Amelia Bedelia & Friends #2 Read online

  Dedication

  For Eva, our cat’s meow

  —H. P.

  This book is for Amelia Bedelia’s dad, who saved the day!

  —L. A.

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: If at First You Don’t Succeed

  Chapter 2: Moving Your Marbles (without losing your marbles)

  Chapter 3: “Curiosity Killed the Cat . . .”

  Chapter 4: Thinking Outside the Can

  Chapter 5: Out on a Limb

  Chapter 6: One Fire Truck, Hold the Siren

  Chapter 7: Pleased to Meet You . . . Ahh-choo!

  Chapter 8: The Cat Turns into a Pumpkin

  Chapter 9: Coupons for a Cat

  Chapter 10: Extra! Extra! Read All About It Pumpkin

  Chapter 11: Pumpkin Vanishes

  Chapter 12: “. . . but Satisfaction Brought Her Back.”

  Meee-oooo-wwww! Cat Facts!

  Meet Amelia Bedelia

  Two Ways to Say It

  Back Ads

  Spot the Difference

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  “Remember, people!” said Ms. Garcia, Amelia Bedelia’s science teacher at Oak Tree Elementary. “All great inventors think outside the box!”

  Amelia Bedelia looked at her friend Joy and shrugged. Teachers were always telling them to think outside the box. Amelia Bedelia rarely stood in a box to think, and neither did any of her friends. But Amelia Bedelia had also never invented anything famous—at least not yet. Not a lightbulb, like Thomas Edison . . . or shampoo made out of peanuts, like George Washington Carver . . . or a chocolate chip cookie, like Ruth Wakefield . . . or even a pair of earmuffs, like Chester Greenwood.

  “An inventor starts with a problem and then finds a solution that doesn’t already exist,” Ms. Garcia continued. “So let’s think about that for a minute. What is a problem that you would like to solve?”

  Amelia Bedelia’s friend Cliff waved his hand. “Too much homework!” he shouted.

  Some of the other kids groaned and agreed.

  “Okay, so what could you invent to help with that?” asked Ms. Garcia.

  “A machine that does my homework for me?” Cliff suggested.

  “Fun! But would that solve the whole problem?” Ms. Garcia asked. “You wouldn’t have to spend so much time doing homework, true . . . but you also wouldn’t learn anything and then you’d be stuck at Oak Tree Elementary forever.”

  “Like our big oak tree out front,” said Penny.

  “Can someone come up with an invention to help Cliff out?” asked Ms. Garcia.

  Joy had an idea. “How about a helmet that beams homework directly from your head onto the paper? Then you’d still learn stuff, but you wouldn’t spend so much time writing everything down. You could do your homework while you were having fun or even when you’re asleep!”

  “Excellent idea!” said Ms. Garcia. “Anybody else have a problem they’d like us to solve with an invention?”

  “I hate lima beans!” said Penny called out. “And my mom makes me eat them.”

  “Oh, a lot of people have that problem. What’s your invention?” asked Ms. Garcia.

  Penny drummed her fingers on her desk. “A special ring that converts lima beans into chocolate!” she said. “You could use it right at the table.”

  “Fantastic! Amelia Bedelia, what about you? Do you have a problem you’d like to solve?” said Ms. Garcia.

  Amelia Bedelia thought about this.

  Mostly she figured that her life was pretty good. Sure, some days she would rather stay home and bake than go to school . . . but then she thought about how much fun it was to see her friends. Some days her mother did indeed serve lima beans for dinner . . . but she usually made Amelia Bedelia eat only a bite or two.

  But there was one thing. . . .

  “My dog, Finally, poops in our backyard,” she said. “It’s my job to pick it up. And it’s gross!”

  The class laughed. Amelia Bedelia laughed too. It was funny . . . but it was also true! She knew it was part of taking care of a dog. She loved Finally. She loved all animals.

