Out to Lunch (2 page)

Katie followed her friend out the door.

 

 

Katie tossed her stone toward the hopscotch board. It landed in the middle of the three. Quickly Katie began jumping up and down the board. As she bent down to pick up her stone on the way back, she heard Jeremy’s voice over her head.

“You guys want to throw the ball around a little bit?” he asked.

Katie hopped off the board and smiled at Jeremy. “Maybe later,” she said. “We’re kind of in the middle of a game.”

Suzanne gave a deep sigh. “He can see that, Katie.” She turned to Jeremy. “Can’t you?”

Jeremy nodded. “I just thought maybe you two would want to play catch, that’s all. You said you wanted to work on your aim,” he reminded Katie.

“I do,” Katie said kindly. “How about after we finish with hopscotch?”

Jeremy shrugged and pushed his glasses further up on his nose. “Sure. See ya later.”

As Jeremy walked off, Katie looked at Suzanne. “You sounded kind of angry. Are you mad at Jeremy or something?” she asked.

Suzanne shook her head. “No. I just thought it was really rude of him to try to break up our game.”

Katie nodded. “I guess we could have asked him if he wanted to play with us instead.”

“He wouldn’t have wanted to play hopscotch,” Suzanne told Katie. “None of the boys play hopscotch anymore.”

Katie shrugged. Suzanne was probably right. But they could have asked Jeremy to play anyway, just to be nice.

Just then Mandy Banks came strolling over. Miriam and Zoe were right behind her. They were each carrying flat, smooth stones—perfect for hopscotch.

“Can we play with you?” Mandy asked.

Suzanne smiled brightly. “Sure. You’re right after Katie, Mandy. Then Zoe, then Miriam. This game is for third-grade girls only . . . right Katie?”

Katie didn’t answer. She didn’t like it when games were just for girls or just for boys. She was much happier when everybody got to play. Katie tucked her red hair behind her ears. Then she reached out and tossed her stone toward the square with the four in it. The small rock soared right over the box, and landed on the eight instead.

“Your turn, Mandy,” Suzanne called out cheerfully.

Classroom 3A was a wild place after lunch.

“Look out, incoming plane,” George shouted as he threw a paper airplane toward Kevin.

Kevin laughed. “Back at ya!” He tossed the plane back to George.

Suzanne ducked as the paper plane shot over her head. “Hey! Watch it!” she shouted at Kevin.

“That’s enough now,” Mrs. Derkman told the class. “Recess is over. Please take out your writer’s notebooks. We’re going to work on our biographies.”

Katie smiled. She loved writing biographies. Right now she was working on one about her dog, Pepper. Katie had taken care of him since he was a puppy. Pepper was like a brother to her—even better because Pepper didn’t argue or ask to share her toys.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
Katie looked over toward the class hamster’s cage. Boy, did Speedy’s wheel need oiling.

Mrs. Derkman must have heard the squeaking, too, because she said, “Oh, class, before I forget—the classroom floors are being cleaned this weekend. I will need someone to take Speedy home. If you’re interested, bring me a note from your parents saying it’s okay.”

Katie knew she couldn’t even think about bringing Speedy home for the weekend—not with Pepper living there. Dogs and hamsters didn’t always get along so well.

Still, Katie really wished she could take Speedy home. She cared about him more than anyone else in the whole class. Maybe that was because Katie was the only one in the class who had actually been Speedy.

It was true! Katie had actually turned into the class hamster for a whole morning!

It happened a few weeks ago. After a really, really bad day, Katie had made the mistake of wishing she could be anyone but herself.

There must have been some sort of shooting star flying through the sky at the very moment Katie had made the wish, because it had come true. (And everyone knows when you make a wish on a shooting star, it comes true!) The only thing was, instead of turning into some
one
else, Katie had turned into some
thing
else—Speedy!

Katie shivered a little as she remembered being a hamster. It was really scary. She thought she’d be stuck in that tiny, smelly glass cage forever. But eventually she’d gotten loose. And luckily, once she was free, Katie had somehow turned back into herself.

Katie didn’t understand how any of it had happened. All she knew was that she was really glad to be an eight-year-old girl again.

Ever since she’d spent time in Speedy’s body, Katie had taken great care of the little hamster. She always made sure his water bowl was full, gave him plenty of chew sticks, and brought him fresh carrots from home.

Of course, Katie had never told anyone about turning into Speedy. She didn’t think they would believe her. She wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t happened to her.

