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going to do? Call my mommy?”
    Katie and Suzanne stared at George in amazement. He’d just called their teacher, Mrs. Derkman, a mean name—and he hadn’t even whispered it! He didn’t seem scared to have the teacher phone his mom, either.
    Before Katie or Suzanne could answer George, Mrs. Derkman blew her red whistle three times.
    Phew! Recess was over. It was time to go back to class. Katie was very glad. She used her hands to wipe off some of the mud, and then ran to line up.
    “You okay?” Jeremy whispered to Katie.
    “I guess,” Katie replied.
    “George is a creep. You know that.”
    Katie nodded. But knowing that wasn’t going to make George stop calling her the Mud Monster. He’d probably go at it all day, unless ...
    Katie couldn’t help wishing that someone else would do something embarrassing that afternoon. Then maybe George Brennan would tease that kid instead.

Chapter 2
    “This is for you,” Kevin whispered to Katie. He handed her a note. It was written on light-blue paper and folded up really small. Katie knew it was from Suzanne. Her notes always looked like that.
    “If you have an answer for her, send it yourself,” Kevin told Katie. “I don’t want to get into trouble again.”
    Katie understood. Kevin sat at the desk right between Suzanne and Katie. He always wound up passing notes from girl to girl. Yesterday, Mrs. Derkman had caught Kevin passing a note from Katie to Suzanne. Kevin had had to write an apology note to Mrs. Derkman.
    Katie unfolded the paper. Do you want to come over after school? the note read.
    Katie scribbled her answer on the bottom of the note. No, thanks. I have to go home and change. Maybe tomorrow?
    Katie tossed the paper over Kevin’s head. It landed right on Suzanne’s desk. Katie crossed her fingers, hoping Mrs. Derkman didn’t see.
    Katie lucked out. Mrs. Derkman didn’t notice the flying note. She was too busy writing on the board.
    “Okay, take out your pencils and math notebooks. Today we’re going to review subtraction with borrowing,” the teacher announced.
    Katie gulped. Whenever Mrs. Derkman said the word “review,” it meant that she was going to ask some of the kids in the class to go to the board and solve the problems in front of everyone.
    Katie slid down low in her chair, hoping Mrs. Derkman wouldn’t notice her. She didn’t want to be one of the kids who were called on. It wasn’t that Katie couldn’t do subtraction with borrowing. It was more that she hated being in front of the whole class.
    “I’ll try one, Mrs. Derkman,” Suzanne volunteered.
    Katie sighed. Suzanne never worried about making a mistake in front of the whole class. She just liked being the center of attention. Katie wished she could be more like that.
    But today, Mrs. Derkman didn’t ask Suzanne to come up to the board. She picked Mandy Banks, Zoe Canter, and Jeremy instead. Mandy went first. She whizzed through her problem. No surprise there—she was like a computer when it came to math. Next it was Zoe’s turn.
    “All right, Zoe,” Mrs. Derkman said as Zoe walked up to the board. “What will you get when you subtract 152 from 901?”
    “The wrong answer!” George joked out loud.
    Some kids in the class giggled. Zoe blushed.
    Katie thought it was really mean of George to joke around like that. Everyone knew Zoe had a lot of trouble with math.
    Mrs. Derkman looked sternly over at George, but she smiled at Zoe. “Go ahead,” she said to her. “We’ll do it together.”
    When it was his turn, Jeremy took his time solving the subtraction problem. Katie smiled. That was Jeremy: slow and steady like the tortoise in the story of The Tortoise and the Hare.
    Sometimes Jeremy’s careful slowness could get kind of annoying. But not today. As long as Jeremy’s up there, Mrs. Derkman won’t call on me, Katie thought to herself.

    But eventually Jeremy did finish the problem. And he got the right answer ... as usual.
    Mrs. Derkman smiled and wrote another math