Three Cheers for...Who?

by Nancy Krulik

  “Ain’t isn’t even a word,” Mandy said.

  “Exactly,” Kadeem Carter agreed. “Ain’t ain’t a word ’cause ain’t ain’t in the dictionary!”

  Katie giggled. Kadeem could be pretty funny sometimes.

  Luckily, Ms. Sweet, class 4B’s teacher, knew how to stop the cheering. “Girls,” she scolded. “That’s not how we behave in school.”

  “Sorry,” Miriam, Becky, Zoe, and Jessica Haynes all said at once.

  But Suzanne started to cheer all over again. “Sorry, sorry is what I am! No one is sorrier than Suzanne.”

  Kevin groaned. “She’s sorry, all right. A sorry excuse for a cheerleader!”

  Katie hated when her friends said mean things about one another. But Suzanne was taking this whole cheerleading thing way too far.

  “Hey, Katie, do you want to come over after school today?” Emma W. asked as the girls walked into the library.

  Katie didn’t know what to say. She really didn’t want to spend another afternoon listening to Lacey and Rachel practicing cheers. “Do you want to come to my house instead?” Katie suggested.

  Emma W. shook her head. “I can’t,” she said. “My mom needs someone to keep an eye on Matthew while she’s taking care of the twins. And since Lacey has an after-school cheerleading practice, that someone is me.”

  Katie smiled. Lacey wasn’t going to be home.

  “Sure, I’ll come over,” Katie said. “I’ll call my mom later from the school office.”

  Things were nice and quiet at Emma W.’s house that afternoon. Mrs. Weber was in the living room playing blocks with Timmy and Tyler. Katie and Emma W. were in the backyard finger-painting with Matthew. It was a warm, spring day, so it was nice to be outside.

  “Wow, Matthew,” Katie said. “I like the purple dog you painted.”

  “That’s an elephant,” Matthew told her. “I just didn’t add the trunk yet.”

  “Oh,” Katie said. “Sorry. Now I can see. It’s definitely an elephant.”

  Katie dipped her fingers in the brown paint and started to paint a picture of Pepper. She started with his big, brown eyes, and then worked her way back to his stubby, little tail.

  Finger painting wasn’t the kind of thing she would usually do with a friend because it was a first-grade thing, not a fourth-grade thing. But since Matthew was in first grade, Katie and Emma W. had an excuse. And if someone said it was babyish—someone like Suzanne, for instance—the girls could just say that they were finger-painting to make Matthew happy.

  “Would you pass the yellow?” Emma W. asked Katie.

  Katie looked over at her friend’s paper. “Nice rainbow,” she said as she passed the yellow.

  “Thanks,” Emma W. said. “I’m so glad Mr. G. gave us that little trick to remember what order the colors go in.”

  Katie knew exactly what trick Emma W. was talking about. They’d learned it on the day they were studying light. Mr. G. had come to school dressed in a rainbow shirt, with a rainbow-colored wig on his head. He had told everyone his name was Roy G. Biv.

  Except Roy G. Biv wasn’t a real person. Roy G. Biv was the way Mr. G. wanted them to remember the colors in the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

  “Mr. G. is a very cool teacher,” Katie said.

  “The coolest,” Emma W. agreed, smushing some yellow paint around on her paper.

  Katie reached for the red paint so she could start making Pepper’s collar. But before she could dip her hand into the dish, Lacey and Rachel came racing into the backyard.

  “You guys have to leave,” Lacey told them.

  “Why?” Emma W. asked her sister.

  “Because our squad learned a new cheer today and we have to practice so that we can do it perfectly at the game on Saturday,” Lacey told her.

  “We were here first,” Matthew said.

  “Well now you’re leaving first,” Lacey said. “Mom said we have to practice out here. The ceilings are too low for us to do our jumps in the house.”

  “But mom said she didn’t want us painting inside,” Emma W. explained. “It makes too much of a mess.”

  “Then do something else,” Lacey told her.

  “Can’t we share the yard?” Katie asked.

