Open Wide

Table of Contents

 

 

 

For Mandy and Ian, who have
the brightest smiles—N.K.

For Ben and Janet, who
keep us smiling!—J&W

GROSSET & DUNLAP
Published by the Penguin Group
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Text copyright © 2007 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by John

 

and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of
Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-09964-3

“Emma, what are you doing?” Katie Carew asked her pal Emma Weber curiously. It was right after lunch on Monday, and Emma was by the sink in the girls’ bathroom.

Emma opened her mouth to speak. White foam bubbled out around her lips. “’Rushing my ’eeth,” she said.

“I know you’re brushing your teeth,” Katie told her. “But why here?” Katie had never seen anyone brush her teeth in school before.

“I had a cavity filled at Dr. Sang’s on Saturday,” Emma explained to Katie. “And I don’t ever want to have another one. Dr. Sang told me to brush really well after every meal— and that means lunch, too!”

Dr. Sang was also Katie’s dentist. He was a nice enough guy. He was even kind of funny, the way he wore that weird smock with the pictures of teeth all over it. But Katie didn’t like going to his office one bit.

First of all, there was the smell. The whole room stank of a mix of bleach and mint mouthwash.

The tube that sucked the water out of her mouth really grossed Katie out, too. Whenever it was in her mouth, she wound up drooling all over the paper bib Dr. Sang made her wear.

And then there were those black plastic glasses she had to wear when Dr. Sang took X-rays of her mouth. They always made her nose itch.

Basically, Katie hated going to the dentist.

“I never had a cavity,” Katie told Emma. “Imagine—a hole in your tooth. Ugh!”

“Dr. Sang filled mine up with this silver-looking stuff,” Emma told Katie.

She opened her mouth wide so Katie could see all the way in the back. Sure enough, there was a piece of silver inside one of Emma’s lower back teeth.

“Wow! Is that real silver?” Katie asked.

Emma nodded.

“Did it hurt when Dr. Sang filled your tooth?” Katie asked her.

“Not after he gave me a shot to stop the pain,” Emma replied.

Katie gasped. “A shot?
In your mouth?
”

“Yeah,” Emma told her. “With a big, long needle. And then, when my mouth was all numb, he started drilling my tooth.”

Katie gulped. She definitely didn’t want to get a shot in her mouth. And as far as she knew, a drill was something construction workers used to put a hole in a wall, not something a dentist used in your mouth.

“It wasn’t so bad,” Emma told her. “And look what Dr. Sang gave me after it was all finished.” Emma pointed at one of the belt loops on her jeans. She’d attached two key chains to one of the loops. Each key chain had a plastic tooth on it.

Katie agreed that the key chains were definitely cool. But they weren’t cool enough to make it worth having a drill in her mouth.

“You know what? Starting tomorrow I’m bringing a toothbrush to school, too,” she told Emma quickly.

“Cool,” Emma replied. “We’ll have a tooth-brushing party after lunch.”

Katie giggled. “And tomorrow is the perfect day to start a tooth-brushing party.”

“Why?” Emma asked her.

“Because today is Monday,” Katie answered. “And that makes tomorrow Toothday!”

“From now on,
every
day is tooth day!” Emma exclaimed, placing her toothbrush back in its case.

“Okay, watch me. This is my special runway walk,” Suzanne Lock told the group of girls that were gathered around her on the playground after lunch. She lifted her head high, straightened her back, and took long strides across the yard.

Katie rolled her eyes. Her best friend was showing off . . . again.

“It’s very important for a model to have her own special walk when she is modeling clothes,” Suzanne explained. “A model has to stand out. At least a supermodel does. And that’s what I’m going to be.”

“More like a super
moron
,” George Brennan shouted as he and his best friend, Kevin Camilleri, tossed a football back and forth.

Kevin laughed. “And Suzanne won’t have to practice for that,” he said. “She’s already an expert.” He lifted his nose in the air, sucked in his cheeks, and imitated the way Suzanne was walking.

“Oh, that’s beautiful,” George told him, pretending to take Kevin’s picture with an imaginary camera. “Smile for the camera!”

Suzanne stuck her tongue out at the boys. George and Kevin stuck their tongues out at Suzanne.

“Hey, you guys, throw the ball over here!” Jeremy Fox shouted to George and Kevin. He held out his arms and got ready to catch the football.

Kevin threw the ball, and in an instant the boys had switched their focus from Suzanne back to football.

Katie was glad. She hated it when kids fought or made fun of each other. If it were up to Katie, everyone would always get along.

“Can you show me how to walk like a model?” Zoe Canter asked Suzanne.

“Me too?” Emma Stavros asked. “That looks like fun.”

Suzanne sighed heavily. “Modeling is not nearly as easy as it looks. It just looks that way when I do it because I’m so good.”

“Please, Suzanne?” Zoe pleaded.

“Oh, all right,” Suzanne agreed. “Now, just watch me and do exactly what I do.” With each step, Suzanne stuck her right leg far out in front of her. Then she turned to face her friends. “Now you guys try it.”

The girls did as they were told, Suzanne watching their every move.

“Emma S., stand up straight,” Suzanne said. “Zoe and Katie, you’re taking baby steps. Take giant steps . . . Emma S., a model can’t look at her feet,” she insisted. “She has to look at the . . .
oof
!”

Suzanne had taken a step backward and smacked right into George, who was running forward to catch the football. They crashed, and George fell with Suzanne right on top of him.