by Nancy Krulik
“I’m ready!” Katie interrupted eagerly. “Which race?”
“Race?” Coach Debbie asked, confused. “Oh, no. I was going to ask you to run and get a bottle of cold water for Evan. He’s going to compete in the long distance race Maya was supposed to run.”
“But Evan is already running two races,” Katie reminded the coach.
“I know,” Coach Debbie replied. “That’s why he needs more water. Now go, Katie. Hurry. The team is counting on you!”
Katie couldn’t believe it! Now she was really mad. Coach Debbie was so mean! All she cared about was winning! She shouldn’t be a teacher at all.
That was it! After today, Katie decided she was going to quit the team.
The gym was empty when Katie arrived. She hurried toward Coach Debbie’s office, where the refrigerator was. Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck.
Katie looked around. The nets on the basketball hoops weren’t moving in the breeze. The papers on Coach Debbie’s desk were completely still.
The breeze only seemed to be blowing around Katie.
Oh, no! This wasn’t an ordinary wind. This was the magic wind! It was back. And there was nothing Katie could do to stop it!
Whoosh! The magic wind picked up speed. It swirled wildly around Katie. It was powerful and out of control. Katie was really scared.
But she was even more scared when the wind stopped blowing. She knew what that meant. The magic wind was gone...
And so was Katie Carew.
Chapter 11
Katie opened her eyes slowly and looked around. Wow! That had been some strong wind. It had blown Katie right out of the gym. Now she was standing in the middle of the track field.
Okay, so now she knew where she was. But she still didn’t know who she was.
“Coach Debbie!” she heard Evan shout. “Do you want me to run this race for Maya?”
There was no answer. Katie looked around for the coach. She didn’t see her anywhere.
“Do you want me to run now?” Evan asked again. Then he gave Katie a funny look. “Are you okay, Coach Debbie?”
Katie gulped. Evan had been talking to her! Slowly, she looked down at her body. Katie wasn’t wearing her lucky cocker spaniel T-shirt anymore. Instead, she was wearing a shirt that said “Winners Never Quit.” She had a silver whistle hanging around her neck. And her own red sneakers had been replaced with a pair of very white, very large running shoes.
Coach Debbie’s running shoes!
Oh, no! Katie had turned into Coach Debbie. Right in the middle of the big meet! This was so not good.
Or was it ... ?
Just then, Katie got another one of her great ideas. “No, Evan,” she told him. “I think you’ve run enough. It’s time to give someone else a chance.” She turned to Kevin. “You run in this race.”
“Huh?” Kevin asked.
“I said, ‘Run this race,’ ” Katie repeated. She tried to sound strict. Just like the real Coach Debbie.
Kevin was shocked. But he wasn’t going to give up his chance to run. “Okay!” he shouted excitedly as he ran for the starting line.
As soon as the referee said, “Go!” Kevin took off like a shot. He ran the fastest he ever had.
“Suzanne, go cheer for him,” Katie told her best friend. “Show him we have spirit. Lots of spirit!”
“Sure, Coach!” Suzanne agreed. She leaped up and ran toward the track.
“Let’s go, Kevin!” she cheered as she waved her pom-poms wildly.
Katie grinned. Things were going great... until Suzanne threw her pom-poms high in the air. She managed to catch one of them. But the other pom-pom flew off in the direction of the track. It landed right on Kevin’s head! He couldn’t see.
Kevin got all turned around. He started running in the wrong direction!
“No, Kevin!” κatie shouted. “That way!”
Kevin stopped, whipped the pom-pom from his face, and spun around. But it was too late. He’d lost the race. “Suzanne! What did you do?” one of the sixth-grade boys shouted.
“I can’t believe you made him lose!” a fifth-grade girl added.
Suzanne looked like she was going to cry. This wasn’t the attention she wanted from the older kids. “Coach Debbie told me to cheer!” she swore to them. “It’s all her fault.”
