My Pops Is Tops! Read online

  The clubhouse was only a short walk away, but today it felt longer. One of Katie’s legs was very sore. Probably from Pops’s victory jump last night.

  As she walked down the carpeted hallway to the game room, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Ew! She took a step closer and peered through her glasses. Was that hair growing on the tops of her ears? Yuck! How come she hadn’t noticed that on Pops before?

  “Hey, Max, come on! We don’t have all day, you know,” John said, waving Katie into the game room.

  “Coming,” Katie said.

  “Take your seven letters,” Nate told her. He and John had already set up the Scrabble board and trays on one of the card tables. “John’s keeping score.”

  “Okay,” Katie said. As she placed her letters in the tray, she frowned with frustration.

  EFCJNPO

  What was she supposed to do with those?

  “I’m going first,” John said. He laid down five letters going across. “HIVES,” he said. “That’s eleven points.”

  “Good one,” Nate complimented him. Then he added AGUE below the V. “VAGUE.” He picked up his pencil. “Double-word score. That’s eighteen points for me. Your turn, Max.”

  Katie stared at the board. What could she do? Finally she came up with something. “PEA,” she said, placing a P and an E in front of the A in VAGUE.

  “You can’t do that,” Nate said. “Because then your H and P are together, and so are the I and E. HP isn’t a word. Neither is IE.”

  “What’s wrong with you, Max?” John asked Katie.

  “I . . . um . . . I just wanted to see if you were paying attention,” she said.

  “Yeah, well, stop testing us and start playing,” Nate told her.

  Katie moved her P and E tiles farther down the board until she spelled the word PEE. “Pee . . . but a different kind.” She giggled.

  Nate and John looked at her strangely.

  “What?” Katie asked them. “It’s a real word. I know because Suzanne and I looked it up in the dictionary once.”

  “You and who did what?” John asked, surprised.

  Oops. Katie had almost forgotten that she was supposed to be Pops. “I mean my granddaughter told me that she and her friend looked it up once. Kid stuff, you know?”

  John and Nate nodded.

  Phew. That was a close one.

  “So PEE is your word, huh?” John asked. He sounded kind of disappointed.

  “Yup,” Katie said. “Why?”

  “It’s just so much shorter than your usual words,” Nate said. “And it’s worth only five points.”

  “Yeah, you’re slipping, Max,” John added.

  Katie frowned. She hated the fact that she was losing the game for Pops. But there was nothing she could do. It was all the fault of the magic W-I-N-D.

  Chapter 9

  Katie looked down at the letters she had left to use. She, John, and Nate had been playing Scrabble for about an hour, and all she had was a Z and an E. The Z was worth ten points. But what could she do with it?

  Katie frowned as she looked all around the board. Then suddenly her face brightened. “Got it!” she cheered. “And it’s a double-word score!”

  Nate looked from Katie to the board and back again. “L-O-Z-E?” he asked. “What’s that?”

  “LOSE,” Katie told him.

  “That’s spelled with an S . . . L-O-S-E,” John told her.

  Katie blushed. She knew that. How could she have messed up an easy word like that?

  “Well, if you can’t do anything else, the game’s over,” Nate said. “Total them up, John.”

  “You scored eighty-five points total,” John told Katie as he finished adding up her score.

  “Must be some kind of record,” Nate said.

  “Yeah, a losing record!” John laughed.

  Katie frowned. John and Nate were being really mean to her. Well, actually they were being mean to Pops, and that was worse. Especially because it was all Katie’s fault.

  Tears were forming in Katie’s eyes. But imagine what Nate and John would say if they saw Pops cry! Katie couldn’t let that happen. She took a deep breath and blinked away any tears.

  “Well, I’d better go home,” Katie told her grandfather’s friends. She wanted to get away from that game room as fast as possible.

  But as she passed by the pool table on the way to the door, an older man grabbed her by the arm. “Hey, Max,” he said. “I need you.”

  Katie turned to him. “Why?” she asked him.

  “I’m having so much trouble with my shots,” the man replied. “I need some help.”

  “From me?”

  Just then, a woman with blue-gray hair walked over to the table. “Of course from you. Who better for Patrick to learn from than Max Carew, pool champion of Marsh Manor?” She smiled at Katie and blinked. “I just love watching you shoot pool.”

  Katie blushed red. She couldn’t believe it. This old lady acted like she had a crush on her. Yuck!

  “Come on, Maxie,” the woman said. “Show us what you’ve got.”

  Maxie? Ugh. Now Katie knew how Jeremy felt when Becky talked to him. It was awful.

  But not nearly as awful as the idea of having to teach Patrick how to play pool. Katie was no pool champion.

  Katie had seen her grandfather play pool before. He was really amazing at it. Sometimes he was able to get all the balls into the pockets of the pool table without giving anyone else a turn.

  Once or twice Pops had tried to show Katie how to shoot pool. But the stick was so long. She hadn’t been able to control it.

  Still, Katie was taller now. And she had Pops’s long arms. Maybe she could play pool. Especially if she remembered Pops’s pointers, like lining up her right foot, her right arm, and her chin in the direction of where she wanted the ball to go. Or remembering to lift the knuckles of her left hand up off the table when she rested the stick on them.

