A New Home for Truman (3 page)

Half an hour later, the Simpsons dropped Janey and Lolli off at Janey's house. Janey rushed inside. “Mom! Daddy!” she yelled. “Where are you?”

Her mother came into the front hall from the kitchen. “Hello, Lolli,” she said. “Janey, you look like you're in a better mood than when you left.”

“I'm sorry about earlier,” Janey said, hurrying over to give her mother a hug. “You too, Daddy,” she added as her father
wandered in carrying a news magazine. “I loved all my presents, even if none of them is a dog.”

“Good, good.” Her father looked relieved. “I'm sorry we can't get a pet, sweetheart.”

“I know. But listen, I had a great idea that might be the next best thing,” Janey said.

Her mother smiled. “Uh-oh,” she said. “What is it—a robot dog?”

Lolli giggled. “That definitely sounds like something Janey would invent!”

Janey giggled, too. “Maybe someday. But my great idea does involve technology—namely, my awesome new tablet!” The tablet was still on the table where she'd left it. She hurried over and picked it up. “You said this has a blogging program, right?”

“Yes,” her father said. “It's a brand new platform made specifically for bloggers under fourteen. There are all kinds of safety features, and—”

“Perfect,” Janey interrupted. “Because that's my idea. I'm going to start a blog! It'll be called, um, Janey's Pet Place, and kids can use it to share cute pictures of their cats and dogs and other pets.”

“What a wonderful idea, love!” her mother said.

“I know.” Janey smiled. “That way, it'll be like I have all the pets in town around me all the time!” She grabbed Lolli's hand. “Come on, I can't wait—let's go up to my room and figure out how to get started!”

An hour later, Janey was feeling both excited and frustrated. “The text we wrote is perfect,” she told Lolli, “but it won't do any good if we can't figure out how to get the blog set up the way I want it!”

“I know, right?” Lolli poked at the tablet's on-screen keypad. “If this blog thingy is made for kids, shouldn't it be easy to use?”

Janey pulled the tablet closer again and tried—again—to load the text into the box she'd just finished creating. It looked really cool, with a border of frolicking puppies and kittens and a background of clouds. But when she hit the enter key, all she got in return was an annoying error message—again.

“Aargh!” she cried. “I want to get it working already so I can start getting cute pet photos!”

A bark drifted in through the window. “Maybe that dog outside wants to be on your blog,” Lolli joked. “He's telling you to hurry up!”

Janey hopped off her bed and went to the window. A cute golden retriever was sniffing the bushes along the sidewalk. A familiar figure was holding the dog's leash.

“Hey, it's Adam!” Janey told Lolli. “He's walking one of his dog-sitting clients. Let's go ask him if he knows how to work the blog software.”

“Adam?” Lolli sounded dubious. “He's not that interested in computers—just dogs.”

Janey tucked her tablet under her arm and headed for the door. “Still, he's smart, right?” she said. “Maybe he can figure out what we're doing wrong. Besides, I love that golden retriever he's walking right now—I want to go out and pet him.”

Lolli smiled. “In that case, what are we waiting for?”

The big, friendly dog greeted Janey and Lolli happily. So did Adam. But he shook his
head as he studied the blog screen.

“Sorry, guys,” he said. “I have no clue. Maybe you should ask Zach. He's practically a technology genius.”

“Zach? Really?” Now it was Janey's turn to be doubtful. She didn't think Zach was good at anything except being totally obnoxious!

“Uh-huh.” Adam bent down to untangle the leash from around the golden retriever's leg. “He helped my parents set up a photo-sharing site last year so my relatives can all see pictures of my little sisters and me. And he's always fixing the computer his dad uses for work. I bet a blogging site will be no problem for him.”

“It's worth a try,” Lolli said. “Zach lives
near here, doesn't he?”

“He's on the next block,” Janey said. She frowned at Adam. “Are you sure he's good with computer stuff? What if he wrecks my new tablet?”

