Oh, Baby! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Talk like Katie !

  For Mandy

  Text copyright © 2002 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2002

  by John & Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 345 Hudson

  Street, New York, NY 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of

  Penguin Putnam Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada.

  S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2002106373.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-15371-0

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Chapter 1

  “So what did youdo this weekend?” Jeremy Fox asked his best friend, Katie Carew. Katie, Jeremy, and Katie’s other best friend, Suzanne Lock, were all standing in the schoolyard on Monday morning.

  “I taught Pepper to roll over,” Katie answered. Pepper was Katie’s brown-and-white cocker spaniel.

  “Can he do it?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yeah. Pepper’s real smart,” Katie told him. “You just have to give him a treat and he’ll do any trick.”

  “Maybe I should try that with Heather,” Suzanne said. Heather was Suzanne’s three-month-old sister. “She’s been trying for days to roll over. She gets as far as her side and then she flops back down again.”

  Jeremy laughed. “I guess that means Katie’s dog is smarter than your sister,” he said.

  Suzanne gave Jeremy a dirty look. Then she turned to Katie and smiled brightly. “I had the coolest weekend!” she said.

  Katie choked back a giggle. Suzanne said the same thing every Monday morning. “What did you do?” she asked her.

  “I went to the mall with my dad,” Suzanne told her. “You know what that means.”

  “It means you got whatever you wanted,” Jeremy said.

  Suzanne nodded. “Exactly. That’s how it always is with my dad. When he gets into a buying mood, he just shops, shops, shops!”

  “My dad never gets in a buying mood,” Katie sighed. “He hates shopping.”

  “Mine too,” Jeremy agreed. “But I don’t like to shop either, so it’s okay.”

  “What did you get at the mall?” Katie asked Suzanne.

  Suzanne pointed to her T-shirt. It was white with a big American flag in the middle. The stars were all made of glitter. “I got this shirt. I also got the new Bayside Boys CD. Its called We’re Back!”

  “You’re so lucky!” Katie exclaimed. “That CD just came out. I’ll bet you’re the first one in school to get it.”

  Suzanne smiled broadly. “Gee, you think so?”

  “So, is it any good?” Jeremy asked her.

  “Oh yeah!” Suzanne exclaimed. “Even better than the first Bayside Boys CD. I was dancing around my room all day yesterday.”

  Jeremy nodded “I heard the new song on the radio. They’re a pretty good group,” he agreed.

  Suzanne stared at him with surprise. “Pretty good?” she demanded. “They’re not pretty good. They’re the best!”

  “I don’t know about that,” Jeremy said.

  “Well, I do,” Suzanne argued. “They’re the greatest group in the whole world. Don’t you think so, Katie?”

  Katie twirled a lock of her red hair around her finger nervously. She hated it when her two best friends disagreed. It always left her stuck in the middle. No matter what she said, someone would be mad.

  “I like them a lot,” Katie told Suzanne finally. “At least, I liked their first CD. I haven’t heard this one yet.”

  “It’s great,” Suzanne assured her. “I think everyone should get it. In fact . . .” Suzanne stopped in the middle of her sentence and smiled at Jeremy. “Are all of the articles for this week’s 3A Times written yet? she asked.

  Jeremy was the editor of the 3A Times, the class newspaper. He was the one who asked people to write articles.

  “Not yet,” Jeremy told Suzanne.

  “Good! Suzanne declared. ”I want to write about the new Bayside Boys CD. I want to tell everyone how great it is.“

  Jeremy pulled a small black notebook from his bag. He pushed his wire glasses up on his nose and looked at a list of articles. “Okay,” he told Suzanne finally. “I have room for one more story.”

  “Great!” Suzanne exclaimed. “I’ll get started tonight.”

  As Jeremy put away his notebook, their teacher, Mrs. Derkman, blew a loud whistle. “Class 3A, line up,” she called out across the playground.

  Chapter 2

  “Hey there, Katie Kazoo,” George Brennan said as he walked past her into the classroom.

  Katie smiled. Katie Kazoo was the nickname George had given her. When he had first started calling her that, it made her kind of mad. But now she liked being Katie Kazoo. It sounded cool.

  “Hi, George,” she said.

  “So do you know what the rug said to the floor?” George asked Katie.

  Katie laughed. That would have seemed like a weird question from anyone else. But Katie knew it was just of one of George’s jokes. George loved to tell jokes.

  “No, what did the rug say to the floor?” Katie asked.

  “I’ve got you covered!” George exclaimed. He laughed at his own joke. Katie laughed too.

  “If you liked that one, you’ll love this one,” George continued. “What did one cucumber say to the other cucumber?”

  “What?” Katie said.

  “If you’d kept your mouth shut, we wouldn’t be in this pickle,” George told her.

  Katie giggled harder. “That one was reallyfunny.”

  “Katie, please find your seat,” Mrs. Derkman interrupted.

  Katie blushed. Quickly, she scrambled to her desk.

  George began to head over toward his desk, too, but Mrs. Derkman blocked his path. “You don’t need to sit down, George,” Mrs. Derkman said.

