Who's Afraid of Fourth Grade?

by Nancy Krulik

  This was the magic wind!

  Whoosh! A powerful tornado began to swirl all around Katie. Faster and faster it spun, growing wilder by the second. Katie had to grab onto the couch to keep from being blown away. She shut her eyes tight, and tried not to cry.

  And then it stopped. Just like that.

  Katie gulped. The magic wind was gone. Who had it turned her into this time?

  Chapter 10

  Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. She was still in Emma’s family room. At least the wind hadn’t blown her far away.

  She glanced down at her feet. Her purple platform sneakers were gone. Now she was wearing a pair of brown suede loafers.

  Katie’s new jeans were gone too. Instead she was wearing a pair of faded overalls.

  Slowly, she brought her hands up to her head. Her red curly hair was now brown. And it was bound into two thick braids.

  Katie Carew was now Emma Weber!

  “Oh, there you are, Emma,” Mrs. Weber said, racing into the family room. She glanced around. “Where’s Katie?”

  How could she possibly explain this? “Um . . . she . . . um . . . I think she went to the bathroom or something,” Katie mumbled quickly.

  “Oh. Did you get Timmy his blankie?” Mrs. Weber continued.

  “I . . . not yet . . . I mean, uh . . . I can go get it now,” Katie said, although she wasn’t at all sure where his blankie might be.

  “Never mind. That’s not important. Right now I have to go to the supermarket to get the rest of the food for dinner. Then I have to stop by the dry cleaners and the video store before they close. Can you bathe the twins for me while I’m gone?”

  Katie had never bathed a baby before, never mind two. “But . . .” she stammered nervously.

  “I know, it’s Lacey’s turn to take care of the twins,” Mrs. Weber interrupted. “I just can’t get her off that phone. So be a sweetheart and help me out, will you, Emma? I’m sure Katie won’t mind. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

  Mrs. Weber seemed so frazzled and tired. She really did need some help with the little kids. And it couldn’t be any harder to bathe the twins than it was to bathe Pepper. Katie had done that plenty of times.

  “Sure . . . Mom,” Katie said finally.

  Mrs. Weber bent down and kissed Katie on the cheek. “That’s a good girl. I’ll be home in an hour.”

  As Mrs. Weber left the house, Katie turned toward the kitchen. That’s where she’d last seen the twins.

  “Okay, Timmy and Tyler, it’s bath time!” she announced, trying to sound very cheerful.

  The boys weren’t very happy about having a bath. In fact, they refused to go with Katie.

  “No bath!” Tyler shouted, throwing his sippy cup.

  “No bath!” Timmy echoed. He raced out of the kitchen.

  “Come on, you guys,” Katie urged. “It’ll be fun.”

  Tyler shook his head hard. He ran into the hall, crawled into the front closet, and shut the door.

  At least Katie knew where he was. She had no idea where Timmy had gotten to. “Timmy!” she called. “Timmy!”

  But Timmy didn’t answer.

  Katie frowned. Where could that boy have gone?

  She peeked into the downstairs bathroom. No Timmy.

  She looked under the couch in the family room. No Timmy.

  She opened the front closet. Maybe Timmy was hiding with his brother.

  Tyler went racing out of the closet, running right past Katie. But Timmy was nowhere to be found.

  Now Katie was getting worried. Had Timmy run out of the house? Was he outside and all alone? A little kid like him could get hurt out there.

  This was so not good.

  Chapter 11

  “Aachoo!”

  Suddenly, Katie heard a tiny sneeze coming from behind the drapes.

  Yes! Katie moved the curtains to the side. Timmy had been hiding there all along. “There you are!”

  “Aachoo.” Timmy wiped his drippy nose on the drapes.

  “Ooh, that’s gross!” Katie exclaimed. “Let’s go get a tissue. Then we’ll have a nice, warm bath.”

  “No bath!” Timmy shouted. He zipped right past Katie into the kitchen.

  Katie hurried after him. She was careful not to trip over Matthew, who was sitting on the kitchen floor happily coloring with crayons. At least one of the Weber boys was being good!