“He won't,” Adam said. “Trust me, he can get your blog working if anyone can.”

Janey sighed. “Fine,” she said. “I guess we can go see if he's home. I'd do just about anything to get my blog started!”

“There he is,” Lolli said as the girls turned the corner onto Zach's block.

Janey saw him, too. Zach was in front of his house. He was messing around with his skateboard, trying to get it to jump over a big crack in the sidewalk.

“Hi,” Janey said, hurrying up to him. “What are you doing?”

“Learning Chinese,” Zach said with a smirk. “What does it look like?”

Janey looked at the house. Loud music was coming out of an open window. “Is someone having a party?”

“Nah, that's just my older brothers.” Zach rolled his eyes. “A bunch of their dumb friends came over. They're lucky my dad is the only one home. My mom would never let them play their stupid music so loud.”

“Where's your mom?” Lolli asked.

Zach flipped his skateboard up, catching it in one hand. “At work. Her clinic is open on Saturdays.”

“Oh.” Janey thought it was so cool that Zach's mom was a veterinarian. That was practically her dream job! She didn't say that, though. She figured Zach would probably just make fun of her. “Listen, Adam says you're good at computers….”

She and Lolli told him about all the problems they were having. When Janey held out her tablet, Zach's eyes lit up.

“Cool!” he exclaimed. “I've been dying to get one of these!” Then his face fell. “I probably won't, though. My parents say one computer is enough for the whole family to share.”

“We only have one computer, too,” Lolli told him.

Zach grinned. “Yeah, but that's because your parents are weirdos,” he teased her.

“They are not!” Janey retorted with a frown.

But Lolli just laughed. “It's okay. Mom and Dad call themselves weirdos all the time. So Zach, do you think you can help us with the blog?”

“Duh, that's easy.” Zach sat down on his skateboard with the tablet on his lap. His fingers flew over the keypad.

“What are you doing?” Janey couldn't help being a little nervous. What if Zach broke her new tablet? Then she'd have to wait until she got it fixed to start her blog.

Zach didn't answer for a second. Finally he looked up and grinned. “There,” he said, showing Janey the screen. “Is that all you
needed me to do?”

Janey gasped. The blog looked perfect! The text was exactly where it was supposed to be. Zach had cropped and resized the photos of cats and dogs Janey had pasted onto the page, too. She hadn't asked him to do that, but the photos looked better, so she didn't complain.

“Awesome!” she said. “Thanks, you really…”

She cut herself off with a gasp. Something was happening on the screen. As Janey stared in horror, the edges of her blog page seemed to peel back. Then a cartoon dinosaur leaped into view and started chomping on the text box!

“Hey!” she cried while Zach started laughing so hard he almost fell off his
skateboard. “You did that on purpose, didn't you?”

“No, it must be a virus or something.” Zach was laughing so hard he could barely get the words out. “You should see your face, Janey!”

Lolli giggled. “That's pretty funny, Zach,” she said. “How'd you do it?”

“I could tell you, but you wouldn't understand.” Zach grinned. “Cool, right?”

“No.” Janey was still frowning. “Fix it!”

“Okay, okay.” Zach rolled his eyes. “Next birthday, make sure you ask for a sense of humor, okay?”

Lolli smiled at Janey. “Come on, it was a little bit funny, right?” Lolli said in her soothing way. “Besides, I'm sure Zach is going to fix it right now. Right, Zach?”

“Right.” Zach was already bent over the tablet again.

Janey was tempted to grab it away from him. But she decided to give Zach one more chance.

And ten minutes later, she was glad. Zach got rid of the dinosaur and adjusted a few
other things. Now the blog looked perfect!

“There,” Zach said, pressing a key on-screen. “You're live. Kids should be able to see the blog now.”

“Thanks, Zach!” Janey took her tablet back and smiled at the screen. “I can't wait for the cute pet pictures to start coming in!”