the Bible back to Sarah’s lap.
    Sarah tosses it back, hard.
    “Mother, make her stop!” Brianna cries.
    “Girls, please!” their mom shouts.
    Brianna looks over the front seat at me. “See what you have to look forward to?”
    “Me?” I get ready to catch a Bible.
    “Yeah, you,” Brianna says. “No more only child for you. I’d give anything to be an only child.”
    “If I’d had my way,” Sarah says, “you would have been an only child…in someone else’s family.”
    “Girls!” yells their mother.
    “They don’t mean it,” Laurie whispers.
    “Oh, yeah, we do mean it,” Brianna insists. “You’ll see.” She turns on the car radio too loud for more talking.
    At Laurie’s house, we change into her clothes. She lets me wear her only purple shorts. We are the exactly same size, except she’s bigger.
    “I wish we were sisters,” I tell Laurie.
    “Yeah,” she said. “Only maybe we’d fight like Sarah and Bri.”
    “No way!” I say, on account of Laurie and I never fight most of the time.
    “Want to see what’s on TV?” Laurie asks.
    We go to the living room, but her dad has boring stuff on the TV. Like baseball. He’s asleep in the big chair.
    Sarah lies down on the couch. “Mother!” she shouts without opening her eyes. “Make Brianna turn her music down!”
    It’s true that Brianna’s music is louder than the baseball noises on TV. Their dad is still sleeping through the whole thing.
    Laurie’s mom goes into Brianna’s room, and themusic gets lower. Brianna sticks her head out of her door and screams, “I hate you, Sarah!”
    “Goes double for me!” Sarah screams back.
    “Let’s go outside,” Laurie says.
    Instead of real swings, Laurie’s dad hung a big tire on a tree. It’s pretty cool. Only we both don’t fit. Her tree isn’t as big as Frank, the tree in my backyard. So it’s harder to climb.

    We sit by their sandbox. Only there’s mostly dirt in there.
    “What if I get a brother who’s like Brianna?” I ask Laurie.
    “Bri’s okay,” Laurie says. “I’m pretty sure she’ll turn into a nice sister someday. Sarah did.”
    “Wasn’t Sarah always nice?” I think Laurie’s big sister is the prettiest and nicest sister I know. Plus, she wears lipstick. And once she painted my fingernails and my toenails.
    “Sarah used to write ‘kick’ on