Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Climb up into your bed and get super comfortable.
Make sure that everything is just right in your room,
The lights are just right,
You're wearing your comfy pyjamas and you're ready to relax your body.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya had gone over to Tucker and Leo's house.
Leo was a bit down in the dumps.
Tucker said,
It's okay Leo,
I'm sure she's fine.
She seems like a very nice girl.
She smells nice.
Half of the time she smells like vanilla and I like it when she walks past and she says hello every day.
Cherry said,
What are you talking about,
Who's this girl,
What is she?
Leo said,
We have a new neighbour,
Three doors up.
She's called Stevie.
She seems really nice,
But I just feel kinda,
A bit sorry for her because whenever we go outside to play on the grass,
She never,
She never has anyone over and I've never seen her with any friends and I don't know,
It must be really hard when you move to like a new place and you don't have friends to play with in the evening.
Tucker said,
She might have lots of friends Leo,
We don't know her that well.
We only ever see her when she's walking past from school,
Sometimes we see her in the morning when she goes to school and sometimes we see her in the evening when she comes back from school and she always says hello and she always hugs us and she always scratches my head and she's very,
Very nice and mummy likes her a lot.
Mummy stands and talks to her all the time.
She seems like a very nice girl and she wears a school uniform and she looks like she's very smart and I just like her,
I like everything about her.
Leo said,
Yeah me too but I still feel like she doesn't have any friends.
Heidi said,
Maybe we could all go round,
We could all go knock on the door and introduce ourselves and maybe we could just like hang out with her.
Leo said,
Yeah that's nice,
That's nice but you know,
I think I'd prefer to be her friend as like a human rather than,
You know,
Dogs and cats.
We could be a friend if we were dogs and cats.
I mean she's already our friend,
Isn't she,
Tooka?
Tooka said,
Yes she is,
She's our friend,
She definitely is,
I like her a lot.
But I think I know where you're going with this Leo,
Are you saying that we should become human and we should go make friends with our new friend Stevie and we should let Stevie see who we are as humans just like her and then maybe,
Maybe,
Well we couldn't tell her that we're actually Tooka and Leo from,
Could we tell her that we're Tooka and Leo from down the street,
Would she understand that we're actually humans and these are our friends Heidi Cherry and Faye and we could also invite Po and we could also invite,
We could also invite D'Angelo,
Let's invite everyone over,
Oh we could even ask Sasha.
Leo looked even sadder.
Sasha's not in town,
She's in Mexico at the moment,
She won't be able to come.
Okay Leo,
Don't be sad,
Let's change the subject.
We could,
We could invite all of our friends who could come and we could change and we could become human and then we could go meet with Stevie and maybe we could ask Stevie if she wants to walk to the park and maybe hang out with us at the park or something or maybe we could go to the,
The roller skating park and we could go roller skating with,
With Stevie or maybe,
Maybe we could go,
Go to the ice skating rink and take her,
Take her downtown and go ice skating with Stevie or maybe we could,
We could do something else.
Cherry said,
Is this Stevie pretty by any chance?
She was getting a little bit suspicious about how much Tooka liked Stevie.
Faye said,
I have an idea,
Maybe we could make like a welcome cake for Stevie,
We could bake her a cake,
Like a chocolate cake or something because I've seen that on TV when new neighbours come into the neighbourhood and they come and they're on your street,
I've seen people bake pies and they take pies over and say,
Welcome to the neighbourhood,
Maybe we could make her a chocolate cake and we could take it to Stevie and we could knock on the door and we could introduce ourselves and we could say,
Welcome to the neighbourhood,
Even though me and Heidi and Cherry and Poe and D'Angelo don't live in this neighbourhood,
It doesn't really matter,
We could all just go and be friends with her.
Tooka said,
Done,
Done,
It's a deal,
It's a deal.
Leo liked that idea also,
And also Leo was good at baking.
They all went into the house,
But first of all,
Tooka needed to get his magical stone.
They were going to bake as humans,
It would be much more efficient than baking as cats and dogs.
Tooka ran outside onto the back garden.
He dug up his stone that he always,
Always hides underneath the Buddha statue.
He grabbed a hold of it with his paw and ran back in the house.
Are we ready?
Said Tooka.
Tooka held up his stone to the sunshine.
To the sunshine.
It was shining through the double doors that led to the back garden.
The sun was blaring through the glass windows.
It started to shine through the white stone.
And as it did,
The white stone got brighter and brighter.
And then the golden veins of the stone started to shine and illuminate with the sunlight.
And then Tooka's angel appeared in the center of the stone.
Gracefully flying in the sky,
She smiled down at him.
You get one wish,
Just one wish.
Tooka took a big deep breath,
Closed his eyes and said to himself,
I want to be human.
