by Nancy Krulik
She glanced down at her feet.
Uh-oh. Her funky red high-top sneakers were gone. She was wearing horseshoes instead. Four horseshoes.
Which could mean only one thing. The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into a horse.
Just then, Becky came walking over to the stall. “Hi, Brownie,” she said as she petted Katie’s long face. “Are you ready for me to ride you?”
Okay, change that. Katie wasn’t a horse. She was a pony. Becky’s pony, Brownie. Any minute now, Becky was going to climb on Katie’s back and ride her into the ring.
Only Katie wouldn’t know what to do once she got there. She didn’t know when to turn left or turn right. She didn’t know when to walk slowly or when to gallop.
Katie felt awful. She’d already made Becky feel bad about her red ribbon. And now, if Becky tried to ride her, she would definitely lose this competition.
“Neigh!” Katie whinnied. That was horse language for, “This is sooo not good!”
“What’s the matter?” Becky asked Katie. “You sound so sad.”
I am sad, Katie thought. And scared. And kind of hungry, actually.
Katie walked over to a big pile of hay and began munching on the dry grass. Mmm . . . it was surprisingly good.
“You can’t have lunch now, silly,” Becky told Katie. “We have to go in the waiting area near the ring.” And with that, Becky took Katie’s reins and led her out of the stall.
Katie followed Becky as they walked down the narrow hallway between stalls. Finally they reached the waiting area. There were four other ponies with their riders standing beside them. The kids all looked so nice in their black riding helmets, jackets, and boots. The ponies looked nice, too, with their braided manes.
As Katie took her place in the line, Becky suddenly got a weird look on her face. She crossed her legs.
“Oh, no,” she said.
Katie cocked her big horse head and looked at her curiously.
“What’s the matter, Becky?” a tall girl with a long braid asked.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Becky told her.
“So go,” the girl said.
“But I’m supposed to stay with Brownie,” Becky said.
“He’ll be fine for a few minutes,” the girl told her. “We’re all here to watch him.”
Becky nodded. “Stay here, Brownie,” she told Katie.
Katie watched nervously as Becky walked away. This was really scary.
She couldn’t think about anything except how Becky was going to try to ride her in front of all those people.
She couldn’t think about anything except how all of their friends would make fun of Becky for messing up.
She couldn’t think about anything except . . .
SUGAR!
Katie smelled something sweet and yummy. A sugar cube was in somebody’s pocket. Katie was sure of it.
She raised her horse nose high in the air and sniffed. The sugary smell was coming from the left.
She sniffed again. Yes. The wonderful smell was coming from a guy working in the stalls nearest the waiting area. He was filling the water trough.
Katie really wanted that sugar. But she knew she was supposed to stay put.
Still, a cube of sugar melting on her tongue would taste sooo good right now. It might even calm her down a little bit.
No. NO! She wasn’t supposed to move.
But Katie couldn’t help it. She had to have that sugar. Getting around on four legs wasn’t something Katie really had the hang of yet. As she tried to turn to the left, she banged into the brown and white pony on her right.
The pony whinnied angrily and kicked Katie’s behind.
“Hey,” Katie whinnied loudly. “It was an accident.”
Katie’s whinnying upset two other horses. One white pony stood up on her hind legs and whinnied loudly.
Katie backed away and banged into another pony, who reared up.
“Powderpuff ! Calm down!” a small boy with glasses shouted.
“Down, Chester!” the girl with the long braid cried out. She struggled to keep standing while she held on to her horse’s reins.
“Behave, Stardust!” another rider cried to her horse.
Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!
All the horses were whinnying. They’d smelled the sugar. And they wanted it, too!
The man with the sugar cubes in his pocket came walking through the waiting area.
Katie trotted after him.
The other ponies pulled and jumped away from their riders. The kids weren’t strong enough to hold on to the reins.
Which meant the ponies were free!
Chapter 9
A moment later, five wild ponies were stampeding into the ring. And Katie was leading them! Woo-hoo!
