Fifteen Read Online Free Page A

Sir Puss,” said Mr. Purdy. “He’s too old and set in his ways.”
    â€œAnd I don’t like to think what life would be like if I had to let a dog in and out, in and out, all day, too. Sir Puss keeps me busy enough opening doors,” said Jane’s mother. “Jane, why this sudden interest in a dog? You’ve never mentioned one before.”
    â€œOh, I don’t know,” answered Jane vaguely. “I just thought a dog might be nice to have around.” Well, that took care of that. Neither her father norher mother would consent to a dog, so there was no chance of the Purdys’ having horsemeat delivered by the Doggie Diner. And no chance of her getting to know the strange boy that way. She would have to think of some other way. And she must think of it soon. If he had recently moved to Woodmont and would be entering Woodmont High in September, it would be a good idea to get to know him before school started and all the girls saw how attractive he was. Half a dozen girls had probably seen him already and were wondering how they could meet him—girls who were smooth like Marcy. Or maybe they had met him already. And how could a girl meet a boy who delivered food for dogs if her father wouldn’t keep a dog?
    Sir Puss yawned and stretched luxuriously on Mr. Purdy’s lap. It seemed to Jane that she had never seen a cat look so self-satisfied. She had loved him since he was a kitten and she was only four years old; she and Sir Puss had grown up together, but at the moment she felt a twinge of annoyance at him for spoiling her plan. As she sat watching the cat settle himself for a nap, she turned her problem over in her mind. The delivery of horsemeat had seemed like such a good answer until the cat spoiled it.
    Jane watched Sir Puss twitch one ear in his sleep, and suddenly the sight of the well-fed cat gave her an inspiration. “Say, Pop,” she said, trying not to sound too eager, “I saw an ad in the paper that said the Doggie Diner delivered horsemeat for pets. Wouldn’t it be easier to have horsemeat delivered for Sir Puss than to get lamb liver from the market? The delivery boy could walk right in and leave it in the refrigerator.”
    â€œGoodness, Jane,” exclaimed Mrs. Purdy. “I wouldn’t want to keep horsemeat in the refrigerator with our food.”
    â€œAnd Sir Puss likes liver,” Mr. Purdy added. “He wouldn’t eat horsemeat.”
    â€œHis food is no trouble. I always buy his liver when I get our meat.” Mrs. Purdy looked curiously at her daughter. “You’ve never taken an interest in the cat’s diet before. What’s come over you tonight?”
    Another good idea that would not work. “Oh, nothing. I just saw this ad and got to thinking,” said Jane, realizing that she had better be careful what she said or her mother would start asking a lot of tiresome questions, like who was the boy’s family and what did his father do and a lot of things she couldn’t answer until she got to knowhim. If only she knew the boy’s name she could look him up in the telephone book and just happen to walk by his house, and he might just happen to be outside washing the car or mowing the lawn or something. She would glance at him with a faintly puzzled expression as if she had seen him someplace but couldn’t quite remember where. And he would look up from whatever he was doing and say, “Why, hello. Aren’t you the girl who was babysitting at the Nortons’?” And she would say…But she did not know his name and even if she did, he was probably so new in town that his family would not be listed in the telephone directory yet. Or he might not even live in Woodmont. He might live in some other town and when school started he would be part of the school bus crowd.
    Or she could find out where the Doggie Diner was located and just happen to walk past about the time he might be