Beware, Karen!

“Okay, now I am really going to get you,” said Bobby.

We were leaving the gym. I was holding the cockroach. Bobby’s face was red. But he was laughing. He could not believe he had been fooled by a silly plastic bug. I dangled it in front of him. The roach did not even look real. Its head was covered with fur.

“Just wait until lunchtime,” whispered Bobby.

Hmm. What a good clue!

At lunchtime I was on my guard. I sat with Nancy, Hannie, Natalie, and the twins in the cafeteria. I bought the school lunch. It was spaghetti and salad and milk. The dessert was rice pudding. Before I began to eat, I checked my food carefully. I wanted to be sure Bobby had not hidden anything in it. Or done anything to it.

My lunch looked fine.

That was why I did not panic later when Bobby leaned over from the next table and stared at my dessert. “Ew!” he cried. “A fly landed in your pudding!”

I barely looked at the pudding. “Bobby,” I said. (I sighed loudly.) “That is a raisin. There are raisins in your pudding, too.”

“Darn it,” replied Bobby.

I picked the raisin out of my pudding. I put it on Hannie’s napkin. “Ew!” I exclaimed. “Ew, Hannie, a huge pudding-covered fly landed on your tray. It is heading for your spaghetti!”

Then I picked another raisin out of my pudding. I put it on Nancy’s napkin. “Nancy! Fly alert!” I cried.

My friends and I were giggling. We could not stop.

Bobby turned back to his own lunch. Every so often, though, he would look over his shoulder at me. He waited until I had finished eating. Then he said, “Hey, Karen, want some ABC gum?”

“Why, Bobby, how nice of you to offer,” I replied. “No, thank you.”

Bobby could not fool me. I know what ABC gum is. ABC stands for Already Been Chewed. Bobby was going to pull his own gum out of his mouth and give me half of it. Yuck.

Bobby and his friends left the cafeteria. They went to the playground for recess. A little while later, the Three Musketeers went outside, too. The first thing we saw was a bunch of boys crowded around something on the ground. Bobby was with them. “Karen!” he yelled. “Come here!”

“Watch out for another trick,” Nancy whispered to me.

“Karen, we found buried treasure!” Bobby shouted. “Right here on the playground. I think it is a pirate’s chest.”

“Yeah, right,” I said.

“No, really. Come here…. I will give you a piece of gold.”

“Are you April Fooling, Bobby?” I said.

After recess, my friends and I returned to our class. Bobby ran ahead of us. When I reached my desk, he was standing behind my chair. “Allow me to seat you,” he said politely.

“Goodness, Bobby. Thanks,” I answered. But I did not sit down.

“What are you waiting for?” Bobby asked.

“My chair. I know you pulled it away.” I looked behind me. Sure enough, Bobby had moved my chair. If I had sat down, I would have landed on the floor.

“April Fool!” I said to Bobby. “You can’t get me!”

When school was over, Bobby still had not tricked me.

I was the April Fools’ Day queen.