Katrina and the Cat’s Jewel-Chapter One-Kim

By Lily Liu

Katrina licked a piece gum, and then shoved it back under tongue. She started to write.

The Story Behind Bees: How bees make things we use everyday

By Katrina Corel

…

All her life, Katrina had used her middle name, Corel, as her last name. That was because she hated her real last name. Ex. But she liked how many changes she could make to her middle and last name. And her first name, too. She could make herself Kat Corelex, Kathy Corelex, Katy Corelex, or Katrina Corelex. She could also be Kat Corel, Kathy Corel, Katy Corel, or Katrina Corel. That was not all. She could be Kat Ex, Kathy Ex, Katy Ex, Katrina Ex, or Corel Ex. She could even change the order of her name! Once, on her paper, this had happened:

Corelex Kat

Name:____________

The teacher had thought she was crazy. She had personally just put it that way and the teacher thought she was crazy.  She continued to write on her paper. She soon wrote the last paragraph.

Bees make honeycombs to store their honey they make. It may seem bad to take that honey away, but the honey we use doesn’t come from wild bees. Instead… they use farm kept bees to make honey! That’s because farm kept bees make much more honey than they need, so the rest is stored away. It’s amazing how we get honey, and the wax from honeycombs, too!

Thank you for reading, Katrina Corel.

Katrina licked her gum again. I wish I had honey, she thought. She ducked under her desk and blew a bubble. She was using bubble gum. It was very sweet, as sweet as honey.

…

Suddenly, a student’s head poked down. Katrina quickly released her gum, but it was too late. “Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Brown! Katrina is chewing bubble gum in class!” the student shouted. Tattletale, thought Katrina. She knew that boy. The guy who told everyone about his pocketknife and told on everyone. He also shredded erasers with his “special” pocketknife. His name was Frank. What’s so good about a pocketknife if you get in trouble when you use it? Katrina thought.

“Don’t shout, Frank!” Mrs. Brown yelled.

“You’re shouting,” Frank replied innocently. “So why can’t I?”

“Be quiet, Frank,” his sister Ana elbowed him. “Don’t you have some common sense? No one would chew gum in front of Mrs. Brown.” Ana was a year older than thirteen-year-old Frank.

…

Frank William should be put in seventh grade, not eighth grade. Ana William can stay. She’s much more practical. Thought Katrina, I’m just glad reading is over. It wasn’t that reading was impractical to her, just that they had read a drama. They had decided to do a reader’s theater about it. Katrina had to be what seemed like the most disgusting part in it. She’d be a man if she had to, which was really saying something since Katrina usually despised being men. But instead, since there were less men in the drama, she got the most disgusting role with one line, the most disgusting line.

Katrina looked at Kim, on her left, and Mary, on her right. Kim and Mary were both right-handed. But Katrina was left-handed. Ana, sitting across from her, was left-handed, too. Frank was not handed at all. He did have hands, but he didn’t write well with either of them. It looked like he was using three-year-old handwriting. She peeked over his arm and here is what she saw:

          Well, I can’t read it, she thought. Then, looked over at Kim’s paper:

From Hive to Store: How bees make products we use

          Ana’s was:

How Products We Use Come To Us: The way products from bees are made

          Finally, Mary:

Honey, And Beeswax: A story of how it’s made

          All right. That was enough. Katrina leaned over to Kim, “If I tell you a secret, will you be my friend?” She had needed someone to talk to all class.

          Kim shrugged. “Sure.”

          “I can turn into a cat,” Katrina whispered.

          Kim’s eyes lit up with excitement. “You mean you can change your genetics? Like how we changed human genetics, even though they were just fruit rolls, into animal genetics?”

          “Yes.”

…

          The school bell rang. “School is out. Everyone may go,” Mrs. Brown said.

          Everyone lined up and exited, but Kim exited out of the back door. Katrina pushed out the back door and hopped on her bike. Cheerfully, she followed Kim to the Washington Memorial. Maybe Washington DC won’t be as bad as I thought it was, she thought.