  But that didn’t make up for Timmy and Tyler. At that very moment, Tyler was standing on a kitchen chair chanting, “No bath! No bath!”

  Timmy scrambled up onto the chair next to his brother. “Hungry!” he declared. He reached out toward the kitchen counter.

  Crash! Before Katie could stop him, Timmy knocked over a plastic container filled with tomato sauce. Mrs. Weber had accidentally left the sauce out before she’d gone to the supermarket.

  A waterfall of tomato sauce splashed all over Matthew and his coloring book. “Oh, no! My picture!” Matthew cried out. “WAAAAHHHH!”

  “Oops,” Timmy said. He leaped from the chair and raced out of the room.

  Tyler ran over to Matthew. He poked his chubby hand into a puddle of tomato sauce. “Yum!” he said as he licked his fingers.

  “WAAAAHHHHH!” Matthew cried even louder. “Go away!”

  Tyler did as he was told. He ran off toward the family room—leaving a path of tiny tomato sauce footprints behind him.

  Finally, Lacey hung up the phone. “Can’t you keep them quiet for five minutes? I couldn’t hear a thing Beth was saying!” She looked around the kitchen and rolled her eyes. “Boy, Emma, I wouldn’t want to be you when Mom gets home!”

  At that moment, Katie didn’t want to be Emma either. But she was stuck with it. And, as Emma, she was plenty mad at Lacey. “Hey, you were on the phone,” she insisted. “You could have hung up and helped me!”

  Lacey shook her head. “Don’t blame this on me. Why did you say ‘bath,’ anyhow? You know they always run away when they hear ‘bath.’ ”

  But Katie didn’t know that. She didn’t know anything about the twins.

  Lacey took Matthew by the hand. “Come on, Matty. We’ll clean you up. Then you can color a new picture.”

  As Lacey and Matthew left the kitchen, Katie looked around. There was tomato sauce everywhere. It was obvious Mrs. Weber had been planning a meatballs and spaghetti dinner. Now there was no sauce.

  Lacey was right. Dinner was ruined. Emma was in big trouble.

  No. Katie was in big trouble. She was Emma. At least for now.

  Suddenly, she felt kind of sorry for Emma. Katie had always wondered what it would be like to be part of a big family. Now she knew. While it could be fun to have lots of people around to play with, Emma never got to just be by herself. She probably would love a chance to get away from the other kids in her family. After all, her younger brothers weren’t always cute. And having a big sister meant there was one more person to boss Emma around.

  Right now, Katie just wanted to be back in her own neat, quiet house, with no one but Pepper to play with.

  But that wasn’t going to be possible. At least, not until the magic wind returned to turn her back into Katie Carew. And who knew when that was going to happen? She took the sponge from the sink and began to wipe up some of the tomato sauce. It was the least she could do.

  As she cleaned, Katie’s stomach grumbled slightly. She was getting hungry. The Weber family would probably be hungry soon too. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be having much of a dinner tonight.

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She turned to see if Mrs. Weber had come back to the house. But the front door was shut tight. She shifted her head slightly to look at the kitchen window. It was closed too.

  Katie knew what that meant.

  Within seconds, the magic wind was blowing at full force, swirling harder than ever. The wind circled around Katie, faster and faster, practically lifting her off the ground.

  Then it stopped. Just like that.

/>   Katie stood up slowly. She opened her eyes and peered at her reflection in the oven’s glass door. Gone were Emma’s long, straight, brown braids and big, brown eyes. Katie’s own red hair, green eyes, and freckles were all back in place.

  Katie had changed back into herself. But nothing in the kitchen had changed. It was still a disaster. And Mrs. Weber would surely be home soon!

  Chapter 12

  “Oh, no. What a mess,” Emma said as she wandered into the kitchen. She looked kind of dazed.

  “One of the twins spilled the tomato sauce,” Katie explained.

  “I know,” Emma began. She shook her head slightly, trying to figure out what had just happened. “I kind of remember something about Timmy knocking over the sauce. But I’m not really sure. It’s like I was there, but I wasn’t.” She groaned and put her hand to her forehead. “Oh, I don’t even know what I mean.”

  Katie sighed. She understood exactly what Emma meant.

