My Pops Is Tops! Read online

  Katie’s mom nodded.

  “But you can’t go away this weekend,” Katie insisted.

  “You were looking forward to spending time with Pops,” Mrs. Carew said. “You always have fun there.”

  “That’s not the point.” Katie loved her grandfather. “I can’t miss the Olympics!”

  “You won’t have to,” her dad assured her. “Pops’s place isn’t that far away. He’ll drive you to school on Sunday and be your partner.”

  “Pops?” Katie asked, her voice scaling up nervously. “Are you kidding?”

  “Why not?” Katie’s mom asked.

  “He’s too old,” Katie blurted.

  Katie’s mom and dad started laughing.

  “He’s not that old,” Katie’s dad told her. “And he’s in better shape than I am. I think he can keep up with a bunch of fourth-graders.”

  “But everyone else will have their parents there,” Katie said. “Can’t you ask Cousin Alice to postpone her wedding?”

  Katie’s mom shook her head. “Sorry, Kit-Kat. You can either be in the Olympics with Pops as your partner or not take part at all.”

  Katie sighed. That wasn’t much of a choice. “I’ll go to the Olympics with Pops,” she said slowly.

  “Good. That’s settled,” Mrs. Carew said cheerfully. “Now let’s eat our delicious Japanese meal.”

  Katie frowned at her plate of teriyaki. Suddenly she wasn’t all that hungry. How did you say, “This is so not good,” in Japanese?

  Chapter 5

  “Wow! Check this place out!” Kevin said as class 4A filed into the school cafeteria at lunchtime.

  “This is really cool,” Katie agreed, looking up at all the flags on the cafeteria walls. “There we are,” she said, pointing to the Japanese flag on the far wall.

  As class 4A got into the lunch line, they made a point of walking right past the silver-ware tray. The kids in Katie’s class didn’t need any forks or knives today. Mr. G. had given them all chopsticks so they could eat the way people in Japan traditionally did.

  “I just hope it’s not soup for lunch,” Kadeem said. “How would we eat that with chopsticks?”

  “I think it’s spaghetti,” Emma W. told him.

  “Okay, I can handle that,” Kadeem replied.

  After getting her spaghetti and milk, Katie followed her friends over to where the fourth-graders sat. As she walked over, she noticed Suzanne standing by one of the tables. Considering the outfit she was wearing, Katie would have had trouble missing her!

  “What’s Suzanne wearing now?” George asked out loud.

  Instead of jeans and a shirt, like most of the girls were wearing, Suzanne was dressed in a red jumper-style dress. There were little yellow flowers embroidered over the bib of the jumper. They matched the flowers that had been sewn onto the apron that was tied around her waist.

  “That’s, um, some outfit,” Emma Stavros told her.

  “It’s the official folk costume of Liechtenstein,” Suzanne said. “My mother bought the dress for me yesterday, and she sewed on the embroidered flowers last night. It took her hours.”

  “Don’t you think you’re taking this whole Olympics thing a little too far?” Katie asked.

  “No more than you guys are,” Suzanne said, watching as Katie struggled with her chopsticks.

  Katie squeezed the wooden chopsticks tight around a few strands of spaghetti. Slowly she brought the sticks up toward her face, opened her mouth wide, and then . . . dropped the spaghetti right in her lap.

  “Yuck!” she groaned. “Now there’s tomato sauce all over my pants.”

  “Oh, forget these chopsticks,” George shouted with frustration. He reached his hands into his bowl, pulled up a handful of spaghetti, and shoved it into his mouth.

  “Real nice, George,” Suzanne said, making a face.

  “Thank you.” George smiled, grabbing another fistful of food.

  “Anyway . . .” Suzanne said, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Liechtenstein is a fascinating country. They have their own soccer team, only they call it ‘football’ over there. They don’t have an airport, though. You have to fly into Switzerland to get there.”

  “Liechtenstein is also the number-one manufacturer of false teeth in the whole world,” Jeremy added.

  Kevin started to laugh. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.

  Jeremy shook his head. “No. That’s really what they’re known for. Skiing and false teeth.”

