Karen's School Surprise

  I wished I had spoken with Janet Dobbins. Why did David Michael’s class talk with her and not mine?

  David Michael already knew that my class might be on School Stars. But I had not yet told him about Camp Outer Space. This seemed like the perfect time.

  “If my class wins when we are on School Stars, we will get to spend a weekend at Camp Outer Space,” I said. “I bet Janet Dobbins will be there. I will get to talk to her in person, not on some silly computer.”

  “I bet your class will not win. Not with you in it,” said David Michael.

  “Is that so? Well, we won against the other second-grade class today and I helped!” I replied.

  “You think you are so smart. But my grades are very high now,” said David Michael. “I bet my grades are higher than yours!”

  “I bet you do not even know, so you should not be talking,” I replied.

  I stood nose to nose with David Michael.

  “That is enough!” said Nannie. “Since you both want such good grades, you may have your snacks, then go to your rooms to do your homework.”

  “But I want to call Mark on the computer,” said David Michael.

  “And I want to play with Hannie,” I said.

  “And I want some peace and quiet,” said Nannie. “So you will go to your rooms.”

  Boo and bullfrogs.

  Studio Nine

  Exciting things happened at school all week long. We took more quizzes. We practiced more stunts. And on Friday, we took a field trip to the TV studio where School Stars would be taped. The studio is in Stamford, Connecticut, a half-hour drive from our school.

  “Thank you for coming along,” Ms. Colman said to Bobby’s father and Addie’s mother.

  They were our parent volunteers. They have come with us on trips before. They are both very nice.

  We boarded the bus and were there in no time. The TV station is in a tall, shiny building with dark glass windows. I was glad I had brought my movie star sunglasses. I put them on when we got off the bus.

  “Maybe we will be discovered while we are here,” I said to Hannie and Nancy. “They could make a new TV show called, ‘The Three Musketeers.’”

  “We will write and star in it, of course,” said Nancy.

  “I will direct!” I said. (I directed a movie once with my friends. They were mad at me because I was too bossy. But I learned my lesson. I think.)

  “Please stay together, class,” said Ms. Colman.

  She led us inside. The studio was very fancy. The carpeting was gray. The walls were pale pink.

  A woman wearing a gray suit and a pink blouse came out to meet us. (I wanted to ask her if she always dressed to match her office. But I did not think that would be polite.)

  “Welcome to Studio Nine, home of School Stars. My name is Ms. Reynolds,” she said. “I will show you where the show is taped. You will even see yourselves on camera today. Let’s start in the green room. That is where you will wait before the show.”

  The green room is the room in a television studio where all the important guests wait. Remember I told you I was once in a state spelling bee? Well, the finals were on TV. That is how I know about the green room.

  The room was not green. It was gray and pink like the rest of the studio. And it was crowded.

  Another class of kids was in there. I thought they looked kind of young and goofy. They were giggling and falling all over each other. Our class seemed very grown-up and well behaved next to theirs.

  “This is the class you will be competing against next week,” said Ms. Reynolds.

  This was our competition? I squeezed Hannie’s hand, then Nancy’s.

  “I think I know who is going to win,” I whispered.

  The other class had finished their tour and was leaving the studio.

  “See you next week!” I called.

  Ms. Reynolds led us into the studio. The lights were bright and hot. I walked by a camera and waved. Next to the camera was a TV screen. Guess who was on it. My classmates and me!

  Ms. Reynolds showed us where we would stand during the show.

  “Mr. Stevens, the host of the show, is sorry he could not be here today. He is looking forward to meeting you next week,” she said.

  By the time we left, we felt great. We knew our way around the studio. And we had met our competition.

  On the bus ride home, all we could talk about was our prize weekend at Camp Outer Space. We were going to win it. We knew it for sure!

  The Challenge

  The Three Musketeers were playing outside the big house after school when some kids from the neighborhood showed up. First David Michael and Linny, then Maria and Bill Korman. The Kormans live across the street. Maria is seven. Bill is nine.

