Natalia Takes the Lead

Author Clare Hutton
Illustrator Helen Huang
Originally Published © 2017 American Girl
ISBN 9781338115024
 

Chapter One

Natalia is busy raking the leaves of the massive front lawn of Seaview House, the oldest house in Waverly, which Natalia’s family has been in for generations. She’s accompanied by her twin sister, Zoe, and her cousin, Emma. Emma’s family lives with their Grandma in the attic of Seaview House, and they’ve just finished restoring the house into a B&B.

Natalia is pondering how different all three of them are. Emma is precise and thorough; her section of the yard is almost completely raked, with the yard split into quarters. Zoe is creative and quiet. She’s paused her raking to admire the colors of the leaves. Zoe’s clothes are neat and it looks as if she’s just gotten dressed. Meanwhile, Natalia’s clothes are messy and wrinkled, from running around, sitting in the dirt, and more general horseplay. Only Natalia’s part of the yard needs a lot more raking work.

Then, Tomás and Mateo, Natalia’s six-year-old and five-year-old brothers, come outside. After knocking over a full bag of leaves, Natalia suggests they come over and make a maze with the leaves in Natalia’s pile. Together, they arrange a maze, and then move the leaves into straight lines and corners.

Emma is struggling to get through the maze (which is most likely impossible anyhow), when Natalia’s mom, Alison, comes outside. Alison announces that Natalia’s Aunt Amy, Emma’s mom and Alison’s twin, have an announcement inside.

The five children and Natalia’s dog, Riley, all go inside Seaview House. Aunt Amy tells them that they’ve officially booked their first customers. Two couples that are friends are coming in from out of town, and they’re bringing their dogs. They’re not sure yet where to put the dogs, but they decided to come anyway.

Natalia suddenly has a brilliant idea. Why don’t the three girls take care of the dogs?! It’s only two dogs, and with the three of them, they can manage walks and feeding and playing.

Emma isn’t sure; she’s awfully busy with soccer and swim practice. Zoe says she was considering auditioning for the role of Dorothy in their school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. But Natalia assures them that they can do it. Natalia will be there to help… they’re ready to commit to dog sitting!

 

Chapter Two

At school, Natalia and Caitlin are getting ready for math class. Natalia tells Caitlin about the opportunity to take care of the dogs. Caitlin says it’d be fun, but she’s got an agenda. She needs to study hard to try to get back to the top of the class, since Emma came, and she wants to audition for Glinda in The Wizard of Oz. Natalia has been thinking of auditioning for the part of Wicked Witch of the West, so maybe they can all be in the show together.

As class began, Natalia found herself daydreaming. She thought about being in the show. She could get long, fake nails, green makeup, and wear all black. Maybe one of the dogs she’ll sit for would be perfect to be Toto. And if Zoe was Dorothy, then she and the dog could bond well together. Natalia wanted to do the show, and dog sit, and she wanted to get good grades in school.

She is brought back to reality by her teacher, who makes a point that if she doesn’t know how to do the equations on the board, Natalia may not do well in the midterm. She’ll have to get busy studying later.

After school, Natalia goes to Seaview House to see what Aunt Amy and her mom are up to. They are busy drying flowers to make bouquets to put in the guest rooms. Just then, the phone rings. When Aunt Amy comes back from answering the phone, she announces that an inn in town had a fire, and the fire damaged the patio and dining room. A couple that is planning on having their wedding there in three weeks is searching for a new venue.

The wedding is to be small, thirty people, and they do have enough bedrooms to accommodate that many guests. For the wedding itself, the only things Seaview House would need to provide would be the food and the venue. The only catch is that the couple is bringing two dogs down, and they’d need help taking care of the dogs on the big day, and dog walking the days surrounding the wedding.

Grandma Stephenson says it’s a wonderful idea. Weddings are always happy events, and this provides a great opportunity for Seaview House to get their name out as a B&B and venue for large parties. Natalia assures the adults that she, Emma, and Zoe can handle four dogs, just as they could handle two. After all, how much work could four dogs be?

