My Pops Is Tops! (2 page)

She bowed to Mr. G.
“Konnichi wa,”
she said.

Mr. G. bowed back. “Very good, Katie.”

“I like your bathrobe,” Emma Stavros told Mr. G.

“It’s called a kimono,” Mr. G. explained. “It’s a traditional Japanese costume.”

“So we’re Japan in the Olympics, huh?” Andy Epstein asked Mr. G.

“Good guess,” Mr. G. replied with a grin. He pointed to a white flag with a big red circle in the center of it. “That’s our flag,” he said. “The Japanese flag.”

Mr. G. walked over to the corner of the room, where there were some pink paper flowers, miniature paper swans and lanterns, and small Japanese fans. “Those are for decorating your beanbags,” he told the kids.

“Cool!” George shouted out.

Katie had to agree.

The kids in Mr. G.’s class didn’t sit at desks. They sat in beanbag chairs instead. Mr. G. believed that kids learned better when they were comfortable.

Every time class 4A started a new unit, the kids got to decorate their beanbag chairs. When they were learning about birds, they used twigs to turn their beanbags into nests. When they were studying bugs, they covered their beanbags in tiny plastic insects and spiders.

“When you’re finished, we’ll have a traditional Japanese snack,” Mr. G. told the class.

“Oh, yum! Are we having sushi?” Mandy asked.

“What’s that?” Kevin asked.

“It’s raw fish and cold rice wrapped in seaweed,” Mandy explained.

“Ugh,” George exclaimed, pretending to gag. “Gross.”

“Blech!” Kevin added.

“It’s delicious,” Mandy insisted. “I eat it all the time.”

Katie frowned. She hoped sushi wasn’t the snack. And not just because it sounded awful. Katie was a vegetarian. She refused to eat anything that had a face. And fish had faces.
Fish
faces—but faces just the same.

“No, we’re not going to be eating sushi,” Mr. G. told the class.

Phew.
Katie breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re having green tea cakes,” the teacher continued.

“Green cake?” Emma W. asked. “I’ve never had anything like that.”

“You will today,” Mr. G. told her. “And I bet you love it!”

“I thought those cakes were really yummy,” George said as he, Kevin, Katie, and Emma W. left school together at the end of the day.

“We could tell,” Emma replied, laughing. “You ate five of them.”

George shrugged. “I hate wasting food. And there were a lot left.”

“They were pretty good,” Katie said. “But I still like my mom’s cookies better.”

“Your mom does make amazing cookies,” George agreed.

“Wait up!” Suzanne shouted. Ms. Sweet had just dismissed class 4B. Suzanne, Jeremy, and Becky caught up with Katie and her friends.

“What country did you guys get?” Jeremy asked Katie.

“Japan,” Katie told him. “It’s pretty cool. You should see what Mr. G. did to our classroom.”

“What country is your class?” Kevin asked Jeremy.

“Liechtenstein,” Jeremy said.

“Lickin’
where
?” George asked.

“Liechtenstein,” Jeremy repeated.

“I already know how to spell it,” Suzanne announced. “L-I-E
—
”

Becky cut her off. “It’s a little country between Austria and Switzerland.”

“
Real
little,” Jeremy said. “The whole country is smaller than Washington, D.C.”

“Oh, man, that’s rotten,” George said.

“What is?” Jeremy asked.

“That you guys got such a weird, tiny country,” George told him.

“It’s not weird,” Suzanne insisted. “I think it’s wonderful. We got a
fascinating
country. Liechtenstein is very cool.”

“I thought you wanted France,” Katie said.

“Liechtenstein is even cooler,” Suzanne replied. “It’s famous for its skiing. And you know what a great skier I am.”

Katie frowned. Actually, the last time she and Suzanne went skiing, Suzanne spent most of her time falling. But Katie didn’t bring that up. She figured that deep down, Suzanne was kind of bummed about being stuck with a country no one had ever heard of.

“There’s nothing new to learn about Japan,” Suzanne continued. “Everyone’s been to a Japanese restaurant. But who’s ever tried food from Liechtenstein?”

