All's Fair (9781101610893)

by Krulik, Nancy E. ; Wendy, John

  Katie stared at him. “But if they don’t pop, people can’t win.”

  “Well, duh,” Carl said. “You have the most expensive prizes in the whole midway at your booth. The cheap prizes I can afford to give away. But not these.”

  Katie’s eyes opened wide. Jeremy had been right. The balloon dartboard was rigged to make it really hard for people to win. “But that’s not fair,” she told Carl.

  “It’s fair to me,” Carl told her. “And if you want to keep your job, you’ll put those squishy balloons back on the board.”

  “I’m no cheater,” Katie told him.

  “It’s not cheating. It’s just making it harder to win,” Carl said. “Besides, the people are here to have fun playing the games. They don’t really care if they get a prize.”

  Katie knew that wasn’t true. People wanted to win. That was the whole point.

  “Look, Gilbert, I don’t know what your problem is,” Carl continued, “but a million people want this job if you don’t.”

  Katie doubted that. Being a barker wasn’t nearly as easy or fun as she thought it would be. All that shouting to get customers had left her throat raw. And it was tough standing around all the time. Plus, having a boss like Carl was horrible.

  “I ought to charge you for those prizes,” Carl shouted.

  Katie couldn’t take being yelled at anymore. She might have looked like a grown man named Gilbert, but she was really just a ten-year-old girl named Katie. And so she did a very ten-year-old girl thing. She started crying and ran away.

  The dumpsters still stunk, but now Katie didn’t care. At least this was one place she could be alone. Nothing could stink worse than listening to Carl. Poor Gilbert. He sure did have it rough.

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing against the back of her neck. She looked around. The wind didn’t seem to be blowing anywhere else. Which could only mean one thing. The magic wind was back!

  Just like before, Katie wasn’t upset to feel that wild tornado start churning around her. In fact, she was glad. The sooner the magic wind turned her back into Katie Kazoo, the better!

  The magic wind picked up speed then. It whipped around her so hard, Katie thought she might be blown right out of the fairgrounds and into the next county! She closed her eyes tight.

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

  But so was Gilbert. He was standing there, right next to Katie. And boy did he look confused!

  Gilbert sniffed at the air and wrinkled his nose. “What am I doing back here by the dumpsters?” he asked Katie. “ And who are you?”

  “I’m Katie,” she said.

  “I’m Gilbert.” He introduced himself.

  “I know,” Katie said.

  “How?” Gilbert asked her. “Have we met?”

  Oh yes! But Katie wasn’t about to explain all about the magic wind and switcheroos to Gilbert. He’d never believe her, anyway. So instead she said, “It says so on your name tag.”

  “Oh, yeah, right,” Gilbert said. “I’m a little confused right now. I don’t know how I got back here.”

  “You needed a break from your boss,” Katie said.

  “Carl?” Gilbert said. He frowned. “Yeah, he was coming down pretty hard on me. At least I think he was. It’s hard to remember. Everything’s a little fuzzy.”

  “He wasn’t being fair,” Katie told Gilbert. “You fixed the booth. You made it so people had a chance to win a prize . . .”

  “I did WHAT?” Gilbert asked. He stopped for a minute. “Yeah, I guess I did do that. But why?”

  “Because rigging games isn’t nice,” Katie said. “And it isn’t fun for anyone. Besides, everyone stopped coming to your booth even though it had the best prizes because they saw that it was impossible to win.”

  “That’s the way Carl wants it,” Gilbert explained to her.

  “Carl’s not very nice,” Katie said.

  Gilbert laughed. “That’s for sure. But he’s my boss. And he’s probably ready to kill me.” He frowned. “I guess I better get back there. I can’t spend all day just hanging out in a boneyard.”

  “That reminds me,” Katie said. “What exactly is a boneyard?”

  “It’s where carnival workers take our breaks,” Gilbert said. “Although, it’s not actually back here near the dumpsters. We have a trailer in the parking lot with sodas and snacks. I wonder why I didn’t just go there.”

