Bending the Rules

Chapter 9 : Tori to The Rescue (Part 2)

Hey! Here's the second chapter :) Hope you'll enjoy.

>>> Part 2 <<<

After English, the day was pretty much a blur. French, rainy lunch time with Lara in the school cafeteria, maths, history, art class, biology, and finally the last bell. Tori raced up to room 712, eager to see what kind of fun was happening there. She couldn't stay long because she had to get home and take care of Bagel.

On the way up to the seventh floor, Tori ran into Poogy, the school custodian. Everybody loved stockt, sandy-haired Poogy. His real name was Boris Pugachev, but nobody ever used that, not even Ms.Simmons, the school principal. Poogy came from Russia. He was working as hard as he could, making money to bring his family over. It was rumored that he had been an architect in his native country, but nobody knew for sure. He'd had to start again from the bottom in his adopted land. But Poogy hadn't let life get him down. He loved America, and he loved M.I.H. He knew a lot of the students's names, even by the third week of school. And he was always there to help when things went wrong, as they often did in the brand-new school building.

If it wasn't the escalators, it was the water fountains or the heating system or the toilets.

"Poogy!" Tori cried when she spied him. "I have the best idea for you!"

"What is it?" said Poogy in his heavy accent.

"I know your family isn't in the States yet. So you need somebody to love until your family gets here!"

Poogy started backing away. "Who is it?" he said unhappily.

"It's a dog! A cute little dog! I found him. He's really friendly, and he's housebroken, and --"

"He breaks my house?" said Poogy, horrified.

"Oh, no," she laughed. "It means he doesn't go to the bathroom in the house."

"Oh. Okay."

"Okay, you'll take him?"

"No, just okay, I understand. I cannot take the dog, Tori. Where I live I cannot have dog. I am sorry."

Tori's face fell. "Okay, Poogy. I understand."

"Maybe you put up some posters, yes? Maybe somebody else will want this dog."

"That's a great idea!"

"Maybe you make them on the computer, yes?"

"Yes! I make them on the computer!"

"Okay!"

"Okay!"

Tori gave Poogy a high five and then hustled up to room 712. She could start making the poster right away, get a really nice one designed. Then she'd ask Barbie or Lara to take a black-and-white picture of Bagel looking at his cutest.

She'd scan it into the computer and the plop it right into the middle of the poster, nice and big. The poster would look so great, she'd have a million takers, she was sure. She'd just have to choose the very best owner for him, because Bagel deserved the very best.

When she got up to 712, she saw there was a new sign on the door -- M.I.H Star Issues. Inside, however, things were in a chaos.

There were about a dozen kids jammed into the small, windowless room. The kids were all clustered around Chelsie Peterson. Everybody was yelling and screaming. And between the kids and the computers, it was hot in there.

Chelsie was sitting at her computer screen, and Tori was glad there weren't any windows in the room, because Chelsie looked as if she would have jumped out one if she could.