Holly's Jolly Christmas (7 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: Holly's Jolly Christmas
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“I can’t,” Jeremy admitted. “I just know that one prayer.”
“And you did it beautifully,” Mrs. Fox said. She handed Jeremy a small box. “Happy first night of Hanukkah.”
“Thanks,” Jeremy said excitedly.
“Don’t think we forgot you, Katie,” Mrs. Fox said. She handed Katie a box as well.
“Wow! Thank you,” Katie exclaimed. She hadn’t been expecting a present. “You open yours first,” she told Jeremy.
Jeremy opened his gift box. He pulled out something that looked like a watch without the band. “How do I wear this watch?” he asked.
“It’s not a watch,” his dad told him. “It’s a pedometer.”
“A pedo-
what
?” Jeremy asked.
“A pedometer,” Mr. Fox repeated. “You put it in your pocket. It tells you how many steps you walk or run in a day.”
“How does it do that?” Jeremy asked.
Mr. Fox shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know it works.”
Jeremy put the pedometer in his jeans pocket and began to walk around the room. “One, two, three, four, five, six,” he said as he counted his steps. Then he pulled the pedometer out of his pocket. “Wow. It says six steps. This thing really does work.”
“Wait until you use it a whole day,” Katie told him. “I’ll bet you walk ten thousand steps. Maybe even a million steps on the days you have soccer practice!”
“Cool!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Now you open your present, Katie.”
Katie didn’t have to be told twice. She opened the box. Inside was a purple, plastic top with Hebrew letters on it. There was also a package of chocolate coins covered in gold foil. “A dreidel!” Katie exclaimed.
“And chocolate money,” Jeremy reminded her. “Don’t forget the chocolate.”
“I could never forget chocolate,” Katie said with a smile. “I love chocolate.”
“I remembered how much you liked playing the dreidel game last year, so we thought you’d like one of your own,” Mrs. Fox said.
“I love it!” Katie exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”
“Can we play dreidel right now?” Jeremy asked his mom.
“Sure. The potato pancakes have to fry a little longer, anyway,” she answered.
“Let’s use your dreidel,” Jeremy told Katie. “You can spin first.”
“Thanks,” Katie said. She sat down on the floor and gave her top a good spin.
“I love Hanukkah!” Jeremy exclaimed as they watched the top spin around and around.
“I love this whole season!” Katie agreed.
Chapter 13
What Katie
didn’t
love, however, was working on the play with Suzanne. But that was exactly what she was stuck doing on Sunday afternoon. And listening to Suzanne boss everyone around was really getting old.
“James, you have to wear your elf hat,” Katie heard Suzanne insisting to one of the actors in the play. “How else will the audience know you’re an elf ?”
“There’s no audience here, Suzanne. It’s just a rehearsal,” James answered her. “And besides, I’m not even in this scene. I’m going out in the hall to make a phone call.”
“Oh,” Suzanne said. “Well, you should wear your hat, anyway. That way you’ll stay in character!”
James shook his head and ignored Suzanne. Katie didn’t blame him. Suzanne might be her best friend, but she was also a real pain in the neck.
“Make sure that sleigh is strong and won’t break,” Suzanne told Henry, the man who was building Santa’s sleigh. “My little sister is going to be sitting on that during the play.”
Katie was surprised at that. Suzanne usually didn’t care what happened to Heather. But of course, right now, having a little sister in the play gave her a chance to boss someone around.
“Don’t worry, kiddo,” Henry said. “Your sister will be safe on this.”
Katie could tell from the look on her face that Suzanne didn’t like being called “kiddo.” That didn’t sound like something you would call a stage manager. But Suzanne didn’t say anything. After all, Henry was a grown-up.
“Could you guys paint a little faster?” Suzanne asked, as she walked over to where Katie and the other scenery people were working. “This forest is taking longer to paint than a real one takes to grow.”
Grrrr.
That made Katie really mad. She leaped up, and waved her paintbrush at Suzanne. “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try it?”
Suzanne jumped back. “I can’t believe you did that!” she yelled at Katie. “You got paint on my sweater!”
“And on your face, too,” one of the other painters pointed out. “And in your hair.” She began to laugh.
Soon all the scenery painters were laughing. “A little more paint on your face and you could stand in the background and be one of the trees,” one of them said.
Suzanne’s eyes became angry, little slits. She glared at Katie. “Thanks a lot!”
“Oh, come on,” Katie said. “What’s the big deal? We have paint all over us. And we’re not complaining.”
“You’re
supposed
to be a mess,” Suzanne told her. “You’re scenery people. But I’m in charge!”