  Because the magic wind didn’t know about the boneyard trailer in the parking lot, that’s why. But she didn’t tell Gilbert that.

  “I gotta go,” Gilbert said. “No sense making Carl any madder than he already is—if that’s even possible. You can hang out here if you want. Although I don’t know what kind of kid would want to hang out by the garbage all afternoon when there’s a carnival going on.”

  Katie agreed. She definitely wanted to go on rides and eat popcorn. Unfortunately, the magic wind kept changing her plans. And in the contest between Katie and the magic wind, there was no contest. It was rigged. The wind always won!

  Chapter 16

  “Hey, when are you going to open this booth?”

  “My kid wants a teddy bear, let me shoot some darts!”

  “Yo, are there any green bears left?”

  Katie looked over at the booth and saw that the line was even longer now.

  Just then, Carl spotted Katie and Gilbert and came running up to them.

  “Oh, so you decided to come back” he said. “Why’d you go and leave me alone here? These people are like animals I had to close the booth.”

  “That’s because this booth has the best prizes,” Katie said. “And now that people see they have a chance at winning, they want to play.”

  “Who’s the kid?” Carl asked Gilbert.

  “I’m Katie,” she told him. “And I think what Gilbert did here is great.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re not the one giving away all those stuffed animals,” Carl sneered.

  “I’m not the one getting all the money from these people, either,” Katie pointed out. “You are.”

  “Katie’s right, Carl,” Gilbert said. “These customers have a lot of cash. They’ll fill my whole possum gut in a heartbeat.”

  “But what about the cost of giving away all those bears?” Carl asked.

  “Those toys are not as expensive as you say, and you know it!” Gilbert said.

  “Besides, not everyone wins,” Katie pointed out. “So you fill your possum gut real fast.” Katie smiled. She was starting to understand the lingo.

  Gilbert nodded. “She’s right,” he said. “This booth wasn’t making much alfalfa—until people started winning.”

  Carl thought for a minute. “You’re pretty smart for a kid,” he told Katie. “I guess we can try it this way—for a while. See how it goes.” He moved out of the way. “Go ahead, Gil. Open your booth.”

  “Yea!” Katie cheered, running toward the booth. “This game’s going to be fun.” She reached into her pocket. But before she could hand over a dollar for some darts, she heard a familiar voice.

  “THERE YOU ARE!”

  Katie whipped around and saw Suzanne coming toward her with a half-eaten candy apple in each hand.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you, Katie,” Suzanne said. She was talking really, really fast. “I’ve been to the mechanical bull. But no Katie. And the Ferris wheel. But no Katie. And the whip. But no Katie. The carousel and . . .”

  “Whoa! Slow down,” Katie said. She looked at the half-eaten candy apples in Suzanne’s hands. “How many of those things have you had?”

  “I don’t know, seven, eight . . . maybe twelve,” Suzanne said. “What does it matter?” She stopped and looked at the money in Katie’s hand. “Can I borrow a dollar? I need to get another candy apple. Mmmm, so delicious.
”

  “Maybe that’s enough,” Katie said. Suzanne seemed really, really hyper. “I mean, you don’t want to be all crazy during the Junior Miss Candy Apple Contest, and right now . . .”

  “That’s why I was looking for you!” Suzanne interrupted her. “The contest. It’s starting soon. You have my glitter. I need that now. I need lots and lots and lots of glitter. Oh, and I need you in the crowd to cheer really, really loudly for me. A lot louder than you cheer for Emma. Judges like when people cheer. I like when people cheer. So come on!”

  And with that, Suzanne sped back down the midway and toward the band shell where the contest was being held. Nothing moved as fast as a sugar-fueled Suzanne Lock.

  Unless of course it was the magic wind. That moved pretty quickly, too. Katie only hoped Suzanne didn’t spin out of control in quite the same way. Because that would be sooo not good.

  Chapter 17

  “Are we late?” Becky asked as she and Jeremy hurried over to where Katie was standing. Katie was near the band shell waiting for the Junior Miss Candy Apple Contest to start.

