Out to Lunch Read Online Free

scooped up two huge handfuls of green Jell-O. “Here comes a Jell-O bomb!” She reached back and threw the glop across the room. The slimy Jell-O flew through the air and landed with a splat . . . right in the middle of Mr. Kane’s forehead.

    Katie had just slimed the school principal!
    “Lucille!” Mr. Kane shouted in a very angry voice as he wiped the gooey green stuff from his eyes. “I’ll see you in my office in fifteen minutes!”
    The entire lunchroom froze. All eyes were on Katie.
    Oh no! Katie had totally forgotten she was the lunch lady. She was in big trouble now. “Yes, sir,” Katie told the principal, in Lucille’s low, grown-up voice.
    “As for you students,” Mr. Kane continued, “you will be spending the rest of your day cleaning this cafeteria.”

Chapter 5
    As Katie walked down the hall, she felt a little sick. She had never been called down to the principal’s office before—ever. Katie had never done anything bad in school in her whole life. Until now.
    Katie knew Mr. Kane was going to give her a terrible punishment. She guessed it wasn’t going to be something easy, like having to stay after school or writing a long apology note. This was going to be some sort of grown-up punishment. After all, Mr. Kane thought he was punishing Lucille the lunch lady, not Katie Carew from class 3A.
    Suddenly Katie felt a gentle wind nip at the back of her neck. She looked behind to see if someone had just opened a door or a window. No one was there.
    Katie wasn’t surprised when the calm wind began to get stronger. She wasn’t shocked when it started blowing wildly around her like a tornado, either. She knew what was about to happen. Katie was going to change into someone else.
    “Please, please, please let me turn back into me,” she cried to the wind. “I just want to be Katie Carew. Nobody else.”
    The wind kept blowing harder and harder. Katie closed her eyes and held on tight to one of the lockers.
    After a few minutes, the tornado stopped. The wind just disappeared, leaving no marks or traces in the hall. Not even one piece of paper was out of place. Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked down. Lucille’s gravy-stained white dress was gone. Black jeans and a white sweater had taken its place. Those were the clothes Katie had worn to school that morning. Katie checked her reflection in a nearby classroom window. An eight-year-old girl with red hair, green eyes, and a line of freckles on her nose looked back at her from the glass.

    Katie Carew was back!
    As Katie smiled at her reflection, she heard Mr. Kane’s voice coming from his office.
    “Lucille! I don’t know what’s gotten into you!” the principal yelled.
    “I don’t know what’s gotten into me, either, Mr. Kane,” Lucille said. “Come to think of it, I don’t even know how I wound up here in your office.”
    Katie was surprised to hear the lunch lady’s voice. How had she gotten to Mr. Kane’s office so quickly? Did she know what had happened in the cafeteria? Did she remember that Katie had been inside her body?
    “One minute, I’m in the cafeteria, handing out food. The next minute I’m standing here,” Lucille continued. “I can’t really remember anything in between.”
    “ Handing out food? ” Mr. Kane demanded. “Is that what you call slinging Jell-O across the cafeteria?”
    “No sir,” Lucille answered.
    “Are you saying you didn’t throw food in the cafeteria?” Mr. Kane asked her.
    “No. I think I did throw food.”
    “You think you threw food?” Mr. Kane repeated.
    Lucille shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I did . . . I think. I don’t know. You saw me throw it, right?”
    Mr. Kane nodded.
    “So I must have,” Lucille continued. “It’s all very strange. I guess I just wasn’t myself today.”
    “I can’t understand what would make you waste perfectly good food,” Mr. Kane continued.
    “Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘perfectly good food,’ ” Lucille argued. “It’s terrible food.