  Katie giggled. That sounded really funny.

  Everyone else seemed to think so, too. Soon they were all hysterical. George laughed so hard, he fell off his chair.

  “Cut it out, you guys,” Suzanne insisted. “False teeth are very important! Especially to people who don’t have any real teeth.”

  “They probably have vampires in Liechtenstein, too,” George told her.

  “Why would you say that?” Suzanne asked him.

  “Because vampires are a lot like false teeth,” George joked. “They both come out at night!”

  That made everyone laugh even harder.

  Everyone but Suzanne, that is. She folded her arms across her chest angrily. “We’ll see who’s laughing on Sunday, George,” she told him.

  “You don’t scare me, Suzanne,” George replied. “My dad’s going to be my partner in the egg toss and the wheelbar row race. He’s in really good shape. He used to be in the army.”

  “Yeah, well, my mother’s going to do the sack race with me,” Jeremy said. “She was on her high-school track team.”

  “I’m not sure which of my parents is going to compete with me,” Miriam Chan said. “So I’m making both of them go jogging tonight.”

  “Who’s your partner?” Emma W. asked Katie.

  Katie sighed. “My grandfather,” she said quietly.

  “Man, that stinks,” George said. “An old guy? Can he even run?”

  “Yeah. I want our class to win the Olympics,” Kevin said.

  Katie knew that she should stand up for Pops. She should tell everyone what a great guy he was. And how nice it was for him to drive her back home on Sunday morning just so she could be at the Olympics.

  But Katie didn’t say any of that. She just sat there, frowning and staring at her plate of spaghetti and the big tomato stain on her pants. Somehow, not saying anything made her feel even worse about everything.

  Chapter 6

  “Whoa! Awesome!” Kadeem shouted as he slipped the white T-shirt with the red circle on it over his head. It was Friday afternoon, and the kids in class 4A were getting very excited. They couldn’t wait for Sunday’s Olympics.

  “Japanese flag T-shirts!” Kevin exclaimed. “Thanks, Mr. G.”

  “Arigato,” Katie said proudly as she took her shirt from the pile.

  “Excellent, Katie,” Mr. G. complimented her.

  “What’d you say, Katie Kazoo?” George asked her.

  “Arigato is ‘thank you’ in Japanese,” Katie told him. “I’ve been looking up Japanese words on the computer.”

  “Arigato,” Emma W. repeated as Mr. G. handed her a shirt.

  “You’re welcome, Emma,” Mr. G. said. He smiled at his class. “So, dudes, be sure you get plenty of sleep on Saturday night. And eat a good breakfast beforehand. Make sure your parents do, too. You’re going to need all the energy you can get.”

  Katie frowned slightly. Somehow she thought Pops needed more than a good night’s sleep and a big breakfast.

  Just then the bell rang.

  “See you all Sunday!” Mr. G. shouted as the kids gathered their backpacks and raced out of the classroom. “Don’t forget to wear your T-shirts.”

  “Sayonara,” Katie said to her teacher as she left the classroom.

  “Good-bye to you, too,” Mr. G. replied.

  Pepper began to bark excitedly the minute Katie’s dad drove through the gates of Pops’s neighborhood later that afternoon.

  “You know we’re going to Pops’s,” Katie said, stroking his soft
brown-and-white fur. “You’re such a smart dog.”

  “And loud, too.” Mrs. Carew laughed. “He’s barking right in my ear.”

  “Pepper, down!” Katie ordered, pulling her cocker spaniel onto her lap.

  Katie giggled when she saw the big sign on the gate. In gold letters, it said Marsh Manor. But when Katie was little, she couldn’t say “Marsh Manor” very well. She called it “Marshmallow.” Sometimes she still did.

  All the people who lived in Marshmallow were grandparents, just like Pops. Most of them didn’t work anymore. So the community was more like camp. Besides all the houses on the tree-lined streets, there were also tennis courts, a golf course, and a swimming pool. But best of all was the clubhouse. It was a big white brick building. Inside it had a restaurant, a gym, and a game room. Pops and his friends played cards and board games, as well as Ping-Pong and pool.

