Authors: Nancy Krulik

Gotcha! Gotcha Back! (6 page)

BOOK: Gotcha! Gotcha Back!

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Katie was surprised. Kadeem and George were always competing to be the funniest kid in the class. Having Kadeem give George that kind of a compliment was a huge deal.

George’s face brightened. “It is pretty funny, isn’t it?” he agreed. He puffed his chest out proudly. “I am so the King of Comedy!”

Before long, all the kids in the class were laughing. Even Mandy. The only person who
wasn’t
laughing was Mr. G. He looked angry. Very angry.

“I think these practical jokes have all gone too far,” the teacher said. “I have to take some sort of action. So I am canceling the
Class
4A Express.” Everyone grew silent. They stared at their teacher. He had never sounded like this before.

The kids all knew better than to argue with their teacher. For the rest of the morning, they were very quiet. But when they got to the cafeteria, the kids in class 4A said
exactly
what they were thinking.

“It’s not fair,” Mandy insisted. “Why should we all be punished for what George did?”

“Yeah,” Emma S. agreed. “We’re going to be the only class in the school without a newspaper.”

“Thanks a lot, George,” Mandy continued. “You ruined everything.”

Now George didn’t look as proud as he had in class. He looked kind of upset.

That made Katie upset, too. After all, it hadn’t
really
been George in the computer room yesterday.

“It isn’t just George’s fault,” Katie pointed out to Mandy. “You were wrong, too.”

“What did I do?” Mandy demanded.

“You wrote an article accusing George of being the practical joker when you had no proof. And you used that awful picture of him at the pie-eating contest,” Katie accused her.

“How did you know about that?” Mandy said.

Oops.

“I didn‘t,” Katie said quickly. “I was just trying to trick you into admitting it.”

Phew. That was close.

“And you did!” Andrew shouted out. “Excellent, Katie!”

“She sure got you, Mandy,” Kadeem added.

Some of the kids laughed.

Mandy blushed.

“It doesn’t matter who did what,” Emma Weber said with a sigh. “We still don’t have a class newspaper anymore.”

Katie sighed.

No one was laughing about that.

Chapter 12

Mandy stayed angry all day long. She was still complaining after school had ended. “I can’t believe Mr. G. would do that to the newspaper!” she exclaimed as the kids in class 4A left the building that afternoon.

“It’s your fault, Mandy,” Kevin said. “Printing that picture and writing that article was mean to George.”

Mandy stuck her nose up in the air. “I was just reporting a news story,” she replied. “I thought people would find it interesting to know who the practical joker was.”

“It would have been the only interesting story all year,” Kevin told her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mandy demanded.

“He means the 4A
Express
is boring!” Kadeem exclaimed.

Mandy’s face turned all red. She looked like she was going to cry.

Now Katie felt doubly bad. First she had gotten George in trouble. Now the boys were upsetting Mandy.

“Yeah. At least what George wrote was funny,” Andrew Epstein added.

“ ‘Mr. Kane Picks.’ ” Kevin laughed as he pretended to stick his finger up his nose. “That was classic!”

The boys began to laugh.

“Maybe we should have elected George to be the editor of the 4A
Express,”
Kevin continued. He put his arm around his best buddy’s shoulders. “At least then we would have wanted to read it.”

The boys were being too mean. Katie couldn’t stand it anymore. “It’s not like you were volunteering to write something for the newspaper. Mandy had to do it all by herself,” she reminded them.

“That’s true,” Emma W. agreed. “We all could have pitched in to make it better.”

But the boys didn’t care what Katie and Emma W. thought.

“ ‘Math Test Stinks,’ ” Kadeem shouted out, remembering the headline. “I’ll say. That test was really hard. It stunk like rotten skunk juice!”

The boys all started to laugh—except George. He just walked away.

Katie headed off after him. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” George said. “I just feel kind of bad because we’re the only class without a newspaper. Maybe I did go too far with my practical jokes. But I really don’t remember messing up the newspaper.”

Katie looked over at the crowd of laughing boys. They sure seemed to like the funnier version of the
Class
4A
Express
a lot better than the serious one.

Suddenly, Katie got one of her great ideas.

“Maybe we don’t need a class newspaper,” she told him.

“Huh?” George asked.

“Can you stay at my house after cooking club on Saturday?” Katie continued.

“Sure, but what does that have to with...” George began.

“You’ll see,” Katie assured him with a grin.

Chapter 13

“Okay, you guys, don’t forget to take your bags of fudge home with you,” Mrs. Carew told the kids in the cooking club as they left Katie’s house on Saturday afternoon.

One by one, the kids grabbed plastic bags filled with giant hunks of homemade chocolate fudge. Then they left to go home. Before long, only Mandy and George were left.

“I’ll take my fudge later, Mrs. Carew,” Mandy told Katie’s mom. “Katie invited me over for a play date this afternoon.”

“She couldn’t have,” George said. “Katie invited me.”

George and Mandy both stared at Katie.

“I invited both of you,” she told them.

“I’m not staying if he’s going to be here,” Mandy said.

“I’m not staying if
she’s
going to be here,” George said.

“You both have to stay,” Katie told them. “I’ve got an idea about how we can make something even cooler than our class newspaper. But I need you guys to help.”

“I’m not going to do anything George does,” Mandy said.

“I’m not going to do anything Mandy does,” George said.

“You
both
have to work on this. After all, you both had something to do with us losing the 4A
Express,”
she told them.

Mandy and George both opened their mouths to argue. But Katie wouldn’t let them.

“I have a plan to fix things,” she continued, before either of them had a chance to say a word. “But I need your help.”

“What is your plan?” Mandy asked her.

“We should do a joke magazine,” Katie said. “It could be filled with funny stories, goofy pictures, and even some silly headlines, like the ones I ... I mean,
George ...
made.”

“A joke magazine
does
sound kind of cool,” George admitted slowly.

“I think so, too,” Katie agreed proudly. “But I’m not nearly as funny as you are.”

“True,” George boasted. “You do need me. Count me in.”

“Great,” Katie said happily.

“But what do we need her for?” George asked, pointing to Mandy.

“Thanks a lot,” Mandy grumbled.

“Be nice, George,” Katie warned. “Mandy knows about the computer program that helps you lay out a newspaper. And she is also much better at grammar than we are.”

“See, George,” Mandy boasted. “Without me, you don’t have a joke magazine.” She turned to Katie. “We can download the newspaper program right into your computer,” she explained.

“Great!” Katie exclaimed. “Let’s get started.”