  “We challenge you to a game of School Stars!” I said.

  “You got it,” said Linny.

  It was three of us against four of them. And Linny and Bill are both nine. But we were not worried. We were ready for them.

  Maria ran home and came back with a box of Big Brain Quiz cards. The box had not even been opened yet. That is how we knew she and Bill could not have memorized the answers.

  We agreed on some stunts. Then Bill pulled the first card from the box.

  “For three points, tell us how many stars are on the American flag,” he read.

  “Ding, ding, ding!” I shouted. (We did not have bells for each player. So we just called out when we wanted to answer.)

  “Karen, your answer please,” said Bill.

  “There are fifty stars!” I said.

  “You are correct. Your team now has three points,” Bill replied.

  “Yea!” my friends and I shouted.

  Since I answered correctly, I got to read the next question.

  “For three points, which planet appears to be red?” I asked.

  “Um, ding, ding!” called David Michael. “Jupiter!”

  “No, I am sorry, that is incorrect,” I replied. “And next time, please wait for your name to be called before answering.”

  David Michael stuck his tongue out at me.

  It was my team’s turn to answer the question. It was up to Hannie or Nancy. I hoped one of them knew that Mars is the planet that appears to be red.

  Uh-oh. They did not look too sure. Finally Nancy said, “Saturn?”

  I wanted to say yes because Nancy is my teammate. But I had to say, “I am sorry. That answer is incorrect. It is time for stunt number one.”

  The stunt was to run around two trees, do five jumping jacks, then recite the Pledge of Allegiance, all in a minute and a half.

  “On your marks, get set, go!” I said.

  David Michael and Nancy ran around the trees. David Michael finished a little bit ahead. They each did five jumping jacks. Then Nancy was ahead. They were shouting out the Pledge when the rest of us looked at our watches and called, “Time’s up!”

  David Michael stamped his foot on the ground because he had lost. He looked unhappy. By the end of School Stars he was furious. That is because my team won.

  David Michael was not upset because we answered more questions correctly. After all, Linny and Bill, who are older, got as many answers wrong as he did. David Michael was upset because my team was better at the stunts. We had finished each one with time to spare.

  As he stormed off with Linny, I heard him say, “I cannot believe they did so well at those stunts. They are only girls!”

  Hannie and Nancy and I looked at each other and smiled.

  “We showed him!” I said.

  Blast Off!

  The next time I played with Hannie and Nancy, I was back at the little house. A whole month had gone by since Ms. Colman first told my class about School Stars.

  My friends and I had been talking about Camp Outer Space ever since we met the class we were going to compete against. We just knew we would win the Camp Outer Space prize.

  “Let’s pretend we are already there,” said Hannie.

  “Okay,” said Nancy.

&n
bsp; “Let’s do this right,” I added. “First we need to pack our bags.”

  I love packing bags. Whenever I pack a bag, it means I am going someplace exciting. Sometimes Mommy has to help me because I try to stuff in too much. But this time I was only pretend packing.

  The suitcases were down in the basement, so we packed shopping bags instead. We threw in clothes and books and toys. We put in a flashlight. We even went to the kitchen and made a travel snack.

  “Where are you girls going that you need so much food?” asked Mommy. We had packed every pretzel and peanut in the cupboard.

  “We are practice-packing for our trip to Camp Outer Space,” I replied.

  “Don’t forget to send me postcards while you are away,” said Mommy.

  “Postcards!” I said. We ran upstairs to pack some.

  We took our bags out to the yard and boarded a pretend bus. We even got tied up in a traffic jam on the way.

  “I hope they do not start without us,” said Nancy.

  The bus trip was especially bumpy. But finally we arrived. We climbed up into the tree house in my yard. We pretended that Camp Outer Space was dark. And a little scary.

  “Look, I see Neptune and Pluto!” said Hannie, pointing up to the sky.

