Any Way You Slice It (2 page)

“Did you say free food?” a woman at the next booth asked Becky.

Becky nodded. “Free pizza and soda. I just had some.”

The woman stood up. She grabbed her little girl by the hand. “Come on, Alexandra,” she said. “Let’s try the new restaurant.”

Then a terrible thing happened.

Something that had never happened before.

Louie dropped the pizza dough.

“Sorry, folks,” Louie said, as he scooped up the dirty dough from the floor, changed his rubber cooking gloves, and picked up a new ball of dough. “Let’s try that again.”

Louie tossed the new ball of pizza dough in the air. He spun around in a circle as it flew through the air, and sang an Italian song. But he wasn’t smiling the way he usually did when he was making pizza.

Louie was obviously upset. And Katie was pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with the fallen pizza dough.

“Boy, does Becky have a crush on you!” Suzanne teased as she, Jeremy, and Katie climbed into the backseat of Mrs. Carew’s car later that afternoon.

“She does not!” Jeremy protested.

“Does too,” Suzanne answered back. She batted her eyes and imitated Becky’s accent. “Oooh, Jeremy. You have the best taste!”

Jeremy blushed. He pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I wish Becky had never moved here!” he exclaimed suddenly.

Katie gulped. “Jeremy, don’t make wishes like that,” she warned.

Katie knew all about making wishes.

Sometimes they came true—and that could lead to big problems.

It had all started one really bad day at school. Katie had lost the football game for her team, ruined her favorite jeans, and burped in front of the whole class.

That night, 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 wild storm that seemed to blow only around Katie. It was really powerful. So powerful, in fact, that the magic wind was able to turn Katie into somebody else.

The first time the magic wind came, it changed Katie into Speedy, the class hamster. Another time it turned her into her own dog, Pepper.

But the magic wind didn’t turn Katie only into animals. Sometimes it turned her into grown-ups, like Lucille the school-lunch lady, and Mr. Kane, the principal of her school, Cherrydale Elementary School.

The magic wind had also turned Katie into other kids, like Becky or Jeremy. Being somebody else could be really tough. When she was Jeremy, Katie didn’t even know whether to use the girls’ room or the boys’ room!

“Don’t worry, Jeremy,” Suzanne said, interrupting Katie’s thoughts. “Becky will get over you . . . as soon as she gets some brains.”

“Okay, why don’t you three talk about something else?” Mrs. Carew suggested quickly. “And don’t forget to buckle up,” she added as she prepared to pull out of the parking lot.

The next afternoon, Katie arrived at the mall with her mother at exactly 12:00. “Hurry up, Mom!” she cried out. “It’s lunchtime. I want to make sure I get a seat at Louie’s.”

Katie’s mom laughed. “You certainly like pizza,” she said.

“It’s not just the pizza. It’s fun at Louie’s. Everyone from school is there—except Mrs. Derkman of course. And that makes it even more fun.”

Mrs. Derkman was Katie’s very strict third-grade teacher. She was also Katie’s next-door neighbor. Ever since a few months ago, when Mrs. Derkman had moved into the house beside Katie’s, it seemed like Katie saw her everywhere—in school, on the street, even at barbecues in Katie’s own yard. But she never saw Mrs. Derkman at Louie’s. Mrs. Derkman was not a big pizza eater.

“All right, Katie,” Mrs. Carew said, as her daughter pulled her toward Louie’s. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

But when Katie and her mother arrived at Louie’s Pizza Shop, there were plenty of seats left. In fact, there were only three people in the restaurant—a father and his two sons.

“Slow day, Louie?” Mrs. Carew asked as she sat down at a table near the pizza oven.

Louie pounded hard on a pile of dough. “It’s only slow here,” he answered sadly. “It’s mobbed at Olives and Oregano.”

Mrs. Carew nodded understandingly. “It’s a new restaurant. People will get tired of it.”

Louie shook his head. “I don’t think so. Olives and Oregano is part of a big chain of restaurants. They have lots of money to spend on advertising.” Louie reached under the counter and pulled out a newspaper. “Look at this.”

Katie and her mother looked at the newspaper. There was a full-page ad:

“They have clowns and a magician performing all day,” Louie told Katie and her mom.

“Big deal,” Katie said. “Nobody puts on a better show than you, Louie. Or has better pizza.”

Louie smiled at her. “Thanks, Katie,” he told her. “I wish there were more kids like you.”

“Don’t worry, Louie,” Mrs. Carew said. “Things will pick up. It’s still early.”

Sure enough, someone else walked into the restaurant. “Katie!” Suzanne shouted. “Here you are.” She held out a wooden paddle with a red rubber ball attached to it with a rubber band. She was hitting the ball with the paddle. “Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine. Forty,” she counted as she tapped the ball.

“I told you I’d meet you here,” Katie told her.

Suzanne nodded. “Forty-one. Forty-two. Forty-three.”

“What are you doing?” Katie asked her.

“I’m trying to break the world paddleball record. Fifty. Fifty-one.”

“When did you start that?” Katie asked her.

“A few minutes ago,” Suzanne replied, still counting. “They were giving out the paddles at Olives and Oregano.”

Bam!
Louie pounded the dough so hard, the counter shook. The noise broke Suzanne’s concentration. She missed the ball.

“Drat,” she said. “Now I’ll have to start all over.”

Katie put her hand on the paddle. “Not now.”

“But I’m going to break the record,” Suzanne insisted.

“You can do that later,” Katie assured her. She knew Louie didn’t want to see an Olives and Oregano paddle bouncing up and down in his restaurant. “Let’s sit down and get a slice. Mandy and Miriam should be here any minute. They always have lunch at Louie’s on Sunday.”

“I don’t think they’re coming today,” Suzanne said. “I just saw them eating hoagies at Olives and Oregano.”

Louie didn’t say anything. But judging by the frown on his face, Katie could tell he’d heard everything Suzanne had just said.

Olives and Oregano was taking over the food business in the mall.

This was so not good.

After they’d finished their pizza, Suzanne and Katie took a walk around the mall. They stopped in Bead It!, the bead store near the BookNook. They tried on blue eye shadow at the Beauty Barn, and checked out jewelry at the Golden Earring stall.

“Katie, are you ever going to get your ears pierced?” Suzanne asked. Suzanne had her ears pierced in first grade. Katie, on the other hand, was still wearing clip-on earrings.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Suzanne assured her. “At least not a lot.”

Katie shrugged. “Let’s go to the flower shop,” she suggested.

But it was almost impossible to get to the Flower Power flower shop. The area around the store was filled with crowds of people hanging around outside Olives and Oregano. Clowns were giving balloons to the kids who walked by, and pretty girls in Italian folk-dancing costumes were handing out free food coupons to adults.

“Hey, Katie Kazoo!” George cried out from a seat near the front of the restaurant. He was sitting at a table with Zoe Canter and Manny Gonzalez.

“What are you doing here?” Katie asked her classmates. “Why weren’t you at Louie’s? He’s been making pizzas all afternoon.”

Manny shrugged. “They’re giving out free soda here!”

“Come on, sit down,” Zoe said to Katie and Suzanne. “We’ve got room.”