The sound of the ponies’ hooves hitting the dirt was like a drumbeat. Katie was happy to be part of the rhythm.
“Please stop, Brownie!”
Katie turned her head. Becky was running several yards behind the ponies. So were the other kids. But Katie didn’t stop. She couldn’t. It felt too good to run. She didn’t even care about eating the sugar anymore. All Katie wanted to do was gallop as fast as she could.
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Katie loved the way the sun felt on her back. And the way her legs stretched out with every stride. Mostly she just loved the freedom of running around the ring. Being cooped up in that little stall all day wasn’t any fun.
Okay, so it hadn’t been Katie who had been cooped up all day. It had been Brownie. But right now that was the same thing. And whether she was Katie or Brownie, this pony wanted to run!
The fun came to an end when several grown-up horse trainers ran into the ring. As one of them pulled the reins on her bridle, Katie halted, coming to an abrupt stop.
Becky looked horrified!
While the trainer led Katie back to Brownie’s stall, she heard kids talking.
“This is all Becky Stern’s fault,” the girl with the long brown hair said.
“Becky doesn’t know anything about training horses,” a boy in a black riding helmet added. “She shouldn’t have left Brownie alone in the waiting area.”
Katie put her head down. Poor Becky. Everyone was blaming her for the pony stampede.
But it wasn’t Becky’s fault. It was Katie’s.
Unfortunately, at the moment, she was the only one who knew that.
As the door shut on Brownie’s stall, Katie went over for a big drink of water. In the distance, she could hear Becky talking to someone. It sounded like Mrs. Stern.
“I’m giving up riding!” Katie heard Becky cry out. “Did you hear what all those kids were saying about me?”
“Becky, this wasn’t all your fault,” Mrs. Stern told her daughter. “That man shouldn’t have had sugar in his pocket when he came near the horses. He told you that. And he said he was sorry.”
“But it was Brownie who started misbehaving,” Becky insisted. “That means I didn’t train him well enough. And I should never have left him—even to go to the bathroom.”
Katie tried to frown. But her horse lips wouldn’t turn down that way. Still, she was definitely frowning on the inside. Poor Becky. She had loved horseback riding—until Katie ruined everything.
Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on her long horse neck. It felt good. She was kind of hot after her run.
But that breeze didn’t feel good for long. A moment later it was blowing wildly. In fact, it turned into a tornado. A tornado that was blowing only around Katie.
The magic wind was back!
Katie’s horse ears perked up. The whooshing of the wind was really loud now.
It was so strong it could have blown all the leaves off a tree in one big whoosh. Katie had never heard anything like it.
Then the noise stopped. So did the tornado. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
Katie Carew was back!
Brownie was back, too. The poor little pony seemed very confused.
&nbs
p; But there was nothing Katie could do about that. She couldn’t even explain the magic wind to her human friends. So what could she possibly say to a pony?
Besides, right now, Katie had to find Becky. She needed to convince her to get right back up on that horse and ride in the competition.
But Katie was going to need help to do that. This was too big a job for just one fourth-grader!
Chapter I0
A few minutes later, Katie and the other kids found Becky standing all by herself behind the stalls. She was crying.
“Becky, there you are,” Katie said. She tried to sound cheerful.
“Hi,” Becky mumbled. “Um . . . I’m sorry you all came out here for nothing.”
“Not for nothing,” Katie told her. “We’re here to see you ride Brownie.”
“I am never getting on that pony again,” Becky said. “Or any other horse, either.”
“Come on, Becky, you love horseback riding,” Emma W. reminded her.
“Loved,” Becky corrected Emma. “But not anymore. Didn’t you see what happened out there? That whole stampede was my fault.”
Katie looked at the ground. Becky’s fault? Not exactly.
“You didn’t make Brownie run into the ring,” Mandy told Becky.
“But I should have been there to control him,” Becky said.
