Horsing Around Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter I

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter I0

  Chapter II

  About the Author

  About the Illustrators

  For Jeff and Amy—N.K.

  Whoa! For our blue-ribbon pal, Kate R.—J&W

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2009 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2009 by John and

  Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin

  Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET &

  DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. .S.A.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-01483-7

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  Chapter I

  “Okay, dudes, it’s time for us to turn over a new leaf,” Mr. Guthrie said as he greeted class 4A early Monday morning.

  Katie Carew started giggling the minute she saw her teacher. Mr. Guthrie was wearing brown shoes, brown pants, and a brown long-sleeved shirt. He had red, yellow, and brown leaves taped all over his arms and chest. He looked just like a fall tree—if fall trees wore glasses and had ponytails.

  The Mr. G. tree totally fit in with the 4A classroom today. The whole room looked like a forest. There were colorful construction-paper leaves taped to the floor and construction-paper trees on the walls. Small stuffed animal squirrels and chipmunks were in the corner behind some leaves.

  Katie put her backpack down and plopped into her beanbag. All of the kids in class 4A sat in beanbag chairs. Mr. G. thought kids learned better when they were comfortable.

  “Let me guess. We’re studying fall today,” Kevin Camilleri said as he sat down.

  “Oh, I’ll get an A in that,” George Brennan announced. He ran across the classroom, tripped over his shoelace, and fell face-first into his beanbag chair.

  Katie giggled. She knew George had fallen down on purpose. George was always doing funny things like that.

  “Maybe we’d better call this our autumn leaves learning adventure,” Mr. G. suggested. “To avoid more accidents.”

  “So do we get to decorate our beanbags now?” Andy Epstein asked.

  Katie was sure they would. Mr. G. let the kids decorate their beanbag chairs every time they started a new learning adventure.

  But today Mr. G. said, “Not yet. First you’re going to decorate yourselves.”

  The kids all stared at their teacher. What was he talking about?

  Mr. G. pulled a huge garbage bag out of the classroom closet. Katie and her friends ran to see what was inside.

  “It’s just a bag of old leaves,” Kevin said. He sounded disappointed.

  Katie understood why he felt that way. Mr. G.’s surprises were usually really wild. Like the day he had the class pretend to be birds and dig through chocolate mud for gummy worms.

  Or the time he brought in an egg as the class pet. The kids had all figured there was some sort of bird inside. But instead, Slinky the class snake had popped out. Slinky was definitely the greatest—and weirdest—pet in the whole school.

  And Katie would never forget when Mr. G. wore a Japanese bathrobe to school and fed them all green tea cakes for snack, just because their class was Japan in the school Olympics. Katie hadn’t really liked the green cakes, but she still thought it was cool that Mr. G. was pretending they were in Japan.

  Compared to all that, a bag of leaves wasn’t very interesting.

  Mr. G. handed each kid a different leaf. Katie’s was shaped like a hand with three fingers. On it was a sticker that said SASSAFRAS.

  “If you’re going to be in this forest, you have to be a tree,” Mr. G. told the kids. “And at this time of year, many trees have colorful leaves. I want you to find the other leaves of your tree and then tape them to your clothes.”

  One by one, the kids searched inside the garbage bag for the leaves that matched the one in their hand.

  “I’m a maple,” Andy told the class.

  “I’m an oak,” Mandy Banks shouted out.

  “I’m a dogwood,” Emma Weber said.

  After Katie found the other sassafras leaves in the bag, she cut strips of brown and black construction paper and wove them in and out like a basket.

  “It’s an empty nest,” she told Mr. G. as she taped the basket to her shoulder. “All the birds have flown south.”

  Mr. G. laughed. “Very creative, Katie,” he complimented her.

  “Hey, my yellow leaf just fell off,” Emma Stavros complained.

  “So did my orange one,” Kevin added.

  “That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Kadeem Carter told them. “Why do you think they call this season fall?”

  “Can anyone tell me why the leaves turn different colors in the fall?” Mr. G. asked his forest of human trees.

  Katie smiled and raised her hand. She knew the answer to this one. Her grandmother had told her all about it during a trip to the mountains.

  “How about you, Katie Kazoo?” Mr. G. used the way-cool nickname George had given her back in third grade.

  “It’s because the days are getting shorter, so there’s less sun. Without sun, the trees make less chlorophyll. That’s the stuff that makes the leaves green,” Katie explained. “Without the green chlorophyll, you can see the other colors in the leaves.”

  “Good job,” Mr. G. praised Katie.

  “Hey, look at George!” Kevin exclaimed suddenly.

  The whole class began to laugh. George had taped leaves to his head and his rear end.

