by Nancy Krulik
“What’s the problem?” the woman with the doll asked Katie.
“You’re making me n-nervous,” Katie stuttered. “I . . . I can’t think.”
“Don’t think. Wrap!” the angry man called out. “I gotta get home soon.”
Katie walked over to the large rolls of paper and pulled hard on the red-and-green Christmas wrap.
Whoosh! Bam!
Katie had pulled too hard. The paper flew off the roller and knocked Katie to the floor. Now she was covered in a big roll of wrapping paper. She looked like a giant Christmas present.
“Oh, never mind!” the woman with the doll said. She grabbed her gift and stormed away from the gift-wrapping counter.
“I’m sorry,” Katie apologized sadly. She struggled to unwrap herself.
“I’m glad she’s gone,” the man said. He hoisted the huge vacuum-cleaner box onto the counter. “Here. This is for my wife. Could you wrap it?”
Katie stared at the giant vacuum-cleaner box. “Um, well, I could try,” she said.
“That pretty silver-and-gold paper would be nice,” the guy continued. “My wife said she wanted something silver or gold for Christmas this year.”
Katie had a feeling the man’s wife had meant silver or gold jewelry, not a vacuum cleaner wrapped in silver-and-gold paper. But she went and pulled the silver-and-gold paper from one of the rollers, anyway.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out how to get the paper to stay where it belonged. No matter how much tape she used to hold the paper together, it kept tearing.
Katie worked for a really long time to make the gift look pretty. But in the end, it looked like a tall mountain of silver-and-gold wrapping-paper scraps held together with several rolls of tape.
Still, it was covered. Quickly, Katie grabbed a silver bow and slapped it on top.
“Here you go, sir,” she said, handing the gift back to him.
“What a mess!” the man declared. “This doesn’t look nice at all!”
He ripped off all the paper. Then he placed the bow back on the top of the gift. “There. That’s better,” he said as he walked away.
Katie sighed. She could have done that.
Things got worse the longer Katie worked at the gift-wrapping counter. She was making a mess of things. She’d used up almost all the paper on the rollers and had gone through mounds of tape. But none of the gifts she had wrapped looked pretty. People were very disappointed.
Katie had to admit that she would have been disappointed if she’d gotten one of those gifts, too. There was something wonderful about getting a present that was wrapped up all pretty and nice. It made Christmas morning extra special.
Katie finally understood. Christmas wrapping paper wasn’t a waste after all. It was a really special part of the holiday.
A part of the holiday she had ruined.
Chapter 9
Just then, a little man with a long nose and tiny glasses walked up behind Katie. He was wearing a badge on his jacket. It read, “Department Manager.”
“What is going on here?” he demanded loudly.
Katie jumped. For a little man, he sure had a big mouth.
“Well, I . . .” Katie began.
“What a mess!” the manager interrupted. “And why are we all out of paper?”
“You see,” Katie said, “there were all these weird gifts. Vacuum cleaners and baby dolls and . . .”
“This is just terrible,” the department manager snapped. “It’s the worst thing that could happen . . . ever!”
Katie could think of a lot worse things that could happen. But, of course, she didn’t say that to the department manager.
“Lauren, go on your break now!” the manager told her angrily. “I’m going downstairs into the storeroom to get more paper.”
Katie didn’t need to be told twice. She turned and raced from the gift-wrapping counter.
As Katie hurried to get out of Thimbles, she saw lots of angry customers with badly wrapped gifts. They were all glaring at her.
Things weren’t much better out in the mall. Lots of the people there recognized Lauren. And they all seemed to have heard about the mess she’d made at Thimbles.
Katie hated being stared at. She wanted to get away from all these people. But to do that, she would have to leave the mall and go outside.
Katie wasn’t supposed to leave the mall without her mother. That was a big rule.
“There she is,” Katie heard a woman in a blue hat say. She pointed right at Katie. “That woman made a total mess out of the gift I got my grandmother. She should be fired.”
