by Nancy Krulik
“But you can’t leave,” Katie told her. “The game’s only half over. You still have cheers to do.”
“I’m not going back,” Lacey said. “I don’t want to be laughed at again.”
“But you can’t quit,” Katie said. “Your team needs you.”
“It’s called a squad,” Lacey corrected her.
“Same thing,” Katie said. “You’re the one who told me that cheerleaders were athletes, remember?”
Lacey shrugged. “I guess. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, real athletes don’t quit,” Katie told her. “They keep playing until the game is over. So if you’re a real athlete ...”
“I’ll go back in there and keep cheering,” Lacey said, standing up and finishing the sentence. “You know, you’re pretty smart for a fourth-grader.”
Katie smiled. That was a big compliment—especially from a high school teenager. Lacey was actually a nice person. At least she was when she didn’t have pom-poms in her hands.
Chapter 9
When Lacey returned to the gym, all the other cheerleaders refused to talk to her. They kept shooting her dirty looks behind her back.
Katie couldn’t believe it. “Those girls are being really mean to your sister,” Katie said once she returned to her seat in the bleachers with the candy she bought in the lobby. She handed Emma W. one of the two packages of red licorice she had. “It’s not fair.”
“I know,” Emma W. said. “Anyone can make a mistake.”
“Exactly,” Katie said.
“The thing is,” Emma W. continued, “Lacey’s been on top of the pyramid a whole bunch of times, and she’s never fallen. So why today?”
Katie frowned. She knew why. But of course she could never explain it to Emma W.
“The other cheerleaders will get over it,” Katie said hopefully. “By the end of the game they’ll probably forget all about what happened.”
But that wasn’t what happened. In fact, right after the game, the cheerleading coach asked the girls to stay for a squad meeting. Katie and Emma W. could hear everything she was saying from where they were sitting on the bleachers. They were waiting for Lacey to walk home. But that was going to have to wait.
“I videotaped your whole performance,” she told the squad. “Watching the tape will help us figure out what went wrong so we can fix it before the big competition next week.”
Katie glanced over at Lacey. She looked a little sick to her stomach. It was obvious she didn’t want to watch what had happened during the halftime show.
Neither did Katie.
“Hey, Emma W., do you want to go to my house for a while?” Katie asked her friend. “I can call my dad. Maybe he’ll pick us up now.”
Emma W. shook her head. “I promised my mom I would stay with Lacey,” she explained. “But you can go home if you want to.”
“No, it’s okay,” Katie said. “I’ll stay here with you.”
Katie and Emma W. followed the older girls into their locker room. They sat in the back of the room and waited for the coach to set up the video.
“Okay, now see how wonderfully you guys were doing the defense cheer in the first quarter?” the coach asked the girls. “Your rhythm is perfect. And every single herkie is championship quality.”
Katie felt herself relax a little. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“But things definitely went downhill during the halftime performance,” the coach continued.
“Downhill is one word for it,” Tess said. “Down pyramid is another.”
Lacey turned beet red.
Katie couldn’t believe it. “That girl is acting like she’s never made any mistakes,” she whispered to Emma W.
“Come on now, Tess,” the coach said. “Anyone can have an off day. Let’s watch the video and learn from our mistakes.”
“They weren’t our mistakes,” another cheerleader said. “They were Lacey’s.”
Okay, now Katie was really mad. That was meaner than mean!
Katie stared at the video of the girls beginning their pyramid formation.
“Your timing was off, Lacey,” the coach said. “The pyramid needs to be built really quickly.”
“I know,” Lacey said. “I don’t understand why I was just standing there.”
On the TV screen, Katie watched herself spread out her arms and shout, “I did it! I did ...”
And then ... WHOA!
The cheerleaders all started laughing. All except Lacey. She looked like she wanted to cry.
“No! Wait! That could be a great move,” Katie shouted out.
“Oh, Katie, not now ... ,” Lacey began.
“No, seriously,” Katie said, turning to face the squad. “Didn’t you guys see how I ... I mean how Lacey went backward in the air? And then when everyone fell out of the pyramid, they sort of made a V shape. You know, like V for victory?”
Katie stopped and took a deep breath. She waited for someone to say something.
“With a little more practice, that could be an amazing trick,” Katie said. “At least, that’s how it looks to me.”
At first, no one spoke. And then Rachel said, “The kid’s right. We did kind of make a V.”
“Jumping off backward is kind of cool,” Tess told Lacey. “Well, except for all the arm flapping you were doing. Were you trying to fly or something?”
Lacey laughed in spite of herself. “I have no idea what I was doing.”
“If you girls can clean this routine up, we might have a championship-winning pyramid,” the coach told them. “But it would take a lot of work—especially on your part, Lacey.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Lacey said.
“The state competition is only a week away,” the coach reminded everyone.
“Then we should start practicing now,” Lacey said, grabbing her pom-poms.
As Lacey and the other cheerleaders raced back into the gym to begin practicing, Emma W. turned to Katie. “You really saved the day for my sister,” she said. “Thanks.”
