Be Nice to Mice (2 page)

Katie would do just about anything to help animals. But even
she
wasn’t too happy about having to spend time picking up garbage.

“This really stinks,” Andrew groaned.

“It doesn’t stink as bad as that garbage is going to,” Kevin told him.

“Can’t we do something more fun?” George asked their teacher.

Mr. G. smiled. “I’m sure you can find a way to make this fun, George,” he said. “You always do.”

Katie shook her head. Mr. G. probably shouldn’t have said that. Giving George permission to have fun in school could be pretty dangerous.

“Jessica and I are definitely going to win a blue ribbon for our ladybug project,” Suzanne Lock boasted as she and Katie carried their cafeteria trays over to a table at lunchtime.

Katie frowned. Suzanne was her best friend, but sometimes Katie couldn’t stand how stuck-up she acted.

“There are a lot of really good science projects out there,” Katie reminded her. “Emma W. and I spent all day Saturday in the Cherrydale library researching lightning bugs.”

“Jessica and I haven’t started our research yet,” Suzanne told Katie. “But we did go to the mall to buy matching dresses with black and red polka dots. We’re going to wear them at the science fair. We’ll look like ladybugs!”

Katie had a feeling that the science fair judges would be more interested in facts than fashion. But she didn’t tell Suzanne that. Instead, she turned her attention to her other best friend, Jeremy Fox.

“Did Ms. Sweet tell your class about the fourth-grade project?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” Jeremy groaned. “A whole afternoon of picking up candy wrappers, paper cups, and soda cans. Ugh.”

“I saw an old, used baby diaper in that field once,” Manny Gonzalez said. “It stunk!”

“Gross. Not while I’m eating,” George groaned.

Katie rolled her eyes. Nothing anyone had said was more disgusting than what George was doing right then with his food. He had been busy mushing together hot dog pieces, mustard, chocolate pudding, and ketchup.

“Picking up garbage sounds like a really boring project,” Suzanne said. “I wish we could do something more interesting.”

George looked at her. “We could
make it
more interesting,” he suggested.

“How?” Suzanne asked him.

“We could make it a contest,” George told her. “The class that picks up the most trash wins.”

“Wins what?” Suzanne wondered.

George looked down at the mess of food on his plate. “The losing class has to buy the winning class pizza for lunch,” George told her.

“George, that could get expensive,” Emma W. reminded him.

“Not for us,” George assured her. “Class 4A will win. We win at everything.”

“You do not,” Jeremy and Suzanne said in unison.

“Class 4B won last week’s soccer game,” Becky Stern reminded everyone. “Thanks to you, Jeremy,” she added with a smile.

Jeremy blushed.

“So is it a bet?” George asked the kids in 4B.

“You’re on,” Suzanne answered for the class.

George smiled and shook Suzanne’s hand.

“Can we stop talking about garbage?” Miriam Chan asked. “It’s bad enough we have to look at bugs all day in class. I’m tired of thinking about gross things.”

“Just be glad you’re not Selena Sanchez,” Suzanne told her. “She’s using mice in her science project. I’d rather make a bug out of papier-mâché than work with real live mice.”

“Ooh,” Miriam groaned. “I hate mice. They have creepy eyes and those long, stringy tails.”

“I saw Selena bringing them into the science room today. She had them in a little wire cage.” Suzanne shuddered. “They were disgusting.”

Katie gasped. “Selena is using live animals in her project?”

“I guess so,” Suzanne told her. “Why else would she have brought a cage full of live mice to school? They aren’t exactly fashion accessories.”

Usually, Katie would have told Suzanne not to be so nasty. But right now she was too upset to worry about anything her best friend did or said. She shot out of her chair and headed toward the other side of the cafeteria.

“Katie, where are you going?” Miriam called after her.

Katie pointed to a table in the far corner of the cafeteria, where some older kids were sitting and eating their lunches. “I’m going to talk to Selena,” she explained.