Katie frowned. It was the truth. She had been the one to tell Suzanne to cheer. What a mistake that had been.
But there was nothing Katie could do about it now. “Look, you guys,” she said finally. “It’s just one race. Besides, winning isn’t everything.”
The kids stared at her in amazement.
“Coach Debbie, are you sick or something?” Rachel asked her.
Katie shook her head. “Sure, winning is great. But so is teamwork, and fun! That’s what this team should be about.”
She looked at her clipboard. “Okay, the next race is the hurdles. Suzanne, you’re perfect for this.”
Suzanne gulped. “Me?” she asked nervously. “But I’ve never jumped over a real hurdle before.”
“You can do it. You’ve got long, strong legs. Like a racehorse.”
Suzanne gave Katie a look. Katie knew that Suzanne probably didn’t like being compared to an animal. But she also knew that she wasn’t going to argue with her coach. Not when she was actually giving her a chance to run.
“Okay.” Suzanne started to run toward the track.
“Uh, Suzanne?” Katie stopped her.
“Yes?”
“Leave the pom-poms back here.”
Suzanne dropped her pom-poms and hurried off to the starting line.
As soon as the referee blew his whistle, Suzanne ran as fast as she could to the first hurdle. She cleared it easily.
Suzanne was doing really well! Katie was so happy. If Suzanne won this race, the kids would forget about what had happened with Kevin and the pom-poms.
More importantly, it would prove that other kids could WIN! WIN! WIN! too.
Suzanne took the next hurdle just as easily. But the third one was much higher. Suzanne had never jumped over anything that tall. She leaped up into the air, and...
“Ouch!” she cried out as her knee hit the wooden hurdle. Suzanne flipped over onto the ground. Her skirt flew up in the air. Good thing she was wearing shorts under her skirt! Otherwise everyone would have seen her underpants. How embarrassing would that have been? It was bad enough that she’d lost the race!
“Hey, Coach,” Evan said as Suzanne walked back over toward the team. “Next time you want to put that horse in for a race, I vote neigh!”
Suzanne looked like she was about to cry.
Chapter 12
Unfortunately, Katie couldn’t take the time to make her best friend feel better just then. There was still one more race to run.
“The next race is the relay,” Katie told her team. “Emma, you’re going to take the first 1 ap.”
Emma seemed a little surprised. So did the rest of the kids.
Next, Katie turned to Annabelle, a tall, thin fifth-grader who was a fast runner. She could help the team if Emma fell behind. “Annabelle, you take lap number two. Rachel, you’re third. Mike, you take fourth, and...”
Katie looked around for a minute, trying to find just the right person to finish the relay. “And for the final lap, how about...” She took a deep breath. “George.”
Everyone gasped. Especially George. “Not me, Coach! I’m always last!”
“You’re getting better every day,” Katie reminded him. “I have faith in you.”
“I wish I did,” George said. He looked at his teammates. “I’m sorry... in advance.”
“On your marks. Get set. Go!”
As soon as the referee blew his whistle, Emma ran as fast as she could down the track. Katie had never seen her friend’s legs move so quickly.
“Go, Emma!” Katie shouted excitedly. “You can do it. Try your best!”
The kids all stared at her.
“What happen
ed to ‘Win! Win! Win!’?” Rachel asked Kevin.
Emma kept up the pace. But the first Apple Valley relay runner was quick. She pulled ahead of Emma early on, and never lost the lead. By the time Emma passed the relay baton to Annabelle, Apple Valley was way ahead.
Luckily, Annabelle was a super speedy runner. She soon caught up to the Apple Valley runner. They were practically tied as they came around the bend.
Katie’s heart began to pound. Rachel would be next, and then Mike. They were both really fast runners. It looked like Cherrydale Elementary had a chance to win the relay!
Then Katie remembered something: George was the last runner in the relay.
Suddenly, it didn’t seem like such a great idea to have George run. He was probably going to lose his part of the race. And if he did, Apple Valley Elementary would have enough points to win the whole track meet.
