Drat! You Copycat! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  For Mandy and Ian—N.K.

  Text copyright © 2003 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2003 by John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street,

  New York, NY, 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Krulik, Nancy E.

  Drat! You copycat! / by Nancy Krulik ; illustrated by John & Wendy. p. cm.—(Katie Kazoo, switcheroo ; 7)

  Summary: Katie agrees to be a buddy for the new girl in class even though her best friend Suzanne does not approve. [1. First day of school—Fiction. 2. Moving, Household—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Magic-Fiction.] I. John & Wendy, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.K944Dr 2003

  [Fic]—dc21

  2003005965

  eISBN : 978-1-101-14196-0

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Chapter 1

  “Boys and girls, say hello to Becky Stern,” Mrs. Derkman told class 3A .

  It was early Monday morning. The teacher was standing in the front of the classroom. Beside her was a small girl with a long, blond ponytail.

  “Hi, Becky,” the kids all said at once.

  “Becky and her family have just moved here from Atlanta. I know you will all try to make her feel welcome,” Mrs. Derkman said.

  The class stared at Becky. Becky stared back at the class. Her blue eyes were wide open. Her face was pale. She looked really scared.

  Katie Carew raised her hand.

  “Yes Katie?” Mrs. Derkman replied.

  “Who is going to be Becky’s buddy?”

  Jeremy Fox, one of Katie’s best friends, smiled proudly when Katie said that. It had been his idea to give new students a buddy when they started at school. That way they’d have a friend right away.

  “Well, Katie,” Mrs. Derkman said, “would you like to be Becky’s buddy?”

  Katie grinned. “Sure.”

  “Becky, stick with Katie this week. She’ll show you around. Now take a seat at the empty desk in the second row.” Mrs. Derkman said.

  All eyes were on Becky as she sat down.

  “Okay, everyone,” Mrs. Derkman announced. “Please pull out your vocabulary notebooks and copy down this week’s word list.”

  As Katie opened her notebook, a tightly folded piece of paper landed on her desk. She hoped Mrs. Derkman hadn’t seen that.

  Mrs. Derkman hated it when kids passed notes. Sometimes she even read the notes out loud. That could be very embarrassing.

  But right now, Mrs. Derkman had her back turned to the class. She hadn’t seen a thing. Phew. Katie quickly unfolded the paper.

  The note was from Suzanne. “Why did you say you would be her buddy? We were supposed to play double dutch with Miriam and Zoe today. The new girl is wearing a dress. She can’t jump rope in a dress. All the boys will see her underpants.”

  Katie wasn’t sure what to write back. Suzanne’s note was kind of mean. It wasn’t like Katie had been trying to ruin Suzanne’s recess. She was just trying to help the new girl.

  But Suzanne was one of Katie’s best friends. Katie didn’t want her to be mad. She quickly scribbled back an answer. “Becky’s new. I was just trying to be nice. Maybe we can all do something else instead.”

  Just then, Mrs. Derkman turned to face the class. Katie quickly shoved the paper into her desk.

  “Okay, class, our first vocabulary word is bauble,” Mrs. Derkman said. “Can anyone use it in a sentence?”

  “I got one,” George Brennan shouted out from his seat in the front row. “When I really stink, I take a bauble bath!”

  Everyone started laughing—everyone except Mrs. Derkman, anyway.

  Mrs. Derkman shook her head. “George, that’s not how we behave in class. I don’t want to have to talk to you again,” she warned sternly. The teacher turned to the rest of the class. “A bauble is a small trinket. Now, does anyone else have a sentence?”

  Suzanne raised her hand high.

  “Yes, Suzanne,” Mrs. Derkman said.

  Suzanne sat up straight and smiled as everyone looked at her. “To a princess, an emerald necklace is just a bauble,” she said.

  Katie choked back a laugh. Somehow, Suzanne always found a way to talk about jewelry, makeup, or fashion.

