Free the Worms! Read online

  Katie looked over at the snake. He was lying quietly in his cage.

  He’ll be a lot easier to draw than Pepper, she thought happily.

  But before Katie could pull out her colored pencils, Mr. G. clapped his hands. “Okay, dudes!” he exclaimed. “Finish up. We’re going outside.”

  “Cool!” Kevin exclaimed.

  “What are we going to do out there?” George asked.

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Mr. G. told him. “So line up!”

  Katie closed her writer’s notebook. What in the world could Mr. G.’s latest surprise be?

  Chapter 5

  “Okay, gang, here’s the deal. We’re going worm hunting,” Mr. G. told the kids.

  “What?” several kids shouted.

  “You heard me. I want you to catch worms.”

  “What for?” Kadeem Carter asked.

  “You’ll find out in just a little while,” Mr. G. told him.

  “You mean we have to touch them?” Emma S. asked. She frowned. “That’s gross!”

  “Ooey, gooey, and gross!” George shouted out. But he sounded really happy about it.

  Katie laughed. That was George. He loved anything that was disgusting. The more yucky, the better!

  “But it’s so muddy,” Emma S. said.

  Katie looked down at the ground. It was all wet and muddy. Having kids get mud all over their clothes wasn’t something teachers usually did. Of course, Mr. G. wasn’t a normal teacher.

  The first week of school, Mr. G. made all the kids pretend to be birds and use their mouths as beaks to pick gummy worms out of bowls of chocolate-pudding mud. That had been lots of fun.

  “The ground is muddy from the rain last night. You should be able to find lots of earthworms,” Mr. G. continued as he handed out small plastic containers to each of the kids.

  “What are these for?” Kadeem asked.

  “When you find a worm, place it in your container,” Mr. G. told him.

  Katie took a container and went to work. She wasn’t really grossed out by the idea of collecting worms. They were just like any other animals. And Katie loved all animals. Maybe her class was going to study worms in their next learning adventure.

  “Oooo. There’s a big fat one,” Mandy told Katie. She pointed to the ground and made a face. “I can’t touch it. Can you get it?”

  Katie nodded. She picked up a twig and walked over to the slimy earthworm. She used the stick to push the slimy worm onto a dried leaf. Then she picked up the leaf and dropped the worm into her container.

  “That was smart,” Emma W. complimented Katie. “I’ll try it that way.”

  Before long, each of the kids had at least one worm in their containers.

  “I think I have the most,” George said. “I’ve got three.”

  “I only have two,” Kevin said. “But they’re really big ones.”

  “Shouldn’t we collect some leaves and dirt for the worms so they have something to eat when we bring them in the classroom?” Katie asked her teacher.

  Mr. G. shook his head. “They’re not going to

  eat. They’re going to be eaten.”

  Katie gasped. She wasn’t sure she had heard her teacher right. “Eaten?” she repeated nervously. Her worms?

  Mr. G. nodded. “These worms are a treat for our favorite reptile, Slinky.”

  “He’ll like that,” Kevin said happily. “I’m sure he’s sick of the pieces of raw fish and crickets he usually gets.”

  Katie had never liked it that Slinky ate that stuff, but she’d never said anything. Still, this was different. She had found her poor, innocent worms. It would be her fault if they wound up inside Slinky.

  “I don’t want to feed my worms to Slinky,” Katie said. “It’s not right to feed one animal to another.”

  Mr. G. looked at her kindly. “I know how you feel, Katie. But snakes eat worms. That’s how nature intended it.”

  Katie shook her head. “Slinky’s not eating my worms,” she said. “I wouldn’t have collected them if I knew that was what we were doing.”

  “But . . .” Mr. G. began.

  Katie was too upset to listen to her teacher. She poured the earthworms out of her container and watched them squirm back into the mud.

  “FREE THE WORMS!” she shouted to her friends.

  But the kids didn’t hear Katie. They were already following Mr. G. back into the school—with their worms in hand.

