Going Batty (3 page)

“I don’t know how you guys learn anything in your class,” Suzanne said to Katie, George, and Kevin. It was Saturday morning. A bunch of the fourth-graders had come to Katie’s house to bake animal cookies. “All you ever do is play games.”

“We learn a lot,” Katie told Suzanne. Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table, lining up bowls and measuring spoons and all the stuff for baking cookies. “And we’re going to prove it to you when we all go to the zoo on Monday. Our class is going to tell your class about the nocturnal animals.”

“Well,
we’re
going to tell
you
about the animals that are awake during the daytime,” Suzanne said. “And we’re going to have lots of information. We spent the whole morning in the school library yesterday.”

“We spent the morning out on the field,” George said.

“That’s what I mean,” Suzanne continued. “What can you learn on a field?”

“Actually, we learned all about bats and echolocation,” Katie told her.

“What’s that?” Becky asked Katie.

Katie handed Kevin the flour from one of the cabinets. She opened her mouth to answer Becky. But Suzanne butted in before she could say a word.

“Who cares what it is?” Suzanne said. “The class 4B kids definitely have the better animals to study. While your class is stuck learning about yucky night animals like bats, we’re learning about cute day animals.”

“That’s true,” Becky said. “Like horses. They’re my favorite!”

“We know,” Suzanne said, rolling her eyes. “You’re always talking about your horseback riding lessons—when you’re not talking about gymnastics, that is.”

Katie frowned. Obviously, Suzanne was still mad about what had happened on the monkey bars yesterday.

“Well at least I’m good at something,” Becky said. “I have medals for gymnastics and ribbons for my horseback riding.”

“Oh yeah?” Suzanne started. “Well I . . .”

“Speaking of horses,” George butted in. “Do you guys know what it means when you find a horseshoe?”

“What?” Kevin asked.

“It means some horse is walking around in just his socks!” George answered. Then he started laughing at his own joke.

Ding-dong.
Just then the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Mrs. Carew told the kids. “You guys keep on measuring that flour.”

“Will do, Mom,” Katie said.

A few seconds later the kids heard Katie’s mom say, “Hi, Jeremy. You’re just in time to help mix the dough.”

“Great,” Jeremy said. “I came here as soon as my soccer game was over.”

Katie was really glad Jeremy had shown up to be part of the cooking club this week. But she wasn’t nearly as happy as Becky was.

“Jeremy!” Becky squealed. “You’re here!” Then she raised up her arms, and flipped over.

It was a perfect back handspring—until Becky’s foot tapped the table leg, knocking off the bag of flour.

“Hey!” George shouted out as a stream of white flour poured onto his black jeans.

“Whoops,” Becky said as she stood up straight. “Sorry about that.”

George looked down at his black-and-white legs and frowned. Then, suddenly he smiled. “Do you guys know what’s black and white with red dots?” he asked the kids.

“What?” Katie asked him.

“A zebra with chicken pox!” George said. He started laughing again.

Katie, Jeremy, Becky, and Kevin all laughed, too. But Suzanne wasn’t in the mood to laugh. She was in the mood to be angry with Becky.

“Now that Becky’s spilled all the flour, what are we supposed to use for our cookies?” Suzanne asked.

“Don’t worry,” Katie’s mom told Suzanne. “I have another bag.”

“I’ll clean up the mess, Mrs. Carew,” Becky said. “Where’s the broom?”

“In the closet,” Mrs. Carew said, pointing toward the broom closet in the corner of the room.

“I told you Becky was a show-off,” Suzanne whispered to Katie. Only her whisper wasn’t a quiet whisper. It was a loud one. Suzanne wanted to make sure Becky heard her.

Katie couldn’t take it anymore. She had to get away from Suzanne and Becky, and all the fighting. So she headed off toward the living room.

“Where are you going, Katie Kazoo?” George asked her.

“To the computer,” Katie told him. “I want to go on the Cherrydale Zoo website. I’m going to make cookies that look like nocturnal animals. I want to print out some pictures.”

“Good idea,” Kevin said. “Can you print out a picture of a raccoon for me?”

“Sure,” Katie told him.

While Becky cleaned up, and the other kids began to mix the batter, Katie went on to the zoo website. As soon as the animal pictures popped up on her screen, Katie began to smile.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “This is sooooo cool!”

“What is?” Suzanne shouted. She ran into the living room.

So did all the other kids. They wanted to know what Katie was so excited about.

The kids were staring at the computer screen.

“What’s the big deal?” Kevin asked Katie.

“Look!” Katie answered. “The zoo is giving people the chance to adopt an animal.”

