by Nancy Krulik
“You heard him,” Katie insisted. “It was because of the sugar cubes.”
“That’s what he says,” Suzanne replied. “But you never know. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know his true identity.”
Katie shook her head. “Give me a break. He’s just a friend of my grandmother’s. I mean, think about it. Santa rides a sleigh. Nick got here on his motorcycle. And when was the last time you saw Santa Claus wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket?”
“I’m just saying it’s possible,” Suzanne said with a shrug.
“No, it’s not,” Katie told her. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Emma nodded. “Katie’s right,” she told Suzanne. “Nick’s just a nice old guy who is visiting her for Christmas.”
“Maybe,” Suzanne answered. “But you’ve got to admit, it would be really cool if Santa Claus was actually sitting out there in the living room.”
Chapter 6
When Katie got to school on Wednesday morning, a crowd of fourth-graders were already gathered in the yard. Katie could see Suzanne in the middle of the crowd. She was talking very quickly.
“What’s up?” Katie asked as she walked toward the group.
“Suzanne’s telling us all about how Santa Claus is staying at your house,” Jessica Haynes explained.
Katie rolled her eyes. “Santa is not at my house,” she assured Jessica.
“Katie’s right,” Kadeem said. “I mean, Santa Claus? Who still believes in that?”
“Well, you would if you saw this guy,” Suzanne said. “The guy makes friends with reindeer!”
“So? I have animal friends, too! What about Pepper?” Katie insisted.
“Pepper is your dog, Katie,” Suzanne reminded her.
“And he’s my friend,” Katie said. “What does that make me? The Easter Bunny?”
George started to laugh. “Good one, Katie Kazoo!”
“I’m coming to your house on Christmas Eve, Katie,” Kevin said. “I’ll bet you’ll get your presents before anyone. You’ll be Santa’s first stop!”
Katie shook her head. “Forget about it,” she said. “Nick is not Santa. Besides, he won’t even be at my house on Christmas Eve. He’s got some friends to visit that night.”
“Of course he won’t be there, Katie,” Suzanne told her. “He’s got to leave and deliver presents all over the world.”
“Suzanne, cut it out!” Katie insisted angrily. She was getting really upset. She knew Suzanne didn’t really believe Nick was Santa Claus. She was just saying all this to get attention.
Just then the school doors opened. It was time to go inside.
Katie was never so happy to get into her classroom.
“Okay, gang, let’s see what your Secret Santas have brought this time,” Mr. G. said later that morning. He picked up his big red bag and began distributing gifts.
As soon as everyone was holding a present, Mr. G. said, “Okay, open them up!”
Emma W. was one of the first ones to open her gift. “Oh, cool!” she exclaimed. She slipped a small ring with a black stone on top of it onto her finger. The black stone turned yellow, then green, then bright blue.
“Ooh! It’s a mood ring!” she exclaimed. She looked down at the small card that came with the ring. It showed what all the colors meant. “See, the color changed to blue because I’m in such a good mood.”
Katie looked at her gift. She hoped it would be as cool as Emma W.’s. She opened it up and pulled out . . .
A big blob of plastic throw-up.
“Yuck!” Katie shouted.
Kevin looked over. “Cool!” he exclaimed. “That’s totally gross.”
“You can really creep people out with that,” George agreed. “You should put it on Suzanne’s tray at lunch.”
“Can you imagine her face if she saw that near her food?” Kadeem added, laughing.
Katie shook her head. She was pretty angry with Suzanne. But she wasn’t angry enough to do that!
“Kadeem, open yours,” Andrew urged.
Katie looked up from her plastic throw-up and watched as Kadeem opened his gift.
“Awesome. It’s another joke!” Kadeem said as he looked at the piece of paper that was wrapped around the gift. “It says, ‘Who is Dracula’s favorite baseball player?’ ”
“Who?” Andrew asked.
“The bat boy!” Kadeem laughed. He ripped the paper off the gift. “Check it out!” he exclaimed. “Baseball cards!”
