Three Cheers for...Who? (4 page)

“But, Katie, you just
have
to come with me,” Emma W. pleaded that night on the phone. “I don't want to sit at that basketball game without a friend to talk to.”

Katie sighed. She really liked Emma W. A lot. But she really didn't want to go to the high school basketball game tomorrow.

“My mom has to take Matthew and the twins for their doctor's appointments,” Emma W. explained. “She said I could go to the game if a friend sits in the bleachers with me. Otherwise I have to go with her. And I hate going to the doctor's. Even if it's not for me.”

Katie didn't blame Emma W. Going to the doctor's was no fun. There was always a little kid crying after getting a shot or someone sneezing and coughing all over the place.

“Okay,” Katie said finally. “I'll go with you.”

“Katie, you're the best!” Emma W. said.

“I've never actually been to a high school basketball game,” Katie admitted.

“The Cherrydale High team is good,” Emma W. said. “They haven't lost a game all season.”

As Katie hung up the phone, she smiled. It was very grown-up to go to a high school basketball game.

Katie wasn't even going to look at mean old Lacey Weber and the other cheerleaders. She was going to watch the basketball players. They were the
real
athletes, after all!

“Let's go Squids! Let's GO!” The crowd in the Cherrydale High School gym cheered as the basketball players raced across the court at the start of the game.

“Who named our team the
Squids
?” Katie asked Emma W. They were staring at somebody who was dressed up in a red and white squid costume. It was pretty funny-looking, with bulging red eyes, a white belly, and eight red arms.

“How does he see in there?” Katie wondered.

“I think there are holes underneath that thing that looks like a snout,” Emma W. said.

The mascot was twirling around and shaking his huge tentacles all over the place.

Then two players stood facing each other at the center of the court. The ref blew the whistle, tossed up the basketball, and the game began. It was exciting to watch. The Squids scored first, and then almost right away the same player threw the ball from miles away.
Swish!
In the hoop it went.

Katie pretty much avoided Lacey and the other cheerleaders each time the Squids scored another basket.

Soon the score was 22-19. The Cherrydale High School Squids were ahead. But that could change any minute.

BUZZZ!
Before anyone else could score a basket, the buzzer rang. The players all raced off the court.

“Where are they going?” Katie asked.

“It's halftime,” Emma W. explained. “The players go into the locker rooms for a rest.”

“What do we do while they're resting?” Katie asked her.

“We watch the halftime show,” Emma W. said. “The cheerleaders from both schools do some of their best cheers. They try to keep the crowd really excited.”

“Um, Emma W.,” Katie asked. “Do you mind if I go get some candy in the lobby?”

“No,” Emma W. replied. “I'll wait here so no one takes our seats.”

“Cool,” Katie said. “I'll be right back.”

And with that, Katie climbed down the bleachers and headed out a nearby door. She found herself in a hallway outside the gym. Katie turned a corner, looking for the candy machines. What she found instead were a bunch of classrooms facing a wall of lockers. Katie was a little nervous. The high school was big—much bigger than the elementary school. It would be easy for a fourth-grader to get lost.

Just then, Katie felt a breeze blowing on the back of her neck. That was weird. There were no windows in this hallway and all the doors to the classrooms were closed. So where was that breeze coming from?

A moment later, the wind started blowing harder and harder—just around Katie. That could only mean one thing: This was no ordinary wind. This was the
magic
wind!
Oh no!

The magic wind began to blow more and more wildly until it was circling Katie like a fierce tornado. The wind was so powerful, Katie thought she might be blown away! She shut her eyes tight and tried really hard not to cry.

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

And so was Katie Carew. She'd been turned into someone else. One ... two ... switcheroo!

But who?

All around Katie, people were shouting and cheering. The air smelled of sweaty sneakers and floor wax. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She could see people sitting in the bleachers on either side of her. Up on the wall there was a sign. It said SQUIDS 22, VISITORS 19
.

Okay, so the magic wind had blown Katie back into the Cherrydale High School gym. Now Katie knew
where
she was. But she still didn't know
who
she was.

Slowly she looked down. Her red, high-top sneakers were gone. Instead, Katie was wearing a pair of plain white sneakers with red laces and red socks.

And she wasn't wearing her cool new jeans with the flowers embroidered on the pockets anymore. Katie was wearing a little red and white skirt. A
cheerleading
skirt!

Uh-oh!
That could only mean one thing. The magic wind had switcherooed Katie into one of the Cherrydale High cheerleaders, right in the middle of the halftime show!

“Come on, Lacey,” Katie heard one of the cheerleaders say. “Grab your pom-poms.”

Katie looked around for Lacey.

“Lacey, quit looking around. Grab your pom-poms and get into formation for the salt-and-pepper cheer,” Rachel said.

Suddenly Katie realized that the cheerleaders were staring right at her. They were all holding red and white pom-poms. But Katie wasn't.
Uh-oh.
Katie knew what that had to mean.

It seemed like everyone in the gym was waiting for her to line up.

But Katie couldn't move. Her feet were glued to the floor.

“Lacey,” Rachel whispered. “What's wrong?”

What was wrong was that Lacey was really Katie. But of course Katie couldn't tell Rachel that. She couldn't tell
anybody
that.

Katie bent down and grabbed her pom-poms. Then she took a deep breath and took her place behind Rachel in the formation.

Maybe this would turn out okay. After all, she knew all of the steps to the salt-and-pepper cheer. Well,
pretty much
all of the steps, anyway.

“Salt and pepper,” the cheerleading captain shouted. “Ready? And ...”

“Salt makes you thirsty and pepper makes you sneeze. When it comes to shooting baskets, we drive you to your knees!”
Katie shouted out along with everybody else. She tried to do the same moves as the other cheerleaders. She shook her pom-poms to the right. Then she shook them to the left. Unfortunately, the other cheerleaders were shaking their pom-poms to the
left
and then to the
right
.

Katie twirled around and shook her pom-poms in the air.

The other cheerleaders twirled around and shook their pom-poms down low.

Katie leaped up in the air and did an X jump.

The other cheerleaders dropped to their knees and waved their pom-poms all around.

“What was that all about?” Rachel hissed in Katie's ear as the cheer ended.

“Quit trying to change the routine,” Tess, the squad captain, whispered in Katie's ear.

“I wasn't ...,” Katie began. But Tess didn't hear her. She'd already walked away and started the next cheer.

“Okay, pyramid formation!” Tess called out to the other cheerleaders. “Ready? Begin!”

Almost instantly, the cheerleaders began to form their pyramid. Four girls got on their hands and knees. They were the bottom row. Three more girls began climbing onto their backs. Katie hurried over, and started to climb on, too.