  “I’d better finish cleaning up before my mom sees this,” Emma said, picking up a sponge. “I can’t believe Timmy did that. Where are the twins, anyway?”

  “I think they’re trying to hide from bath time,” Katie told her.

  “They’re going to be cranky soon,” Emma thought out loud, looking at the clock over the stove. “If they don’t eat dinner on time, they get horrible.”

  Get horrible? Katie thought. How much worse could they be?

  “I guess I’d better call my mom on her cell phone and tell her to get more sauce for dinner. I hope she hasn’t left the supermarket already,” Emma said as she headed for the phone.

  Katie had a better idea. “Don’t call her,” she said.

  “But she’ll need the sauce to make dinner.”

  “How about we make the dinner?” Katie suggested excitedly.

  “I don’t how to cook anything,” Emma said.

  “I do,” Katie said proudly. “I’ve learned lots of recipes in my cooking class.”

  “I’m not allowed to use the stove or the oven unless there’s a grown-up around,” Emma told her.

  “Me neither,” Katie said. “But we can make plenty of food without them. Like ants on a log.”

  “We’re going to eat ants?” Emma asked.

  “No. We’re going to use raisins. They look like ants.”

  Emma laughed. “This sounds like something Mr. Guthrie would make us eat.”

  “It’s delicious,” Katie promised. “You’ll see. You get the celery. I’ll get the raisins and the peanut butter.”

  Katie showed Emma how to fill the inside of each of the celery stalks with creamy peanut butter. Then she placed four raisins on each stalk.

  “Tada!” Katie exclaimed once she’d finished. “Perfect ants on a log!”

  “That looks good,” Emma said. “But it’s not enough for a whole dinner.”

  “Well, what other ingredients do you have?” Katie asked.

  Emma peeked into the refrigerator. “We’ve got lettuce, red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, tuna, bananas, and chocolate sauce. Oh, and we also have this package of raw meat my mom took out of the freezer.”

  “We can’t serve raw meat,” Katie reminded her.

  “I don’t think tuna and chocolate sauce sounds very good, either,” Emma added. She wrinkled up her nose at the thought of it.

  “No, but we could make a salad and put tuna in it.”

  “Oh, that sounds yummy,” Emma agreed.

  “And we could slice the bananas and pour chocolate sauce on them for dessert,” Katie continued.

  “Is that one of the recipes from your cooking class?” Emma asked.

  Katie shook her head. “I made that one up myself,” she said proudly.

  Katie began to chop the vegetables and put them in a big glass bowl. Emma sliced the bananas and covered them with a thin drizzle of chocolate sauce. They finished just as Mrs. Weber came home.

  Emma’s mom stopped and stared at the kitchen in amazement. The table was set beautifully. There was an ants on a log appetizer at each place. The salad was in the middle of the table. “What’s all this?” Mrs. Weber asked, surprised.

  “Emma thought you would like it if someone else made dinner for you tonight,” Katie told her.

  Emma smiled gratefully at her. It had really been Katie’s idea, after all. Katie winked back at her.

  “Wow!” Mrs. Weber seemed really pleased. “Thank you, girls!”

  Just then, Lacey came downstairs with the twins. Tyler still had tomato sauce on his hands and face. Timmy had clay in his hair. Katie had no idea where that could have come from.

  “Mom, Emma didn’t give the twins a bath,” Lacey said. It was obvious she was angry about having to get off the phone to help when the tomato sauce spilled. She wanted to get Emma in trouble.

  But that’s not what happened.

  “Your sister and her friend just made this lovely dinner for us,” Mrs. Weber told Lacey. “You should thank them. And while I know I asked Emma to bathe the twins, it’s actually your turn to help me with them. I shouldn’t have to ask Emma to do your chores, Lacey.”

  Lacey scowled, but said nothing.

  “Please take the boys upstairs and clean them up,” Mrs. Weber continued. “And hurry. I don’t want to keep this delicious dinner waiting.”

  Katie and Emma exchanged smiles. It was good to see Lacey get in trouble. Especially after the way she’d yelled at Katie. (Although Lacey had thought she was yelling at Emma.)

