Be Nice to Mice Read Online Free Page A

work,” Emma said, shaking the light up and down. “Do you think the batteries are dead?”
    Katie shook her head. “They’re brand-new,” she said, looking away from Selena for a moment.
    “This is terrible!” Emma moaned.
    Katie thought for a second. “Wait. I have another flashlight. It’s on one of the key chains on my book bag. I’ll run back to the classroom and get it.”
    “Great!” Emma exclaimed. “But hurry.”
    Katie nodded and raced out of the gym. She headed straight down the hall and into 4A.
    The room was completely silent. Nobody was there—except Slinky, the class snake, of course. He wasn’t allowed at the science fair. It was for people only.
    People, and Selena’s mice , Katie thought angrily.
    But there was no time to worry about that now. Katie had to get her flashlight. She walked over to her book bag and began to pry the key chain loose.
    Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She looked around the room. All the windows were shut. None of the paper bugs flying from the ceiling were moving around.
    The wind seemed to be blowing just on Katie. The magic wind was back!
    “Oh, no!” Katie exclaimed. “Not right before the science fair!”
    But the magic wind didn’t care if Katie missed the science fair. It picked up speed, blowing harder and harder. WHOOSH! Katie was sure it would blow her away. She shut her eyes tight, and tried not to cry.
    And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone. And so was Katie Carew.
    She’d turned into somebody else.
    But who?

Chapter 11
    Squeak, squeak, squeak.
    That was the first thing Katie heard as the magic wind faded away. Slowly, she opened her eyes. There, on the table in front of her was a big wire cage with three white mice inside.
    Katie gulped. She was standing in the middle of the science fair, right in front of Selena’s display table.
    That could mean only one thing.
    The magic wind had turned Katie into Selena!
    Katie frowned. This was so not fair! She didn’t want to be Selena. She wanted to be Katie Carew. She wanted to be able to stand in front of her lightning bug poster, and proudly tell her parents and the other visitors all about what lightning bugs eat and where they live.
    She did not want to be making these poor mice run through mazes.
    But Katie was Selena now. And as much as she hated the idea, she was going to have to do Selena’s project.
    Slowly, Katie lifted off the top of the cage and reached her hand in. The mice scurried away from her grasp.
    I was right , Katie thought. They don’t want to do this. Suddenly she didn’t care if Selena had a project at the fair or not. All she cared about was the mice. And they sure looked miserable all huddled up in a corner of the cage.
    Katie took her hand out of the cage stood back. Almost immediately, the mice began running around and around. In less than a second they had scurried up the wire side of the cage and out the top.
    Katie watched as the three mice ran free around the table. Katie smiled. “I knew you didn’t want to run in those mazes,” she told them. “You just wanted to play.”
    Suddenly, all three mice scurried down one of the table legs and onto the floor.
    “Wait,” Katie called after them. “You were just supposed to hang out on the table for a while!”
    But mice don’t just hang out. They run . . . fast. Katie grabbed the cage and took off. “Wait!” she cried out again as she raced to catch the speeding mice.
    But the mice were faster than Katie was. They sped off in different directions around the gym.
    “EEEEEEEK!!!!!! A mouse!” A third-grader shouted out.
    “Aaaah! There’s a mouse on my project!” Miriam Chan screeched.
    Everyone seemed to be screaming at once.
    Mrs. Hauser, a sixth-grade teacher, jumped up on a chair. “Selena, catch those mice!” she demanded.
    “I’ll help you, Selena!” Mickey called to Katie. “I see one over there!” He slid across the floor.
    “Ouch!” Justine