Flower Power

by Nancy Krulik

The road to Katie’s house was very quiet. No one seemed to be around this afternoon. Suddenly she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. Katie shivered. If only she had worn a jacket.

  But now Katie noticed that the wind didn’t seem to be blowing anywhere else. Not in the trees. Not in the grass. Just on her.

  “Oh, no!” Katie shouted. “Go away, magic wind!” She started to run.

  It was no use! The magic wind didn’t stop blowing. In fact, it blew faster and faster, spinning wildly like a tornado around Katie. She closed her eyes tight to keep from crying.

  And then it stopped. Just like that.

  Katie Kazoo had turned into someone else. One, two, switcheroo.

  But who?

  Chapter 9

  Katie didn’t know where the magic wind had blown her, but wherever she was, it sure smelled clean. Kind of like her house when her mom and dad scrubbed it really, really well before company came.

  Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. The first thing she saw was a long hallway with lots of doors. There was a big, cheerful painting of jungle animals on the wall.

  There were other people in the long hallway. Most of them were in green or blue loose-fitting outfits. They had stethoscopes swung around their necks. Katie figured they were doctors and nurses. Was she in some sort of hospital? It sure looked that way.

  Okay, so now she knew where she was. But she still didn’t know who she was. Had the magic wind switcherooed her into a doctor? Or a nurse? Katie hoped it hadn’t turned her into a patient who was getting a shot. Katie hated needles!

  She looked down at her feet. Instead of the light brown cowboy boots she’d worn to school, Katie was now wearing red shoes. Gigantic, rubbery, red shoes. Clown shoes! And she had on a polka-dot clown suit with a frilly white collar.

  That didn’t make any sense at all. What was a clown doing in a hospital?

  Just then, a woman walked over toward Katie. “The kids are ready for you, Mr. Guthrie,” she said.

  Mr. Guthrie? Her teacher? Katie looked around to see if he was standing behind her. But he wasn’t. In fact, the only two people who were standing here were the woman and Katie.

  Katie gulped. The woman was definitely talking to her. Did that mean that she’d turned into her teacher…in a clown suit? What was Mr. G. doing dressed as a clown? It was so weird.

  Or maybe not. Mr. G. loved dressing up. So putting on a clown suit was a really Mr. G. thing to do.

  “The new clown suit is great,” the woman continued saying to Katie. “I am so glad it was ready for you in time for this party.”

  Was this the suit Mr. G. had been talking about? Not a businessman suit. A clown suit. Was Mr. G. leaving Cherrydale Elementary School to become a clown?

  “It was so nice of you to come here on a weekday,” the woman continued. “I know you usually do these shows for the kids on Saturdays, but I’m glad you made an exception this one time. Darnell would have been so sad if he left the hospital without saying good-bye to G-Man the Clown.”

  Okay, now it all was starting to make sense. Mr. G. performed for sick kids. Katie smiled broadly. But coming today was an exception! That meant everything would be back to normal by tomorrow. What a relief! Wait until the kids in 4A learned that Mr. G. wasn’t leaving school at all. He was just putting on a clown show for some sick kids in the hospital…

  Gulp! Except Mr. G. wasn’t the one putting on the show at all. Katie was. Today Katie was G-Man the Clown! But she didn’t know anything about clowning around. That was George’s department.

  Today, though, Katie was going to have to be funny—fast! There was a whole lot of sick kids waiting for her to cheer them up.

  “Hello, boys and girls,” the woman in the blue outfit said as she and Katie walked into a sunroom. “Look who’s here! It’s G-Man the Clown!”

  “Yeah!” the kids cheered.

  Katie stared at them. She wasn’t sure what to do. Then she thought about George and Kadeem. They always made people laugh with their jokes. That was it. Katie would tell a joke.

  “Hey, do you guys know this one?” she asked. “If April showers bring May flowers, what do pilgrims bring?”

  The kids all looked at her strangely.

  “Turkey?” one little girl in a wheelchair asked.

  “Cranberry sauce?” a small boy with a cast on his leg said.