  Katie sighed. Those poor worms. They didn’t realize they would soon be Slinky’s lunch!

  Chapter 6

  “Oh yeah! We’ve got worms for lunch, too!” George cheered as he sat down at the table and looked at his lunch tray. He picked up his plate and jiggled it so his spaghetti moved around. “Just look at them wiggling around.”

  “Gross!” Suzanne said.

  “Not as gross as what Mr. G. had us doing this morning,” Emma S. said. “We were collecting muddy worms.”

  “That’s disgusting,” Suzanne said. She looked sympathetically at Emma S. “Too bad you’re not in our class. We watched a movie about snakes.”

  “We get to watch a real snake,” Kevin argued. “Slinky. He’s going to eat the worms after recess.”

  Suzanne looked at Katie. “Seriously?” she asked.

  Katie sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

  “Katie Kazoo refused to give her worms to Slinky,” Emma W. explained to Suzanne. “She set them free.”

  “I can’t kill animals,” Katie explained. “Even if it’s for Slinky.”

  “Slinky’s gonna love my worms,” George told the others. “They’re really fat and juicy. Snakes have these cool jaws that open really wide. He’s going to be able to swallow those fat old worms in one gulp!”

  “George, you’re making me sick!” Suzanne exclaimed.

  George placed a strand of spaghetti in his mouth. “Slinky’s gonna slurp the worms up, just like this!” The spaghetti wiggled and jiggled like a real worm as it moved toward his mouth.

  “Cut it out, George,” Katie said. She blinked a few times, trying not to cry. She felt so bad for the worms in the classroom.

  She felt bad about disobeying Mr. G., too.

  Basically, she felt bad about everything.

  Just then, out of nowhere, Jeremy broke into song. “Lizard on a rock, listening to rock . . .”

  “Rock on!” George and Kevin chimed in. “That reptile’s goin’ wild. Rock on!”

  Katie smiled at Jeremy. She knew he had started singing just to change the subject. He wanted her to feel better. What a good friend!

  “Hey, have you guys thought about a name for our band yet?” Jeremy asked George and Kevin. “I was thinking we could be called the Rhythm Rockers. After all, we’re going to have a really good rhythm coming from my drums.”

  Kevin made a face.

  “I think we should call ourselves George and the Jokers,” George suggested.

  “Why should your name be part of the band’s name?” Jeremy asked.

  “Because I came up with the idea for the band in the first place,” George said.

  “Yeah, but I’m the one who talked to Mr. Starkey,” Kevin reminded him. “That’s why he’s letting us use the band room for practice. And I got him to promise to help us with our music, too.”

  Katie had once heard Mr. Starkey play the drums with his rock band, the Downhill Slide. He was a very talented musician. If Mr. Starkey was helping the guys, they might really become a great band one day.

  If only they could stop arguing.

  Katie really hated it when her friends fought. So she tried to tune out the argument and focus on her food. But after what George had said, the spaghetti just looked like a plate of tomato-covered worms.

  This day was turning out so awful. The only good thing was that poem she’d written about Slinky.

  The poem! Katie had almost forgotten that she’d wanted to draw a picture of Slinky to go with it. Maybe Mr. G. would let her do that du
ring recess.

  “Where are you going?” Suzanne asked as Katie got up from the table.

  “Back to our classroom,” she told her. “There’s something I have to do.”

  “You’d rather spend recess in the classroom than out on the playground with us?” George asked her.

  Katie nodded.

  “Why?” Jeremy wondered.

  “Slinky can’t talk,” she told them as she walked away. “Which means he can’t argue, either.”

  Chapter 7

  “Thanks for letting me stay here during recess, Mr. G.,” Katie told her teacher a few minutes later.

  “No problem,” Mr. G. told her. “I think it’s great that you want to draw Slinky.”

  “And I wasn’t doodling in class like I used to,” Katie reminded him. She wanted to make sure that Mr. G. knew that she usually tried to do what her teacher told her to. “I waited until recess to draw.”

