Going Overboard! Read online

  Going Overboard!

  by Nancy Krulik • illustrated by John & Wendy

  Grosset & Dunlap

  An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  For Josie, who tried so hard to be patient while I wrote this book—NK

  For Susan, our first (and best!) mate—J&W

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2012 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2012 by John & 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. Printed in the U.S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2011008929

  ISBN: 978-1-101-57538-3

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ALWAYS LEARNING

  PEARSON

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  About the Author

  About the Illustrators

  Chapter 1

  “Wow!” Katie Carew exclaimed as she stepped onto the Mermaid Sea cruise ship for the first time. “This is amazing.”

  Katie felt like she had just walked onto a magical floating palace. She’d never seen anything like it. The walls were painted gold and silver, there were huge, crystal chandeliers shimmering from the ceiling, and the windows were framed with deep-red, velvet drapes.

  “This place is gorgeous!” Katie said.

  “The crystals on that chandelier match my earrings,” Katie’s best friend, Suzanne Lock, told her. She pulled back her dark hair to give Katie a better look.

  Katie tried not to laugh. Suzanne was always finding new ways to show off the fact that she had pierced ears. Katie’s ears weren’t pierced. At least not yet. But she wasn’t in any hurry. Pierced ears were more a Suzanne kind of thing than a Katie kind of thing.

  “I’m so glad we decided to take this cruise together,” Katie’s mom told Suzanne’s parents. “The girls will have so much more fun this way.”

  Katie nodded. That was for sure. It was a lot more fun to go on vacation with a friend. Being around adults all the time could get pretty boring.

  “I know! I can’t wait until we dock at that island in the Caribbean Sea,” Katie said. “We get to swim with dolphins! I’ve never met a dolphin before.”

  “Of course not,” Suzanne said. “Where would you meet one? It’s not like you have a dolphin in your class or anything.”

  “That’s because dolphins don’t swim in schools. Fish do,” Katie’s dad joked.

  Katie giggled. Her dad told the worst jokes. But he was right: Dolphins weren’t fish. She’d learned that during her class’s learning adventure about mammals. Her teacher, Mr. G., had dressed like a cow that day. And he’d explained that there are all kinds of mammals—like cows, monkeys, cats, dogs, people, and dolphins.

  “I heard there are a lot of really great stores on the island,” Suzanne said. “Didn’t you tell me that, Mom?”

  Mrs. Lock nodded. “There’s definitely plenty of shopping.”

  “Boat! Boat!” Suzanne’s two-year-old sister, Heather, shouted suddenly. She squirmed around, trying to get out of her father’s arms. But Mr. Lock held her tightly.

  “She’s going to be a pain in the neck,” Suzanne whispered to Katie. “I hope we don’t have to spend all five days of this cruise babysitting Heather.”

  Katie didn’t think Heather was a pain in the neck. She thought she was kind of cute. Of course, that was probably because Heather wasn’t Katie’s little sister. Katie figured having her around all the time was probably harder than it looked.

  “Mom, Heather has a stain on her collar already,” Suzanne complained.

  Mrs. Lock sighed. “That happens to babies.”

  Suzanne spun around so the skirt of her sailor dress flew up around her. “My dress is always clean,” she said. “I’m a very careful eater.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. There wasn’t anything Suzanne couldn’t—or wouldn’t—brag about.

  Just then, a woman in a blue dress walked over to where the Carews and the Locks were standing. She smiled at Katie and Suzanne.

  “Welcome aboard,” she greeted them. “I’m Lori, the head counselor at our Cruisin’ Kids Club. I bet I’m going to see a lot of you guys over the next five days.”

  Katie grinned. She’d read all about the Cruisin’ Kids Club in the brochure. It looked great. There were so many activities.

  “Is there really an ice-skating rink on this boat?” Katie asked Lori excitedly.

  Lori nodded. “And a rock climbing wall, a waterslide, basketball courts, and a miniature- golf course.”

  “Wow!” Katie said. “I can’t wait to skate in the middle of the ocean.”

  “I brought my ice-skating skirt. It’s in one of those bags over there,” Suzanne said. She pointed to the huge pile of suitcases the Locks had brought for the cruise. Suzanne wasn’t the only one in her family who liked to change outfits a lot.

  Lori smiled. Then she looked over at Heather. “This must be your little sister,” she said to Suzanne. “She looks so adorable in her sailor dress.”

  Uh-oh. Katie frowned. Lori shouldn’t have said that. Suzanne really didn’t like when anyone got more compliments than she did.

  “Hers has a stain on it,” Suzanne pointed out angrily. “And it’s too big on her.”

  “She’ll grow into it,” Lori said sweetly.

