by Nancy Krulik
Katie was shocked. Her teacher’s voice was very stern—sort of like Mrs. Derkman’s when she got angry. She had never seen Mr. G. like this before.
“But ...” Katie began.
“No ‘buts’ about it, George,” Mr. G. said. He took a deep breath. “You go on home now. We’ll talk about this again in the morning.”
There was no one outside the school building. Everyone was either at home or at an after-school activity. Katie was the only one there.
Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She pulled on the hood of George’s black skateboarding sweatshirt. But she could still feel the cold wind.
Katie knew what that meant. This was no ordinary wind! This was the magic wind. No sweatshirt would ever block that out!
The magic wind swirled faster and faster. Before long, it was circling wildly around Katie, angrily blowing icy-cold wind right in her face.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone. Katie Carew was back.
And so was George Brennan. He was standing right next to Katie. Only he didn’t know how he’d gotten there!
Chapter 10
“Katie Kazoo, what are you doing here?” George asked Katie. “Actually, what am I doing here? I don’t remember coming back to the front of the school. All I remember is that I had skateboarding after school. Sort of.” He frowned. “Boy, do I feel weird. For some strange reason I don’t feel like I got to do any skateboarding at all.”
Katie sighed. Strange reason. That pretty much said it all.
“So ... uh ... are you going home now?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
George nodded. “And then I’m going to the mall. I’m going to get a new pen.”
“You’re all excited about a pen?” Katie asked him. Now she was the one who was confused.
“Not just any pen. This pen has disappearing ink,” George explained. “I thought I would loan it to someone. They’ll use it to take notes. And in a few seconds, all their notes will disappear!” He began to laugh hysterically.
“That’s not funny,” Katie warned.
“Sure it is. You’ll see,” George assured her.
“Don’t you think you’re in enough trouble after this afternoon?” Katie said.
“What about this afternoon?” George asked her.
Katie frowned. Of course George didn’t know what she was talking about. It was Katie who had been in the computer lab. Not George.
“So you don’t remember anything about the computer room?” Katie asked him.
George scrunched up his face, thinking. “Well, I sort of remember something about doing something with a computer. At least I think I do. I’m not sure. It’s all kind of blurry. But I couldn’t have been in there. I was at skateboarding. Wasn’t I?”
Katie sighed. “I guess so. Sure,” she said slowly.
But she knew that wasn’t the truth. Still, she couldn’t tell George about the magic wind. He never would have believed her.
But Katie had to make him believe her about one thing. The pranks had to stop. “Look, George, trust me,” she warned. “No more practical jokes, okay?” George smiled, but didn’t answer. Instead he hopped on his skateboard and rode off.
Chapter 11
“Sit down, everyone,” Mr. Guthrie instructed the class as the bell rang.
Katie frowned. Usually, Mr. G. smiled when he said that. He was always anxious to get the day started. But today, her teacher was not grinning. He looked tired, and sort of sad.
Katie frowned. She knew why Mr. G. was upset. And she felt really badly about it. But probably not as bad as George was about to feel.
“Today we’re going to learn a different kind of lesson,” Mr. G. told the class.
The kids all sat there silently. They could tell something was very wrong.
“Yesterday, I found out that one of our students sneaked into the computer room after school,” Mr. G. continued.
Katie looked over at George. He was sitting in his beanbag calmly. He really didn’t know what Mr. G. was talking about.
Then Katie looked over at Mandy. Katie could tell she was kind of nervous by the way she was twirling her pencil. Mandy probably thought Mr. G. was talking about her and Suzanne.
“No one is allowed in the computer room without a teacher,” Mr. G. continued. “You all know that.”
“I was just working on the newspaper,” Mandy blurted out. “I—”
Mr. G. looked at her with surprise. “You were in there, too?” he asked Mandy.
“Well, Suzanne and I were finishing an article, but—” Mandy began.
“Suzanne Lock was working on our class newspaper?” Mr. G. sounded confused. “Why would she do that?”
“She had information about the person who has been pulling all the practical jokes,” Mandy said. “She was an unnamed source.”
“Who you just named,” Kevin Camilleri said. He laughed. “Nice one, Mandy.”
Mandy blushed.
“Well, I have also discovered who our practical joker is,” Mr. G. continued. “George, do you want to tell Mandy what you did to this week’s Class 4A Express?”
“Me?” George replied. “I didn’t touch the newspaper.
Mr. G. pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. “Are you saying you didn’t do this?” he asked. He held up a copy of the front page of the newspaper.
Everyone stared at the paper.
Oh, boy, Katie thought nervously as she stared at Mr. Kane’s giant nose, and the mixed-up headlines. This is so not good.
“I didn’t do anything,” George insisted. “At least I don’t think I did. I sort of remember being in the computer room, but I couldn’t have been. I had skateboarding after school. At least I think I did.”
“George,” Mr. G. said sternly. “I saw you there.”
“But, I didn‘t—” George began.
Before he could finish his sentence, Kevin began laughing. “George, that’s hilarious!” he exclaimed. “Look at the size of Principal Kane’s schnozzola!”
