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Authors: Nancy Krulik

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BOOK: No Biz Like Show Biz
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“Suzanne! Stop talking about yucky stuff !” Katie said. She knew creepy, crawly things like worms really grossed Miriam out. Everyone in the fourth grade knew that.
And now Miriam’s face really did turn kind of green. She clapped her hand over her mouth. “I’ll be back,” Miriam groaned. “I don’t feel so good.”
Suzanne smiled triumphantly as Miriam ran to the restroom backstage. “Gee, I hope she’s okay,” she said. “But if she’s not, I know all her lines. I’m ready to take over.”
Chapter 7
“Okay, now carefully pull the sun across the stage,” Mr. G. told Katie. Katie nodded and, with her teacher’s help, began to pull the thick ropes that were attached to the heavy wooden sun. It had taken more than a week for Katie to draw, paint, and attach the piece of scenery to the ropes. But now it was ready to go.
And just in time. After long weeks of rehearsals, the show was just two days away!
“Wow, it’s working!” Katie squealed with delight as she stood offstage.
“That was perfect!” Mr. G. told her. “It looks like the sun is actually moving across the sky.”
“We did it!” Katie told her teacher.
Mr. G. shook his head. “No,
you
did it, Katie.”
She smiled proudly.
Mr. G. looked down at Katie’s new red sneakers. There wasn’t one drawing on them anywhere. “You’re not doodling as much, are you?”
Katie shook her head. “Just when I’m watching TV or talking on the phone or something.”
“Your scenery is really wonderful, Katie,” Mr. G. told her. “The crystal icicles you hung on the curtains and the wooden trees are amazing. They shimmer like the real thing. What a great idea! And the drawing you did of the frozen lake for the backdrop is really spectacular.”
She smiled proudly. “Thanks,” she replied. “I . . .”
But Katie’s voice was drowned out by the sound of the piano. Miriam was about to sing.
“Snowballs rock! We’re on a roll. He can freeze the planet, but not our souls,” Miriam sang. “So don’t be frightened. Don’t take the Wicked Wind Monster’s jive. The Snow Fairy’s here, and we will survive!”
Katie grinned. Miriam was really good. She was going to be a big hit in the show. Everyone knew it.
But Miriam didn’t brag about getting the lead part or having a great voice, like Suzanne would have if
she’d
gotten the Snow Fairy role. Miriam was too shy and quiet to do that.
Well,
usually
she was shy and quiet. Somehow, once she got onstage, Miriam changed. You could hear her singing all the way from the back of the auditorium.
“Winter’s wild, a wacky time,” Miriam sang out, dancing around the stage and waving her arms. “But sooner or later, the sun’s gotta shine. Mark my words. It’s gonna shine.”
Katie couldn’t believe it. Just a few weeks ago, Katie, Emma, George, Kevin, and Jeremy practically had to beg Miriam to practice one little song. And now she was singing and dancing all around the stage.
As Miriam finished her song, everyone began to clap. “That was great,” Mr. G. told Miriam.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ve been practicing really hard.”
“I can tell.” Then Mr. G. told her to go backstage to the girls’ dressing room. “Ms. Sweet has finished your costume. She’d like you to try it on.”
“Okay,” Miriam replied quietly. She was back to her usual shy self.
As Miriam walked by, Katie smiled at her. “Your voice sounds amazing,” she told her.
“Thanks.” Miriam smiled. “Your sun
looks
amazing.”
“Thanks,” Katie replied. “You know, before that day at my house, I didn’t know you could sing. I guess we still have a lot of stuff to learn about each other.”
Just then Suzanne came walking over to the girls. “I saw the greatest movie on TV last night,” she remarked casually.
“Really?” Miriam replied. “What was it called?”
“The Phantom of the Opera,”
Suzanne told her. “It was a really old movie.”
“What was it about?” Miriam asked Suzanne.
“This creepy guy with only half a face who lives underneath a theater in Paris,” Suzanne told her. “He’s really crazy. He wants to kill people, and he kidnaps the girl who is the star of the opera.”
Miriam gulped. “He lives under a
theater
?”
Suzanne nodded and looked around. “Come to think of it, the stage in the movie looked a little bit like this one.”