 

Chapter Three

Ms. Andrews, the theatre teacher, is taking an extra long time introducing the auditions for The Wizard of Oz. Natalia’s done this twice before, with Oliver! and Annie. But this is the first time Natalia feels like she really has a chance to be a lead without being a strong singer. And so it’s really bothering her that Ms. Andrew feels the needs to do physical and vocal warmup, when all she’s going to do is pass out the audition pages for each role.

At the end, Zoe and Natalia meet an exhausted Emma at the front steps of Seaview House. They decide to wait to go inside together to meet the two couples who will be staying for three weeks with their dogs. The cutest little dogs, a black dog named Jasper, and a smaller tan terrier named Daisy are tied to the porch out back. The couples tell them they’re willing to pay the girls $20 a day to walk the dogs twice a day.

The girls take the dogs out for their first walk. Daisy stops every few feet to sniff something new, while Jasper walks politely by Zoe’s side. Emma makes a comment that two dogs between the three of them won’t be so tough.

Natalia is scared to mention that two more dogs are coming. But Zoe knows her so well, so she sees right through that look on her face and knows that Natalia is hiding something.

Natalia blurts out that a wedding is coming to Seaview House, and they’re bringing two dogs with them. But at least the couple will pay the girls to take care of the two additional dogs. Emma is frustrated. She has both soccer and swim practice that week, and Zoe has school studying and the rehearsals for the show that will be starting soon. Natalia assures them that it’ll be fine—she’ll take care of everything.

 

Chapter Four

On the way into math class, Natalia gets a text from her mom. She says the couple getting married is checking in with their dogs that afternoon. She asks Natalia, Emma, and Zoe to come meet the dogs after school. Natalia’s excited to meet the two new dogs.

In class, Ms. Patel, the teacher, asks the students to get their latest homework assignment ready. But Natalia didn’t do a homework assignment. She must’ve forgotten to do it. Caitlin has hers, and Emma and Zoe both pull theirs out. Somehow, Natalia was so busy with the audition meeting, meeting the new dogs, and walking them that she forgot the homework.

When Ms. Patel asks her where her homework is, Natalia, ashamed, admits she forgot to do it. Ms. Patel says that she expects it the next morning on her desk. If Natalia isn’t able to catch up to the rest of the class, she’ll have to call Natalia’s parents about getting her some extra help.

Later, Natalia explains to Zoe that she also hasn’t done well on the last pop quiz, and the last few homework assignments, too. She’s been too busy daydreaming about the dogs and the show. Then Emma runs up. She tells Natalia and Zoe to let her mom know she’ll be late coming home. They’re having an emergency soccer practice. Zoe says she’ll be late coming home, too, since she’s going to run lines for the audition with some other students. Natalia tells them that they are wanted back at Seaview House to meet the two new dogs. But that’s okay, Natalia will meet the dogs all on her own.

Back at the house, Natalia is introduced to Ruby and Bandit, two adorable white standard size poodles. Ruby seems energetic and eager, and Bandit seems lazy and tired. The couple getting married seems really nice, too! Natalia’s mom is nervous that only one of the girls could come get the dogs ready for their afternoon walk. Natalia reassures her that the others would’ve been able to come, if only she had given them more notice than she did. Zoe and Emma will love taking care of all the dogs just as much as Natalia does, she’s sure of it.

 

Chapter Five

Sunday morning, Natalia and Zoe head over to Seaview House to meet the others for breakfast. They find Uncle Brian, Emma’s dad, busy at work in the kitchen making breakfast. He’s making tons of food, with special made to order eggs. He says he’s okay staying in the kitchen all day—he was a chef at a nice restaurant in Seattle before he took over at Seaview House.

Natalia bounces around the dining room talking to all the guests. When she gets to the table of the two couples, they ask if the girls can take Daisy and Jasper for an extra long walk in the evening, meaning somebody will have to take those two dogs for three walks that day. Natalia optimistically agrees.

