The Devil's Dog

One

"Blow out your candles, Scarlett!" My mother cheered, holding up a camera. I raised an eyebrow as she excitedly held up the camera to my face, and I pushed it away, smiling awkwardly. "I'd more gladly blow them out if you weren't holding a camera like five inches away from my face. Mom, I need personal space." I stretched out my arms. "Personal space."

"Ah, I see. Wouldn't want to burst your personal space bubble." My mom laughed. "Scarlett, I need a camera in your face. It's your thirteenth birthday, a lucky day for both of us because you're one year closer to being in college."
I rolled my eyes. My mom always talked about, 'going to college and earning an amazing degree', or 'don't drop out of school like I did'.
Oh, forgot to mention that my dad is away, traveling for the military, and my mom never got to finish high school, let alone college.

"Y'know what's not lucky about today?" I asked. Mom raised an eyebrow. "Hm? Make it quick, Scarlett. Then blow out the freaking candles."
I sighed, "fine," then turned to look at her with my hazel eyes. "Thirteen is an unlucky number." I clapped my hands, and threw them into the air. "I might be cursed this year! Woooh!"

My mom slapped me playfully on the arm. "Nonsense. Now blow out the candles and try not to blink." I rolled my eyes, then inhaled a jarful of air, exhaling it in seconds on the thirteen candles. Unlucky thirteen. Were the only words going through my head; over and over.
Let's just hope I'm not having an unlucky year.

As I was blowing out the candles, my mom flashed the camera in my face, and I winced, cringing backwards. "Mother, seriously." I snorted as she smushed some of the cake's icing on my cheek. "What? I can be a child too. You used to do this with your food." She licked a piece of icing off of her finger, then wiped the rest of it on my face. I pulled her hand away. "That's disgusting." I scoffed. She gave me a 'really?' look. "Exactly. Now, are you eating some, or not?"

I shook my head 'no'. "First of all, you smeared icing on my face," I paused to wipe the whipped cream off of my cheeks. "And second of all, I hate cake." She glared at me. "You liked cake last year." She objected.
"That was last year." I pointed out. "That also means I spent 26$ for nothing." Mom pouted.

I shrugged. "Can we just open my presents and be done with this unlucky day?" I asked. She kept glaring at me. "Fine."

***

We moved to the living room, the room with about three presents. "Open them as wild and crazy as you want." Mom said, watching me as I slowly peeled off each piece of tape, obviously torturing her. She hated waiting, like I did, so after about five seconds, I quit going slow and ripped open the wrapping paper.
I revealed a wolf necklace, a necklace I've always wanted. I have a liking to wolves, and find them fascinating. I hugged my mom tightly. "Thanks." I muttered, like it wasn't a big deal.
Then I squealed as I opened my next present, which had a Supernatural mug in it. Yes, that one show that almost nobody likes.

The last present was a Supernatural Samulet. Again, SQUEAL.

When we were done opening presents, I fled upstairs, leaving my mom to clean up the unlucky birthday things. I looked out my window, surprised to what I saw, actually. It was a dog; a Husky, to be specific. It was very dirty it seemed, because its white underbelly was covered in dried up mud and dirt.
"Mom!" I called. "Mom!"

"What!" I heard from downstairs, followed by the sound of wrapping paper and boxes hitting the floor. I headed downstairs, saying, "mom, there's a stray dog in our front yard." I knew she knew what I was asking: to keep it. I looked at her with huge eyes, and she nodded. "If it has an owner, we're giving it back."

We headed outside. I headed outside with chicken in my hands, and tried calling it over. "Here doggo." I made a clicking noise with my mouth, and threw chicken across the yard to it. "See, it's dirty mom. If it had an owner, they would've given it a bath."
She watched as it chucked down the piece of chicken, and nodded. "Or fed it." She sighed. "Scarlett, we still have to check if it has a chip in it." I sighed too. "Fine."

I threw another piece of chicken that was a bit closer to me, and it wagged its tail, inhaling the chicken. It looked full-grown, and when I looked at it more closely, its eyes were a shade of yellow. "Do Huskies usually have yellow eyes?" I asked my mom.
"Not that I know of." She shrugged. "Maybe I'm just exaggerating, but don't you think it kind of looks like a wolf?" My mom asked as I picked the Husky up—barely—it was heavy, and the fact that it was squirming didn't help either. I studied the Husky a bit more. "Kinda."

She followed me in as I went inside of the house. "I'm going to go bathe him!" I said after checking if it was a boy or a girl.
"Okay! I'm going to ask the local shelters if they'd lost any dogs." I nodded, taking in a huge breath and hoping the local shelters didn't. "Okay."

Turning on the bathtub, I saw as the Husky growled. It obviously didn't like baths. "Buddy, you have to take a bath. Just look at yourself." I growled back, then dragging him by the scruff into the bathtub.
The Husky snorted as I rubbed soap onto him, lathering him up. Hopefully human soap is okay. I thought with worry, pouring water over him and then rubbing the soap away.

When I was done, the Husky looked sparkly clean. "Scarlett!" I heard my mother's call from downstairs as I shut off the bathtub, then drying the Husky off with a towel. Lets just call him Husky for now.

Husky followed me downstairs, his nails clicking the wooden floor. "None of the local shelters say they've lost a dog." My mom reported.
"We'll check tomorrow at the vet's office if he has a microchip in him. For now, you two can hang out." She said, checking the time. 6:47.

I nodded. "Okay." I replied, then patting Husky on the head. "Lets go, buddy." I said, smiling. He let out a bark, and followed me to my room. He was going to be my quiet, sleep-in-bed-buddy, right?

Oh, how I was wrong about him being quiet.