  “Most pet owners have that same problem,” Ms. Garcia said. “What’s a solution?”

  The class came up with a lot of ideas for this one.

  A robot pooper scooper!

  A spray that instantly melted poop into fertilizer!

  A dog trainer who could train Finally to pick up her own poop!

  Puppy diapers!

  A puppy porta-potty!

  “That’s thinking outside the box!” said Ms. Garcia. “Very creative. Very inventive! Now, for the rest of the period, I’d like you each to try inventing something of your own.”

  She waved her hand toward the back of the science classroom. Piled on top of a long table were all sorts of supplies—rubber wheels, metal cogs, plastic tubes, boards with holes in them, wires, cords, tape, glue, staples, and more.

  “Here’s the problem I want you to solve, inventors,” she said. “Suppose you have five marbles, and you want to move all five of them at least twelve inches. You can’t touch the marbles or pick them up in your hands. How can you do it? What can you make to help you? Go ahead and get started—and remember, a good inventor is nimble! You must think on your feet!”

  Amelia Bedelia jumped up from her chair and bounced up and down on her toes.

  “Good inventors are persistent! They never give up!” Ms. Garcia went on. “And most importantly, a good inventor knows that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. We have about thirty more minutes. Let’s see who can solve it.”

  Amelia Bedelia froze. What a horrible idea! Who would want to skin a cat?

  She looked around the classroom.

  There was Hermione, the corn snake, dozing in her cage, draped over a log. There was Harriet, the hamster, running happily on her wheel, which squeaked and creaked under her tiny pink feet. No cat, which was a relief.

  Amelia Bedelia and her friends headed over to the long table, talking about what they could build to solve the challenge. Amelia Bedelia stood next to her friend Penny. “Have you seen the cat?” she whispered.

  “What cat?” asked Penny.

  All around them, kids were brainstorming and examining the objects on the table. Skip was using duct tape to attach several cardboard tubes together. Joy had picked up a long piece of wood and was stacking up blocks to make a ramp. Heather was wrapping string around a rubber ball. Everybody seemed to be concentrating on their projects.

  But Amelia Bedelia really couldn’t concentrate when there was a cat that might need her help.

  She glanced around the room again. She bent down to peer under all the desks. No cat.

  “Are you looking for dust bunnies?” Penny asked her.

  Amelia Bedelia straightened up and shook her head. “No!” she whispered. “The cat!”

  There was only one place left to look. If there was a cat in the science room, it must be behind Ms. Garcia’s desk.

  While Ms. Garcia was talking to Holly and Clay, Amelia Bedelia took a chance.

  She darted across the room and slipped down behind Ms. Garcia’s desk. Crouching, she pushed Ms. Garcia’s chair aside and peered into the space beneath the desk.

  No cat.

  What about the big desk drawers? Could a cat could be hiding in there? Amelia Bedelia tugged one open and peeked in. It was full of school supplies. No cat.

  “Amelia Bedelia?” said a voice behind her. “What are you doing?”

  Amelia Bedelia jumped, smacking the top of her head on the desk. EEEE-OW! EEEE-OW! EEEE-OW! The desk drawer slipped out of her hand and thumped shut.

  Was she in
trouble?

  Nope, mainly because the person standing over her wasn’t Ms. Garcia. It was Penny, gazing at Amelia Bedelia wide-eyed through her glasses.

  “Amelia Bedelia,” whispered Penny. “Come on! Everybody got a head start on us. We only have a few more minutes to make something!”

  She grabbed Amelia Bedelia’s arm and pulled her back over to the maker table. Ms. Garcia was watching Clay demonstrate a slingshot he’d made with some sticks and rubber bands.

  Everybody else was already testing their inventions and even making improvements. Amelia Bedelia and Penny had some catching up to do.

  Amelia Bedelia needed a good idea. There was a big cardboard box in the middle of the table. She started with that. She put the box on the floor and jumped into it. She counted to ten, then she hopped out.

