Bad Rap by Nancy Krulik Page B

for another twenty minutes!”
    “I didn’t buy my tickets,” Becky boasted. “I got them for free.”
    “How did you do that?” Zoe Canter asked.
    “The Bayside Boys record all their CDs at a studio in Atlanta. My dad used to play golf with the man who owns the studio,” Becky bragged in her soft, Southern accent. “My dad’s friend can get tickets to any Bayside Boys show he wants. He promised me two tickets to the show.”
    “Wow,” Jessica said. “You’re so lucky.”
    “ Two tickets?” Suzanne piped up curiously. “Who are you taking to the show with you?”
    Becky shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet,” she told her. She smiled. “It could be anyone.” Then she turned and walked away.
    Suzanne’s eyes got very small. Katie could tell she was angry. “It could be anyone,” she said, imitating Becky’s accent. “Oooh. Blechy Becky is such a snob.”
    “You’re just jealous, Suzanne,” Mandy said.
    “No, I’m not,” Suzanne told her. “Why would I be? Katie and I are going to get tickets to that show, too.”
    “We are?” Katie asked her, surprised. “How are we going to do that?”
    “I don’t know yet,” Suzanne said. She watched as Becky stopped to tell some of the other girls about her tickets. “But we will. We have to.”

Chapter 3
    As Katie walked into class 4A, she was wondering what plan Suzanne had for getting tickets to the concert. But she didn’t have much time to think about that. There was a bigger question waiting for her in the classroom.
    In fact, there were lots of questions waiting for the kids as they entered the classroom. Katie’s teacher, Mr. Guthrie, had decorated the whole room with cardboard question marks. They were hanging from the ceiling, stuck to the walls, and on all the classroom windows. There was even a big question mark over Slinky the snake’s cage.
    “What’s this all about?” Kadeem Carter asked Mr. Guthrie.
    “Not what ,” Mr. Guthrie told him mysteriously. “Who.”
    “What?” Kadeem asked again.
    “Who,” Mr. Guthrie repeated.
    Huh? Katie was getting confused!
    Mr. Guthrie smiled at his class. “Take your seats, everyone. We’re about to start a new learning adventure!”
    Katie smiled. Most teachers would just say that the class was starting a new unit. But not Mr. Guthrie. He thought of learning as a big adventure. Emma W. and Katie moved their beanbag chairs next to each other and sat down. All the kids in class 4A sat in beanbag chairs. Mr. Guthrie thought kids learned better when they were comfortable.
    “What do you think Mr. G. is up to this time?” Emma W. whispered to Katie.
    “It could be anything,” Katie told her.
    The kids didn’t have to wait long to find out. Just then, Mr. Guthrie stood up and wrote three words on the blackboard.
    WHO AM I?
    George Brennan raised his hand high. “Finally, a question I can answer,” he joked. “You’re Mr. Guthrie.”
    “Correct,” Mr. Guthrie laughed. “But actually, Who Am I? is the name of your new assignment.”
    Now everyone in the class was confused.
    “Let me explain,” Mr. Guthrie said. “Each of you will pick a famous person to research. Then, in two weeks, you will give an oral report, pretending to be that person. You have to dress up like him or her. And when you talk, you should try to sound like that person. Try to use some quotes that the person you choose actually said. Then the rest of the class will have to guess who you are.”
    “Do we have to pick a person from history? Can it be a movie star or an athlete?” Mandy Banks asked.
    “You can choose anyone you want—as long as there’s enough information on that person for you to do your report,” Mr. Guthrie told her.
    “I know just who I want to be!” George exclaimed. “I want to be . . .”

    “Don’t tell,” Mr. Guthrie said, holding up his hand. “That’ll ruin the guessing part of the report.”
    “This is so cool,” Kevin Camilleri said.
    Katie didn’t think it was so cool.