  “You told that one wrong, G-Man the Clown,” a skinny boy laughed. “It’s supposed to be, ‘What do May flowers bring?’ Then you answer, ‘Pilgrims!’”

  Oops. Katie blushed. She’d messed that one up badly. Poor Mr. G. She’d only been here a few minutes and already she was goofing up his clown act.

  She thought for a minute. What else besides telling jokes did George do to be funny? Suddenly she spotted a pitcher of water on the table. That was it!

  Katie walked over and poured herself a cup of water. Then she took a drink, held the water in her mouth, pursed her lips, and…

  “Cough! Cough! Cough!” Instead of becoming a water fountain by spitting the water out—Katie took all that water in. And it went down the wrong pipe. “Cough! Cough! Cough!”

  “What’s he doing?” a small girl in a wheelchair asked.

  “Are you making fun of us, G-Man?” a boy in a blue bathrobe asked. “We can’t help being sick.”

  That made Katie feel terrible. She would never make fun of someone for being sick. Ever!

  A tall boy with very, very short hair—so short that you could see his scalp underneath—frowned. “This is the worst going-away party ever!” he sighed.

  A nurse came over and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Darnell, relax. G-Man the Clown is just getting started. You know he’d never let you down.”

  Katie sighed. G-Man wouldn’t let Darnell down. But Katie sure was. She coughed really hard as the last bit of water went down.

  Clank! Just then, a big silver horn fell off of her clown suit. Katie jumped with surprise. Her big clown shoe landed right on the black ball at the end of the horn. HONK!

  Then the most amazing thing happened. The kids laughed. Hard. They thought Katie had done that on purpose. And they loved it! Katie stepped on the horn again. Honk!

  Then Katie thought about other funny things a clown might do. Hmmm. There was a big plastic flower in her shirt pocket. It would be funny to smell a plastic flower. After all, everyone knew plastic flowers only smelled like…well…plastic. She picked the big plastic flower from her shirt pocket, bent her head, and…

  Squirt! A big rush of water hit her in the eye. The kids laughed even harder at the sight of that.

  Katie had had no idea that there was water inside the plastic flower. The shock of it threw her off balance. She tripped over one of her huge rubber clown shoes and…Splat! She landed right on her rear end—and on top of the horn. Honk!

  And the kids just kept on laughing and laughing!

  “G-Man the Clown has a new act,” Katie heard one of the nurses say.

  “Must be a special show to celebrate Darnell getting well,” a doctor replied. “He and Mr. Guthrie are very close.”

  “Mr. Guthrie is such a great guy,” the nurse added. “I hope those kids in his class at school appreciate him.”

  Oh, we do, Katie wanted to say. But of course, she couldn’t. After all, she was Mr. G. right now. Or was that G-Man the Clown? Well, either way, she had a show to put on. She hopped up onto her feet and…HONK!

  Chapter 10

  “Yay! Hooray!”

  Katie could still hear the sick kids cheering for her as she left the sunroom of the hospital and headed down the hallway, toward the lobby. She couldn’t wait to get outside.

  “Mr. Guthrie, don’t you want to change into your regular clothes before you leave?” one of the nurses asked.

  Katie gulped. She didn’t want to be her teacher when he was in his underwear!

  “No. Uh, that’s okay. I kind of like this outfit,” she said, quickly heading out the door.

  It wa
s cool and crisp outside. Katie took a deep breath of the fresh air. It sure felt good to get a whiff of the trees and the grass.

  Katie felt really bad for the kids that had to stay in the hospital. They probably would give anything to be out here looking at the flowers and feeling a cool breeze on their necks. That breeze sure did feel good. At least at first…

  But then that gentle breeze began blowing harder and harder. In a flash, it turned into a wild tornado, blowing just around Katie. The magic wind was back!

  The magic wind whirled and swirled wildly. Katie had to hold on to a nearby lamppost just to keep from being blown away.

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

  So was Mr. G. And boy, did he look confused.

  “Katie, what are you doing out here in the hospital parking lot?” he asked. Then he paused for a moment. “Come to think of it, what am I doing out here? I’m supposed to be in there doing a show for sick kids.”

