Part1 Expressions

1. pinch

He looks pretty good to my brothers, too, but from the way my mother's face was pinched, I could tell she was thinking, Abandon this dog?

pinch,本义是“捏，掐，拧”，look pinched/have a pinched look指“愁眉苦脸”

eg: He looks pinched.

pinch and save/scrape省吃俭用

Her parents pinched and scraped so that she could study singing abroad.

2. spring sth on sb

You're not springing it on me as a ... a pet, then?

spring sth on sb, to tell someone something or ask them to do something when they do not expect it and are not ready for it.

dic: It's not fair to spring this on her without any warning.

my: You sprang this idea on me.

3. head back

My mother was already heading back inside, but over her shoulder came, "Not until you learn to keep your room neat, boys."

head for/towards/back etc.

dic: The ship was heading for Cuba.

It's about time we were heading home.

my: We have to head home.

4. sniff sb out

We each sniffedd out pretty good and he smelled perfectly rosy.

My father and I spent the rest of the day sniffing out and destroying criminal evidence.

sniff sb out, discover sb, find sb out.

dic: The police were determined to sniff out the ringleaders.

my: They had sniffed out the evidence.

5. crack

Then one day my mother cracked the case.

crack,本义是“裂缝，裂开”，这里指solve (a problem)

dic: The calculation was difficult, but we finally cracked it.

my: We ended up cracking the problem.

6. shoo sb away/out

And she might have cracked Champ's skull as well if my dad hadn't come to the rescue and shooed him outside.

shoo嘘声，shoo sb/sth away, off, out, etc用嘘声将某人、物赶走

dic: He shooed the little children out of the shop.

7. wound up

We did try to recurit my brothers, but they wound up getting into a spray-bottle fight, which got them locked in their room, which, of course, was fine with them.

dic: I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door.

Part 2 Summary

Although the sycamore tree was cut down, there are chickens and dogs in Juli's home after that. Looking after the hacth of the chickens have became an interesting thing for Juli. When the eggs are hatched, Juli send them to Bryce as a gift, but sadly, Bryce throw them away.