  “You look more like a turkey than a tree,” Kadeem told him.

  A big smile crossed George’s face. It was George’s joke-telling smile. Katie knew what that meant . . .

  “Speaking of trees,” George said. “Do you know what month trees are scared of ?�
�

  “No, what one?” Emma Weber asked.

  “Sep-timber!” George told her.

  Everyone in the class laughed. Everyone but Kadeem, that is. He was thinking up a joke of his own to tell.

  “How do trees get on the Internet?” Kadeem asked.

  “How?” Andrew piped up.

  “They log on!” Kadeem answered. He laughed really hard at his own joke.

  “Cool! We’ve got a tree joke-off going on,” Mr. G. exclaimed. “Your turn, George.”

  “Okay,” George replied. He was up for the challenge. “What did the beaver say to the tree?”

  “What?” Mr. G. asked.

  “Nice gnawing you,” George told him.

  The class laughed even harder.

  Katie looked around at all the other kid-trees in the forest-like classroom. Life in class 4A was definitely colorful. It was fun, too.

  So much fun that Katie never wanted to leaf!

  Chapter 2

  “Go, Kevin! Go, Kevin!”

  The kids at the lunch table were all cheering as Kevin popped another cherry tomato in his mouth. Kevin loved tomatoes more than anything. Today he was trying to break the cherry-tomato-eating record. He was up to sixteen already!

  “Man, he’s going to puke,” Jeremy Fox said. “He just ate three tomatoes at once!”

  “Go, Kevin! Go, Kevin! Go, Kevin!” The fourth-graders cheered even louder.

  Kevin popped tomatoes seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen in his mouth and began to chew. Red tomato juice shot out of his mouth and across the table.

  Now Mr. G. saw what was going on and put a stop to it. “Kevin, that’s disgusting and you could choke,” he scolded.

  “Yes! Kevin, that’s super-disgusting!” Suzanne Lock shouted at him. “You almost got tomato gunk all over my new cowboy boots.”

  Katie wasn’t sure how tomato juice could have flown over the table and landed on her best friend’s boots—which were under the table. She had a feeling Suzanne just wanted everyone in the fourth grade to notice she had new cowboy boots. That was kind of the way Suzanne worked.

  “You got new boots?” Miriam Chan asked Suzanne.

  “Let me see,” Emma W. said.

  Suzanne smiled. She had managed to take the attention away from Kevin.

  “These boots are just like the ones cowboys wear when they ride horses,” she said, sticking out her feet. “Well, cowgirls, anyway. See all the fancy jewels on the sides?”

  “Those are really cool,” Mandy said.

  “Mega-cool,” Jessica Haynes agreed.

  “They’re nice boots,” Becky Stern said in her slow, southern accent. “But they’re not the kind of boots I wear when I go horseback riding.”

  All the girls’ attention switched to Becky.

  “You go horseback riding?” Emma W. asked. “I always wanted to do that!”

  Becky nodded. “I take lessons at the Cherrydale Stables.”

  “I thought you took gymnastics classes,” Suzanne said in a not very nice tone.

  “I do,” Becky told Suzanne. “But now I take horseback riding, too. A person can take more than one kind of class.”

  Katie knew that was true. She took cooking classes at the community center. She also took art classes. And clarinet lessons, too.

  “What kind of boots are for riding?” Zoe Canter asked Becky.

  “They’re black leather,” Becky said. “And they go up to my knees. They’re what you’re supposed to wear when you ride English style. That’s the kind of riding they teach at the Cherrydale Stables.”

  “Your boots sound sort of plain,” Suzanne huffed.

  Becky shrugged.

  “Do you have a horse?” Katie asked excitedly.

  Suzanne shot her a nasty look. Apparently she didn’t like Katie talking to Becky about horseback riding.

  But Katie didn’t care. She loved animals. She wanted to hear all about this.

  “I don’t have my own horse,” Becky admitted. “I ride a pony who lives at the stables. He’s the sweetest pony in the whole world. He’s chocolate brown and his name is Brownie.”

  “Brownie,” Katie repeated. “I like that.”

  “Horseback riding is incredible,” Becky told the kids at the table. “I love that feeling of going up and down, up and down, up and—”

  “Becky, stop,” Kevin said suddenly.

  Katie looked over at him. His face had turned a weird greenish color.

  “Oh, man,” Kevin groaned. “I feel sick.” He got up and ran from the table.

  “I told you guys he was going to lose it,” Jeremy said. “Too many tomatoes.”

  “You are always so sensible,” Becky cooed to Jeremy. She batted her eyes. “You’re the smartest boy in the whole grade.”

