Something's Fishy (4 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: Something's Fishy
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Before he could finish his sentence, Ms. Sweet let out a loud gasp. She was staring at her hand. “Oh no!” she cried out. “My engagement ring. It’s gone!”
Chapter 6
Mr. G. came racing over. “Are you sure you were wearing the ring? Maybe you left it home this morning?” he asked Ms. Sweet hopefully.
Ms. Sweet shook her head. “That ring hasn’t left my finger since I got it . . . at least not until now,” she added sorrowfully.
Katie had never seen a teacher so upset. Ms. Sweet almost looked as if she was going to cry.
“It must have fallen off when I pulled Kevin away from the tank,” Ms. Sweet said, staring at her hand.
“You’re such a jerk, Kevin,” Suzanne said.
“What did I do?” Kevin asked. “It’s not like I yanked the ring off Ms. Sweet’s finger.”
“But if you hadn’t been trying to feed the fish, Ms. Sweet wouldn’t have had to pull you away,” Jeremy reminded him.
Katie frowned. She’d encouraged Kevin to drop some bread in the tank. So it was kind of her fault, too. Katie felt awful about that.
“This is just terrible,” Becky exclaimed. “An engagement ring is just about the most important piece of jewelry there is. I, personally, can’t wait to get one.” She smiled at Jeremy.
Jeremy turned beet red and walked away.
“It’s not Kevin’s fault. He didn’t mean for this to happen,” Ms. Sweet said. Then she hurried off to find a guard.
“You guys have been so jealous about our engagement party,” Suzanne said. “Maybe Kevin was trying to ruin things.”
“Suzanne, that’s ridiculous,” Katie said.
“Yeah,” Kevin added. “Who cares about your dumb old party, anyway?”
“It is not dumb!” Suzanne shouted back.
“Okay, kids, this isn’t helping,” Mr. G. said, stepping between Kevin and Suzanne. Then he turned to Ms. Sweet, who was back with a guard beside her.
Ms. Sweet was saying to the guard, “I’m quite sure my engagement ring slipped off and fell into the tank. Could you ask one of the divers to look for it for me?”
The guard looked at her. “Do you know where the ring is?” he asked her.
Ms. Sweet shook her head. “No. Not exactly. But I was standing right here when it happened.”
“Where did it land?” he asked.
Ms. Sweet shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’m sure it can be spotted. The diamond is brand-new and very shiny.”
“The divers are pretty busy right now, lady,” the guard said. “They have a lot of fish to care for. If you knew where the ring was, that would be one thing. But they can’t just take the time to look for it now. Maybe after we close they could take a quick look around for you.”
Once again, Ms. Sweet looked as though she was going to cry. Katie felt really bad for her. But there was nothing Katie—or anyone else—could do for her right now.
“Oh. Okay. Well, would you ask them to do that?” Ms. Sweet asked him.
The guard nodded. “Sure thing, lady. Just write your name and phone number on this pad. If they find the ring in there, they’ll call you.”
Katie looked at the big tank. It was filled with plants and fish, and gravel and shells on the bottom. It would be really hard to find a diamond in all of that.
From the look on Ms. Sweet’s face, Katie could tell she was thinking the exact same thing.
“Oh man, this is so bad,” Katie heard Suzanne say to Becky.
“Ms. Sweet must feel just awful,” Becky replied.
“We can’t have a party for her tomorrow,” Miriam added. “She’ll be too sad to celebrate.”
“But we have to have the party,” Suzanne told her. “I’m supposed to be baking the cake with my mom this afternoon. Oh, how could Kevin do this to me!”
“To
you
?” Katie asked.
Suzanne blushed. “I mean to Ms. Sweet. This party is all about her, of course.”
“Oh,
of course
,” Katie replied.
“Why are you acting like you care, anyway?” Suzanne asked Katie. “Your class isn’t even going to be there.”
“You’re right,” Katie replied angrily. She turned and stomped off. Suzanne was being really nasty. She didn’t want to be around her anymore.