Katie was glad Kadeem liked his gift. The other kids seemed pretty happy with theirs, too.
George loved the glow-in-the-dark stickers he got.
Emma S. couldn’t wait to use her new silly straw at lunch.
Andrew was excited to try out the new mini-magic trick his Secret Santa had bought for him.
Mandy was having a lot of fun playing with the kaleidoscope that had been in her package.
Katie looked from her make-believe vomit to the ring on Emma’s finger. Emma’s ring was bright blue. She was obviously happy with her present.
But Katie wasn’t happy with hers. In fact, if she had been wearing Emma’s ring, the stone would definitely be a cold, angry black!
Chapter 7
“Plastic throw-up! Can you believe it?” Katie shouted as she and Suzanne walked through the mall on Wednesday evening. The girls had met there after Katie’s cooking class and Suzanne’s modeling class. They both needed to buy holiday gifts.
“I told you that boys could be real jerks,” Suzanne reminded her. “You’re the one who always says I’m wrong.”
“Well, not all boys are jerks,” Katie insisted.
“A girl would never have gotten you a present like that,” Suzanne said. “She would have gotten you something pretty. Something like that.” Suzanne pointed to a hair clip that was decorated with purple feathers. “That’s what I’m going to buy for our class grab bag.”
“But what if a boy picks it out of the bag?” Katie asked her.
“I don’t care,” Suzanne said. “I’m not going to buy a boy gift. No way!”
But Katie had to buy a gift for a boy. After all, she was Kadeem’s Secret Santa. Luckily, she already had a plan.
“I’m getting my gift at my mom’s store,” she told Suzanne. “Why don’t you do that, too? There are lots of books that both boys and girls would like.”
Suzanne thought about that for a minute. “I could look, I guess.”
“Cool,” Katie said. She started walking toward the Book Nook. Suzanne followed close behind.
“Wow! Look at that line of kids waiting to meet Santa,” Suzanne said as they walked past the Winter Wonderland. “Some of them sure don’t look happy about it.”
Katie shrugged. “I think they’re unhappy about waiting in line for so long. Not about meeting Santa. Kids love Santa.”
Toot toot! The North Pole Express train let out a loud whistle as it moved along the track in front of Katie and Suzanne.
“I wonder what’s inside those boxes,” Katie said. She pointed to the brightly wrapped gift boxes that sat in the train’s caboose.
“I’ll bet they’re fake presents,” Suzanne said. “Just like that Santa is fake. After all, everyone knows the real Santa is staying at your house.”
That made Katie really angry. She was tired of Suzanne saying that Nick was Santa Claus.
“Nick is not Santa Claus!” Katie shouted.
“So, who is?” Suzanne asked her.
At that moment, the woman in the elf costume walked past them, holding a little boy’s hand. Katie thought the elf looked like she was having a lot of fun. A lot more fun than Katie was having arguing with Suzanne.
Katie looked closely at the elf. Her name tag read, “Ella the Elf.” And the little boy whose hand she was holding looked really excited to meet Santa.
“Well, Katie?” Suzanne asked. “Who do you think Nick really is? Do you think that guy in the chair is the real Santa?”
“Don’t you think I know that’s just some guy in
a Santa Claus costume?” Katie said. “But Nick isn’t Santa either. The real Santa isn’t here in Cherrydale!”
The little boy turned and stared at Katie. His face turned bright red. A tear fell down his cheek.
“THAT’S NOT SANTA!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. Then he turned and raced back to his mother.
Ella the Elf glared at Katie and Suzanne. “That wasn’t nice,” she scolded them. “Why do you big kids have to ruin this for the little ones?”
Katie felt terrible. “I’m really sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to ruin anything.”
“Why don’t you two get lost before you make some other kid cry,” Ella told them.
“Come on, Katie,” Suzanne urged. She pulled Katie by the arm. “Let’s get out of here!”