  Now it was Jeremy’s turn to look like he was about to puke.

  Katie felt bad for Jeremy. Everyone knew that Becky had a huge crush on him. They also knew that Jeremy did not have a huge crush on Becky—or even a tiny one!

  “Um, Becky, is it hard to get up on a horse?” Katie asked, trying to turn Becky’s attention away from Jeremy.

  “Well, Brownie’s a pony, so he’s not as tall . . .” Becky stopped for a minute and thought. “You know, I have a picture of me sitting on Brownie’s back. It’s in my backpack. I’ll go get it.” She jumped up from the table and ran out of the cafeteria.

  Jeremy sighed and rolled his eyes as she left. “I wish she would just ride off into the sunset like those old cowboys,” he said. “Then I would never have to see her again.”

  Katie’s eyes bulged. She couldn’t believe what Jeremy had just said. “You do not wish that!” she exclaimed.

  “Oh, yeah, I do, Katie Kazoo!” Jeremy assured her.

  Katie frowned. She really, really wished Jeremy hadn’t made that wish. Katie hated wishes. She had a good reason. She knew just how awful things could be when wishes came true.

  Chapter 3

  Katie was in third grade when she first got into trouble with wishes. It started one terrible, horrible day when Katie lost a football game for her team. Then she’d fallen in a big mud puddle and ruined her favorite pair of jeans. Even worse, she’d let out a huge burp in front of the whole class. How embarrassing!

  That night, Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead or something, because the next day the magic wind came.

  The magic wind was a super-strong, tornado-like wind that blew only around Katie. It was so powerful that every time it came, it turned Katie into someone else.

  The first time the magic wind appeared, Katie turned into Speedy, the class 3A hamster. She’d escaped from her cage and wound up inside George’s stinky sneaker. YUCK!

  The magic wind came back again and again after that. It turned her into all kinds of people. Once it turned her into her grandfather! Katie had hair coming out of her nose and ears and her muscles ached all the time.

  Another time the wind switcherooed Katie into Jeremy’s kitten, Lucky. That time Katie had gotten into a fight with her own cocker spaniel, Pepper. He’d chased her right up a tree!

  The magic wind followed Katie wherever she went—even all the way across the Atlantic Ocean! When Katie was in Italy on vacation, the wind turned her into a gondolier. She had to paddle a boat through the canals of Venice. Katie didn’t know her way around the canals. She got a whole boatload of tourists lost. Katie didn’t speak Italian. That made it hard to ask for directions!

  Wishes could sure make life difficult. That was why Katie never made them anymore. But she couldn’t tell Jeremy about the magic wind and switcheroos. He wouldn’t believe her. Katie wouldn’t have believed it, either, if it didn’t keep happening to her.

  So instead, she just said, “Why don’t you go out to the yard for recess now, Jeremy?”

  “I haven’t eaten my dessert yet,” Jeremy pointed out.

  Katie shrugged. “What’s more important? Green Jell-O or getting out of the cafeteria before Beck
y comes back?”

  Jeremy didn’t have to think about that at all. He just leaped up from the table and galloped out of the cafeteria.

  Katie giggled. When it came to hiding from Becky Stern, Jeremy didn’t horse around!

  Chapter 4

  That afternoon, Katie went to Suzanne’s house for a playdate after band practice. When Suzanne opened the door, she was balancing a big basket of fruit on her head.

  “What are you doing?” Katie wondered.

  “I’m working on my posture,” Suzanne explained. “My modeling teacher told me to walk around balancing a big book on my head. But that hurt. And besides, this is much more colorful.”

  Katie tried hard not to laugh. She knew Suzanne was taking this very seriously.

  Suzanne reached up to the top of her head. “You want an apple?” she asked Katie.

  Katie couldn’t hold it in anymore. She started giggling.

  For a minute, Suzanne looked surprised. But then she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. She started laughing, too.

  Bam! The basket of fruit fell to the floor. An orange rolled under the couch.

  Suzanne was crawling under the couch to get it when—

  Ding-dong. The doorbell rang.

  “Suzanne, can you get that?” Mrs. Lock called from upstairs. “I’m changing Heather.”

  Suzanne frowned. “I can’t wait until that baby can change herself,” she groaned as she stood up and peeked through the window to see who was at the door. “That’s weird,” she told Katie. “It’s George.”

  That was weird. George and Suzanne were definitely not friends.

  “George,” Suzanne said as she opened the door. “Why are you here?”

  Katie rolled her eyes. Suzanne could be so rude sometimes.

  “I’m here to talk to your mom, not you,” George answered.

  Sometimes George could be pretty rude, too.

  “Why?” Suzanne asked, without inviting George inside.