No Messin' with My Lesson (3 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: No Messin' with My Lesson
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“Mrs. Derkman’s not going to be home yet,” Katie assured Suzanne. “And when she does get home, she’s not going to bother us. She’ll be spending all her time inside watching her videotapes.”
“I hope you’re right,” Jeremy said. “I don’t like playing at your house very much now that Mrs. Derkman is your neighbor. I see enough of her at school.”
Katie frowned. It made her feel bad that her best friend didn’t want to play at her house.
“I was just being honest,” Jeremy told her.
The kids began to walk in the direction of Katie’s house. A minute later, Becky came up behind them.
Katie jumped. “Becky, you surprised me,” Katie exclaimed.
“She didn’t surprise
me
,” Suzanne said. “She always shows up when Jeremy’s around.”
Jeremy and Becky both blushed. Then Jeremy looked angry.
“What?” Suzanne asked. “I was just being honest.”
Jeremy scowled at Suzanne, but said nothing. What could he say? He was the editor of the class paper. It had been his idea to print Suzanne’s advice column in the first place.
“Hi, kids,” Mrs. Carew greeted them as they walked up the walkway to Katie’s house. “I hope you’re hungry. I’ve got lots of chocolate chip cookies.” She held out a large plate.
Becky grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and took a bite. “This is pretty good, Mrs. Carew,” she said. “But my mom makes them much better. Hers are chewier, and they have a lot more chips.”
Katie’s mom didn’t know what to say. The kids all stared at Becky with surprise.
Becky shrugged. “I was just being . . .”
“Honest,” George, Jeremy, Suzanne, and Katie finished her sentence for her.
The other kids seemed to like the cookies a lot. They chowed down on them. When they were finished eating, Katie’s mom took the empty plate into the house. “Don’t stay out here too long,” she warned Katie as she went inside. “You have to do your homework.”
Katie nodded. “We don’t have too much,” she assured her mother.
“Does anyone else think Mrs. Derkman is acting especially weird lately?” Suzanne asked the others once Mrs. Carew was gone and they were alone.
“I’ll say,” Becky agreed. “Did you hear her yelling at Speedy yesterday?”
“Poor little hamster,” Katie agreed.
George stood up. He wrinkled his brow and scrunched up his mouth. He pretended to look through a pair of glasses.
“Speedy, there will be no scratching in this classroom,” he said, imitating Mrs. Derkman. “And there will be no running on the hamster wheel. There is no running in the classroom at all. Save that for the playground.”
Katie giggled.
“No laughing, Katie,” George said in a stern voice. “School is not supposed to be fun.”
“It sure wasn’t fun today,” Jeremy said. “I was afraid to breathe.”
“That’s the new rule,” George said. “From now on, students are only allowed to breathe during lunch.”
The kids all laughed. George was imitating their teacher perfectly.
“That’s pretty good, George,” Jeremy giggled.
“Yeah, you sound just like Mrs.
Jerk
man,” Suzanne agreed.
Suddenly, the kids heard footsteps on the sidewalk. They stopped laughing and turned around.
“Uh-oh,” Becky murmured.
Mrs. Derkman was standing in her drive-way. She had just arrived home from school. Katie was sure her teacher had heard them talking about her.
“We’re in trouble now,” George whispered.
But Mrs. Derkman didn’t say a word. She just turned, and sadly went into her house.
Chapter 5
When Katie arrived at school the next morning, everyone was upset. And not because of how strict Mrs. Derkman had become. The kids were fighting with one another—and it was all because of Suzanne’s advice column.
“I don’t know what your problem is,” Katie heard Jeremy say to Manny. “All I said was that you don’t run fast enough to be on our team in the relay race.”
“That’s really mean,” Manny replied.
“I’m just being honest,” Jeremy told him. “You’re not a fast runner. As your friend, I owe it to you to tell you the truth.”
