A Katie Kazoo Christmas (16 page)

“Thank you, Mrs. Carew,” Suzanne said as she took the Book Nook bag in her hands. It had taken both Katie and Mrs. Carew to convince Suzanne to buy a book for her grab bag instead of the hair clip. But now Suzanne seemed pretty happy about it.

“You’re welcome,” Katie’s mom said. “I think a kids’ cookbook is a great grab-bag gift.”

“I just love making people happy at Christmastime,” Suzanne said.

Katie frowned. She and Suzanne sure hadn’t made that little boy at the Winter Wonderland happy.

Suzanne had obviously forgotten all about that. But Katie hadn’t. She still felt awful.

“Nobody’s going to get that book unless I take you home so you can wrap it for the grab bag,” Mrs. Lock reminded her daughter. She had met the girls at the bookstore a few minutes before.

“I know,” Suzanne agreed. “You want a ride home, Katie?”

Katie would have liked to have gone home and spent extra time with her grandma. But there was still something she had to do.

“No thanks,” she told Suzanne. “I have to get my last Secret Santa present.”

As soon as Suzanne was gone, Katie walked toward the back of the store. But before she could reach the section of the bookstore she was looking for, she heard a familiar voice.

“Mom, how much longer do we need to be here?” a boy asked.

Katie gulped. It was Kadeem! He was in the store!

“Hi, Katie,” Kadeem greeted her. “What are you doing here?”

“Um . . . well . . .” Katie stammered nervously. “I’m . . . um . . . helping my mom,” she lied.

“Cool,” Kadeem said. “What do you do around here?”

Katie turned red. This was getting uncomfortable. She hated lying. “I, uh, do things in the stockroom,” she said quickly. “In fact, I’ve got to go there right now. Bye!”

Quickly she ran off to hide in the stockroom of the store.

As she closed the door behind her, Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Kadeem wasn’t allowed in the stockroom. Only people who worked at the store—and Katie—could go in.

“That was close,” Katie whispered to herself. She sat down on top of a step stool and took a deep breath. It was nice to be alone for a minute.

Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. Before she even had time to turn around, the breeze became stronger and stronger. Soon it was blowing like a wild tornado all around her.

Katie had wanted to relax. But obviously, the magic wind had other plans for her.

The magic wind became more powerful, whipping around Katie so quickly, she could hear it whistling in her ears. Her red hair blew all around, hitting her so hard in the face that she had to close her eyes.

And then it stopped. Just like that.

The magic wind was gone.

And so was Katie Carew. She had become somebody else. Switcheroo!

But who?

Katie knew without even opening her eyes that she wasn’t in the Book Nook stockroom anymore. It was quiet in the stockroom. But it was really noisy here. People were talking, kids were screaming, and “Jingle Bells” was playing from a loudspeaker.

Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked around. There was snow at her feet. But Katie wasn’t cold at all. That was strange.

Katie bent down to feel the snow. Oh, that explained it. The snow wasn’t real. It was just cotton.

Just like the snow in the Winter Wonderland at the mall.

As she bent down, Katie noticed her feet. She wasn’t wearing her red high-top sneakers anymore. Instead, her feet were in green felt shoes that curled up at the top.

Elf shoes!

That could mean only one thing. Katie had become Ella, the elf at Winter Wonderland!

Suddenly, Katie felt a tug on the bottom of her short green skirt. She looked down to see a little girl wearing a pink dress.

“Is it my turn to talk to Santa?” the girl asked in a squeaky voice.

Katie smiled. She was so cute! “It sure is,” she said as she reached out for her hand.

The little girl seemed really happy. Katie was glad. It kind of made up for making that little boy cry earlier.

“Thank you,” the little girl said as they reached Santa’s chair.

“You’re welcome,” Katie replied. She stood beside Santa.

The little girl glared at Katie. “Could you leave us alone?” she asked. “This conversation is just between me and the big guy here.”

Katie understood. She stepped back and began to head toward the line of children. As she walked away, she could hear the little girl say, “The first thing I want for Christmas is a new baby brother.”

