Katharine the Almost Great: The Biggest Star by Far
CHAPTER 1 Barf-a-Rama Drama C rockett spotted it first He rushed over to the poster hanging outside our classroom He put his hand on my shoulder Too bad you can’t be in it you’d be great How true I was a super-duper fab-u-lo-so actor but nobody besides my stuffed animals and Crockett knew it Why Because I have a humongous ginormous problem stage fright 5
If you have stage fright you can’t read your Earth Day essay out loud even if it won second place in a contest You can’t sing the songs you learned for your grandparents even they drove hundreds of miles to see you and brought a present if And if you’re supposed to perform in front of strangers there’s only one thing a person with stage fright can do throw up So that’s what I did Twice My first stage fright freak-out was in kindergarten I was a jack-in-the-box and was supposed to say Welcome to Liberty Corner School But I refused to pop-a-rooni out of the box When the curtain finally closed I ran to the bathroom and barfed Then there was the time in first grade when I was a penguin All I had to do was waddle onto the stage and say Baby penguins are called chicks Easy 6
breezy right Wrong I only waddled three steps before upchucking on Johnny Mazzaratti’s feet In second grade I was the Queen of Hearts I had to search for royal subjects who were performing good deeds in the kingdom During dress rehearsal Crockett had to whisper my lines to me After that I just knew that if I got up on stage it would be kindergarten and first grade all over again So at breakfast the next day I announced I can’t go to school I’m sick Mom felt my forehead You don’t feel warm I have a disease I insisted Stage fright-itis Dad laughed Mom folded her arms Are you afraid to be the Queen of Hearts 7