  Becky was carrying a big blue bear in her arms.

  “You didn’t . . . ,” Katie began to ask Jeremy.

  “Uh-uh,” Jeremy assured her. “All I won was this.” He held up a plush kitten with soft black fur. It looked a lot like his own cat, Lucky. “I popped a balloon with my first dart!”

  “I won my bear,” Becky said proudly. “It took a lot of darts, and I had to wait in line a long time, but I did it!”

  Katie smiled. She had been right. People were spending lots of money at the balloon- dartboard booth.

  “I was so excited,” Becky continued. “It took forever to find Jeremy and show him my bear. But I did!”

  There was no getting away from Becky. Poor Jeremy.

  “Hey, did Suzanne fall flat on her face yet?” Kevin asked as he, Kadeem, and Andrew joined them. Kevin was carrying a big red ribbon.

  “Wow! You won second prize for your tomato, huh?” Katie asked him. “Sorry I missed it. I was on my way over but then . . .” Katie stopped mid-sentence. She wasn’t sure what to say next. She couldn’t tell Kevin that she was on her way over to see him when a magic wind started blowing.

  Kevin said, “The guy who won first prize grew a tomato the size of a pumpkin. But I like this ribbon better. It’s tomato red!”

  “And now you can eat your tomato,” Jeremy pointed out.

  Kevin smiled. “Already did,” he said with a grin.

  “Ooooh.” Andrew moaned. “Don’t say tomato.”

  The kids all laughed.

  “Shhh . . . ,” Becky whispered suddenly. “It’s starting.”

  Just then, Slim Jim McQueen came onstage followed by the girls who had entered the Junior Miss Candy Apple Contest. They were all wearing matching candy apple red T-shirts that said SWEET AS A CANDY APPLE. The shirts were really cute, but Katie knew Suzanne probably hated wearing it. Suzanne always liked to be dressed differently than anyone else.

  Emma looked really cute standing up there on the stage. She had a big red bow at the top of her long brown ponytail and just a touch of shiny red lip gloss on her lips. Katie guessed the lip gloss was Lacey’s idea. Emma wasn’t a lip gloss kind of girl.

  Suzanne was standing on the other side of the stage, as far from Emma as she could get. Actually, Suzanne wasn’t exactly standing. It was more like she was dancing around—moving back and forth from one foot to the other and swinging her arms.

  “What’s with Suzanne?” Jeremy asked Katie.

  “Twelve sugary candy apples,” Katie told him.

  Jeremy laughed. “That explains why her teeth are pink.”

  “Welcome to the Junior Miss Candy Apple Contest,” Slim Jim McQueen said to the crowd. “One of these little ladies behind me will soon be crowned Junior Miss Candy Apple and get to ride in the parade at the end of the day.”

  “Oooh! I just love parades!” Suzanne squealed. She jumped up and down excitedly.

  All the other contestants turned and stared at her. Suzanne stopped jumping and went back to jiggling around. She just couldn’t keep still.

  Slim Jim McQueen laughed. “Well, before we can have a parade, we have to have a contest.

  Let’s meet each of our contestants.”

  The first girl walked up to the microphone. She smiled at the crowd, flipped her long blond hair behind her, and gave a little wave. It seemed like she’d done this many times before.

  “Hi there. I’m Cassie O’Dell,” the blond girl said. “I love county fairs because I get to experience things I don’t normally get to, like milking goats and cows and meeting all the wonderful people who run the rides and the games.” She smiled at Slim Jim. “And real cowboys, too.”

  “Well, thank you, little lady,” Slim Jim said. “Everyone, let’s hear it for Cassie O’Dell.”

  Emma was next. She walked up to the microphone and said, “My name is Emma Weber. I’m at the fair with my sister and my three brothers. I like being in this contest because this is the first time I’ve done something all by myself all day.”

  Everyone in the crowd laughed. They thought Emma was making a joke. But Katie knew better. Emma had obviously had enough of taking care of her younger brothers.

  “My name is Sandy Bleeker,” the next contestant said into the microphone. “I’ve been coming to this carnival ever since I was a baby . . .”