Katie smiled. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
Emma W. said, “You have no idea what Lacey can be like when she’s upset. It was a huge deal.” To prove it, Emma W. raised her arms high in the air. “K-A-T-I-E! Katie is the friend for me!”
Chapter 10
“Hey, do you guys want to play football?” Kevin asked Katie at recess on Monday.
Katie shook her head. “I already promised Mandy and the Emmas that I would jump rope.”
“Maybe they’ll want to play football instead?” Kevin asked her.
“I don’t think so,” Katie said. “Why don’t you get Jeremy or Manny?”
“None of the guys from class 4B are here,” Kevin said. “They’re all in the library.”
“The library?” Katie asked. “At recess?” That didn’t make any sense at all.
Kevin nodded. “It’s the only place they can get away from the pom-pom squad,” he explained. “There’s no cheering allowed in the library. So Suzanne and the rest of the girls are pestering other kids. Just look.”
Kevin was right. The 4B squad was cheering for the third-graders who were playing hopscotch.
“Throw that key. Hop to three. Reach the ten. Come back again!”
They also cheered on the second-graders who were playing tag.
“Run, run, run. Don’t get hit. Because if you’re tagged, you are it.”
Katie sighed. “The 4B pom-pom squad is splitting up our whole grade.”
“It’s different for high school cheerleaders,” Emma W. said. “They’re cheering for their whole school, not just one grade or one class, the way the pom-pom squad is ...”
Suddenly, Katie got one of her great ideas. A huge smile flashed across her face. “Emma W., you’re a genius!” she exclaimed.
“Thanks,” Emma W. answered happily. Then she paused. “Why am I a genius?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” Katie said. “I think I know how to make every
one friends again. I just have to get Mr. G.’s permission. Will you guys come with me to talk to him after recess?”
Mandy and the two Emmas all nodded.
“Mr. G., we think this school needs some spirit,” Katie told her teacher a little while later as the kids in her class came back from recess.
“School spirit,” Emma W. added. “Not just class spirit.”
Mr. G. nodded. “There has been a lot of cheering in class 4B lately.”
“And nowhere else,” Katie said. “That’s the problem. We all go to one school. Shouldn’t we be cheering about that?”
“It makes perfect sense to me,” Mr. G. said.
“That’s why we thought the fourth grade could host a pep rally for the whole school,” Katie explained. “Every grade would be there. We could do it in the gym. That’s big enough to hold everyone.”
“We could have pom-poms, and maybe write a school cheer,” Mandy said.
“One that everyone could learn,” Katie added.
“I think that sounds like a great idea,” Mr. G. said. “I’ll talk to Principal Kane about it.”
As Katie and her friends took their seats, Emma W. whispered to Katie, “Do you think Principal Kane will say yes to a pep rally?”
Katie held up her right hand and crossed her fingers tight.
Chapter 11
The fourth-graders piled into the auditorium on Tuesday morning. But they did not sit together. Class 4A was on the right side of the room. The class 4B pom-pom squad sat in the front row on the left side of the room. And the boys in class 4B sat as far away from the pom-pom girls as possible.
“What do you think this is about?” Katie heard Suzanne ask Miriam.
“I have no clue,” Miriam answered.
“Do you think it’s something we can do a cheer for?” Becky asked. “Because I’ve been writing a new one. It’s for Jeremy.”
“All your cheers are for Jeremy,” Suzanne pointed out.
Just then, Mr. G. and Ms. Sweet stood up in front of the kids.
“I bet you dudes are wondering why we’ve gathered you all together,” Mr. G. said. “Well, it’s about all the cheering that’s been going on around here lately.”
“Yeah!” The pom-pom squad began to cheer. They waved their pom-poms in the air.
“We think spirit is a great thing,” Ms. Sweet told the kids. “But only when it’s done nicely, and not used to hurt other people’s feelings.”
“Or make them crazy in the bathroom,” Sam shouted from the back of the room.
The kids all started to laugh.
“Exactly,” Ms. Sweet said with a smile. “There’s a time and a place for cheering.”
“And that time and place is next Monday in the school gym,” Mr. G. said. “Because that’s when we’re going to have the first ever Cherrydale Elementary all-school pep rally!”
“Hosted by the whole fourth grade!” Ms. Sweet added.
The fourth grade didn’t usually get to be in charge of an event for the whole school. This was a very big deal.
“You dudes are all going to have to work together to pull this off,” Mr. G. said. “You’re going to have to make enough pom-poms for everyone in the school. And you’ll have to write a school cheer which you will teach the whole school.”
“And since you’ll be working so hard, there won’t be any time for cheering in the halls or in the cafeteria or on the playground,” Ms. Sweet said. She smiled at Sam. “Or outside the bathrooms.”
“From now on, the only cheering coming from the fourth grade will be at next week’s pep rally,” Mr. G. said. “Got it?”
“Got it,” the kids all answered at once.
“And are you ready to show some real school spirit?” Mr. G. asked.
“YEAH!” the fourth-graders shouted.
Katie smiled. That was the first thing the fourth-graders had agreed on in a long time.
“I can’t believe your sister got the high school to lend us their mascot costume for our pep rally,” Katie said as she, Emma W., Suzanne, Jeremy, Becky, Miriam, Kadeem, and Kevin all sat together at a table making pom-poms out of trash bags on Friday afternoon.