Besides, seeing all the water around her was making Katie thirsty. She looked around for a sign for a water fountain. There was one nearby, just around the corner.
Katie knew she probably should ask Mr. G. for permission, but he was all caught up in helping Ms. Sweet. Anyway, she’d be back in a second.
Katie walked around the corner. She was happy to see that no one else was waiting for the water fountain. In fact, there was no one else around. Katie bent down and took a long sip of water from the fountain.
Just then, she felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck.
That was weird. There weren’t any open windows or fans blowing.
The breeze got stronger, blowing hard and cold against Katie’s back—and nowhere else.
Katie gulped. This was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind!
“Oh no! Not now!” Katie cried out. “Not during a field trip!”
But there was no stopping the magic wind. It grew more and more powerful. The tornado whipped around wildly, blowing Katie’s bright red hair all around her face.
The magic wind was so strong that Katie was sure it was going to blow her away.
But then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Kazoo.
She’d turned into someone else . . . switcheroo!
But who?
Chapter 7
The first thing Katie noticed was that she didn’t have to open her eyes to see who she was. Her eyes were already wide open. Of course, that was because she didn’t seem to have any eyelids.
Katie tried to look down to see what clothes she was wearing. Maybe that would give her a clue to who she’d switcherooed into.
But Katie couldn’t bend her neck. She didn’t even have a neck. So there was no way to look down at her fins.
Wait a minute. Her
fins
? People didn’t have fins.
But fish do. And that was what Katie had become—a fish. And not just any fish. Right now, Katie was hiding in the tentacles of a sea anemone. That could mean only one thing. Katie had turned into a clown fish. The very same clown fish she had frightened before.
Now it was Katie’s turn to be frightened.
Really
frightened!
Katie wasn’t an especially good swimmer. She’d only made it to the intermediate group at camp. She wasn’t especially good at holding her breath, either. And that was something you had to do if you were under water.
Well, actually, if you were a fish you didn’t have to hold your breath at all. Katie had learned that fish could breathe under water. And they were naturally good swimmers. Which meant Katie the clown fish was going to be fine.
Just then, another orange-and-white clown fish swam in front of Katie. It was happily darting back and forth between the sea plants that lined the aquarium. In and out it swam, zigzagging happily through the water.
That sure looked like fun!
Katie moved her tail and fins quickly and swam up beside the other clown fish. Now there were two beautiful orange-and-white fish zipping through the water.
Before long, several clown fish joined in their game. They zoomed through the plants, one after another, as if they were playing a game of wild underwater tag!
As the water bubbled, Katie let out a little fish giggle. The fish in her school weren’t all that different from the kids in her real school. They loved to play. The only good thing about a fish school was they could play all day. At Katie’s school . . .
School! Katie stopped swimming. She’d just remembered that all her friends were outside the tank. Katie had wandered off without asking Mr. G. for permission. Now he was probably worrying about her—or even mad at her.
But it hadn’t been her fault. It was the magic wind’s fault that she wasn’t with her class outside the tank.
Of course, she couldn’t explain that to Mr. G. He wouldn’t believe her anyway. Katie wouldn’t have believed it, either—if it didn’t keep happening to her.
I wonder if they can see me in here,
Katie thought. Swishing her fins, she swam toward what seemed to be the glass wall of the aquarium. Her fish eyes allowed her to look in all directions except right behind her. But she couldn’t see very clearly. In fact, she could only see a few feet ahead of herself.
The closer she got to the wall, the more she could see. She couldn’t make out any faces, but she was pretty sure that there were people on the other side of the glass. Maybe they were her friends.
“Hey, look at me!” Katie tried to shout out as she flicked her tail up and flipped over in the water. “I’m just clown-fishing around!”
But of course, no actual sounds came out of Katie’s fish face—just a bunch of bubbles.
“I can stand on my head!” Katie tried to say, moving so her head was facing the ground. “And I can do a triple twist!” she continued, turning her fish body round and round like a whirlpool.

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