Peter

Chapter 5

"Happy Birthday, Sharpshoot!" It's not entirely strange for Officer Woods to call me by a nickname, he's 27, not that old, but not young enough for me to call him Taylor. "Make a wish!" I opened my eyes, he had a cake in the shape of a seven sitting next to my bed.

I wish that I could make a friend, other than Peter, I glanced at Peter then blew out my seven candles, all in one breath.

"Cool! Come downstairs and you can eat a piece." He went downstairs and closed the door behind him. I brushed my hair then walked over to Peter's bed.

Peter has grown a lot since I first got him. He walks next to me and no longer fits on my lap. Hopefully I'll grow and be able to carry him again. His bed is a dog bed and we (Officer Woods and I) put a cool tree-climby thing next to it. Peter has learned a lot of cool tricks in a year and is very well-behaved. I've learned that chimpanzees are supposed to be horrible pets and rebel against any form of dicipline, but Peter is like a German Shepard, he's perfectly trainable.

"How's your cake?" Officer Woods is really good at remembering. I told him my favorite kind of cake three months ago. He got me a marble cake, Officer Woods is awesome.

"Awesome! I love marble!"

"I know. You told me."

"Three months ago!"

Officer Woods is really cool. He lets Peter and me come to wrk with him, and he lets me study ahead in my homeschooling. He's not the best driver, we've gotten into five big accidents, and barely missed a lot of other ones. He's more like an older brother than a parent, he likes to carry me around on his back and has fun aggravating the ladies in the town book club (they don't even read books, they just sit around sharing gossip).

"I have to work today. How do you feel about coming with?"

"Can Peter come?"

"Of course! Everyone down at the station loves him!" It's true. Except for this one lady that thinks we mistreated him to make him pet-worthy.

"Then I, we" I corrected myself, "would love to come."

"Great, go get ready and we'll leave in say, twenty minutes?" I nodded to let him know it's a good plan. "Okay. I have twenty minutes to get ready." I giggled at this. Officer Woods is really funny.

Down at the station Peter and I did what we always do, we went to see the police dogs and their partners. Hunter, Officer Woods's German Shepard, isn't a police dog but knows some of the police dog tricks. Peter and I help take the dogs for walks, but we have to be supervised.

After we got back from our second walk I took Peter inside and asked Officer Woods's partner to watch him for a few minutes. I was about to knock on the door when I heard a conversation, so instead I just listened in.

"Why did you want to talk to me?" It was Officer Woods.