I Hate Rules! (6 page)

When Katie got home, she ran right up to her room and slammed the door. She was in a terrible mood. This had been the worst day ever. Katie’s chocolate-and-white cocker spaniel, Pepper, scratched at her door. But Katie didn’t open it. She didn’t want to see anyone. Not even Pepper.

The phone rang downstairs. “Katie, it’s for you,” her mom called out.

Katie frowned. She really didn’t feel like talking to any of her friends. “Who is it?” she asked.

“Suzanne,” her mother answered. “She says it’s important.”

Katie ran downstairs and took the phone from her mother. “What?” she asked in a grumpy voice.

“Hello to you, too,” Suzanne teased.

“I’m sorry,” Katie apologized. “I’m just in a bad mood. Today was awful.”

“Oh, yeah!” Suzanne agreed. “And it’s going to get worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“We might have Mr. Ditherspoon as our principal forever,” Suzanne said.

“I thought he was just a substitute,” Katie told her.

“He is,” Suzanne agreed. “But my mom says the PTA is thinking about recommending him as our new principal.”

“What about Mr. Kane?”

“There’s going to be a big school board meeting on Friday. They might fire Mr. Kane,” Suzanne told Katie.

“We have to stop them!” Katie exclaimed.

“Forget it, Katie. This is the
school board
. They’re not going to listen to kids,” Suzanne told her.

“I’m not so sure about that. Remember, that’s what you said when Mr. Kane fired Lucille,” Katie reminded her. “But we got her job back for her.”

It was true. Mr. Kane had fired the lunch lady after she’d gotten into a foodfight with some of the kids. Of course, it had actually been
Katie
who had gotten into the foodfight, but Mr. Kane didn’t know that. He didn’t know about the magic wind. The kids had saved Lucille’s job by refusing to eat the cafeteria food until Mr. Kane hired her back.

“That’s true,” Suzanne said. “But I have no idea how we can get Mr. Kane back. Do you?”

Katie thought about it for a minute. Then she smiled. “I think I do. Will you help me?”

“Sure,” Suzanne agreed. “I’ll do anything to be allowed to wear glitter again!”

As Katie walked into the school board meeting, her stomach was very jumpy. Some people might say she had butterflies in her tummy. But Katie thought they felt more like elephants. A whole herd of elephants . . . stampeding!

“Are you scared?” Jeremy whispered to Katie as they took their seats.

“Are you?” Katie asked.

Jeremy nodded. “I’ve never spoken in front of this many grown-ups before.”

Katie looked over to where Suzanne was sitting with her parents. Even
she
looked nervous.

The meeting seemed to drag on forever. Lots and lots of grown-ups gave long speeches about how awful Mr. Kane’s no-rules day was.

Mr. Kane didn’t say anything. He just sat in the front of the room, looking very confused. Every now and then he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

“Does anyone else have anything to say before we vote?” the head of the school board, Mr. Rosen, asked finally.

Katie raised her hand shyly.

“Yes?” Mr. Rosen pointed toward Katie.

Katie gulped. Everyone was staring at her. It was really scary. But Katie knew she had to say something. She had to save Mr. Kane.

Katie walked up to the front of the room. “My name is Katie Carew,” she said. “I’m in class 3A, and I like Mr. Kane.”

“That’s very nice, Katie,” Mr. Rosen said. “But, as grown-ups, we have to make sure school is a place where you can learn.”

“But we learned a lot that day,” Katie said.

“What could you possibly have learned on a no-rules day?” Mr. Rosen asked.

“We learned that rules are really important.” Katie stopped and thought about Mr. Ditherspoon’s pencil point rule. “Well, at least
most
rules,” she added.

“Really?” Mr. Rosen said with surprise.

Katie nodded. “We even came up with some rules of our own.” She turned toward Jeremy and Suzanne. They stood up, too.

“I think it’s important to do your homework,” Katie began. “And there shouldn’t be any fighting in school, either.”

“Kids should be able to wear what they want,” Suzanne continued. “But no one should be allowed to make fun of someone else’s outfit.”

“Or their drawings,” Katie added. “You shouldn’t make fun of anyone for any reason.”

“There have to be rules in sports,” Jeremy said. “And I think new kids should be paired up with a buddy on their first day of school. Then they could have a friend right away.”

“We should have a student government at school,” Katie told the school board. “I think kids would follow rules more easily if they got to make some of them.”

Katie looked over at Mr. Kane. He didn’t seem so nervous anymore. He seemed proud. The principal stood up and began to clap. Soon most of the parents in the room were on their feet and clapping, too.

Mr. Rosen smiled at the kids. “Well, I guess you did learn something that day,” he began.

“Mr. Kane is very smart,” Katie told him.

“Yes, he is.” Mr. Rosen agreed. He turned toward Mr. Kane. “There’s no way we could possibly fire you now.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Kane said.

“But I do have one question,” Mr. Rosen continued. “Why didn’t you tell anyone about your plan?”

Mr. Kane gulped. He fiddled with his tie. He looked at his shoes. What could he say? He had no idea what had happened that day.

“Mr. Kane couldn’t have told anyone,” Katie quickly said. “It
had
to be a surprise. Otherwise, we never would have learned the lesson ourselves.”

Everyone started clapping again.

“Good one, Katie,” Suzanne whispered.

“Grown-ups love when you say stuff like that.”

The meeting didn’t last much longer. When it was over, Mr. Kane walked over to Katie, Suzanne, and Jeremy.

“I don’t how to thank you kids,” he said. “I’m not quite sure what happened this week. But I am glad it turned out this way. You had some great ideas.”

Katie smiled. She thought so, too.

“So who wants ice cream?” Mr. Kane asked. “My treat!”

Talk about a great idea!

As Katie walked outside with her friends and her parents, she felt a breeze hit the back of her neck. Her smile turned to a frown. This was awful. She didn’t want to turn into anyone else. She just wanted to stay Katie Carew—and have a big rocky road ice cream cone.

“Whoa, it’s getting cold!” Suzanne zipped the front of her sparkly black jacket. “Feel that wind.”

Katie smiled brightly. It wasn’t the magic wind after all. It was just a plain, old wind. One that could blow on anyone.

“I think it feels wonderful!” she said.