I want to go and see Stevie as a human.
I want to be human along with Leo and Heidi and Cherry and Vea and Poe and D'Angelo.
I want us all to be human,
Please.
By the time Tooka turned around to his friends,
They were all in the human form in the kitchen,
Stood around the kitchen island.
Everyone checked each other out.
Of course,
They always check what they're wearing because,
You know,
Clothes are a really cool way of expressing who you are on the inside.
Cherry was stood there in her OMG t-shirt.
This one was white and the OMG was gold.
And it had shiny gold sequins painted on the OMG part.
The ones that you could move up and down that would go different colors.
She had a pair of baggy jeans on and a belt.
The belt was black and she had some black sneakers on that went with the belt.
Heidi was wearing her purple sweatshirt.
She had on some plain dark blue jeans.
And she had on a pair of purple Birkenstocks that matched her purple sweatshirt.
Purple Birkenstocks that matched her purple sweatshirt.
Vea was in the most beautiful,
Beautiful bright red dress.
The dress was quite fitted.
It was like a stretchy material,
But it had puffy sleeves and it had a square neck.
She also had on some bright red sangles with some really cute white ankle socks that had a frill on them.
She looked absolutely adorable.
Leo was stood there in a white t-shirt and jeans with a pair of white Converse on high tops.
Poe was wearing a waistcoat over a dark gray t-shirt and dark black jeans.
Today,
He was wearing some fashion glasses and he looked like Heidi's twin.
He didn't need the glasses,
But he was wearing them for aesthetics and he looked very sophisticated.
He gave Heidi a little wink through his glasses and she blushed just a smidgen.
And then smiled at him and said,
Hi,
Hi Poe,
How have you been?
How have you been?
While Heidi and Poe were talking,
Vea noticed D'Angelo.
D'Angelo was wearing a baseball cap backwards.
He had a big giant oversized white t-shirt on that went mid-thigh down his big baggy jeans.
He also had a pair of Vans on.
They were dark gray.
Tucker looked down at his own clothes.
Today,
He was sporting a baseball cap.
His baseball cap wasn't backwards,
But it had quite a long brim on it and he had it slightly to one side.
He looked like he was going to do some kind of hip-hop dance or something.
His long black hair was all in his eyes and he had to kind of swish it and tuck it under his cap so it didn't go in his eyes so much.
Tucker was wearing an oversized black t-shirt.
He had a chain on his baggy jeans and he was wearing black Vans with it.
They all felt super cool,
As always,
Expressing themselves in their own ways.
Tucker said,
So guys,
Here's the plan.
We're making a cake.
We're making a cake for our new neighbor,
Stevie.
Stevie is this girl that lives up the street.
She just moved in like two weeks ago and she says hi to me and Leo every morning and every night when she walks past to go to school.
She looks lonely,
Guys.
Leo said,
Yeah,
She seems like a really nice girl,
But I think she could do with some friends.
Everyone agreed that baking her a cake would be awesome.
They all put on aprons and set to work,
Making her the most delicious,
Delicious,
Moist,
Chocolatey,
Ooey-gooey cake that they could possibly make.
The cake making process took them a couple of hours,
But they had fun together.
They were playing music while they were singing and dancing and just messing around in the kitchen.
They were all covered in flour and cocoa powder and you name it by the time the cake was done.
Cherry said,
Oh,
Jay,
I feel so sick.
She'd eaten all the cake batter that was left in the bowl and she'd eaten all the frosting that was left in the bowl.
She hadn't given anyone else good dibs.
A couple of people stuck their fingers in and had a taste,
But Cherry was hogging it and she now was regretting it.
I don't feel very well at all.
I feel a bit grey,
To be honest.
I feel like I could bulk.
Oh,
I feel,
Oh,
I feel,
I think I've had way too much sugar.
Veya said,
You know,
You're not supposed to eat raw cake batter.
Cherry,
I told you that.
It's something to do with the eggs.
Heidi said,
Yeah,
You can get like really sick from the eggs,
Cherry.
You're supposed to cook eggs.
You're not supposed to eat raw eggs.
Tucker said,
I see bodybuilders eating raw eggs all the time.
I think that's a load of rubbish.
Poe said,
No,
No,
Actually,
I've read about it quite a lot.
Heidi's right.
D'Angelo said,
I think I'm with Tucker on this one.
Tucker said,
That makes a change.
D'Angelo agreeing with me?
What's wrong with him?
Veya giggled and started laughing.
He must just be in a good mood because he's with me.
She blushed and smiled at D'Angelo.
D'Angelo said,
Always doll.
You always make me happy.
Cherry looked at Veya.
Veya looked at Cherry.
And then Heidi looked at her two sisters.
