Who's Afraid of Fourth Grade? (9 page)

“A
weird-looking
egg,” George added.

George was right. Something about this egg looked different—but no one could quite explain why.

“What type of egg is it?” Emma S. asked Mr. G.

“You'll have to wait and see,” Mr. Guthrie replied.

“I wonder what kind of bird's gonna hatch out of an egg like that,” Kadeem muttered. “Probably a cuckoo bird.”

“The cuckoo bird has been extinct for thousands of years,” Mandy reminded him.

“No, it hasn't,” Kadeem replied. “George is still here.”

George turned red in the face. He opened his mouth to speak, but Mr. Guthrie placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

“Save it,” Mr. G. told him. “We'll schedule a joke-off for this afternoon. You can get him then.”

George nodded and smiled at Kadeem.

Katie might have been disappointed about her class pet being an egg, but she was still excited that it was Monday. Monday was band day. At her private clarinet lesson on Saturday, Katie's teacher had taught her two new songs! She couldn't wait to play them for Mr. Starkey.

But it turned out Mr. Starkey wasn't interested in new songs. He was still working on “Hot Cross Buns.”

“Okay, everyone, instruments up,” the band teacher said in his mild-mannered voice. “Begin.”

The band sounded a little better than the week before. Strange noises were still coming from George's tuba, and it sometimes sounded like there was a mouse running around in Kevin's trumpet. But you could tell that the song was “Hot Cross Buns.” At least Kadeem was able to keep the slide on his trombone this time.

“Okay, that was much better,” Mr. Starkey assured them. “Let's try it again.”

Katie raised her hand.

“Yes, Clarinet?” Mr. Starkey was calling the kids by their instruments until he could memorize everyone's real name.

“Aren't we going to play any other songs today? I learned ‘Go Tell Aunt Rhodie' and ‘Merrily We Roll Along' at my private lesson this past Saturday.”

“That's very nice,” Mr. Starkey complimented her. “But we're working on ‘Hot Cross Buns' as a band.”

“But I . . .”

Mr. Starkey shook his head. “There's no ‘I' in band,” he replied calmly. “We work as a team. The team has to get
this
song right before it can move on.”

Katie frowned. She was getting really sick of “Hot Cross Buns.”

Suzanne was waiting for Katie on the playground after school. “You want to have a playdate?” she suggested. “Maybe we could go to your house and play jump rope or something.”

“Sure!” Katie looked around. “Where's Jessica?”

“Dentist's appointment,” Suzanne told her.

Katie frowned. “So I was your second choice?”

Suzanne shook her head hard. “I didn't want to play with her today. My mom said it was okay for me to play with my old friends now. I've missed you.”

“Well, you haven't been acting that way,” Katie told her.

Suzanne looked down, embarrassed. “I guess I've been kind of mean to you lately.”

“More than
kind of
,” Katie corrected her. “The only person you talk to is Jessica.”

“Well, you and Emma W. are real close now, too, you know,” Suzanne replied. She sounded jealous.

“But that doesn't mean I don't want to play with you too,” Katie replied.

“I guess.” Suzanne shook her head sadly. “Things have just been so weird for me this year. You and I aren't in the same class. There's so much more homework. The classwork is a lot harder. I've been kind of scared.” She frowned. “But I guess it wasn't right of me to let it all out on you.”

“
Everyone
has been nervous,” Katie assured Suzanne.

“Not you. You made a new friend. You got used to your class right away. You seem happy.”

“I'm happy
now
. But it took a few weeks for me to get comfortable. It would have been easier for me if you and I had played together at recess sometimes. Maybe it would have been easier for you too.”

“I guess so. I acted pretty dumb. Will you still be my friend?” Suzanne asked nervously.

Katie smiled. “I never stopped,” she assured her.

“Katie, you're the best. I sure wish you were in my class.”

Katie smiled. She was glad Suzanne had said that.
Finally
.

“You'd like it in 4B. Ms. Sweet's just like her name,” Suzanne told her. “She's not at all strict like Mrs. Derkman. Today she gave us candy chicks for snack. They were yummy.”

“I'll bet,” Katie agreed. “We had cheese and crackers.”

“Well, that's nutritious, anyway,” Suzanne said.

“The worms and mud were better,” Katie told her.

