and his bowl of cereal—seriously, I swear), we ran over there.

Professor Reese wasn’t home from work yet, which meant I’d get another solo (if you didn’t count TJ) walk with Baxter. I liked the solo walks best because then it really did feel like Baxter was half my dog.

We took off, Baxter sniffing everywhere. Everyone wanted to pet him, even Tyler shooting hoops at the park. And I said yes because it’s good to be generous with your dog.

As we left the park, I asked TJ, “Do you know Tyler?”

“Yeah, he’s in Video Club. He’s been helping me with my short. He’s nice.”

“Tyler’s in Video Club? That Tyler right there?”

TJ looked at me like, What’s wrong with you? “Yeah. That Tyler.”

But I just shrugged because you could be nice and still be the worst kid in the whole class, couldn’t you?

When we got back to Professor Reese’s house, she was home from work. We found her in the lab, putting a big map of Portland up on her bulletin board.

She patted Baxter’s head. “How was your walk?”

“Great!” I plopped down on Baxter’s bed and thumped it to call him over. “Have there been any calls for Baxter?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, I can keep walking him every day—no problem!” I said as he flopped down next to me.

“Good.” She stuck a green pin in one spot on the map and a red pin in another.

TJ walked over to the map. “What are the pins for?”

“The green one shows where I thought I’d find my hat and the red one shows where Baxter actually found it.” She studied the map. “The question is, why wasn’t the hat where I thought it would be?”

I lay down and rested my head on Baxter’s tummy. “Maybe you forgot where you were walking when you lost it.”

She frowned. “I don’t think that’s it.”

When me and TJ got to the lab after school the next day, Professor Reese was still frowning. She stuck a new green pin in a new spot on the map. “Maybe we’ll have better luck today,” she said.

“You lost your hat again?” TJ said as we all followed Baxter up the stairs and out the door.

Baxter galloped, pulling me down the sidewalk, and Professor Reese and TJ practically ran behind us. When we reached the corner of Seventeenth and Lovejoy, Professor Reese nodded. “All right. My hat should be here—”

But Baxter pulled me three blocks farther, where he found it, like magic.

“You did it again!” Professor Reese said to Baxter.

He wagged his tail.

TJ grabbed the hat, and we turned toward home. And that’s when I noticed a Baxter flyer on a streetlight pole, looking old and faded. I realized it was Friday, and it had been almost a whole week!

I thought, No one has called about Baxter!

The whole walk home, it was like a drum beating with every step: no one has called, no one has called, no one has called about Baxter.

No one had called saying they had a really good home. Now that I was dog walking, there was no reason why Professor Reese couldn’t be the really good home. And actually, it was a really great home because I lived next door to it.

So as soon as we got back to the lab, TJ spun around in the spinny chair, and I decided it was time to convince Professor Reese. “So it’s been almost a week, and no one has called about Baxter.”

“That’s true.” She stuck a red pin in the spot where Baxter had just found the hat.

“I’ll bet he’s great company when you go to bed and when you wake up,” I added.

“He is.” She studied the map, tapping her fingers on her chin.

“He’s great company while you’re working in the lab, too.”

Professor Reese turned to me. “Jordie, is there something you’re trying to tell me?”

I took a deep breath. “Please let Baxter stay. You don’t need to find him a really good home—he already has one. He has us.”

She sighed. “I know you love him, Jordie. And you’ve been very helpful this week. But even when I’m home, I’m very busy with my work . . .”

“I can keep helping you! All I do in the afternoons is get stuck with TJ—”

“Hey!” he cried.

“And Baxter helps you, too,” I added. “He helps you find your hat.”

Professor Reese opened her mouth like she was going to say something, and then she closed it. She looked over at the map, then down at Baxter. “Hmm. Excellent point.”

Baxter cocked his left eyebrow up at her.

She turned to me. “I’d need you to give him a walk every day after school.”

“I will!” I nodded as hard as I could, and when I looked over, Baxter was nodding, too.

She studied his face for a moment. “All right.”

And just like that, like it was no big deal (even though I was whooping inside!), Baxter was officially half my dog!

Professor Reese said, “We’ll need some supplies. Want to go to the pet store?”

But I don’t know why she even asked, because of course.

9Spectrometers and Elbows

When we got back from the pet store, I ran home to tell Mom the great news—me and Professor Reese were keeping Baxter! “So I’ll need to keep walking him every afternoon and maybe on the weekends, too,” I said as she pulled stuff for dinner out of the fridge, “but I already said yes because I knew you’d think it was a great opportunity to be really dependable!”

Then I ran out of the kitchen before she could point out that I maybe should have checked with her first.

I grabbed the phone and took it into my room so I could call Megan and tell her, too.

“That’s awesome, Jordie!” Megan said. “I can’t wait to meet him!”

“You’ll love him!” I said, and I got jumpy excited just thinking about it! “Oh, and I wanted to ask you something about our vet/beauty parlor. I think we should add a day care, too!” I told Megan how I’d started thinking about it when I was having

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