The first steps into the animal shelter struck Val and Foofy with that distinct smell of many dogs. Being a dog himself, Foofy may very well not care about the smell. Reentering the shelter, though, made him reduce his steps down to a slog. He required tugs of the leash and boundless words of encouragement to coax him back into his kennel. Foofy had to continue the rest of his boring day here in that cage.

“I hope that you had a good walk,” Val said mournfully.

The shelter worker closed the door to his cell, sealing Foofy back behind bars. First, he questioned her about the nature of the walk. “Do you have anything to report about Foofy’s behavior?”

“No, he was wonderful!” Val said.

From one perspective, she ought to report Foofy’s misbehavior to avoid any future accidents if another volunteer would choose to take him on a walk. More immediately concerning to Val, she did not want to ruin his chances here by marking him as an aggressive dog.

“Would you like to take some other dogs out for walks?” the shelter worker asked next.

“Yes, absolutely!” Since she had already missed the first half of the school day, there was no sense in her showing up for the second half. The rest of the day, she would have yet to kill.

Her mother had not found new employment yet, so she would be there at home to know the exact time that Val came back. To preserve the image of going to school, Val would head home at the time that school let out, per usual. During the school day, she worked on Keep the Peace. Then, after school, she would give Past Insight another try. Val liked her training regimen very much, if she could say so herself.

The dogs around her with their wagging their tails made her time well-spent. The more easy-going dogs did not give Val any additional challenge to her ability, but those dogs deserved attention, too. With this philosophy, Val took out a small, calm dog named Polar from his kennel.

As she hooked on his leash and headed with him towards the doors, Polar grew quite excited. The two of them had a jolly, good time on his walk. Especially Polar enjoyed it, obviously.

He was an adorable, little ball of fluff. His white fur made him resemble something of a snowball. As excited as he had been to go out, Polar tuckered out within twenty minutes of walking.

After that, the third dog that she walked looked something like a ratty Chihuahua, named Gigi. For such a small dog, she behaved surprisingly awful. Between constant pulling and obnoxious yapping, Val indeed got some more use out of Keep the Peace.

Her energy set like a sedative over Gigi, making her act as a dog ought to behave. No wonder poor, little Gigi ended up at the animal shelter. Without her divine blood, Val did not think that she would be able to handle living with her, either. To think, only a demigoddess could handle the terror of a Chihuahua.

Being as small as she was, Gigi offered little more difficulty than the squirrels or pigeons had posed against her ability. Luckily, she tired out from their walk quite quickly, too.

As she walked more dogs, Val realized just how much she longed to have Foofy—in all of his regality and intensity—walking by her side. The day wore on into the early afternoon, when Val concluded her volunteer hours at the animal shelter.

“The dogs really appreciated all of your time today,” the shelter worker said. “Hopefully, you will volunteer with us more in the future!”

“I will definitely come here again,” Val said. “In fact, I will be back tomorrow. Dogs should be walked every day, after all.”

“That they should.” The shelter worker waved her off with a tight smile.

From there, Val headed back for home. Just as the animal shelter was within walking distance of the high school, her home was also located within walking distance of school, too. In this case, the animal shelter and her home spanned in opposite directions, so Val had a longer walk to return to her apartment coming from the animal shelter.

At home, she unlocked the door and let herself in. “Hi Mom. I’m home!”

“Hello, sweetie,” her mother said. In the kitchen, she stood at the counter with a bowl of homemade batter all prepared for baking. Her hands rolled the batter into balls that she placed onto a baking sheet.

Normally, Val would feel a jolt of excitement, knowing that she could have her mother’s fresh-baked cookies later this afternoon. Instead, her heart only sunk with her guilt, knowing that she had skipped school today.

Her mother cheered her on, unbeknownst to her misbehavior just yet. “I thought that you might like cookies as a reward at the start of what will be your second full week back at school!”

While her mother had found out about the first days of school that she had skipped, Val had become coyer in her tricks by calling herself in sick for the past two weeks.

“Speaking of which,” her mother continued on happily, “how was school today?”

“I had a good day,” Val said lamely. A kernel of truth shown through in her statement, since, she did have a good day after all, just not at school.

From her day at the animal shelter, Val thought of herself in terms of dog behavior. Presently, she slunk off to her room with an imaginary tail between her legs.

“Is that all?” her mother chided. “Why don’t you tell me more about your day?”

Val hesitated with an open mouth. Already, her mother searched for poof that she had actually attended school, waiting for satisfactory detail to confirm or deny her suspicions either way.

“Sorry, Mom. There is a lot of work for me to catch up on, still, after missing that many days of school. My late work is due tomorrow if I still want a grade for it.” Val retreated and closed herself off into her room.

As for skipping school, Val had made sure to cover her bases. Today, she had used her new and improved impression of her mother to trick the secretary.

Like a naughty dog, though, Val knew that she had done something bad. She made for a bad daughter. For now, she could only wait and hope that her mother would not discover what she had done. Whether her truancy would slip by unnoticed and allow her to eat those cookies in peace, only time would tell.