Free Who Cloned the President? by Ron Roy

1
KC’s Discovery
    KC Corcoran pulled a slip of paper out of her teacher’s baseball cap. She read the words on the paper and grinned.
    “Who did you get, KC?” Mr. Alubicki asked.
    “President Thornton,” KC said.
    “No fair!” Marshall Li protested. “You already know everything about him.”
    Mr. Alubicki smiled and passed the hat to Marshall, KC’s best friend. Marshall picked a slip. “Herbert Hoover?” he said. “I don’t even know who he is!”
    “But you’ll know all about him after you write your report,” his teacher said.
    Mr. Alubicki finished passing the hat around the room. “Okay, everyone, have a great weekend. Get started on your president reports. We’ll discuss them Monday.”
    KC grabbed her backpack and followed Marshall out the door. They walked home together every day.
    KC and Marshall lived in the same ten-story building in Washington, D.C. It stood between a pet shop and a Chinese restaurant.
    They stopped on the way home to watch puppies and kittens through the pet-shop window.
    “Why is everyone so crazy about furry animals?” Marshall asked. “Spiders make great pets, too!”
    KC laughed. “Marsh, you can’t cuddle up with a spider.”
    “Who says you can’t?” Marshall asked. “I wish Mr. A. would let us write about insects instead of presidents.”
    Marshall loved anything with more than four legs. He kept jars of crawly things in his bedroom. Spike, his pet tarantula, slept in one of Marsh’s old baseball caps.
    “Presidents’ Day is in February,” KC reminded her friend. “If we had an insects’ day, Mr. A. would let you write about Spike.”
    “Spike’s not an insect,” Marshall said. “Tarantulas are spiders, and spiders are arachnids.”
    “I know, I know,” KC said as she pushed open the glass door of their building. “You’ve told me a hundred times!”
    “And you still don’t remember,” grumbledMarshall. He pushed the elevator button.
    Donald, the building manager, opened the elevator door. Donald ran the elevator and helped people get taxis out front.
    “Hi, kids,” Donald said. “Got plans for the weekend?”
    “We have to write reports,” Marshall told him. “About dead presidents.”
    “Mine’s not dead,” KC told Donald. “I picked President Thornton!”
    Donald smiled as he pressed the button for Marshall’s floor. “Lucky you! Maybe you’ll see him around town.”
    Marshall got off on the third floor, and Donald took KC to the fifth. She let herself into the apartment with her key.
    Lost and Found, her two kittens, came skidding across the wood floor when thedoor opened. KC rubbed their bellies, then headed for the kitchen.
    A note was taped to the fridge.
    KC—I’ll be home around six. Have a snack. Love, Mom
.
    KC grabbed a banana and walked into the living room. Lost and Found scurried after her. She pulled
Your Presidents
from a bookshelf and looked up President Thornton.
    “Listen,” she said to the kittens. “Zachary Thornton had five brothers and sisters. He raised chickens and sold eggs to help his family.” Then the caption of a picture caught her eye. “As a Boy Scout, Zachary Thornton earned twelve merit badges,” she read.
    “See, Marshall was wrong,” KC mumbled. “I don’t know everything aboutPresident Thornton. I had no idea he got twelve badges in Scouts.”
    KC marked the page, then switched on her mom’s computer. She logged on to the Internet and found more about President Thornton. “Zachary Thornton is our fourth left-handed president,” KC read.
    “Cool. We’re both left-handed!” KC said. She kept reading and noticed a headline from
The Washington Post
newspaper. “President Thornton Says No to Human Cloning.”
    KC read the rest of the paragraph about scientists cloning animals. Marshall had told her that some scientists wanted to clone humans.
    “I’m glad the president said no,” she said. “I only want one of me!”
    KC shut off the computer and turnedon the TV. She flopped