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Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter, also known as Puppy Love, is the 10th book in the Dork Diaries series. It was released on October 20, 2015.
Summary[]
Nikki Maxwell has to hide 7 ADORKABLE puppies from 2 parents, an entire middle school, and... one mean girl out for revenge, MacKenzie Hollister. If anyone can do it, it's Nikki... but not without some hilarious challenges along the way! Nikki and Brandon find 7 puppies in front of the pet center and Nikki is forced to care for them.
Plot[]
Wednesday, April 30 (4:05 PM)
At my locker
Even though MacKenzie has transferred out of WCD, Nikki can't stop hearing all the other students talk about how much they're gonna miss her. She's the only one who is not gonna miss her due to all the rotten things she did to her in the past. Even her old locker was decorated as a tribute to her. She takes a look at the website for North Hampton Hills International Academy, thinking it was all a myth, only to find that the school exists and is beyond fancy. Since she no longer has to go through any more drama with MacKenzie, Nikki prepares to hang out with her friends at the CupCakery.
Wednesday (4:45 PM)
At the CupCakery
While counting the minutes she has been MacKenzie-free, Nikki goes to the CupCakery to spend some time with Brandon. They feel a moment coming on and prepare to go in for a kiss. But it is interrupted by, to Nikki's shock, MacKenzie of all people. She bursts on the scene, with their cupcake in her hair. Nikki is shocked to see her since she thought she would never see her again. At that moment, MacKenzie flirts with Brandon and tries to coax him into transferring to NHH with her. But Brandon, knowing everything MacKenzie had done, refuses. As she and Nikki start arguing over all they went through in their rivalry, MacKenzie notices some of her NHH friends and stops arguing.
Wednesday (5:10 PM)
At the CupCakery
Nervous from seeing her friends arrive at the CupCakery, MacKenzie puts on a friendly act and greets them to Brandon and Nikki. The NHH students, Presli, Sol and Evan talk to Nikki about all the things that she did, only in this case, they say MacKenzie did it, as if MacKenzie had told them that all the things Nikki did, she did instead. Angered by this endeavor, Nikki and Brandon decide to leave. MacKenzie offers to get them a cupcake to replace the one she ruined, but they decline and leave. They meet up with Zoey and Chloe and tell them about MacKenzie, who waves goodbye to them through the window. On their way to Fuzzy Friends, Nikki and Brandon wonder just what MacKenzie is up to, as if she were a virus they were unable to be rid of.
Wednesday (5:27 PM)
At Fuzzy Friends
Still on their way, Nikki asks Brandon about a certain pizza she saw him buy and if it was free, thinking it had to do with that kiss. Brandon tells her he got it from Mr. Zimmerman who got it from a camera company. So, the rumor is debunked. When they arrive at Fuzzy Friends, they find a dog named Holly sitting out front with a note and a box labeled for her. The note says that the senior building her owner moved to has a no-pet policy, so he/she had to leave her here. They look into the box and find a litter of seven puppies. However, Brandon says they can't take them in because the kennel is too full to take in anymore strays and they may end up having to send Holly and her litter to a shelter that actually resorts to putting animals to sleep if not adopted after an extended time. Nikki insists that they help her in anyway and keep it a secret. At that moment, they find that MacKenzie had been eavesdropping on their conversation, having followed them from the CupCakery.
Wednesday (5:35 PM)
At Fuzzy Friends
Nikki asks why MacKenzie followed them and she tells him that she brought them the cupcake she ruined as a "token". Failing to come up with an excuse for why she was following them, she says that she is going to call the local news about how they're going to care for Holly despite going against city ordinances. Brandon feels dismayed as it seems he's going to lose Fuzzy Friends for good.
Wednesday (5:48 PM)
At Fuzzy Friends
Thinking of a way to stop MacKenzie from calling the news station and reporting her false animal abuse story, Nikki thinks of several ideas so ludicrous with disastrous results. But then, she gets an idea and has Brandon play along. They say they're gonna hang out with MacKenzie's friends from North Hampton Hills while MacKenzie should say and look after the dogs. MacKenzie hangs up her phone, tired of waiting for a response, and warns them not to intervene with her new friends. As she leaves, they're relieved that, for now, the dogs are safe. As they go in to play with them until Nikki's mom comes to pick her up, Nikki suggests that she, Brandon, Zoey and Chloe could take turns looking after the dogs until Sunday. Brandon agrees, and they hope they can pull it off.