  Lacey shook her head. “No way. We need a lot of room.”

  Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Lacey was acting like she owned the backyard. And that wasn’t true.

  But Emma W. was already packing up the paints and paper. She obviously didn’t feel like arguing with her sister.

  “It’s getting a little chilly, anyway,” Emma W. told Katie and Matthew.

  Katie had been happy to be finger-painting. And she’d been happy not having to hear cheers for a while. “I don’t know why you guys have to practice so much,” Katie told Lacey and Rachel. “Cheerleading isn’t that hard.”

  “Are you kidding?” Rachel demanded.

  “Cheerleaders are athletes!” Lacey said. “We have to practice, just like in any sport.”

  “There’s no cheerleading in the Olympics,” Katie told her.

  Lacey and Rachel just stared at Katie. They couldn’t believe what she had just said.

  “You don’t know anything,” Lacey told Katie.

  But Katie did know something. She knew she hated cheerleading. Cheerleading had ruined her day in school, and now it was ruining her playdate after school.

  Cheerleading was definitely not something to cheer about. No way!

  Chapter 6

  “But, Katie, you just have to come with me,” Emma W. pleaded that night on the phone. “I don’t want to sit at that basketball game without a friend to talk to.”

  Katie sighed. She really liked Emma W. A lot. But she really didn’t want to go to the high school basketball game tomorrow.

  “My mom has to take Matthew and the twins for their doctor’s appointments,” Emma W. explained. “She said I could go to the game if a friend sits in the bleachers with me. Otherwise I have to go with her. And I hate going to the doctor’s. Even if it’s not for me.”

  Katie didn’t blame Emma W. Going to the doctor’s was no fun. There was always a little kid crying after getting a shot or someone sneezing and coughing all over the place.

  “Okay,” Katie said finally. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Katie, you’re the best!” Emma W. said.

  “I’ve never actually been to a high school basketball game,” Katie admitted.

  “The Cherrydale High team is good,” Emma W. said. “They haven’t lost a game all season.”

  As Katie hung up the phone, she smiled. It was very grown-up to go to a high school basketball game.

  Katie wasn’t even going to look at mean old Lacey Weber and the other cheerleaders. She was going to watch the basketball players. They were the real athletes, after all!

  “Let’s go Squids! Let’s GO!” The crowd in the Cherrydale High School gym cheered as the basketball players raced across the court at the start of the game.

  “Who named our team the Squids?” Katie asked Emma W. They were staring at somebody who was dressed up in a red and white squid costume. It was pretty funny-looking, with bulging red eyes, a white belly, and eight red arms.

  “How does he see in there?” Katie wondered.

  “I think there are holes underneath that thing that looks like a snout,” Emma W. said.

  The mascot was twirling around and shaking his huge tentacles all over the place.

  Then two players stood facing each other at the center of the court. The ref blew the whistle, tossed up the basketball, and the game began. It was exciting to watch. The Squids scored first, and then almost right away the same player threw the ball from miles away. Swish! In the hoop it went.

  Katie pretty much avoided Lacey and the other cheerleaders each time the Squids scored another basket.

  Soon the score was 22-19. The Cherrydale High School Squids were ahead. But that could change any minute.

  BUZZZ! Before
anyone else could score a basket, the buzzer rang. The players all raced off the court.

  “Where are they going?” Katie asked.

  “It’s halftime,” Emma W. explained. “The players go into the locker rooms for a rest.”

  “What do we do while they’re resting?” Katie asked her.

  “We watch the halftime show,” Emma W. said. “The cheerleaders from both schools do some of their best cheers. They try to keep the crowd really excited.”

  “Um, Emma W.,” Katie asked. “Do you mind if I go get some candy in the lobby?”

  “No,” Emma W. replied. “I’ll wait here so no one takes our seats.”

  “Cool,” Katie said. “I’ll be right back.”

