Drat! You Copycat! (4 page)

“Cocker spaniels,” Katie told her mother.

Mrs. Carew laughed as Katie scratched Pepper behind the ears. “Of course,” she said.

“I wanted to do Cleopatra. But Blechy Becky is researching her,” Suzanne said. “Mrs. Derkman is making me do a report on some lady named Coco Chanel.”

“Oh, you’re going to love Coco!” Katie’s mom exclaimed. “She’s very interesting.”

Suzanne made a face.

“Besides, you already know everything there is to know about Cleopatra,” Mrs. Carew said. “Now you’ll learn something new.”

Katie and Suzanne looked at each other. That was one of those things only a grown-up would say. You couldn’t argue with it—even though you wished you could.

“Let’s go find out who this Coco Chanel lady is,” Katie told Suzanne.

Suzanne nodded and followed Katie into the living room. The girls sat down and booted up the computer. Suzanne typed the words “Coco Chanel” into the search engine. Almost instantly the link to a short biography appeared on the screen.

Coco Chanel: This French fashion designer’s real name was Gabrielle Chanel. Coco Chanel changed fashion forever. She designed the first pants for women. She was famous for wearing lots of beads and carrying quilted pocketbooks with chains. She also created perfumes.

“Oooh! Katie, look at her,” Suzanne squealed, pointing to the photograph.

Katie looked at the picture of a darkhaired woman in a black pantsuit. She wore strands and strands of white pearls around her neck. She looked very elegant.

“Isn’t she wonderful?” Suzanne asked Katie. “Don’t you just love all those beads? Do you think I should wear my hair short like that?”

Katie laughed. Good-bye Cleo, Hello Coco.

“Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around. Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,” Becky chanted as she jumped over the two double-Dutch jump ropes.

Becky, Miriam, and Zoe were already playing in the schoolyard when Katie arrived the next morning. Katie walked over to watch.

“Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toe,” Becky continued as she tapped her foot with her hand. “Teddy bear, teddy bear, out you go!” she shouted as she dashed out from between the twirling ropes.

“That was great!” Miriam congratulated Becky. “You didn’t miss once.”

Becky smiled and looked over at Katie. “Hi! Where’s Suzanne?”

Katie shrugged. “We don’t usually walk to school together. Why?” After what had happened yesterday, Katie couldn’t believe that Becky would be looking for Suzanne.

“I just thought she’d like to jump double Dutch with me. I know a whole bunch of jump-rope rhymes.”

Katie didn’t think Suzanne would want to learn any of Becky’s rhymes, but she didn’t tell Becky that. Instead, she said, “Nice outfit. Is it new?”

Becky was wearing a purple shirt with a pink flower in the center. The shirt matched her purple glittery skirt perfectly.

“I found it at the mall,” Becky told her. “I thought it was really cool.” She lifted her skirt a little. “And see, I’m wearing shorts.”

“Do you want to jump again, Becky?” Zoe interrupted. “Since you didn’t miss, you get another turn.”

“Okay,” Becky said. As Miriam and Zoe began turning the ropes, Becky leaped in. “Fortune-teller if you’re so smart, tell me the name of my sweetheart. Is it A ...B ... C ...”

Becky kept jumping, twirling around as she said each letter. The ropes were moving at a very steady rhythm, until suddenly ...

“Look at Suzanne!” Zoe cried out. She dropped one of her ropes. Instantly, Becky tripped over the fallen jump rope. “Hey! Why did you stop turning?” she asked.

But there was no one around to answer her. Miriam and Zoe were both running over to meet Suzanne at the far end of the playground.

“Wow, Suzanne! You look great,” Mandy Banks exclaimed. “I love those beads.”

Suzanne fingered the many strands of white plastic beads she wore around her neck. She smoothed the creases in her black slacks and straightened her plain black shirt.

Katie was amazed. The girls had only seen the picture of Coco Chanel yesterday. And Suzanne was already dressed like her.

“Hey there, Coco,” Katie teased.

“Don’t you just love this outfit?” Suzanne gushed. “My mom helped me put it together. She’s so glad that I’m over all that glitter stuff.” Suzanne stared at Becky’s outfit.

Just then George and Jeremy wandered over to see what all the fuss was about.

“What are you supposed to be?” Jeremy asked.

“Let me check my calendar,” George said. “I think I missed Halloween.”

