Flower Power (2 page)

Katie smiled broadly. A mystery flower. Now
that
was very, very Mr. G.!

“Hi, Katie,” Jeremy Fox said as he placed his tray down next to hers in the school cafeteria later that day.

“Hi!” Katie replied happily. She was so glad to see Jeremy. He and Katie’s other best friend, Suzanne Lock, were in Ms. Sweet’s fourth-grade class. Katie only got to see them during lunch and recess. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked.

“In the bathroom,” Jeremy replied as he took a huge bite of his tuna hero.

“They all had to go at the same time?” Katie asked, amazed.

Jeremy laughed and shook his head. “We
were planting seeds, so Ms. Sweet made us wash our hands before lunch. I got to the boys’ room first.”

Katie nodded. No surprise there. Jeremy was the fastest runner in the fourth grade. A moment later, most of the other kids in class 4B arrived in the cafeteria. Naturally, Suzanne sat on the other side of Katie and pretty much ignored Jeremy. That was nothing new. Katie’s two best friends weren’t really friends with each other. And Suzanne hated it when Jeremy and Katie spent time alone together.

“Can you believe Miriam Chan?” Suzanne said, staring in Miriam’s direction. “She is so looking for attention.”

“What are you talking about?” Katie said.

“Did you see what she’s having for lunch?” Suzanne asked her.

Katie looked. Miriam was drinking something from a blue container.

“It’s a vitamin shake,” Jeremy told the girls. “I drink a lot of them during soccer
season. They’re really healthy.”

“What’s the big deal?” Katie asked Suzanne.

“She’s only drinking the shake so everyone will see her new braces,” Suzanne explained. “She says her mouth hurts so much, she can’t eat regular food.”

“It probably does,” Jeremy said. “She’s got a lot of wires in there.”

“Miriam got braces? Cool!” Katie exclaimed. “I want to see.”

“That’s what I mean,” Suzanne harrumphed. “It’s for attention.”

“Braces are for straightening teeth,” Jeremy told her. “There are plenty of other ways to get attention.
You
should know.”

Katie knew exactly what Jeremy meant. Suzanne hated when anyone besides her was in the spotlight.

And right now, Miriam was definitely the center of attention. The kids were gathered around her, staring at her teeth. Katie went
over to join them. “I heard you got braces, Miriam,” she said.

“Yes, yesterday,” Miriam replied. She sounded kind of uncomfortable.

“Do they hurt a lot?” Katie asked her.

Miriam nodded. “But I put some wax on the wires. The orthodontist says they will feel better in a day or two.”

“What color wires did you pick?” Emma W. asked Miriam.

“Red and pink,” Miriam said, smiling so everyone could see the brightly colored wires that lined her braces. “But I can change them next month. They have lots of cool colors to choose from. Blue, green, yellow, even glow-in-the-dark.”

“That
would be really cool for sleepovers,” Jessica Haynes suggested.

“I think it would be gross,” Suzanne remarked from her seat a few feet away. “Braces are not cool. They’re ugly.”

Miriam looked like she was about to cry.

“Suzanne!” Katie scolded. “That’s not nice.”

But Suzanne ignored Katie. “I’m glad I have such straight, white teeth,” she continued. “They’ll be perfect for when I’m in a toothpaste ad.”

“When are you going to do that?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t know,” Suzanne replied. “But I’m sure I will someday. My teeth are perfect.”

“Miriam’s teeth are going to be perfect, too,” Katie told Suzanne. “As soon as her braces come off.” She smiled at Miriam, hoping she had made her feel better.

Miriam smiled back, a little.

“I think they make you look kind of grown-up,” Emma W. told her. “Like an almost teenager.”

“Oh, no!” Suzanne yelped. Her juice fell to the floor, catching everyone’s attention. Katie
turned around just in time to see Suzanne leaping out of the way.

“Oops!” Suzanne exclaimed. “What a mess.”

Katie sighed. She had a feeling Suzanne had done that on purpose, just to get the focus back on her.

“Katie, could you help me clean this up?”
Suzanne asked, grabbing a pile of napkins from her tray.

“Um…sure,” Katie said. She frowned slightly. She couldn’t just let her best friend stand there in a puddle of red fruit punch, could she?

It didn’t take very long for Katie and Suzanne to clean up the mess. A few minutes later, things were back to normal. Katie was seated between Jeremy and Suzanne. And once again, Suzanne was the center of attention.

“I got geranium seeds to plant,” she boasted. “They are such beautiful flowers. They’re going to be bright red.”

“I got impatiens,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to give them to my mother to plant in our garden when they’re big enough.” He turned to Katie. “What flower did you plant?”

“I don’t know,” Katie told him.

“You’re not planting seeds?” Suzanne asked. “What a bummer. We had a lot of fun doing that in
our
class.”

“We will be planting seeds,” Katie assured her. “It’s just that I don’t know what flowers are going to come up.”

“Why not?” Jeremy asked curiously.

“We all got mystery flowers,” Katie explained. “We have to use the clues Mr. G. gave us to find out what we’re growing. After we solve the mystery, we’ll get to plant our seeds.”

“It’s fun,” George said, looking up from the disgusting mush of tuna, Jell-O, and fruit punch he’d been creating on his tray. He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. “‘This flower was used by native Americans for food and oil,’” he read aloud. “‘Some farmers use it to feed their animals. It’s the national flower of Russia.’”

“I wonder what that could be,” Jeremy said.

“My flower smells very sweet,” Kevin chimed in. “It’s used for decoration and it comes in a lot of colors. Some of them are even striped!”

“Mystery flowers,” Jeremy remarked. “Wow. Mr. G. sure has a lot of cool ideas.”

“Oh, give me a break!” Suzanne exclaimed. “It’s a
dumb
idea.”

“No it’s not,” Katie said. “I love solving mysteries.”

Suzanne sighed. “I can’t stand this place anymore. Everyone’s talking about dumb things like braces and mystery flowers. I wish I went to a school where people cared about
important things
, like fashion and makeup.”

“You do not!” Katie exclaimed suddenly. “You do not wish that at all!”

“Whoa, Katie Kazoo, calm down,” George said, using the way-cool nickname he’d given her. “Suzanne’s just being Suzanne. It’s no big deal.”

But Katie knew that wasn’t true. Wishes were a very big deal. And only Katie knew why.

Wishes were dangerous
.

Katie had learned that lesson after one really bad day back in third grade. That day, after dropping the ball, she lost the football game for her team. Then mud got all over her favorite pants. Worst of all, she’d let out a giant burp in front of the whole class. Talk about embarrassing!

That night, Katie had wished that she could be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star flying overhead, because the next day the magic wind came.

The magic wind was a big tornado that swirled only around Katie. It was so powerful
that it could turn her into somebody else! The first time the magic wind came, it turned Katie into Speedy, class 3A’s hamster. She’d spent the whole morning running round and round on a hamster wheel. And when she finally escaped from her cage, she’d wound up inside George’s stinky sneaker. YUCK!

Since then, the magic wind had been back again and again. One time it turned her into Mr. Starkey, the school music teacher. The band sounded really terrible when Katie was the conductor!

And then there was the time Katie had turned into Dr. Sang, her dentist, at the very moment Emma W.’s little brother Matthew was having his first checkup. Matthew was scared to begin with. But once Katie made a mess of things, little Matthew vowed he would never,
ever
, open his mouth for a dentist again!

That was the worst thing about the magic wind. Every time it came, the person Katie
turned into landed in big trouble. Then it was up to Katie to make things all right again. That wasn’t always so easy. Katie ended up having a checkup herself, just to show Matthew that going to the dentist wasn’t so bad!