Read Alpha Dog for Free Online Page B

go-getter and my dad is super successful and I’m not all that special.”
    Christine looked at me in disbelief. “Come on. You’re a total yuppie princess.”
    “No, I’m not. I’m no good at that super achievement stuff. Dad says I’m too much of a thinker and Mom thinks I’m lazy—either that or purposefully rebelling just to make her mad.”
    “You mean you aren’t?” Christine raised her eyebrows. “Hell, I do that all the time to my dad. I figure it’s our basic right.”
    “Yeah,” I said. I didn’t want to tell her that it wasn’t pure teenage rebellion that made me go against my mom’s plans for me. Truth was, I knew I’d fail at them. I was too klutzy and cynical for the beauty pageants, too shy for the speeches and protests. And I had no leadership qualities whatsoever. In our entire family, probably only Grandma Hattie, who had a tendency to go places in her slippers and still thought Nixon was President, was a bigger embarrassment to Mom.
    I watched Christine hang up an itty-bitty dress that seemed to be made out of black rubber. The girl even had her own unique style. Obviously, she’d only worn the church mouse ensemble in order to make a strong first impression on Mrs. Krantz. The real Christine, I could see, was more retro punk meets shabby chic meets urban cool.
    “Okay. I’m done,” she announced as she set a three-tiered chrome makeup case on the wooden dresser. “Let’s unpack your stuff.”
    After watching her unload her vintage dresses, hard-core rock tees, and loads of black leather you-name-its, my own clothes seemed horribly boring and safe (especially the ruffly underwear from Grandma, which I tossed into a dark corner of the closet floor when Christine wasn’t looking). I was kind of embarrassed and kept shoving things into drawers and onto hangers at a frenzied pace, so I wasn’t really paying attention when I pulled out the Scooby Doo alarm clock from the bottom of the box.
    “Is that a clock?” she asked from her cross-legged position on my mattress.
    I looked down, surprised to see Scooby’s goofy face in my grasp. “Uh . . . yeah.”
    Christine rose up onto her knees and held out her hands. “Can I see?”
    “Sure.” As I gave it to her, my mind raced to come up with some sort of excuse as to why I had a cartoon character alarm clock. Let’s see. . . . She already knew I didn’t have any younger siblings. She’d never believe it was a family heirloom. . . .
    “This is cool,” she said, turning it around. “Makes sense you would have it. You look just like Daphne,” she added, handing it back to me. “I absolutely love dogs. You want to see my collection?”
    “Sure!” I exclaimed, happy to throw the focus off me.
    She hopped off the bed and headed back to her room, returning with one of the cardboard boxes. I watched as she pulled back the flaps and began lifting out wiener dogs, one by one. There were several small stuffed ones, a couple of dachshund-shaped pillows, a pair of dachshund oven mitts, a few framed photos of dachshunds wearing costumes, a dachshund finger puppet, and a giant beach towel with a big blown-up photo of a dachshund’s face and the words
Lord of the Wiens
written in bold across the bottom.
    “I even have some wiener dog earrings,” Christine added. “And look at this.” She lifted her skirt to reveal a tattoo of a dachshund on her upper thigh.
    “Wow!” I exclaimed. “You really like wiener dogs.”
    “Always have. In fact, I’m going to adopt a real one while I’m here. Mrs. Krantz already wrote a letter saying it was okay.”
    “Really?”
    “Yep.” She smiled sappily. “After all, she thinks I’m super-responsible.”
    “And your dad doesn’t mind?”
    “Sure he does. But I’ve got it all planned,” she said smugly. “I’ll just tell him I got a dog and I won’t come home unless I can bring it with me.” She sat down on the mattress, glanced at the Scooby clock, and then sprang back up again. “Oh,