“What is their food like?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure it’s delicious,” Suzanne told her.

“We had green tea cakes for snack today,” Katie pointed out.

“Were they good?” Becky asked.

“So-so,” Katie said.

“Big deal, green tea cake,” Suzanne said. “Frankly, I think you’re secretly jealous. I bet you all wish you got Liechtenstein as your country instead!”

Katie’s eyes opened wide. “We do not wish that at all!” she exclaimed angrily. “We don’t wish anything!”

“Whoa, Katie Kazoo, chill out,” Kevin said, calling her by her nickname. “It’s no big deal. It’s just some dumb school Olympics.”

Katie blushed. She was embarrassed for having shouted like that. But she was really upset. Not about having Japan for a country instead of Liechtenstein, though. Katie was upset because Suzanne had accused her of wishing.

Katie never wished for anything anymore.
Ever.

It had all started one horrible day back in third grade. Because of Katie, her team had lost the football game. Then she’d splashed mud all over her favorite jeans. But the worst thing was when Katie let out the loudest burp of her life—right in front of the whole class.

That night, Katie made a wish that she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead right at that moment, because the very next day the magic wind came.

The magic wind was a really powerful tornado that blew only around Katie. It was so strong, it could blow her right out of her body . . .
and into someone else’s
!

The first time the magic wind blew, it turned Katie into Speedy the hamster, the pet in her third-grade class. Katie spent the whole morning going round and round on a hamster wheel and chewing on Speedy’s wooden chew sticks. Boring! When she’d finally escaped, she wound up inside George’s smelly sneaker. That had been really gross!

And then there was the time Katie had turned into Suzanne just as she was about to go onstage for a big fashion show. Somehow Katie had managed to put Suzanne’s leather pants on backward. And she’d had a really tough time walking in those high-heeled shoes. In fact, she’d fallen right on her face! Afterward, Suzanne was really embarrassed—and confused. She had no idea that it hadn’t really been her up there on the runway.

Then there was the terrible time the magic wind switcherooed Katie into Jeremy’s kitten, Lucky. Katie felt just awful about getting into a fight with her own cocker spaniel, Pepper. Pepper chased her right up a tree! Katie didn’t blame him, though. After all, cats and dogs just don’t get along.

The magic wind was the reason Katie didn’t trust wishes anymore. And she was never—
ever
—going to make one again.

“I have to get going,” Katie said, in an effort to get out of there before her friends asked any more questions. “Or I’ll be late for my cooking class.”

“I’m off to my modeling class,” Suzanne said. “I want to work on my posture. I’m going to be standing up tall when Liechtenstein leads the victory parade!”

“Mmm . . . tofu teriyaki,” Mr. Carew remarked as he sat down at the dinner table that night. “This is something different.”

“It was Katie’s idea,” Mrs. Carew told him. “They’re studying Japan in school.”

“We’re not just studying Japan—we
are
Japan,” Katie corrected her mother. “At least in the school Olympics.”

“Oh, you’re having the Olympics at school,” Katie’s dad said, piling some rice onto his plate. “That should be fun for you.”

“For all of us,” Katie told him. “It’s a parent-student competition. Mr. G. says we’re going to have a three-legged race, a wheel-barrow race, a relay race, and a sack race. I think there’s going to be an egg-toss contest, too. And the whole thing starts with a parade of countries, just like the real Olympics do.”

“Well, count me in,” Mr. Carew said. “I love stuff like that.”

“Me too,” Katie’s mom assured her. “I’m still a pretty fast runner.”

“Aruff!”
Pepper barked.

Katie giggled. “Sorry, Pep,” she said, patting the chocolate-and-white cocker spaniel on the head. “This is just for humans.” She turned to her parents. “The games start at nine Sunday morning. But I was thinking we should get there early to warm up.”

Mr. and Mrs. Carew stopped eating for a moment and looked at each other. Katie gulped. She’d seen them do that before. It never meant good news.

“
This
Sunday?” Katie’s dad asked slowly.

“I know that doesn’t give you much time to get in shape,” Katie said. “So maybe you should do some jumping jacks and sit-ups after dinner.”