Tears started to stream down Katie’s cheeks.
“Rules, schmules!” she shouted as she ran for the exit.
Katie finally found a place where she could be totally and completely alone. It was a small alleyway behind the food court, near the Dumpsters. Nobody hung out there, ever. All that old, moldy, half-eaten food smelled too bad.
But Katie didn’t care. The disgusting smell wasn’t nearly as awful as the way people inside were treating her.
Katie plopped down on a huge pile of old newspapers wrapped up in a clear plastic bag. It wasn’t fair. She had tried her best to make those presents look nice. It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t know how to wrap gifts. It wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t really Lauren.
It was all the magic wind’s fault!
At that very moment, Katie felt a familiar breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She knew right away that it wasn’t just an ordinary breeze.
The magic wind was back!
And it was getting stronger. Within seconds, it was whipping wildly around Katie. The tornado spun her around, faster and faster—like a crazy spinning top.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
And Katie was back!
Chapter 10
Katie didn’t wait around near the Dumpsters. Instead, she raced back into the mall.
It felt good not to be breaking her mother’s rule anymore. It also felt good to be able to walk past the stores without anyone giving her a dirty look or yelling at her. After all, no one was mad at Katie Carew.
But plenty of people were still very angry at Lauren. The gift-wrapper was sitting all by herself in the food court, sipping a soda, and trying hard not to cry. But every now and then a tear would sneak out from the corner of her eye.
Katie began walking over to Lauren’s table. She wanted to make her feel better. But before Katie could reach her, the department manager reached her table. And boy, did he look angry!
“There’s no wrapping paper left in the storeroom!” he shouted at Lauren. “Which means Thimbles will not be wrapping any more gifts this holiday season! A lot of people are going to be disappointed. And it is all your fault!”
Katie gulped when she heard that last part. She knew it wasn’t Lauren’s fault at all.
“But, Mr. Snickering, I didn’t . . .” Lauren began. Then she sighed. “Or maybe I did. I don’t know what happened this morning.”
“I do,” Mr. Snickering told her. “You made a mess of our gift-wrapping counter. And since we have no more gift wrap, we have no need for you. You are fired!”
“But, Mr. Snickering,” Lauren pleaded, “there must be some gift wrap left in the store that we can use.”
Mr. Snickering shook his head. “There’s no paper anywhere.”
“But I need this job,” Lauren pleaded.
“Well, find some gift wrap, and you can have your job back,” Mr. Snickering replied as he walked away. “Otherwise, don’t come back to the store.”
Katie stood there for a minute, unable to move. She felt awful for Lauren. She also felt really guilty. After all, it was Katie who had made the mess at the gift-wrapping counter.
So it was going to have to be Katie who made things right again! She took a deep breath and walked right up to Lauren.
“Hi,” Katie said quietly.
Lauren looked sadly at Katie. “
Oh, it’s you,” she said. “Well, you’ll be happy to know that Thimbles won’t be wrapping gifts anymore. They ran out of paper, and now I’m out of a job.”
“That doesn’t make me happy,” Katie assured her.
“I thought you said I was destroying the planet by wrapping gifts,” Lauren reminded her.
“It isn’t your wrapping that’s ruining the Earth,” Katie corrected her. “It’s the wrapping paper that’s doing it.”
“How can you wrap gifts without wrapping paper?” Lauren asked her.
Katie thought about that for a minute. Then suddenly, she got a great idea.
“I know where you can find plenty of paper and still save trees!” she exclaimed suddenly. “Come with me! Let’s get your job back!”
Chapter 11
An hour later, Katie was back in the food court. But this time, she was carrying a big present. It was wrapped in old, thrown-out newspapers. But it didn’t look like garbage. It looked fantastic.
Lauren had used the newspaper to make the package look like a palm tree. She’d attached tiny green and red bows to some of the newspaper leaves. They shimmered like Christmas lights on the tree.
