Something's Fishy (2 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: Something's Fishy
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Chapter 2
Last year, in third grade, Katie had learned all about wishes. It started one terrible, horrible day, when Katie had missed the football and lost the game for her team. Then she’d fallen in a big mud puddle and ruined her favorite pair of jeans. Even worse, she’d let out a huge burp in front of the whole class. How embarrassing!
That night, Katie had wished she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead or something, because the next day the magic wind came.
The magic wind was a super-strong, tornado-like wind that blew only around Katie. It was so powerful that every time it came, it turned Katie into someone else.
The first time the magic wind came it turned Katie into Speedy, the class 3A hamster. She’d escaped from her cage, and wound up inside George’s stinky sneaker.
Yuck!
Since then, the magic wind had been back again and again. One time it turned her into Mr. Starkey, the school music teacher. The band sounded really terrible when Katie was the conductor!
Katie still got embarrassed thinking about the time the magic wind switcherooed her into her favorite author, Nellie Farrow. Nellie had come to talk to the fourth grade about her new book. The trouble was, Katie hadn’t read the book yet. Because of Katie, Nellie had looked like a fool in front of everybody!
And once, Katie had turned into Jeremy’s kitten, Lucky. That time her own cocker spaniel, Pepper, chased her right up a tree. Katie didn’t blame Pepper, though. After all, cats and dogs just don’t get along.
Not that it was any better the time Katie turned into Pepper himself. She’d gotten into a nasty argument with a squirrel and destroyed her next-door neighbor’s lawn. And poor Pepper was the one blamed.
That was the worst thing about the magic wind. Every time it came, whoever Katie turned into got in big trouble. Then it was up to Katie to make things all right again. And that wasn’t always so easy.
So now Katie didn’t make wishes anymore. She stayed far, far away from them. They caused too many problems.
But of course she couldn’t explain that to her friends. So instead, she just told the other kids, “I meant we like our class a lot, too.”
“Yeah,” George agreed. “We have fun every day. Not just on special occasions.”
“Exactly,” Emma Weber agreed. “Class 4A is really great.”
“Maybe.” Suzanne shrugged. “But our party is going to be incredible. Nothing is going to top it.”
Chapter 3
“Andy, you’re a grouper. That’s a predator fish,” Mr. G. said as he walked around the room after lunch. He was assigning everyone their fish to research. “Emma Stavros, you’re an angelfish.”
“That’s because I’m always so good,” Emma S. said with a smile.
“Kadeem, you’re a red snapper,” Mr. G. continued. “Mandy, you’re an anthias.”
“Anthias? I never heard of that fish,” Mandy said.
“And Kevin, you’re a frog fish,” said Mr. G.
“A frog?” Kevin asked curiously. “Like the ones that say
rrbit, rrbit
? They’re not fish!”
“You’re a frog
fish
,” Mr. G. corrected him. “I think you’ll find them interesting. They’re tough predators. They swallow their prey faster than almost any other fish.”
“That sounds like you, Kev,” George joked. “You eat faster than anyone. Even me. You ate that whole pint of grape tomatoes in five minutes last week.”
“Yeah, but tomatoes aren’t fish food,” Kevin reminded him. “At least I don’t think they are.”
“You’ll find out what’s on a frog fish menu when you do your research,” Mr. G. told him. He turned to Emma W. “You’re a predator, too,” he told her. “A swordfish.”
Katie couldn’t help but laugh. It was funny to think of sweet Emma Weber as a vicious swordfish.
“George, you’re a herring,” Mr. G. told him. “And Katie, you’re a clown fish.”
“Hey, Mr. G., don’t you think I should be the clown fish?” George argued with his teacher. “I
am
the funniest guy in the whole school!”
“Hey!” Kadeem argued.
“Well, I am,” George insisted. “Can’t Katie be a herring instead?”
Mr. G. shook his head. “Nope. No trading. But I think you’ll like being a herring.” The teacher pulled a silver and green kazoo from his pocket. “You get to use this.”
“A kazoo? Why?” George asked.
“Well, herrings make a funny noise when they’re communicating with each other,” Mr. G. said. “It kind of sounds like they’re passing gas.”
“Oh man!” Kadeem laughed. “George’s fish likes to cut the cheese!”