“You’re just a kid,” Kevin told her. “You’re still learning.”
“So is Brownie,” Kadeem pointed out.
“We’ve all made dumb mistakes,” Katie told Becky. “Like the time Mr. G. caught me drawing on my sneakers. It was embarrassing. But I didn’t stop drawing.”
“And what about when Tony Raven came to town during that big snowstorm?” George reminded her. “He’s a professional snowboarder, and he freaked out on that little hill on Surrey Lane in front of everyone.”
Katie frowned. She knew that wasn’t exactly true. Katie had been the one to freak out. The magic wind had turned her into Tony Raven that day.
“But he didn’t stop snowboarding,” George continued. “Last week he won the Snowboard Showdown!”
“And what about my karate tournament?” Kevin remembered. “I tried to break a board with my foot and I fell on my rear end!”
Katie sighed. It hadn’t been Kevin who had missed the kick. It had been Katie—thanks to another switcheroo.
“But I went back and did my next event. And I got a medal,” Kevin continued.
“See, Becky? We all make mistakes,” Katie said.
“Not all of us,” Suzanne disagreed.
Kadeem laughed so hard, he almost choked. “Oh, right. Like you’re perfect.”
“What about the time you told everyone that your three-month-old sister could talk?” Mandy reminded Suzanne
Katie sighed again. That amazing talking baby? That had been Katie, too.
“Or the time you put your pants on backward for your modeling show,” George remembered.
Now Katie was getting upset. Thanks to the magic wind, she had been on the runway, not Suzanne. Katie had managed to get all her friends into messes!
Just then, Jeremy piped up. “One time, when I was six, I kicked the winning soccer goal—into the other team’s goal cage.”
Katie grinned. “And that one wasn’t even me!” she exclaimed.
The kids all stared at her.
Oops. “I just meant, that, well . . . never mind,” Katie mumbled. “The important thing is that Jeremy went right back to playing soccer.”
“And he’s the best soccer player in the whole grade,” Becky said. “Maybe even the whole school.”
Jeremy blushed.
“Jeremy, do you want me to go back into the ring with Brownie?” Becky asked. “If you want me to, I will.”
Say yes, say yes, say yes, Katie thought hopefully, crossing her fingers.
“Whatever,” Jeremy mumbled.
Becky brightened. She stood up straight and smiled. “Then I’ll do it for you,” she told Jeremy. “And I’ll win, too!”
Chapter II
“I can’t believe Becky didn’t even win a ribbon in that riding competition,” Suzanne moaned to Katie on Sunday afternoon. “Especially after we all told her about our embarrassing mistakes!”
Katie rolled her eyes. Suzanne hadn’t exactly admitted any mistakes. Everyone else had done that for her.
But out loud Katie said, “I’m just glad she rode Brownie. She only knocked over one cone when she was going through that obstacle course. I think that’s pretty good.”
Suzanne sat back on the steps of Katie’s house. She looked out at the front yard. “Who do you think is making more money?” she asked.
Katie wasn’t sure. George was busy raking the leaves at her house. Kadeem was next door, raking Mrs. Derkman’s leaves.
“I don’t know,” Katie said. “George told me he got up early to rake another lawn before ours.”
“And Kadeem is raking another lawn after Mrs. Derkman’s,” Suzanne told Katie. “My next-door neighbor, Mrs. Martin, hired him.”
“They’re working hard,” Katie said. “Look how big that pile is over at Mrs. Derkman’s. And ours is pretty huge, too.” Because of their leaf-learning adventure in school, Katie now knew there was a maple tree, an oak tree, and two chestnut trees in the Carews’ backyard.
“The sooner George is finished, the sooner we can play on your lawn again,” Suzanne told her.
“Pepper and Snowball will be happy about that,” Katie said. She looked over toward where Pepper and Mrs. Derkman’s dog were resting. “I’ll bet they’re pretty bored just lying there under that maple.”
Suzanne looked over at the two dogs. “They seem pretty happy to me,” she said. “Dogs are lazy, anyway.”