  Mr. G. grinned. “I noticed,” he told her. “Good job.”

  Katie sat down on the floor near Slinky’s cage. She pulled a pencil from her backpack and began to sketch the snake.

  It wasn’t easy. Slinky’s face was partially hidden by a big wooden tree branch in his cage. Katie wished he would wiggle somewhere else, so she could get a better view. But the snake was just lying there. And it didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon.

  “I’ve got to make some copies of a story in the office,” Mr. G. told Katie. “You can stay here and work.”

  “Okay,” Katie told him.

  “If you finish before I get back, just pack away your notebook and markers and go out to the playground,” Mr. G. continued.

  Katie nodded and went back to drawing. But after a few minutes, she stopped. Her drawing wasn’t all that great. The problem was, she couldn’t really see Slinky’s face because it was blocked by the branch.

  Katie tapped on the side of the glass cage, hoping Slinky would wake up and move. But it didn’t work. The snake just lay there.

  Katie sighed. If only she could take Slinky out of his cage to get a good look at him.

  Deep down, Katie knew Mr. G. probably wouldn’t want her to do that. But it would just be for a few minutes. She’d have Slinky back in his cage before Mr. G. returned from the copy machine.

  Quickly, Katie removed the wire top from Slinky’s cage. She reached in and gently lifted the small black, yellow, red, and white snake from the floor of his cage.

  Slinky’s body stiffened slightly at Katie’s touch. She petted him gently as she placed him on her beanbag chair.

  “It’s okay,” she told Slinky in a soothing voice. “I just want to draw you. I would never hurt you.”

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck. She gulped. Cold air wouldn’t be good for Slinky. He was a cold-blooded animal. His temperature changed to match the temperature around him. That was why there was a heater in his tank. Slinky had to be kept warm. A cool, breezy room was no place for a snake.

  Katie would have to put Slinky back and figure out a different way to draw him up close. But before Katie could even pick up the snake, the gentle breeze grew stronger.

  A lot stronger. In fact, it was a wild, whirling tornado!

  A tornado that was spinning only around Katie!

  Katie gulped. Oh no! This wasn’t any ordinary wind. This was the magic wind. It was back!

  The magic wind whirled faster and faster. It was so powerful that Katie thought she might be blown right out of the classroom.

  Then, an even worse thought flashed in her mind. Slinky was so tiny and helpless. What if the wind blew him away, too? He’d never be able to find his way back.

  But there was nothing Katie could do

  about that. The magic wind wasn’t something she could control. She shut her eyes tight and tried not to cry.

  Then, suddenly, it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.

  And so was Katie Kazoo.

  She’d turned into someone else . . . one, two, switcheroo.

  But who?

  Chapter 8

  Slowly, Katie turned her head. Oh no! The really cool red sneakers she had worn to school that morning were gone.

  In fact, her feet were gone! So were her legs and her arms. Not to mention her hands, fingers, eyelids, and ears.

  Katie couldn’t hear a thing. But she could smell. And from where she was lying, she could sense the faint scent of food. She wasn’t sure what kind of food, though. Katie stuck out her long, forked tongue to get a better whiff.

  Her tongue? Katie gasped. How could she be smelling with her tongue?

  Just then, Katie remembered something Mr. G. had taught the class earlier in the week. There was one kind of reptile that smelled using sensors in its tongue . . . a snake!

  That’s when it hit her. The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into a snake. And not just any snake. Slinky the snake!

  At the moment, Slinky was one hungry snake. His stomach was grumbling. Or at least Katie thought it was Slinky’s stomach she felt grumbling. It was hard to tell where Slinky’s stomach might be in his long, narrow snake body.

  Wherever it was, it was empty. Now Katie wished she’d eaten some of that spaghetti at lunch. Too bad the food had reminded her of worms.