Just then, Katie’s dog Pepper came running into the room. He raced over to Katie and rubbed his little brown and white cocker spaniel body against her jeans.

Katie bent down and scratched his chin. “Don’t worry, Pepper,” she said. “I don’t mean I would adopt a tiger and bring him home. If you adopt a zoo animal, the animal stays at the zoo.”

“How do you adopt an animal if it doesn’t live with you?” George asked.

Katie scrolled down a little on the screen. “See, it explains it all here,” Katie told him. “You can donate money to the zoo to help care for an animal. Then the zoo sends you pictures of your animal, and information about him. Best of all, you get to name the animal.”

The other kids didn’t seem nearly as excited as Katie did.

“Nobody loves animals the way you do, Katie,” Jeremy said. “Are you going to do it?”

Katie shook her head. “I can’t. It costs twenty dollars to adopt a zoo animal,” she said. “I only have seven dollars of my birthday money left.”

“That’s too bad,” Jeremy told her. “It would have been a really nice thing to do. That’s what I like about you, Katie. You’re always so nice.”

Becky turned and looked at Jeremy for a minute. Then she smiled at Katie. “I have some of my birthday money left,” she said. “Maybe we could adopt an animal together.”

“Wow!” Katie exclaimed. “You would do that?”

“Sure,” Becky told her. “I’m nice, too.” She grinned at Jeremy.

Jeremy blushed. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and stared at the floor.

“Thanks,” Katie said to Becky. “How much do you have?”

“Six dollars,” Becky said.

Katie frowned. “That only makes thirteen dollars. It’s still not enough.”

“I’m broke or I would chip in,” Kevin told Katie and Becky. “It’s really cool that you guys want to help a zoo animal.”

Suzanne had heard enough. “Oh, please. They’re not the only ones who want to help animals. I’m nice, too!” she exclaimed. “In fact, I’m going to donate seven dollars that my aunt gave me last Christmas.”

“Wow! Suzanne, that
is
nice of you,” George said. He sounded surprised.

Suzanne smiled sweetly at George. Well, as sweetly as Suzanne could smile, anyway. “I know,” she told him.

Katie thought for a minute. “I have seven dollars. Becky has six. And now with Suzanne’s seven dollars, we have twenty dollars! That’s just enough. We did it!”

“Yay!” Becky shouted.

“Once again, I saved the day,” Suzanne reminded Becky and Katie.

Katie laughed. That was such a Suzanne thing to say. But it was also true.

“What animal should we adopt?” Becky wondered. “How about a monkey? I love the way they swing from tree to tree.”

“I’d rather adopt a peacock,” Suzanne suggested. “They’re so elegant and pretty.”

“A peacock?” Becky asked her. “They’re too fancy. And they always look kind of snobby to me.”

“Why don’t we adopt an animal that’s not so cute or pretty?” Katie suggested. “Like a rhinoceros.”

Becky and Suzanne both stared at her.

“Why would we want to do that?” Suzanne asked.

“Because no one else would want to,” Katie explained. “Cute monkeys or beautiful birds will always get someone to adopt them. But animals that aren’t so cute need to be adopted, too.”

“You didn’t feel that way when you adopted Pepper,” Suzanne said. “You told me he was the cutest animal at the Cherrydale Animal Shelter.”

“He was,” Katie admitted. “Pepper was a really adorable puppy. But I think a baby rhinoceros could be cute, too.”

“To who?” Becky asked her.

Katie thought about that for a minute. “I guess to a mommy rhinoceros,” she said finally.

“I don’t want to adopt a rhinoceros,” Suzanne said. “They’re too ugly with those weird horns and their thick skin. What about a flamingo? They’re that gorgeous pink color. I’ve always looked pretty in pink.”

“So go to the mall and buy a dress,” Becky said. “I want to adopt a cuddly animal.”

“You don’t get to
hold
the animal, Becky,” Suzanne said.

Grrrr.
Katie couldn’t stand it any more. No matter what was going on, Suzanne and Becky just kept fighting about it.

“Look you guys, we don’t have to decide this today,” she said finally. “The whole fourth grade is going to the zoo on Monday. We can check out the animals there, and then decide.”

“Maybe seeing them in person will help you pick the right animal,” Jeremy told the girls.

“I’m sure you’re right, Jeremy,” Becky cooed. “You’re so smart.”

Jeremy rolled his eyes and turned away from her.

“Can we go bake some cookies now?” Kevin asked. “This is supposed to be a cooking club, remember?”

“Yeah!” George agreed. “I’m going to make one cookie shaped like a peacock, one shaped like a monkey, and one shaped like a rhino.