“Suzanne, stop it,” Katie warned.
“Yeah, I don’t think I want to hear any more,” Miriam added.
“But it was so scary,” Suzanne continued. “And you know what, the girl in the movie—the one who had the lead part—had straight black hair just like yours, Miriam.”
Miriam gulped.
“Come on, Suzanne. There’s no phantom hiding here,” Katie insisted.
“That’s exactly what they kept saying in the movie! ‘There’s no phantom hiding here,’” Suzanne exclaimed.
Miriam gulped and bit her lip nervously. A few beads of sweat began to form on her forehead.
Just then Mr. G. walked backstage. “There you are, Miriam,” he said. “Ms. Sweet is waiting with your costume.”
“Y-yes, sir.” Miriam looked like she was about to cry.
As Miriam headed out of the auditorium, Katie turned to Suzanne. “Why did you start talking about that movie? You know how scared Miriam gets.”
“Miriam is scared of everything.” Suzanne pressed her lips together. “Who knows? She might even get too scared to go on the night of the show.”
Katie’s eyes grew wide. Now she was certain about what Suzanne was up to. She was trying to scare Miriam out of the play so she could take over the lead part. “Suzanne, leave Miriam alone!” Katie shouted.
Suzanne shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she insisted. “I wasn’t doing anything to Miriam. I was just talking about a movie I saw. Miriam shouldn’t worry about a phantom
or
stage fright. If she’s not here, she’s got a talented understudy to go on for her. She’s very lucky.”
Katie rolled her eyes.
Lucky
wasn’t exactly the word she would have chosen.
Chapter 8
The next afternoon, Katie hurried to the auditorium right after school was over. She wanted to get there as quickly as possible to get ready for the dress rehearsal.
The dress rehearsal was very important. Today all the actors would perform the play in their costumes. They would run through the whole show without stopping, whether or not they made any mistakes.
Now that the play was just one day away, Katie was getting kind of nervous. She wasn’t really sure how it was all going to work out. But Katie could tell Miriam wasn’t nervous at all. She had no reason to be. She knew her part really well. She had been rehearsing every day, singing her songs and going over her lines with her best friend, Zoe Canter. Even now, she was practicing one of her songs on the stage.
“Get out of my way, you Wicked Wind Monster. Blow right out of town. It’s time for spring to rock your world. The sun’s gonna knock the wind down!” she sang.
Katie smiled. Miriam was going to be amazing!
“Okay, dudes,” Katie heard Mr. G. say as he walked into the auditorium. “Let’s get this show on the road. Everyone go to the dressing rooms and put on your costumes.”
All the cast members headed backstage, leaving Katie alone in the auditorium. She poured some glue over the branches of one of the wooden pine trees she and Mr. G. had built. Then she sprinkled green and silver glitter onto the glue.
There.
That would make the trees look all sparkly and wintry.
Just then Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on her neck.
Gosh, it’s chilly in here,
Katie thought. She turned to see if someone had left a window open.
But all the windows were shut tight.
The curtains weren’t rustling in the breeze.
In fact, the wind seemed to be blowing only around Katie. Which could mean only one thing.
This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind! Katie was about to turn into someone else!
“Oh no!” she shouted into the tornado that was suddenly whirling around her. “Not now. Not right before the dress rehearsal!”
But the magic wind didn’t care about the school play. It came whenever it wanted to. And it changed Katie into whomever it wanted to. Switcheroo!
Suddenly the wild tornado stopped. The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Carew.
She’d been turned into somebody else.
But who?
Chapter 9
“Miriam, there you are,” Ms. Sweet, the other fourth-grade teacher, said as she walked into the auditorium. “I want to make sure your wings will stay on the back of your costume.”
Katie turned around quickly, looking for Miriam. But there didn’t seem to be anyone else but Ms. Sweet.
And herself, of course.
“Miriam, are you okay?” Ms. Sweet asked.
Katie gasped. Ms. Sweet seemed to be looking right at her. Katie glanced down. Instead of her red sneakers, Katie was wearing a pair of soft, pink dancing shoes. And she had on a sparkly white dress.
BOOK: No Biz Like Show Biz
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