“I can’t look,” Katie groaned.
As Annabelle handed her baton to Rachel, Katie turned and ran off to hide behind a thick tree at the other end of the field. Katie couldn’t see a thing. The track team couldn’t see her either.
In the distance, she heard kids cheering loudly. Katie hoped it was her team cheering. Suddenly, she felt like she really was Coach Debbie. She wanted to win that badly.
But the real Coach Debbie would have pulled George out of the race. And Katie would never ever do that.
Suddenly, a fiercely cold wind began to blow. Katie pulled Coach Debbie’s sweat jacket tight around her. The leaves on the trees were still. The grass wasn’t moving either. Katie knew right away that this was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind!
The magic wind grew stronger and stronger. It whirled around Katie like a tornado. Faster and faster it blew, until the wind was so strong, Katie could barely breathe.
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
Katie Kazoo was back!
Of course, that also meant that Coach Debbie was back too. And Katie had a feeling she wasn’t going to be too happy to see George in the race.
Chapter 13
“George, what are you doing? Get back here!” Coach Debbie shouted as she ran over to the starting line.
“But you told me to run this race,” George told her.
“I did not ...” Coach Debbie said angrily. She stopped for a minute. She was very confused. “I mean... I would never put you... at least I don’t think ...”
“You said he could run the last lap. We all heard you,” Kevin insisted.
Coach Debbie frowned. “But... I ... wouldn’t... would I? Oh, I don’t know what I did.” She seemed confused. But only for a moment. “However, I do know this,” she said firmly. “I’m pulling you out now!”
“You can’t do that,” the referee told Coach Debbie. “Once he’s standing by the starting line, he has to run the race. It’s the rule.”
“Oh, no. We’ve lost this one,” Coach Debbie moaned.
George frowned. He felt terrible.
Katie felt badly too. All she’d wanted to do was give her friend a chance to run. But George wasn’t ready for such a big challenge.
And now everyone was going to be mad at him for losing.
Katie looked out at the track. Mike had just started to run his lap. He was way in the lead. Cherrydale could have a chance—if George could pull it together enough to win his lap.
Suddenly, Katie had another one of her great ideas. Sure, George wasn’t as fast as the Apple Valley runner. But he had something the other kid didn’t.
She ran over to the starting line. “George!” she shouted.
“Go away,” George said sadly.
“No. Listen. Here’s what you gotta do,” she said. “Make him laugh.”
“What?”
“Make him laugh,” Katie repeated. “He can’t run fast if he’s laughing.”
George’s eyes lit up. “Hey, that’s right!” he said excitedly.
As soon as George grabbed the baton from Mike, he took off down the track. But he didn’t run like the other kids did. Instead, George made his legs wobble and wiggle. He twirled around like a ballerina. Then he leaped up in the air and did a goofy clown-like split.
“Check him out!” an Apple Valley kid said.
“He’s so funny!” another agreed.
Everyone was laughing at George. Sam, the boy running for the Apple Valley team, turned around to see what was happening. He began to chuckle too. He couldn’t help it.
“That’s it, George!” Katie shouted to him. “It’s working! Now run!”
George ran as fast as he could. He actually caught up with Sam!
“Tell him a joke!” Katie yelled to George.
“You know who the best runner in history was?” George asked between huffs and puffs.
Sam couldn’t believe George was asking him questions in the middle of a race. He stared at him in amazement.
“Adam,” George joked. “He was first in the human race!”
Sam started to laugh again.
Now George began to run faster than he ever had before. As he pulled ahead of Sam, he left him with one last joke. “You know how fireflies start a race? On your marks! Get set! Glow!”
Sam giggled so hard that he had to bend over and hold his belly. That left the track wide open for George. A few moments later, he crossed the finish line way ahead of Sam.
George had led Cherrydale Elementary School to victory!
The Apple Valley coach stormed over to Coach Debbie. “Your team cheated,” he shouted at her. “That kid made my runner laugh.”