  “I don’t?” George asked.

  Mrs. Derkman shook her head. “Since you’re so interested in speaking during class, you can go to the front of the room and give your current-events report.”

  Usually, George hated when it was his turn to talk about current events. But today he grinned as he pulled a newspaper article from his binder.

  “My article is about the movie Tornado,” he told the class.

  Before he could say another word, Mrs. Derkman interrupted him. “That’s not really current events, George,” she said.

  George looked very sad—so sad that Mrs. Derkman said, “Well, why don’t you tell us about it anyway?”

  George smiled brightly. “Tornado just opened this weekend,” he began. “It earned almost seventy-five million dollars in ticket sales. That’s a lot of money. A lot of people think that it could be the biggest-selling movie of all time. They think it could win a lot of awards, too. All those people are right. Tornado is a great movie. I should know. I saw it with Kevin on Saturday.”

  Wow!

  Everyone stared at George and Kevin. It was hard to believe they had been brave enough to go see Tornado. The ads on TV looked really scary.

  “Any questions?” George asked. You were always supposed to ask for questions at the end of your current-events report.

  “Was the movie as scary as it looks on TV?” Mandy Banks asked.

  “Scarier,” George said proudly.

  “Did your parents take you to see it?” Miriam Chan wondered.

  “Nope, Kevin’s big brother,
Ian, took us,” George said.

  “Did you sit through the whole thing?” Manny Gonzalez asked.

  “Of course,” George told him.

  “Did the tornado look real?” Jeremy asked.

  “Totally!” George nodded.

  Just then, Mrs. Derkman stood up and walked to the front of the room. “Thank you for that report,” she told George. “If any of you have more questions for George or Kevin, you can ask them at lunch. Right now, please take out your math workbooks.”

  Katie was glad that Mrs. Derkman had changed the subject. Katie didn’t like scary movies. She was especially afraid of big winds, like the kind they showed in Tornado. There was a good reason for that. Katie had been swept up in big winds herself. Twice. And both times her life had really changed.

  It had all started on a day when Katie was so sad that she’d wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star in the sky at the time, because Katie’s wish came true. The next thing she knew, a big, strong, magic wind was blowing all around her. When the wind stopped, Katie had been turned into Speedy, the class hamster!

  Katie changed back into herself pretty fast, but the magic wind wasn’t through with her. A couple of days later it blew again ... turning Katie into Lucille, the lunch lady in the cafeteria. Talk about awful. She’d had to serve disgusting cafeteria food!

  It had been a few weeks since that last disaster. But Katie was convinced the magic wind would be back. She just didn’t know when. And she didn’t know who it would turn her into.

  That was scarier than any movie could ever be!

  Chapter 3

  At lunchtime, everyone tried to sit near Kevin and George. They wanted to hear all about Tornado.

  “This house gets lifted right up in the air,” Kevin said. “And it didn’t look fake like that tiny house in The Wizard of Oz. It was a real flying house.” He took a big bite of his tomato. Tomatoes were Kevin’s favorite food.

  “I doubt it was a real house,” Suzanne argued. “It was probably just some dumb special effect.”

  “How would you know, Suzanne?” Kevin asked her. “You haven’t seen Tornado.”

  Suzanne rolled her eyes. She looked across the table at where Miriam and Mandy were sitting. “Do you guys want to come over after school to hear the new Bayside Boys CD?” she asked. “I just got it.”

  Mandy shook her head. “Thanks anyway, but my older sister bought that CD on Friday. She and her friends were playing it all weekend long.”

  “My brother got it, too,” Miriam added. “I probably heard it thirty times yesterday.”

  Mandy moved closer to George. “Were you scared at the part of the movie when the tornado came near the mall?” she asked him. Suzanne didn’t wait for George’s answer. She stood up and walked away from the table. Jeremy followed behind her.

  “Um, Suzanne, I wanted to talk to you about that Bayside Boys article you were going to write,” he said slowly.

  “What about it?” Suzanne asked.

  “Well, it’s just that it seems like everyone has heard the CD already. There’s no real reason to put an article about it in the newspaper,” Jeremy told her. “I’m going to ask George and Kevin to write an article about Tornado instead.”

  Suzanne turned away and stormed over to where Katie was sitting. “We need to talk,” Suzanne said.

  Katie nodded. She took the last bite of her sandwich, then followed Suzanne to the girls’ room. Suzanne looked under all the stalls to make sure no one was there. No one was. They were alone.

  “We have to see Tornado,” Suzanne said finally.

  “Why?” Katie asked.

  “Because George and Kevin have seen it,” Suzanne explained.

  “So what?” Katie asked.

  Suzanne’s face was getting red. “We can’t let those boys do something we haven’t done.”

  “My mother would never let me see Tornado,” Katie said.

  “Well, you could ask her, couldn’t you?” Suzanne begged. “Katie, I have to see that movie. And I can’t go alone.”

  Katie sighed. She really didn’t want to see Tornado, but it seemed so important to Suzanne. She didn’t want to let her friend down. Still, she didn’t want to be scared, either. No matter what she did, Katie was going to be unhappy.