Jeremy and Manny weren’t the only ones having an argument. George and Kevin weren’t getting along too well, either.
“Here’s my new joke,” George said. “What do you call a jogging almond?”
“What?” Kevin asked.
“A health nut!” George laughed, but Kevin didn’t.
George looked at him strangely. “Don’t you get it?”
Kevin nodded. “I get it. I just don’t think it’s funny.”
George’s eyes opened wide. “What do you mean it’s not funny?” he demanded.
“Hey, don’t get mad at me,” Kevin insisted. “I’m just being honest.”
George stormed away.
It wasn’t only the boys who were having trouble with the truth. As she turned away from George, Katie spotted Zoe Canter sitting under a tree. She was crying. Katie walked over to see what was wrong.
“What’s up, Zoe?” she asked.
“Miriam and Mandy just told me not to meet them at the mall on Saturday,” Zoe told Katie between sobs.
“Why would they do that?”
Zoe shrugged. “They said they
honestly
wanted some time alone. Now
I
have nothing to do. I can’t believe they’re leaving me out like this.”
Katie sighed. The kids were taking Suzanne’s advice too seriously. Sometimes, the truth hurt. Katie decided to talk to Suzanne about it. Maybe her friend could write a new article for next week’s paper—one that was about not hurting other people’s feelings.
But, before Katie could speak to Suzanne, Mrs. Derkman blew her whistle three times. It was time to go inside.
The kids were still arguing as they walked into the classroom, put their homework in the bin, and hung up their jackets. As soon as everyone was in their seats, Mrs. Derkman called for quiet.
“You have to be especially well-behaved now,” Mrs. Derkman reminded the class. “The judges for the Teacher of the Year Contest will be here any day now. It could be today, tomorrow, or the next day.”
“You mean we have to be good for three whole days?” George asked. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
Mrs. Derkman didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. The look on her face was enough to make George be quiet.
“She’s in a bad mood again!” Suzanne mumbled under her breath.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t so quiet that Mrs. Derkman couldn’t hear her. The teacher’s face got even more angry. She stared at the second row. “Did you say something . . . Katie?” she asked.
“No,” Katie assured her honestly.
“Yes, you did,” Mrs. Derkman said. “I heard you.”
“It wasn’t me,” Katie insisted. “It was . . .” Katie stopped herself. She didn’t want to squeal on Suzanne.
“There is no rudeness allowed in this class. Go down and sit in Mr. Kane’s office,” Mrs. Derkman told her. “You need to spend some time thinking about how your words affect others.”
“But I . . .”
“No buts, Katie. I said go to Mr. Kane’s office.”
Katie could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She was being punished, and she hadn’t done anything wrong. That was the worst feeling in the world.
The hallway was empty as Katie made her way toward the principal’s office. Suddenly, she felt a cool, gentle breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She looked up to see if a window was open. But all the windows in the hallway were shut tight. So were the doors. The breeze wasn’t coming from outside.
Oh, no! The magic wind was back!
Within seconds, the wind began to swirl around Katie like a wild tornado, blowing her hair all around her face. Katie shut her eyes tight. The wind grew stronger—so strong that Katie thought it would blow her away!
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
Which could only mean one thing. Katie had turned into someone else. The question was, who?
Chapter 6
“What page should we turn to, Mrs. Derkman?” Katie heard someone ask.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. She looked around. The room was very familiar. There was a hamster by the window, rows of desks, and a bulletin board that said “Math Rules!” on the back wall.
Katie knew this classroom very well. This was her classroom. Class 3A.
Okay, so now she knew where she was. But she didn’t know
who
she was.
“Mrs. Derkman,” Mandy said again. “You didn’t tell us what page to turn to.”
All eyes seemed to be on Katie. Katie looked down at the floor. There were sensible leather shoes on her feet. She was wearing a black skirt that just covered her knees, and a long-sleeved white blouse. Katie would never wear boring clothes like that.

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