  By now, a whole crowd of people had gathered around the pool table. Nate and John were in the group. If she could just get a few balls in, maybe that would stop Nate and John from making fun of Pops.

  “Okay, let me go get a pool stick,” Katie said.

  “Uh, Max?” Patrick said.

  “What?” Katie answered.

  “You mean a pool cue, don’t you?” Patrick told her.

  Oops. Oh, yeah. Katie kind of remembered her grandfather calling the stick a cue when he was teaching her.

  “You knew what I meant,” Katie said, going over and pulling a pool cue off the rack. She watched as Patrick rubbed some chalk on his cue. She did the same thing.

  “Okay,” Patrick said. “I’ll set ’em up and you can break, Max.”

  “You want me to go first?” Katie asked nervously.

  “That’s what break usually means,” Nate said sarcastically from his place in the crowd. Everyone began to laugh.

  “I knew that,” Katie told him. “I was just testing you—again.”

  Nate gave Katie a funny look, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, here goes,” Katie said. She bent over the table, just like she remembered Pops doing. Then she curled her fingers and rested the cue over her knuckles. She stared at the balls on the table and tried to concentrate.

  But that wasn’t easy. Two women were playing Ping-Pong in the same room. Every time Katie tried to focus on the pool table, all she could think about was the sound of the Ping-Pong ball hitting the table. G-nip g-nop. G-nip g-nop.

  “Come on, Max, break already,” John urged.

  Katie sighed, pulled the stick back, and . . .

  Bam! She jabbed the white cue ball way too hard. It went soaring off the table! When it landed, the ball kept rolling right toward the Ping-Pong table.

  Oh, no!

  One of the Ping-Pong players was taking a step backward with her paddle. She didn’t see the pool ball coming toward her . . . until it was too late. “Whoa!” she cried as she tripped over the cue ball. The woman lost her footing and fel
l to the floor, right on her rear end.

  Katie raced over to help her up.

  “What is wrong with you?” the woman shouted up at Katie.

  Katie gulped. This was so not good!

  “Looks like you’ve lost your touch at pool, too, Max.” Nate chuckled.

  Katie couldn’t take it anymore. She was so upset, she forgot she was supposed to be her grandfather. She just felt like a fourth-grade girl who was being made fun of. And so she did what any fourth-grader would do in this situation.

  “Stop being so mean to me!” she shouted. Then she ran out of the room and headed for home.

  Chapter 10

  Katie ran as fast as her grandfather’s legs could carry her. When she reached the corner before his house, she stopped and bent down slightly to catch her breath. She rubbed the top of her thighs with her hands. They were kind of achy.

  Poor Pops. When he got back into his own body, he was going to be pretty sore from all the running.

  And that wasn’t even the most horrible thing Katie had done to her grandfather today. She’d embarrassed Pops in front of his friends. She hadn’t meant to. But Katie wasn’t Pops. She wasn’t good at the same things he was.

  Katie and her friends had been wrong to think kids were better than grandparents when it came to competitions. There were things older people could beat kids at. Things like Scrabble and pool. Probably plenty of other things, too.

  Just then, Katie felt a slight breeze on the back of her neck. The cool wind felt nice as it gently blew on her.

  But then, suddenly, the breeze wasn’t so gentle anymore. It was getting stronger and stronger. Now it was a powerful tornado. A tornado that was swirling just around Katie.

  The magic wind was back!

  Katie grabbed onto a nearby mailbox and held on tight, just to keep from being blown down the block. The magic wind blew and blew, harder and harder. It whirled and swirled, lifting Katie’s legs right off the ground.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. Katie was back.

  So was Pops. And boy, was he confused!

  “How did I get here?” he asked Katie, shaking his head and looking puzzled. “The last thing I remember, I was still in bed.”

  “You . . . um . . . you ran here from the clubhouse,” Katie told him.

  Pops rubbed his legs. “That explains why I’m stiff,” he said. “But what was I doing in the clubhouse?”

  “Playing Scrabble and pool,” Katie said.

  “That really happened?” Pops asked her. “I thought I was dreaming.”

  “It happened,” Katie said with a frown.

  “I did pretty badly, huh?” Pops asked her.

  Before Katie could answer, Nate and John came walking up to them.

  “There you are, Max,” John said.

  “You ran out of there so fast, we couldn’t catch up,” Nate added. “We didn’t know you were a track star!”

  “We were just joking with you, Max. We weren’t being mean,” John told him. “But what happened to you today?”

  Pops sighed. “I’m not really sure,” he said. “It’s all kind of fuzzy.”

  “Anybody can have a bad day,” Katie piped up. She frowned slightly. Pops had had a really bad day—all because of her.

  But Katie had a great idea about how to change all that. “I bet if Pops went back to the clubhouse right now, he could beat both of you at anything!” she exclaimed with pride.

  Pops smiled at Katie. “Have you fellas met my granddaughter?” he asked Nate and John.

  “No,” John said.