The first people Katie bumped into in the food court were Jessica Haynes and her mom. “Did you see how they’re wrapping gifts at Thimbles now?” Katie asked Jessica. “They’re using recycled newspaper. This present is for my grandmother. It’s a poster of a roller coaster.”
“Why would they use old newspapers to wrap new presents?” Jessica asked.
Katie frowned. Jessica did not seem impressed. Neither did any of the other people sitting nearby. They all looked at Katie’s package strangely and then turned away.
Katie really wanted people to like her idea for wrapping paper. She wanted them to go back to the gift-wrapping counter at Thimbles and have Lauren wrap their gifts, too.
Things were not going the way Katie had planned.
But Katie Carew was not the kind of kid who gave up. “Thimbles is giving a present to planet Earth,” Katie told Jessica’s mom. “Wrapping paper is made from trees. You have to cut down a lot of trees to wrap gifts.”
Mrs. Haynes seemed interested. At least a little bit. So Katie kept talking. She held up her newspaper-palm tree present. “This way, they’re using paper twice,” she said. “That means fewer trees have to be cut down.”
Jessica didn’t seem to care about the trees. But she did like the way Katie’s gift looked. “Well, that is kind of neat,” Jessica said as she looked at the present in Katie’s hand. She ran her fingers over the palm tree’s newspaper leaves. “How did Lauren do that?”
“I don’t know,” Katie told her. “But she’s really talented. And you should see some of the other packages she’s wrapped. One has these tiny paper birds all over it. They’re made out of old comic strips. It’s very colorful.”
“I thought I heard Lauren had made a mess of things over at Thimbles,” Mrs. Haynes mentioned.
Katie sighed. It hadn’t been Lauren who had done that. It had been Katie. But, of course, she couldn’t tell Mrs. Haynes about her switcheroo. Mrs. Haynes never would have believed her anyway. Katie wouldn’t have believed it, either, if it hadn’t happened to her.
“Well, she’s doing a great job now,” Katie said.
Mrs. Haynes looked at the gift again. “It is interesting,” she said slowly. “A package wrapped like this would stand out under the tree.”
The woman at the next table looked over at Katie. “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation,” she said.
Katie grinned. She was glad. In fact, she’d been talking extra loud so people would overhear.
“I think what Thimbles is doing is wonderful,” the woman continued. She looked around at all the paper plates and cups at the food court. “There’s too much waste in this mall. More stores should be recycling.”
“You should eat your lunch at Louie’s instead of at the food court,” Katie told her. “He’s stopped using paper plates. He’s saving trees, too. And his pizza is really yummy!”
“What a great idea!” the woman exclaimed. “You know, you should tell everyone about how Thimbles and Louie’s are doing their part to help the planet.”
Katie smiled. That was exactly what she planned on doing!
Chapter 12
“What beautiful presents!” Mrs. Carew exclaimed as Katie placed two more gifts under the tree later that evening. Inside one of the beautifully wrapped boxes was a scarf for her mother. The other held a big coffee mug for her father.
“I wrapped them myself,” Katie told her mom. “Lauren showed me how to make the little birds. They’re called cranes.”
“You know, lots of people had newspaper cranes on their presents today. You wouldn’t believe how many people came by with packages from Thimbles,” Mrs. Carew said. “They loved the way Lauren was wrapping gifts in recycled newspapers. I don’t know how she came up with such a wonderful idea!”
Katie smiled. She knew where Lauren had gotten the idea. But she wasn’t telling.
“Wow, the snow is really coming down,” Katie’s father said as he looked out the window. “It’s going to be good sledding weather tomorrow!”
Just then, the phone rang. Katie leaped up to get it.
“Hello,” Katie answered.
The person on the other end didn’t say hello back. He just screamed excitedly.
“Guess what? I got it!” he shouted into the phone.