Later that morning, Zoe, Natalia, and Emma are watching the dogs chase balls and sticks. Natalia mentions Daisy is behaving like Toto in The Wizard of Oz. Emma asks if she can hear one of their audition scenes. Zoe says she knows the Wicked Witch’s scene, too, so they can run that one.

Dramatically, Natalia picks up Daisy, curls her fingers into claws, and cackles evilly. The scene starts out fine, but she begins to stumble on the lines halfway through. Zoe gives her a couple hints, but Natalia doesn’t want a hint. Instead, she makes up her lines in order to try to finish the scene.

It seems Natalia has a lot of tasks to do that evening, with going through her lines again, catching up on homework, and taking the dogs for additional walks.

 

Chapter Six

The next day, all the hopeful actors are gathered in the theater for the auditions. Natalia can hear a lot of people whispering lines under their breath, practicing. Natalia took some time to look at her lines last night, but after everything else, she was so tired that she didn’t have a lot of energy.

Ms. Andrews calls the Dorothy’s up first. Zoe does very well, projecting her voice, really seeming like she’s talking, not reading, and staying on pitch. Caitlin does well, too. She brought props, and really acts genuine, not like she’s playing a part.

Finally, Ms. Andrews calls Natalia’s name. The beginning of the scene is going well, but then she forgets her line. Looking at Zoe’s face in the audience jogs her memory. But then, she stumbles again. And this time, she can’t remember her next line. She knows the gist, but not the exact words. And before she knows it. She is making the lines up again. She knows they’re wrong, but they just spill out of her mouth.

At the end, Ms. Andrews looks at her disappointingly. Natalia knows she blew it. Being able to be leads in the show with her best friends would have been awesome, and she just blew all her chances of that.

 

Chapter Seven

It’s been three days, and Natalia still feels ashamed of her performance at the audition. In fact, when her mom tells her that the couple getting married are arriving with their dogs that evening, Natalia intentionally doesn’t tell Zoe and Emma. She doesn’t want them to know that she feels like she needs help.

After school, Natalia trudges to Seaview House. She doesn’t want to meet people or walk the dogs, but she made a commitment, and Natalia is responsible.

When she goes inside the door, she sees people running around all over preparing for the wedding. Aunt Amy tells her the dogs are upstairs. When she asks where Emma and Zoe are, Natalia vaguely says they’re outside.

When Natalia gets upstairs, she sees Ruby is a bundle of energy. She’s running around the entire room, chewing paper and toys and shoes. And Bandit just sits lazily in the middle of the carpet. After Natalia is done cleaning up the shredded paper, and grabs the leashes and heads downstairs.

As soon as she walks around the back to get Jasper and Daisy, Ruby starts to let out a low growl. As soon as she does, Jasper starts to echo her, and Daisy scrambles to a back corner and hides under a chair. Natalia pulls the poodles around the corner, and Ruby seems to quickly forget the other dogs were there. Natalia tries again. And once again, Ruby acts strangely aggressive toward Jasper and Daisy.

Natalia doesn’t have time to take the two sets of dogs on separate walks before the sun sets. She needs help. She pulls out her phone and debates who to call. She settles on Emma—Emma doesn’t know how big Natalia screwed up the audition.

When Emma arrives, she asks Natalia why she didn’t tell them the other dogs were coming. Natalia embarrassingly says she thought she could handle it. She didn’t want to admit she needed help. Emma smiles, and tells Natalia it’s going to be okay.

That evening, Natalia is struggling to keep her eyes open as she opens her math textbook. She was already late for dinner, had to babysit her brothers, and did her English, science, and social studies homework. But after all that, she’s pooped. And there’s no way she can struggle through math as exhausted as she feels. With a sigh, she closes the book and thinks to herself “I’ll catch up tomorrow.”

 

Chapter Eight

Natalia, Zoe, and their dad are sitting in the stands cheering on Emma at her big game. Their father is a huge fan of soccer, or fútbol as he calls it, but neither Natalia nor Zoe care so much about the game. As they do about cheering on Emma.