  “We’re not going to be in the same group as Heather, are we?” Suzanne asked.

  Lori shook her head. “Heather will use our babysitting service. You two will be in the Cruisin’ Kids Club’s Minnow group. That’s for third- and fourth-graders only.”

  “Thank goodness,” S
uzanne said.

  “Boat! Boat!” Heather squealed again.

  “Yes, Heather,” Suzanne’s dad said. “We’re on a boat.”

  “She’s adorable,” Lori said.

  “She’s a pain,” Suzanne whispered to Katie. “And she’s going to ruin my trip. I wish we had just left Heather at home.”

  Katie gulped. Suzanne had just made a wish. That was sooo not good.

  Wishes could bring big trouble, especially if they came true. And no one knew that better than Katie.

  Chapter 2

  It had all started back in third grade on one terrible, horrible, miserable day. First, Katie had missed catching the football and lost the game for her team. Then she’d fallen in the mud and ruined her favorite jeans. And then she’d stood up in front of her whole class and let out the biggest, loudest burp in the history of Cherrydale Elementary School. A real record breaker. Talk about embarrassing.

  That night, Katie had wished that she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead when Katie made her wish, because the next day the magic wind arrived.

  The magic wind was a wild, powerful tornado that blew only around Katie. It was so strong that it was able to blow her right out of her own body and into someone else’s. One … two … switcheroo!

  The first time the magic wind came, it turned her into Speedy, the class hamster. Katie spent the whole morning stuck in a cage, going around and around on a hamster wheel and eating wooden chew sticks. When she finally escaped from the hamster cage, she’d wound up stuck in somebody’s smelly gym sneaker. P.U.!

  Katie was really glad when the magic wind returned later that day and changed her back into herself. But that wasn’t the end of the magic wind. It came back again and again. And every time, it changed Katie into somebody else.

  One time she turned into her classroom snake, Slinky—and shed her skin, right on the classroom floor. Talk about an itchy situation! You don’t know what an itch is until you itch your skin right off your back.

  And how could Katie ever forget the time that the magic wind switcherooed her into a famous baseball player named Mike Reed? Mike was an awesome shortstop. But Katie wasn’t. She dropped a really important fly ball—and then started to cry. Only the fans didn’t know that it was a fourth-grade girl who was crying. They thought a major leaguer was having a major meltdown. And it was all caught on the jumbotron!

  And then there was the time Katie turned into Suzanne’s hairdresser, Sparkle, on the day of Suzanne’s big modeling show. Katie had to cut Suzanne’s hair—and oh boy, what a disaster that had been. Suzanne wound up with long hair on one side, short hair on the other side, and a big mess on top!

  As far as Katie was concerned, wishes brought nothing but trouble.

  “Don’t worry about Heather,” Katie told Suzanne. “We’ll hardly see her. We’re going to be hanging out with kids our own age at the Cruisin’ Kids Club.”

  “You certainly will,” Lori assured her. “But first we have to have our lifeboat drill. And then we’re off to sea.”

  A little while later, Katie and Suzanne were on the Pool Deck of the ship. From up there, the girls could see for miles and miles. The ship had begun to move out to sea. New York City’s harbor was getting smaller and smaller.

  Suzanne waved her hand and blew kisses. “Good-bye, good old USA,” Suzanne called to the people on the dock. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

  Katie giggled. Suzanne was always so … so … Suzanne!

  Instead of blowing kisses, Katie pulled out the new camera her grandmother had bought her just for the cruise. Katie’s grandma was in Cherrydale watching Pepper, the family’s cocker spaniel. But Katie had promised to take lots of pictures.

  Katie looked through the viewfinder on her camera. She was just about to snap a picture of the dock when suddenly Suzanne stuck her face right in the middle of the shot.

  “What are you doing?” Katie said. “You ruined my picture.”

  “No I didn’t,” Suzanne told her. “I made it better. Pictures with people in them are so much more personal than just plain pictures. A picture without a person might as well be a postcard.”

  “I just want a picture of the sign that says New York City as we sail away from the dock,” Katie told Suzanne.

  “So I’ll point to the sign. You’re lucky, Katie Kazoo,” Suzanne said, using the way-cool nickname Katie had gotten from her friend George last year in third grade. “Some models charge a lot to be in pictures. But I’m posing for you for free.”

  Actually, Suzanne wasn’t a real model. She was just a fourth-grader who took modeling classes. But Katie didn’t say that. She didn’t want to start arguing with her best friend now. Not when they were about to go on a five-day vacation together.

  So Katie snapped a picture of Suzanne pointing to the sign. Then she watched as New York City got farther and farther away. Before long she couldn’t see any land at all. There was nothing but bright, blue-green seawater all around.

  Katie’s cruising adventure had begun!

