put your collar on, and of course, bath you."

Hope groaned. Kodi walked out the room, and then looked at the moaning Hope, he shook his head and walked into the bedroom.

"Stupid special race, stupid family, stupid frilly flower collar!" Hope grunted to herself.

That moment, Betty walked in from the bathroom, "Hello little Hopey Wopey! You want bath! You want bathy?!" Betty asked, very motherly.

No. I don't want a stupid old bath thank you old hag, Hope thought inside her head, Oops, better act excited if you want that extra biscuit in your breakfast, Hope started to wag her tail.

"Who's a good girl?!" Betty shouted, "You are! Yes my little Hopey!" She picked up Hope and carried her into the bathroom. Hope grunted, "You're getting a bit heavy now, you're not my little baby no more. You're big girl aren't you?" she put Hope in the bath of bubbles and water.

"Bet! Where's my good suit!" shouted a rude voice from the kitchen, Mr. Simpson.

"Right where you left it!" Betty shouted back, her motherly voice gone.

"I can't find it though! God sake Bet, you're bloom'n useless!" Mr. Simpson shouted back.

"Ken, go look for it! I'm busy at the moment!" Betty shouted, obviously getting the final word.

Even though it was in the other room, you could still hear a faint groan.

Betty shook her head and frowned, not saying a word. She placed Hope's shiny purple collar on the side, next to the frilly flower collar. She picked up a sponge and squirted some dog shampoo onto it, then she started rubbing it into Hope velvety soft fur. She turned the shower on and rinsed all the suds off from Hope. She put a towel round her arms and lifted Hope up. She quickly put her on the mat and tried to stop Hope from shaking. Too late.

"Pwoar!!!!!" roared Betty wiping her sodden dressing gown in another towel. Hope smirked.

After Hope was completely dry, she got out the dog brush. After a thorough brush through, she picked up the frilly flower collar.The collar was peach satin with red roses on green stems. It had white frills and a small cape frilly like thing, but it only went down to her shoulders. Even Hope had to admit, it was very pretty. Betty carefully placed the collar over her head and slipped it onto her neck. She straightened the cape thing over her shoulders. "You're so beautiful aren't you?" Betty finally whispered. She then emptied the bath and opened the door for Hope to run out. Hope didn't run, but she walked, more strutted out of the bathroom. When she walked into the living room, a cat call made her jump. It was Earl.

"Shut up Earl," Hope glared at him.

Earl snorted with laughter, "But look at you! Very sophisticated! Could I really help it?"

Hope pulled a face, "Er, Earl, I'd hate to break it to you.... But........ You're very NOT sophisticated, so shut up and move, wearing this collar is bad enough."

"Whatever," Earl replied.

Hope then walked past Earl and sat on her hearth rug. Earl muttered something under his breath and walked away. Hope smirked. Even she had to admit, he did look rather dashing with his combed brown fur and leather collar. Hope sat there and sighed. Her lovely grey fur with a tint of burgandy gleamed, and her creme underside sparkled and her violet eyes were twinkling.

A few moments later, the bedroom door burst open and out came the only two female dogs on the team, Pheonix and Mary. They were wearing collars almost the same as Hope's, except their's had no cape thing and they were white with yellow daisies.

Hope smiled politely and said, "Good morning girls." she paused, "Where's the guys?"

"Good morning Hope," Pheonix sang, "The boys are in the other room, getting ready."

"I like your collar Hope," Mary complimented, "Very pretty."

"Thanks." thanked Hope. Just then the boys, Kodi, Earl, Yoyo, Kirby and Ralph came striding in, all in posh black leather collars.

"How dashing." Hope laughed and looked at Ralph. Ralph went bright red. Then behind them, Mr. Simpson, in his best suit, came walking after the guys, closely followed by an overdressed Betty.

"I think we're ready to leave now. Let's go," Mr. Simpson opened the door and exited, Betty right next to him. Kodi came up beside Hope at the front and followed, Hope rolled her eyes. On their way to the starting line of the passageway, they passed many dogs, all the male ones cat called whenever Hope walked by. Hope just rolled her eyes and smiled at them.

