scrunched.

“I don’t mind if they call me Spotty,” she grumbled to herself. “Just so long as they serve it up good.”

A plate of spaghetti was brought out for Affy, set in front of her, and sprinkled with little bits of meatball-meat. She dug in, tomato sauce splashing her muzzle, noodles flying everywhere as Tony and Joey went back into the restaurant.

“Yo, Afghanna!” Fang slid into the alley, bolting around the corner, moonlight glittering on his Golden Retriever fur.

Afghanna, her back to him, jerked her head up, eyes widening. Tomato sauce all over her face. Noodles hanging from her ear.

“Uh, hey Fang,” she replied coolly, swallowing the mouthful of spaghetti. “Not a good time, okay pal?”
 

“But y’gotta hear this!” Fang stopped behind her. His eyes fell on her plate of spaghetti. “Tony servin’ it up nice again?”

Afghanna didn’t answer, but nodded instead, trying frantically to secretly dislodge the noodle hanging from the top of her ear, where it met with her head.

“Y’know, if y’don’t mind sharin’ while I—” Fang came around to face her, and then stopped abruptly, seeing her face.

Afghanna smiled sheepishly, muzzle still red with sauce.

“Hmmmmmm…” Fang arched one brow, eyes wide, and cocked his head, mouth tightly pressed. “Y’wear yer food well, Affy.”

Afghanna swallowed the last of the spaghetti in her mouth, shaking the noodle to the ground from her ear, licking her muzzle clean.

She laughed. “I’m not the only one. Steal some kid’s chocolate again?”

Fang crossed his eyes to look at the brown smudge on his nose. It was dark enough to be noticeable instead of blending in with his caramel-colored nose.

He licked it off expertly. “I borrowed it.”

“Uh-huh.” Afghanna ate a bit more spaghetti. “So, what’s your big news? Skip got a girlfriend?”

Fang blinked. “Nah, why?” He leaned in close, teasingly adding, “Y’know somethin’ I don’t?”

Afghanna chuckled. “Have a bite and tell me the truth, Sherlock.”

He took a bite of the spaghetti submissively and swallowed it. “Okay, yer never gonna b’lieve this.” Fang sat down. “I had a dream.”

“A dream? No!” Afghanna gasped sarcastically. “Say it ain’t so!”

“Cut the jokes, Affy, this’s serious!”

“Must be. And don’t call me Affy.” Afghanna scratched at her ear again. Darn flea. “You’re shook up about this, aren’t you?”

“No kiddin’.” Fang shuddered and shook his head to clear it, making his ears flap wildly. “Okay, here’s what it was about. It had me an’ the princess—”

“You mean Rose?” Afghanna asked dryly, no emotion in her voice, eyelids lowered, mouth small and not smiling.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I was in it, an’ so was she an’ some other mutts we know, but we weren’t us.” Fang blinked his big, red eyes at her.

“Then who were you?”

“I dunno, but we weren’t Fang an’ Rose anymore, I’ll tell y’that!” Fang hunched his shoulders, head lowered. “It was like we were in some book, an’ she was this uppity gal—oh, an’ we were older. Teenagers!” He drew his head back and gritted his teeth, eyes wide and staring straight ahead, corner

“Go on,” Afghanna urged, getting interested. “Tell me more.”

_____________________________________________________

Fang’s Dream:

“Lily!” A startled voice said. “Get away from that window! It’s nasty out there!”

It was storming outside the big, blue mansion of a house. The orange teen-pup was at the only window not curtain-closed. She had a purple star-barrette behind her ear and a purple-blue ribbon around her neck. Her large, attractive blue eyes gazed at the rain and wind outside.

 Lily (Rose, to those of you who know her better) turned from the window and hopped down from the cushion-chair, onto the carpet.

Her best friend a Cocker Spaniel with a red collar (Some of you know this alternate character as Collette, Scamp’s sister) was sitting by the fire, staring at her with wide eyes.

“What’re you doing?” the Spaniel asked worriedly. “You wanna get wet?”

“It’s not like it’s open,” Lily scoffed, sitting down next to her.

Scarlet (Collette) shook her ears, making them fluffy. “We have to go to the Dog Park again tomorrow,” she informed her. “Our owners said so.”

