I Hate Rules! by Nancy Krulik Read Free Book Online Page B

completely naked—except for Speedy’s fur, of course.
    Luckily, Katie had changed back into herself before anyone realized who was really chomping on Speedy’s chew sticks. Un luckily, the magic wind returned. That time it turned Katie into Lucille, the school’s lunch lady. She’d had to serve the kids gloppy egg salad and old milk. Blech!
    Even that wasn’t as bad as the time the magic wind turned Katie into Suzanne’s baby sister, Heather. Eating cafeteria food tasted good compared to sucking smelly baby formula from a bottle.
    The weirdest thing the magic wind ever did was turn Katie into Jeremy Fox. That had been a real mess. Katie hadn’t known whether to go to the boys’ room or the girls’ room. Even worse, she’d almost lost Jeremy as a friend.
    The magic wind hadn’t been back for a while. But Katie had a feeling it wasn’t through with her yet. She couldn’t be sure when the wind would come, or who it would turn her into next.
    That’s why Katie didn’t make wishes anymore. You never knew what could happen if they came true.

Chapter 3
    Miriam Chan sat down at the cafeteria table beside her best friend, Mandy Banks. “Come on, let’s do ‘I Wanna Send a Letter,’” she said before she even unpacked her lunch.
    Mandy swallowed a bite of her egg salad sandwich and nodded. Then the two girls stood up and began playing a new clapping game.
    “Mail a letter to a boy from camp, camp, camp.
    Seal the envelope with a stamp, stamp, stamp.
    He’s the one I always miss, miss, miss,
    So I seal it with a kiss, kiss, kiss.
    Hope he gets it in a snap, snap, snap,
    And sends a note to make me clap, clap, clap.”
    Everyone watched as Miriam and Mandy played their new game. The girls stamped their feet when they said ‘stamp,’ missed when they said ‘miss,’ blew kisses, snapped their fingers, and clapped their hands.

    “Hey, can you teach me that?” Katie asked when the girls finished.
    “Sure. I’ll show you after lunch,” Mandy agreed.
    “Me too?” Zoe Canter asked.
    “Of course,” Miriam said. “We can do it while we watch the four-square championship.”
    “I think my mother used to play a game like that,” Suzanne told the others. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “ I’ll call her and find out.”
    But before Suzanne could dial her mother, George grabbed the phone from her hands. He raced to the other side of the table and began to push numbers on the phone.
    “Who are you calling?” Suzanne cried.
    “It doesn’t matter,” George replied. “I’m just calling anyone.”
    “It better not be long distance,” Suzanne told him.
    George ignored her. “Hello,” he said to the person who answered the phone. “Is your refrigerator running?” When the person on the other end said yes, George started giggling. “Then you’d better catch it!” he exclaimed.
    George tossed the phone to Katie. “You’ve got to hear this, Katie Kazoo!” he shouted.

    Katie reached up and caught the phone. She could hear the woman screaming on the other end. “You shouldn’t make phony phone calls,” Katie told George.
    “Especially on my phone,” Suzanne added.
    Just then, Mr. Kane, the principal, walked over to their table. “What have you got there, Katie?” he demanded.
    Katie gulped. He sounded really mad. “It’s a phone,” she said quietly.
    “I can see that,” Mr. Kane said. “It’s against the rules for students to bring cell phones to school.”
    “This isn’t . . .” Katie was about to say that the phone wasn’t hers. Then she looked at Suzanne. She seemed like she was about to cry. Katie just couldn’t tell Mr. Kane that the phone belonged to Suzanne. Suzanne had had a bad enough day—with her flower underpants and all.
    Mr. Kane took the phone from Katie’s hands. “You’ll get this back at the end of the day.”
    “Yes sir,” Katie said quietly. She turned to sit back in her seat.
    But Mr. Kane wasn’t finished. “You broke the