SECOND CHANCE RANCH IT'S NOT DESTINY AN ABBY STORY KELSEY ABRAMS ILLUSTRATED BY JOMIKE TEJIDO TEXT BY WHITNEY SANDERSON Mendota Heights Minnesota
Chapter One Abby are you ready to give your presentation to the class Mr Timothy Abby’s fifth-grade teacher asked Abby took a deep breath and reached down to put a hand on Amigo’s head But Amigo wasn’t there Amigo had been Abby’s service dog since first grade but for the last month she had been going to school without him Amigo was ten years old which was seventy in dog years Lately he’d been acting kind of sleepy and slow Abby’s mother a veterinarian had diagnosed him with a heart murmur and given him some medication She had said it would make him feel more comfortable but it wouldn’t cure him Amigo was just getting old It had been a hard choice but Abby had decided not to take him to school anymore That was a big change and Abby didn’t like change She liked routines She even had a chart on the wall in her room that helped remind her of her morning routine from brushing her teeth to making sure her homework was packed If anything unusual was happening that day like a field trip or a doctor’s appointment Abby wrote it on her chart the night before Abby even liked to have the same breakfast every morning a banana peanut butter on toast and a glass of orange juice If they were out of bananas or only had apple juice Abby’s day just didn’t feel the same Putting on Amigo’s service dog vest and getting him ready to go to school each morning had been Abby’s favorite part of her routine Not
having him with her felt a lot worse than having apple juice for breakfast instead of orange The reason Abby had a service dog was because she had autism which meant she sometimes had trouble communicating her feelings and reading other people’s emotions She also got anxious about things like loud noises or crowds of people or having to look people in the eye when she talked to them Having Amigo around helped keep Abby calm and gave her something to focus on when it felt like the whole world was melting into a meaningless blur of color and sound I’m ready Mr Timothy said Abby even though it was only about 60 percent true She gathered her notes and walked slowly to the whiteboard at the front of the class Abby knew some other people with autism like Jack from her playgroup when she was younger who didn’t talk at all but pointed to pictures to communicate Abby could talk just fine according to her three sisters she often overdid the talking In fact most people probably wouldn’t have known that Abby had autism at all
