Read Online Ava and Taco Cat by Carol Weston - Free Book Online Page B

jacks or juggling marshmallows, and the other says, “Slow down!” or “Speed up!” The person has to do whatever she’s doing really slowwwwly or lightning fast. When Carmen or Lucia play it with us, they say, “¡Más lento!” or “¡Más rápido!” And in the summer, we sometimes go outside and do slow and fast cartwheels.
    Today, I was happy to be playing with just Maybelle (and not Zara). We started making necklaces with her beads, but after a while, I couldn’t hold in my questions anymore. So I asked straight out: “Did Zara say anything about me, like, behind my back?”
    Maybelle looked guilty and as if she didn’t know if she should answer.
    Which was an answer right there.
    â€œWhat did she say?” I pressed.
    Maybelle folded her legs up and put her chin on her knee. I could tell she didn’t want to report their conversations, but maybe I was sort of cornering her.
    She sighed, and we both looked at our beads instead of at each other. “She thinks,” Maybelle finally began in a quiet voice, “that you’re kind of a teachers’ pet.”
    My mouth flopped open. Even though that may not be untrue (which is a double negative), it was not what I expected to hear.
    Still, I decided I could live with that. I mean, it’s a fact that Mrs. Lemons likes me. And I like her back. But for what it’s worth, not all teachers think I’m special. I annoy Miss Hamshire. She acts like I’m bad at math on purpose.
    Well, it turned out that Maybelle wasn’t done! While I was contemplating Zara’s first complaint, Maybelle came up with a second.
    â€œZara also says that your primary topic of conversation is your cat.”
    That made me mad! Of course I talk a lot about Taco Cat! I was desperate for a cat, then I got one, and we’ve had him only eleven days! What does Zara expect me to talk about? Carpet cleaners? Climate change?
    I was trying to decide whether to defend myself when Maybelle said that Zara also wonders why I haven’t let her meet Taco yet.
    What?!?
    â€œI haven’t stopped her from meeting him,” I said.
    â€œShe says you’ve never once invited her over even though she helped make the paper mice.”
    I wanted to shout, “Oh puh-lease! Zara doesn’t have the right to jump feetfirst into my whole life!” But I didn’t. I just mumbled, “She can meet him.”
    â€œNow?” Maybelle asked, which made me feel sort of cornered.
    I shrugged and said, “I guess.” Then I wished I hadn’t, because suddenly Maybelle was speed-dialing Zara and inviting her to hang out at my house! Next thing you know, Maybelle’s mom was driving Maybelle and me to my house and picking up Zara on the way as though that had been the plan all along! I couldn’t believe it!!
    Even Dad looked surprised when he opened the door and there we were, all three of us. We walked in and searched all over for Taco and finally found him sleeping in the corner of Mom’s closet, by the slippers.
    Zara said he was handsome.
    I said that cats spend most of the day sleeping—about eighteen hours.
    Maybelle said, “That’s three-fourths of the day! Humans sleep only one-third of the day.” That was a very Maybelle thing to say. (She can do fractions in her head.)
    Zara said that sloths sleep even more. “They sleep more than any other animal in the animal kingdom.”
    Zara had brought a ping-pong ball for Taco to play with, and he chased it around and even let her pet him. At first, I thought Taco was being a traitor. But I told myself not to feel that way. The problem though, is that it’s hard not to feel whatever you’re feeling, even when you try to talk yourself out of it.
    Taco wanted to keep playing, and he pressed his little white zigzag against Zara’s shin. She laughed and said, “He’s giving me a head butt!” For a second,