Purple Nails and Puppy Tails by Jill Santopolo

forward to seeing what you did with these dogs,” Mom said. “I’m impressed you were ableto polish ten sets of dogs’ nails yesterday.”
    â€œNine,” Aly said, and grinned at her sister.
    â€œIt wasn’t that hard,” Brooke said. “They’re like people, but with funnier-shaped nails. Plus, our friends were there to help.”
    Mrs. Franklin and Sadie were in the front of the shelter. Sadie was wearing her best sweater—gray, woven through with silver sparkle thread—and a silver bow in her hair. Mrs. Franklin was holding an armful of flyers.
    â€œHi, Sadie!” Brooke said, getting out of the car.
    â€œHi, Mrs. Franklin,” Aly said. “Were any old-timers adopted yet?”
    â€œYes,” she answered. “Your friend Charlotte is inside, completing the paperwork for Bob. And Marjorie went first thing this morning. Nina is thinking about adopting Melvin, but I don’t know if she’s decided for sure yet.”
    Brooke looked up from petting Sadie. “I think Melvin and Miss Nina would make a great family. Especially because her boyfriend is a rock star and so is Melvin.”
    Mrs. Franklin looked confused, but Aly laughed. “Come on,” she said, holding her hand out to her sister. “Let’s go check out how the rest of them look.”
    But the girls didn’t get too far. Joan was in the lobby with her dog treats, which she had named Joan’s Bones. Each bone-shaped cookie was wrapped in plastic with a sticker on the front.
    â€œThose look so good,” Aly said. “Like they belong in a store.”
    Brooke and Aly saw Charlotte and her family leaving with Bob. He looked fabulous in his plaid sweater and green collar. As the Cane family waited to get their free-year’s-supply-of-dog-food coupon, Caleb came over to Aly.
    â€œI have a question for you,” he said.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked. What could he want to ask her?
    â€œUm, if I came to your, um, your room at the back of where your mom works, do you think you could make my thumbnails match Bob’s? I like the green. There’s, um, something cool about it.”
    Aly was surprised. A boy had never asked her for a manicure before. At least not one with polish—for his thumbs. She shrugged. “I guess,” she said.
    â€œUm, cool,” Caleb said. And then he went back to his family.
    Brooke was looking at Aly with her hands on her hips. “Are we doing boys now?”
    â€œWe were never not doing boys. Just none of them wanted to come,” Aly said.
    â€œI don’t know about boys,” Brooke said.
    â€œHey, Brooke! Hey, Aly!” A little girl with abutterfly clip in her hair came running over to the sisters. It was Heather Davis, Suzy Davis’s little sister, whose birthday party had been the very first Sparkle Spa event, when the girls opened their salon. “We just got a dog!”
    Suzy came into the room next, with Sneaker on a leash. She was the dog that Aly and Brooke had dressed like a sparkly athlete, in a hot-pink warm-up jacket and a rhinestone collar and leash, with a hot-pink bow in her hair. Her nails were painted Red Rover.
    â€œWhy haven’t you adopted a dog yet?” Suzy asked Aly. “Is it because your parents won’t let you? Like how they won’t let you wear nail polish during the school week?” Suzy rolled her eyes.
    Aly ignored Suzy’s questions. All she said was, “I hope you like Sneaker.”
    But then she turned to her parents. “Mom! Dad!”she said. “We have to go look at the dogs.”
    â€œWe have to! Now!” Brooke added.
    The Tanners made their way into the old-timers’ room. There were so many people there, and so many of the dogs were out of their cages. Aly tried to get through to Sparky’s cage, but first she and Brooke were stopped by Anjuli, the goalie from the soccer team, who was adopting the tiny Yorkie named