Girls Don't Have Cooties by Nancy E. Krulik Read Free Book Online Page A

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.

Chapter 2
    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.”

    “What are you talking about?” she asked George.
    George moved his chair even farther from Katie. “Oooh! Get this girl away from me!” he shouted. All the boys laughed.
    That made Katie upset. George was her friend. He was the one who had given her the nickname Katie Kazoo. They told jokes together and played after school. Katie was the very first kid to become George’s friend when he was the new kid at school. Now he wouldn’t even sit next to her.
    “Come on, George, cut it out!” Katie insisted.
    George didn’t answer. Instead he took a huge bite of his bologna sandwich and turned toward his buddy, Kevin Camilleri.
    “Aachoo!” George let out a really fake sneeze. Pieces of chewed-up bologna, cheese, and bread, sprayed out of his mouth and all over the table.
    Kevin chuckled. “Good one, George!”
    “ Eeeeew! Yuck! ” Miriam Chan shouted. She was sitting across from Katie. That gave her a clear view of George’s flying food.
    “Boys are really gross,” Miriam’s best friend Mandy Banks said.
    “I don’t know how you can be friends with any of them, Katie.”
    Katie sighed. She hated it when there were fights between the boys and the girls.
    Just a few weeks ago, Suzanne and Jeremy had had a fight about who would get to take Speedy, the class hamster, home for the weekend. The whole class had gotten involved in that war. The boys had sided with Jeremy, and the girls had sided with Suzanne. Katie had been stuck in the middle—right between her two best friends.
    Katie sighed. “I wish this didn’t always ...” Katie was about to wish that this didn’t always have to happen to her, but she stopped herself. She’d learned the hard way to be really careful