  “Far out!” I replied. (I said that because Neptune and Pluto are the farthest planets from Earth.)

  We put on our shiny space suits. (Mommy let us have some old tin foil she had been saving. We used it to make space collars.)

  “Earth Space Station calling Musketeer Three! Are you ready for takeoff?” I said. (Musketeer Three was the name we gave our spaceship.)

  “Checking instrument panel now,” said Nancy. “All systems look okay.”

  “We are ready for takeoff,” said Hannie.

  “Beginning countdown,” I said.

  We counted down together: “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one …”

  “Blast off!” we shouted. We closed our eyes and imagined ourselves shooting up into the sky.

  The Three Musketeers were in orbit, waving to Earth far below.

  Showing Off

  “One more day to School Stars!” I sang to Hannie and Nancy at recess.

  When we returned to the room, we had our regular math lesson and took some more quizzes. Before the bell rang, Ms. Colman gave us final instructions for our big day.

  “I suggest you go home, rest, and have a nice relaxing evening. That way you will be fresh for the cameras tomorrow,” said Ms. Colman.

  This sounded like a good idea to me. But before I rested, I was going to have some fun. I was going to Hannie’s house after school.

  We rode the school bus together, then walked to the big house so I could say hello to everyone.

  Daddy, Kristy, Nannie, and Emily were home. They wished us good luck and promised to tape the show.

  “I will wave to you on TV!” I said.

  Hannie and I were about to leave when David Michael walked in. He looked as though he had big news. Lately, he always had big news when he came home from school.

  “Guess what!” he said. “My computer pal and I wrote a story on-line together and it is going to be published in the school newspaper.”

  Then he turned to me and said, “Second-graders hardly ever get stories in the paper.”

  I knew he was just showing off because I was going to be on School Stars and he was not.

  “Congratulations!” said Daddy. “I would love to read your story.”

  “That is not all,” said David Michael. “Here are my quizzes and an essay from school this week.”

  He took a stack of papers from his book bag and waved them in the air. I could see a few grades written in red. They were all 100s. There was a big, red A+ and the words “Good job!” written at the top of the essay.

  Daddy looked at the papers and his face lit up. “This is terrific,” he said. “David Michael, I am very proud of you.”

  “Big deal,” I mumbled just loudly enough for David Michael to hear.

  “It is a big deal,” he replied. “When was the last time you got two perfect papers in one day?”

  “I always get high grades and you know it,” I said.

  “That is enough bickering,” said Daddy. “I am proud of both of you whenever you do your best.”

  “Some people’s best is better than other people’s,” I said.

  “Karen Brewer!” exclaimed Nannie. “If you do not have something nice to say, please do not say anything at all.”

  I zipped up my lips. That is because I did not have a single nice thing to say to my brother. He was making me mad. He did not have to act like a big shot just because he had a few good days at school.

  “Come on, Karen,” said Hannie. “We better get over to my house or my mom will start worrying.”

  I said good-bye to everyone except David Michael. I gave him a meanie-mo look. Then I went to Hannie’s house to play. I did not have much fun, though. I kept thinking about David Michael showing off.

  When I was back at the little house, I was not able to rest and relax the way Ms. Colman wanted me to. I was still too mad.

  I tried thinking about School Stars when I got into bed. But my mind kept wandering. I was mad at David Michael and there was no room for anything else.

  Welcome to School Stars!

  When I hopped out of bed the next morning, I could hardly remember what I had been so mad about the night before. All I knew was that in a few hours, I was going to be on TV.

  I put on my gray jumper, gray tights, pink turtleneck, and shiny black party shoes. If Ms. Reynolds could match the studio, so could I.

  After breakfast, I rode the bus to school with Nancy. Ms. Colman was already in the classroom when we arrived. Our parent volunteers, Mr. Gianelli and Mrs. Sidney, were there, too.

  “Good morning, class,” said Ms. Colman. “Our bus is waiting outside. So please line up and follow me.”

