okay. Carla hugged Saba.

“Oh, girl! I’m so glad you’re fine. Can you still jump up on the bed?”

Saba answered that with a jump onto the bed. Easy, she thought.

A few minutes later, Carla was fast asleep again, but Saba was wide awake wondering. Would she like it on the mail team? Would her dad be angry with her if she didn’t? Would everyone accept her for who she is? She didn’t want to find out.

The next morning, Saba barely got any sleep, so she slept and extra hour. But the next time she opened her eyes, Jess and Kila were standing right in front of her. Saba screamed.

“What the heck are you guys doing here?”

“We came to see if you were okay. Everyone is talking about your fall last night.” Jess said.

“What fall?”

“You know, you fell out of bed last night. What happened?” Kila asked.

“Oh. I just had a nightmare last night and I fell out if bed. No bigie.”

“Really?! What was it about?” Jess loved a good nightmare story.

“Well, I was just telling my dad I didn’t want to dogsled and he attacked me. Then all of my friends, including you two, never spoke to me. And when you did, it was to put me down. I started to cry and I woke up and realized I fell from the bed.”

“Wow. Do you really hate dogsledding?” Kila asked her.

“I don’t know. It looks exciting when Kodi does it. And it sounds cool when my dad tells the story of how he saved all those kids from dipheria. But DOING it, I’m not sure.”

“I’m sure you’ll love it. You’re one of the few girls to actually join a sled team. You’ll be more popular than ever!”

“Oh…great. More attention is exactly what I need.” Saba meant to be sarcastic but she isn’t really good at that.

“See? It’ll be awesome.” Jess said to her.

“I just hope you’re right.” Saba sighed. But then she got up, deciding to forget about it. “C’mon guys. I’m already an hour late. I don’t want to mess up our schedule any more than I have.”

Jess and Kila just shrugged their shoulders and followed Saba out her front door. And just like all the other times, a few dogs were already waiting for their greeting. Now Saba completely forgot about the dogsled thing. For a minute.

Out of the corner of her eye, Saba saw him.

A golden husky with bronze ears and a silver collar was walking down the same street Saba was on. The second she glanced at him she held the position of her eyes. Kila was the first to notice.

“Saba what are you looking at?” But Saba didn’t answer. Instead Kila followed Saba’s gaze to see a nice looking husky on the way over there. Kila tapped Jess’ shoulder and she just shot her mouth open at the sight of him. The husky was talking to some other dogs, probably his buddies, and he took one glance at Saba. Saba shifted her eyes away so she wouldn’t look like some sort of stalker.

“Who…who IS that?!” Jess asked. “Forget Luke! Dibs!”

“C’mon Jess! That’s against girl code. Saba saw him first.” Kila argued. “Besides, Luke is a nice dog.”

“Yeah but you said it yourself. He didn’t even look at me.” Jess hung her head low.

“I’m sorry, Jess. I guess I was just…jealous. I wanted Luke, too.”

“Aww. So he DID look at me. And WINK?!”

Kila nodded her head.

But when Jess was about to scream for joy. Saba shushed them.

“The husky’s coming!”

The three girls watched as the stranger approached them.

“Hi.” He said. Jess and Kila fainted. Saba just smiled.

“Hi.”

“You’re…Saba right?”

“Yep. You were a little hesitant on my name? Wow that’s a first.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, It’s just I haven’t met anybody yet who didn’t really know who I was.”

“I’m new here. That’s probably why. I got your name though right?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Well, I just figured out that you and I are going to be team mates.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, for the mail team.”

“Oh right. I’m a little nervous. It’s my first team.”

“Really? I’ve been on plenty. Maybe I could teach you some stuff about it sometime.”

“Yeah…That would be nice.”

“Cool. By the way my name is Nao. I’ll see you around Saba.” Then he walked away and out of sight when his master took him. By then Jess and Kila shot back up again.

“O…M…G!!! You actually TALKED to him! How was it?”

“Jess, calm down. It was just a conversation…with a guy that looked like a golden angel!”

“Ohhh. You should totally go out with him!”

“Kila, I just met him. I’m taking it slow this time. Remember the last boyfriend I had?”

“Oh yeah. The day you met him you picked flowers for him, sang songs, ya even tried to kiss the guy! Next thing that came in the gossip news: Young, freaked out dog purposely stows away on a plane to the outback.”

“That’s why I want to take it slow so that would never happen again.”

“So Saba, do you want to dogsled NOW?” Jess asked.

“Well…” Saba pondered. “I’ll give it a whirl. I mean, what’s the WORST that could happen, right?”

“Yay!” Kila cheered. “So, do you remember what goes on tonight?”

“OUR ANNIVERSARY!” The three friends chanted together.

“Hey Saba, you should ask that husky to come.” Jess told her.

“Oh I don’t know. I just met him and…”

“Aw come on. It’ll give him a chance to get to know you better. And vice versa.”

“Ok fine. Since I like the kid I’ll ask him, but I don’t know where the heck he lives.”

“Just leave that to us, Saba. Remember, we are professional gossipers, and we need info on everybody, and the latest dirt. We’ll find out where he lives.” Kila said.

“Thanks guys. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”