Katie smiled. How sweet was that?

“Because the baby brother you brought me last year is a real pain,” the little girl continued. “All he does is cry, sleep, and go to the bathroom. And he smells awful! This is not the baby brother I wanted at all. This year I want a brand-new model.”

Katie sighed. Okay, so maybe the kid wasn’t so sweet after all.

But there were plenty of other kids waiting to meet Santa. And plenty of others were going round and round in the North Pole Express.

Katie was sure most of the kids were as excited about meeting Santa as she had been when she was little.

At least she hoped so. Otherwise, this was going to be one super-terrible switcheroo!

“Which child would you like me to take up to Santa first?” Katie asked the mother who was standing at the front of the line. There were two boys standing next to her. They looked exactly alike.

“Me!” one of the boys shouted.

“Uh-uh. You always get to go first!” his brother shouted back.

“That’s because I’m older,” the first boy insisted.

“By five minutes,” the other boy argued. “That doesn’t count.”

Their mother sighed. “Why don’t you just take them together?” she told Katie. “That way, they won’t fight about it.”

“Okay,” Katie said. She took the boys by their hands. “It’s time to meet Santa,” she told them.

“I get to ask for the red bike,” one boy said.

“No way. You said you wanted a blue bike,” his brother replied. “That means I get the red one.”

“Does not!”

“Does too!”

Katie was very glad when she and the boys reached Santa’s chair. Now they were his problem.

Santa didn’t seem so happy about it, either. He just frowned and rolled his eyes as the boys argued over who would sit on Santa’s right leg, and who would be stuck on his left.

Oh, goodie, a baby!
Katie thought happily to herself as she spotted the next family in the line. After hearing the twins arguing, taking care of a kid who couldn’t talk yet seemed great!

“It’s Alison’s first Christmas,” the baby’s proud father said. “We can’t wait to get her picture taken with Santa Claus.”

“She just drank a whole bottle,” the baby’s mother continued. “So she’s not hungry. It will be easier for the photographer to get her to smile now.”

“Good thinking,” Katie told the parents as she took Alison from her father’s arms and walked toward Santa Claus. “I’m sure her picture will look great!”

Alison was a pretty baby. But as Katie carried her down the snowy path to Santa’s chair, she noticed something strange. While Alison’s dad was holding her, her cheeks had been a pretty pink. But now her face was turning kind of green.

“Burp!” Alison let out a big, loud belch.

Suddenly, Katie felt something warm dripping down her neck and onto her shoulder. It smelled gross. Like spoiled milk.

Oh, no! Alison had spit up on her. Now Katie had baby throw-up all over her neck. Yuck!

“Here,” Katie said, handing Alison to the Winter Wonderland Santa.

“Hey, this kid’s got a full diaper,” Santa groaned. “I told you elves, I don’t want them on my lap if they have a dirty diaper.”

Katie was shocked. That wasn’t Santa-like at all. Suzanne had been right! This guy was a really lousy fake Santa Claus.

“Here! Take her,” the Santa Claus said. As he held out the baby, he turned his head away.

Katie had no choice. She took Alison in her arms and carried her back to her parents. It was pretty gross. The baby smelled like spoiled milk and dirty diapers, mixed together.

And to top it off, Alison had started to cry.

“What did you do to her?” Alison’s mother demanded as she took her baby in her arms.

“Nothing,” Katie said. “That Santa asked me to bring her back to you because her diaper was dirty.”

“
You
made her cry,” Alison’s father yelled at Katie.

“No I didn’t,” Katie assured him. “She’s just crying because her diaper is full.”

“This is awful,” Alison’s mother moaned. “Her first experience with Santa Claus, and you ruined it!”

“No,” Katie insisted. She wrinkled her nose. Alison was really starting to stink. Katie took a big step backward. “I just . . .”

Toot Toot!

Just then, the North Pole Express came chugging by.

Whoosh!
The model train swept Katie right off her feet. She had been so busy getting away from smelly baby Alison, she hadn’t noticed that she’d stepped onto the train tack!