  Suddenly I felt butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Even though I had been on TV before, I felt nervous.

  On the bus, Ms. Colman gave us last minute reminders about being good guests and good sports. Then we all sang the School Stars theme song:

  School stars up in the sky.

  School stars flying high.

  School stars. Golden-rule stars.

  Keep shining bright!

  Before we knew it, we were pulling into the parking lot of Studio Nine. Ms. Reynolds greeted us and led us to the green room to meet Mr. Stevens, the host of the show.

  “Welcome,” said Mr. Stevens. “You look like a lively group. Is everybody ready?”

  “Ready!” we replied.

  “Come right this way,” said Mr. Stevens.

  The class we met before was already onstage. They were seated to the right of a podium. Mr. Stevens seated us on the left. The other class looked as wimpy as the first time we saw them.

  “Smile, everybody,” said Mr. Stevens. “Our show is about to begin.”

  A woman began counting down from ten. When she got to number one, the School Stars theme song began to play. I wanted to sing along. But Mr. Stevens had told us to smile, not sing. So I kept quiet.

  When the song was over, Mr. Stevens said, “Good morning, viewers everywhere. We have two lively teams waiting to play School Stars. Let’s welcome Mr. Arnold’s second-grade class from Hilford Elementary School and Ms. Colman’s second-grade class from Stoneybrook Academy.”

  I heard lots of clapping and cheering in the studio. But I did not see any audience. Hmm. I guess the sounds were on tape.

  “Let’s get right into our game,” said Mr. Stevens. “For three points, who can name a planet in our solar system that is surrounded by rings?”

  Ding, ding, ding!

  A kid from Mr. Arnold’s class rang the bell. She was fast.

  “Your answer, please,” said Mr. Stevens.

  “Saturn is surrounded by rings,” said the girl.

  “That is correct!” replied Mr. Stevens. “Your team now h
as three points. Here is the next question. For three points, how many times does the letter ‘s’ appear in “Mississippi?”

  Ding, ding, ding!

  Guess who rang the bell. And guess who got the answer right.

  “There are four esses in Mississippi,” I said.

  By the end of the first round, the other class was ahead five points. I was not worried, though. The class looked pretty wimpy. And the stunts were still to come.

  And the Winner Is …

  Mr. Stevens gave us a short break. When the break was over, he smiled into the camera and said, “We are now in our final round of School Stars. For three points, name three states in the U.S. beginning with the letter O.”

  It was quiet onstage for a minute. We were all thinking. Then ding, ding, ding! Someone from my class rang the bell. It was Natalie.

  “Your answer, please,” said Mr. Stevens.

  “Oklahoma, Ohio, Alabama,” said Natalie. “No, wait! It’s not Alabama. It’s um, um …”

  Natalie looked upset.

  “I am sorry. That was not the correct answer,” said Mr. Stevens.

  Ding, ding, ding!

  A boy from Mr. Arnold’s class rang the bell.

  “Oklahoma, Ohio, Ontario!” he said.

  “I am sorry. That is not correct,” said Mr. Stevens. He tooted on a horn, then reached under the podium and pulled out a hat. Across the front it said, Stunt-Man Stevens.

  “It is time for our first silly stunt of the show!” he said.

  He pointed to three kids from Mr. Arnold’s class. Then he pointed to Natalie and Ricky and me.

  An assistant host ran onstage with an armload of shiny yellow wetsuits.

  “You better put these on,” said Stunt-Man Stevens.

  I waved to Hannie and Nancy. This was so cool. I wondered why we needed wetsuits. I soon found out.

  Two more assistants came out. Each one rolled a tub of wiggling, jiggling Jell-O onto the stage.

  “It is time to jump in the Jell-O, kids,” said Stunt-Man Stevens. “There are rubber grapes and rubber bananas buried in each tub. When I sound the gong, jump in the Jell-O and start picking fruit. You get one point for each piece you collect. You have sixty seconds.”