I’m No Expert

It had started out to be a great day. Ms. Hernandez began the morning with a “Let’s Think Together” time, Katie’s very favorite thing to do in school.

Ms. Hernandez wrote the word “expert” on the board and then turned to face the class.

“Let’s think together. What’s an expert?”

“Someone who knows about something?” Kyle said.

Ms. Hernandez wrote “knows about something” on the board next to “expert.” Before she’d turned around, Nisha had her hand up.

“Something else, Nisha?”

Nisha sat next to Katie. She loved “Let’s Think Together,” too, and usually had great ideas. Katie smiled at Nisha and waited to hear what she’d say.

“To be an expert, you have to know a lot about something.”

“Good adding, Nisha,” said Ms. Hernandez. She drew an arrow and wrote “a lot” just above Kyle’s comment.

Suddenly Katie had an idea, too. Up went her hand.

“Katie?”

“When you’re an expert, you know a whole lot. But it’s not just a bunch of information. It’s that you can use what you know to solve problems.”

“Nice developing, Katie,” praised Ms. Hernandez as she added “solve problems” to the board.

Katie and Nisha bumped fists under their desks.

“Everyone’s an expert at something,” Ms. Hernandez said. “And to prove it, we’re going to have an Expert Project. Each one of you will choose a topic, and you’ll create a presentation on it for the class and our parents on Open School night.”

Katie’s eyes got big. A presentation? In front of everyone? She suddenly had a picture in her head of her moms sitting side by side smiling proudly as she—well, what could she do?

Kyle’s hand went up. “Can I show my rockets and talk about how my dad and I put them together and shoot them off in the park?”

“Excellent idea, Kyle,” Ms. Hernandez said. “You’ll be our rocketry expert.”

“And can I show the website I’m creating with my brother and sister?” asked Nisha. “It’s got lots of cool stuff!”

“Perfect, Nisha. You’ll be our website expert,” smiled Ms. Hernandez.

Katie thought of Kyle shooting off rockets into a high, blue sky. She thought of Nisha adding great graphics and links to her website. She tried hard to think of something that she could do really well. But she couldn’t think of anything at all.

“I’m not an expert at anything,” she thought sadly.

Katie felt as if Ms. Hernandez’s eyes were on her. She couldn’t tell for sure, because she was staring down at her desk. She just hoped that Ms. Hernandez would start talking about something else rather than the Expert Project.

“I’m sure each of you will have an idea about your topic before long,” Ms. Hernandez said. “Just let me know what you’ve decided. And now, let’s open our math books to the equations we were working on yesterday.”

Katie took out her book and dove into the math problems. At least she wouldn’t have to think about not being an expert at anything for now.

When MomAnna picked her up at school, Katie told her about the Expert Project and how she wasn’t an expert at anything.

“That’s not true, Katie,” MomAnna told her as they walked by their garden. MomAnna and Katie had worked to help the plants to grow all summer, and now they were enjoying tomatoes and zucchini in a million different ways.

“You’re an expert gardener, Katie,” MomAnna said. “You can bring some tomatoes and zucchini to school to show. We’ll stack them in the big wicker basket, and I’ll carry it in with you. And remember the photos we took of the plants growing? I’ll put them on the flash drive, and you can show them, too!”

Katie loved working in the garden, but she remembered that it was MomAnna who really knew what to do. Katie helped, but she wasn’t an expert.

MomAnna kissed Katie on the top of her head. “We can talk about it more at dinner.”

When MomLee came home from her office, Katie told her about the Expert Project problem, too.

“Hey, Katiekid,” MomLee said, hugging her. “How about the recorder? You’re terrific when you play! We can choose a piece to practice, and I’ll play piano. We can perform together, if you want.”

Katie thought about all the squeaking and squawking sounds she made on her recorder while MomLee played piano so beautifully. MomLee always told her she was getting better and better. But she knew she wasn’t an expert at all.

“We can talk about it at dinner,” MomLee said. She kissed Katie and went to help in the kitchen.

Katie plopped down on the stairs to mope. Then she remembered Gus. She raced up the stairs to her room.

As she took the stairs two at a time, she began to feel happier. Gus, the golden hamster, would be awake now, and probably would have finished eating his food. He’d be full of energy, and Katie knew it was the perfect time to play with him.

When Katie begged the moms for a pet, they agreed to get her a hamster, but only if Katie would feed and take care of him all by herself. Katie went to the school media center and her neighborhood library and read every book she could find about hamsters. MomAnna helped her to go online for more information, too.

By the time Gus came home, Katie had his cage placed on a table next to her desk. The cage had the right kind of food, a good water bottle, and a little wheel so he could run for exercise.

She’d learned that Gus was nocturnal, and so the best time to play would be in the evening. It seemed there was always something else to know about hamsters, and Katie loved to find out more.

As Katie walked into her room, she sang out “Gus! Gus! I’m home!” When Gus heard that, he would scamper to the front of his cage in excitement. But Katie didn’t hear anything.

She turned to look into the cage, and what she saw made her gasp. The wire door to the cage was open. Gus was gone!

Katie wanted to cry and call to her moms for help. But she remembered that she was the one who was supposed to take care of Gus. She’d made a promise, and she’d worked hard to take care of her pet. Katie took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

“I’ve got to think. Where would Gus be? Let’s see—it’s the end of the day, so he just woke up. He’s probably eaten, so he’s full of energy. Where would he go?”

Katie looked carefully at the cage. Gus had got the door open. But then what? He could have run along the table to her desk. Katie looked around and behind her computer and her books and her pencil box and her clock, but she didn’t find Gus. Then she noticed her desk chair.

If Gus jumped from the desk to the seat of her chair, Katie realized, he could then scurry down the leg of the chair to the floor. She looked around her room, and tried to think of places Gus could be. There were so many, it made her want to cry again. How could she find him?

“I’ve got to think,” she said out loud. “Think like Gus! Think like a hamster! If I were Gus, where would I go?”

Quickly Katie dropped down on her hands and knees and started to crawl. If she pretended she was Gus, she might be able to find him. Katie looked under her desk, way back toward the wall. She found nothing but a pencil and some dust. She looked under her bed. There were only her flip-flops from last summer. No Gus.

She crawled around her bed and looked under from the other side, just to be sure. Then she saw her closet. The door was a little bit open.

Quickly Katie scurried over to the closet and peeked in. It was dark, but she could see her sneakers on the floor. She crawled in quietly, whispering.

“Gus! Gus! It’s me, Katie.”

She looked around. There was no sign of her hamster.

“I’m looking for you, Gus! Where are you?”

There was a scuffling sound. And then suddenly, she saw a furry head poking up out of her left sneaker. It was Gus! He looked so funny that Katie laughed right out loud. Gus scooted back down to hide again.

“Oh, Gus, you silly hamster!” said Katie, crawling over to the shoe. She picked him up very gently and petted his furry, golden head. “You gave me a scare. It’s a good thing I found you.”

Katie put her hamster back in his cage. She thought about how worried she’d been about Gus. She thought about how she’d almost given up and just cried.

Then she thought about how she’d found Gus. She’d used what she knew to solve the problem. Maybe that meant she was an expert at something after all.

Just then Kate heard MomAnna call, “Katie! Time for dinner!”

Katie blew Gus a kiss and headed down the stairs. “I’m coming,” she called. “And let’s talk about the Expert Project. I think I’m ready!”