  Although . . . come to think of it . . . right now a wriggly worm seemed tasty. Even though her Katie mind still thought it was wrong to eat animals, her snake senses were actually craving the worms. Kevin was right. Worms were definitely something Slinky would consider a treat.

  But no matter how good those worms might taste right now, there was no way Katie could get to them. The worm containers were up on a high shelf. It would take a lot of wiggling for her to get up there.

  Katie didn’t have nearly enough strength to try that. She was so tired. She didn’t feel like doing anything but sleeping. Yes! That sounded so nice. If she were home right now she would just crawl under the covers, shut her eyes, and take a nice nap.

  But Katie wasn’t home right now. So if she was going to fall asleep, it would have to be right here, in the middle of a cozy beanbag chair.

  Aaaaahhhh. Katie opened her mouth wide and tried to yawn. Ooh. That felt awful. Like her skin was too tight or something. And she felt like she really needed to scratch.

  If she were a fourth-grade girl again, she could have used a fingernail. But right now she didn’t have fingers, never mind fingernails. If only she were still in her cage—well, Slinky’s cage, actually—she’d be able to scratch her body on that wooden tree branch.

  She looked around the room. The legs of the table that held Slinky’s cage were wooden. Quickly she began wriggling her body, forcing herself to move toward the table.

  The table seemed miles and miles away. But she was feeling more and more uncomfortable in her tight snakeskin. Katie just had to get to that wooden table leg.

  So on she slithered.

  And jiggled.

  And turned.

  And squirmed. Until, finally, she reached the table leg.

  Yahoo! Katie thought to herself. I made it!

  Katie placed her snake mouth against the wooden leg and moved her head up and down. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

  Aaaahhh. Katie let out a hiss-like sigh. That felt much better. The itching around her mouth

  was practically gone now.

  Unfortunately, the tight, itching feeling was moving down her body. Katie scrunched forward a little bit, so she could scratch lower down.

  That’s when she realized something. Her head felt different than the rest of her body. It was freer, and more comfortable. Like it was new skin.

  New skin. She knew what that meant.

  Slinky was shedding!

  Which meant Katie was shedding.

  Katie opened her mouth and hissed in fear. It wasn’t as good as a cry, but it was all she could do right now.

  Then she got back to business. Katie just had to get out of that tight snakeskin!

  Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.<
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  Chapter 9

  Hooray!

  With one last scratch of her tail against the wood, Slinky’s old skin was completely cut open. Katie crawled out of it and slithered around joyfully. The new skin fit perfectly on her snake body.

  Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

  Just then, Katie felt strong vibrations coming from the hall. She couldn’t hear the sounds, but somehow she knew what was happening. Those were footsteps. They were heading in her direction. Someone was on his way to Class 4A.

  Oh no! It had to be Mr. G.! He was on his way back from the copy machine.

  Clomp. Clomp.

  He was getting really close now. Any second he’d be in the room.

  When he got there, Mr. G. would see Katie’s markers and her notebook on the floor. He would be upset that she had not cleaned up her mess.

  But that was nothing compared to how angry Mr. G. would be to find Slinky on the floor instead of in his cage. When the magic wind came and changed Katie back into herself, she was definitely going to be in big trouble.

  That is, if the magic wind ever came back. It seemed to Katie that the wind had left her in Slinky’s body an awfully long time. Long enough for her to shed her skin completely, anyway.

  What if this was the one time the magic wind decided to go away for good? Katie would have to spend the rest of her life shedding her skin and waiting for the kids in class 4A to feed her fish, crickets, and the occasional worm.

  Hisss . . . Hisss . . . Katie let out the saddest snake sound ever heard.

  Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

  The vibrations in the hall were getting stronger and stronger. Which meant Mr. G. was getting closer and closer. Katie’s little snake heart began to pound wildly.

  Then . . . suddenly . . . the footsteps stopped. Just like that.

  Phew! Mr. G. must have bumped into another teacher in the hall or something, Katie thought to herself. They’re probably out there right now talking about teacher stuff.