“Math tests definitely do stink,” Kadeem chuckled. “This the funniest thing you’ve ever done, George.”
Katie was surprised. Kadeem and George were always competing to be the funniest kid in the class. Having Kadeem give George that kind of a compliment was a huge deal.
George’s face brightened. “It is pretty funny, isn’t it?” he agreed. He puffed his chest out proudly. “I am so the King of Comedy!”
Before long, all the kids in the class were laughing. Even Mandy. The only person who wasn’t laughing was Mr. G. He looked angry. Very angry.
“I think these practical jokes have all gone too far,” the teacher said. “I have to take some sort of action. So I am canceling the Class 4A Express.” Everyone grew silent. They stared at their teacher. He had never sounded like this before.
The kids all knew better than to argue with their teacher. For the rest of the morning, they were very quiet. But when they got to the cafeteria, the kids in class 4A said exactly what they were thinking.
“It’s not fair,” Mandy insisted. “Why should we all be punished for what George did?”
“Yeah,” Emma S. agreed. “We’re going to be the only class in the school without a newspaper.”
“Thanks a lot, George,” Mandy continued. “You ruined everything.”
Now George didn’t look as proud as he had in class. He looked kind of upset.
That made Katie upset, too. After all, it hadn’t really been George in the computer room yesterday.
“It isn’t just George’s fault,” Katie pointed out to Mandy. “You were wrong, too.”
“What did I do?” Mandy demanded.
“You wrote an article accusing George of being the practical joker when you had no proof. And you used that awful picture of him at the pie-eating contest,” Katie accused her.
“How did you know about that?” Mandy said.
Oops.
�
�I didn‘t,” Katie said quickly. “I was just trying to trick you into admitting it.”
Phew. That was close.
“And you did!” Andrew shouted out. “Excellent, Katie!”
“She sure got you, Mandy,” Kadeem added.
Some of the kids laughed.
Mandy blushed.
“It doesn’t matter who did what,” Emma Weber said with a sigh. “We still don’t have a class newspaper anymore.”
Katie sighed.
No one was laughing about that.
Chapter 12
Mandy stayed angry all day long. She was still complaining after school had ended. “I can’t believe Mr. G. would do that to the newspaper!” she exclaimed as the kids in class 4A left the building that afternoon.
“It’s your fault, Mandy,” Kevin said. “Printing that picture and writing that article was mean to George.”
Mandy stuck her nose up in the air. “I was just reporting a news story,” she replied. “I thought people would find it interesting to know who the practical joker was.”
“It would have been the only interesting story all year,” Kevin told her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mandy demanded.
“He means the 4A Express is boring!” Kadeem exclaimed.
Mandy’s face turned all red. She looked like she was going to cry.
Now Katie felt doubly bad. First she had gotten George in trouble. Now the boys were upsetting Mandy.
“Yeah. At least what George wrote was funny,” Andrew Epstein added.
“ ‘Mr. Kane Picks.’ ” Kevin laughed as he pretended to stick his finger up his nose. “That was classic!”
The boys began to laugh.
“Maybe we should have elected George to be the editor of the 4A Express,” Kevin continued. He put his arm around his best buddy’s shoulders. “At least then we would have wanted to read it.”
The boys were being too mean. Katie couldn’t stand it anymore. “It’s not like you were volunteering to write something for the newspaper. Mandy had to do it all by herself,” she reminded them.
“That’s true,” Emma W. agreed. “We all could have pitched in to make it better.”
But the boys didn’t care what Katie and Emma W. thought.
“ ‘Math Test Stinks,’ ” Kadeem shouted out, remembering the headline. “I’ll say. That test was really hard. It stunk like rotten skunk juice!”
The boys all started to laugh—except George. He just walked away.
Katie headed off after him. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” George said. “I just feel kind of bad because we’re the only class without a newspaper. Maybe I did go too far with my practical jokes. But I really don’t remember messing up the newspaper.”
Katie looked over at the crowd of laughing boys. They sure seemed to like the funnier version of the Class 4A Express a lot better than the serious one.
Suddenly, Katie got one of her great ideas.
“Maybe we don’t need a class newspaper,” she told him.
“Huh?” George asked.
“Can you stay at my house after cooking club on Saturday?” Katie continued.
“Sure, but what does that have to with...” George began.
“You’ll see,” Katie assured him with a grin.
Chapter 13
“Okay, you guys, don’t forget to take your bags of fudge home with you,” Mrs. Carew told the kids in the cooking club as they left Katie’s house on Saturday afternoon.
One by one, the kids grabbed plastic bags filled with giant hunks of homemade chocolate fudge. Then they left to go home. Before long, only Mandy and George were left.
“I’ll take my fudge later, Mrs. Carew,” Mandy told Katie’s mom. “Katie invited me over for a play date this afternoon.”
“She couldn’t have,” George said. “Katie invited me.”
George and Mandy both stared at Katie.
“I invited both of you,” she told them.
“I’m not staying if he’s going to be here,” Mandy said.
“I’m not staying if she’s going to be here,” George said.
