Chapter 8

     “I’m so excited!” I said. “I know!” Ally said. “I’ll probably teach Ellie some of my new ninja moves,” said Allan. “Ellie doesn’t go to ninja class,” said Alo. “I know, but maybe I can show her.” Ally looked at me and shook her head.

     We rode for about an hour. Finally we got to the train station. It was so noisy including the sound of a violin played by this guy who gets money by playing good music. I gave him a nickel, but everyone else just gave him 3 cents, though Ally’s parents each gave 10 cents. We waited for the train.

According to the schedule, the train should be here in 10 minutes. So Ally and I told riddles and about the pet day. I told Ally that Strokses already knew how to dance. She clapped for her, although all of our dogs, including Igloo, Chihuanie, and Ellie’s new dog, were at Jason and Janisa’s house.

     Ally still wouldn’t tell me what tricks she was teaching Igloo, although the pet day was only 2 weeks and 2 days away. It was then that I started thinking about how to decorate Strokses.

     Finally, Ellie’s train came. We were so excited! Everyone had smiles on our faces to welcome back one of our very, very, very best friends. The train stopped. We inched forwards as we tried to get to the front of the crowd. Many people were there.

     Lots of people came out of the train, both old and young. We waited for Ellie to come out.

     More people came. We waited and waited.

     Finally, Ellie and Melissa came out! We all crowded around Ellie and hugging her. We were so happy that Ellie was back!

     “Ell! I missed you so much!” we all shouted. “Me too!” We all had tears of joy in our eyes. “You’ve grown so much!” Ally, Alo and Allan’s parents said. Ally’s dad picked up Ellie and kissed her while Ally’s mother hugged her so tight she couldn’t let go. It was a really happy time!

     “This is Melissa. She’s an English-expert,” introduced Ellie. “Hi! I’m Monica!” I said. We took turns introducing ourselves, although Ally and her family already knew her. She was already one of our best friends!

     On the car, we realized we were missing a seat. But then we had a plan. Alo was big enough to take a train ride home by himself. He waited for the Go train. So that was settled.

     “Hey! Melissa plays the clarinet. She might join the Musical Wizards, just like I am!” said Ellie. “But does she want to join?” said Allan. “Of course I do!” cried Melissa. We were very happy as we welcomed 2 new members of our band.

     When we got to Ally’s house, we helped unpack everything in Ellie and Melissa’s suitcases. First Allan and Alo helped Ellie while Ally and I helped Melissa. “Wow! You have a lot of stuff!” Ally said. “Yeah. I don’t think you know I have a dog!” “You do? Then we could start a dog club!” “What type of dog is it?” I asked. “It’s a Shih Tzu named “Bai-long”. I named it Leather for English just on the train. “Wow! I have a Shih Tzu too!” I cried. “I don’t see any dogs in your house, although I know Ally’s family has 2 dogs.”

     “You mean 3,” I corrected. “Shhh! I’ll explain it later. The reason to that is because we let our friends Jason and Janisa take care of them while we pick you guys up.” “Hey, Ellie told me about them. I even talked to them on twyf.sa. It’s so cool you can make up your own website.” She smiled. “Oh really? Well at least we don’t have to do a lot of introducing now.” Ally joked.

“Yeah, but Ellie did!” Melissa laughed.

“Okay, so we bought Ellie a surprise dog so she could join a pet day at Special Agent Trivia Workshop, which I know Ellie has told you,” I said.

“Cool! A pet day!”

“Yeah, it’s a beagle, and now Ellie has 16 days to train her beagle. She needs to teach her 3 tricks and decorate her. Too bad you don’t have Leather now,” added Ally.

     “What does “Bai-long” mean anyway?” I asked. “Ally should know,” answered Melissa with a smile. “It means “white dragon”,” Ally said sarcastically. “Why would you name it that?” “Well, it’s white, and…I don’t know!

     “And, to tell you, my aunt lives here and I didn’t tell you that my dog actually doesn’t live at China. Since I come here often, I left Leather here. She’s bringing it here as soon as I call her, which is probably after we finish.” “Hey that’s when Janisa and Jason’s bringing back our dogs!” “Wow! I hope they become friends really quickly!” said Melissa.

     Soon, we finished cleaning. Ally’s parents bought a drawer just for Melissa to put all her clothes in. She has some pretty neat clothes! She even brought her Chinese New Year outfit since she was staying here until next fall. It was much cooler than the ones we have here! Melissa also bought crocs the last time she came to Canada. And they were orange, Ally and mine’s 2^nd favourite colour!

     Melissa also had a really pretty flower bed sheet and matching pillow case and quilt cover too. She owns a really cool book about magical places that you can believe or not. It was really weird since we were still wondering about Music Land that we might or might not believe in. It seemed like a trick, but for some reason, it doesn’t. Sorry, I don’t get it either.

     Anyways, Melissa was going to sleep in Ally’s room since there was another bunk bed beside her bunk bed. As you know, Ellie was going to sleep on the top bunk, as usual.