Anyone But Me Page 3

  This was one secret Katie would have to keep to herself.

  “Boy, did you pick the wrong morning to be late,” Jeremy told Katie as they walked out onto the playground after lunch. “It was so weird. Speedy was out of his mind. I’d never seen him like that!”

  “I’d never seen George like that either,” Suzanne giggled. “I can’t believe you missed it, Katie. He was terrified of a little hamster. What a wimp!”

  “I can’t believe we were ever scared of George,” Miriam agreed.

  “I was never afraid of him,” Kevin argued.

  Jeremy rolled his eyes. “So how come you walk three blocks out of your way to get to school—just so you don’t have to pass his house on the way?”

  Kevin blushed.

  The kids looked over at George. He was sitting on a bench all by himself. He didn’t look mean anymore. He just looked lonely.

  “Hey, George!” Manny Gonzalez called out. “Why did the hamster cross the road?”

  George didn’t answer. He obviously didn’t want to talk about hamsters.

  “Because it was the chicken’s day off!” Manny finished off his own joke. Then he waited for George to say something mean to him.

  But George didn’t say anything. He just scowled and turned away. For the first time, the other kids were doing the teasing. George didn’t like that at all.

  “Well, I guess we don’t have to be afraid of George anymore,” Jeremy said to the others.

  Suzanne nodded. “We have Speedy to thank for that.”

  Katie smiled to herself. She knew that class 3A actually had her to thank for stopping George’s bullying. She was a real hero.

  Chapter 9

  Katie was in a great mood when she got home that afternoon. Pepper met her at the steps. Katie bent down and gave her cocker spaniel a huge hug.

  Pepper licked her on the nose.

  “Well, I’m glad to see you’re happy again,” Katie’s mother said as she came out of the house with two glasses of pink lemonade. “You just weren’t yourself this morning.”

  Katie laughed. Her mother didn’t know the half of it.

  “So, did anything exciting happen at school today?” her mother asked.

  Katie almost choked on her lemonade. It was only the most exciting—and scary—day of her whole life! But Katie couldn’t tell her mother that. Instead she said, “Our hamster got loose, and I caught him!”

  “Good for you!” her mother said. Then she shuddered. “I can’t imagine having a hamster running loose around a classroom. I don’t really like little rodents like that.”

  “Oh, you’d like Speedy, Mom. I know you would.” Katie finished off her drink.

  “So, what do you want to do this afternoon?” Katie’s mom asked as she sipped slowly at her drink. “You want to come inside and have some cookies before you start your homework?”

  Katie shook her head. “We don’t have a whole lot of homework today. Just a current events worksheet. So can Pepper and I go for a walk?”

  “I don’t see why not,” her mother said. “You can do the worksheet after dinner. I’ll put the newspaper up in your room.”

  Katie handed her mom the empty glass and jumped up.

  “Come on, Pepper!” she called out. “Let’s walk!”

  Katie never thought she’d be so happy just to walk around on two legs. But it felt great to stand straight and tall. She loved being able to run wherever she wanted, not just on some silly, squeaky wheel. Katie did a big cartwheel, right in the middle of the sidewalk.

  Unfortunately, Katie was not very good at cartwheels. Instead of landing on her feet, she landed—splat—right on her rear end.

  As Katie stood up, she noticed a boy about her age sitting alone on his front porch. He was wearing dark sunglasses and a baseball hat. At first she didn’t recognize him. Then the boy called out, “You okay?”

  It was George Brennan. A nervous feeling came over Katie. Was George going to make fun of her for falling down?

  “I said, are you okay?”

  Katie stood up and brushed off her jeans. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” She looked at George. He seemed more embarrassed than she was. He seemed kind of sad, too.

  For the first time, Katie felt a little sorry for George. At least when George had made fun of her for falling in the mud, she’d had friends to cheer her up. George had no one.

  “Is this your house?” she asked him nervously.

  “No, I just like to sit on other people’s porches,” George snapped back, making a nasty joke. “Of course it’s my house.”

  Katie turned and began to walk away. If George was going to be mean, she wasn’t going to talk to him.

  “Hey, is that your dog?” George called after her.

  Katie stopped walking. She turned around and smiled. “No, I just like hanging out with other people’s dogs,” she joked back. “Of course he’s my dog.”

  George smiled—a little bit. “Good one,” he admitted.

  Katie smiled back. “His name’s Pepper. You want to pet him? Or are you afraid of dogs, too?”

  George blushed. “Never mind.”

  Katie felt bad. She hadn’t been teasing. She really didn’t know if George had a problem with all animals, or just hamsters.

  “No, I mean it,” she assured him. “If you were afraid of dogs, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. A lot of people are afraid dogs will bite or something. But Pepper wouldn’t do that.”

  “I’m not afraid of dogs,” George told her. “I’m not even afraid of hamsters. This morning I was just sort of goofing on all the kids who were afraid of Speedy. You weren’t there. You should have seen them all crying and screaming and stuff.”

  Katie knew that was a lie. None of the other kids were afraid of Speedy. They were all trying to catch the hamster. The only kid crying and jumping on chairs was George.