“Hey, Katie Kazoo, if I took Speedy home, you know what I would do with him?” George whispered from the desk next to Katie’s.

“What?” Katie whispered back.

“Keep him in the refrigerator,” George answered.

Katie looked at George with surprise. “Why would you do that?”

“To keep him from getting spoiled,” George told her. “Nobody likes a spoiled hamster!”

Katie smiled and sighed. She knew George was only joking. George would never take Speedy home. He was afraid of hamsters!

As soon as the school bell rang, Katie packed up her backpack and hurried toward the door. She couldn’t wait to get out of the school. It had been a very long afternoon.

Jeremy and Katie met up on the school’s front steps. “I’m definitely asking my mother if I can take Speedy home,” he announced.

Katie smiled. She knew how badly Jeremy wanted a pet. His mother kept saying she was waiting to see if he was responsible enough to care for one. “Great!” Katie exclaimed. “Once your mom sees how you feed Speedy, give him water, and change the dirty litter in his cage, she’ll get you your own pet for sure.”

“I have to change the litter?” Jeremy asked, scrunching up his nose.

“Of course,” Katie told him. “Otherwise, it starts to stink!”

Before Jeremy could answer, Suzanne came bounding down the steps toward them. “I’m so excited!” she announced.

“How come?” Katie asked her.

“ ’Cause I’m going to ask my mom to let me bring Speedy home this weekend. It’ll be so much fun to have him there. I’m going to build him a whole hamster playground. I can use toilet paper tubes, egg cartons, and . . . ”

“Wait a minute,” Jeremy interrupted her. “
You’re
not bringing Speedy home.”

“Why not?” Suzanne asked.

“Because
I’m
bringing him home,” he told her.

“Are not!” Suzanne exclaimed.

“Am, too!” Jeremy shouted back.

“Yeah, who says?” Suzanne demanded.

“I do!” Jeremy yelled.

Suzanne looked straight at Katie. “Which one of us do
you
think Speedy should go home with?” she asked.

Katie wasn’t sure what to say. As she looked from Jeremy to Suzanne, she wasn’t sure who Speedy would be happier with. Jeremy promised he would take good care of Speedy, but Katie knew Jeremy had a Little League game on Saturday. What if he was so busy thinking about baseball that he forgot to feed Speedy?

On the other hand, Suzanne might not be able to take care of Speedy very well, either. Suzanne’s mom had just had a new baby. Now that little Heather had arrived, things were really crazy at Suzanne’s house. People were always stopping by to see the new baby, and everyone was busy running around, changing diapers and heating up bottles. What if someone knocked the lid off of Speedy’s cage by accident? The hamster would be long gone before anyone in her house even realized he’d escaped.

“Come on, Katie, who do you think should get to take Speedy home?” Suzanne asked Katie again.

Katie had a sick feeling in her stomach. No matter what she said, somebody would be mad at her. So, instead of making a decision, Katie walked away. “I have to get home and feed Pepper,” she told her friends quickly. “Talk to you later.”

The next day there was trouble in room 3A. Jeremy and Suzanne both came to school with notes from their parents saying they could bring Speedy home for the weekend. Katie hoped that Mrs. Derkman would just pick one kid or the other to take the hamster. But that’s not what the teacher decided to do.

“You two will have to work this out between you,” Mrs. Derkman told Jeremy and Suzanne. “You have until the end of the week to tell me what you decide.”

Katie thought that was just about the most terrible thing her teacher could have done. Neither Jeremy nor Suzanne was going to give in. It didn’t seem like her friends even cared about taking care of Speedy anymore. All they cared about was winning.

The whole class was caught up in the war between Suzanne and Jeremy. All the boys were siding with Jeremy. The girls were all on Suzanne’s side—except Katie. She didn’t know whose side to be on. Jeremy and Suzanne were both her best friends.

Unfortunately, Jeremy and Suzanne weren’t friends with each other anymore.

“You’re going to sit with me, aren’t you, Katie?” Suzanne asked as class 3A walked into the cafeteria.

“Who says she’s gonna sit with you?” Jeremy interrupted. “She was my friend before she ever met you.”

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “That’s just because your moms knew each other when they were kids,” she explained. “You guys probably wouldn’t have become friends if it weren’t for that.”

George pulled a bag of potato chips from his lunch bag. “Do you know why best friends are like potatoes?” he asked jokingly.

“No, why?” Katie said.

“Because they’re always there when the
chips
are down!” George started to laugh. “Get it?”