Chapter 8
“Thank you, Mrs. Carew,” Suzanne said as she took the Book Nook bag in her hands. It had taken both Katie and Mrs. Carew to convince Suzanne to buy a book for her grab bag instead of the hair clip. But now Suzanne seemed pretty happy about it.
“You’re welcome,” Katie’s mom said. “I think a kids’ cookbook is a great grab-bag gift.”
“I just love making people happy at Christmastime,” Suzanne said.
Katie frowned. She and Suzanne sure hadn’t made that little boy at the Winter Wonderland happy.
Suzanne had obviously forgotten all about that. But Katie hadn’t. She still felt awful.
“Nobody’s going to get that book unless I take you home so you can wrap it for the grab bag,” Mrs. Lock reminded her daughter. She had met the girls at the bookstore a few minutes before.
“I know,” Suzanne agreed. “You want a ride home, Katie?”
Katie would have liked to have gone home and spent extra time with her grandma. But there was still something she had to do.
“No thanks,” she told Suzanne. “I have to get my last Secret Santa present.”
As soon as Suzanne was gone, Katie walked toward the back of the store. But before she could reach the section of the bookstore she was looking for, she heard a familiar voice.
“Mom, how much longer do we need to be here?” a boy asked.
Katie gulped. It was Kadeem! He was in the store!
“Hi, Katie,” Kadeem greeted her. “What are you doing here?”
“Um . . . well . . .” Katie stammered nervously. “I’m . . . um . . . helping my mom,” she lied.
“Cool,” Kadeem said. “What do you do around here?”
Katie turned red. This was getting uncomfortable. She hated lying. “I, uh, do things in the stockroom,” she said quickly. “In fact, I’ve got to go there right now. Bye!”
Quickly she ran off to hide in the stockroom of the store.
As she closed the door behind her, Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Kadeem wasn’t allowed in the stockroom. Only people who worked at the store—and Katie—could go in.
“That was close,” Katie whispered to herself. She sat down on top of a step stool and took a deep breath. It was nice to be alone for a minute.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. Before she even had time to turn around, the breeze became stronger and stronger. Soon it was blowing like a wild tornado all around her.
Katie had wanted to relax. But obviously, the magic wind had other plans for her.
The magic wind became more powerful, whipping around Katie so quickly, she could hear it whistling in her ears. Her red hair blew all around, hitting her so hard in the face that she had to close her eyes.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Carew. She had become somebody else. Switcheroo!
But who?
Chapter 9
Katie knew without even opening her eyes that she wasn’t in the Book Nook stockroom anymore. It was quiet in the stockroom. But it was really noisy here. People were talking, kids were screaming, and “Jingle Bells” was playing from a loudspeaker.
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked around. There was snow at her feet. But Katie wasn’t cold at all. That was strange.
Katie bent down to feel the snow. Oh, that explained it. The snow wasn’t real. It was just cotton.
Just like the snow in the Winter Wonderland at the mall.
As she bent down, Katie noticed her feet. She wasn’t wearing her red high-top sneakers anymore. Instead, her feet were in green felt shoes that curled up at the top.
Elf shoes!
That could mean only one thing. Katie had become Ella, the elf at Winter Wonderland!
Suddenly, Katie felt a tug on the bottom of her short green skirt. She looked down to see a little girl wearing a pink dress.
“Is it my turn to talk to Santa?” the girl asked in a squeaky voice.
Katie smiled. She was so cute! “It sure is,” she said as she reached out for her hand.
The little girl seemed really happy. Katie was glad. It kind of made up for making that little boy cry earlier.
“Thank you,” the little girl said as they reached Santa’s chair.
“You’re welcome,” Katie replied. She stood beside Santa.
The little girl glared at Katie. “Could you leave us alone?” she asked. “This conversation is just between me and the big guy here.”
Katie understood. She stepped back and began to head toward the line of children. As she walked away, she could hear the little girl say, “The first thing I want for Christmas is a new baby brother.”
Katie smiled. How sweet was that?
