Zoe was on the phone with Dad. “How’d the exams go? Oh, that’s good. I’m sorry I didn’t text when we got home. Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, Dad. We had a few challenges.” Zoe glanced up at us. “Can Doug join us for dinner tonight?” She took the phone from her ear and put it on speaker.

“Sure!” Dad said. “We love Doug.”

“Can he stay overnight too?” I asked. “He’s in a little, uh, situation, and he may need our help. I’ll explain later.”

“Sure, Arcade. You know he’s always welcome here.”

Zoe hung up. I followed Doug up to his bedroom to help him pack some clothes, a sleeping bag, and his pillow in a big black garbage bag we had left over from Flames’s cleanup.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this, Arcade. I don’t want to move away from this street, this city, all my friends. Especially you. I mean, I knew Gram was getting older and that someday this would happen, but I’m only eleven-and-a-half. I don’t have any closer family than her. Am I gonna end up living out of a bag or box and be homeless?”

“Nah.” I swept my hands in the air. “Not gonna happen. I won’t let it.”

Doug looked down at my chest. “You think your pure gold token can do anything?”

I grabbed it, and it flared heat, but just for a second.

Can I control it? Really?

“Well, one thing’s for sure. If I can make this thing find you a home, I will.”

Chapter 13
Schedule Scare

That night at dinner, we told my parents about Doug’s grandma, and how Doug had been staying at his house all by himself for the last two weeks.

Dad shook his head. “That’s not acceptable. You can stay with us, Doug. That way you can keep your house clean so that when the realtor wants to show it, you’re ready.”

“That’s a great idea,” I said.

Except that the upstairs bathroom is being trashed by a flamingo doing the flamenco.

Loopy, my chocolate-colored shih-poo, climbed up on my lap and couldn’t stop sniffing and licking my shirt.

“Loopy! C’mon, man! I know I’ve been gone all day, but this is ridiculous!” He popped his head up near my chin and licked my mouth.

“Ha!” Doug pointed to some slobber that was tracked on my shirt. “It’s almost like he smells another dog, or some other more exotic animal. Hey, Loopy, you like shrimp?”

A loud knock at the front door made me jump. Loopy leapt down and ran over. Dad got up to open it.

“Well, hello, Kevin and Casey. How is everything at the Tolley residence?”

Kevin AND Casey!?! Ugh . . .