  “I’ve got to go,” Katie told her friend.

  “Aren’t you going to stay and have supper with us?” Mrs. Weber asked. “You and Emma worked so hard.”

  Katie thought about all the things Timmy and Tyler could do with tuna, peanut butter, celery, bananas, and chocolate sauce. It wasn’t a very delicious image.

  “No, thanks,” Katie said as she walked toward the door. “My mom’s probably already made my dinner.”

  “Good-bye, Katie, and thanks,” Emma said.

  “You’re welcome,” Katie told her. “I’ll see you in school on Monday. That’s our first day of band!”

  Chapter 13

  Hot cross buns. Hot cross buns. One a penny. Two a penny. Hot cross buns.

  Katie struggled to play her first song on her clarinet. It was really hard getting the sound to come out of the instrument. She hoped it would be better once she started taking private music lessons. Her mother had hired a clarinet teacher who would come to the house on Saturday mornings. But her teacher couldn’t start until next week.

  Katie wasn’t the only one having a difficult time making her instrument sound right. The band room was filled with beginning musicians, and everyone was struggling with their new instruments. They were all having a tough time of it.

  Becky was trying to cover the holes on her French horn while blowing at the same time. She wasn’t being very successful.

  Emma W. had picked the flute as her instrument because it always sounded so pretty. But today, Emma’s flute didn’t sound very pretty. It just sounded squeaky.

  Instead of getting her own saxophone, Miriam Chan’s father had given her one of his old ones. Unfortunately, it was too big for Miriam. She had to stand to play it and blow very hard. Her whole face was beet red.

  Kevin looked very professional holding his trumpet. It was obvious his brother Ian had shown him how to do that. Too bad Ian hadn’t taught Kevin how to keep his spit inside the instrument. The way Kevin moved his lips to play the trumpet made him spray all over the place.

  George’s tuba was huge. It was also very loud. George played louder than anyone else in the beginning band. Unfortunately, he couldn’t play the notes at the same time as everyone else. His timing was completely off. And Kadeem . . .

  “Whoops!” Kadeem shouted as his trombone slide slipped off its track and flew across the room.

  Mr. Starkey jumped out of the way just in time to miss being hit by a flying trombone slide.

  “Sorry,” Kadeem said as he scrambled to pick up the slid
e.

  Mr. Starkey smiled at him. He didn’t say a word. He just stood in the front of the room moving his arms back and forth as the children played.

  It didn’t sound much like music to Katie—just a lot of squeaks and squawks with an occasional banging from Jeremy on the drums. She never would have recognized this as “Hot Cross Buns.” But Mr. Starkey seemed to like the way the children had played it.

  “That was very nice,” the music teacher said at the end of class. “Pack up your instruments carefully. I’ll see you all next Monday. Don’t forget to practice.”

  As the kids packed up their instruments and got ready to go back to class, Mr. Starkey adjusted his tie, and slipped into his sport jacket. It seemed odd to see a teacher dressed so nicely after Katie had spent so much time in Mr. G’s classroom. Mr. Starkey was nothing like Mr. G. The band director had short, neatly cut blond hair. His shirt was pressed, and he wore slacks instead of jeans. Mr. Starkey was a normal teacher. Except he taught music, of course.

  “That was fun!” Emma said as she placed her silver flute in its case. “I can’t wait to go home and practice.” She sighed. “I’ll just have to make sure the twins aren’t taking a nap.”

  Becky Stern turned around and smiled at Jeremy. “Your drums sounded great,” she told him. “You have really good timing.”

  Katie laughed. She knew Becky had a major crush on Jeremy.

  Jeremy blushed. “Thanks,” he said gruffly.

  “This is harder than I thought it would be,” Katie admitted. “I had trouble just getting my mouth to stay in the right shape around the reed.”

  “Me too,” Kevin said. “I have to keep my lips buzzing all the time. All this drool comes out.”

  “We know,” Katie, George, Becky, and Emma said at once.

  Katie gently placed her clarinet in its case, and began to walk back toward class 4A. There was still a half an hour before it was time to go home. The kids who weren’t taking band were still in the classroom having free reading time.