  And with that, Katie climbed down the bleachers and headed out a nearby door. She found herself in a hallway outside the gym. Katie turned a corner, looking for the candy machines. What she found instead were a bunch of classrooms facing a wall of lockers. Katie was a little nervous. The high school was big—much bigger than the elementary school. It would be easy for a fourth-grader to get lost.

  Just then, Katie felt a breeze blowing on the back of her neck. That was weird. There were no windows in this hallway and all the doors to the classrooms were closed. So where was that breeze coming from?

  A moment later, the wind started blowing harder and harder—just around Katie. That could only mean one thing: This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind! Oh no!

  The magic wind began to blow more and more wildly until it was circling Katie like a fierce tornado. The wind was so powerful, Katie thought she might be blown away! She shut her eyes tight and tried really hard not to cry.

  And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.

  And so was Katie Carew. She’d been turned into someone else. One ... two ... switcheroo!

  But who?

  Chapter 7

  All around Katie, people were shouting and cheering. The air smelled of sweaty sneakers and floor wax. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She could see people sitting in the bleachers on either side of her. Up on the wall there was a sign. It said SQUIDS 22, VISITORS 19.

  Okay, so the magic wind had blown Katie back into the Cherrydale High School gym. Now Katie knew where she was. But she still didn’t know who she was.

  Slowly she looked down. Her red, high-top sneakers were gone. Instead, Katie was wearing a pair of plain white sneakers with red laces and red socks.

  And she wasn’t wearing her cool new jeans with the flowers embroidered on the pockets anymore. Katie was wearing a little red and white skirt. A cheerleading skirt!

  Uh-oh! That could only mean one thing. The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into one of the Cherrydale High cheerleaders, right in the middle of the halftime show!

  “Come on, Lacey,” Katie heard one of the cheerleaders say. “Grab your pom-poms.”

  Katie looked around for Lacey.

  “Lacey, quit looking around. Grab your pom-poms and get into formation for the salt-and-pepper cheer,” Rachel said.

  Suddenly Katie realized that the cheerleaders were staring right at her. They were all holding red and white pom-poms. But Katie wasn’t. Uh-oh. Katie knew what that had to mean.

  The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into Lacey Weber!

  It seemed like everyone in the gym was waiting for her to line up.

  But Katie couldn’t move. Her feet were glued to the floor.

  “Lacey,” Rachel whispered. “What’s wrong?”

  What was wrong was that Lacey was really Katie. But of course Katie couldn’t tell Rachel that. She couldn’t tell anybody that.

  Katie bent down and grabbed her pom-poms. Then she took a deep breath and took her place behind Rachel in the formation.

  Maybe this would turn out okay. After all, she knew all of the steps to the salt-and-pepper cheer. Well, pretty much all of the steps, anyway.

  “Salt and pepper,” the cheerleading captain shouted. “Ready? And ...”

  “Salt makes you thirsty and pepper makes you sneeze. When it comes to shooting baskets, we drive you to your knees!” Katie shouted out along with everybody else. She tried to do the same moves as the other cheerleaders. She shook her pom-poms to the right. Then she shook them to the left. Unfortunately, the other cheerleaders were shaking their pom-poms to the left and then to the right.

  Katie twirled around and shook her pom-poms in the air.

  The other cheerleaders twirled around and shook their pom-poms down low.

  Katie leaped up in the air and did an X jump.

  The other cheerleaders dropped to their knees and waved their pom-poms all around.

  “What was that all about?” Rachel hissed in Katie’s ear as the cheer ended.

  “Quit trying to change the routine,” Tess, the squad captain, whispered in Katie’s ear.

  “I wasn’t ...,” Katie began. But Tess didn’t hear her. She’d already walked away and started the next cheer.

  “Okay, pyramid formation!” Tess called out to the other cheerleaders. “Ready? Begin!”

  Almost instantly, the cheerleaders began to form their pyramid. Four girls got on their hands and knees. They were the bottom row. Three more girls began climbing onto their backs. Katie hurried over, and started to climb on, too.

  “What are you doing, Lacey?” Rachel asked. “You’re the one on top, remember?”

