Authors: Nancy Krulik

My Pops Is Tops! (3 page)

BOOK: My Pops Is Tops!

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“That’s not the problem,” her father said.

“There’s a problem?” Katie asked.

“This is the weekend Dad and I are going to Cousin Alice’s wedding, remember?” her mother reminded Katie. “You and Pepper are staying with Pops.”

“That’s
this
weekend?” Katie asked.

Katie’s mom nodded.

“But you
can’t
go away this weekend,” Katie insisted.

“You were looking forward to spending time with Pops,” Mrs. Carew said. “You always have fun there.”

“That’s not the point.” Katie loved her grandfather. “I can’t miss the Olympics!”

“You won’t have to,” her dad assured her. “Pops’s place isn’t that far away. He’ll drive you to school on Sunday and be your partner.”

“Pops?” Katie asked, her voice scaling up nervously. “Are you kidding?”

“Why not?” Katie’s mom asked.

“He’s too old,” Katie blurted.

Katie’s mom and dad started laughing.

“He’s not that old,” Katie’s dad told her. “And he’s in better shape than I am. I think he can keep up with a bunch of fourth-graders.”

“But everyone else will have their parents there,” Katie said. “Can’t you ask Cousin Alice to postpone her wedding?”

Katie’s mom shook her head. “Sorry, Kit-Kat. You can either be in the Olympics with Pops as your partner or not take part at all.”

Katie sighed. That wasn’t much of a choice. “I’ll go to the Olympics with Pops,” she said slowly.

“Good. That’s settled,” Mrs. Carew said cheerfully. “Now let’s eat our delicious Japanese meal.”

Katie frowned at her plate of teriyaki. Suddenly she wasn’t all that hungry. How did you say, “This is
so
not good,” in Japanese?

Chapter 5

“Wow! Check this place out!” Kevin said as class 4A filed into the school cafeteria at lunchtime.

“This is really cool,” Katie agreed, looking up at all the flags on the cafeteria walls. “There we are,” she said, pointing to the Japanese flag on the far wall.

As class 4A got into the lunch line, they made a point of walking right past the silver-ware tray. The kids in Katie’s class didn’t need any forks or knives today. Mr. G. had given them all chopsticks so they could eat the way people in Japan traditionally did.

“I just hope it’s not soup for lunch,” Kadeem said. “How would we eat that with chopsticks?”

“I think it’s spaghetti,” Emma W. told him.

“Okay, I can handle that,” Kadeem replied.

After getting her spaghetti and milk, Katie followed her friends over to where the fourth-graders sat. As she walked over, she noticed Suzanne standing by one of the tables. Considering the outfit she was wearing, Katie would have had trouble missing her!

“What’s Suzanne wearing now?” George asked out loud.

Instead of jeans and a shirt, like most of the girls were wearing, Suzanne was dressed in a red jumper-style dress. There were little yellow flowers embroidered over the bib of the jumper. They matched the flowers that had been sewn onto the apron that was tied around her waist.

“That’s, um, some outfit,” Emma Stavros told her.

“It’s the official folk costume of Liechtenstein,” Suzanne said. “My mother bought the dress for me yesterday, and she sewed on the embroidered flowers last night. It took her hours.”

“Don’t you think you’re taking this whole Olympics thing a little too far?” Katie asked.

“No more than you guys are,” Suzanne said, watching as Katie struggled with her chopsticks.

Katie squeezed the wooden chopsticks tight around a few strands of spaghetti. Slowly she brought the sticks up toward her face, opened her mouth wide, and then . . .
dropped the spaghetti right in her lap
.

“Yuck!” she groaned. “Now there’s tomato sauce all over my pants.”

“Oh, forget these chopsticks,” George shouted with frustration. He reached his hands into his bowl, pulled up a handful of spaghetti, and shoved it into his mouth.

“Real nice, George,” Suzanne said, making a face.

“Thank you.” George smiled, grabbing another fistful of food.

“Anyway . . .” Suzanne said, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Liechtenstein is a fascinating country. They have their own soccer team, only they call it ‘football’ over there. They don’t have an airport, though. You have to fly into Switzerland to get there.”

“Liechtenstein is also the number-one manufacturer of false teeth in the whole world,” Jeremy added.

Kevin started to laugh. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.

Jeremy shook his head. “No. That’s really what they’re known for. Skiing and false teeth.”

Katie giggled. That sounded really funny.

Everyone else seemed to think so, too. Soon they were all hysterical. George laughed so hard, he fell off his chair.

“Cut it out, you guys,” Suzanne insisted. “False teeth are very important! Especially to people who don’t have any real teeth.”

“They probably have vampires in Liechtenstein, too,” George told her.

“Why would you say that?” Suzanne asked him.

“Because vampires are a lot like false teeth,” George joked. “They both come out at night!”

That made everyone laugh even harder.

Everyone but Suzanne, that is. She folded her arms across her chest angrily. “We’ll see who’s laughing on Sunday, George,” she told him.

“You don’t scare me, Suzanne,” George replied. “My dad’s going to be my partner in the egg toss and the wheelbar row race. He’s in really good shape. He used to be in the army.”

“Yeah, well, my mother’s going to do the sack race with me,” Jeremy said. “She was on her high-school track team.”

“I’m not sure which of my parents is going to compete with me,” Miriam Chan said. “So I’m making both of them go jogging tonight.”

“Who’s your partner?” Emma W. asked Katie.

Katie sighed. “My grandfather,” she said quietly.

“Man, that stinks,” George said. “An old guy? Can he even run?”

“Yeah. I want our class to win the Olympics,” Kevin said.

Katie knew that she should stand up for Pops. She should tell everyone what a great guy he was. And how nice it was for him to drive her back home on Sunday morning just so she could be at the Olympics.

But Katie didn’t say any of that. She just sat there, frowning and staring at her plate of spaghetti and the big tomato stain on her pants. Somehow, not saying anything made her feel even worse about everything.

Chapter 6

“Whoa! Awesome!” Kadeem shouted as he slipped the white T-shirt with the red circle on it over his head. It was Friday afternoon, and the kids in class 4A were getting very excited. They couldn’t wait for Sunday’s Olympics.

“Japanese flag T-shirts!” Kevin exclaimed. “Thanks, Mr. G.”

“Arigato,”
Katie said proudly as she took her shirt from the pile.

“Excellent, Katie,” Mr. G. complimented her.

“What’d you say, Katie Kazoo?” George asked her.

“
Arigato
is ‘thank you’ in Japanese,” Katie told him. “I’ve been looking up Japanese words on the computer.”

“Arigato,”
Emma W. repeated as Mr. G. handed her a shirt.

“You’re welcome, Emma,” Mr. G. said. He smiled at his class. “So, dudes, be sure you get plenty of sleep on Saturday night. And eat a good breakfast beforehand. Make sure your parents do, too. You’re going to need all the energy you can get.”

Katie frowned slightly. Somehow she thought Pops needed more than a good night’s sleep and a big breakfast.

Just then the bell rang.

“See you all Sunday!” Mr. G. shouted as the kids gathered their backpacks and raced out of the classroom. “Don’t forget to wear your T-shirts.”

“Sayonara,”
Katie said to her teacher as she left the classroom.

“Good-bye to you, too,” Mr. G. replied.