Any Way You Slice It Read Online Free

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    Suddenly, Katie felt a strange breeze blowing on the back of her neck. It started out gentle enough, but within seconds, the breeze turned into a strong wind.
    A wind that was blowing only around Katie.
    The magic wind was back!
    As the wild tornado swirled faster and faster, Katie grabbed on to a huge, heavy carton of plastic silverware. She held on tight, hoping the heavy box would keep her from blowing away. She squeezed her eyes shut, and hoped that the magic wind would stop blowing soon.
    Which is exactly what happened. The wind simply stopped.
    Katie opened her eyes slowly and looked around. There were cartons and cans all around her. She was still in the storeroom.
    Now she knew where she was. But she still didn’t know who she was. Katie looked down at her clothes. Her jeans had been replaced with baggy white pants. A long white apron covered her stomach.

    She looked at her hands. They were large, hairy, and covered with flour. They smelled of garlic.
    Katie touched her face. Her fingers brushed over something long and twirly beneath her nose.
    Yuck! Katie had a moustache!
    Who had Katie become? She picked up a huge, shiny, metal pizza tray and stared at her reflection.
    Louie’s face stared back at her.
    Oh no! The magic wind had turned Katie into Louie!
    Katie started to panic. She couldn’t possibly be Louie! Not now. All those people out there were going to be expecting Louie’s yummy pizzas. Katie didn’t know anything about making pizzas. She’d never even cooked anything without her mom before!
    The contest was going to be ruined. Louie was going to have to close the restaurant and move to Florida with his sister. And it would all be Katie’s fault.
    “Oh, please come back,” Katie begged the magic wind. “I need Louie to be here. I want to be me again.”
    But the magic wind did not return. Which left Katie with no choice. She was going to have to go out there and run Louie’s pizza-eating contest.
    “This is going to be a disaster,” she groaned in her deep, man’s voice.

Chapter 9
    Katie walked slowly out of the storeroom. Louie’s Pizza Shop was still closed. But that hadn’t stopped folks from lining up outside the windows. Katie couldn’t believe it. There were tons of people there, not to mention television news’ crews and newspaper reporters wearing press badges on their shirts.
    At any other time, Katie would have been thrilled to see so many people at Louie’s. But now she was worried.
    Still, Katie couldn’t put the contest off any longer. She went over to unlock the door. She could only hope that the pizzas Louie had already made would be enough.
    The crowd streamed in. Eight of the ten contestants took their places at the long table that Louie had arranged at the front of the restaurant. The runners—the people Louie had hired to serve the contestants their slices—stood behind the table.
    It was almost time for the contest to begin. But there were still two empty seats at the contestants’ table.
    Suddenly, Becky Stern came leaping and prancing into the pizza shop.
    “Here comes George, he’s sure to win!” Becky cheered, shaking two black-and-red pom-poms. “Here comes George, he’ll make you grin!” She leaped up, did a back flip, and landed in a perfect split.
    Jeremy strolled in behind her. “Presenting . . . the one, the only, George ‘the Joker’ Brennan!” he shouted.
    Then George made his entrance. He was dressed in a pair of shiny red shorts and a black T-shirt with a big red smiley face in the middle. He had a black towel tucked into his shirt collar, like a cape. He looked like a superhero.
    George smiled at the crowd. He pushed the smiley face on his shirt. A computer chip inside the shirt made a laughing sound.
    Some of the photographers leaped in front of George and began snapping his picture. Other people cheered. George was definitely the center of attention.
    But not for long. Just then, somebody blew a loud horn. Everyone turned toward