All of the fourth-graders gasped.

“But Katie, that’s the
sixth-grade table
!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Sixth-graders never talk to fourth-graders,” Suzanne added. “They’re going to laugh at you if you go over there.”

Katie knew that was probably true. The sixth-graders were the oldest kids in the school. They had all their classes on the top floor of the school—where there was no one else but sixth-graders. They always sat together in one corner of the cafeteria. Katie had even once heard them say that all the kids in the school except for them were babies.

But Katie didn’t care if the big kids called her a baby. She was going over to that table, and she was going to talk to Selena, no matter what.

She had to. The mice needed her!

“What do
you
want?” Mickey, one of the sixth-graders, shouted at Katie as she approached their table.

Katie gulped. Of course she had seen all the sixth-graders up close in the schoolyard. But it was kind of scary walking up to them all together like this. The sixth-graders were so big. If they got really mad at her, they could squash her like a bug—a fourth-grade bug.

“Selena,” Katie said finally in a shaky voice. “Are you really using mice for your science fair project?”

A tall, thin girl with big brown eyes and stick-straight black hair glanced over in Katie’s direction. “You’re Katie, right?” she asked her.

Katie nodded, surprised. She had no idea that any of the sixth-graders actually knew her name.

“How did you hear about my science project?” Selena asked her.

“My friend Suzanne saw you bringing mice to school in a cage,” Katie explained. “We just figured you were using them for your project.”

“Ooh, the little kids are getting
so
smart,” a short, freckle-faced boy joked. “Did you guys figure that out all by yourselves?”

“Good one, Zack,” Mickey chuckled.

Katie frowned. The boys were being really mean.

“I am using mice,” Selena told Katie.

“That’s not very nice,” Katie replied, trying hard to be brave.

“I’m not hurting them,” Selena assured Katie. “I’m just giving them a test.”

“A test?” Katie asked, confused.

Selena nodded. “Each of the mice has a maze to run through. At the end of one maze is a bottle of sugar water. At the end of the next maze there’s a piece of cheese. And at the end of the last maze, there’s some mouse food. I want to know if the mice will move faster if they know there’s a certain kind of food at the end of the maze. They’ll get treats. I’m being nice to them.”

“I don’t think you’re being nice,” Katie disagreed. “You’re
making
the mice be part of your experiment. You didn’t give them a choice. What if they don’t like running through mazes?”

Mickey started to laugh. “What’s she supposed to do? Ask the mice if they want to be part of her science project?” He turned to Zack. “Hey, little mouse. Do you want to run for the cheese?”

“Squeak, squeak!” Zack answered, trying to sound like a mouse.

The boys started to laugh.

Katie could feel her cheeks burning red. She hated it when people made fun of her.

“Isn’t there a different project you and your partner could do?” Katie insisted. “Something without animals?”

“I’m not working with a partner,” Selena said, suddenly sounding kind of annoyed.

“Because no one else thinks mice should be used in a science project?” Katie asked.

“No,” Selena replied. “Because I wanted to do my project on my own. Look, Katie, my science project isn’t any of your business.”

“Why don’t you go back to your
fourth
-grade table,” Mickey added. He folded up his brown paper lunch bag and shot it into a nearby trash can. “Score!” he exclaimed.

“Let’s go outside and shoot some real hoops,” Zack suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Selena agreed. She stood and walked away with Zack and Mickey. The other sixth-graders at the table soon followed, leaving Katie standing there all alone.

“This isn’t over,” Katie muttered to herself as she watched them go. “Selena has to learn to be nice to mice!”

“I’ve got all of our note cards in my backpack,” Emma W. said as she and Katie walked out of school later that afternoon. “We’re going to make a great poster.”

“I know,” Katie said. “But first I—”

Katie never got to finish her sentence. She stopped talking to focus on what was going on outside the school. Jeremy, Becky, Manny, Miriam, and Jessica were exercising right on the front steps.