  But Katie didn’t tell George that. He’d only wonder how she knew what was going on in the classroom, since the whole class thought she was late for school today. Besides, George must have felt really embarrassed about being afraid of hamsters. Why else would he lie about it?

  “Oh, I guess everyone else got it wrong,” Katie told him, trying to be nice.

  “I guess,” George mumbled.

  “So, you want to pet my dog then?” Katie asked.

  “Okay,” George said quietly.

  Katie walked Pepper up toward George’s house. George reached his hand out slowly. It was obvious that he was nervous around dogs, too, but he wasn’t going to admit it to Katie. Pepper sat on his hind legs and lifted his head. When George gave Pepper a little pat, the dog licked George’s hand. George wrinkled up his nose. He wasn’t used to dog kisses.

  “He’s a pretty cool dog,” George admitted.

  “Thanks,” Katie replied, sitting down next to George. “You know, it’s okay to be afraid of something.”

  George frowned. “Oh yeah, right. So what are you afraid of?”

  “I was afraid of you—at least until today,” Katie admitted.

  George smiled. He seemed almost proud of the fact that Katie had been scared of him.

  “So you’re not afraid of me anymore, huh?” he asked her finally.

  Katie shook her head. “Nope.”

  “I guess none of the kids are scared of me after today,” George moaned.

  “Why would you want us to be scared of you?” Katie asked.

  George shrugged. “Just because.”

  “I don’t know why you have to make mean jokes all the time,” Katie said.

  “I make jokes so that people will laugh,” George told her. “I’d rather have people laugh at my jokes than laugh at me.”

  “Why do you think people will laugh at you?” Katie asked him.

  George looked at her and rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding? I’m the new kid. Everyone makes fun of the new kid. They laugh at the way the new kid talks, and the clothes the new kid wears. This is the third school I’ve been to since kindergarten. My dad has
had to switch jobs three times. But you know what? After today, I wish my family could move again.”

  “Don’t say that!” Katie exclaimed. “Don’t make wishes you don’t really mean. You never know when they’ll come true.”

  “But I’m miserable here,” George said. “All the kids hate me. And now they won’t even laugh at my jokes.”

  Katie thought about that for a minute. Then she had an idea. “Don’t you know any jokes that aren’t mean?” Katie asked George. “You can still make kids laugh without making them feel bad.”

  “I don’t know,” George answered. “I’ve never thought about jokes that weren’t mean.”

  “I have a bunch of joke books at my house. Do you want to come over and look at some of them? You can try the jokes out on the kids at school tomorrow.”

  George didn’t say anything at first. Then he looked sort of embarrassed. “I’m sorry I kept calling you Katie Kazoo,” he said finally.

  Katie grinned. “It’s okay. I kind of like it, actually.”

  “You do?” George asked.

  Katie nodded. “It’s a pretty cool nickname. It’s the kind of name Suzanne would give herself—if she could.”

  George looked at Katie. “How come you’re being nice to me?” he demanded.

  Katie shrugged. “I guess because you’re being nice to me,” she said simply.

  Chapter 10

  The next morning Katie was up and dressed before her parents awoke. She wanted to be sure to get to school before George did. Katie had a feeling that the other kids were going to make fun of George for being afraid of Speedy. If they did, he might be mean right back to them. Then he would never make friends at school.

  Katie really wanted to help George. They had spent a lot of time laughing at joke books together yesterday afternoon. George was really an okay kid. Katie hoped the other kids could see that side of him.

  Besides, Katie figured that if George made friends with the kids at school, he wouldn’t want to make fun of them. School would be a lot more fun if everybody wasn’t always afraid that George would say something mean to them. So, by helping George, Katie was helping all the other kids, too.

  If her plan worked, Katie would be a hero two days in a row!

  Katie got to the schoolyard ten minutes early. She sat down on a bench and waited for her friends—and George—to arrive.

  “You’re here early,” Suzanne said a few minutes later, plopping down onto the bench beside Katie.

  The key chains on Suzanne’s backpack jingled and jangled as the pack hit the ground. Suzanne had a stretchy-alien key chain, a Slinky dog key chain, a key chain that looked like a Barbie doll, and key chains from Vermont, Texas, and California. She even had a key chain with a mirror on it.

  Katie only had two key chains on her backpack. One was a photo frame with a picture of Pepper in it. The other one was a little rubber monkey that bounced up and down when you shook it.

  “Are you trying to make up for being late yesterday?” Suzanne asked.

  Katie shook her head. “I’m just waiting.”

  “For what?”

  Katie shrugged. “Oh, nothing. ”

  By now Jeremy and Kevin were there, too. Miriam’s mother pulled up in her car. Miriam and Mandy leaped out of the backseat. Manny rode up on his bicycle. He locked the ten-speeder to the bike rack and walked over toward the other kids.

  Katie looked around. Most of the kids in her class were there. Now she just had to wait for George.

  Katie glanced at her watch. School was starting in five minutes. What if George was afraid to show up? The other kids would be sure he was absent because of Speedy. They’d never let him live that down.