Shortly afterwards, they arrived. Rows and rows of chairs were set carefully along the sidelines. Mr. Simpson walked up to a man in a green suit and showed him his ID. The green suit man looked at it and pointed to two chairs and a big space to keep dogs. Mr. Simpson smiled at the man and walked to the reserved seats. Betty put her bag on the floor by her chair and sat down. After the humans were settled, Hope sighed and sat in front of them, beside Kodi. She hated the looked they got from the other dogs. Here they were, a rich family sitting in the best seats with a beautiful young dog. The male dogs stared at Hope admirably and the females stared at her enviously. That moment, her uncle, Dingo came striding towards Kodi in a brown with a silver buckle collar, closely followed by his eldest son, the same age as Hope, a handsome burgandy and creme called Ritchie. Behind Ritchie, he was follwed by his mother, a pretty tan, rounding up their six puppies.

"Bro!" shouted Dingo, "How's it going!" he gave Kodi a doggy high five.

"Hello Kodi, hello Hope," Donna, Dingo's mate, said. She was wearing a white satin collar with a silver buckle.

"Hello," Hope replied in her sweetest tone.

"Hello Hope," Ritchie said, in his poshest tone, head raised high.

"Hi," Hope replied, rolling her eyes.

Kodi shouted back, "Pretty good bro, pretty good."

After all the family had arrived, except for Balto, because he was running in the race, the race was about to begin. The crowd roared with excitement, but Balto's family and owners had the best seats. Jenna, wearing a beautiful red and white satin collar with a peach cape thing, sat next to Hope. Jenna smiled at her, Hope nodded and smiled back. At the starting line, Gunnar Kaasen, the musher of Balto's team, was strapping the dogs to the sled. Balto looked at his entire family and smiled and nodded at Jenna. Jenna smiled and blew him a kiss. Balto nodded and then his musher dragged him to the front and strapped him in. The horn went off to signal for the teams to make their way to the starting line. And surprise surprise, Steele's team was right next to Balto's. Steele glared at Balto and snapped his fangs. Balto smirked and got in his starting position. A few minutes later, the countdown began.

"3....... 2............. 1!" shouted the man, he then shot a gun in the air. Balto had a brilliant start, he was leading already, and he wasn't even trying. Dingo and his other brother, Leo shouted major encouragement. Hope smiled and looked as Balto's team vanished into the trees, closely followed by the other teams.......

A few hours later, it was halfway through the race. Hope sighed and stood up, she was bored. She started to quietly walk away, avoiding Kodi. But Kodi was in deep conversation with Tia, one of his sisters. She sneaked past unnoticed and then started to wonder around the grounds. She turned a corner and gasped. There, standing right in front of her, was Zaq! Zaq looked at her and his eyes widened awkwardly, his black leather collar glistened in the

"Erm, hello Hope," Zaq cleared his throat.

"Hi," Hope muttered.

Awkward silence. "Look Hope, we really need to talk about last night." Zaq pleaded.

Hope looked around her and nodded, "I think we do."

Zaq smiled and looked around. He gestured his head towards the boiler room, "C'mon."

Hope smiled and nodded. She stepped forward and walked towards the boiler room. When they were inside, Zaq closed the door behind them.

"You look beautiful, Hope," he sighed happily as he looked at Hope.

Hope nodded, "Thanks," Hope blushed.

"Look Hope, I need to confess something........" he paused, "I know it's been only a short period of time we've known eachother... But....." he paused again, "I think I love you......"

An awkward pause, "My response to that won't be much different to your's," Hope smiled and twitched her ears.

Zaq smiled and moved his muzzle towards Hope's, Hope didn't hesitate. This time though, they kissed. As their tongues touched, it felt like a bomb of love had exploded into the room. As they moved closer it felt like they were made for eachother.

"Hope? Hope, are you in here?" a voice boomed from outside. Hope gasped as the door quickly opened and revealed a ray of light that sucked up the darkness from the boiler room. There, standing in the doorway, was Kodi.

Chapter 6, The Runaway Confession

Hope scurrried up to the window and looked at the rain pounding down onto the glass. She sighed and a tear caught her eye. It was only a few hours ago she got punished for her actions, and she hated it. She paced the room and the tears came into waterfalls. She could still here her father shouting to the other dogs in the next room. Hope sighed, "What have I done?" repeating herself. If she never had feelings for Zaq, she wouldn't of upset her family so, and neither the same with Zaq. She looked at the ceiling, hoping, praying that Zaq got left off easy. She pricked her ears at the sound of the door creaking open. She looked behind her, it was just Earl. Hope sighed and brushed her tears away,