  “Very nice, Suzanne,” Mrs. Derkman said. “Anyone else have a sentence?”

  Becky shyly raised her hand.

  “Okay, Becky,” Mrs. Derkman said.

  “To Queen Elizabeth, a diamond ring is just a bauble,” Becky said in her slow, Southern accent.

  “That’s just like what you said,” Kevin whispered to Suzanne.

  Suzanne didn’t answer him. She just stared at her own bauble—a plastic diamond ring she wore on her finger.

  Katie didn’t like vocabulary very much. She liked reading and history a lot more. Before she knew it, her notebook page was filled with all sorts of doodles. Katie always drew when she got bored.

  It seemed like forever until Mrs. Derkman looked at the clock that hung over the classroom doorway. “It’s time for lunch,” she said finally. “Let’s line up.”

  “All right!” shouted Kevin. “Tomato time!”

  “What’s he talking about?” Becky asked softly, as she walked over to where Katie and Suzanne were standing.

  Katie grinned. “You’ll see,” she said. “Lunchtime is always tomato time for Kevin.”

  Becky forced a nervous smile to her lips. “Thanks for saying you’d be my buddy this week,” she said in her thick Southern accent. “I hope I’m not getting in the way of anything y’all wanted to do.”

  Suzanne glanced over at the two double-Dutch jump ropes Miriam was carrying down to the lunchroom for recess. “Well, as a matter of fact ...” she began.

  But Katie didn’t let Suzanne finish. She knew whatever Suzanne said would hurt Becky’s feelings. Suzanne sometimes said mean things. It wasn’t that Suzanne wasn’t nice. She just didn’t always think before she spoke.

  Becky hadn’t had a chance to see Suzanne’s good side—the side of her that was fun and exciting, and made you feel important just because you were her friend. Katie wanted Becky to know that Suzanne was really a good person.

  “She’s just kidding,” Katie assured Becky. “We can all play together. Suzanne’s great at coming up with fun stuff to do.”

  Suzanne glared at Katie.

  Katie ignored her.

  “Come on,” Katie urged Becky. “Let’s go to the cafeteria. I want to get there before all the chocolate pudding is gone.”

  Chapter 2

  Katie showed Becky where the lunch line was in the cafeteria. She helped her get a tray and pick out her food.

  Once the girls paid for their lunches, they carried their trays over to a table near the windows. Suzanne was already sitting there with Miriam Chan, Mandy Banks, and some of the other kids in class 3A . />
  Becky took a seat beside Katie. She smiled at Suzanne. Suzanne barely even glanced in Becky’s direction. Instead she opened her pink and purple lunch bag. Inside was a small plastic container. Suzanne tore off the lid and showed everyone a strange-looking mix of rice, lentil beans, and tomato sauce.

  Manny Gonzalez looked across the table at Suzanne’s lunch. “Ooh! Gross!” he shouted. He made a grunting noise. “I think I’m gonna puke!”

  Suzanne rolled her eyes. “That shows what you know. This is kosheri. It’s a recipe from Egypt. I’ll bet Cleopatra ate it.”

  “Oh no, here we go again,” Manny moaned.

  Becky looked curiously at Katie.

  “Suzanne is crazy about Cleopatra,” Katie explained to her.

  “It’s all she’s talked about for the past two weeks,” Manny said.

  “That’s better than last month, when all she talked about was that artist, Vincent van Gogh,” Mandy told Becky.

  “She kept telling us how he chopped his ear off,” Katie said. “Yuck.”

  “You’re lucky. Hearing about Cleopatra’s better than that,” Mandy assured Becky.

  “Cleopatra was better than anyone,” Suzanne insisted. “She was the most powerful woman in ancient Egypt. She was ...”

  “The Queen of the Nile,” Katie, Miriam, Mandy, and Manny all finished her sentence for her. They’d heard Suzanne give the same Cleopatra speech about a gazillion times in the past two weeks.

