Justine McKeen, Pooper Scooper (3 page)

“But—”

“But nothing. Goodbye.” Mr. Ripley glared at Justine and walked away.

“But you are about to step in a big pile of—”

It was too late. Mr. Ripley put his fancy leather shoe right in some fresh dog poop.

“Wow,” Justine said. “That must have been a big dog. A really big dog.”

The mess was around the side and overtop of Mr. Ripley's left shoe.

He lifted his foot to stare at it.

Justine thought this was funny. She pulled her camera out.

“This is all your fault!” he said.

“A dog put it there, not me,” she said. “The owner should have used a pooper scooper to clean up after the dog.”

“There is dog poop all over this park,” he said. “If you want to solve something, solve this!” He pointed at his shoe.

Perfect. Justine snapped a photo of Mr. Ripley pointing at the dog poop on his shoe.

“That's a great idea!” Justine said. “Thanks for everything, Mr. Ripley.”

Chapter Six

“All right, guys,” Justine said to Michael and Safdar. It had been one week since Mr. Ripley told Justine to leave him alone. “Cough it up. Ten bucks each.”

Justine stood beside their table in the cafeteria. She held a large plastic bag. Michael and Safdar were about to eat something that looked like chicken and beans. Nobody was sure if that's what it really was.

Michael saw
John's T-shirts
written on Justine's bag.

“Cool,” Michael said. “Our special shirts are ready?”

“Yes,” she said. “But you don't get them until you pay for them.”

Michael found his money. “This is my allowance. It better be worth it.”

“Yeah,” Safdar said. “And I hope mine is the right size.”

Justine took their money.

“Hey, Blatzo,” she called across the room. “Come here.”

He stormed over. He looked grumpy. “Don't call me Blatzo in front of everyone.”

“Sure,” Justine said. “Give me ten bucks, Blatzo. We are ready to start.”

He grinned. “You've got the T-shirts?”

“Yup,” she said. “Money first, or no shirt.”

She took Jimmy Blatzo's money.

“This is going to be good,” Jimmy Blatzo said. “Justine's plan rocks. Mr. Ripley made a big mistake when he decided to mess with Justine.”

Justine opened the bag and handed out the T-shirts.

Michael held up his. The back of it said
The Pooper
Scooper Club
.

“What do you think?” Justine asked.

Michael and Safdar looked at Jimmy Blatzo.

“Yes,” Jimmy Blatzo said. “You have permission to speak now.”

“Pooper Scooper?” Michael said. “Justine, you told us the T-shirts were going to be about helping the environment and getting Mrs. Reynolds back into the library.”

“They are,” Justine said. “As Pooper Scoopers, we're going to clean up the park. And we'll sell lots of T-shirts to kids and parents at our school. Look at the front of the shirt.”

Safdar held up his shirt. He saw the words,
Stop the
poop at the school board office. We need our librarians.

There was a big photo too. It was a photo of Mr. Ripley pointing at the dog poop on his shoe. Justine pulled her Pooper Scooper T-shirt over her head. “I have twelve more to sell by the end of the day. Then I can give my Grammy back the money she loaned to me to buy them.”

“I would like my money back,” Michael said. “I'm not going to be part of something called The Pooper Scooper Club.”

“Me too. I want my money back,” Safdar said. “I don't want to belong to the new club unless you change it to Mean and Green. Or Green and Mean.” Safdar raised his arms and flexed his muscles. They were very small muscles. “See? That's me. Mean and Green.”

“I like the shirt,” Jimmy Blatzo said. He pulled it on over his other T-shirt. “I suggest that both of you like it too. I suggest that both of you like it right now.”

“Wow,” Michael said to Jimmy Blatzo. “Now that I see how good it looks on you, I have to admit it is a cool shirt.”

“Really cool,” Safdar said. He stopped making muscles with his arms.

“Now that you like the shirts,” Jimmy Blatzo said, “you can wear them for the rest of the day. Each of you make sure to find three friends who will wear one and help us in the park after school.”

“I think my shirt is too small to wear to class,” Michael said.

“I don't,” Jimmy Blatzo said. He made muscles with his arms. Much bigger muscles than Safdar's.

“Wow, you're right again,” Michael said. He pulled the T-shirt on. “Fits perfectly.”

Jimmy Blatzo coughed and looked at Safdar.

“Of course,” Safdar said. He pulled on his T-shirt. “Here I am. A Pooper Scooper.”

“A proud Pooper Scooper,” Blatzo corrected.

“Yes,” Safdar said. “A proud Pooper Scooper.”

Jimmy Blatzo looked at Justine. “And you wonder why I like it that people are scared of me.”

Chapter Seven

After school, everyone met at Central Park, across from Mr. Ripley's office. Justine, Jimmy Blatzo, Michael and Safdar wore the shirts with
The Pooper Scooper
Club
written on the back. On the front it said
Stop the
poop at the school board office. We need our librarians.
They had each brought three friends. So there were sixteen kids. Everyone gathered around Justine.

“I made flyers to let people know why we are here. Mrs. Reynolds helped me do the research,” she said. She held up a stack of flyers printed on recycled paper. “The dogs in our town produce over one thousand pounds of dog poop a day.”

“Ewww,” someone said.

“Double ewwww,” someone else answered.

“I agree,” Justine said. She passed out the flyers.

“Dog poop is really bad for the environment. Bacteria from dog poop washes into streams and causes up to thirty percent of the pollution. It also makes people and small children sick. Worse, only forty percent of people clean up after their dogs because they think the rain washes it away. If someone stops to ask what we are doing, you can give them one of these flyers.”

“Why would they ask us what we are doing?” one of the kids at the back asked.

Justine pointed at the picture on her T-shirt of Mr. Ripley and the dog poop on his shoe. “Don't you think this picture is going to make them ask questions?”

Justine put on a pair of rubber gloves. She held a plastic bag.

“What kind of cleanup work are we doing?” another kid asked.

Justine took a few steps forward and pointed.

“Right there. There's a big one!”

She leaned over and placed the bag over something brown. It looked like a chocolate bar that had been in the sun too long. Justine was right. It
was
big.

“Ewww!” some of the kids said.

“We are the Pooper Scoopers,” Justine said as she scooped the poop into the bag. “I've got plenty of Earth-friendly plastic bags and rubber gloves. You can use them to pick up poop like I just did. If people see us scooping poop, maybe they will make it a habit.”

“I like helping the environment,” one kid said.

“But what are we going to do with all the dog poop?”

“We are going to save it,” Justine said.

“Ewww,” someone said again.

“Double ewww,” someone else said.

“Seriously,” Justine said. “We can use the dog poop to power streetlights for the park.”

“Ha, ha,” the double-ewww kid said. “Nice try.”