Thanks to Emma’s great plays, they win the game. After, when Emma asks them what their favorite part was, there’s a moment of silence, followed by Natalia responding when Emma kicked the ball. Emma chuckles, and tells them she’s going to go change, and then meet them at Seaview House. They’ve got dogs to walk!

Again, Ruby is aggressive towards Daisy and Jasper. They decide to leave Ruby behind at the house while they walk the other three dogs, and then Emma promises to take Ruby out quickly that evening. This is probably good, since Natalia has another two math assignments to catch up on, as well as her other classes.

The girls take the dogs down to the beach. They play fetch with Jasper and Daisy, and Bandit rolls around lazily on his back. Everything is going well until Natalia notices Zoe giving her a weird look.

Natalia asks Zoe what’s up, and she asks back what Natalia is planning to do when she gets home. Natalia shrugs and says maybe some food, some TV, a little homework. Zoe thoughtfully responds “Hmm.” Apparently Zoe caught on that Natalia had been skipping her homework, and needed help with the dogs and the audition and was too stubborn to ask for help.

Natalia is hurt. She feels like Zoe doesn’t trust her or believe in her. Zoe is upset that Natalia didn’t bother to admit when she needed help. They start yelling at each other. Finally, Emma screams at them to stop. All three dogs and Emma are staring at them. Natalia, hurt from the argument, walks away alone. Fine, if they don’t think she can do it herself, then she won’t ask them for help ever again.

 

Chapter Nine

The next week at school, Natalia drowsily hands in her math assignments. She managed to do them, but just barely. She’s pretty sure they’re mostly wrong. She spent the whole weekend walking the dogs, playing with the dogs, and taking care of the dogs. She didn’t know she could be so exhausted. She even falls asleep during Ms. Patel’s lecture. She’s awoken by an elbow to her arm.

Apparently Ms. Patel is asking Natalia to answer a question. “Six,” she responds. She just grabbed the first number that popped into her head. Alarmingly, that was the correct answer. She revels in her luck the rest of class.

At lunch time, all three girls sit down at the table with their friends. Since Uncle Brian moved to Waverly, he’s been prepping lunch for them all every single day. Today, lunch is a fancy quiche, with avocado, strawberry, and mango salad, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

The girls are digging in when Caitlin comes up to them. She tells them Ms. Andrews posted the cast list for The Wizard of Oz. Caitlin was cast as Glinda, just like she wanted. Zoe got Dorothy, too. Unfortunately, Natalia didn’t get cast as the Wicked Witch, Darcy did. Natalia still got in though… she was to play Second Apple Tree.

Natalia is happy for her sister and friend, but she’s disappointed in herself. She knew why she didn’t get it; she didn’t really work hard at her audition, like everyone else. But she’s still upset about it.

 

Chapter Ten

The next several days, Emma and Zoe promise to chip in with walks with the dogs, without being asked. Emma is willing to walk the dogs with Natalia in the morning, and Zoe comes over after school before rehearsal to walk them with Natalia in the afternoon. Although Natalia didn’t need help, she is willing to admit it’s nice having it.

At school, Zoe comes up to Natalia. She tells her that Ms. Andrews wants the leads at rehearsal early that afternoon to work on music, so she won’t be able to make that afternoon’s walk. “No, it’s totally fine,” Natalia says. She can handle doing two walks, one with Jasper, Daisy, and Bandit, and one with Ruby separately, before she has to be there for rehearsal.

Well, things didn’t go as planned. Bandit was so slow, and Daisy escaped Natalia’s grip and Natalia had to chase after her. By the time Natalia rushed into the theater, she was twenty-five minutes late for rehearsal. Ms. Andrews, all the people on stage, and all the people sitting in the audience, turned around to look at her. Ms. Andrews mentions she’s late, and next time, she should enter more quietly next time.