  No new ideas popped into her brain. She frowned. Weird. Why wasn’t this working? She stepped back into the box.

  “Amelia Bedelia, what are you doing?” said a voice behind her. This time it was Ms. Garcia.

  Amelia Bedelia stepped back out of the box. “I’m thinking outside the box,” she said.

  Ms. Garcia smiled. “Amelia Bedelia, you’re very good at coming up with great ideas. You are a great thinker. You don’t need a box. All you need is your brain! Now ready, set, think!”

  Ms. Garcia moved around the table to check on Joy’s progress. Joy had used a thin piece of wood to build a ramp. She was trying to roll a marble down it. But her ramp was too steep, and the marble kept veering off to one side or the other.

  “Failure is a part of invention,” Ms. Garcia said. “Remember, a good inventor is always ready to go back to the drawing board!”

  Amelia Bedelia smiled. Exactly! She reached across the table and grabbed a board just like the one Joy was using. She found a pencil. Then she went to work.

  The science room was quiet except for the sound of marbles rolling, tape unrolling, and Harriet scampering on her wheel. Amelia Bedelia concentrated on her board, sketching out her idea.

  “Anyone have an invention ready to go?” Ms. Garcia finally asked, breaking the silence.

  Amelia Bedelia raised her hand.

  “Okay, come over here and show us all!” said Ms. Garcia, pointing to a small table on the other side of the science room. Five white marbles sat on the table. Ms. Garcia had used masking tape to mark off a distance of twelve inches.

  “Can you get the marbles from here to there without touching them?” Ms. Garcia pointed to the start line and the finish line.

  Amelia Bedelia nodded as her classmates gathered all around.

  She kneeled and slipped her board underneath two of the table legs.

  Now the table was tilted, with one end, the end closest to the starting line, a little bit higher than the other. Slowly the marbles began to roll across the surface of the table. When they had almost reached the twelve-inch mark, Amelia Bedelia slipped her board out from under the table legs, and the marbles rolled to a stop.

  “Whoa! You did it!” said Clay, giving Amelia Bedelia a high five.

  “I went back to the drawing board!” she said. “And it worked!”

  Skip had made a suction tube with paper-towel rolls and a turkey baster. But he could only get one marble to the finish line. “Keep thinking!” said Ms. Garcia. “Is there another way to approach this puzzle?”

  Joy had constructed a ramp out of a board and blocks, and she had taped together a paper scoop to pick up the marbles so she could place them on the top of the ramp. But three of her marbles fell off the ramp before they’d moved twelve inches. “Keep making improvements,” said Ms. Garcia. “How can you slow the momentum of a marble?”

  Cliff’s slingshot was very good at moving the marbles, but he had to pick them up to put them in it. “How can you solve that?” said Ms. Garcia. “Turn the problem over in your mind.”

  Out of all the kids in the class, only Amelia Bedelia had made an invention that moved all five marbles twelve inches without her touching them once.

  When the bell finally rang for recess, everyone ran outside. Joy grabbed a ball, and Amelia Bedelia, Dawn, Skip, Wade, Joy, and Penny raced to the foursquare court. It was their favorite recess game.

  SMACK! Amelia Bedelia whacked the ball as hard as she could. It bounded into Skip’s square, and he whacked it back to her. SMACK!

  SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

  The ball bounced from Skip to Penny to Joy to Amelia Bedelia. Back to Joy . . . back to Amelia Bedelia . . . who gave it the hardest whack she could.

  SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

  The ball whizzed into Penny’s square, bounced once, and kept going. Penny lunged for it, but missed. She was out!

  The ball was out, too—out of the foursquare court. It rolled over the playground and bounded down a little hill, scattering wood chips.

  “I’ll get it!” yelled Amelia Bedelia, chasing after the ball.