  So why should Suzanne be unhappy, too?

  “Okay,” Katie said finally. “I’ll ask my mom.”

  Chapter 4

  “Katie, I just don’t think Tornado is a movie you should see. You’ll get nightmares,” Katie’s mom explained while she and Katie were sitting in the kitchen having milk and cookies after school.

  Katie took a bite of her cookie. “Okay,” she said. She chomped down on a chocolate chip. Katie’s mother looked at her daughter strangely. She thought Katie would argue with her. But Katie didn’t say anything. After all, she didn’t really want to see the movie. At least now she could tell Suzanne that she’d tried.

  “Can I go over to Suzanne’s?” Katie asked.

  Her mother nodded. “Be back for supper.”

  As Katie went outside, Pepper followed close behind. Together they headed down the block toward Suzanne’s house.

  “Hey, wait up!”

  Katie turned around to see Jeremy coming toward her. “What are you doing?” Jeremy asked her.

  “I was just going to Suzanne‘s,” Katie said. “Wanna come?”

  Jeremy shook his head slowly. “She probably wouldn’t want to see me.”

  “She would if you said you were sorry,” Katie told him.

  “I guess it wasn’t very nice of me to replace her newspaper story with George and Kevin‘s,” Jeremy admitted.

  Katie shook her head.

  “Maybe I’ll come with you and apologize,” Jeremy suggested.

  Katie smiled. “Good idea,” she said.

  Suzanne was sitting on her front porch when Katie, Pepper, and Jeremy arrived. She scowled when she saw Jeremy.

  “Why is he here?” she asked Katie.

  “He wants to apologize,” Katie told her.

  “I’m sorry, Suzanne,” Jeremy said. “It wasn’t fair of me to take your article away. I should have made George and Kevin wait until next week. I won’t do it again.”

  Suzanne shrugged and held out her little finger. “Pinky swear?”

  Jeremy crooked his finger through hers. “Pinky swear.”

  But Suzanne still looked sad.

  “Now what’s wrong?” Katie asked her.

  “My mother said I couldn’t go to see Tornado,” Suzanne said. “She said I’m too young. I am so sick of being treated like a baby around here. I’m supposed to be the big one. Heather‘sthe baby!”

  “Wah! Wah!”Just then, baby Heather started crying.

  “I have to go see what’s wrong,” Suzanne said as she stood up. “My mom’s doing the laundry,” she explained. “I’m supposed to take care of Heather until she’s finished.”

  Wow! Suzanne was in charge. Katie was very impressed.

  The crying was even louder inside. “What’s wrong with her?” Katie asked as she looked down into the playpen. Heather’s face was red and covered with tears.

  “Maybe she’s hungry,” Suzanne guessed. “I’ve got to get her bottle and a baby bib.”

  “I’ll get the bottle,” Katie volunteered.

  Suzanne shook her head. “Pepper follows you everywhere. If he gets dirty paw-prints on the kitchen floor, my mom will have a fit. She just mopped it.”

  “So I’ll get the bottle,” Jeremy said.

  “Okay,” Suzanne said. “It’s in the refrigerator. I’ve got to go upstairs and get her bib.”

  “ Wah! Wah!”

  Katie was alone with the screaming baby. She covered her ears. Pepper let out a little howl.

  Just then, Katie felt a strange wind blow against the back of her neck. She looked towards the front door. Maybe they’d left it open when they’d come inside.

  But the door was closed. So were the windows.
r />   Oh, no!

  This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind. And it was getting stronger.

  Katie looked over toward Pepper. She wanted to make sure he was safe. But the wind didn’t seem to be blowing anywhere near the dog. He was just standing there watching Katie.

  Katie was really scared. The wind was big, powerful, and out of control. But Katie grew even more afraid when the wind stopped blowing. She knew what that meant.

  The magic wind was gone ... and so was Katie Carew.

  Chapter 5

  “RUFF! RUFF! RUFF!”

  Pepper’s bark rang through the house. It sounded so deep and loud. That’s weird, Katie thought to herself. Pepper’s never barked like that before.

  “Where am I?” she ‘wondered. “Who am I?” Wherever she was, she was lying down. There were thick wooden bars all around her. Katie could see Pepper’s face staring at her through the bars. The rest of the room seemed blurry. Something’s wrong with my eyes, she thought. Katie’s ears were working just fine, though. She could hear Pepper loud and clear.

  “AROOO!” Pepper howled.

  Too loud and clear!

  Katie’s nose was working well, too. Something nearby really stunk. It smelled like the school bathroom at the end of day.

  Blech! Katie had to get away from that smell. Quickly, she struggled to stand up. But she couldn’t seem to climb to her feet. She tried to sit up, but her body wouldn’t bend the right way.

  Katie couldn’t stand. She couldn’t sit. She couldn’t even roll over to see where she was. All she could do was lie there staring up at the blurry ceiling.

  Then, suddenly, something caught Katie’s eye. A mobile made of black-and-white animals hung right over her head. Katie watched as the tiny puppies and kittens traveled around and around. It was kind of fun to see them face her and then turn away again.