  “Okay, we’re here,” Katie’s dad said as he pulled up in front of the small white house.

  “Ruff! Ruff!” Pepper barked loudly as he jumped at the car door. Katie laughed and opened it for him. Pepper ran up the front porch steps.

  “I thought I heard my four-legged grand-son,” Pops said, opening the door. “Whoa! Nice to see you, too,” he added as Pepper leaped up and licked his hand.

  “Hi, Dad,” Katie’s father said, giving Pops a hug before he even put down Katie’s suitcase.

  “Hi, Davy,” Pops said.

  Katie giggled. Most people called her father David or Dave. But her grandfather always called him Davy. It made him sound like a little kid.

  It was really hard for Katie to imagine her father as a kid. Every time she tried, all she could picture was a baby’s tiny body with her dad’s big grown-up head on top. It was not a pretty picture.

  “Hi, Wendy,” Pops greeted Katie’s mom. “Are you all ready for the big wedding?”

  “I hope so,” Katie’s mom said. “I packed in a hurry.”

  “And speaking of hurrying . . .” Katie’s father said, looking at his watch. “We can’t hang around. Otherwise we’ll hit traffic going to the airport.”

  “You go ahead,” Pops told him. “And don’t worry about a thing. Katie, Pepper, and I are going to have a great time this weekend.”

  “Thanks for Sunday, Dad,” Katie’s father said.

  “No problem,” Pops assured him. “I’m finally making it to the Olympics. At my age!” He smiled at Katie.

  Katie forced herself to smile back. She sure wished she was looking forward to it as much as Pops was.

  Chapter 7

  “That was delicious,” Katie said that night as she ate the last forkful of her grandfather’s special blueberry pancakes.

  “You were an excellent helper,” Pops told her. “I didn’t know you were such a great chef.”

  “Well, I take cooking classes on Wednesdays,” Katie explained. “And most Saturdays my friends and I meet at our house for cooking club.” She looked down at her empty plate. “I love having breakfast for supper,” she said.

  “I don’t think there should be any rules about when to eat pancakes,” Pops agreed. “Basically, I hate rules!”

  Katie had once said the exact same thing. And when the magic wind came and turned Katie into her principal, she got rid of all the school rules. What a disaster that had been!

  “Well, there have to be some rules,” she told Pops.

  “True,” Pops said. “But I don’t have to like ’em!”

  Katie giggled. Her grandfather was the funniest man she knew.

  “Why don’t you and Pepper go set up the checkerboard in the guest room?” Pops told Katie. “I’ll clean up out here and then join you.”

  “Okay,” Katie said, getting out of her seat. “Come on, Pepper.”

  Pepper wagged his stubby brown tail and followed Katie into the spare room. He climbed up onto the chair beside her as she started to place the red and black checkers on the board.

  While Katie waited for Pops, she noticed the leather-bound photo album on the night-stand. “Oh, cool,” she said. The book was filled with black-and-white photos of when Pops was a young man. Ones Katie had never seen before. They were really funny.

  There was Pops, sitting on top of a motorcycle. He was wearing a black leather jacket and boots. In another picture, Pops was in swim trunks at the beach. He was making muscles with both of his arms. Katie turned the page and spotted a picture of her grandfather wearing a crewneck white sweater with a big letter T on it. He was holding a girl in a short skirt high up in the air.

  “Oh, that’s from my cheerleading days,” Pops said as he walked into the room and peered over her shoulder. “I thought you’d get a kick out of those pictures.”

  “Your what?”

  “My cheerleading photo.” He smiled. “I look pretty good, don’t I?”

  “You were a cheerleader?” Katie asked with surprise.

  “Sure was,” Pops said proudly.

  “But . . . but . . . you’re a boy!” Katie exclaimed.

  “In college there are boy cheerleaders, too,” Pops told her. He turned the page. “See, there I am with my megaphone, shouting to the crowd.”

  “You’re teasing me,” Katie said.

  “No, I was a cheerleader. And I can prove it,” Pops said. “Watch this.” He raised his hands high above his head in a V shape. “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y is our battle cry. GO, TEAM!”

