Who's Afraid of Fourth Grade? (4 page)

“We had pretzel bites,” Katie told her with a frown. She really didn't like pretzel bites.

“Bummer,” Suzanne replied.

“But George and Kadeem had a joke-off at the end of the day,” Katie added excitedly.

“A what?” Jessica asked, her hands on her hips.

“It's kind of a joke-telling contest. Mr. Guthrie lets them . . .”

“We drew pictures of our favorite birds,” Suzanne interrupted. “I drew a peacock—with lots of gorgeous feathers.”

Katie thought about telling her that she'd built a nest to sit in, but she changed her mind. Suzanne would probably just come up with something they did in her class that was even more wonderful. Or at least more
normal
.

“Oh. Well, anyway, I thought maybe you'd want to have a playdate,” Katie said, changing the subject. “I have some homework, but we can...”

“Homework!” Suzanne was shocked. “On the first day?
We
don't have any.”

Katie frowned. That didn't seem very fair.

“Anyway, Jessica and I already made plans for today,” Suzanne continued.

“Oh, I just figured that since we didn't see each other all day, we could . . .”

Suzanne shook her head. “My mom thinks I should play with kids in my new class for a while, to get to know them better.”

“Okay,” Katie said quietly.

“Maybe in a few weeks, when we're used to being with other kids, we can play,” Suzanne suggested.

“Sure. Whatever.” Katie didn't know what else to say.

As Suzanne and Jessica walked away, Katie noticed that Emma W. was standing nearby. She seemed very sad.

“What's wrong?” Katie asked her.

“Jessica's
my
best friend,” she explained quietly. “We play together all the time. But . . .”

She pointed toward Suzanne and Jessica, who were walking down the street arm in arm. A few tears began to form in Emma's huge brown eyes.

Katie knew just how Emma felt. “I know. Maybe
we
can do something together today,” she suggested. “Do you want to come to my house?”

“Sure.” Emma seemed happier. Then her face fell. “Except . . .”

“What's the problem?”

“It's just that today's my turn to take care of my little brother Matthew. He's in first grade. I was just going to pick him up in the school yard when I saw Jessica and Suzanne.”

Katie smiled at her. “Why don't you bring Matthew too? Unless . . .”

“Unless what?”

“Well, is he afraid of dogs? Because I have a cocker spaniel and . . .”

“You have a dog?” Emma interrupted. “You're so
lucky
! I've always wanted a dog. All I have are brothers and sisters.”

“It's just me and Pepper,” Katie said as the girls headed over to where the little kids lined up at the end of the day. “I can't believe Matthew's in first grade. He was just a baby when you and I were in kindergarten together.”

Emma nodded. “He's not even the baby of my family anymore. The twins, Tyler and Timothy, are. They're two-and-a-half.”

Wow! Katie was amazed. Emma had five kids in her family. That was a whole basketball team.

Katie was an only child. Lots of times, she had to play on her own or with Pepper. But her dog wasn't very good at board games. Katie bet Emma
never
had to be alone. She always had playmates around. Lucky Emma.

“There's Matthew,” Emma said, pointing to a dark-haired boy in a pair of jeans with a tear in the knee. “Oh, boy. Those are brand-new jeans. Well, I guess I can sew a patch on them for him.”

“You know how to sew?” Katie was amazed.

“Sure. My mom taught me,” Emma said. “When you have so many kids, the big ones have to know things like that, so they can help out. Next I hope my mom's going to teach me to cook. That looks like more fun than sewing.”

“I'm taking cooking classes on Wednesdays,” Katie told Emma. “Maybe you can take them too.”

Emma shook her head. “I'm not always free on Wednesdays. Sometimes I have to help out at home.”

“Oh,” Katie replied, a bit disappointed.

“At least I'm free today. You stay here. I'll go get Matthew. I can call my mom from your house and tell her what we're doing.”

Mrs. Carew was waiting on the front steps with Pepper when Katie, Emma, and Matthew got there. She had a big plate of cookies waiting beside her.

“Hi, Mom,” Katie said, pulling her backpack up the steps. “Do you remember Emma?”

“Sure,” Mrs. Carew replied with a smile. “I haven't seen you in a long time.”

“This is my brother Matthew,” Emma told Katie's mom.

“Nice to meet you, Matthew.” Mrs. Carew held out the plate of cookies. “Are you hungry?”

Matthew nodded. He took two cookies off of the plate and shoved them in his mouth.

“What do you say?” Emma coaxed him.

“Thank you,” Matthew replied. Pieces of chewed-up cookie flew out of his mouth.

Emma bent down and scratched Pepper's chin. “Your dog is so cute,” Emma told Katie. “I've always wanted a dog. But my mom says that taking care of five kids is enough work for her.”

Mrs. Carew smiled. “I think your mother's right.”

“So, do you want to do our homework first?” Emma asked Katie.

“You have homework?” Mrs. Carew asked.

“Can you believe it?” Katie answered. “On the first day!”

“Why don't we do our homework now?” Emma suggested. “It's so quiet here. It's never this peaceful at my house. Somebody's always running around or shouting about something.”