Suzanne laughed. She'd heard all about that. “You guys do some weird things in there.”

“I'll say,” Katie agreed. “You should see the strange thing we got for a class pet.”

“Ooh, we got our class pet today too,” Suzanne said excitedly, not waiting to hear what Katie's class pet was. “She's the sweetest guinea pig. She's got fuzzy brown and white fur that sticks up all over the place. I wanted to call her Coco Chanel, but the class voted for Fluffy. It's an okay name, I guess.”

“We got an egg,” Katie replied. “We're going to watch it hatch.”

“What's inside?”

“Mr. G. says it's a surprise.”

“Oh.” Suzanne shrugged. “Anyway, at free time we built a playground for Fluffy with blocks and let her run around in it. She had a good time climbing up and down on the stairs, and crossing over this amazing bridge that Manny built.”

Katie didn't know what to say to that. Their class egg didn't do anything but lay there.

“So what are you going to wear to the all-school picnic this year?” Suzanne asked, changing the subject. “I think I'm going to wear my new dark green corduroy jeans and my white shirt with the sequin trim. Maybe we can go together. Like last year.”

Katie had almost forgotten about the all-school picnic. It was the one afternoon when the elementary school kids and their families could get together with the teachers and not think about school.

“Sure. We can go together. But I haven't thought about what I'm going to wear yet,” Katie admitted. “I've been too busy with homework, cooking class, and band.”

“How's band?” Suzanne asked her.

“It's kind of dull. Mr. Starkey does the same song over and over again.”

“I thought you really wanted to play the clarinet.”

“Oh, I like the clarinet. I just don't like band,” Katie explained. “Mr. Starkey is sooooo boring. He doesn't let us try anything new. He just stands there in the front of the room waving his arms up and down. He's not even like a real teacher. He's got the easiest job in the whole school.”

Suzanne glanced over Katie's shoulder. A funny look came over her face. “Uh, Katie,” she whispered quietly.

“What?”

“Don't turn around.”

Of course, that made Katie turn around real fast.

Oh, no! Mr. Starkey was standing behind her. Not close behind her, but probably near enough to hear what Katie had been saying. Katie had been talking pretty loud.

The teacher had a frown on his face. But he didn't yell at Katie. In fact, all he said was, “Have a good week, Clarinet. Don't forget to practice.”

As Mr. Starkey walked away, Katie scowled. “I HATE MONDAYS!” she moaned.

Katie may have hated Mondays, but she couldn't stop them from coming. Before she knew it, it was time for another boring beginning band rehearsal. YUCK!

Katie walked into the band room and put her music book on the stand. Then she placed a fresh reed in her clarinet.

Katie looked around to see who else was in class. She saw Becky and Jeremy walk into the room.

“It was so cute the way you made that little soccer ball for Fluffy,” Becky said to Jeremy. “I loved watching her push it around her cage with her nose.”

“She'd make a great offensive player,” Jeremy agreed. “On a guinea pig team, anyway.”

Katie sighed. The kids in 4B were having such a good time with their class pet. The egg in Katie's classroom didn't look any closer to hatching than it had the week before.

“Hey, Katie, you want to come over and hang out after school today? My drum lesson isn't until six o'clock. That gives us plenty of time to play,” Jeremy asked.

Katie opened her mouth to answer, but shut it just as Mr. Starkey entered the room. Katie figured her music teacher was probably upset enough with her because of what she'd said last week. Katie didn't want to make him any madder by talking during class.

Mr. Starkey opened his briefcase and frowned. He shook his head slightly, opened his desk drawer, and looked inside. “I think I left my conductor's baton in the teachers' lounge,” he told the class. “Clarinet, will you go get it? I believe it's on the counter next to the coffee machine.”

Katie nodded. She put down her clarinet and walked out of the class. As she left the room, she heard Mr. Starkey say, “Okay, everybody. Open your books to ‘Hot Cross Buns.' ”

Katie knocked gently on the door to the teachers' lounge. There was no answer. All the teachers were in their classrooms, teaching. She opened the door and walked inside.

Katie had never been in the teachers' lounge before. It was nothing like she'd expected. It looked sort of like a living room. There was a big cloth couch, as well as a few comfortable chairs set around a big wooden table.