Free Doggone It! by Nancy Krulik Page B

her.”
    “Katie, that’s silly. The Derkmans just moved in. We should be neighborly,” her mother said firmly.
    “There are a gazillion houses.” Katie moaned. “Why did they have to pick the one right next door to us? I wish . . . ”

    Katie was about to say that she wished anyone else in the whole world had moved in next door, but she stopped herself. Katie knew better than to make wishes like that. It was too dangerous.
    Katie had learned all about wishes after one really bad day at school. She’d lost thefootball game for her team, ruined her favorite jeans, and burped in front of the whole class. That day, Katie had wished that she could be anyone but herself.
    There must have been a shooting star flying overhead or something when she made that wish, because the very next day the magic wind came.
    The magic wind was a really wild storm that seemed to blow only around Katie. The magic wind was really powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it was able to turn Katie into somebody else.
    The first time the magic wind came, it changed Katie into Speedy, the class hamster. She’d spent a whole morning running around trying to keep from getting stepped on.
    Luckily, Katie had changed back into herself before anyone realized who the class hamster really was.
    The magic wind didn’t only turn Katie into animals. Sometimes it turned her into grown-ups, like Lucille, the school lunch lady, and Mr. Kane, the principal.
    Other times, the magic wind turned Katie into other kids, like Suzanne’s baby sister, Heather, or Becky Stern, the new girl in school. Once it had actually switcherooed her into Jeremy Fox. Katie didn’t like being a boy at all. She wasn’t even sure which bathroom she was supposed to go into!
    That’s why Katie didn’t make wishes anymore. When they came true, things never turned out the way she hoped they would. The truth was, Mrs. Derkman was her neighbor, and there was nothing Katie could do.
    But that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Chapter 4
    Slurp. Katie was fast asleep when she felt a wet lick on her face. She opened her eyes slowly and came face-to-face with Pepper. As soon as Katie opened her eyes, the spaniel’s brown stubby tail began wagging wildly.
    Katie glanced at the clock on her wall. It was only 7:15. “Didn’t anybody tell you it’s Sunday?” she moaned to her dog.
    Pepper answered with a big, soggy lick to her nose.
    “Okay, okay,” she giggled. “You win. Let’s go play.”
    Just then, Katie heard someone singing loudly outside. Whoever it was had a terrible voice—high and screechy, like fingernails on a blackboard.
    Pepper growled.
    “Who could that be?” Katie wondered aloud as she put on her clothes. Quickly, she brushed her teeth and raced outside to find out what was going on.
    Whoa! What a surprise!
    When Katie and Pepper walked out into Katie’s front yard, they discovered Mrs. Derkman working in her garden. The teacher was wearing a huge straw hat and a pair of overalls. Her hands were covered with green gardening gloves. And as if that weren’t weird enough . . .
    Mrs. Derkman was singing at the top of her lungs.
    “Noah, he built them, he built them an arky-arky,” the teacher screeched.
    Katie couldn’t believe that this was the same Mrs. Derkman who was her teacher. Mrs. Derkman never wore anything other than neat dresses and sensible shoes. And she never— ever —sang out loud.

    “Made it out of hickory barky-barky . . . ” Mrs. Derkman croaked.
    Katie choked back a laugh.
    “Ruff! Ruff!” Pepper came racing over to Katie with a yellow tennis ball in his mouth. He wanted to play.
    “Okay, boy,” Katie said with a smile. She took the soggy ball and flung it across the lawn. “Fetch!”
    Unfortunately, Katie’s aim wasn’t very good. The ball flew into Mrs. Derkman’s garden. Pepper leaped right into the flowerbed and caught the ball in his mouth.
    “Oh, no! Not my pansies!” Mrs. Derkman waved her arms wildly. “Get out of here, you