Anyone But Me 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

  Fun Facts About Hemsters!

  for Ian B.

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

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002102949

  eISBN : 978-1-101-15370-3

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Chapter 1

  “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

  The football soared right towards Katie Carew. She ran towards the ball, reached out her hands and ... oomph! She missed it completely.

  “You took your eyes off it again,” Katie’s best friend, Jeremy Fox, said, jogging up to her. He pushed his thin wire glasses higher up on his nose and ran his hands through his curly brown hair.

  “I know,” Katie replied simply. What else could she say?

  “Katie, I can’t believe you did that!” Kevin Camilleri shouted across the field. “You lost the whole game for us.”

  Just then George Brennan came charging across the field. He had a big smile on his face. Katie groaned. Of course George was happy. His team had just won the game—thanks to Katie’s fumble!

  “Don’t yell at the secret weapon,” George told Kevin.

  “Secret weapon? Are you kidding?” Kevin asked. “Secret weapons help win games, George.”

  “Exactly,” George agreed. “Katie’s the secret weapon for our team!”

  Katie blinked her eyes tight. She didn’t want George to see her cry.

  “Forget about George,” Jeremy whispered to Katie. “He can’t help being mean. He was just born that way.”

  Katie tried to smile. “Could be,” she said.

  The truth was, Katie wasn’t really sure why George was nasty to everyone in class 3A. Most new kids tried to make friends. Not George. He tried to make enemies.

  Just then, Katie’s other best friend, Suzanne Lock, ran across the playground to them. “Let’s go play on the monkey bars for a while,” she suggested, pulling Katie and Jeremy away from George. “I’ll bet I can hang upside down longer than either of you.”

  Katie stared at Suzanne. Her friend was wearing a skirt! “You’re going to turn upside down in that?” Katie asked.

  “Sure!” Suzanne said, yanking her skirt up to her bellybutton.

  Katie’s mouth flew open.

  Jeremy blushed.

  “It’s okay, you guys,” Suzanne laughed. “See, I’m wearing shorts under here. This way I can wear a skirt and still play.”

  Katie laughed. Leave it to Suzanne to find a way to look pretty and still hang upside down on the jungle gym.

  “Okay! Last one at the monkey bars is a rotten egg,” Katie called as she dashed away.

  Suzanne and Jeremy took off after Katie. Katie held on to her lead, but not for long. Jeremy was the fastest runner in the class. He quickly pulled up next to Katie. Katie took a deep breath. She moved her feet faster than ever. But not fast enough. Jeremy zoomed into the lead.

  Katie frowned. Well, at least she was ahead of Suzanne. Katie turned her head to see just how far behind Suzanne was and ...

  Splat!

  Katie stepped right into a big, wet puddle. Gushy brown mud splashed all over her. Katie stopped running and looked down at her jeans.

  “Oh, no!” she cried out. “What a mess!”

  Katie wasn’t kidding. She was a total mess. There were mud splatters all over her jeans. Her favorite jeans—the ones with the pink and blue flowers embroidered all over them.

  If this were first grade, Katie could have changed into the clean clothes in her cubby. But Katie was in third grade now. Nobody in third grade kept a change of clothes at school. That was for babies. Katie was going to have to wear her mud-stained jeans for the whole rest of the day.

  “Nice one, Carew,” George shouted across the yard. “Check it out, everybody! There’s a Mud Monster in the playground.”

  George stuck his arms straight out and walked around the yard pretending to be Frankenstein. The other kids laughed.

  Katie wanted to cry. This was the worst recess ever. She wished Mrs. Derkman would blow her whistle and make everyone go in to class. Even doing schoolwork had to be better than this!

  “George, go away or I’m gonna tell,” Suzanne warned as she ran over to defend her friend.

  A big smile formed on George’s chubby, round face. “Yeah, like I’m real scared,” he laughed while he pretended to tremble. “What’s Mrs. Jerkman going to do? Call my mommy?”

  Katie and Suzanne stared at George in amazement. He’d just called their teacher, Mrs. Derkman, a mean name—and he hadn’t even whispered it! He didn’t seem scared to have the teacher phone his mom, either.

  Before Katie or Suzanne could answer George, Mrs. Derkman blew her red whistle three times.

  Phew! Recess was over. It was time to go back to class. Katie was very glad. She used her hands to wipe off some of the mud, and then ran to line up.

  “You okay?” Jeremy whispered to Katie.

  “I guess,” Katie replied.

  “George is a creep. You know that.”

  Katie nodded. But knowing that wasn’t going to make George stop calling her the Mud Monster. He’d probably go at it all day, unless ...

  Katie couldn’t help wishing that someone else would do something embarrassing that afternoon. Then maybe George Brennan would tease that kid instead.

  Chapter 2

  “This is for you,” Kevin whispered to Katie. He handed her a note. It was written on light-blue paper and folded up really small. Katie knew it was from Suzanne. Her notes always looked like that.

  “If you have an answer for her, send it yourself,” Kevin told Katie. “I don’t want to get into trouble again.”