And they all exchanged this glance between each other as if to say,
Doll.
Veya looked at Cherry and Heidi as if to say,
He just called me his doll.
It went completely unnoticed by all the guys.
But the girls definitely noticed.
Veya blushed immensely.
To the point where she was almost the same colour as her red dress.
But she was very,
Very happy.
Doll,
She kept saying to herself.
He called me his doll.
To her,
That proved,
It proved it.
If it wasn't already obvious that D'Angelo definitely liked Veya.
They were all getting ready to take the cake around to Stevie's house.
They went outside.
Leo was carrying the cake.
Leo was carrying the cake because Leo,
To be honest,
Is probably one of the most sensible of all of them.
Cherry's a bit clumsy.
Heidi,
Well,
She's sensible.
But you know that cake that they made?
It was three tiers high and it was quite heavy.
So they let Leo and his muscles deal with it.
He carried it all the way to Stevie's house.
And then D'Angelo knocked on the door.
Very quickly,
Actually.
The door opened and there was Stevie with two other girls.
Bella and Hayley,
Apparently.
Stevie looked at them all,
Standing there in the doorway,
As if to say,
Who's this lot?
But she didn't say that.
She said,
Hi,
Can I help you?
Leo said,
Well,
You don't really know us,
But we live down the street.
He was being very vague.
Now that they were actually standing in front of Stevie's house,
How is he supposed to say that they all aren't actually human?
They are human sometimes,
But they're not really human all of the time.
They're actually cats and dogs most of the time.
It's only because of Tucker's stone that they get to be human.
How is he supposed to explain that to a complete stranger?
Even though Stevie wasn't a stranger to them as dogs,
She was a stranger to them as humans.
Anyway,
Leo stuttered on his words a little bit and Heidi stepped in to help him.
Oh,
Hi there,
She said.
My name's Heidi and this is Cherry.
Cherry said,
Hi,
Her normal self.
This is Tucker.
Tucker said,
Hi,
As he flicked his hair to one side,
Looking all cool and handsome.
This is Poe.
Hi,
Said Poe.
This is D'Angelo.
Oh,
Hi.
Hi,
Guys,
Said D'Angelo.
This is Vea.
Hi,
Hi there.
Nice to meet you,
Said Vea.
We're all basically here because we know that you recently moved in and we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood.
We baked you a cake.
Heidi elbowed Leo and Leo reached forward with the cake as if to say,
Here,
Take the cake.
This is the cake that we baked.
Oh,
Said Stevie.
That's so nice.
Chocolate cake.
Is it chocolate cake?
Leo nodded.
Ah,
That's my favorite,
She said.
That's really sweet of you guys.
Thank you so much.
Yeah,
We've only been here about two weeks,
But I'm settling in okay.
Cherry said,
Where did you come from?
Where did you come from before?
Where did you live?
Stevie said,
Well,
I moved from Florida.
So this is really different here,
But I really like the weather.
It's a lot nicer than Florida.
Florida gets so hot.
Yeah,
Yeah,
Said Cherry.
San Diego is the best.
It's the best.
Who are your friends?
She said.
Cherry was asking because Bella and Hayley had not said anything at this point.
Bella and Hayley both introduced themselves to everyone.
They waved and kinda said,
Oh,
Hi,
My name's Bella.
This is my sister,
Hayley.
Yeah.
Hi.
Yeah.
Leo said,
Well,
Anyway,
We see that you have friends over and yeah,
We'll leave you to it.
Leo was looking at everyone as if to say,
Stevie has friends.
How did we not know that Stevie had friends?
Leo was feeling kind of silly right now.
He didn't know what to do with himself.
Stevie kept staring at Tucker and Tucker went quiet for a change.
And then Cherry caught on that Stevie kept staring at Tucker.
Cherry said,
Do you know him or something?
Do you know Tucker?
You know,
Cherry,
She's very direct.
She doesn't miss a trick.
Stevie said,
No,
But it just kind of looks familiar.
And then she blushed as if she'd been caught staring at him.
Yes,
Cherry said.
Yeah,
That's,
That's Tucker.
Yes,
Yes.
And then she stood in front of Tucker,
All protective as if to say,
He's mine.
Stevie noticed the body language and quickly looked away and said to Poe,
I think I've seen you in school at one point.
Poe said,
Maybe in drama.
Stevie said,
Yeah,
I think I saw you in drama class one time,
But I only saw you once.
Poe was thinking about it.
Sometimes when they're human,
He does go to school.
But obviously he's not human all the time.
Most of the time he's a cat,
But maybe she saw him in drama class one time.
Hayley was staring at Poe.
Hayley said,
Yeah,
I think I've seen you in drama class too.
