Hannah had meant to lock up the dogs--she really really had!--but the dogs had seen her suitcase and they knew she was leaving (how did dogs DO that?!) and had been looking so sad, so she let them all lay up on the bed while she packed and then they all fell asleep, and oh, oh, they looked so adorable in a big, shaggy, sleepy yellow-gold pile!
The knock, Hannah couldn't hear up in the bedrooms, but that doorbell was charmed to echo in every inch of the house, and before she could even try, the dogs had run off like a slobbery herd. "No!" she cried, chasing after them, struggling to get them into the library and then eventually just giving up. Dogs! Besides, Justin had been standing out there for ages, and well...oh well.
Justin grunted that hello, and Hannah threw her arms around him in a hug. Oh, Justin, always trying to be so prickly, but Hannah knew better: pricky outside, soft inside, right? Justin was probably the cutest boy in the whole year (in Hannah's expert opinion), and very few things delighted her more than when Justin let his sweeter side shine through with her, but she had never really thought of him as a potential boyfriend.
Well--he had never, ever asked! Or flirted with her. And that's how you know, that's what her mummy had said, and that strong girls don't waste their time on boys who don't care. Hannah didn't think she was a strong girl at all, but she agreed with her mother: she would never moon for a boy who didn't like her. And so she never had. (Though...Justin would always be the cutest boy Hannah knew. Even cuter than Anton, which made Hannah feel disloyal.)
"Oh, Justy, they're girls! They're supposed to go crazy over boys!" Hannah laughed, finally convincing the dogs to back off a bit.