Free Write On! by Nancy Krulik Page A

continued.
    Katie frowned. Big deal. Why would she want a pair of plain wool socks anyway?
    Suddenly, doing a website with Suzanne didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. It was just going to make them fight.
    Just then, Katie’s mom came into the room. “Would you girls like some chocolate-chip cookies?” Mrs. Carew asked.
    “You bet!” Suzanne said, forgetting all about the website for the moment.
    Phew. Katie had avoided another fight with Suzanne. For a little while, anyway.

Chapter 2
    The girls followed Mrs. Carew into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
    “So, did you have a good day today?” Katie’s mom asked them.
    “Yeah!” Katie exclaimed. “Mr. Guthrie gave us the best news! Nellie Farrow is coming to our school!”
    “Nellie Farrow, the author?” Mrs. Carew asked. “That is exciting.”
    “Ms. Sweet told our class that, too,” Suzanne said between bites of her cookie. “She said we’re going to get to read the new book before anyone else.”
    “The whole fourth grade is going to do that. Not just your class,” Katie told her. “And it was Mr. Guthrie who got us the books. He knows someone who works at the publishing company. His friend is the one who sent us the books. We’re getting them before the stores do!”
    Suzanne shrugged and ate another cookie.
    “The book is called Only Orangutans Hang from Trees ,” Katie told her mother.
    “I know,” Mrs. Carew said. “We’re getting a whole carton of them delivered to the store next week. It’s supposed to be a very funny book.”
    Katie smiled proudly. Her mom worked at the Book Nook bookstore in the Cherrydale Mall. She knew tons about children’s books.
    “We’re supposed to start reading it right away. That way we can be finished when Nellie Farrow comes to school on Friday.” Katie smiled excitedly. “I can’t wait to meet her. She’s a real writer. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.”

    “I thought you wanted to be a dog trainer,” Suzanne said.
    “ I thought you wanted to be a chef,” Katie’s mother added.
    “I do,” Katie told them. “And a teacher, too. I could do all those things.”
    Her mother laughed. “You’ll be a dog trainer, who’s also a teacher and a chef and who writes books. Wow. When will you sleep?”
    “I haven’t figured that out yet,” Katie said with a giggle.
    “You have time before you’re all grown up,” Mrs. Carew told her daughter. “Right now, you girls should start on homework. Why don’t you go read for a while?”
    “That’s a good idea,” Katie agreed.
    Suzanne didn’t say anything. She just shoved the last cookie in her mouth and washed it down with the rest of her milk.
    “You go ahead,” Mrs. Carew said, picking up the empty plate. “I’ll clean up.”
    “Thanks, Mom,” Katie said as she and Suzanne left the room.
    “Thanks, Mrs. Carew,” Suzanne echoed.

    “Let’s read for half an hour,” Katie suggested as she and Suzanne walked into her room.
    “Are you kidding?” Suzanne asked her. “We can’t read now. We have more important things to do. We’ve got to get going on our website.”
    Here we go again, Katie thought.
    “We don’t have to do that today,” Katie replied.
    “Sure we do,” Suzanne said. “The sooner we get our site up and running, the sooner we’ll be famous.”
    “Famous? Us?” Katie asked. “How?”
    “Think of all the people who will visit our site. They’ll read about us and see pictures of me in all my cool clothes,” Suzanne explained.
    “I don’t want to do the fashion site,” Katie reminded her.
    “Well, whatever website we come up with, I’m sure thousands of people will visit it. And then they’ll recognize our names,” Suzanne told her excitedly. “We’ll be famous, and all my wishes will come true!”
    Katie gulped. Wishes could be big trouble. Katie knew that better than anyone. That’s because one of her wishes had come true!
    Katie’s troubles with wishes all started one day at