“They are not,” Katie insisted. She hated when anyone—even her best friend—said anything bad about Pepper. Or his best friend, Snowball, either.
Just then, a little gray squirrel raced across Mrs. Derkman’s lawn. Immediately Pepper and Snowball jumped up and—whoosh—they took off.
“Pepper! No!” Katie shouted. “Snowball, stop!”
But it was too late. The next thing anyone knew, Pepper and Snowball had plowed right into Kadeem’s giant pile of leaves. Red, orange, and yellow leaves flew all over Mrs. Derkman’s lawn.
But instead of yelling at the dogs, Kadeem stormed over to George.
“This is all your fault!” Kadeem shouted.
“My fault?” George asked. “What did I do?”
“You sent those dogs over to Mrs. Derkman’s lawn!” Kadeem insisted.
“No way,” George said. “But now you’re going to have to rake up all those leaves again. Maybe I’ll go over and rake Mrs. Martin’s lawn. You’re not going to have time now.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Kadeem shouted.
“Oh, wouldn’t I?” George shouted back.
Kadeem jumped up and took a flying leap—right into George’s pile of leaves. Red, orange, and yellow leaves flew all over Katie’s lawn.
Now it was George’s turn to get mad. He ran over to Mrs. Derkman’s lawn and began throwing leaves all over the place.
Kadeem did the same thing on Katie’s lawn.
George ran over to Kadeem and dumped a whole pile of leaves on his head.
“I’ll get you for that, George Brennan!” Kadeem shouted. He picked up his own pile of leaves.
“This is really getting bad!” Katie told Suzanne. “We have to do something.”
“No, we don’t,” Suzanne said. “I think it’s hilarious. Better than anything on TV!”
But Katie was tired of all the fighting. She ran over and stood between the boys.
“STOP!” she shouted.
The boys didn’t hear her. They were too busy throwing leaves.
“Ptttthhhht . . .” Katie mumbled as a handful of dried leaves landed in her mouth.
“Oops,” George said. “Kadeem did that.”
“I did not,” Kadeem insisted. “Those were George’s leaves.”
“I don’t care whose leaves they were!” Katie shouted as she picked bits of dried leaves off her tongue. “I just want you guys to cut it out.” She looked at both yards. What a mess!
“George should pick up my leaves,” Kadeem started in again.
“He should pick up mine,” George corrected him.
“No! You’re both going to help each other!” Katie told them.
“Why would we do that?” George and Kadeem asked at the same time.
“Because it’ll go a lot faster,” Katie told the boys. “In fact, if you guys worked together all the time, you’d probably both make a lot more money.”
Kadeem and George just stared at each other.
Finally George said, “We could rake five or six lawns a day that way.”
“I can only do two a day on my own,” Kadeem admitted.
“George and Kadeem’s Leaf-Busting Business,” George said. “I like that.”
“You mean, Kadeem and George’s Leaf-Busting Business,” Kadeem said.
Katie frowned. She could sense another fight coming on.
“What about just calling it Leaf Busters?” she suggested.
George and Kadeem both smiled. They liked the sound of that.
“Right now, you’d better rake up this mess,” Katie told the boys. “Start with Mrs. Derkman’s lawn. She’ll be really mad if she sees it like this.”
George and Kadeem didn’t have to be told twice. They both knew Mrs. Derkman well. Besides being Katie’s neighbor, she was the strictest teacher in the whole school. And boy, could she yell.
“Hey, Katie, you want to go inside and listen to a Bayside Boys CD?” Suzanne called out.
For a minute, Katie thought about staying outside and helping the boys. But they seemed to be working really well on their own.
“Sure!” Katie shouted back at Suzanne. She turned toward her house. But before she could take even one step, a cool breeze began to blow on her neck.
Katie gasped.
Oh, no! Was the magic wind back? Was it going to switcheroo her again? Right here? In front of her friends?