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “You boys don’t know anything. This outfit is very grown-up.”

“But you’re not a grown-up, Suzanne,” Jeremy reminded her. “How are you going to play any games in that getup?”

“Maybe I don’t feel like playing games,” Suzanne argued.

“What are you going to do at recess then?”

“I’m going to spend recess drawing clothes,” she told him.

George made a face. “Boring!” he said.

“No, it’s not!” Suzanne replied. “I can get lots of ideas for new fashions here. As Coco Chanel said, ‘Fashion is in the air. Born upon the wind.’ ”

George and Jeremy had no idea what Suzanne was talking about.

“Forget Coco Chanel,” George moaned. “You’re
Cuckoo
Chanel.”

Jeremy laughed. “See ya later, Cuckoo,” he said as he ran off toward the soccer field.

“Cuckoo, cuckoo,” George added, sounding very much like a cuckoo clock.

As soon as the boys were gone, Becky held up a her purple lunch bag. “I brought lunch today,” she told Suzanne. “It’s pita bread and bean salad. I’ve got dried figs for dessert. I thought we could share our lunches and have an Egyptian feast.”

Suzanne shook her head. “Sorry, Becky. I have French bread and a hunk of cheese for lunch today. That’s what they eat in Paris. Coco Chanel lived in Paris, you know.”

Becky bit her lip. “Oh. Well, bread and cheese sounds good, too.”

“It is,” Suzanne assured her. “I love everything that’s French. As far as I’m concerned, Egypt is ancient history!”

“Look at Blechy Becky,” Suzanne said as she watched Becky drag a huge black duffel bag to her desk. It had been two weeks since Becky had chosen Cleopatra as her research topic, but Suzanne still didn’t like her.

“What do you think she has in there?” Mandy wondered.

“Maybe a mummy,” Suzanne joked. “That would be perfect. After all, only a
dead
person would hang around with her.”

“That’s really mean, Suzanne,” Katie said.

“Not as mean as copying my clothes and stealing my research topic,” Suzanne said.

“She’s probably got the stuff for her report in that bag,” Katie said.

Today was the first day of the research project presentations. Two kids would give speeches each day. George and Becky were first.

“She sure doesn’t look like Cleopatra,” Suzanne said, staring at Becky’s white blouse, black stretch jeans, and chunky red beads. “The Queen of the Nile didn’t wear beads. Coco Chanel wore beads.
I
wear beads. She’s not trying to be like Cleopatra. She’s trying to be like me. She’s such a wanna-be.”

Before Katie could say a word, Mrs. Derkman stood in front of the room. “Will everyone sit down, please?” she said.

The kids quickly scrambled to their seats.

“We’re going to get started on our research presentations,” the teacher continued. “George, do you want to go first?”

Katie glanced over at George. He was wearing baggy orange shorts and a huge yellow-and-orange Hawaiian shirt. He was also wearing his helmet and pads. He certainly looked ready to go first.

“Sure!” George exclaimed. He walked to the front of the room and held up his skateboard. “Hey there, dudes and honeys. This is my stick.”

Mrs. Derkman looked curiously at George. “Excuse me?”

George laughed. “All I said was, ‘Hi everyone. This is my board.’ I was using surfing slang.”

“I thought your report was about skateboarding,” Manny interrupted.

“It is,” George said. “Skateboarding became really popular in the 1950s. Back then, everyone in California was surfing. Other kids wanted to surf, too. But not everyone lived near an ocean. So skateboards were great. You could catch the surfing wave no matter where you lived. That’s why a lot of skateboarding words sound like surfer words.”

George put one foot on the back of his skateboard. “I’m going to show you a cool skateboarding move,” he told the class. “It’s called Mondo Foot.”

Mondo foot?
Katie couldn’t help it. She started to giggle. So did lots of other kids.

“No, really,” George told them. “When you do Mondo Foot, you push the board with your front foot, like this.”

George pushed off with his front foot. His skateboard soared across the floor.

Unfortunately, George wasn’t on the skateboard. He’d slipped off.
Crash!
The board slammed into the trash can. Trash spilled out all over the floor.

George leaped across the room to grab his board. As he ran, he tripped over the fallen trash can. George went flying through the air. He landed headfirst right on top of Katie’s desk.

George was lucky he was wearing a helmet.

Too bad Katie wasn’t. George slammed right into her face.