Katie laughed. It was Jeremy. And she didn’t have to ask what “it” was. She knew it was his snowboard.
“Not so loud,” Katie said, holding the phone away from her ear.
“Oh, sorry,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t mean to yell.”
“It’s okay; I have another ear,” Katie joked.
“I’m just so excited!” Jeremy exclaimed. “I can’t believe I have my very own snowboard.”
“I think that’s great,” Katie told him. And she really meant it. She wasn’t jealous of Jeremy at all. She was happy for him.
“And it’s snowing outside right now!” Jeremy continued.
“I know. My dad said it’s going to be great sledding weather tomorrow,” Katie told him.
“Sledding or snowboarding,” Jeremy added. “That’s why I’m calling you. Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve. And your mom is working during the day.”
“Only until three o’clock,” Katie explained. “I’m going to the mall with her. I guess I’ll hang out at Louie’s or something until she’s finished with work.”
“But my mom said you can come over here tomorrow morning instead,” Jeremy explained. “Then we can both try my new snowboard.”
“Wow! I’ve never been on a snowboard before,” Katie said.
“Me, neither,” Jeremy admitted. “We can learn together.”
“Are you sure you want to share your new present with me?” Katie asked him.
“Sure,” Jeremy said. “That’s what the holidays are about.”
Katie looked over at the gifts under her tree. She was pretty sure that the small box in the corner had a new computer game in it.
“I think I’ll have some presents to share with you, too,” she told him. “I’ll find out on Christmas morning.”
“Cool,” Jeremy said. “So you’ll come over here tomorrow?”
“Hold on,” Katie said. Then she shouted into the living room. “Mom, can I go to Jeremy’s tomorrow morning instead of the mall?”
“Sure,” Mrs. Carew agreed. “As long as his mother doesn’t mind.”
“I can come!” Katie told Jeremy happily.
“Cool. See you tomorrow,” Jeremy said.
After she hung up with Jeremy, Katie walked back into the living room. The tree was brightly lit. The room smelled like pine needles and Christmas cookies. And there was so much snow falling outside. Everything seemed so Christmassy.
Suddenly, Katie didn’t care about the crowds in the mall and all the lines she’d had to wait in all day. That was part of Christma
s. Just like wrapping gifts, baking cookies, spending time with friends, and singing Christmas songs.
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly,” she began to sing.
“Fa la la la la, la la la la,” her parents chimed in.
“AROOOOO!” Soon, even Pepper was singing.
Katie gave her dog a big hug. She smiled at her parents. There was a lot of love in her living room. That was the best Christmas present she could have . . .
And it didn’t need any gift wrap at all!
The Santa Switch
Chapter 1
“Okay, Katie, it’s your turn,” Mr. Guthrie said. “Whose Secret Santa will you be?”
Katie looked at the red-and-white Santa Claus hat her teacher was holding. Inside were lots of folded pieces of paper. Each paper had a name written on it. The person whose name she picked would be the person she would have to buy gifts for. That was how Secret Santa worked.
“I hope you get my name,” Emma Weber whispered as Katie stuck her hand into the hat. “You’d be a great Secret Santa.”
Katie hoped she picked Emma’s name from the hat, too. Emma was one of her closest friends. It would be easy to buy presents for her.
Katie reached all the way down to the bottom of the hat and pulled out one of the slips of paper. Then she slowly opened it and read the name:KADEEM CARTER
Oh, well. She was just going to have to think a little harder to come up with good gifts.
“Okay, now that everyone has picked a name, I’ll tell you the rules,” Mr. G. said. “You will have to buy the person whose name you drew three gifts. The first two gifts should cost no more than one dollar each. The third present is the big gift. You may spend up to five dollars on that one.”
Katie did the math in her head. Seven dollars. That was three more than she had in her bank at home. It would be Sunday until she would get her allowance. She sure hoped Mr. G. would give them some time before the first Secret Santa day.
