Authors: Nancy Krulik

Witch Switch (4 page)

BOOK: Witch Switch

4.92Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

“That would be awesome!” Jeremy said hopefully.

“It sure would,” Katie agreed.

“Are we going to stand here and talk about animals all night?” Suzanne asked Katie. “We have costumes to put together, remember?”

Katie sighed. Suzanne hated it when the conversation was about something other than what she was interested in. But this time she was probably right. It was getting late, and Katie still hadn't bought her witch hat or the black fabric for her costume. “Yeah, we'd better go look for that blackâ” she began.

“Ahem,” Suzanne cleared her throat. It was a signal for Katie to stop talking. “It's a secret, remember?”

“I think what you need is in the back of the store, Katie,” Mrs. Carew suggested. “Let's check there. It was nice seeing you, Sheila. Good luck with your costume, Jeremy.”

“And good luck with the pet,” Katie told Jeremy as she walked away.

Chapter 7

“Pepper, don't you want to walk outside with me?” Katie asked her dog early Tuesday morning. Usually the cocker spaniel liked to walk Katie to the end of the block. But today Pepper snorted a little and buried his head in his front paws.

“Guess you don't want to go out in the rain,” Katie said as she walked out onto her front lawn and opened up her umbrella. It was Katie's favorite umbrellaâthe green one with the big frog eyes on top.

The rain was coming down hard, and the umbrella wasn't really helping very much. Katie walked as fast as she could. She wanted to get to school really quickly. Otherwise, she'd spend the whole day in wet clothes.

“Mew. Mew.”

Katie turned around and saw the little black kitten standing under a tree. It looked like the kitten was trying to find a dry place to stand. But the rain was falling hard now, and the leaves weren't keeping the cat very dry.

“Poor little kitty,” Katie said.

The stray cat looked up at Katie, and then dashed off down the block in the opposite direction.

“Phew, that was close,” Katie sighed. She was glad the black cat hadn't crossed her path. Now she didn't have to worry about bad luck. But the kitten sure did. It was
really
bad luck to be stuck out in the rain with nothing to eat.

“Hey, Suzanne,” George called out that afternoon during lunch. “Are you gonna eat your chocolate pudding?”

Suzanne was sitting next to Katie at the lunch table. The girls both looked up and glanced across the table at George's lunch tray. He had mixed in his chocolate pudding with his spaghetti and meat sauce and creamed spinach. Then he had poured in some of his fruit punch and stirred it all together.

“Not anymore,” Suzanne said, making a face as she pushed the small cup of pudding toward George.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed as he poured the pudding over the rest of the mess.

“Oh, George, that is the grossest thing I've ever seen,” Miriam Chan groaned.

“This cafeteria is getting disgusting,” Mandy Banks agreed.

“Here, George, add this,” Kevin said, dumping part of his jelly sandwich onto George's tray.

George grinned and rolled the bread and jelly into a bunch of little balls, which he placed all around the mushy mountain of food. “Hey, Kev, do you know what made the jelly roll?” George asked him.

“No, what?”

“It saw the apple turnover.” George began to laugh hysterically.

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “Not funny, George,” she told him.

“
I
think it's funny,” Kevin said.

“Me too,” Jeremy agreed. “Got any more good ones today, George?”

“Sure, I got a million of 'em,” George assured him. “Did you ever hear the story of oatmeal?”

“Nope,” Jeremy answered.

“Ah, never mind,” George said. “It's just a lot of mush!”

The boys all started laughing again. George looked back over at Katie's tray. “Are you going to finish your cream cheese sandwich?” he asked her.

Katie began to hand George the other half of her cream cheese sandwich. Then she stopped herself. “Uh, I'm going to eat it,” she told him. “Just not now.” She wrapped the half of the sandwich in her napkin and held on to it.

“What are you going to do with that?” Suzanne asked her.

“I'm saving it for later. In case I get hungry during class,” Katie told her.

“You can't eat in class,” Suzanne said.

“Well, then I'll eat it after school,” Katie told her. “On my way home. Sometimes I get hungry.”

Suzanne looked at her curiously but said nothing. She just went back to eating her own lunch.

Katie frowned. She hated lying. Especially to one of her best friends. But she couldn't tell Suzanne what she really planned to do with the sandwich. It would make her too angry.

Chapter 6

“Hey Katie, do you want to come over to my house?” Jeremy asked as they left school that afternoon. “The rain's stopped, so we can play in my yard. And I just got a new soccer ball.”

Katie shook her head. “Sorry. I've got something to do today.”

Suzanne strutted over and put her arm around Katie's shoulder. “That's right. Katie and I still have some finishing touches to put on our costumes.”

“Actually, I can't do that, either,” Katie told her.

“But Katie, it's already Tuesday andâ” Suzanne began.

“I'm sorry, Suzanne. I can't today,” Katie repeated. “But don't worry. My mom and I have the whole thing under control.”

“Okay,” Suzanne told her. But she didn't sound very sure.

“So, what are you doing this afternoon, anyway?” Jeremy asked her.

“Nothing. Just an errand,” Katie told him. “Oh, well, I gotta go.” And with that, Katie ran off, leaving Jeremy and Suzanne behind.

“Here, kitty, kitty. Here, kitty, kitty,” Katie called out as soon as she was a few blocks from school. As she walked, she felt around inside the pocket of her Windbreaker. Good. The cream cheese sandwich was still there.

Katie hoped the little black kitten would like the sandwich. Katie wasn't really sure what kittens ate. But she figured that cream cheese was made from milk, and cats liked milk, so ...

“Mew. Mew.”

Katie looked up. There on the lower branches of a tree was the kitten!

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Katie called as she slowly walked over to the tree. She held up the sandwich half. “I brought you something.”

The cat stood very, very still, trying to disappear in the leaves of the tree. But Katie could still see her. She reached up her hand. “See, it's yummy. I'm sorry I didn't feed you before, but now ...”