  “I think maybe you already did it,” Katie said.

  “Did I mess up a joke?” Mr. G. asked her, shaking his head slightly.

  Before Mr. G. could ask any more questions, the boy with short, short hair came running over with his mother. Katie remembered that the nurse had called him Darnell.“I forgot to give you this, G-Man,” Darnell said. He held out a card he had made.

  Mr. G. took the card and opened it up. Katie looked over his shoulder to see what it said.

  Thanks, G-Man the Clown. G stands for Great!

  Your pal, Darnell

  Katie grinned. She knew just what Darnell meant.

  “I hope I see you again soon,” Darnell said seriously. “Only not in here, you know what I mean?”

  Mr. G. grinned. “I know exactly what you mean. I’m so glad you’re well now. Maybe one day you’ll come back and put on a show for the kids.”

  “Maybe,” Darnell agreed. “But I’ll know all the jokes before I do my show.”

  Mr. G. frowned. “I really can’t believe that happened.”

  Oh, it did, Katie thought to herself. And other stuff, too. But, of course, she didn’t say that.

  As Darnell walked away, Mr. G.’s cell phone began to ring. “Hello?” he said to the person on the other end.

  Katie waited patiently while Mr. G. talked on the phone. He did not look very happy.

  “That was Mr. Kane,” Mr. G. said as he hung up the phone. “He was very upset about what happened in class today. He wants me to change things in our class. He wants 4A to be like every other classroom.”

  “You mean with desks and tests and things?” Katie asked him.

  Mr. G. nodded.

  “No games? Or yoga? Or…” Katie continued.

  Mr. G. shrugged. “He thinks I haven’t done a very good job of controlling you kids. He feels that the kids in 4A have no consideration for other people. You showed that by being so bad when there was a substitute teacher in the class.”

  Katie frowned. “That’s not what we planned at all.”

  “Planned? What are you talking about, Katie?” Mr. G. asked.

  Katie kicked at the ground with her toe while she told Mr. G. about how they had all thought he was leaving. And then she explained George’s idea for keeping him as their teacher.

  “What made you think I was looking for a different job?” Mr. G. asked.

  “Well, you cut off your ponytail and then you were absent from school, so Suzanne figured you were probably going on an interview,” Katie explained.

  “And you listened to Suzanne?” Mr. G. asked. “You should have spoken to me. I would have told you that I cut off my ponytail so the hair could be made into a wig.”

  “A wig?” Katie asked him, surprised.

  Mr. G. nodded. “Some kids in this hospital have to take medicine that makes their hair fall out. They need wigs to wear until their real hair grows back. I donated my ponytail to an organization that makes wigs for sick kids.”

  Katie frowned. “Gosh, Mr. G. That’s really nice of you.”

  Mr. G. sighed. “Well, I guess class 4A is in for some big changes tomorrow,” he said slowly.

  Katie thought about that. She didn’t want to be in a normal classroom with a normal teacher. She wanted everything to be the way it had been up until now. Mr. G. was a great teacher. He made sure the class ran smoothly without being strict or stern. If only there was some way to make Mr. Kane see that.

  “Wait!” Katie told Mr. G. excitedly. “I have a great idea!”

  Chapter 11

  “My sunflower is going to be the first one to pop out of the dirt,” George boasted as class 4A headed into their classroom the next morning. “Sunflowers only take a few days to sprout.”

  “The kids at the hospital will love your sunflowers, George,” Katie told him.

  “The kids where will love my what?” George asked, surprised.

  “At Cherrydale Children’s Hospital,” Mr. G. told him. “We’re going to donate our plants to the children there. It’s all Katie’s idea.”

  “Why would you want to give our plants away?” George demanded of Katie.

  “Because we see trees and flowers every day,” Katie explained. “And the sick kids are stuck inside all the time. We have to be considerate of other people’s feelings.”

  Mr. G. nodded. “That’s very important. Mr. Kane thought Katie’s idea was very nice.”

  “It showed him what nice kids we are,” Katie told her friends.