  The ball gained speed as it headed down the hill, just as the marbles had gotten faster when they’d headed down Joy’s ramp. It bounced across a little patch of grass and rolled between some trees in the far corner of the playground.

  Amelia Bedelia plunged right after it.

  It was so shady under the trees, and it felt nice and cool. Amelia Bedelia spotted the ball under a bush. She grabbed it and turned to run back to the game.

  “Oooooow!”

  A high-pitched cry echoed through the trees.

  “Ooooooowwwww!”

  The cry sent a shiver through Amelia Bedelia.

  She did not believe in ghosts. But if ghosts were real and if ghosts were haunting the playground at Oak Tree Elementary, she was pretty sure they would sound like that.

  “Amelia Bedelia? Are you okay?” said a voice behind her.

  Amelia Bedelia jumped. She whipped around to see Penny, who had followed her.

  “What’s taking so long?” asked Penny.

  “I heard a spooky noise,” said Amelia Bedelia.

  Penny’s eyes got wide. “What noise?” she asked.

  “Oooooowwwww . . .”

  “That noise,” said Amelia Bedelia. It sounded as if it was coming from somewhere high up in the air.

  “Oooooowwwww . . .”

  Penny and Amelia Bedelia looked at each other. “What is that?” Penny whispered.

  Now Amelia Bedelia was getting really nervous. But she was curious, too. “Let’s find out!” she whispered back.

  “I don’t know.” Penny shook her head. “My mom always says curiosity killed the cat.”

  “We’re not cats!” said Amelia Bedelia. “Come on!”

  Amelia Bedelia tiptoed around a tree trunk, right toward the place where the sound had come from. Penny followed her, and Amelia Bedelia was glad about that. If you are investigating a spooky noise, it’s good to have a friend with you.

  They picked their way over fallen branches and clumps of grass. When they got very close to the fence that separated the playground from the street—“Oooooowwwww!”—they heard the sound again, right above their heads. Penny gasped. Amelia Bedelia gulped.

  They both looked up. Then they looked at each other. They both grinned.

  “A cat!” said Amelia Bedelia.

  Sure enough, there was a cat up in the tree. The cat was white with orange and black spots. It didn’t look like a very big cat. More like a half-grown kitten. It clung to the bark of the maple tree with all four paws.

  “Meeeeee-oooooooow!” it yowled.

  “I think it’s stuck,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Here, kitty kitty, come on down!”

  “I don’t think it knows how,” said Penny. “Cats are good at climbing up, but not so good at coming back down. I don’t think it can get out of the tree.”

  “It’s practically a baby,” said Amelia Bedelia. “It looks scared.”

  “We have to help it,” said Penny. “It’s so cute!”

  Amelia Bedelia nodded. “That cat has a problem, and we need to invent a solution,” she said.

  “Hey, P
enny! Hey, Amelia Bedelia! What’s going on?” Skip had come into the trees after them. “Did you find the ball?” he asked.

  “Yup,” said Amelia Bedelia, pointing at the leafy top of the maple tree. “And look what else we found!”

  “Aw, poor girl,” said Skip, looking up.

  “How do you know it’s a girl?” asked Penny.

  “Because it’s a calico,” said Skip. “It’s orange and black and white. Almost all calicos are girls. How are we going to get it down?”

  “We need to invent something!” said Amelia Bedelia.

  A few minutes later Joy, Angel, Dawn, and Wade arrived, crowding around the base of the tree and looking up at the kitten. Everyone was doing their best to brainstorm ideas to rescue the cat.

  “We need something long to poke it with!” said Wade. “Then it will jump down and we can catch it.” He and Joy went searching for a long stick. But the longest one they could find didn’t even reach halfway up the tree trunk.

  “It’s too short,” said Penny. “Anyway, if we poke her, it might hurt and make her scramble up higher.”

  “If we take off our jackets and hoodies, we could make a pile at the bottom of the tree,” said Joy. “Then she’ll have a soft place to land.”