  Katie gulped. The top? Already, two girls were climbing onto the backs of the three girls on the second level of the pyramid. That meant Katie was going to have to climb over those girls and stand all the way at the top of the pyramid. And that was really, really high up.

  This was soooo not good!

  Chapter 8

  “Lacey, what are you waiting for?” Tess said. She sounded annoyed. “Come on.”

  A cheerleader in the bottom row said, “Hurry up. My back is killing me.”

  But the pyramid was too high and scary to climb up. There was only so much a fourth-grade girl could do—even if that fourth-grade girl was stuck inside a high school cheerleader’s body.

  Now there was laughing coming from the other side of the gym floor. The Stallions’ cheerleaders were pointing at her.

  “That squad is the worst,” one of them said, loud enough for Katie to hear. “We’ll definitely beat those losers at the state competition.”

  Now Katie felt really bad. The Cherrydale High cheerleaders were not losers. They were really good—at least they were when Katie wasn’t on their squad.

  “I’ll show them!” Katie cheered quietly to herself. She put her foot on the back of one of the cheerleaders on the bottom row and began to climb up the pyramid.

  Slowly, Katie managed to climb over the first girl, then hoist herself over to the next row. So far so good. Katie took a deep breath and told herself not to look down. Grabbing on to Rachel’s shoulders, Katie somehow scrambled her way to the top and, trying not to wobble, Katie stood up as tall as she could. Then she spread her arms up in a V for victory.

  “I did it!” Katie shouted. “I did ... WHOA!”

  Katie went flying backward off the pyramid, waving her arms wildly up and down as she fell. Oof! A moment later Katie landed right on her rear end. Ouch!

  Crash! Katie wasn’t the only one falling. The girls in the pyramid were knocked to either side as Katie fell. They all hit the ground.

  Everyone in the gym started laughing—including the Cherrydale High fans.

  “Lacey! What is the matter with you?” Tess, the team captain, hissed.

  Suddenly tears started falling from Katie’s eyes. She just couldn’t stay in the gym another minute. And so she did a very fourth-grade girl kind of thing.

  She took off and ran. She ran past the squid who was laughing so hard, he was rolling around on the floor. She didn’t stop running until she couldn’t hear any laughter. By then, she was completely lost somewhere in the huge high school.

  Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She looked aroun
d for an open window. But there weren’t any.

  That could only mean one thing. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind. It was back!

  The magic wind got stronger and stronger after that. It began whipping around wildly, like a powerful tornado. A tornado that was only spinning around Katie. It was blowing so hard, Katie was afraid it might blow her all the way to the real pyramids—in Egypt!

  And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone. Katie Kazoo was back!

  So was Lacey. And, boy, did she look confused!

  “What am I doing here?” she asked Katie.

  That was a hard question to answer. “Everyone was laughing, so I had to ... I mean you had to ...”

  Lacey got a funny look on her face. “I ran out of the gym,” she said slowly. “Because everyone was laughing at me. I sort of remember. It’s all kind of fuzzy.”

  Katie frowned. She felt terrible about what had just happened in the gym. “Well, they weren’t just laughing at you,” she told Lacey. “The whole pyramid fell.”

  “Because of me,” Lacey said. She shook her head. “I don’t know what happened. One minute I was up there, and the n—”

  “You were down on the floor,” Katie said, finishing her sentence.

  “Yeah,” Lacey said. She rubbed her rear end. “I don’t know how I lost my balance.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Katie told her. “You were up really high. It’s a very difficult trick.”

  Lacey shook her head. “Katie, how would you know?” she said.

  “I know. Believe me,” Katie said. “I’m sorry for what I said the other day. Being a cheerleader takes a lot of skill.”

  “That’s okay.” Then Lacey gave Katie a funny look. “What are you doing out here, anyway?”

  Oh man. How could Katie explain that?

  “I ... um . . . well . . . I was looking for the candy machines and I made a wrong turn,” said.

  “A majorly wrong turn,” Lacey said. She stood up. “Come on. We’ll go get Emma and walk back to our house.”