Wednesday (8:10 PM)
In my bedroom
Nikki tells Zoey and Chloe about the dogs and they agree to help out and look after them. Theo has a Queasy Cheesy delivery truck ship the dogs from place to place. When Nikki tells her mom about the dog situation, she tells her that it's not possible at the moment because they got new furniture and she doesn't want it getting wrecked, chewed up, or messy. Nikki gripes about how Brianna was allowed to look after Rover the goldfish for the whole weekend and unknowingly killed it, yet she can't look after the dogs for one night. She knows she'll have to text Brandon the bad news, but not before she sulks.
Wednesday (11:51 PM)
In my bedroom
Nikki realizes she has a biology project due tomorrow and completely forgot about it since her diary was stolen. Remembering how she did that Moby Dick video (which got an A+), she decides to take one of her dad's pairs of long underwear and designs it with a drawn scale of human anatomy. After that, she resumes sulking over how she can't look after the dogs.
Thursday, May 1 (2:05 PM)
In the girls' bathroom
Nikki tries to tell Brandon the bad news, but Brandon prattles about how awesome a friend she is for doing this. Because of that, she can't tell him. In bio, she presents her long underwear diagram of the human body. Her teacher even has her wear it to point out the many organs and parts inside, much to Nikki's humiliation. Her teacher suggests that she enter the science fair, but she turns it down after that embarrassing display. Since Nikki can't back out of the dog situation now, she decides to just hide them in her room until her turn is over.
Thursday (5:10 PM)
At home
Nikki tidies up her room for the dogs. Brandon drops them off at her place and she shows them to Chloe and Zoey. Chloe gives Nikki a baby monitor so she can hear the dogs in her room whenever they need her or start causing trouble somehow. Zoey also gives Nikki two tickets to a long movie that she tells her to give to her parents so they can be out of the house for the evening.
Thursday (6:30 PM)
At home
Nikki shows the dogs to Brianna in case she needs an extra hand. While she's doing her homework, Brianna tells her something about the dogs. And that is that she let them out of their cage. Now the dogs are chewing up their parents' new sofa. While Nikki fixes up the sofa, Brianna takes the dogs somewhere else to calm them down. After an exhausting time reupholstering, Nikki realizes it's too quiet and finds that Brianna is taking care of the dogs in her "Paw Spa", which forbids humans. Brianna reveals to be under her persona, Miss Bri-Bri as she takes care of the dogs.
Thursday (7:30 PM)
At home
Brianna AKA Miss Bri-Bri tells Nikki that she is busy with the dogs and that she cannot come in. Nikki demands to see the dogs, and Brianna bribes her with a free peanut butter facial, courtesy of their dad's birthday peanut butter jar. She has also dug up Mrs. Wallabanger's flower garden for a flowery aroma and smeared peanut butter all over the dogs. Nikki needs to clean up the dogs before their parents get back, but there's one problem. The bathtub is full of "mud" which is actually Mrs. Wallabanger's manure. Hans, Brianna's teddy bear, is covered in the manure tub. They pull him out and he lands in the toilet, splashing water on them. Seeing the circumstances beyond her control, Nikki lays flat on the bathroom floor to lament her situation.
Thursday (8:00 PM)
At home
The doorbell rings, and Nikki fears her parents are back early from the movie. Fearing the worst and thinking Brianna is going to get out of it scot-free, Nikki opens the door and finds that it's actually Brandon. He tried to call her on her phone, but Brianna as Miss Bri-Bri answered and told her everything. He asks her what's going on, and she comes up with a lie about why she was covered in everything and he buys it. He asks for some compost for the project he and his friend Max Crumbly are working on for the science fair, which is about purifying filthy water into clean drinking water, and Nikki gives him some of the manure that was used in the tub. She gives him the whole mound. Max cleans the dogs and introduces himself to Nikki. After they leave, everything is cleaned by the time her parents get home. Tomorrow, they're gonna be chaperoning for a field trip to the zoo with Brianna's class, so Nikki can get the dogs out of the house undetected.
Friday, May 2 (7:00 AM)
At home
To her horror, Nikki finds that her mom is still home. She explains that the field trip was canceled due to the weather conditions and so she'll be relaxing since she took the day off. Since she can't get the dogs out with her mom in the house, she comes up with an alternate solution. She puts the cage in a wagon, covers it, and labels it as a donation of books for the school library. At that moment, her dad is heading for work, so she decides to get a lift to school in the van. She can only hope that the dogs don't cause a scene and draw his attention. She wonders if she can even pull this off.