And she battered her eyelashes a little bit and gave him the biggest twinkly smile.
And Heidi noticed.
Heidi said,
Oh,
So you like drama?
Heidi wasn't the jealous type.
Not like Cherry.
Cherry was over there,
Basically covering Tucker up.
She didn't want Stevie looking at him.
But Heidi,
Heidi was a different personality.
She noticed that Hayley was looking at Poe,
But she didn't mind so much.
Cause you know,
That's up to her.
And at the end of the day,
It's up to Poe.
I think Heidi had much more of a comfortable,
Confident kind of personality.
Whereas Cherry was a little bit more insecure.
We all know Cherry.
She's very loud.
She loves to be the center of attention.
She's awesome.
We love her,
But she can get a little bit insecure sometimes.
And yeah,
Anyone checking Tucker out was making her feel a bit triggered.
When Heidi looked over at Cherry,
Cherry had got her all her eyebrows knitted together as if she'd got some kind of angry face going on.
Staring.
Glowering.
Practically frothing at the mouth.
Staring at Stevie as if to say,
Stay away.
He's mine.
Vea noticed the whole thing.
Also,
Vea noticed that Bella was checking out D'Angelo.
Bella smiled at D'Angelo.
D'Angelo gave her just the slightest bit of a smile.
Like a corner of his mouth.
Barely anything.
And then he looked at Vea and he grabbed all of her hand.
As if to say,
Nothing to worry about.
I'm all yours,
Doll.
Vea noticed the gesture.
She didn't try to hide the gesture of D'Angelo claiming her.
Showing Bella that Vea was something very important to him.
Cherry looked over and noticed that Vea and D'Angelo were holding hands.
Everyone in the group had kind of gotten used to the fact that Vea and D'Angelo were really,
Really close.
But they were getting more and more open with their affection.
They weren't boyfriend or girlfriend or anything.
But they were just getting closer and closer.
And holding hands sometimes was becoming something that was quite normal to them.
It was like they weren't going to put labels on anything.
They were just getting closer.
As friends.
But also a little bit more than that.
Cherry got a very strong pine of jealousy.
She wished that Tucker would hold her hand.
She elbowed Tucker.
And then she got closer to him.
But he still didn't get the message.
Tucker was staring at Stevie.
But Tucker was staring at Stevie because he really liked Stevie.
He liked her as a friend.
He liked to see her every day as a dog.
He wasn't thinking about Stevie in any other way.
He just liked her.
Stevie said,
We were about to go up to the park.
Do you guys all want to come?
Heidi said,
Sure,
That would be great.
Cherry said,
Oh,
Sorry.
Sorry.
I thought,
Oh,
I don't know what that was.
I think I'll pass.
I don't really feel like the park.
Thanks very much.
Yeah,
No.
Tucker,
Do you feel like coming back to the house with me and maybe just like hanging out for a bit?
Maybe we can watch a movie or something.
Tucker looked at Cherry and said,
Are you all right?
Cherry said,
No,
I think it's all that cake batter.
I don't feel very well.
Cherry wasn't being really very honest.
She just didn't want to go to the park with these girls.
She was feeling a bit insecure about herself,
Feeling like maybe Tucker liked Stevie and Tucker didn't like Cherry,
Even though that was ridiculous.
Tucker said,
Sure,
I'll come back to the house with you.
Fine.
Cherry smiled,
Feeling better all of a sudden,
Getting confirmation that Tucker would stay with her if she wanted to.
This made Cherry feel very silly about feeling insecure about Stevie and she changed her mind very quickly.
I think I'll be all right,
She said.
Let's just go to the park.
Let's just all have fun with our new friends.
Yeah,
Come on,
Girls.
Let's go.
Stevie said,
Just a minute.
Let me put this in the kitchen.
A couple of minutes later,
She came back and everyone went up to the park.
They all hung out at the park for quite some time and they got to know each other really,
Really well.
Stevie,
Bella and Hayley were really nice girls and they all ended up having a lot of fun together.
When they got back later,
It was almost evening time.
Tucker was laid on his dog bed with Leo.
Tucker said,
It was so nice to meet Stevie.
She was so nice and Bella was nice and Hayley was nice.
Leo said,
Yeah,
It was a really good day and I feel so good about the fact that she has friends.
Next time when we see her,
In the morning probably,
She'll probably not recognize us.
But you know,
It's really nice to know that she has friends.
Tucker said,
Yes,
It's delicious.
And that cake,
That cake was so good.
So good.
Leo,
You're such a good chef.
Leo said,
Thanks,
Tucker.
Tucker said,
You're welcome,
Leo.
They both put their heads down and decided it was time for a good dog nap.
Before long,
They were both fast asleep.
The end.
