“You’re in trouble!” Grizzle growled.
“But I didn’t do anything!” I protested as convincingly as I could muster.
“I have enough to report you as it is, Buster.” Sergeant cut her eyes sideways. “Grizzle wants to. But I don’t take my report lightly. I know what it would mean for you.” The Farm, I thought. No more Tonio. “And we’re not cruel.”
I bowed my head in understanding and tucked my tail in deference, but inside I was boiling. Sergeant was trying to make it sound like they were being nice, but really they were threatening me. How is that nice? They held all the power—and really could ruin my life, based on decisions a bunch of dogs made centuries ago. How is that fair?
My fear gave way to anger. So what if I’d broken the law? I was right. And they were bullying me into hiding who I was, staying quiet when my friend needed me, and calling it not cruel.
“Consider yourself on a very short leash,” Sergeant said. “We’ll be watching more closely until you prove you can be trusted with humans.”
I lowered my body even farther but couldn’t resist a sarcastic positioning of my foot. Tonio noticed my bow, and I felt him shift and look ahead to where my nose was pointing. But when I looked up, they were gone.
“I guess we should go back inside,” he said.
He looked up toward his bedroom window like it would move itself closer and let him climb in. I hadn’t helped his nerves—in fact, I’d probably made them worse, since he could tell I was nervous, too. I stood up straight and rested my chin on his knee; he scratched behind my ears. Like a normal boy and his normal dog.
That was, at least, a little nice.
“I really don’t want to ruin everything,” he whispered. “I’ve been trying so hard.” I flopped my tongue out of my mouth and licked his knee; not Underspeak, and not anything human, either. Just a weird dog move. He made a grossed-out face, but I think he got it.
Dog smell washed over me, and I followed the wind with my eyes—there was Sergeant, peeking around the corner of the Square, still watching.
Skyler came out of Roll the Ice’s front door as we approached it, blocking our way.
“Hey,” she said. “I just wanted you to know, before you go inside, that I tried to talk them out of it, but it’s what they always do for the finals, so …”
“What?” Tonio asked, trying to look around her into the store. “Talk them out of what?”
She kicked her leg back onto the door. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can do this. And, just in case, I’m sorry.”
Her vagueness was starting to scare me, too. What had they done in there?
Skyler pushed the door open with her foot so she could keep an eye on him. Tonio walked inside past her …
… and then he turned around and tried to walk back out. I sat on the ground to make that a little harder—his wrist caught on the leash and he didn’t even try to pull me, just stopped halfway out the door with his arm outstretched. “No. No way.”
I took a look inside.
All the tables had been pushed to the edges of the room, and all the chairs were arranged in a wide circle.
Except for one table.
Except for three chairs.
Phil was already sitting in one of them, shuffling his deck.
“I’m sorry,” Skyler repeated. And then Devon and Mia were there, talking over each other.
“Remember what we talked about! You have to take him down quick—”
“But keep in mind what he’s doing, and don’t use up all your strong cards early—”
“And don’t be too predictable, because you need to make him nervous—”
“Just have fun!”
“But also win.”
Tonio, standing, was as tall as Phil sitting down.
“We getting started or what, kid?” Phil hollered.
Mia finally seemed to notice how scared Tonio looked. She lowered her voice and stepped in the way of his view of Phil. “What’s your problem?”
“What do you think?!” Tonio hissed out with uncharacteristic harshness, and gestured to the room.
Mia grinned, unbothered by his intensity. “I know. I was just messing with you.”
“That’s not nice!!!”
She shrugged. “Well, earlier, someone told me that I’m better than nice.” Tonio didn’t answer. She continued, more seriously. “I didn’t want to leave my room today. Or, like, ever. But I’m glad I’m here right now. And you’ll be glad when you wreck this guy’s whole deal with Principia’s Mirror Blast!”
“Plus,” Devon said, “it’s okay if you don’t win.”
“But there’s a prize!” Tonio protested.
“Yeah, but it’s just three hundred dollars. Who cares?” The skin could have been melting off his face, judging by the looks Tonio and Mia gave him. “Okay, never mind. But it’s a game. Don’t stress so much about it.”
Mia considered Tonio’s expression and shrugged in vague agreement. “Yeah, that’s true, I guess. And I already lost, so I guess it doesn’t matter if you do, too.”
Phil yelled, “This round was supposed to start three minutes ago! I won’t be forced into a tie just because you stalled over time.”
Mia stuck her tongue out at Phil as Tonio sat down at the table. All the other adults—about twenty had stuck around to watch—settled into chairs around the room that were too far to really see the cards, as far as I could tell. Mia and Devon sat together, which was a small victory on its own. They scooted their chairs up closer than everyone else’s.
I couldn’t risk saying anything—there was a clear view from the front windows—but I nudged Tonio and he looked down. I shook my whole body out like I was covered in water. Not Underspeak, not human—just Tonio-Buster speak. He smiled and shook out his hair back at me.
Let’s do this.
“That chair is for Combuster!” Skyler