Friday (7:55 AM)
At school
At school, Chloe and Zoey are waiting for Nikki to arrive. When she does, they need to get the "books" out of the van. Her dad offers to help, but she turns it down and they decide to handle it themselves by saying they should take care of it since they're LSA's and he's not. They decide to hide the dogs in the janitor's closet so Mrs. Peach doesn't get suspicious about the "books". Chloe gives them some water for their bowl and they leave. They may have the dogs safe for now, but they could still get caught and expelled.
Friday (8:27 AM)
In homeroom class
In their homeroom class, Nikki hears the baby monitor going off from the dogs' end, meaning something is wrong and Chloe didn't lock the cage when she gave them their water. Their teacher hears the sound, and they act like they had gotten some severe food poisoning from yesterday's lunch special in the cafeteria, making convincing gag noises that frighten the teacher and the students, even seeming reminiscent of MacKenzie's little accident a couple of weeks back. They're excused from class to take care of their "business" and, as they get out of there, they hurry to the janitor's closet to see what's going on with the dogs.
Friday (8:38 AM)
In the janitor's closet
The girls arrive at the janitor's closet to find that the puppies had caused quite a mess in there, much to their mother's disappointment. They'll clean it up later. In the meantime, they can't keep the dogs in the closet. Nikki gets an idea and suggests they hide them in Principal Winston's office since he's at a meeting over at the high school. Chloe and Zoey are skeptical about the idea, but they ultimately acquiesce.
Friday (8:43 AM)
In the school office
As the girls approach the school office, Nikki contemplates on what would be happening. When they arrive, they find that the student assistant of the day is their friend Marcy. Marcy notices the cage and the girls think she had found about their plan very easily, but she believes their library book ploy. Nikki feels guilty about going through with this, but she has no choice. But Chloe suddenly spills the beans about the dogs. Since Marcy knows now, Nikki shows them to her and she gushes over them. If she gets caught helping them, she could be forced to clean up the wrestling team's uniforms. Nikki and Zoey decide that she doesn't have to do it, but Chloe plays the guilt card on her and she gives in. They're ready to go through with it, although Nikki deep down doesn't want to.
Friday (8:57 AM)
In the principal's office
Marcy unlocks the door and they step in while the lights are out and the place looks spooky in the shadows. Chloe is scared out of her wits. Marcy turns on the light. The puppies are probably exhausted from playing in the janitor's closet, so they're gonna sleep it off. Marcy tells them she'll text them anything that may happen should it happen. Chloe gets some snacks from Principal Winston's candy jar. They leave the office just as the secretary returns and just have to wait out the remaining 5 hours before the day ends.
Friday (Noon)
In the janitor's closet
Remembering the mess the puppies made, the girls head back to the janitor's closet after finishing their lunch and clean it up. Thankfully, Marcy hasn't texted about the dogs.
Friday (1:00 PM)
In biology class
Today is the big science fair, and the students in biology who are entering the fair are setting it up in the gym. The remaining students can review for their chapter. Nikki still gets no text from Marcy. Just in case things take a turn for the worst, she thinks of an excuse generator.
Friday (3:05 PM)
In the school library
While the girls are working on their LSA duties for the remaining hour before the day is over, Brandon comes by to thank Nikki for his help on both his project and the dogs. She is happy to have helped (even if she did lie to him about some aspects). He plans to take her to the CupCakery as thanks for everything, which makes her completely happy.
Friday (3:48 PM)
At my locker
Just when things were finally starting to wrap up without a hitch, Nikki gets a text from Marcy indicating she opened the cage and let the dogs out. Before she can head over to the office and help her, Brandon comes by to tell her to that Queasy Cheesy truck will be arriving at her house soon to pick up the dogs. Nikki panics, knowing she didn't tell Brandon the truth about it and tries to get out of the truck showing up since her mom is home by making up some excuses. Zoey and Chloe show up and think she told him everything. Marcy comes by and warns them that the dogs are loose in the principal's office. They all hurry over there.
Friday (4:09 PM)
In the principal's office
The gang arrives at Principal Winston's office to see not only the dogs playing in there but Principal Winston back from the meeting and befuddled at the dogs. When they try to explain how it happened, Max shows up and tells him that they were part of his and Brandon's project. Max manages to get the dogs to calm down and walk over to him as if he were their trainer. Impressed with his work, Principal Winston excuses their behavior and lets Max off the hook. The dogs and the gang are saved from whatever could have happened to them. With the crisis averted, they thank Max and Brandon cancels the delivery truck's arrival at Nikki's house.