“Suzanne!” Mr. Porter shouted.
Suzanne took a deep breath, and smoothed out her sweater. “I have to go.” She tried to sound very dignified. “Obviously, Mr. Porter has something very important for me to do.”
Suzanne walked across the stage. “Yes, Mr. Porter, here I am.”
“I need you to go make some more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the cast,” he told her.
Katie choked back a laugh. That didn’t sound very important. At least not to her.
But Suzanne said, “Yes sir, Mr. Porter. I know how important it is to keep the cast from being hungry.”
Katie laughed. What a very Suzanne thing to say!
A few minutes later, as Katie was helping to arrange some of the wooden trees backstage, Suzanne came walking back with a tray full of sandwiches.
“Come and get it!” she called out to the cast.
The singers, dancers, and actors all came running over. They were so anxious to eat the sandwiches that they nearly pushed Suzanne over. She had to jump out of the way to keep from getting trampled. As she jumped, she brushed against one of the trees.
“Suzanne!” Katie shouted. “That one was still wet.”
Suzanne looked down at her sweater. Sure enough, another streak of green paint was there. “It wasn’t my fault,” she told Katie.
“It wasn’t mine, either,” Katie said. “You fix it.”
But before Suzanne could answer, Mr. Porter called out her name. “Suzanne, a few members of the cast are going to run through the scene in Santa’s Workshop. I need you to stand backstage and make sure they get their lines right.”
“Yes, Mr. Porter,” Suzanne said. She picked up her script and walked over to the side of the stage, just behind the curtain.
“Okay, cast,” Mr. Newman shouted. “Action.”
“It’s almost Christmas,” one of the elf actors said loudly from behind a workbench. “We have to finish these toys quickly.”
“I wonder how Santa knows where all these toys belong,” said another.
“Santa’s smart,” a third actor said.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” said a fourth. “The kids will love these toys. They’re perfect!”
Then the music began to play. The actors playing the elves started to dance in a circle. They spun each other by the elbows and kicked their feet in the air.
From where she was working, Katie could see Suzanne backstage. She was kicking her feet in time to the music. When it came time for the dancers to spin each other, Suzanne spun around.
Oh no! Katie watched, her eyes opening wide in horror, as Suzanne lost her balance and grabbed for a long rope . . . the rope for the curtain!
Woosh!
The curtain came down, right in the middle of the dance.
Bam!
Two of the dancers bashed into each other.
“Ouch!” the dancers cried out.
“SUZANNE!” Mr. Porter exclaimed.
“Get that girl out of here!” Mr. Newman shouted.
Suzanne looked like she was about to cry.
Suddenly, Katie felt kind of bad for Suzanne. No matter how bossy she had been, she didn’t deserve to be yelled at like that. It wasn’t like she’d dropped the curtain on purpose.
A little while later, Katie found herself in the Community Center lobby with Suzanne. The girls were waiting for Mrs. Lock to pick them up from rehearsal.
“Mr. Newman sure was mean,” Katie said, trying to make Suzanne feel better.
But Suzanne didn’t seem upset at all.
“Directors can be like that,” she said. “Besides, Mr. Porter and I had a long talk. He gave me a new job. It’s better suited to my talents.”
Katie wasn’t sure what talents Suzanne was talking about. “What are you going to be doing?”
“You’ll see on Tuesday night,” Suzanne told her. “It’s a surprise.”
Chapter 14
On Tuesday night, Suzanne was the first person Katie and her friends saw when they arrived at the Community Center for the show. She was in the lobby selling candy and soda.
“This is your big job?” Jeremy asked. “The one you were bragging about all day in school?”
Suzanne nodded. “I’m in charge of the refreshments. That’s a very important job. These snacks raise a lot of money for the Community Center.”
“I’ll have two boxes of chocolate-covered raisins,” George said.
“That will be two dollars,” Suzanne told him.
George handed Suzanne the money. “Thanks,” he said.
“How is this job suited to your talents?” Katie asked her.
“Well, I’m a model, right?” Suzanne reminded Katie.
Katie didn’t say anything. Suzanne wasn’t really a model. She just took modeling classes. But Suzanne always insisted that was the same thing. So Katie just shrugged.
“I
am
a model,” Suzanne insisted. “And models do a lot of advertising, on TV and in magazines. I’m advertising this candy, by telling people what we have. I’m the spokesmodel for all this candy.”
Katie sighed. It was incredible the way Suzanne could turn anything around to make her look good. “You’re amazing, Suzanne,” she said.

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