  “I’m Katie,” she told the men, holding out her hand.

  “When did you get here?” Nate asked her.

  “Last night,” Katie said. “But I was . . . er . . . I was still sleeping when Pops went to play with you.” Okay, so that was a lie. But she couldn’t tell them what really happened, could she?

  “Just as well you weren’t there,” Pops said. “It was pretty embarrassing.”

  “Let’s go back now,” Katie told him. “It’s a rematch!”

  “Seven ball in the corner pocket,” Pops said as he leaned over the pool table and steadied his cue. With one smooth motion, he tapped the white ball. It rolled smoothly across the table and knocked the seven ball into the pocket in the corner of the table. “Now it’s just the eight ball left,” Pops told Nate and John.

  Katie smiled proudly. Her grandfather had already won the first two games easily.

  Plink. The white cue ball knocked the black eight ball into the pocket.

  Make that three games!

  “And that about does it,” Pops said cheerfully. He smiled at Nate and John. “You want to play again? Or maybe try a game of Scrabble?”

  John shook his head. “That’s okay, Max. A man can only take so many beatings in one day.”

  “I’ll say,” Nate agreed. “Obviously our Max is back!”

  “He sure is!” Katie cheered. “And my Pops’s tops!”

  Chapter 11

  “Okay, Katie, are you ready to win this three-legged race?” Pops asked Katie on Sunday morning.

  Katie bent down and made sure her leg was tied tightly to Pops’s. “You bet,” she said.

  “We’re going to win it for Japan!” Pops agreed, pointing to his white T-shirt with the big red circle on it.

  “On your marks, get set, go!” shouted Mr. Kane, the school principal.

  And they were off! Katie was amazed at just how fast Pops could move when he got going. He was practically dragging her down the field. But it was working. Katie and Pops were in the lead.

  Then Jeremy and his mother came up alongside them in their Liechtenstein shirts. They were moving really fast. Any minute now they would catch up to Katie and Pops!

  “Come on, Pops, faster!” Katie cried out.

  Pops picked up the pace.

  But so did Mrs. Fox and Jeremy. They were neck and neck with Katie and Pops. Katie pushed harder. The finish line was in view now. Just a few more steps and . . .

  Jeremy and his mom crossed the line just before Katie and Pops.

  Pops stopped and caught his breath. Katie was breathing hard, too. She bent down and untied the scarf from their legs.

  “Silver medal. Not bad,” Pops said between heavy breaths.

  Jeremy walked over and shook Katie’s hand. “You almost won,” he told her. “It was a good race.”

  “It sure was!” Pops said. “I can’t wait for the next one.”

  “I’ve got to get a cup of water first,” Katie said. “Do you want one, Pops?”

  He nodded. “Thanks.”

  Katie walked over to the water cooler. Kids from all the grades were standing nearby.

  “Wow, Katie, your grandfather’s really fast,” a sixth-grader named Selena said. The French flag was on her shirt.

  “Seriously,” agreed Evan, a fifth-grader in a shirt with the Spanish flag on the front. “My grandparents can’t run like that.”

  “Your grandfather’s cool,” Selena told her. “I wish mine was here.”

  “Katie’s grandfather is amazing,” Suzanne said, stepping into the middle of the crowd. “Of course I’ve known him for years. That’s because Katie and I are best friends. I like to come over to her house whenever her grandfather visits.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. Suzanne could always find something to brag about.

  But Katie could understand why someone might brag about knowing Pops. He was a really great guy. And an awesome athlete, too.

  As Katie walked over to give her grandfather his cup of water, she thought about how glad she was that the magic wind had stayed away today. Right now she was really happy to be exactly who she was—Max Carew’s granddaughter, Katie Kazoo.

  Fun Facts About the Olympics

  1. The five Olympic rings are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. Those colors were chosen because at least one of them appears on every flag in the world.

  2. The traditional lighting of the Olympic flame started in ancient Greece
. Once the flame was lit, it was kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games.

  3. The ancient Olympic Games were held to honor the Greek god Zeus.

  4. Olympic gold medals haven’t been solid gold since 1912. Today the gold medals have a silver core and then are covered with a layer of real gold.

  5. In winter Olympics, Norway has won the most medals—263 in all as of 2006.

  6. In summer Olympics, The United States has won the most medals—2,189 total as of 2007.

  7. The official motto of the Olympics is “Swifter, higher, stronger.”

  8. Women were not allowed to compete in the Olympics until the 1900 Paris games. There have been women competitors in the games ever since.

  9. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896.

  10. More than two hundred and three countries now compete in the Olympics.

  About the Author

  NANCY KRULIK is the author of more than 150 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times bestsellers. She lives in New York City with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, their children, Amanda and Ian, and Pepper, a chocolate and white spaniel mix. When she’s not busy writing the Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo series, Nancy loves swimming, reading, and going to the movies.

  About the Illustrators

  JOHN & WENDY’S art has been featured in other books for children, in magazines, on stationery, and on toys. When they are not drawing Katie and her friends, they like to paint, take photographs, travel, and play music in their rock ’n’ roll band. They live and work in Brooklyn, New York.