Free Holly's Jolly Christmas by Nancy Krulik Page A

hilarious! But that was no surprise. There was always something funny, or exciting, or interesting going on in Mr. G.’s classroom.
    The way Katie figured, being in class 4A was like getting a Christmas present every day. You never knew what you were going to find inside. But whatever it was, you were sure to like it!

Chapter 2
    Katie smiled happily as she unpacked her lunch in the school cafeteria later that day. Her lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwich had been cut in the shape of a Christmas tree. And she had a red and white candy cane for dessert. Her mom was so nice.
    “This is almost too pretty to eat,” Katie said, staring at the sandwich.
    “I’ve lost my appetite,” Katie’s best friend, Suzanne Lock, said. She pointed across the table at George’s food tray. “Why do you do that?” she asked him.
    George had mixed his mashed potatoes, green beans, and milk into a big, gray-green, mushy soup. “It’s fun,” George answered.

    “It’s fun to smush your food together?”
    “It’s fun to bug you,” George explained to Suzanne. He shot her a huge smile.
    Suzanne rolled her eyes. “You don’t bug me, George. I have much bigger problems than your lunch.”
    “What’s wrong, Suzanne?” Katie asked.
    Katie’s other best friend, Jeremy Fox, rolled his eyes. “Oh no,” he moaned. “Here we go.”
    Katie sighed. It made her crazy that her friends didn’t like each other.
    But if Suzanne had heard Jeremy’s comment, she didn’t act like it. Instead, she frowned and said, “My sister is what’s wrong.”
    Katie looked at Suzanne strangely. “Heather’s not even two years old. What did she do?”
    “It’s what my mother did with Heather,” Suzanne explained. “She thought it would be fun for Heather to be in the holiday show down at the Community Center. It’s a play about these broken toys who want to be given to children for Christmas. Heather’s going to be the baby doll.”
    “Aww. That sounds so cute,” Katie said.
    Suzanne shot Katie an angry look. “Whose side are you on?” she demanded.
    “Yours,” Katie assured her. “I just think Heather kind of looks like a baby doll.”
    “Yeah, well, she’s a baby, anyway,” Suzanne said. “All she has to do is sit in the sleigh and say ‘Mama, Mama’ over and over again.”
    “I still don’t understand what your problem is,” Jeremy said.
    “You don’t understand anything,” Suzanne groaned. “Everyone is making such a big fuss over Heather. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. She’s not even acting. ‘Mama’ is one of the only words she can say. And she’s only on stage for a minute.”
    Now Katie understood why Suzanne was so upset. She hated it when anyone else was the center of attention.
    “My contribution to the show is much more important,” Suzanne continued.
    “You’re in the show, too?” George asked her.
    “Not in it,” Suzanne said. “I’m in charge of it. I’m the stage manager. Well, actually I’m the student stage manager. There’s a grown-up stage manager, too. But it’s the same thing.”
    “What exactly does a stage manager do?” Jeremy asked her.
    “I can’t believe you don’t know,” Suzanne told him.
    “I don’t, either,” Katie admitted.
    “Oh,” Suzanne said, sounding a lot nicer than she did when she was talking to Jeremy. “A stage manager is the person who makes sure all the scenery is in the right place, and that all the actors are in their costumes and ready to go onstage when they’re supposed to. A stage manager runs things.”
    “So basically you just boss people around,” Jeremy said. “That’s the perfect job for you.”
    George began to laugh.
    Suzanne shot the boys a dirty look. Then she turned to Katie. “We need someone to help paint scenery,” she told her. “You did a really great job for our school play. Could you do it for the Community Center play, too?”
    “I don’t know, Suzanne,” Katie started. “I have a lot of things . .