“Ugh, really? Again?” Lily groaned.

“Every day.” Scarlet sighed.

“I hate that!” Lily flopped down on the carpet next to her friend and watched the rain hit the window. “The Dog Park is for pedigreed pups.”

“Aren’t you pedigreed?” Scarlet pointed out. “I am.”

“Of course! At least,” Lily added, “I have a pedigree. But some dogs there don’t, and they’re really weird. They fight a lot.”

“Puh-leeze,” Scarlet rolled her eyes, tail wagging. “You sound like you’re about to throw up just thinking about it.”

“It’ll be our second week in a row. Why do they take us there so much?” Lily sighed.

“They think it’s like training or something,” Scarlet explained, who seemed to know more about these things than her friend did. “They take us to a place where a bunch of owners let a bunch of teenage dogs off-leash so they can run around.”

“Why?” Lily grunted.

“So we get used to other dogs.” Scar curled her lip. “They think at our age we’ll tear each other to ribbons. Yeah, right!”

“As if!” Lily agreed.

“But seriously,” Scarlet added, face growing long, “there are some weirdos our age. If you wanna keep from getting really torn up with these mutts—” she looked Lily in the eye “—avoid the freaks at all cost.”

“So what do we do if we want to fit in?” Lily shrugged. She actually thought Scarlet’s rant made sense—but it seemed rude to leave the ‘freaks’ by themselves.

“Fit in?” Scarlet arched a brow. “Get popular. Let our owners put this fashion-dog stuff on us. It’s what all the Dog Park pups like.”

“Check.” Lily looked down at her purple-blue scarf/ribbon and raised her eyes to see her purple-blue star barrette behind her orange ear. “Does what I’m wearing now qualify?” she teased.

“Definitely.” Scarlet nodded. “And I’ll try to get our owner to put that red bandanna around my neck.”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded half-heartedly. Did they really need to go to such prissy lengths to impress a couple of teen-dogs? It was only the DogPark! You were supposed to have fun!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

“Oh no,” Lily moaned as the leash was clipped off of her purple ribbon.

Scarlet, now wearing her red bandanna successfully and with her leash off in the huge Dog Park, sprang into a playful pose, legs and paws stretched to either side of each other, panting. “What’s wrong?” She giggled. She seemed excited.

“There are more dogs here than usual,” Lily wailed quietly to her friend.

“Stick with me,” Scarlet assured her. “I’ve been here loads of times. Remember, you’ve only been here twice. It’s natural to feel nervous.”

“Yeah, right.” Lily mumbled. She followed Scarlet to a group of dogs that looked familiar.

“Hey, Aussie,” Scarlet strode up to the group casually, coolly. Lily copied her.

Aussie, the Australian Shepherd mix, a female teen-pup with one blue eye and one brown eye (You know her as Afghanna in a former world) turned around and grinned wolfishly.

“Hey, Scar', how’s pickings?” Aussie lowered her eyelids, smirking.

The group in the little circle made room for Lily and Scarlet to join them.

“Hey, guys,” Scarlet greeted the other dogs. There was a brown-and-gold pup, and twin YorkshireTerriers who giggled at nothing in particular.

“I know you,” the brown-and-gold pup (Some of you know this dog as Bachelor, Kali’s character, but here we’ll call him Chiko) smiled at Lily. “You came with Scarlet a couple weeks ago. Remember me?”

Lily wanted to say yes, to be sweet and fun and cool like Scar was being, but she couldn’t find the words. Finally she just nodded. “Uh-huh,” she stated lamely. “I remember you.”

“Don’t expect much, Chiko,” Aussie reassured the smiling brown dog. “Newbies are a little rusty in the…” she winked, “…uh...speaking department.”

The Yorkshire Terriers snickered, the bows on their identical heads bobbing. Lily was really starting to loathe them.

“You guys hungry?” Aussie asked suddenly, glancing at Scarlet and Lily. “My owner brought a great picnic lunch.”

“You think she’d let us share?” Lily gasped.

Aussie shrugged. “Sure. She’s a good human, but it took a lot of training to get her that way.” She winked