Dog trouble!

Aagh! What have I done about it? That was months ago and since then, things have moved on a lot! I think I had a row with Mum about it everyday for a month. She was just so determined to get on and do it and drag me with her, kicking and screaming, and I was so determined not to have anything whatsoever to do with it.
So who’s won? Me? Well, yes and no. Her? Also yes and no. She’s doing it, oh gosh, is she doing it. She had a mega-clear out of the garage. That caused another row – I so didn’t want her to get rid of some of that stuff – my spacehopper, for example, and my little pink bike, the first one I ever had.
‘But the twins will want them!’ I protested.
Mum held up my space-hopper which, I had to admit, looked more like squashed pumpkin than something you might have a good bounce on.
‘Yeh, right,’ she said. ‘And the bike was third-hand when we got it and has definitely seen better days.’
Yeh, right? Who does she think she is? I so hate it when Mum tries to be cool and ‘down with the kids’. And I so hate that none of my friends seem to mind! Just one person who said, ‘Gosh Kate, your mum is so irritating!’ – uh – I would love them for ever and ever and ever, amen! But no, even Chas, who is my best friend in the world bar none, can’t see it.
‘She’s such a laugh,’ he says. ‘You’ve just got to admire her. She cares so much about stuff.’
‘Chas, she cares about cardboard coffins!’ I said. ‘How mad is that?’
‘That’s because she cares about the environment and she cares about people not being ripped off when they have to have a funeral. Those are good things to care about, Kate – you know that really.’
I pulled a face. I hate it when Chas is right – and he is about that. But Mum is not right to try to force me into working for her, however good a cause it is. She’s also into human rights and freedom of speech and stuff – so I’m standing up for my human right to choose what work I do. I’m sure there’s one about that – there certainly is about not being a slave. Oh,OK, she was going to pay me and it was in line with the minimum wage but that’s not the point – it wasn’t work I wanted to do.
Anyway, I’ve solved it. Or I thought I had – till tonight that is. The arguments went on and on. Mum just didn’t give up. She’d leave it for a while and then have a little go about the amount of money I seem to need and how I was forever wanting to borrow from next month’s allowance and then she’d say, ‘Of course, there’s plenty of work you could do for me, Kate – you know that!’ And that would just send me ballistic.
And then, just when I thought I was going to have to give in because I couldn’t stand it any longer – and I can see that Mum does have a lot of work – it’s surprising how many people want flat-pack cardboard coffins – I managed to find myself another job!
I saw it advertised in the local shop:
DOG WALKER REQUIRED. FLEXIBLE ARRANGEMENTS.
GOOD RATE OF PAY.
Well, I didn’t think the law would be too strict about dog-walking so I rang the number. It was only when I heard the woman’s voice on the other end that I put two and two together.
It was Greg’s mum. Gorgeous or Grotty Greg, depending on your point of view – he who I once fancied like mad and who….well, I’m coming to that later. Greg’s family have loads of dogs – huge Newfoundlands mostly – they breed them. They also run a kennels and a dog-training centre. It was for the kennels that they needed dog-walkers.
There’s a bit of history between me and Greg – well, quite a lot actually. But I decided not to let that bother me. It was a job – a flexible one that paid quite well and that I would quite enjoy. I moaned like mad when our family got our dog, Rover, but now I love him to bits and even like walking him sometimes. It’s good exercise, and if you’re feeling like the world hates you and you hate it, then it’s great to get out and stomp around. And you make the dog happy which always makes me smile – well, almost always. So I reckoned that a dog-walking job was my ideal solution. Mum was actually quite polite about it when I explained. Now that she’s got the business up and running – Ben and Chas have given her masses of help with creating a web-site and using e-bay – she admits she doesn’t need me anything like as much as she thought she would – but she still thinks it’d be good for me to have a job.
‘The trouble is, Kate,’ she said, ‘that you just don’t know the value of money…’
I walked out at that point. I mean, how irritating is that? She just means that I spend too much – well, a job will solve that, no worries.
No worries? Well, actually, lots of worries. I was all sorted to start the job tomorrow – I’ve said I’ll do two evenings a week, straight after school, and a Saturday morning – and then this evening, I got a phone call. It was Greg.
‘Hey, Kate,’ he said. ‘I hear you’ve got a job with my mum.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ I said cautiously.
‘Well, I walk my dogs after school too, you know.’
‘Really?’ I said. He has at least one Newfoundland himself – I don’t know if he has more now.
‘Yes – so I thought, how would it be if we walked them together? It’d be more fun that way. What d’you think?’
What did I think?! I had no idea what to say. The thing is, I didn’t know how Chas would feel about it. We’re not going out as such – but occasionally we…well, we get a bit physical. Neither of us wants to get too serious – I mean, we’re only 15, we’ve got GCSEs, we don’t want to get all heavy, split up and never been friends again – but I still wasn’t sure whether I felt OK about going dog-walking with Greg.
I could feel myself blushing, just thinking about it. Does Greg still fancy me? He definitely did at one point – and there was a really great, embarrassing day when I slapped him because he was getting too pushy. And do I, even just a little bit, still fancy him? I just don’t know.
What should I say? I really wished my friend Vicky was there to advise me.
‘I’ll think about it, Greg,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you at school tomorrow. The thing is, I quite like the peace and quiet at the end of a day at school.’
I was bluffing wildly but he didn’t know that.
‘Oh, OK,’ he said. ‘Just make sure you do. See you tomorrow then, all right?’
‘See you tomorrow.’
Aagh! What have I done? What on earth am I going to say to him tomorrow?