“That sounds like fun!” Katie exclaimed.

“It is fun,
sometimes
,” Emma agreed. “But it's also hard to get your work done that way. We could do our math homework really fast here.”

“Pepper's already got a ball in his mouth,” Katie pointed out. “How about we play now, and do our homework later? We have plenty of time.”

Emma looked down at the happy cocker spaniel. He was hard to resist, especially for someone who wanted a dog of her own so badly. “Okay,” she said finally.

Katie took the slobbery ball from Pepper's mouth. She threw it clear across the lawn.

Katie and Emma laughed as both Matthew and Pepper took off after the ball.

“See, you have a dog too,” Katie teased. “He's just got two legs and a pair of ripped pants!”

The next morning, Katie walked into class 4A and placed her homework in the purple, black, and yellow box that sat on top of one of the cabinets. Then she went and perched herself in her nest.

Katie was really proud of her nest. She'd taken a lot of time making sure that the twigs and sticks were arranged in a neat circle around her beanbag. She'd brought in a picture of Pepper and glued it to her beanbag. Then she'd put black construction paper musical notes all around the sides to show that she was looking forward to being in the school band. Finally, she'd written “Katie Kazoo” across the front of the beanbag with pieces of yellow yarn and glue so Mr. Guthrie would know her special nickname.

Katie picked up her plastic clipboard and began to copy down the vocabulary words on the board. Mr. Guthrie might not have any desks in his classroom, and he might say things like, “Rock on, dudes,” a lot, but he was
still
a teacher. And, like any teacher, he expected the kids to start working the minute they walked into the classroom.

She looked up as Emma W. entered the room. Katie waved to her friend, but Emma didn't notice her. Instead, Emma walked nervously up to Mr. Guthrie.

“Hey, Emma, how's it going?” the teacher asked kindly.

“Not so great,” Emma murmured. “I started to do my math homework last night. But when I got up to sharpen my pencil, my little brother used his safety scissors to cut up the paper.” She looked shy and embarrassed.

Katie felt really bad. Emma had asked her if she could do the homework right when they had gotten to her house. But Katie had said no. She'd meant to do it later with Emma, but they had been so busy playing with Matthew and Pepper. Before they knew it, it had been time for Emma to go home. Katie had done her homework after dinner.

If she'd only said okay, this never would have happened to Emma. Now Mr. Guthrie was going to be mad.

But surprisingly, Mr. Guthrie didn't seem angry at all. In fact, he laughed. “Little brother, huh? I have one of those.”

“I have
three
,” Emma groaned. “And an older sister.”

“Boy, you
do
have it rough!” Mr. Guthrie smiled kindly. “Just give it to me tomorrow. And, whatever you do, don't leave your homework alone,” he teased. “You never know what kind of trouble a little brother can cause.”

Emma smiled shyly as she took the homework sheet. “Tell me about it,” she agreed.

The rest of the morning went quickly. Class 4A did their vocabulary, read the first chapter in their new reading book, and had a spelling bee. Other than his ponytail, and the fact that he made them sit in nests, Mr. Guthrie was a pretty normal teacher.

Around eleven o'clock, Mr. Guthrie announced that it was time for a mid-morning snack.

“Snack time is going to be part of our science lesson today,” he told the class. “Now, some birds, like parrots, eat seeds and fruit. Other birds, like pelicans, eat fish. Does anyone know what kind of food a robin might eat?”

George's hand was the first to shoot up. “They eat earthworms and snails. They dig them up and munch them down.” He made a loud slurping sound.

“Eew,” Emma S. groaned. “Do you have to make it sound so gross?”

“Hey, I'm just telling it like it is,” George replied.

“George is right,” Mr. Guthrie agreed. “And today,
you
are going to be robins. If you want to eat your snack, you're going to have to dig for it.”

“What's for snack?” Kevin asked.

“Oh, I thought I'd made that clear,” Mr. Guthrie said as he walked over toward the small refrigerator in the corner. “You're all robins. So, of course, you'll be chomping on worms.”

Katie gasped. Worms? For snack? Boy, had she been wrong about Mr. Guthrie. He wasn't a normal teacher at all. He was just plain creepy.

She watched as the teacher began to place small bowls of dark brown mud in front of each student. There were big clumps of dirt sitting in the mud. It was disgusting!

The kids just stared at their snacks. No one wanted to eat dirt and worms.

No one except
George
, that is. He leaned down and sniffed at his bowl of dirt. Then he grinned and happily shoved his face into the mud.

“Yum!” George sat up and smiled happily. His face was covered in mud. “It's chocolate pudding with chopped-up cookies in it.”

“Chocolate!” Kevin exclaimed. He dug his face into the mud too. “Excellent!”

George buried his face in his pudding again. This time, he pulled out a worm!
Well, sort of.

“Check it out! Gummy worms!” George opened his mouth and showed the class a half-eaten, orange-candy worm.

“That's gross, George,” Mandy told him. She turned to Mr. Guthrie. “May I have a spoon, please?”