“Because the baby brother you brought me last year is a real pain,” the little girl continued. “All he does is cry, sleep, and go to the bathroom. And he smells awful! This is not the baby brother I wanted at all. This year I want a brand-new model.”
Katie sighed. Okay, so maybe the kid wasn’t so sweet after all.
But there were plenty of other kids waiting to meet Santa. And plenty of others were going round and round in the North Pole Express.
Katie was sure most of the kids were as excited about meeting Santa as she had been when she was little.
At least she hoped so. Otherwise, this was going to be one super-terrible switcheroo!
Chapter 10
“Which child would you like me to take up to Santa first?” Katie asked the mother who was standing at the front of the line. There were two boys standing next to her. They looked exactly alike.
“Me!” one of the boys shouted.
“Uh-uh. You always get to go first!” his brother shouted back.
“That’s because I’m older,” the first boy insisted.
“By five minutes,” the other boy argued. “That doesn’t count.”
Their mother sighed. “Why don’t you just take them together?” she told Katie. “That way, they won’t fight about it.”
“Okay,” Katie said. She took the boys by their hands. “It’s time to meet Santa,” she told them.
“I get to ask for the red bike,” one boy said.
“No way. You said you wanted a blue bike,” his brother replied. “That means I get the red one.”
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
Katie was very glad when she and the boys reached Santa’s chair. Now they were his problem.
Santa didn’t seem so happy about it, either. He just frowned and rolled his eyes as the boys argued over who would sit on Santa’s right leg, and who would be stuck on his left.
Oh, goodie, a baby! Katie thought happily to herself as she spotted the next family in the line. After hearing the twins arguing, taking care of a kid who couldn’t talk yet seemed great!
“It’s Alison’s first Christmas,” the baby’s proud father said. “We can’t wait to get her picture taken with Santa Claus.”
“She just drank a whole bottle,” the baby’s mother continued. “So she’s not hungry. It will be easier for the photographer to get her to smile now.”
“Good thinking,” Katie told the parent
s as she took Alison from her father’s arms and walked toward Santa Claus. “I’m sure her picture will look great!”
Alison was a pretty baby. But as Katie carried her down the snowy path to Santa’s chair, she noticed something strange. While Alison’s dad was holding her, her cheeks had been a pretty pink. But now her face was turning kind of green.
“Burp!” Alison let out a big, loud belch.
Suddenly, Katie felt something warm dripping down her neck and onto her shoulder. It smelled gross. Like spoiled milk.
Oh, no! Alison had spit up on her. Now Katie had baby throw-up all over her neck. Yuck!
“Here,” Katie said, handing Alison to the Winter Wonderland Santa.
“Hey, this kid’s got a full diaper,” Santa groaned. “I told you elves, I don’t want them on my lap if they have a dirty diaper.”
Katie was shocked. That wasn’t Santa-like at all. Suzanne had been right! This guy was a really lousy fake Santa Claus.
“Here! Take her,” the Santa Claus said. As he held out the baby, he turned his head away.
Katie had no choice. She took Alison in her arms and carried her back to her parents. It was pretty gross. The baby smelled like spoiled milk and dirty diapers, mixed together.
And to top it off, Alison had started to cry.
“What did you do to her?” Alison’s mother demanded as she took her baby in her arms.
“Nothing,” Katie said. “That Santa asked me to bring her back to you because her diaper was dirty.”
“You made her cry,” Alison’s father yelled at Katie.
“No I didn’t,” Katie assured him. “She’s just crying because her diaper is full.”
“This is awful,” Alison’s mother moaned. “Her first experience with Santa Claus, and you ruined it!”
“No,” Katie insisted. She wrinkled her nose. Alison was really starting to stink. Katie took a big step backward. “I just . . .”
Toot Toot!
Just then, the North Pole Express came chugging by.
Whoosh! The model train swept Katie right off her feet. She had been so busy getting away from smelly baby Alison, she hadn’t noticed that she’d stepped onto the train tack!