Free My Pops Is Tops! by Nancy Krulik Page A

past the girls at top speed.
    “He is so fast,” Becky gushed. “He’s the best runner in the whole fourth grade.”
    Katie choked back a laugh. Becky had such a big crush on Jeremy.
    “I’m glad he’s in our class,” Suzanne said. “He’s going to win a lot of medals.”
    “We have good athletes in our class, too,” Mandy reminded her.
    “Yeah,” Suzanne admitted. “But Jeremy’s the best. And we have Becky, too.”
    Becky smiled. “Thank you, Suzanne,” she said, surprised.
    Katie was surprised, too. Suzanne hardly ever gave anyone compliments—except herself, of course.
    “Your class doesn’t stand a chance against ours,” Suzanne told Mandy, Katie, and Emma.
    “Wanna bet?” Mandy argued. “We’re going to beat you guys, big time.”
    Suzanne’s eyes got small and angry. “Don’t be so sure,” she warned.
    Katie sighed. What was it Mr. G. had called the Olympics? A peaceful competition? It sure wasn’t starting out that way.

Chapter 2
    “Konnichi wa,” Mr. G. said, bowing to each of the kids in class 4A as they entered the classroom.
    “Konnichi what ?” Kadeem Carter asked.
    “Konnichi wa,” Mr. G. repeated. “That’s how we say hello here in Japan.”
    “Wow!” Katie exclaimed as she looked around the classroom. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling. There was a bouquet of pink cherry-tree blossoms in a vase on the table. Japanese fans had been taped to the walls. Mr. G. must have spent all recess decorating.
    She bowed to Mr. G. “Konnichi wa,” she said.

    Mr. G. bowed back. “Very good, Katie.”
    “I like your bathrobe,” Emma Stavros told Mr. G.
    “It’s called a kimono,” Mr. G. explained. “It’s a traditional Japanese costume.”
    “So we’re Japan in the Olympics, huh?” Andy Epstein asked Mr. G.
    “Good guess,” Mr. G. replied with a grin. He pointed to a white flag with a big red circle in the center of it. “That’s our flag,” he said. “The Japanese flag.”
    Mr. G. walked over to the corner of the room, where there were some pink paper flowers, miniature paper swans and lanterns, and small Japanese fans. “Those are for decorating your beanbags,” he told the kids.
    “Cool!” George shouted out.
    Katie had to agree.
    The kids in Mr. G.’s class didn’t sit at desks. They sat in beanbag chairs instead. Mr. G. believed that kids learned better when they were comfortable.
    Every time class 4A started a new unit, the kids got to decorate their beanbag chairs. When they were learning about birds, they used twigs to turn their beanbags into nests. When they were studying bugs, they covered their beanbags in tiny plastic insects and spiders.
    “When you’re finished, we’ll have a traditional Japanese snack,” Mr. G. told the class.
    “Oh, yum! Are we having sushi?” Mandy asked.
    “What’s that?” Kevin asked.
    “It’s raw fish and cold rice wrapped in seaweed,” Mandy explained.
    “Ugh,” George exclaimed, pretending to gag. “Gross.”
    “Blech!” Kevin added.
    “It’s delicious,” Mandy insisted. “I eat it all the time.”
    Katie frowned. She hoped sushi wasn’t the snack. And not just because it sounded awful. Katie was a vegetarian. She refused to eat anything that had a face. And fish had faces. Fish faces—but faces just the same.
    “No, we’re not going to be eating sushi,” Mr. G. told the class.
    Phew. Katie breathed a sigh of relief.
    “We’re having green tea cakes,” the teacher continued.
    “Green cake?” Emma W. asked. “I’ve never had anything like that.”
    “You will today,” Mr. G. told her. “And I bet you love it!”

    “I thought those cakes were really yummy,” George said as he, Kevin, Katie, and Emma W. left school together at the end of the day.
    “We could tell,” Emma replied, laughing. “You ate five of them.”
    George shrugged. “I hate wasting food. And there were a lot left.”
    “They were pretty good,” Katie said. “But I still like my mom’s cookies