My Pops Is Tops! Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman shouted up at Katie.
    Katie gulped. This was so not good!
    “Looks like you’ve lost your touch at pool, too, Max.” Nate chuckled.
    Katie couldn’t take it anymore. She was so upset, she forgot she was supposed to be her grandfather. She just felt like a fourth-grade girl who was being made fun of. And so she did what any fourth-grader would do in this situation.

    “Stop being so mean to me!” she shouted. Then she ran out of the room and headed for home.

Chapter 10
    Katie ran as fast as her grandfather’s legs could carry her. When she reached the corner before his house, she stopped and bent down slightly to catch her breath. She rubbed the top of her thighs with her hands. They were kind of achy.
    Poor Pops. When he got back into his own body, he was going to be pretty sore from all the running.
    And that wasn’t even the most horrible thing Katie had done to her grandfather today. She’d embarrassed Pops in front of his friends. She hadn’t meant to. But Katie wasn’t Pops. She wasn’t good at the same things he was.
    Katie and her friends had been wrong to think kids were better than grandparents when it came to competitions. There were things older people could beat kids at. Things like Scrabble and pool. Probably plenty of other things, too.
    Just then, Katie felt a slight breeze on the back of her neck. The cool wind felt nice as it gently blew on her.
    But then, suddenly, the breeze wasn’t so gentle anymore. It was getting stronger and stronger. Now it was a powerful tornado. A tornado that was swirling just around Katie.
    The magic wind was back!
    Katie grabbed onto a nearby mailbox and held on tight, just to keep from being blown down the block. The magic wind blew and blew, harder and harder. It whirled and swirled, lifting Katie’s legs right off the ground.
    And then it stopped. Just like that. Katie was back.
    So was Pops. And boy, was he confused!
    “How did I get here?” he asked Katie, shaking his head and looking puzzled. “The last thing I remember, I was still in bed.”
    “You . . . um . . . you ran here from the clubhouse,” Katie told him.
    Pops rubbed his legs. “That explains why I’m stiff,” he said. “But what was I doing in the clubhouse?”
    “Playing Scrabble and pool,” Katie said.
    “That really happened?” Pops asked her. “I thought I was dreaming.”

    “It happened,” Katie said with a frown.
    “I did pretty badly, huh?” Pops asked her.
    Before Katie could answer, Nate and John came walking up to them.
    “There you are, Max,” John said.
    “You ran out of there so fast, we couldn’t catch up,” Nate added. “We didn’t know you were a track star!”
    “We were just joking with you, Max. We weren’t being mean,” John told him. “But what happened to you today?”
    Pops sighed. “I’m not really sure,” he said. “It’s all kind of fuzzy.”
    “Anybody can have a bad day,” Katie piped up. She frowned slightly. Pops had had a really bad day—all because of her.
    But Katie had a great idea about how to change all that. “I bet if Pops went back to the clubhouse right now, he could beat both of you at anything!” she exclaimed with pride.
    Pops smiled at Katie. “Have you fellas met my granddaughter?” he asked Nate and John.
    “No,” John said.
    “I’m Katie,” she told the men, holding out her hand.
    “When did you get here?” Nate asked her.
    “Last night,” Katie said. “But I was . . . er . . . I was still sleeping when Pops went to play with you.” Okay, so that was a lie. But she couldn’t tell them what really happened, could she?
    “Just as well you weren’t there,” Pops said. “It was pretty embarrassing.”
    “Let’s go back now,” Katie told him. “It’s a rematch!”

    “Seven ball in the corner pocket,” Pops said as he leaned over the pool table and steadied his cue. With one smooth motion, he tapped the white ball. It rolled smoothly across the table and knocked the seven ball into the