  Chapter 3

  “Whoa! Look at this!” Katie exclaimed excitedly as she and Suzanne entered the Cruisin’ Kids Clubhouse. The clubhouse overlooked the Pool Deck. All the walls were made of glass. “We can see everybody in the pool from here!”

  “And they can see us,” Suzanne said. She went over to the window and smiled. Then she tossed her hair back over her shoulder and pushed one hip out to the side.

  Katie thought Suzanne looked pretty silly. But she knew her best friend was trying to be all model-y, so she didn’t say anything.

  “Oh, great! Here are two more Minnows,” Lori said as she walked over and handed Katie and Suzanne each a lime-green wristband. “You guys need to wear these all the time,” she explained. “That way we know you’re members of the Cruisin’ Kids Club.”

  Suzanne looked down at the green wristband and made a face. “Can I have a purple one instead?” she asked. “Purple is a much better color for me.”

  Lori shook her head. “All the Minnows wear green wristbands,” she explained. “The purple wristbands are for the Guppies. They’re the kids who are in first and second grade.”

  As Lori walked away to greet some more kids, Suzanne sighed. “See? Little kids get all the good stuff. We get the leftovers. Like these ugly, green bands.”

  “I like green,” Katie told Suzanne. She fastened her bracelet around her wrist and smiled.

  Just then, another girl with a green wristband walked shyly over to Suzanne and Katie. “Are you Minnows, too?” she asked, twirling her long, brown hair around her finger nervously.

  Katie smiled and held up her wrist. “Yep,” she said. “I’m Katie, and this is my best friend, Suzanne.”

  “I’m Lizzie.” The girl smiled shyly at Suzanne. “I love your sailor dress.”

  Suzanne twirled around so the skirt of her dress ballooned all around her. “Thanks,” she said. “I got it especially for the cruise.”

  “I got my shirt especially for the cruise, too,” Lizzie said. She pointed to her yellow tank, which had a purple starfish in the middle.

  Katie could tell Lizzie was waiting for Suzanne to tell her that she liked her shirt, too. But Suzanne didn’t say anything. Katie wasn’t surprised. Suzanne loved getting compliments—she didn’t always like to give them.

  So Katie said, “That’s really cute. I love starfish.”

  “Me too,” Suzanne said. “Maybe I’ll get starfish-shaped earrings on the island.”

  “I don’t have pierced ears yet,” Lizzie said. “But my mom said I could get them pierced next year when I’m in fourth grade.”

  Suzanne was about to say something when suddenly Lori made an announcement. “Can I have all my Minnows over here by the door? We’re off to have some fun.”

  Katie smiled. No one liked fun more than Katie Kazoo!

  “So? Are we going to the rock wall or the basketball court?” a Minnow named Stan asked as the group walked up the stairs t
o the next level of the ship. At least Katie thought his name was Stan. He could have also been his twin brother, Dan. They looked so much alike, it was really hard for Katie to tell them apart.

  “Why do you think we’ll start off doing one of those things?” Katie asked him.

  Dan said, “We’ve been in a whole lot of these Cruisin’ Kids Clubs, and it’s always the same.”

  “I’ve never been on a cruise before. Not ever. I mean not once!” a girl named Carly said really fast. “I couldn’t wait to go on this one, though. I saw all the pictures and I just knew it was going to be the most fun I ever had. Ever. I mean where else can you …”

  “Do you think she’ll ever stop to take a breath?” Suzanne whispered in Katie’s ear.

  Katie giggled. “She’s just excited,” she told Suzanne. Katie was trying to be nice. But Suzanne was right. Carly was still talking even though no one was listening anymore.

  “We’re going rock climbing!” Lori said excitedly.

  Katie had never been rock climbing before. But she was really excited to try.

  “How are you going to rock climb in a dress?” Lizzie asked Suzanne.

  “No problem.” Suzanne smiled and lifted up a corner of her dress. “I’m wearing shorts underneath. So I can do sports and still be stylish.”

  “Wow!” Lizzie seemed really impressed.

  Katie wasn’t all that impressed, though. Suzanne had been doing the shorts-under-her-skirt thing since the beginning of third grade. She’d been bragging about it since then, too.

  As they reached the top of the stairs, Katie spotted the rock wall. It was a tall, gray wall that had been painted to look as though it were the side of a steep cliff. There were red, yellow, and blue knobs sticking out all the way up. Katie figured those were the places you were supposed to put your feet as you climbed.

  “Who wants to go first?” Lori asked the kids.

  Katie looked over at Suzanne. She figured Suzanne would volunteer just so she could brag about being the first Minnow to reach the top. But Suzanne didn’t raise her hand. She just stood there looking up at the top of the wall.