Friday (4:45 PM)
At Chloe's house
A fatigued Nikki arrives at Chloe's house to find some shocking news. Unfortunately, she can't take the dogs for the day because her uncle Carlos is visiting. Carlos is an extreme germophobe who cleans everything he touches and wears a hazmat suit 24/7. The dogs can't stay there now. Before Nikki decides to spend one more day with the dogs just to keep them safe, Chloe's mom has an idea. The Daisy Girl Scouts are having a sleepover somewhere and trying to earn their pet care badges, so they can take the puppies over there and the scouts can watch them for the night and Zoey can look after them tomorrow. They all agree to let the scouts look after them.
Friday (5:15 PM)
I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY HERE! AGAIN!!
Nikki and Brianna had really warmed up to the smallest puppy in Holly's litter. Nikki and Chloe find out that the sleep over happens to be at MacKenzie Hollister's house. The dogs pounce on MacKenzie while Nikki and Chloe laugh at her karma. Nikki suggests that Brianna relocate the Paw Spa into MacKenzie's bedroom.
Saturday, May 3 (5:00 PM)
At Brianna's Ballet Class
After her doggy dilemma, Nikki is too tired to really do much. She hears from her mom that Brianna managed to get her pet care badge, meaning she has improved since Rover. When they go to ballet class to pick Brianna up, Nikki notices MacKenzie's sister, Amanda there. She asks how MacKenzie is enjoying North Hampton Hills and Amanda at first isn't sure she can tell her. Nikki coaxes her into telling her, but Brianna butts in and says Amanda tell Nikki on the condition that Nikki take them to see the new Princess Sugar Plum movie and buy them lots of snacks. Desperate to get the dirt on MacKenzie, Nikki agrees to take them. Before Nikki reveals what Amanda told her, she stops because they're going to dinner at Crazy Burger.
Saturday (8:30 PM)
In my bedroom
While Zoey is having fun with the dogs, Nikki continues where she left off. It turns out Amanda told her that MacKenzie had a good first day at North Hampton Hills, but the day after, she started to get picked on by the most popular kids there because of the video of her freaking out over the bug in her hair. Now she has become a total outcast and labelled a dork, just like Nikki. She also finds out that she had lied about doing all the cool stuff Nikki did so the students would like her, which is why she acted that way at the CupCakery that day. Just then, MacKenzie shows up to pick up Amanda before Amanda could explain any further what had been going on there. Nikki will have to sit through that movie, but it will be worth it to get more details.
Sunday, May 4 (7:00 PM)
At home
Nikki finds out that Fuzzy Friends had adopted some dogs the last couple of days, so Holly and her pups were able to get places. But even then, they had all been adopted, including Holly. Nikki was really attached to them, and she's gonna miss them. At the very least, they were all given good homes. Brianna misses the dogs the most and wishes they were still there. Their parents get suspicious while Nikki tries to cover it up. At that moment, they go to unload some groceries from the car which consist of pet supplies. Their dad has a surprise for them and it's revealed that the surprise is a puppy. Not just any puppy. It was the smallest one they had grown to love the most. They decide to call her Daisy. Now, all is well as it ends. Or, that's what Nikki had hoped.
Nikki gets a copy of an e-mail for her parents from Principal Winston stating that all students will be participating in a student exchange program where they will be attending a different school for a whole week. To Nikki's horror, the school she is assigned to is North Hampton Hills International Academy, the same one MacKenzie had transferred to. Can she survive?
New Characters[]
- Presli
- Sol
- Evan
- Max Crumbly
- Mrs. Garcia
- Uncle Carlos
Back cover comic strip[]
Trivia[]
- The number of minutes without Mackenzie that Nikki counts, is the time span since she had to deal Mackenzie's problems for the last time. It was when she had to delete all of Mackenzie's mean answers. (See the previous book)
- In the picture where two Nikki Maxwells are shown, the left one is wearing a North Hampton Hills school outfit (However only in the eleventh book Nikki is really wearing that outfit), and the right one is wearing the clothes Nikki was really wearing at that time. It depicts that Mackenzie (who had a school outfit) was presenting herself as if she was Nikki.
- When Mr. Maxwell brought Nikki to school with his van (and the puppies), Chloe and Zoey did not seem surprised seeing Nikki with her father on that van. Nikki in the previous books was ashamed of her father's job and nobody wanted to learn that she went to school because of a bug extermination scholarship. It is hinted that her friends learnt somehow the truth and accepted it.
- It is the only Dork Diaries book, in whose cover picture there are animals.
Images[]
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