The Harpercops meet Beethoven

Chapter 4

It had been about 2 years, and Beethoven had grown into one-hundred and eighty-five pounds of antics. He was bigger than the dalmatians now, and he even ate more than Rolly, which shocked everyone.

Kali came over one morning next door to the Newton's house to get Ryce, cause they'd be walking to school together. 

Kali opened the front door, which was unlocked, when she was greeted by Beethoven, who had just gotten the mail at the door. 

"Good morning, Beethoven" Kali smiled and patted the st bernard on the head. 

"Morning, Kali" Beethoven smiled back to one of his favorite humans while he carried the mail in his mouth and walked with her into the kitchen. 

"If this business is gonna grow, we need more money. They're talking about $25,000" Kali heard George talking in the kitchen about his business he ran for air fresheners. Obviously pretty dull if you asked her. 

"Morning, Newtons" Kali smiled and greeted the family as she came into the kitchen. 

"Morning, Kali" The Newton family all smiled back except George, who was way too focused in his work. 

"Are you ready to go, Ryce?" Kali asked her friend, with her backpack on.

"Almost?" Ryce said as she was finishing her homework, before she slipped some bacon under the table to have Beethoven eat.

"Ted, get down here" Alice called out to her son, who was still upstairs. 

"Where's my shoes?" Ted asked. "I don't know honey, just backtrack" Alice called back. 

George continued talking about getting a deal for his company, until Beethoven placed his head down on the table next to him. 

"Daddy?" Emily said. 

"What?" George asked, as he stopped talking about his lame air fresheners. 

"He wants you to scratch his head" Emily told him, referring to Beethoven.

George looked to the st bernard, all annoyed and a little sicken. "I don't want to scratch his head" George said with revolt. "Back off, back off!" he tried to get Beethoven to move.  

"But he wants you to" Emily said. 

"Why can't you just do it?" Kali asked George with a bit of aggravation. 

"Kids, sometimes we don't get what we want" George told his daughter and neighbor. "That's not the way the world works".  

Just then, Ted came downstairs to the table. "Dad, can I have karate lessons?" he asked, before Alice put some bacon on George's plate. 

Beethoven's eyes went wide once he saw the bacon. George was distracted with Alice for a moment, when Beethoven saw his chance and grabbed a piece of bacon in his mouth. 

"No! Come on!" George saw what Beethoven did, and the st bernard soon got dog slobber all over his pants. 

"He slimed me!" George exclaimed. "He slobbed! Look at this!". 

Kali then grabbed Beethoven by the collar and gently pulled him away from George. 

"Don't worry about it" Alice told her workaholic husband, who was overacting. 

"Oh boy" Kali sighed and rolled her eyes as she could hear George complaining in the other room, before she smiled and came over with the Newton kids to say goodbye to Beethoven. 

"Bye Beethoven, see you later" Kali petted the big, slobbery dog before going outside with Ryce. 

The two young teenage girls started walking down the street on their way to school, while the twins met up with Ted at the bus station.

Next door, back at the Harpercops, Jane and Walter had let the dalmatians outside after they finished with their breakfast. Rolly stretched out his front legs, when he and his siblings heard something next door at the Newton's house. They came up to the fence and looked over to see George bringing Beethoven outside to his kennel.

"You filthy dog! I'm sick of this! Every time I turn my back you're messing up something new!" George was furious with the st bernard.  

"You've destroyed my house, you ruined my life, you're making me crazy!" George yelled, locking Beethoven in his kennel and then left for work. 

The three dalmatian siblings then came over to Beethoven after George left, when Sparky, one of Beethoven's friends showed up. 

"Hey Beethoven, how's it going?" Sparky greeted. 

"Pretty good" The st bernard smiled. "I think he's starting to like me" Beethoven referred about George before he burped.   

"If you ask me boys, I think George should just take a break from his solitude and try the marvels of meditation" Cadpig stated. 

"You ready to start the day, big guy?" Lucky asked the st bernard in excitement, wagging his tail.

"You know it!" Beethoven smirked. "Wait one sec!" he went over to the end of is kennel, where he had apparently dug a hole awhile back to get out through. 

"Okay" Beethoven told the others. "Lets go"

Beethoven soon went out for a stroll around town with the dalmatians and three of his other good friends. Sparky the Jack-Russel Terrier, a stray who helped Beethoven escape from the dognappers when he was a puppy. Ginger the Collie, the only other girl in the gang besides Cadpig. And Caesar the Great-Dane, who had to be the least intelligent out of the gang.  

Meanwhile, Kali was in English class, which she and Ryce had together and they were studying for a test. But the tomboy glanced over a few times, noticing how Ryce was kinda daydreaming off in another world and it seemed she could tell... Ryce had a crush. 

Believe it or not, Kali also had her own boyfriend, who lived back in New York city. But they were trying to work out their relationship, despite all the times Kali's moved. 

The tomboy had been texting her boyfriend for awhile now in class, since she became bored with studying. She soon felt another vibration in her pant-pocket. She took out her phone without the teacher seeing and looked to see her boyfriend had responded back to her text with a joke. Kali then started snickering, trying not to laugh too loud and draw attention to herself. 

"Is there something funny, Miss Harpercop?" Kali then looked up from her desk to see the old teacher who was standing over the teenager with her hands on her hips. 

"No, Mam" Kali replied, still giggling a little. "I was just doing research on the English word, "Agelast" she quickly came up with an excuse. 

"Mm-hmm" The teacher gave her a stern look. The tomboy then sighed, knowing she would be forced to stay after class. 

The bell soon rang for free period, and Kali went with Ryce to the gym.

They sat on the bleachers, with Kali studying while waiting for her boyfriend to respond back to her texts. Ryce was suppose to be studying too, but she was mainly focused on the boys playing basketball, specifically one boy with dark hair. His name was Mark, who Ryce had a crush on. 

The boys soon finished their game and headed off to the showers. 

"Hi, Mark" Ryce said, but Mark went right past her on over to another girl with long brown hair. Ryce looked disappointed. 

"Ah forget that snob, Ryce" Kali said to her friend, while glaring slightly at the other girl with mockery. 

The two teenage girls soon went to their next class.