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

about what she wished for.
    It had all started one rotten day. Katie had ruined her favorite jeans, lost the football game for her team, and belched really loudly in front of the whole class. That day, Katie had wished that she could be anyone but herself.
    Right after that, the magic wind came.
    The magic wind was big and horrible, like a tornado. But it only stormed around Katie. Nobody else could see it or feel it. Whenever the magic wind came, it turned Katie into someone else.
    The first time the wind had come, it changed Katie into Speedy, the class hamster! She’d spent a whole morning nibbling on chew sticks and running on a hamster wheel.
    Luckily, Katie changed back into herself pretty fast. Un luckily, the magic wind had come back again. It turned Katie into Lucille, the cafeteria lunch lady.
    But serving mystery meat to her friends wasn’t nearly as bad as the next time the wind came. That time it turned Katie into Suzanne’s baby sister, Heather. Katie had come this close to having her best friend change her diaper. How embarrassing would that have been?
    So Katie didn’t make wishes anymore. She never knew what would happen if they came true.
    Just then, George and Kevin snuck up behind Miriam and Mandy.
    “Pffft!” the boys shouted. “We want all girls to go away. Blast them hard with cootie spray.”
    “Get away!” Mandy cried out. “ You’re the ones with cooties.”
    “No way,” George argued. “Girls have cooties.”
    Katie looked across the table at Jeremy. He was sitting next to Manny Gonzalez. When he saw Katie staring at him, Jeremy looked down at the floor. But Manny didn’t look away. He smiled and held up an imaginary spray can. Pffft. He pretended to spritz Katie with cootie spray.

    Katie was getting mad. Really mad.
    “Girls don’t have cooties!” she shouted. Then she jumped up and ran out of the cafeteria.

Chapter 3
    “Hey Katie, where are you going?” Suzanne asked as she ran after her best friend.
    “I can’t stand this fighting anymore!” Katie told her.
    “Then stop hanging around with the boys,” Suzanne suggested. “They started it all.”
    Katie wanted to tell Suzanne that that wasn’t true. Suzanne had actually started it all by having an all-girl party. But Katie already had one best friend refusing to talk to her. She couldn’t take it if Suzanne ignored her, too.
    “Katie, come on outside,” Suzanne said.
    “We’re going to play double Dutch jump rope. Mandy and Zoe have already said that they’ll be steady enders.”
    That was good. Mandy and Zoe were the only ones who knew how to turn both double Dutch jump ropes at the same time without getting them tangled.
    “Okay,” Katie agreed. “Just let me run back to the classroom and get my jean jacket.”
    “Great! I’ll see ya out on the playground!” Suzanne said with a grin.

    The classroom was empty. Katie ran in, grabbed her jacket, and headed straight for the door.
    But before she could leave the room, she felt a strange breeze tingle against the back of her neck. Katie put on her jacket, and raised the collar around her neck. But she could still feel the breeze blowing.
    She looked around the room. The windows were all shut. The breeze was obviously not coming from outside.

    “Oh no!” Katie cried out. “Not again.”
    The magic wind was back. And she knew there was nothing she could do to stop it.
    The wind began to circle strongly around Katie. Her red hair whipped wildly around her head. The tornado swirled faster and faster. Katie held on to a desk so she wouldn’t blow away. She closed her eyes tightly, and tried not to cry.
    It seemed like the wind was blowing for a very long time. But it was probably just a few seconds before it stopped, just as suddenly as it had begun.
    Katie knew what that meant. She wasn’t Katie Carew anymore. She was someone else.
    The question was, who was she?

Chapter 4
    Before Katie opened her eyes, she sniffed at the air around her. The smells had