Everyone laughed.
George frowned. “Now I
really
think Katie should be a herring. She’s Katie Kazoo, remember?”
Katie smiled. How could anybody forget? George had given her that way-cool nickname last year, and it had stuck ever since.
But Katie didn’t want to be a fish with gas. No way!
“Okay, we’ll spend most of this afternoon researching our fish in the library,” Mr. G. said. “And then tomorrow, we’ll play Capture the Prey!”
“How do you play that?” Mandy asked.
“Well, it’s sort of like tag,” Mr. G. told her. “The three predator fish have to catch all of the prey fish. It’s up to the prey fish to stay away and keep safe.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun!” Emma W. exclaimed. “I love playing tag.”
“Me too!” Katie told her. “But I’m not going to let you catch me just because we’re friends.”
“Don’t worry,” Emma W. said. “I’ll eat the other kids first.” She grinned. “You can be my dessert.”
 
“Clown fish are really cool,” Katie told Jeremy as the fourth-grade kids walked out of school together at the end of the day. “They’re reddish-orange. My hair is almost the same color as they are—except the fish have three white stripes on them. I won’t get that in my hair until I’m really old.”
Jeremy laughed. Katie giggled, too. It was funny picturing herself as an old lady with streaks of white in her red hair.
Just then, George walked by, tooting his kazoo.
“What’s that for?” Becky Stern asked him.
“You wouldn’t understand,” George told her. “It’s a herring thing.”
“George is right,” Kevin agreed. “Herrings have a funny way of talking to one another.”
The kids in class 4A all started to laugh. The kids in class 4B just looked at one another.
Suddenly Suzanne bent down and pulled some ugly green weeds from the grass. Then she began walking slowly down the path that led to the sidewalk. As she walked, she threw pieces of weeds to her left and to her right.
“What are you doing?” Katie asked her.
“I’m practicing being a flower girl,” Suzanne told her.
“Ms. Sweet asked you to be the flower girl in her wedding?” Miriam asked Suzanne.
“Not exactly,” Suzanne admitted. “But she might. And I want to be prepared.”
Katie sighed. Somehow she doubted that was going to happen. But she didn’t tell Suzanne that. No sense making her angry.
“I think this whole wedding thing is soooooo romantic,” Becky cooed. She looked over at Jeremy. “Do you ever think about your wedding, Jeremy?”
Jeremy’s cheeks turned bright red. “No,” he mumbled. “I’m only ten years old.”
“I think about it all the time,” Becky told him. “I want a white dress with lots of lace. And a really long veil. Don’t you think I’ll look pretty in lace, Jeremy?”
Jeremy blushed harder and turned away.
“Oh, Jeremy,” George said, imitating Becky. “Won’t I be a gorgeous bride?”
“Cut it out, George,” Jeremy grumbled.
“Mrs. Becky Fox,” Kevin added. “It has a nice ring to it.”
“
I
think so,” Becky said.
“Or maybe you could be Mrs. Rebecca Fox. That’s so much more grown-up,” Miriam suggested.
George and Kevin giggled.
Jeremy groaned.
Katie felt really bad for Jeremy. Everyone knew Becky had a huge crush on Jeremy. But Jeremy didn’t like Becky at all. And he hated it when she flirted with him, like she was doing now.
“Um, Jeremy, don’t you have soccer practice today?” Katie asked him. “I think you’d better get home.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jeremy said. He smiled gratefully at Katie.
“I’ll come with you,” Katie told him. Then she and Jeremy ran off, getting as far as they could—as
fast
as they could—from all that wedding talk.
Chapter 4
“Okay, now when I blow this whistle, Andy, Kevin, and Emma W. will try to tag as many of you as possible,” Mr. G. told the kids in class 4A on Tuesday morning. They were all lined up, ready to play Capture the Prey. “If you are tagged, you have to go stand at the edge of the sea . . . I mean the field,” he explained.
As soon as Mr. G. blew his whistle, Katie and the other 4A fish scattered across the field. They moved as fast as their fins . . .
er
. . . legs could carry them. But some of the fish just weren’t fast enough.
“Gotcha!” Andy shouted as he tagged Emma S. on the back.

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