By the time they call Natalia’s scene, she learns there’s three Apple Trees. Most of the lines belong to the First Apple Tree one, a fifth grader a little younger than Natalia. They ran through the scene a couple of times. By the third full run through Natalia’s brain is drifting off. She’s thinking about the final performance. Her costume will be big and elaborate. She’ll wave her branches threateningly.

Then suddenly, she’s jolted back to the present by Ms. Andrews. Apparently, Natalia missed her cue for one of her lines. She says it quickly, and tries to focus the rest of rehearsal.

Afterwards, Zoe comes up to her. Zoe apologizes for not being there to walk the dogs. She didn’t realize that her not being there would make Natalia late. Natalia responds, “Everything’s totally fine.” She’s got it covered.

 

Chapter Eleven

On Friday in math class, Ms. Patel is collecting homework assignments when Natalia can’t find hers. She knows she did it—she remembers working on it sitting at her desk in her room, while Zoe did homework on her desk. So… she must’ve left it sitting in the center of her desk… she forgot to put it in her folder. Ms. Patel comes to Natalia’s desk, and when Natalia doesn’t hand it over, Ms. Patel asks her to stay late.

After class, Ms. Patel asks Natalia if everything is okay. She’s been noticing a pattern lately, and wants to check in. Natalia assures Ms. Patel she’s trying, and with just a bit more studying, she’ll get it all figured out. Ms. Patel is understanding, but tells Natalia it’s time to talk to her parents about getting her some extra tutoring.

Natalia knows that it’s okay to need help, and she’s sure her parents will see it that way, too, but Natalia doesn’t want to need help. And she certainly doesn’t want her sister and cousin to know she’s in trouble.

That afternoon, Natalia, Zoe, and Emma are walking the three well-behaved dogs down to the beach. They sit and make a sand castle while the dogs roam around. Bandit comes over to Natalia and puts his head in her lap. She pets him, and muses that she can’t believe tomorrow is the wedding, and that Ruby and Bandit will be going home soon.

Emma confirms the wedding is at 4 PM. Natalia nods, but mentions that the three girls will need to be at Seaview House the whole day to watch the dogs, since the bride and groom and their families and friends will need the whole day to be focused on the wedding.

When Natalia looks up, Zoe and Emma are staring at her. “When were you going to tell us you’d promised we’d be here the whole day tomorrow?” Zoe asks incredulously. Apparently, both Zoe and Emma made plans for the morning, anticipating they’ll only be needed in the afternoon.

Zoe is mad at Natalia, she can see that. Zoe makes a comment that she doesn’t want Ms. Andrews to think she’s irresponsible. Natalia takes that personally. Does Zoe think Natalia’s irresponsible? Well, it’s fine. Natalia can take care of the dogs alone the next day. Emma and Zoe can do their thing. Natalia made the promise, so it’s Natalia’s job to keep it.

 

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, Natalia packs a bag and heads over to Seaview House. It is the day of the wedding, and Natalia is bringing lots of toys, treats, and bones, and a brush and a ball to keep the dogs occupied. When she arrives at the house, she sees tons of people. The florists are there with beautiful bouquets and arrangements. She heads inside, where breakfast is going on.

Rachel, the bride, calls Natalia over. She reminds Natalia that the dogs went to the groomers that morning, so Natalia has to keep them clean and not take them to the beach; they’ll get too sandy. Also, Ruby misbehaved in the ceremony rehearsal last night, so Rachel is asking if Natalia wants to help guide the dogs down the aisle today. Natalia can wear a more casual dress. Natalia agrees… a chance to be the center of attention and have all eyes on her!

Natalia grabs the two well-groomed poodles and takes them on their walk. The whole way, Ruby is pulling on her leash to try to go down to the beach. Natalia keeps them back, and then brings them back to the porch. Then, she runs upstairs to grab Jasper and Daisy. She can hear Ruby barking the whole way as she walks with the other dogs, but she owes them a long walk, too.

When she gets back to Seaview House, she puts Jasper and Daisy upstairs, and heads back down to pick up Ruby and Bandit. But when she gets to the screened in porch, she finds a massive hole in the screen. Bandit is still sitting on a porch chair, but Ruby is gone!