  Katie understood. Kevin sat at the desk right between Suzanne and Katie. He always wound up passing notes from girl to girl. Yesterday, Mrs. Derkman had caught Kevin passing a note from Katie to Suzanne. Kevin had had to write an apology note to Mrs. Derkman.

  Katie unfolded the paper. Do you want to come over after school? the note read.

  Katie scribbled her answer on the bottom of the note. No, thanks. I have to go home and change. Maybe tomorrow?

  Katie tossed the paper over Kevin’s head. It landed right on Suzanne’s desk. Katie crossed her fingers, hoping Mrs. Derkman didn’t see.

  Katie lucked out. Mrs. Derkman didn’t notice the flying note. She was too busy writing on the board.

  “Okay, take out your pencils and math notebooks. Today we’re going to review subtraction with borrowing,” the teacher announced.

  Katie gulped. Whenever Mrs. Derkman said the word “review,” it meant that she was going to ask some of the kids in the class to go to the board and solve the problems in front of everyone.

  Katie slid down low in her chair, hoping Mrs. Derkman wouldn’t notice her. She didn’t want to be one of the kids who were called on. It wasn’t that Katie couldn’t do subtraction with borrowing. It was more that she hated being in front of the whole class.

  “I’ll try one, Mrs. Derkman,” Suzanne volunteered.

  Katie sighed. Suzanne never worried about making a mistake in front of the whole class. She just liked being the center of attention. Katie wished she could
be more like that.

  But today, Mrs. Derkman didn’t ask Suzanne to come up to the board. She picked Mandy Banks, Zoe Canter, and Jeremy instead. Mandy went first. She whizzed through her problem. No surprise there—she was like a computer when it came to math. Next it was Zoe’s turn.

  “All right, Zoe,” Mrs. Derkman said as Zoe walked up to the board. “What will you get when you subtract 152 from 901?”

  “The wrong answer!” George joked out loud.

  Some kids in the class giggled. Zoe blushed.

  Katie thought it was really mean of George to joke around like that. Everyone knew Zoe had a lot of trouble with math.

  Mrs. Derkman looked sternly over at George, but she smiled at Zoe. “Go ahead,” she said to her. “We’ll do it together.”

  When it was his turn, Jeremy took his time solving the subtraction problem. Katie smiled. That was Jeremy: slow and steady like the tortoise in the story of The Tortoise and the Hare.

  Sometimes Jeremy’s careful slowness could get kind of annoying. But not today. As long as Jeremy’s up there, Mrs. Derkman won’t call on me, Katie thought to herself.

  But eventually Jeremy did finish the problem. And he got the right answer ... as usual.

  Mrs. Derkman smiled and wrote another math problem on the board. “Let’s do one more,” she said.

  Katie sunk even lower in her chair. Her lip was practically resting on her desk. But it was no use. Mrs. Derkman saw her anyway.

  “Katie, will you solve this for us?” the teacher asked.

  Katie sighed. She stood up and slowly walked toward the board.

  “Here comes the Mud Monster!” Katie heard George whisper as she walked past his desk. Katie didn’t want to walk past George, but she had no choice. He sat right in the front row—where Mrs. Derkman could keep an eye on him.

  Katie reached the board and picked up a piece of yellow chalk. She opened her mouth to take a deep, calming breath. But instead of breathing in air, she let out a great big belch.

  It was the loudest burp she’d ever heard. A real record-breaker.

  The other kids in class began to laugh. Katie blushed beet red. “I’m sorry,” she apologized to Mrs. Derkman. Katie didn’t want her teacher to think she’d done that on purpose.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Katie could see George holding his nose. He was pretending to die from the smell of her breath.

  “Katie’s stinking up the classroom!” George exclaimed. He laughed so hard, he nearly fell off his chair.

  Chapter 3

  For the rest of that day, everywhere Katie looked, someone was laughing at her. Mostly because George kept cracking jokes.

  “Hey, Mud Monster, can you burp a song for us?” he asked. “I can.” George began to belch out the ABC song. By the time he got to Z, the other kids were all giggling.

  “Hey, you know something?” George announced. “Burping a song kinda sounds like a kazoo. That’s what your name should be, Katie. Not Katie Carew. Katie Kazoo!” Then he started chanting, “Katie Kazoo, Katie Kazoo,” over and over again.

  The other kids began to join in. “Katie Kazoo. Katie Kazoo. Katie Kazoo. Katie Kazoo!”

  Katie sank down in her chair. She tried hard not to cry.

  “All right, that’s enough,” Mrs. Derkman scolded the class. She turned to George. “I’m sending a note home to your mother. I expect you to bring it back to me with her signature.”

  George shrugged as if he didn’t care.

  As the afternoon went on, Katie wished the other kids would stop laughing when George teased her. He really wasn’t all that funny. But she did kind of understand why the kids kept laughing. If they didn’t, George might make fun of them next.

  Before school ended, Katie walked over toward the window, where the hamster cage was. It was her turn to feed Speedy this week.

  Hamsters are so lucky, Katie thought to herself as she watched Speedy running on his wheel. They never have bad days. Every day is just the same for them.

  Finally, the bell rang. The day was over. Katie grabbed her books and ran for the door. She had to make sure she was the first one out of the classroom.