“They were so happy you gave them the idea of turning their pyramid into a V for victory that they were glad to help us,” Emma W. said. “And it’s usually a shorter kid who wears the mascot suit, so one of us should be able to wear it with no problem.”
“I think you should wear it,” Katie told Emma W. “After all, you’re the one with the sister who’s a cheerleader.”
“No, you should wear it,” Emma W. told Katie. “You were the one who straightened everything out for Lacey.”
“I can settle this,” Suzanne told the girls. “I’ll wear the mascot costume.”
“You?” Becky asked. “Why you?”
“Because I started cheerleading at Cherrydale Elementary,” she said.
“Actually, I think Emma W. and Katie started it,” Miriam said.
“The pom-pom squad was my idea,” Suzanne said. “It was such a great idea, now the whole school is having a pep rally. Don’t you think I should be rewarded?”
Katie sighed. Great wasn’t exactly the word she’d use to describe the idea for the 4B pom-pom squad. Annoying, maybe. But not great.
“Suzanne, I don’t think you’re going to like the costume,” Emma W. said slowly.
“Emma W.’s right,” Katie added. “It’s not really your style.”
Suzanne rolled her eyes. “Nice try,” she said. “But you two are not going to be able to talk me out of this one. I’m wearing the mascot costume, and that’s that.”
Chapter 12
“A squid?” Suzanne’s voice scaled up nervously as she took the costume out of its box. It was Monday morning, right before the pep rally. “They’re the Cherrydale High School Squids?”
Katie and Emma W. nodded. “Yep.” They were all in the girls’ bathroom.
Suzanne looked at the costume. She fingered each of the fuzzy tentacles, and stared at the bulging squid eyes.
“That mascot was a big hit at the state competition,” Emma W. assured Suzanne. “Everyone thought it was really funny.”
Suzanne made a face.
Katie understood why Suzanne didn’t seem thrilled. Funny was never the look Suzanne was going for. On the other hand, Katie also knew Suzanne would never give someone else the chance to wear the costume. Not after she’d made such a big fuss about it.
“Well, the tentacles are a nice shade of red, anyway,” Suzanne said. “I guess I could wear it.”
“How did Lacey’s squad do?” Katie asked.
“They came in second,” Emma W. told her. “That’s the highest they’ve ever placed. And the pyramid routine was a real hit.”
Katie smiled proudly. Now she just hoped that her idea for an all-school pep rally would be a hit, too.
Mandy and Miriam walked into the girls’ bathroom.
“We just finished giving out the pom-poms,” Mandy told them. “Suzanne, you have to hurry up. We need to get started.”
“Why?” Emma W. asked her.
“A few of the second-graders are trying to use their pom-poms as swords,” Miriam explained. “Principal Kane is worried someone’s going to poke an eye out.”
“That would be awful,” Katie said.
“You’re telling me,” Suzanne said. “Those kids need both eyes to really appreciate me in this costume.”
Katie sighed. Somehow Suzanne always managed to focus the attention on herself.
Katie hurried and zipped Suzanne into her squid costume. Then the girls helped lead her out into the gym.
As soon as the kids saw Suzanne they all began to laugh. “What is that octopus doing here?” Katie heard some first-grader ask.
Suzanne stopped in her tracks. For a minute, Katie thought she was going to run out of the gym. But Suzanne didn’t run. Instead, she turned to the first-grader and said, “I’m not an octopus. Don’t you know a squid when you see one?”
&nb
sp; Katie gulped. That was kind of harsh. How was a first-grader supposed to know the difference between an octopus and a squid?
The first-grader looked upset. No way was Suzanne going to ruin this pep rally. Quickly, Katie leaped up and raced to Suzanne’s side.
“That’s right, this is the Cherrydale squid!” Katie cheered. “He’s the high school’s mascot, and now he’s our mascot, too. Let’s hear it: Squids rule! Squids rule!”
A moment later, the whole school was shouting along with Katie. “Squids rule! Squids rule!”
Phew. That had been close. And then, suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. Oh no! Had the magic wind returned? Katie didn’t want to switcheroo into anybody else. Not now. Not in front of everyone in the whole school. Not when she was having so much fun.
For a minute, Katie thought she was going to burst into tears. But then she turned around. Whew! So many of the first-graders were waving their pom-poms that they had made a breeze. Emma W.’s hair was blowing a little.
Hooray! Katie was going to stay Katie! At least for now.
She was so happy, she felt like cheering.
And that was just what she did. Katie cheered along with the rest of the fourth grade—because no one in the whole school had more school spirit than Katie Kazoo!
“Who’s got spirit? We’ve got spirit. Stand on up and let us hear it! Go Cherrydale! We are cool and we are great! We’re the best, we really rate! Listen up ’cause we’re not fools. When it comes to schools, Cherrydale rules! GO CHERRYDALE ELEMENTARY!”
About the Author
Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 150 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times best sellers. She lives in New York City with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, and their children, Amanda and Ian. When she’s not busy writing the Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo series, Nancy loves swimming, reading, and going to the movies.
