Secondhand Horses Read Online Free Page B

the direction where she’d last seen them chasing the goose. Moments later she found them.
    “Guys!” She slid to a stop, breathless. “You won’t believe this.”
    Esther, with a triumphant smile, held the goose who acted as though it had spent its whole life relaxing in the girl’s arms. Silly goose. Esther was panting slightly. When she saw Sunny, her happy smile melted into a frown. “Sunny, if you had distracted the goat like you said, none of this would have happened.”
    When had it become
her
fault? “What? I didn’t do anything. I was trying to
help
, for pizza sake. I had the red bandanna and was going to—”
Was going to
didn’t mean
finished
.
    Ughness
.
    Vee was shaking her head. “Sometimes, Sunny, your big ideas are—”
    “Dumb.” Esther wasn’t letting this go.
    Warmth rushed to Sunny’s cheeks. If there was going to be a fight, it was usually between Vee and Esther. Sunny didn’t much like being the one in trouble. Especially since The Spaghetti Event.
    Trouble again.
    She sighed and pushed her hands through her hair then looked at the dusty hands. Now she probably had dirt streaks running through her curls. Could she do anything right?
    “Okay, I’m sorry. It seemed like a Great Idea. Kinda fun, like a matador …” Her voice trailed off then surged back in full Sunny power. “Forget the bandanna—you won’t believe what I heard from that creepy carnival zoo guy.”
    “Tell us.” Aneta’s smile made Sunny feel not quite so dumb.
    “He’s selling the zoo to be eaten!”
    “He’s
what
?” Esther clutched the goose so tightly it clacked its beak up at her. “You’re kidding.”
    “He can’t do that!” Vee’s head tipped toward Sunny, her eyes slanted in what Aneta had named the Vee Stare. “You ate too much cotton candy.”
    “We cannot let him do that,” Aneta said. Her usually gentle face looked like she was ready for a fight.
    Motioning the others to join her, Sunny spun on her heel and headed back toward the petting zoo. Aneta fell in step next to her.
    “She’s nuts. It can’t be true,” Sunny heard Esther mutter to Vee behind her.
    “Yeah, Sunny gets excited, but she’s never lied.” Vee’s voice was closer now, at Sunny’s side. No Esther yet. Glancing behind, she noted the shorter girl, still carrying the goose, standing next to a popcorn stand. Sunny frowned. The Squaders weren’t easy to convince, but they were usually willing to give it a try if it meant saving animals. It wasn’t like Esther to give up on the Squad and just stop and eat.
    She worked the inside of her bottom lip and stepped up the pace. How long would it take the creepy carnival guy to find a buyer for the zoo?
    In the next moment, Esther had zoomed past them, goose jouncing up and down. She flung these words at them: “C’mon! The popcorn guy—told candy apple girl—Glad it’s last night. He can’t wait to leave—boring Oakton. We’ve got to save the zoo now!”
    Vee broke into a jog. Sunny mustered up her muscles and merged into a full gallop. Now the Squad was together. That thought made her smile while she tried to remember to breathe and run. The jingling change in her pocket bounced with each step: Save. The. Zoo.
Save. The. Zoo
.
    While the corral was in sight, they still had some ground to cover to reach the animals. She saw the three remaining animals, but where was the creepy guy? Would the creepy carnival guy have a cell phone? What if he already called someone to come and tow off the zoo? What would happen to the big-eyed miniature horse?
    The guy must have a cell phone.
    Didn’t everyone have a cell phone?
    I can’t wait to turn thirteen and get a cell phone
.
    Jingle, jingle
. How much money did she have in there?
    No matter, once she got a cell phone—
    “Sunneeee!” Vee’s voice cut into her jumbled thinking.
    Ooops. Is this what her mother and father were talking about? Easily distracted. Life and death for the zoo and she was running along thinking