Girls Don't Have Cooties

Table of Contents

 

 

 

For Bonnie and Emily

Text copyright © 2002 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2002

by John & Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap,
a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 345 Hudson
Street, New York, NY 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of
Penguin Putnam Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada.
S.A.

 

 

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002106663

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-15372-7

“Here comes Jeremy,” Suzanne Lock said. She looked out across the school playground. She quickly handed her best friend Katie Carew an envelope. “Put this in your backpack, fast!”

Katie looked at the envelope curiously. “What’s the big secret?” she asked.

“It’s an invitation to a party, this Saturday, at my house,” Suzanne quickly explained.

“Oh,” Katie answered. “So why do I have to hide it from Jeremy? Just give him his invitation too.”

Suzanne shook her head. “Jeremy’s not invited. No boys are. It’s just for the
girls
in our class.”

Katie was shocked. “You mean you’re only asking half of our friends to your party? You can’t do that. We’ve been friends with Jeremy forever.”

Suzanne shook her head. “Jeremy’s
your
best friend, Katie, not mine,” she insisted. “I only hang out with him when you’re around.”

Katie couldn’t argue with that. It was true. Jeremy Fox and Suzanne were both Katie’s best friends. The two of them got along okay when they were with Katie. But Jeremy and Suzanne didn’t always like each other.

“What kind of party is it?” Katie asked.

“A sleepover!” Suzanne told her excitedly. “I’m going to rent some movies. We’ll do each other’s hair and play games. My mom even said we can put on makeup—if we wash it off before we go to sleep.” Suzanne flashed Katie a secret smile. “Of course, we’re not going to sleep at all. Who sleeps at a sleepover?”

Katie shrugged. She didn’t know how to answer that. She’d never been to a sleepover party before.

“So, will you come?” Suzanne asked her.

Katie nodded. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

“Hey you guys! What’s up?” Jeremy asked as he walked over to where Suzanne and Katie were standing.

Katie quickly stuffed her invitation into her backpack. “Um,
nothing
,” Katie murmured.

She suddenly felt a little guilty about Suzanne’s all-girl party—even though she wasn’t the one who was throwing it.

“I gotta go,” Suzanne said quickly. “I need to talk to Mandy and Miriam about something important.” She winked at Katie. Katie looked away.

Jeremy laughed as Suzanne walked off. “Suzanne’s so funny,” he said.

“Why?” Katie asked.

“She’s always got something important to tell someone,” he said. “Doesn’t she ever have
nothing
to say?”

Katie giggled. “Not Suzanne. Even if she did, she’d make a big deal about how she had nothing to say.”

Jeremy nodded. Then he changed the subject. “My parents are taking me to the Magic Lamp Amusement Park on Saturday night. We’re going to check out that new Lightning Bolt roller coaster. They said I could bring a friend. Wanna come?”

Katie’s eyes flashed. The Lightning Bolt was supposed to be an amazing roller coaster. The TV commercials said it has three loops and goes really fast!

“Wow! The Lightning Bolt would be a great one to add to my list!” she exclaimed. Katie was trying to go on at least fifty roller coasters before she became a grown-up. So far she’d been on seven different ones.

“That’s what I thought,” Jeremy told her.

“I would love to go ...” Katie began. Then she remembered Suzanne’s party. “Except I can’t go Saturday night,” she finished sadly.

“How come?” Jeremy asked her.

“Well ... um ... I ...er ...” Katie stammered nervously. “I kind of promised to hang out with Suzanne on Saturday night,” she said finally.

That was the truth. Jeremy didn’t have to know about the all-girl party.

Jeremy thought about that for a minute. “I guess I can bring two friends.”

Katie gulped. She really didn’t want to have to tell Jeremy about Suzanne’s party. It would only hurt his feelings.

“Suzanne doesn’t like roller coasters much,” Katie said quickly.

“That’s okay. Neither does my mom. They could go on the bumper cars while we’re on the Lightning Bolt.”

Katie sighed. “Well ... see ... Suzanne and I sort of have plans with some of the other girls in the class on Saturday night and ...”

“What kind of plans?” Jeremy interrupted her.

“It’s nothing you’d want to do,” Katie insisted.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked again.

“Well, Suzanne’s having this all-girl party,” Katie blurted out finally.

Jeremy pushed his glasses up on his nose and stared at Katie. He looked angry. “How come she’s only inviting girls?” he asked. “That’s not nice.”

“It’s a sleepover party,” Katie explained. “We’re going to put on makeup and do our hair and stuff. You wouldn’t want to do that.”

“It’s still not fair!”

“But Jeremy, it’s a
sleepover
!” Katie insisted again. “Boys
can’t
come.”

Jeremy didn’t want to hear it. “Suzanne is being a total snob. She should have a party everyone can come to.” He stormed away angrily.

“Where are you going?” Katie called after him.

“I’m going to talk to George and Manny,” Jeremy told her. “Wait until
they
hear about this. They’re going to be mad!”

Katie played nervously with a lock of her red hair as she watched Jeremy walk away. She had a feeling this was not going to be a good day in class 3A.

By lunchtime, Jeremy had told all the boys in class 3A about Suzanne’s sleepover party. Katie could tell they were mad because they were all sitting together at half of the lunch table. They were also giving the girls really dirty looks.

The girls were sitting at the other end of the table. They were giving the boys dirty looks right back.

By the time Katie reached the lunch table, the only seat left was next to George Brennan and Zoe Canter—right between the girls and the boys. She put her tray down and slid onto her chair.

George jumped up and moved his chair away from Katie. He picked up his hand and made believe he was holding some sort of spray can.

“We want all girls to go away. Blast them hard with cootie spray!” He pretended to spritz Katie all over with invisible spray.
“Pffft,”
he said, imitating a spray can.

Katie jumped up with surprise. “George? What are you doing?”

George shrugged. “I’m sorry, Katie Kazoo. But you’re a girl. All girls have cooties. I’m just making sure I don’t get them from you.”