  “Well, I don’t care who ate that stuff. It’s gross,” Manny said. “It looks like something George would do with his food.”

  Katie looked over at George. He’d already begun mixing his spaghetti into his chocolate pudding. George always made a mess of his food. Then he’d wait for someone to dare him to eat it—which he always did.

  George cracked Katie up. He told the best jokes. Nothing was too wild or too weird for him to try.

  George had also been the one to give Katie her nickname, Katie Kazoo. It sounded a lot like Katie Carew, only cooler. Katie loved it!

  Just then, Kevin and Jeremy came over to the table. Kevin’s tray was stacked high with tomatoes—round cherry tomatoes, small grape tomatoes, and thick, beefy tomato slices.

  “Okay guys, it’s tomato time!” Kevin announced happily.

  Everyone watched as Jeremy threw one of Kevin’s cherry tomatoes up in the air. Kevin opened his mouth wide—and caught it easily. Some of the kids clapped. Kevin took a bow and chomped away.

  “Kevin’s going for the world record,” Katie explained to Becky. “He’s already eaten two hundred thirty-seven tomatoes this month!”

  “I love tomatoes,” Becky interrupted. She smiled at Kevin. “One time I ate a tomato this big.” She held her arms in a circle the size of a pumpkin.

  Kevin rolled his eyes. “Tomatoes don’t grow that big,” he told her, “not even prize-winning ones. You can’t fool me. I know all about tomatoes. I’ve read books on them and everything.”

  Becky blushed tomato red.

  Suzanne didn’t want to discuss tomatoes. She wasn’t finished talking about Cleopatra.

  “You know, I asked my mother to get me a cat,” she told the other girls.

  “Did she say yes?” Katie asked excitedly. “It’s so great having a pet. You know how much fun Pepper and I have together.” Pepper was Katie’s chocolate-brown-and-white cocker spaniel. She adored him.

  “Well a cat is different than a dog,” Suzanne said. “I mean, dogs are fun and all, but cats are smart. The ancient Egyptians worshipped them—even Cleopatra.”

  “Pepper’s smart,” Katie insisted. “I taught him a new trick the other day. When I hold up a treat, he dances on his hind legs.”

  “Pepper is smart,” Suzanne assured her best friend. “For a dog, anyway,” she added under her breath.

  “I used to have a dog,” Becky told Katie. She turned to Suzanne. “But now I have a cat. Her name’s Fluffy. She’s white and cuddly. And she’s really smart.” She turned to Suzanne and smiled. “Maybe you’ll want to come over and play with her one day.”

  Suzanne ate a forkful of lentil beans.

  “Hey Kevin, what do you call a pet tomato?” George asked.

  “What?” Kevin asked between bites of a tomato wedge. Red tomato juice dribbled out of his mouth and onto his chin.

  “Call it anything you want,” George laughed. “It can’t hear you!”

  Jeremy laughed so hard at George’s joke that milk came out of his nose.

  George smiled. “Jeremy, you’re the best audience. You’ll laugh at anything.”

  Becky looked at Jeremy and smiled. “I know a good joke,” she told him.

  Suzanne rolled her eyes. “I’m finished eating,” she said, before Becky could tell her joke. “Let’s go play double Dutch.”

  “I love double Dutch,” Becky said. “Back in Atlanta we used to have contests to see who could jump the longest without missing.

  I was always the winner.”

  Miriam, Mandy, and Zoe Canter were impressed.

  Suzanne wasn’t. She turned to Becky. “I’d ask you to play, but you’re wearing a dress ... unless you’ve got shorts under there.”

  Becky shook her head. “I never thought to do that.”

  “All the girls in our class wear shorts underneath their dresses,” Zoe told her. “That way you can play and no one sees your underpants.”

  “Wow!” Becky exclaimed.

  “It was Suzanne’s idea,” Miriam said.

  “Suzanne is definitely the fashion expert around here,” Katie agreed.