Coach Debbie shrugged. “I don’t see anything in the rule book against that. Can I help it if your runner can’t concentrate on the race?” Coach Debbie answered. “My team WON! WON! WON!”
The Apple Valley coach looked angry. But Coach Debbie was right. George had been sneaky. But he hadn’t cheated.
As the other coach stormed off, Coach Debbie looked at George. “Well, you did it,” she told him.
“Thanks for putting me in, Coach,” George grinned. “That was fun.”
“It’s not about f ...” Coach Debbie began. Then she thought about it. “I guess it is about fun,” she admitted. “And that was very clever of you.”
“Thanks,” George said, taking a bow. “But it was all Katie’s idea.”
“Well, it isn’t going to happen again,” the coach continued.
“That’s not fair!” Katie shouted out. “Even kids who aren’t the fastest runners should be allowed to try.”
Coach Debbie nodded. “I agree. I didn’t say George wasn’t going to run any more races.”
“What do you mean?” George asked her.
“I’ll put you in again, but you’ll have to win on your sports ability. Not your jokes.”
George frowned. “I don’t have a chance.”
“Sure you do,” Coach Debbie assured him. “There are other competitions besides relay races at a track meet. I liked that split you did in the air. With a little work, you could be a top-notch hurdle jumper.”
Suzanne frowned. That was definitely not her talent.
“I’m not sure what happened here today,” Coach Debbie continued, “but George reminded me of something I’d forgotten a long time ago. The best way to win at anything is with teamwork. You guys have different talents. We need to use them all.”
George leaped in the air and spun around like a crazy ballerina. “I’m ready!” he teased.
Chapter 14
“Okay, Kadeem, this is it,” Katie announced on Monday morning. They were standing out in the hall, waiting to go into the classroom and do their history presentation.
“It’s all under control,” Kadeem assured her.
Katie smiled. Kadeem had turned out to be a pretty cool partner. He was smart, and really creative too. In fact, the costumes for their presentation had been his idea. They were really wild.
Katie was wearing a big box around her body. On her head, she wore a hat with a hanger glued to it. That was
supposed to be her old-fashioned TV antennae.
As Katie walked into the classroom, the kids all pointed at her and laughed. But she didn’t care. That was the whole point of dressing like a TV set!
“Our report is on the history of TV comedies,” Katie told the class. “We watched lots of old videos to see what the first TV shows were like. We found out that the first big TV star was a funny guy named Milton Berle. People called him Uncle Miltie.” She turned toward the door.
Kadeem entered the room. He was wearing a dress!
“Check out Kadeem!” Andrew giggled.
Kadeem curtsied low. He fell over onto the floor.
The kids laughed.
“Uncle Miltie wore goofy dresses and hats on his TV show, to make people laugh,” Kadeem told everyone. “He was especially good at a kind of comedy called slapstick. That’s when the actor falls down, bangs his head, or does other silly things just for a laugh.”
“I think his face is good for a laugh,” Katie told the class. “Don’t you?”
The kids all stared at her. They couldn’t believe she was saying something so mean, right in the middle of her history presentation!
Kadeem walked to the corner of the room and picked up a huge whipped-cream pie. He and Katie had hidden it there earlier.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Katie said, staring at the pie.
Kadeem winked at the class.
Bam! Kadeem smashed the pie... right in his own face.
The kids in the class laughed really, really hard. They hadn’t expected that!
“That’s the kind of comedy people watched on old-fashioned TV shows,” Kadeem explained as he licked the cream from his chin.
Katie laughed along with everyone else. Kadeem was hysterical. She was so lucky to have the two funniest kids in the fourth grade in her class.
Suddenly, Katie felt something cold and wet hit her right on the nose. It felt like a gooey kind of rain. She looked around the classroom. It didn’t seem to be raining on anybody else.
Oh, no! Had the magic wind returned? Was it bringing rain or hail with it now? Was it going to change her into someone else, right here, in front of her whole class?