  But it didn’t matter. George caught up to Katie right away. He followed her halfway home. “Katie Kazoo, I see you!” he shouted.

  “Hey, Katie, wait up!”

  Katie could hear Jeremy calling after her as she ran towards her house. She knew he just wanted to make her feel better. But Katie didn’t stop. She didn’t want to hang out with Jeremy. She just wanted to get home, go upstairs to her room, and shut the door.

  Even that wasn’t easy to do. When Katie got home, her mother was sitting on the front steps, waiting for her.

  “Hi, Kat!” Her mother greeted her with her special nickname. “I made some yummy chocolate-chip cookies. Want some?”

  “I, um, I’m not hungry right now,” Katie mumbled. She raced past her and opened the screen door. “I gotta get homework done.”

  As Katie entered her room, she found her brown-and-white cocker spaniel, Pepper, lying on her bed. Pepper picked up his head and looked at Katie. He reached out his long, pink tongue and gave her a big kiss. Katie hugged her dog tightly.

  “Thanks, Pepper,” she whispered quietly into his brown floppy ear. “At least someone isn’t making fun of me today.”

  Pepper looked up at her and smiled.

  Jeremy was always telling Katie that dogs couldn’t really smile. But Katie was sure that Pepper could. “Pepper’s just a really special dog,” she would tell Jeremy when he argued with her. “He’s even smarter than people.”

  Now, as Pepper lay his head in her lap, Katie decided that even if her cocker spaniel wasn’t smarter than people, he certainly was nicer.

  That night at dinner, Katie picked at her spaghetti. She rolled the long noodles around on her fork. Then she pushed the meatballs over to the side of her plate and scowled.

  Three weeks ago, Katie had told her mother that she was a vegetarian. Her mother kept giving her meat anyway. Well, Katie was just not going to eat the meatballs, that’s all.

  “You wouldn’t believe the day I had at the office,” Katie’s father announced as he took a bite of his meatball. “We have this new guy, and he was working on the computer when ...”

  Usually Katie hated it when her father took up the whole dinner talking about his accounting firm. But tonight she was happy to sit quietly and let him talk. It was better than having to explain why she was so miserable.

  Unfortunately, her dad’s story finally came to an end. Immediately, Katie’s mother changed the subject. “So, Kat, what’s new with you?” she asked.

  Katie shrugged. “Nothing.”

  “Really?” her mother asked. “Well, you sure had a lot of homework. I haven’t seen you since you got home.”

  Katie nodded slowly. “We had a ton of social studies questions,” she muttered. “Um ... I’m not so hungry. Can I be excused?”

  Katie watched as her parents gave each other their “nervous” looks. They knew something was wrong. They just weren’t sure what to do about it. Finally, her mother said, “Sure, Kat. Go ahead. I’ll clear the table.”

  Katie stood up and walked out of the room. She opened the front door, and sat on the stoop outside her house. She looked out into the darkness. Suddenly the whole rotten day flashed in front of her eyes.

  She thought about missing the football and losing the game for her team.

  She thought about her new jeans in the hamper, all caked with mud.

  She thought about the belch she’d let out during math.

  Worst of all, she thought about what George was going to do to her tomorrow.

  “I wish I could be anyone but me!” she shouted out loud.

  A shooting star shot across the dark night sky. But Katie was too upset to notice it.

  Chapter 4

  “Rise and shine, Katie! You’re going to be late for school!” Katie’s mother called from the kitchen.

  Katie sat up slowly and
rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She squinted at the Mickey Mouse clock on her wall. Mickey’s hands were on the 8 and the 3. Oh no! It was already 8:15. School started at 8:45. She only had half an hour to get dressed, eat breakfast, and walk to school. This day was starting out really lousy.

  Her mother had put out Katie’s clothes for the day—a bright yellow satiny blouse and black jeans. The outfit was very cheerful.

  But Katie wasn’t feeling cheerful today. She went to her closet and pulled out a gray sweatshirt and jeans instead. That’s how she felt. Blech. Like a gray, cloudy day.

  As Katie came into the kitchen, her mother noticed her new outfit. “Not in the mood for yellow, huh kiddo?” she asked kindly.

  Katie shook her head.

  “Did you have an argument with Suzanne or Jeremy?” her mother guessed.

  “No,” Katie answered.

  “So what’s wrong?” her mother asked.

  Katie thought about telling her mother what had happened yesterday. But she was afraid that her mom would call the school to complain about George’s bullying. Imagine how mean George would be to her if that happened!

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Katie lied to her mother. “I’m just tired.”

  Her mom didn’t say anything. But Katie could tell she didn’t believe her.

  “You’d better eat that toast,” her mom said. “It’s getting late.”

  Katie nodded and slowly took a nibble of her bread. She slowly chewed each tiny bite until the toast practically melted in her mouth.

  Katie wanted to be late.

  If she arrived after the bell rang, the class would all be seated and doing their work by the time she got there. Mrs. Derkman would be upset that she was late. But it was worth it if she could avoid even a little bit of George’s teasing. Definitely.

  “You’ve got to get going,” Katie’s mother warned her. “You can eat the rest on the way.”