Anyone But Me (3 page)

Her mother had put out Katie’s clothes for the day—a bright yellow satiny blouse and black jeans. The outfit was very cheerful.

But Katie wasn’t feeling cheerful today. She went to her closet and pulled out a gray sweatshirt and jeans instead. That’s how she felt.
Blech.
Like a gray, cloudy day.

As Katie came into the kitchen, her mother noticed her new outfit. “Not in the mood for yellow, huh kiddo?” she asked kindly.

Katie shook her head.

“Did you have an argument with Suzanne or Jeremy?” her mother guessed.

“No,” Katie answered.

“So what’s wrong?” her mother asked.

Katie thought about telling her mother what had happened yesterday. But she was afraid that her mom would call the school to complain about George’s bullying. Imagine how mean George would be to her if that happened!

“Nothing’s wrong,” Katie lied to her mother. “I’m just tired.”

Her mom didn’t say anything. But Katie could tell she didn’t believe her.

“You’d better eat that toast,” her mom said. “It’s getting late.”

Katie nodded and slowly took a nibble of her bread. She slowly chewed each tiny bite until the toast practically melted in her mouth.

Katie
wanted
to be late.

If she arrived after the bell rang, the class would all be seated and doing their work by the time she got there. Mrs. Derkman would be upset that she was late. But it was worth it if she could avoid even a little bit of George’s teasing. Definitely.

“You’ve got to get going,” Katie’s mother warned her. “You can eat the rest on the way.”

Katie didn’t say anything. She slipped on her backpack and headed for the door.

“Have a good day, kiddo,” her mother called.

 

By the time Katie finally reached the school, everyone was inside the building. Katie stood outside by her classroom window. She watched as her classmates scrambled into their seats. Katie knew she should hurry inside. But her feet just didn’t seem to want to move.

Just then, the wind began to blow. It started out as a slow and gentle breeze. But within seconds the wind was swirling round and round like a tornado. The weird thing was that the wild wind was only blowing around Katie. The leaves on the trees weren’t moving. The bushes weren’t moving. Even the flag up on the flagpole wasn’t moving.

What was going on? Katie was really scared. She wished she were inside. Away from this wind. She hugged herself tightly, and closed her eyes.

And then, suddenly, everything was calm again. The wind had disappeared as quickly as it had started. Katie stood perfectly still for a moment, waiting to see if it would start up again. Finally, when she was sure the storm was over, Katie slowly opened her eyes.

Everything seemed blurry. Katie blinked really hard. Nothing changed. She still couldn’t see very well.

But she could smell
really
well. And her nose was twitching. Katie stood up tall and sniffed at the air. All around her were yucky smells: salami, egg salad, old sneakers. It was hard to tell where each smell was coming from. The scents were all mixing together.

Katie hadn’t only become a champion smeller. She could also hear really well. Too well, in fact. Everyone in the classroom seemed to be shouting. All the noise was making her nervous. Katie could feel her heart beating really, really fast.

Now Katie was really scared. She wanted to run right home. But her parents were probably at work by now. There was no one at home to take care of her. If Katie didn’t show up at school, Mrs. Derkman would phone her mother for sure. Katie definitely did not want that to happen. She ran towards the classroom. She’d have to hope her sight got better.

Bam!
She bashed right into a solid glass wall.

That was weird,
Katie thought.
There hadn’t been a glass wall there before.

“What’s going on here?” Katie cried out.

Nobody answered. All the kids in the classroom were so busy yelling, they couldn’t hear Katie’s cries.

“Hello!” Katie shouted. “Can anyone hear me?”

Katie began running wildly in circles. She didn’t get very far before she bashed head first into another glass wall.
Ouch!
That one really hurt.

As she reached up to rub her head, Katie noticed that her hand looked strange. This hand was small and furry. This hand had nails that really needed to be clipped. Katie touched her face. Her cheeks felt big and round like huge empty pouches, and her face was all hairy!

Quickly, Katie looked down at her body.

“Aaah!”
she cried out. “I’m naked!”

Actually, she wasn’t completely naked. Her back and stomach were covered with orange-brown fur!

And that’s when Katie realized what had happened. She wasn’t outside anymore. She was inside—in a hamster cage. She’d become Speedy, the class hamster.

Katie tried to scream, but the only sound that came out of her mouth was a loud squeak.

“Hey, look at Speedy!” Zoe Canter called out from the other side of the glass. “He’s going crazy!”

Within seconds, eighteen pairs of giant eyes were peering through the glass window. They were all staring at Katie.

Katie was really confused. How could this have happened? It didn’t make any sense. People didn’t just turn into hamsters.

Then Katie remembered. She’d made that wish the night before. She’d said she wanted to be anyone but herself!

“Why did
this
have to be my first wish to come true?” Katie yelped. (Of course, to the kids in class 3A, her words sounded more like “Squeak, squeak squeak, squeak squeak!”)

“Somebody should throw some oil on that hamster!” George exclaimed. “That’ll stop his squeaking.”

“Oh, George, be quiet,” Suzanne told him. “Something is obviously bothering the little guy. We should try and help him.”

“It figures a rat would want to help a hamster,” George said. “You’re both in the same family.”

“Cut it out,” Suzanne replied.

“Hey, Ratgirl, show us your tail,” George teased.

Katie wished she could help Suzanne, but she was just a little hamster. Luckily, George had to stop when Mrs. Derkman told them all to sit back down.

“I’ve got to get out of this cage,” Katie squeaked to herself.

The problem was that she knew there wasn’t any way out. The only opening in the cage was at the top, and that was covered by a screened lid. The lid was Mrs. Derkman’s way of making sure Speedy didn’t escape. Now the lid was making sure Katie didn’t escape, either.

There had to be some way to get that lid off. Katie might have a hamster body now, but she still had a human brain. She was smart enough to get out of a hamster cage. She just had to come up with a plan.

Before she could think about anything, though, she had to deal with her teeth. They were feeling really long. She needed to chew on something—and fast! Quickly, Katie scampered over to a small pile of brightly colored pieces of wood.

“Ahh, that feels better.” Katie sighed as she bit into a bright green chew stick. She could feel her teeth getting shorter with each nibble.

Suddenly Katie had an idea. She took the green chew stick in her mouth and placed it on top of a yellow one. Then she grabbed a blue stick and placed it on top of the green one.

If I can just build this high enough, maybe I can climb up and push the lid off,
Katie thought to herself, as she took an orange chew stick and added it to the pile.

It took a while, but at last Katie built what had to be the biggest chew-stick ladder of all time. (It also was probably the
only
chew-stick ladder of all time!) If Katie could climb to the top of the pile, she might be able to reach the lid.

“Hey, look what Speedy made,” she heard Manny Gonzalez whisper to Kevin.

“Cool!” Kevin agreed. “It’s like a chew-stick mountain.”

Katie licked her little front paws and admired her work. She took a deep breath. It was time to try out her plan. Carefully, Katie stepped onto the bottom chew stick.
So far so good,
she thought.