Flower Power Read Online Free Page B

cheered.
    Katie stared at them. She wasn’t sure what to do. Then she thought about George and Kadeem. They always made people laugh with their jokes. That was it. Katie would tell a joke.
    “Hey, do you guys know this one?” she asked. “If April showers bring May flowers, what do pilgrims bring?”
    The kids all looked at her strangely.
    “Turkey?” one little girl in a wheelchair asked.
    “Cranberry sauce?” a small boy with a cast on his leg said.
    “You told that one wrong, G-Man the Clown,” a skinny boy laughed. “It’s supposed to be, ‘What do May flowers bring?’ Then you answer, ‘Pilgrims!’”
    Oops.
Katie blushed. She’d messed that one up badly. Poor Mr. G. She’d only been here a few minutes and already she was goofing up his clown act.
    She thought for a minute. What else besides telling jokes did George do to be funny? Suddenly she spotted a pitcher of water on the table. That was it!
    Katie walked over and poured herself a cup of water. Then she took a drink, held the water in her mouth, pursed her lips, and…
    “Cough! Cough! Cough!”
Instead of becoming a water fountain by spitting the water out—Katie took all that water
in.
Andit went down the
wrong
pipe.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
    “What’s he doing?” a small girl in a wheelchair asked.
    “Are you making fun of us, G-Man?” a boy in a blue bathrobe asked. “We can’t help being sick.”
    That made Katie feel terrible. She would never make fun of someone for being sick. Ever!
    A tall boy with very, very short hair—so short that you could see his scalp underneath—frowned. “This is the worst going-away party ever!” he sighed.
    A nurse came over and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Darnell, relax. G-Man the Clown is just getting started. You know he’d never let you down.”
    Katie sighed. G-Man wouldn’t let Darnell down. But Katie sure was. She coughed really hard as the last bit of water went down.
    Clank!
Just then, a big silver horn fell off of her clown suit. Katie jumped with surprise.Her big clown shoe landed right on the black ball at the end of the horn.
HONK!
    Then the most amazing thing happened. The kids laughed. Hard. They thought Katie had done that on purpose. And they loved it! Katie stepped on the horn again.
Honk!
    Then Katie thought about other funny things a clown might do.
Hmmm.
There was a big plastic flower in her shirt pocket. It would be funny to smell a plastic flower. After all, everyone knew plastic flowers only smelled like…well…plastic. She picked the big plastic flower from her shirt pocket, bent her head, and…
    Squirt!
A big rush of water hit her in the eye. The kids laughed even harder at the sight of that.
    Katie had had no idea that there was water inside the plastic flower. The shock of it threw her off balance. She tripped over one of her huge rubber clown shoes and…
Splat!
She landed right on her rear end—and on top of the horn.
Honk!
    And the kids just kept on laughing and laughing!
    “G-Man the Clown has a new act,” Katie heard one of the nurses say.

    “Must be a special show to celebrate Darnell getting well,” a doctor replied. “He and Mr. Guthrie are very close.”
    “Mr. Guthrie is such a great guy,” the nurse added. “I hope those kids in his class at school appreciate him.”
    Oh, we do,
Katie wanted to say. But of course, she couldn’t. After all, she
was
Mr. G. right now. Or was that G-Man the Clown? Well, either way, she had a show to put on. She hopped up onto her feet and…
HONK!

Chapter 10
    “Yay! Hooray!”
    Katie could still hear the sick kids cheering for her as she left the sunroom of the hospital and headed down the hallway, toward the lobby. She couldn’t wait to get outside.
    “Mr. Guthrie, don’t you want to change into your regular clothes before you leave?” one of the nurses asked.
    Katie gulped. She didn’t want to be her teacher when he was in his underwear!
    “No. Uh, that’s okay. I kind of like this outfit,”