Gotcha! Gotcha Back! (5 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

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Now, beneath the giant picture of the principal’s nose it read: “Mr. Kane Picks.”
Mr. Kane was definitely not going to like that. Katie had to fix it right away!
She began pressing more keys on the keyboard.
Bling!
The computer screen went blank. Then the front page of the newspaper reappeared.
This time, Katie realized she had changed two headlines. “4A Aces Math Tests” and “Art from Ink Stains” had been mixed together. Now the headline read: “Math Test Stinks.”
Oh, no!
That wasn’t what Mandy had written at all!
Katie began moving the mouse around the screen. She just had to fix this before someone found out what she had done.
Chapter 9
Bling! Bling!
The computer blurted out lots of warning sounds as Katie moved and clicked the mouse, trying to fix the newspaper. She moved her fingers as quickly as she could. But Katie wasn’t fast enough.
Before she could make things right again, Mr. G. spotted her in the computer lab.
“George,” the teacher called out as he walked into the room. “What are you doing?”
At first Katie didn’t answer. She had been so focused on fixing the newspaper that she had forgotten that she was George now.
But Mr. G. had no idea that George was really Katie. “George?” the teacher repeated.
“I ... um ...” Katie stammered.
Mr. G. didn’t wait for her to think of an answer. Instead, he walked toward her, and peered over her shoulder at the computer screen.
“Oh, George,” Mr. G. said. “This time you have gone too far.”
“But Mr. G.,” Katie began. “Mandy and Suzanne were going to print this awful picture of George ... I mean of
me,
and—” Katie told the teacher.
Mr. G. shook his head. “That doesn’t give you the right to make a mess of the
Class
4A Express,” he said.
Katie was shocked. Her teacher’s voice was very stern—sort of like Mrs. Derkman’s when she got angry. She had never seen Mr. G. like this before.
“But ...” Katie began.
“No ‘buts’ about it, George,” Mr. G. said. He took a deep breath. “You go on home now. We’ll talk about this again in the morning.”
There was no one outside the school building. Everyone was either at home or at an after-school activity. Katie was the only one there.
Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She pulled on the hood of George’s black skateboarding sweatshirt. But she could still feel the cold wind.
Katie knew what that meant. This was no ordinary wind! This was the magic wind. No sweatshirt would ever block
that
out!
The magic wind swirled faster and faster. Before long, it was circling wildly around Katie, angrily blowing icy-cold wind right in her face.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone. Katie Carew was back.
And so was George Brennan. He was standing right next to Katie. Only he didn’t know how he’d gotten there!
Chapter 10
“Katie Kazoo, what are you doing here?” George asked Katie. “Actually, what am I doing here? I don’t remember coming back to the front of the school. All I remember is that I had skateboarding after school. Sort of.” He frowned. “Boy, do I feel weird. For some strange reason I don’t feel like I got to do any skateboarding at all.”
Katie sighed.
Strange reason.
That pretty much said it all.
“So ... uh ... are you going home now?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
George nodded. “And then I’m going to the mall. I’m going to get a new pen.”
“You’re all excited about a pen?” Katie asked him. Now she was the one who was confused.
“Not just any pen. This pen has disappearing ink,” George explained. “I thought I would loan it to someone. They’ll use it to take notes. And in a few seconds, all their notes will disappear!” He began to laugh hysterically.
“That’s not funny,” Katie warned.
“Sure it is. You’ll see,” George assured her.
“Don’t you think you’re in enough trouble after this afternoon?” Katie said.
“What
about
this afternoon?” George asked her.
Katie frowned. Of course George didn’t know what she was talking about. It was
Katie
who had been in the computer lab. Not George.
“So you don’t remember anything about the computer room?” Katie asked him.
George scrunched up his face, thinking. “Well, I sort of remember something about doing something with a computer. At least I think I do. I’m not sure. It’s all kind of blurry. But I couldn’t have been in there. I was at skateboarding. Wasn’t I?”
Katie sighed. “I guess so. Sure,” she said slowly.
But she knew that wasn’t the truth. Still, she couldn’t tell George about the magic wind. He never would have believed her.
But Katie had to make him believe her about one thing. The pranks had to stop. “Look, George, trust me,” she warned. “No more practical jokes, okay?” George smiled, but didn’t answer. Instead he hopped on his skateboard and rode off.
Chapter 11
“Sit down, everyone,” Mr. Guthrie instructed the class as the bell rang.
Katie frowned. Usually, Mr. G. smiled when he said that. He was always anxious to get the day started. But today, her teacher was not grinning. He looked tired, and sort of sad.
Katie frowned. She knew why Mr. G. was upset. And she felt really badly about it. But probably not as bad as George was about to feel.
“Today we’re going to learn a different kind of lesson,” Mr. G. told the class.
The kids all sat there silently. They could tell something was very wrong.
“Yesterday, I found out that one of our students sneaked into the computer room after school,” Mr. G. continued.
Katie looked over at George. He was sitting in his beanbag calmly. He really didn’t know what Mr. G. was talking about.
Then Katie looked over at Mandy. Katie could tell she was kind of nervous by the way she was twirling her pencil. Mandy probably thought Mr. G. was talking about her and Suzanne.
“No one is allowed in the computer room without a teacher,” Mr. G. continued. “You all know that.”
“I was just working on the newspaper,” Mandy blurted out. “I—”
Mr. G. looked at her with surprise. “You were in there, too?” he asked Mandy.
“Well, Suzanne and I were finishing an article, but—” Mandy began.
“Suzanne Lock was working on our class newspaper?” Mr. G. sounded confused. “Why would she do that?”
“She had information about the person who has been pulling all the practical jokes,” Mandy said. “She was an unnamed source.”
“Who you just named,” Kevin Camilleri said. He laughed. “Nice one, Mandy.”
Mandy blushed.
“Well, I have also discovered who our practical joker is,” Mr. G. continued. “George, do you want to tell Mandy what you did to this week’s
Class 4A Express?”
“Me?” George replied. “I didn’t touch the newspaper.
Mr. G. pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. “Are you saying you didn’t do this?” he asked. He held up a copy of the front page of the newspaper.
Everyone stared at the paper.
Oh, boy,
Katie thought nervously as she stared at Mr. Kane’s giant nose, and the mixed-up headlines.
This is so not good.
“I didn’t do anything,” George insisted. “At least I don’t think I did. I sort of remember being in the computer room, but I couldn’t have been. I had skateboarding after school. At least I
think
I did.”
“George,” Mr. G. said sternly. “I saw you there.”
“But, I didn‘t—” George began.
Before he could finish his sentence, Kevin began laughing. “George, that’s hilarious!” he exclaimed. “Look at the size of Principal Kane’s schnozzola!”
“Math tests definitely do stink,” Kadeem chuckled. “This the funniest thing you’ve ever done, George.”

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