I'm Game (4 page)
Authors: Nancy Krulik
George shot a bracelet back at Becky. She ducked. The bracelet hit Mandy in the arm instead.
“Ow!” Mandy shouted. Then she pulled a bracelet from her arm and shot it at George. It hit Kevin instead.
“Oh, you’re gonna get it!” Kevin declared, pulling off a bracelet and shooting it in Mandy’s direction.
Instead of hitting Mandy, he got Miriam Chan in the back of the head. She dropped her tray in surprise.
“Oh no!” Miriam cried out as pasta, tomato sauce, and orange juice splashed all over the floor.
“What is going on here?” Mr. Kane, the principal, demanded, running over to the lunch line.
Mr. Kane didn’t see the pool of slippery tomato sauce.
Whoosh!
He flew up in the air and then landed on the floor with a thud.
Whoosh!
He flew up in the air and then landed on the floor with a thud.
“That’s it!” Mr. Kane shouted. He pulled himself up and wiped tomato sauce and pudding from the seat of his pants. “From now on, there will be no rubber bracelets worn in school!”
Suzanne frowned. “I worked so hard making all of these,” she whispered to Katie. “What am I supposed to do with them now?”
Katie shook her head. She had no idea.
But Katie knew exactly what to do with hers. She was sure
her
bracelet was a lucky one! She would do what George had suggested to her earlier in the week. She would give her bracelet to her father. He could wear it for luck when he was on TV.
her
bracelet was a lucky one! She would do what George had suggested to her earlier in the week. She would give her bracelet to her father. He could wear it for luck when he was on TV.
A good luck charm would guarantee that her dad would do well on the show. Now he would have no reason to be nervous at all!
Chapter 8
“The Tick Tock Clock looks so much bigger on TV,” Katie said as she settled into a seat in the TV studio on Friday night.
“I guess it’s just the camera angles that make everything look big on TV,” Katie’s mom replied.
Katie looked around. There sure were a lot of cameras. They were placed all around the stage. Katie hoped they didn’t block her view of her dad.
Katie was too excited to sit still. She turned around and waved to Mr. and Mrs. Fox. They had gotten tickets to the show and were there to cheer Katie’s dad on.
“Why did Daddy have to go backstage already?” Katie asked her mom. “The show doesn’t start for a while.”
“They had to put a microphone on him, and do his hair and makeup,” her mom explained.
“Do you think they’ll make Daddy wear lipstick?” Katie asked her mother.
Mrs. Carew smiled. “Imagine him with bright red lips,” she joked.
“Now
that
would be funny,” Katie said with a giggle.
that
would be funny,” Katie said with a giggle.
It was getting kind of noisy in the studio now. The seats in the audience were filling up. The show was completely sold out. Katie wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t every day that a big show like
Tick, Tock, Clock
came to Cherrydale!
Tick, Tock, Clock
came to Cherrydale!
The people without tickets would also be watching. Louie had set up a TV right in the middle of his restaurant.
Cinnamon, the woman who owned the candy store in the Cherrydale Mall, had a TV, too—and she was giving out candy watches to anyone who came by to watch
Tick, Tock, Clock
with her.
Tick, Tock, Clock
with her.
Mr. and Mrs. Derkman had promised not to miss the show. They were going to watch it with Mr. Brigandi, another of Katie’s neighbors.
Katie’s friends had all promised to get their homework done really early so they could be allowed to watch TV.
Katie was very proud. She couldn’t wait for everyone to see how smart her dad was.
But the waiting was getting harder and harder. Katie looked at the Tick Tock Clock. Only five minutes to go.
“I wish the show would start already,” Katie told her mother.
“I know,” Mrs. Carew agreed. “I’m getting so jittery just sitting here. I hope your father is trying to stay calm. Last night he was so nervous he was shouting out facts in his sleep.”
Katie frowned. Her dad had been a bundle of nerves ever since Katie had reminded him about how many people would be watching him on TV.
“Cross your fingers, honey, to give Daddy good luck,” Mrs. Carew said.
Good luck
.
.
Oh, no! She’d forgotten to give her father his good luck charm. She couldn’t let him go onstage without that! Quickly she leaped up from her seat.
“Katie, where are you going?” Mrs. Carew asked her.
“I have to give something to Daddy!” Katie replied as she ran toward the backstage area.
“You can’t go back there!” Mrs. Carew shouted after her.
But Katie didn’t listen. She had to reach her daddy in time!
Chapter 9
The people backstage were all very busy. They were talking to each other through their headsets as they ran around checking on wires and lights and things. They were all too focused on their work to even notice the redheaded fourth-grade girl who had slipped backstage.
Katie was glad of that. She didn’t want to get sent back to her seat. Katie just had to find her father!
“Two minutes till showtime,” she heard one of the women say into her headset. “Let’s get the three contestants onstage.”
Oh, no! Katie didn’t see her father anywhere. In fact, she didn’t see
anyone
who looked like a contestant. The only people around were the folks with the headsets and clipboards.
anyone
who looked like a contestant. The only people around were the folks with the headsets and clipboards.
Quickly Katie hurried down an empty hallway lined with doors. “Daddy!” she called out, knocking on the first door. “Are you in there?”
Katie waited for a reply. There was no answer.
“Daddy, it’s me, Katie,” she said, knocking on the second door.
Again, there was no answer.
“Sixty seconds till showtime,” she heard the woman shout.
As Katie looked around frantically, she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She pulled her blazer around her tightly.
But that didn’t make her any warmer. A wool blazer was no match for this wind.
This
was the magic wind.
This
was the magic wind.
Uh-oh!
Within seconds, the magic wind began to blow harder and harder. It circled around Katie like a tornado.
“Oh, no! Not now, please!” Katie cried out as the magic wind blew wildly around her.
Katie wanted to cry. She didn’t want to switcheroo—especially not now. Not when her daddy was about to be on TV!
And then, suddenly, it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie. She’d been turned into someone else . . . switcheroo!
The question was,
who
?
who
?
Chapter 10
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked down at her shoes. Her red shoes were gone. Brown loafers were on her feet now.
She wasn’t wearing her black and white skirt and blazer, either. Instead she had on a pair of light brown slacks and a pale blue shirt.
Katie knew that shirt well. She’d helped pick it out . . .
for her father
!
for her father
!
Katie gulped nervously. She looked around. She was behind a wooden stand. There was a blue buzzer on the stand by her right hand.
There was a woman standing on one side of her and a man on the other. They were both behind wooden stands, too.
Other books
A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 by Jacquelyn Frank
Doc Savage: The Miracle Menace by Lester Dent, Will Murray, Kenneth Robeson
Remedy Z: Solo by Dan Yaeger
Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) by Taylor, Theodora
Pesadilla antes de Navidad by Daphne Skinner
Amelia Peabody Omnibus 1-4 by Elizabeth Peters
The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant
Foreign Agent by Brad Thor
The One in My Heart by Sherry Thomas
The Little French Guesthouse by Helen Pollard
