Anyone But Me Read Free Page A

eighteen pairs of giant eyes were peering through the glass window. They were all staring at Katie.
    Katie was really confused. How could this have happened? It didn’t make any sense. People didn’t just turn into hamsters.
    Then Katie remembered. She’d made that wish the night before. She’d said she wanted to be anyone but herself!
    “Why did this have to be my first wish to come true?” Katie yelped. (Of course, to the kids in class 3A, her words sounded more like “Squeak, squeak squeak, squeak squeak!”)
    “Somebody should throw some oil on that hamster!” George exclaimed. “That’ll stop his squeaking.”
    “Oh, George, be quiet,” Suzanne told him. “Something is obviously bothering the little guy. We should try and help him.”
    “It figures a rat would want to help a hamster,” George said. “You’re both in the same family.”
    “Cut it out,” Suzanne replied.
    “Hey, Ratgirl, show us your tail,” George teased.
    Katie wished she could help Suzanne, but she was just a little hamster. Luckily, George had to stop when Mrs. Derkman told them all to sit back down.
    “I’ve got to get out of this cage,” Katie squeaked to herself.
    The problem was that she knew there wasn’t any way out. The only opening in the cage was at the top, and that was covered by a screened lid. The lid was Mrs. Derkman’s way of making sure Speedy didn’t escape. Now the lid was making sure Katie didn’t escape, either.

    There had to be some way to get that lid off. Katie might have a hamster body now, but she still had a human brain. She was smart enough to get out of a hamster cage. She just had to come up with a plan.
    Before she could think about anything, though, she had to deal with her teeth. They were feeling really long. She needed to chew on something—and fast! Quickly, Katie scampered over to a small pile of brightly colored pieces of wood.
    “Ahh, that feels better.” Katie sighed as she bit into a bright green chew stick. She could feel her teeth getting shorter with each nibble.
    Suddenly Katie had an idea. She took the green chew stick in her mouth and placed it on top of a yellow one. Then she grabbed a blue stick and placed it on top of the green one.

    If I can just build this high enough, maybe I can climb up and push the lid off, Katie thought to herself, as she took an orange chew stick and added it to the pile.
    It took a while, but at last Katie built what had to be the biggest chew-stick ladder of all time. (It also was probably the only chew-stick ladder of all time!) If Katie could climb to the top of the pile, she might be able to reach the lid.
    “Hey, look what Speedy made,” she heard Manny Gonzalez whisper to Kevin.
    “Cool!” Kevin agreed. “It’s like a chew-stick mountain.”
    Katie licked her little front paws and admired her work. She took a deep breath. It was time to try out her plan. Carefully, Katie stepped onto the bottom chew stick. So far so good, she thought.
    Once Katie was safely on the first rung of the ladder, she stood tall on her hind legs and tried to pull herself up to the next rung.
    Bonk! The entire pile of chew sticks came crashing down on top of Katie’s head. Luckily, the sticks were made of a soft wood. Katie wasn’t hurt. And it was kind of fun eating her way out of the pile of chew sticks.
    “I have to stop this!” Katie said to herself as she chewed. “I’ll never get out of here if I don’t stop thinking like a hamster.”
    The trouble was, Katie was a hamster. And right then she suddenly couldn’t think about anything but Speedy’s hamster wheel. Katie couldn’t explain why she suddenly needed to run so badly. She just did. She couldn’t help herself.

    “Hey, this is fun,” Katie squealed as her tiny paws moved faster and faster inside the wheel.
    The wheel squeaked very loudly as Katie ran. The noise didn’t bother Katie’s sensitive hamster ears. In fact, she kind of liked it. Mrs. Derkman, on the other hand, didn’t like