I'm Game

Table of Contents

 

 

 

For Mandy and Ian—NK

 

For Andrea, the Queen of
the Roller Derby—J&W

GROSSET & DUNLAP
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Text copyright © 2006 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2006 by

John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

 

Library of Congress Control Number: 2005037078

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-09985-8

“Hurry up, Daddy, it’s starting!” Katie Carew shouted. She turned on the television set in the living room just as the familiar theme music began to play.

“Welcome to
Tick, Tock, Clock
, the game show that pits speed against smarts!” the show’s star, Bob Ritchey, said.

“Did I miss anything?” Mr. Carew asked as he leaped onto the couch beside Katie.

“Just the song,” Katie assured him. She knew her dad hated missing even a minute of his favorite TV game show.

Katie liked
Tick, Tock, Clock
a lot, too. The questions they asked were usually too hard for her, but she liked watching what happened when the contestants answered incorrectly. They had to do all kinds of weird things in order to stay in the game, like fill a bucket with milk—using only their cupped hands to carry the milk across the stage.

Or search around with their mouths in a big bowl of goo to find a jellybean.

Or catch water balloons on a spoon while they rode on a unicycle.

Or slither through a maze on their bellies like a snake.

The hardest part was that the contestants had to finish their stunt before the Tick Tock Clock buzzed. If they didn’t, they were out of the game.

“Name the capital of New York State,” Bob Ritchey asked the contestants.

“Albany,” Katie’s father replied right away. He smiled confidently. “That was an easy one.”

Katie smiled proudly at her dad. “You’d win if you were on the show,” she said.

Mr. Carew grinned. “Probably. When it comes to answering questions, I’m the champ.”

“Here at home you are,” Katie’s mom teased as she sat down on the couch. “But I’ll bet it’s not that easy when you’re playing against two other people and you have those TV cameras staring at you.”

Mr. Carew shrugged and listened to Bob Ritchey’s next question.

“Whose picture is on the one hundred dollar bill?” Bob asked the contestants.

“Benjamin Franklin,” Katie’s father shouted out.

The contestant on TV said, “President Kennedy.”

“Sorry, that’s incorrect,” Bob Ritchey told the woman on TV. “The correct answer is Benjamin Franklin.”

Mr. Carew nodded. “Told ya,” he said.

Katie and her parents watched as the contestant spun a big wheel. There were six pictures on the wheel: a snake, a bowl of green goo, a chicken, a unicycle, and a cow with a milk pail.

“I wonder what stunt she’ll get,” Katie said.

The wheel went round and round and finally stopped on the picture of a chicken.

Bob Ritchey grinned. “You know what that means,” he said to the audience as he handed the woman a pair of roller skates, a raincoat, and a rain hat. The rain hat had a glass bowl attached to it.

Katie giggled as the woman put on the hat. “Boy, she looks funny.”

Bob Ritchey pointed up. There were three large cardboard chickens swaying overhead from the ceiling.

“Those are the
Tick, Tock, Clock
chickens,” Bob explained to the woman. “As soon as I say ‘go,’ they will start laying eggs. You have one minute to skate around and catch five eggs in the bowl on the top of your head.” He paused and smiled at the camera. “On your mark. Get set. Go!”

Suddenly an egg fell from one chicken and then another. It was hard to tell which chicken would lay the next egg. The woman started skating, trying to catch them in her hat.

She wasn’t very good at it. She kept missing. Raw eggs splattered on the floor. Egg slime sloshed all over her.

“No wonder they gave her a raincoat,” Mrs. Carew noted.

“This is a really hard stunt,” Mr. Carew said.

Katie turned and smiled at her dad. “It would be so great if you could be on the show. I’m sure you would win lots of prizes.”

“I know,” Mr. Carew replied sadly. “But
Tick, Tock, Clock
is filmed in Hollywood. There’s no way I can ever be on it.”

Katie frowned. That just didn’t seem fair.

“Woohoo!” Mr. Carew shouted the next morning. He was reading the newspaper at the breakfast table. “I don’t believe it.”

“What?” Katie and her mom asked him at the same time.

“
Tick, Tock, Clock
,” Mr. Carew replied. “The show is going on a tour. They will be filming in different cities all over the country. And on Friday they’re going to be here!”

“In Cherrydale?” Katie’s mother exclaimed. “
This
Friday?”

“Daddy, you have to get on the show!” Katie cried out.

“This article gives a phone number you can call to try out,” Mr. Carew told her.

“How can you try out over the telephone?” Katie asked her dad.

“It says here that there will be four questions you have to answer,” Mr. Carew read. “If you answer four correctly, then you may be picked to be on
Tick, Tock, Clock
.”

“Call right away!” Katie shouted. “I’ll bet half of the people in Cherrydale are calling that phone number right now.”

Mr. Carew leaped up and ran to the phone.

“Katie, please go get your backpack,” Mrs. Carew said. “I’ll drive you to school on my way to work.”

“But I want to see if Daddy can answer those four questions,” Katie pleaded.

“Sorry,” her mom said. “We’ve got to get going or I’ll be late.”

Katie frowned, but she hurried upstairs. Her chocolate and white cocker spaniel, Pepper, nipped at her heels as she ran.

“Wouldn’t it be so exciting if Daddy got to be on TV?” Katie asked Pepper as she slipped her math worksheet into her homework folder.

Pepper smiled and wagged his tail excitedly. Katie grinned. Sometimes she was sure that her dog understood everything she said.

“See you later,” Katie told Pepper. Then she raced back to the kitchen. “Mom, I’m ready,” she said.

Her mother was standing at the kitchen door. “Shhh . . .” she whispered. Mrs. Carew pointed to the phone. “Daddy’s answering those questions for the test.”

Katie could hardly believe it!

“Madagascar,” Katie’s father said into the phone.

Katie crossed her fingers and her toes. She hoped it was the right answer.

“Yes!” Mr. Carew shouted suddenly.

Katie grinned.