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"Please," Charles Peterson pulled on his mom's sleeve.

"Charles Peterson, you promise you wouldn't beg for things if you came shopping with me." His mom shook her head.

" I'm not begging" he said. "I'm just asking. Please? Can't we buy just one box?"

He held up the cereal box and tilted it this way and that, trying to get her to admire the colorful package. "Look, it's vitamin-fortified! And it has six grams of protein."

"And sugar. lots and lots of sugar," mom pointed to some fine print on the label on the side of the box. "Not what you need on Breakfast time." She shook her head again. "No way my friend."

Charles gave up and trudged back up the aisle to replace the box. My friend. Ha! a true friend would buy you something you really, really wanted. "Well, can i pick out some crackers, at least?" he asked, when he caught back up with mom and her cart.

"Whole-grain, Low sodium," said mom, without looking at her list. " no added sugars or trans fats."

Charles rolled his eyes, but he knew better than to say anything.

Mom was big on healthy eating habits, and he was probably lucky she was willing crackers at all. Next she'd be making him make his own crackers, or eat peanut butter off pieces of cardboard or something. "You can choose some biscuits for buddy, too" Mom said. She tousled his hair and smile at him. "Just make sure they're healthy ones. He should not be eating junk either."

Charles grinned. " He love those salami sticks," he said. "They're his favorite."

Now mom rolled her eyes. " Junk," she said. "Look for plain biscuits made with sweet potatoes or rice flour. He likes them just as much."

It was true buddy didn't seem to care very much what flavor or shape his treats were, as long as you kept them coming.

Buddy was Charles's adorable brown puppy. Actually he belonged to the whole family, but Charles like to think Buddy was mainly his.

They definitely had a special bond. Buddy loved to cuddle with Charles on the couch in the bed. He love it when Charles threw his ball for him in the backyard. And he was crazy about the way Charles stroked the heart-shaped white spot on his chest.

Buddy had first arrive in Charles's life as a foster puppy, along with his doggy sisters and doggy mom.

All four dogs needed new homes. As a foster family, the Petersons had taken in many puppies, caring for them just until they found the right forever for each dog.

Buddy was tiny, the runt of the litter, and Charles had fallen in love with him right away. So had the rest of the family.

It didn't take the Petersons long to realized that they were the best forever family for Buddy. He had been with them ever since.

Charles headed for aisle 5: pet food, toys, and treats. It was one of his favorite places in the store-much more interesting than, say, the canned goods. Another of his favorite places to browse was the ice-cream freezer, but mom obviously wasn't in the mood to buy goodies today.

As he passed the paper towels, a song came on the store loudspeaker and he started singing along.

It was really old song, about a girl with brown eyes, but Charles recognized it. He'd been listening to a lot of oldies ever since dad had given him an ancient cassette player and some cassettes to go with it.

Charles had never seen cassettes before. They were little plastic boxes full of brown tape that had music recorded on it. Th player and the cassettes were from dad'd high school days. Some of the music was weird, but Charles loved most of it. Especially this one, with its "la la la la la la la la la la la la di dah" chorus.

"Charles!" someone called. He turned to see who it was. " Mrs. Davies!" He grinned and waved.

Sometimes it was weird to run into grown-ups you knew from the certain place, like school, out in the regular world.

Charles had once seen Mrs. Guzman, his school principal, in the shoe store. She was trying on a pair of sparkly blue high heels, and she seemed as embarrassed as Charles was when they spotted each other.

Mrs. Davies was different. She was sort of like a teacher- she ha been the music director for a play Charles was once in-but Charles didn't feel weird around her, even in the supermarket.

She was always jolly and warm, almost like a friend. She like to call everyone " sweetie," and was always smiling.

"Hi,Mrs. Davies." Charles peered into her cart, curious about what she was buying. His mouth fell open when he saw that it was piled with boxes and bags of cookies. Chocolate cookies, peanut butter cookies, lemon cookies. . .all his favorites, in one place. All the things mom refused to buy.

She noticed, and smiled at him. " Have a friend visiting for a while, and he has a sweet tooth," she explained. Then her eyes lit up. "Hey, have you ever been in the Littleton Chorale?" she asked.

Charles shook his head. He'd attend their concerts, of course, just like everyone in Littleton.

The community singing group gave four or five concerts a year in the town hall. The singers-all ages kids to grandparents-were always enthusiastic and upbeat.

Charles had always enjoyed their shows, but he'd never thought of joining. "You should join us!" said . " Everybody's welcome. This is time my friend Mr. Craig is directing. He's a retired music teacher and he lives in Kansas now, but he's visiting me just so he can run the show. It'll be a blast. For this concert all the songs are from movies and Broadway shows. Mr. Craig is a lot of fun-you'd like him."

"But-singing?" asked Charles. Singing alone in your room- or even in the aisles of the singers.