  As Sandy spoke, Katie glanced over at Suzanne. She was hopping around from one foot to the other, but now she was tapping her stomach with one hand and twirling her braid around and around with the other. And it looked like she was singing to herself. Suzanne had definitely had eleven too many candy apples.

  “And now we’ll hear from Suzanne Lock.” A few minutes later, Slim Jim McQueen was finally announcing Suzanne.

  Suzanne opened her lips wide and shot the crowd a big, pink-toothed smile. Then she started to walk toward the microphone. Only she wasn’t doing her usual model-y walk. This time she was sort of running and dancing her way across the stage.

  “Does Suzanne look green to you?” Becky asked Katie.

  Jeremy, Andrew, Becky, and Kevin all laughed. But Katie didn’t. Suzanne looked terrible.

  Suzanne stared out at the crowd. She smiled again, only this grin seemed a little shaky. “My name is Suzanne Lock,” she said. “I’m a fashion mod—”

  BLEHHHH!

  Before Suzanne could finish her speech, red, gooey gunk exploded from her mouth. It looked like a volcano of candy apple lava erupting.

  “She’s puking!” Kadeem laughed. “Oh man, this is classic.”

  Suzanne clapped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes bugged. She started to run off the stage.

  BLEHHHH!

  Slim Jim McQueen jumped out of the way. The other contestants took giant steps back. One of them pinched her nose.

  BLEHHHH!

  “There she goes again!” Kevin laughed even harder. “Hey! You think she learned that at modeling school?”

  Chapter 18

  “That contest wasn’t fair at all,” Suzanne said a little while later as she and some of the other kids walked through the fairgrounds. “Cassie O’Dell has been doing pageants since she was a baby. She had a real advantage.”

  “Yeah, she also didn’t puke onstage,” Kadeem joked. “That’s a definite advantage.”

  Some of the other kids laughed. But not Katie. Suzanne felt bad enough about what had happened. She didn’t want to make her feel worse.

  “I can’t help it if I got a stomachache,” Suzanne told Kadeem. “It must have been something I ate.”

  “Yeah, like twelve candy apples,” Kevin said.

  Suzanne didn’t answer.

  “How about we go on the tilt-a-whirl,” Kevin suggested.

  Suzanne’s face got that green look ag
ain. She gripped her stomach. “I don’t think so.”

  “Me neither,” Andrew agreed. “I still have all that P-I-E in my belly.”

  Katie giggled. She figured he was spelling the word so his stomach couldn’t hear.

  “How about we go on the froghopper?” Emma suggested.

  Andrew and Suzanne both shook their heads.

  “Too much bouncing,” Andrew said.

  “How about the Ferris wheel?” Katie pointed to the giant wheel in the middle of the fairgrounds. “That’s pretty calm.”

  “The Ferris wheel sounds perfect,” Suzanne said.

  “Great,” Katie said. “From up there, you can see everything.”

  The kids hurried over to the Ferris wheel.

  “There’s four people to a car,” the ticket taker said.

  “I’ll go in your car, Jeremy,” Becky said. “We can sit real, real close and hold our stuffed animals on our laps.”

  “Oh man.” Jeremy groaned. He did not look happy about being stuck with Becky.

  “How about girls in one car and boys in the other,” Katie said quickly.

  “Yeah, sounds great!” Jeremy said. He gave Katie a grateful smile. “You girls take this green car. We’ll wait for the next one.”

  “Fine with me,” Suzanne said. She crawled into the green car. Katie got in after her.

  A few minutes later as the green car moved slowly around the giant circle, Katie looked down at the fairgrounds.

  “Hey, is that Mrs. Derkman riding the mechanical bull?” Emma asked.

  “I think so,” Katie said. “That’s the big sun hat with the flowers she was wearing during the flower judging.”

  “Did her roses win?” Emma asked Katie.

  “Uh, I don’t think so,” was all Katie said.

  Suzanne looked to her left. “There’s the midway,” she said. “And the carousel. Let’s go on that next.”