Natalia realizes she can’t leave Bandit to search for Ruby… so Natalia needs help. She takes a deep breath, and calls Zoe. When she explains what happened, Zoe leaves her rehearsal and comes straight away. Emma leaves her study group to come, too. Emma also brings Caitlin, who wants to help. The girls split up and go searching for Ruby, with Caitlin staying with Bandit at the house.

Natalia is sure Ruby came to the beach. But when she gets there, Ruby is nowhere to be seen. She gets a text from both Emma and Zoe that the dog didn’t go to Natalia’s house or the park, so Ruby has to be at the beach. Natalia keeps walking. Suddenly, she sees a spot of white farther down the beach. She approaches, and sure enough it takes the form of a dog.

It’s Ruby! Ruby is digging a deep hole in the sand, flinging the sand around her all over. But when Natalia calls to her, Ruby bounds up to her willingly.

When Natalia gets back to Seaview House with Ruby, the girls spring into action. Caitlin grabs a hose, and Emma runs to get shampoo, soap, and a hair dryer. Zoe carefully washes Ruby’s pretty bow, and Emma and Natalia work the soap deep into Ruby’s fur coat.

Then, Natalia’s mom comes outside. She’s aghast; she knows Rachel asked Natalia to keep Ruby clean. Natalia realizes it’s time to tell the truth. She lied about Emma and Zoe helping out with the dogs, and Natalia’s been doing most of it herself because they’re so busy all the time. Natalia’s mom also received an email from Ms. Patel about her doing poorly in math. Natalia knows that she’s in for a long, hard conversation with her parents that evening.

 

Chapter Thirteen

The whole wedding ceremony, Ruby tries to pull on her leash and collar. Natalia, all prettied up and ready for a wedding, holds tight to her collar as they walk down the aisle. Maybe someday, Natalia could be a professional dog trainer.

When the officiant asks for the rings, Natalia steps up with the dogs, and Mike, the groom, allows Ruby to jump on him in order to get the rings off the dogs collars. The rest of the wedding is a success, too, and a bunch of people ask Natalia’s mom and Aunt Amy for business cards, and they keep exclaiming about how much they loved staying at Seaview House.

That evening, Natalia sits in the kitchen with Zoe next to her, in front of her mom and dad, Aunt Amy, and Abuelita. She explains that she got behind in math when she was too busy to adequately put time into studying, and she was so tired she often forgot her homework. Natalia’s parents respond that if she had come to them sooner, they could’ve helped her manage her time, and could’ve gotten her tutoring before she fell so far behind. Natalia will need to quit The Wizard of Oz in order to take advantage of the tutoring.

Zoe tries to take some of the blame for letting Natalia do so much work with the dogs herself, but Natalia doesn’t let her. Natalia made promises for Zoe and Emma without speaking to them, and that’s her fault. In the future, Zoe and Emma will genuinely help out more with the dogs, and Abuelita even offers to help take the afternoon walks; an afternoon walk is a good idea for aging Abuelita.

 

Chapter Fourteen

The night of the play, the whole family shuffles into the theater to watch Zoe and Caitlin perform. The Stephenson-Martinez family is so big, they take up a whole row in the auditorium. At the end, the entire cast takes a huge bow. Caitlin is glittering and proud of herself in her Glinda costume, Darcy did really well as the Wicked Witch, and Zoe was incredible. Zoe may be shy and quiet sometimes, but onstage, she shines. Even the three Apple Trees (they cast a replacement Second Apple Tree) look happy, albeit a little sweaty from the heavy tree costumes.

After celebratory ice cream, Natalia walks home with Zoe and Emma. She tells them she got fully caught up in math class, and since all the dogs checked out, has had plenty of time to focus on studying. There’s even a couple with a schnauzer checking in soon, so that’ll be fun. Natalia is sure she can take care of one dog, especially with the others all helping. Natalia knows that with her sister and cousin, they can handle anything.

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