  Suzanne laughed. “Everyone needs a hobby.”

  Becky looked at Suzanne’s leopard-print shirt. It had fake fur on the cuffs. Her pants were glittery-black.

  Katie had hoped Suzanne would have wanted to do something else at recess. But it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. Sometimes Suzanne could be so stubborn.

  But Katie didn’t want to argue with her in front of everyone. That would just make Becky feel bad. “You guys go ahead and jump rope,” she told the others, finally. “Becky and I can do something else. Maybe play foursquare.”

  “It’s okay, Katie,” Becky said. “If you want to jump rope, I can just watch for today.”

  “No way,” Katie told Becky. “There’s always lots of fun stuff going on during recess.”

  Katie smiled warmly at Becky. But the new girl wasn’t looking in Katie’s direction. She was busy watching Suzanne’s sparkly silver sneakers move back and forth as Suzanne walked away.

  Chapter 3

  The next morning, Katie was the first kid to arrive at Cherrydale Elementary School. She wanted to be there before Becky arrived. Katie took the job of being Becky’s school buddy very seriously.

  She sat down on a woooden bench and looked around nervously. It was creepy being the only one on the playground. Everything was so quiet ... and lonely.

  Katie didn’t like being alone. Lately it seemed as though whenever she was all by herself, strange things happened.

  It had all started a few weeks ago on one really horrible day. Katie had lost the football game for her team. She’d fallen in the mud and ruined her favorite jeans. Then, as if all that weren’t bad enough, Katie had burped really loudly in front of the whole class!

  The day had been so incredibly, unbelievably awful that Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star flying overhead or something, because the very next day the magic wind came.

  The magic wind was like no wind Katie had seen before. It was a wild, fierce tornado that only blew around Katie.

  But the tornado-like gusts weren’t the worst part of the magic wind.

  The worst part came after the wind had stopped blowing. That’s when the magic wind turned Katie into someone else.

  The magic wind could turn Katie into anyone! One time it transformed her into Suzanne’s baby sister, Heather. Suzanne had almost changed Katie’s diaper! How embarrassing would that have been?

&nb
sp; But even that wasn’t as bad as the time the wind turned her into Jeremy Fox. Katie didn’t know anything about being a boy!

  Katie knew the magic wind wasn’t through with her yet. It could show up at any time—as long as no one but Katie was around.

  “Hey, Katie Kazoo, you’re here early,” George called out as he rode his skateboard onto the playground.

  Katie was glad someone else had arrived.

  “Skateboarding is so cool!” George exclaimed. “That’s why I’m doing my research project on the history of skateboarding.”

  Katie gulped. The research project! Katie had been so excited about being Becky’s buddy that she’d forgotten to think of a topic.

  “What are you going to research?” George asked her.

  “Well, I ... uh ...” Katie stammered. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the picture frame key chain on her backpack. It had a photo of her dog in it.

  “I’m going to do my research project about cocker spaniels,” Katie blurted out.

  Phew. Pepper didn’t know it, but he had just saved Katie.

  “That doesn’t sound like too ruff of a topic,” George teased her. “You should be able to find a lot of information fur your paper.”

  “Maybe Mrs. Derkman will let me bring Pepper in as an example,” Katie said.

  George shook his head. “Are you nuts? Mrs. Derkman doesn’t even like having Speedy in the classroom. And he’s just a hamster. How do you think she’d feel about a dog?”

  Katie nodded. “You’re right. I’ll bring in some pictures.”

  Just then, Suzanne wandered onto the playground. It was impossible not to notice her. She was wearing a hot pink glittery rugby shirt. Her capri pants were hot pink and covered in glitter, too.

  “New outfit?” Katie asked her.

  Suzanne nodded. “Yes! It’s so me!”

  Katie nodded. “No one likes glitter as much as you do!”

  “So, what are you doing for your project?” George interrupted. He didn’t want to sit there talking about clothes with two girls.