  Finally, she saw George walking up the hill toward the schoolyard. He was walking very slowly, but he was definitely coming.

  “How come you’re so late, George?” Katie asked as George joined the group.

  “My clock was slow,” George replied. “You’d be slow too, if you’d been running all night.”

  Katie and George looked at each other nervously.

  And then the worst thing happened. Nobody laughed. NOBODY. The kids just stood there staring at George.

  George blushed red. He looked angrily at Katie.

  Katie gulped. This was not good.

  Quickly, Katie tried to get George to tell another joke. A funnier one this time.

  “Don’t you wish this was the last day of school, George?” she asked him.

  The kids all stared at Katie. Why was she being so nice to George Brennan?

  “You know, Katie, there is one school you have to drop out of before you can graduate,” George began.

  “What school is that?” Katie asked.

  “Parachute school,” George told her.

  Again, nobody laughed. Now Katie was getting really worried.

  And then, out of nowhere, Jeremy started laughing—really hard. He was totally cracking up. The other kids looked at him in amazement.

  Jeremy stared back at them. “What?” he asked. “It was funny.”

  “Thanks,” George said. He sounded a little happier now.

  “Tell another one,” Katie urged.

  “Okay,” George agreed. “What’s the most important subject a witch learns in school?”

  “What?” Katie asked.

  “Spelling!” George answered.

  Jeremy started laughing again. So did Suzanne. Suddenly all the kids were giggling at George’s joke.

  “That was a good one,” Kevin said. “Got any more jokes?”

  George’s face broke into a smile. A real, happy smile, not the mean smile he usually had on his face. “Sure, I’ve got a million of ’em.” He looked around at the other kids. “Why didn’t the skeleton do well in school?”

  “Why?” Suzanne asked.

  “Because his heart wasn’t in it!” George said.

  Everyone started laughing all over again.

  “Wait, wait! Here’s another one!” George announced. “What’s the hardest part about taking a test?”

  “What?” asked Mandy.

  “The answers!” George told her.

  George was on a roll. He couldn’t stop telling jokes. That was a good thing, since the kids didn’t want him to stop. “What table doesn’t have any legs?” he asked Jeremy.

  Jeremy thought for a minute, but he couldn’t guess. “I don’t know,” he said finally.

  “A multiplication table!” George shouted out.

  Once again the kids all started giggling.

  Just then, Mrs. Derkman blew her whistle. “Line up, class 3A!” she called out. The kids ran to line up. Katie found herself standing right in front of George. Just one day ago, that would have been an awful place to stand. But now, Katie didn’t mind standing near George at all.

  “Hey, Katie Kazoo, what do you have for lunch?” George whispered into Katie’s ear.

  “I’m going to buy something from the cafeteria,” she whispered back. “My mom gave me lunch money today.”

  “I have peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff,” George said. “My mom hardly ever gives me lunch money.”

  “You’re lucky,” Katie said. “The food in the cafeteria stinks. I’d much rather have peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff.”

  “We could sit together in the cafeteria and share,” George suggested. “I’ll give you half of my sandwich if you’ll give me half of your dessert.”

  Katie grinned. “It’s a deal!”

  As class 3A walked toward the school building, Katie felt a cool breeze blow through her hair. She got a scared feeling in the pit of her stomach. Was this the same wind that had turned her into a hamster yesterday? What was going to happen to her now?

  Then Katie noticed that everyone else’s hair was blowing around too. This wasn’t some sort of magic wind. It was just a normal, everyday breeze—the kind that cools you down without turning you into someone else.

  Still, Katie had a feeling she hadn’t seen the last of the magic wind. I
t was bound to start blowing again sometime. So the only question was ... who was she going to turn into next?

  Fun Facts About Hemsters!

  If you’re like Katie and have a hamster in your classroom, here are’ some fun facts about your furry friend.

  Did you know that:

  Hamsters need glasses? Hamsters are very near-sighted. Depending on the breed, they can usually see only a few inches or a few feet in front of themselves.

  Hamster teeth never stop growing? They just keep getting longer and longer—unless you give your hamster something to gnaw on, like a wooden chew stick. When hamsters chew, they keep their teeth short and healthy.

  Hamsters need lots of exercise? In the wild, hamsters may travel several miles a night in search of food. Hamsters that are kept as pets need the same amount of exercise, which is why they run on their wheels.

  Hamsters squeak to get your attention? Hamsters usually make squeaking noises when they want more food or attention.

  Hamsters sometimes eat their poop? As gross as it may sound, hamsters sometimes do just that. Their digestive systems are different than ours. Some hamster poop contains certain nutrients that the hamster needs.

  Hamsters don’t need shampoo? All hamsters know how to clean themselves. They don’t need fancy sponges and shampoo to do it either. Hamsters groom themselves by licking their coat at the back and the front. They also lick their paws and then rub their paws over their face and behind their ears. They do that because they can’t actually lick their faces.

  Some hamsters take baths in dry sand?

  Hamsters love rolling around in sand. The sand takes some of the grease off of their skin. That makes them feel more comfortable. If you have a hamster, you might want to put a dish of sand in the cage for the hamster to roll around in.