  Katie watched in amazement as her grandfather leaped off the ground with his legs spread to either side and his arms straight up.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed. “That was incredible. Can you teach me that?”

  Pops rubbed his back and sat down for a minute. “Maybe later. But how about I show you a picture of your father at four years old, all dressed up like a girl for Halloween?” Pops suggested, pulling out another photo album.

  “My daddy dressed like a girl?” Katie asked excitedly. “Where? Where?”

  Katie and her grandfather spent the rest of the night looking at old pictures. It was so much fun, Katie forgot all about the school Olympics. At least she did until Pops stood up and stretched.

  “Guess these old bones need a rest.” He groaned slightly. “That cheerleading jump really made my legs sore. Good night, honey.”

  Katie sighed. If one jump was too much work for Pops, how was he going to make it through a whole day of Olympic events?

  Slurp.

  Katie awoke to a big, red, wet tongue splashing across her cheek. “Good morning, Pepper.” She giggled, wiping the dog slobber from her face.

  Pepper looked up at her and wagged his tail. Then he used his teeth to pull her covers off.

  “I guess you want to go out,” Katie said, sitting up in bed. “Okay. Just give me a minute to get dressed and brush my teeth.”

  Pops was still sleeping. Katie could hear him snoring in his bed as she walked past his room to the bathroom.

  “Shhh . . .” Katie warned Pepper. “Don’t wake him.”

  Pepper wagged his stubby brown tail.

  A few minutes later, Katie was dressed and ready. She picked up a tennis ball and walked toward the door. “Come on. We’ll go play in the front yard,” she said.

  Pepper jumped up excitedly.

  As Katie stepped outside, she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. “Whoa, it’s chilly this morning,” she told Pepper as they bounded down the steps.

  But Pepper didn’t seem to notice the wind. Maybe that was because it wasn’t blowing on him. It wasn’t blowing the trees, either.

  In fact, the wind was just blowing on Katie.

  Uh-oh. Katie gulped. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind.

  The magic wind grew stronger then, circling Katie. The tornado whipped around wildly. It was so powerful that Katie was sure it was going to blow her away.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Kazoo.

  She’d turned into someone else . . . switcheroo

  The question was, who?


  Chapter 8

  Before Katie could figure that out, Pepper started barking wildly. Katie looked out through her glasses to see two older men walking up the drive toward her.

  Her glasses? Wait a minute. Katie didn’t wear glasses.

  “Hey, Max, what are you doing out in the yard in your pajamas?” asked the tall man with the gray ponytail at the back of his balding head.

  Max? That was Pops’s name.

  Oh, no! Had Katie turned into her grandfather?

  Katie looked down. Sure enough, she was wearing Pops’s red-and-white, polka-dot flannel pajamas.

  Pajamas! In public! This was so embarrassing.

  “Now quit playing with that dog and get dressed,” the short man said. “We’ll be in the clubhouse waiting for you.”

  “Waiting?” Katie asked. “For what?”

  “Don’t tell me you forgot about our Scrabble game?” the man with the ponytail said. “Or are you afraid you might get beaten by John or me?”

  The shorter man, John, looked up at his tall, skinny friend. “You know what, Nate?” he asked him. “I think the champ is afraid to give up his title.”

  Wow! John had just called Pops the champ. Katie was seriously impressed.

  She was also seriously awful at Scrabble. In fact, Katie had only played the game once before, when she was home sick from school one day. She’d lost really badly to her mom.

  Of course, that had been a year ago. Katie was a much better speller now. And she knew a lot more big vocabulary words. Mr. G. made the kids in class 4A do a lot of vocabulary work sheets. Still . . .

  “Not today, fellas,” Katie told Nate and John. “I’m kind of busy.”

  “What, are you chicken, Max?” Nate asked.

  Chicken? How dare Nate call Pops chicken? Pops wasn’t afraid of anything. And Katie wasn’t about to let his friends think he was.

  “Just give me five minutes to get ready,” she said.

  “Great!” John exclaimed. “We’ll meet you at the clubhouse.”