“You both have to stay,” Katie told them. “I’ve got an idea about how we can make something even cooler than our class newspaper. But I need you guys to help.”
“I’m not going to do anything George does,” Mandy said.
“I’m not going to do anything Mandy does,” George said.
“You both have to work on this. After all, you both had something to do with us losing the 4A Express,” she told them.
Mandy and George both opened their mouths to argue. But Katie wouldn’t let them.
“I have a plan to fix things,” she continued, before either of them had a chance to say a word. “But I need your help.”
“What is your plan?” Mandy asked her.
“We should do a joke magazine,” Katie said. “It could be filled with funny stories, goofy pictures, and even some silly headlines, like the ones I ... I mean, George ... made.”
“A joke magazine does sound kind of cool,” George admitted slowly.
“I think so, too,” Katie agreed proudly. “But I’m not nearly as funny as you are.”
“True,” George boasted. “You do need me. Count me in.”
“Great,” Katie said happily.
“But what do we need her for?” George asked, pointing to Mandy.
“Thanks a lot,” Mandy grumbled.
“Be nice, George,” Katie warned. “Mandy knows about the computer program that helps you lay out a newspaper. And she is also much better at grammar than we are.”
“See, George,” Mandy boasted. “Without me, you don’t have a joke magazine.” She turned to Katie. “We can download the newspaper program right into your computer,” she explained.
“Great!” Katie exclaimed. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 14
On Monday morning, Katie, George, and Mandy all got to school early. They wanted to make sure they were the first ones inside their classroom. That way, they could hand copies of their new magazine to each of their classmates as they walked into the room.
Katie, George, and Mandy were very proud of their work. They had spent all weekend working together at Katie’s house making the magazine.
“4A Funnies,” Emma W. said as she read the title.
“It’s our new class joke magazine,” George told her. “It’s hilarious. I wrote a lot of it.”
“It looks very nice, too,” Mandy added. “I designed it.”
A few moments later, Mr. G. walked into the room. “Sorry I’m late, dudes,” he said. “I had a meeting with Mr. Kane.”
The teacher looked around. All the kids were sitting on their beanbag chairs, reading 4A Funnies.
“I thought we weren’t going to have a newspaper anymore,” Mr. G. reminded them.
“It’s not a newspaper,” Katie assured her teacher. “It’s a joke magazine. George, Mandy, and I made it this weekend.”
Mr. G. looked at Katie, George, and Mandy. “You guys did this all by yourselves?” he asked.
Katie nodded. “We used my computer.”
“There are no mean jokes in this, are there?” Mr. G. asked.
Katie shook her head.
“Look at the pictures of George and Mandy making funny faces,” Emma S. giggled. “George, you blew up your cheeks so big. You look like a balloon.”
George smiled proudly.
“Mandy’s touching her nose with her tongue,” Kadeem pointed out as he stared at the photos. “Pretty impressive.”
“This is hysterical!” Emma S. exclaimed. “Did you guys see the article on weird laws?”
“They’re all real laws,” George assured her.
“We found them in a book in the library,” Katie added. She smiled at Mr. G. She knew he would like that. Teachers always liked it when you did research.
“Listen to this one,” Andrew said. “In Massachusetts, it’s against the law to
put tomatoes in clam chowder.”
“I could never live there!” Kevin exclaimed. “I love my tomatoes.”
“In Kentucky, there’s a law that says a person has to take a bath at least once a year!” Emma W. told the class.
“In the state of Colorado, if your cat goes outside loose it has to wear a tail light!” Kadeem read. He turned to Katie. “I’ll bet you’re glad Cherrydale doesn’t have a law like that for dogs!”
Everyone laughed as they pictured Katie’s cocker spaniel with a light on his stubby little brown tail.
“This magazine is awesome,” Kevin said. He looked over at Katie, George, and Mandy. “You guys totally rock!”
“Can we keep making 4A Funnies, Mr. G.?” Katie asked hopefully.
Mr. G. smiled. “How can I say no when you dudes are all having so much fun reading?”
“All right!” Katie pumped her fist in the air.
“Woo-hoo!” George shouted. He gave Mandy a high five.
“Can I help with the next issue?” Andrew asked Katie.
“Me too,” Kadeem added. “I could have my own column—‘Kadeem’s Craziest Jokes!’ ”
“There’s already a ‘George’s Jokes’ column,” George told him. “It’s on page three.”
Kadeem turned the page and read some of George’s riddles. “My jokes would be funnier than yours,” he told George.
“I doubt it,” George insisted.
“You can both have a joke column,” Katie interrupted the boys before they could have an argument. “It will be like having a joke-off in every issue!”
“Maybe I could draw a comic strip,” Emma W. suggested shyly. “I like to draw.”
“That would be really neat,” Mandy said.
Katie grinned. It was good to see everyone getting along ... finally.
“We are so lucky,” Andrew said. “Everyone else just has a plain old class newspaper.”
“It was time for a change,” George said. “There haven’t been any changes in this school for a long time.”
Katie knew better. She thought about all the people she’d changed into in the past year—Mrs. Derkman, Emma W., Pepper, even George!