  “Which was important, since I heard you guys weren’t so considerate of Mr. Goodstein’s feelings yesterday,” Mr. G. added with a sigh. “Okay, everyone sit down now.”

  Katie grinned as she plopped down in her beanbag chair. No desks for 4A! Her great idea had saved the day! Now things could stay the way they were.

  Well, sort of…

  “I still think you dudes need to brush up on your manners,” Mr. G. continued. “This morning, you are each going to write two letters of apology. One to Mr. Goodstein and one to Mr. Kane. And that’s just the beginning.”

  Katie gulped. Uh-oh! Had Mr. G. decided to change things in the class anyway?

  “Next week, we’re going to have a garden party in our classroom,” Mr. G. continued. “We’ll drink dandelion tea and have flower-shaped cookies.”

  “Oh, yeah!” George exclaimed. “Parties rule!”

  Mr. G. smiled. “Yes. At our garden party, you will all show perfect manners. That means saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘excuse me.’ There will be no fighting or joke-offs. No one will eat before everyone is served. And no making mushed-up food soup, George.”

  “That doesn’t sound like much of a party,” George groaned. “Usually we run around and act silly at parties.”

  “Oh, I think you did enough of that yesterday,” Mr. G. reminded him.

  George didn’t say another word.

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Throwing a party to teach manners. How Mr. G. was that?

  That night, Katie had a little party of her own. It was a sleepover party for Suzanne and herself. The girls made popcorn, watched movies, and painted each other’s fingernails. No surprises. Just a typical sleepover. Until just before Katie’s mom came to turn off the lights…

  “What’s that?” Katie asked as Suzanne pulled a pink pouch out of her knapsack.

  Suzanne blushed. “N-nothing,” she said quickly. “I…um…I thought your mom was about to turn off the lights.”

  “Come on. What’s in there?” Katie insisted.

  Suzanne frowned. “If I show you, you have to promise you won’t tell anyone.”

  “I promise,” Katie agreed.

  Suzanne held up her little finger. “Pinky swear,” she insisted.

  Katie crooked her finger through Suzanne’s. “Pinky swear.”

  Suzanne sighed and pulled a thick metal wire out of the bag. It was attached to a cloth band.

  “What’s that?” Katie asked her.

  “My night brace,” Suzanne mumbled.<
br />
  “Your what?” Katie asked, not sure she had heard right.

  “My night brace,” Suzanne repeated. “I have to wear it on my teeth every night. To make sure they grow in straight.”

  Katie couldn’t believe it! “You’ve been making fun of Miriam’s braces all week,” she said. “But you wear them, too?”

  “Only at night,” Suzanne insisted. “And I hate it. I would never wear anything this ugly if I didn’t have to.”

  “Just like Miriam wouldn’t wear braces if she didn’t have to,” Katie reminded Suzanne.

  “At least she gets colored wires,” Suzanne said. “I have this plain silver wire with a tan strap. Imagine me wearing something bland tan!”

  Katie nodded. Now she understood—at least a little—why Suzanne was mean to Miriam. She was jealous that Miriam’s braces were prettier than her night brace.

  Katie thought for a minute. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be so bland,” she said finally.

  “What are you talking about?” Suzanne asked.

  Katie opened her desk drawer and pulled out a package of glitter stickers. “We can decorate the cloth strap with these.”

  “Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” Suzanne agreed. “They’re glittery. And I’m known for my glitter.”

  “Exactly,” Katie agreed.

  “I’ll have the funkiest night brace in history,” Suzanne said. “It’ll be so much cooler than Miriam’s red and pink wires.”

  “Oh, definitely,” Katie agreed. She grinned. Suzanne would never change.

  But that was okay. In fact, Katie liked that some things stayed the same. She had enough changes in her life. After all, for Katie Kazoo, things changed as often as the wind blew. One, two, switcheroo!

  Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!

  Get some flower power of your own. Follow these instructions to make the same paper flowers Mr. G. used to decorate class 4A.

  You will need:

  Colored tissue paper

  Green pipe cleaners

  Scissors

  A ruler

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Cut tissue paper into 5-inch by 7-inch rectangles.