Staying Together by Ann M. Martin

happen?” she asked.
    â€œWe’re sending someone over to the woman’s house right away to help her trap the mother cat. The woman knows where the babies are. The mother is wary, as you can imagine, but if we can lure her into one of the humane traps, then we’ll bring her and the babies here right away. I don’t imagine that will happen until tomorrow, though.”
    Nikki nodded. She felt like crying but didn’t want to do that in front of Harriet. If you worked in a shelter you had to develop a thick skin. She brightened. “So the next time I come here we’ll have more kittens!”
    Harriet smiled at her. “Yes. And maybe you can help us work with the mother. It will take a long time to win her trust after what she’s been through.”
    At the end of the afternoon, Harriet dropped Nikki off at her house. “See you next week,” she called as she turned her car around.
    Nikki gave her an over-the-shoulder wave and let Paw-Paw out into the yard. “You’re lucky, boy,” she told him. “You don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from or whether you’ll find a safe place to sleep.”
    Paw-Paw gave Nikki a doggie grin and followed her back into the house.
    Nikki checked her watch. Her mother and Mae wouldn’t be home for another half hour and they were bringing dinner with them, which meant that Nikki had time to start her homework. She sat at the kitchen table with her books stacked in front of her, stared at them for a while, and then picked up the phone.
    â€œOlivia?” she said. “Hi, it’s me. Listen, I’ve been thinking. We have to come up with a plan to end the fight between Flora and Ruby.” She heard a muffled groan. “What, you don’t want it to end?”
    â€œOf course I want it to end,” replied Olivia. “I just don’t want to interfere. And I thought you didn’t, either. You said so yourself.”
    â€œYeah, but that was on Saturday. I thought maybe the fight would be over by now.”
    â€œI did, too. But look, if we get caught in the middle, that’s just going to make things worse. They might get mad at us. Then they’d be mad at us, mad at each other …”
    â€œHuh,” said Nikki. “Maybe. But I think we can fix things without getting caught in the middle. For one thing, we
still
don’t know what the fight is about, so it’s impossible for us to take sides.”
    â€œI have a bad feeling about this,” said Olivia.
    â€œWell, just go along with me for a minute. What if … what if you and I plan another Saturday adventure, only we don’t call it that. And then we invite Flora and Ruby — separately — to wherever our adventure is going to take place.” Nikki paused, thinking.
    â€œYou mean so neither of them knows the other one has been invited?” asked Olivia.
    â€œExactly. And since they aren’t talking to each other,” Nikki continued, feeling inspired, “they won’t find out that they’ve
both
been invited.”
    â€œI could call Flora and ask her to meet us at College Pizza,” said Olivia slowly.
    â€œAnd I’d call Ruby and invite her. I guess I’d have to tell her to come fifteen minutes later or something so that they wouldn’t leave their house at the same time. That would make them suspicious.”
    â€œYeah.…”
    â€œBut then eventually we would all be together and we would have a great time and Flora and Ruby would see how silly their fight is.”
    â€œIf it
is
over something silly.”
    â€œYeah.…”
    â€œWhat?” asked Olivia.
    â€œWell, suddenly I don’t know if this is such a good idea after all. You’re right. They could both get mad at us for interfering.”
    â€œAs I said.”
    â€œI know. I just want the fight to end.”
    â€œMe, too.”
    â€œThis is starting to make me a