Once Upon a Toad Read Online Free PDF

this, but he’d left before dawn for Klamath Lake. Every spring he drives down to help out with the annual count of the migrating waterfowl, then stops in Ashland to visit my grandparents. Olivia was taking full advantage of his absence, and Iz was distracted with Geoffrey, who had developed a bad case of spaghetti leg.
    Spaghetti leg is what Iz calls it when Geoffrey goes all limp and doesn’t want to do something. For some reason he’d decided that he didn’t want to go to preschool this morning, so he was on strike, lying flat on his back on the rug in his bedroom. Iz couldn’t get him dressed because he wasn’t cooperating. I could tell that her patience was wearing thin. My stepmother is not a morning person.
    â€œShe’s an artist,” my dad always says. “Lots of artists are night owls.”
    My father, on the other hand, is an early bird. Which is appropriate, given his choice of career.
    â€œOlivia! Hurry up in there!” Iz shouted, trying to stuff my little brother’s legs into his pants. “Give me a hand, would you, Cat? I’ll deal with your sister.”
    Stepsister , I thought automatically, but didn’t say aloud, of course.
    I crossed over to them. “C’mon, G-Man,” I encouraged. “Preschool is fun.”
    He shook his head, clutching his blanket. He’s had the thing since he was a baby, and if he were my kid, I’d make him throw it away. It’s totally disgusting. Once upon a time it was a down comforter, but it had long since lost its feathers and its original color. Now it just hung there like a limp, dingy, bluish gray rag. Plus, it smelled .
    â€œAll aboard for fun!” I called, trying again. I pretended to be a train and raced around the room on my knees, following the pattern on his carpet. Geoffrey likes it when I do that. It’s one of those Traffic Tyme rugs that they sell in all the kids’ furniture stores. My dad calls it “little-boy heaven”—it’s got traffic lanes and parking spots and stop signs and stuff like that.
    Geoffrey pulled his finger out of his mouth and smiled at me.
    â€œGotcha!” I said, pulling him upright. I wrestled him into his clothes, then gave him a piggyback ride down the hall to where Iz was standing outside the bathroom.
    â€œOlivia!” she called again, rattling the door handle.
    â€œAlmost done!” my stepsister called back.
    Iz took Geoffrey from me. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œDid I take too long?” Olivia asked as she finally emerged,her eyes wide in feigned innocence.
    I pushed past her without a word and closed the door behind me, glancing at the clock on the wall. There was no time for a shower, and Iz had already told me she couldn’t drive me because she had to go right from dropping Geoffrey off at preschool to a photo shoot.
    I had to settle for washing my face and brushing my teeth and swiping a brush through my hair. I looked at myself in the mirror and sighed. It wasn’t much of an improvement. The left side of my hair was still full of snarls and sticking out where I’d slept on it.
    To get even, I took Olivia’s toothbrush and dunked it in the toilet. Served her right.
    The day went from bad to worse. Every time I got anywhere near Olivia at school, she wrinkled her nose and sniffed suspiciously. Pretty soon she had Piper and their friends doing it too. I knew I didn’t smell—I might not have showered but I’d remembered to put on deodorant, at least—but still, it was starting to give me a complex.
    And then, at lunch, I was sitting at the band table talking to my friends when I heard a tapping noise behind me. I turned around to see Olivia and Piper and the Hawk Creek Tappers heading toward me across the cafeteria.
    Tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety -SNIFF! Tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety-tappety -SNIFF! The cafeteria fell silent as