Dragon Overnight

by Sarah Mlynowski

  For everyone who has ever wanted to be a dritten.

  Or a skunkephant.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  Teaser

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Card Page

  Copyright

  Zamboozle! No school for three days!”

  Nory Horace bounced and flung her arms over her head. It was a crisp November morning. She had her favorite purple rain boots on, even though it wasn’t raining. Her poufy hair was squashed beneath a knitted cap.

  The Dunwiddle Magic School parking lot was full of families dropping off their kids. Duffel bags and backpacks were piled by the cheerful blue field-trip bus.

  Aunt Margo hugged Nory good-bye. Nory’s aunt was sturdy, pale-skinned, and practical, whereas Nory was wiry, dark-skinned, and lively. “It’s a school trip,” Aunt Margo said. “That’s still school.”

  “Not to me.” Nory wiggled out of the hug and started bouncing again. “No math! No poetry analysis! No interpretive dance! And we’re going to see dragons!”

  “Not just see them, take care of them,” added Marigold Ramos. Marigold was one of Nory’s school friends, but not a best friend. She had long dark hair, a leather jacket, woolly yellow gloves, and a warm smile.

  “Do you think we’ll get to feed them?” Nory asked. “Or pet them? Or ride them? Or cut their toenails? I’d wouldn’t mind cutting some dragon toenails. Really, I wouldn’t.”

  “The dragons don’t need manicures. They need rehabilitation,” said Aunt Margo. “They’re in Dragon Haven because they’re injured and can’t survive in the wild.”

  “I know,” said Nory. “But some will get better and return to their natural habitat, right?”

  Aunt Margo nodded. “Yes. And others will live in the wildlife center for good.”

  “Do you think we can walk them on leashes?” asked Marigold. “Just the little ones, I mean. Not the big ones.”

  Aunt Margo shook her head, laughing. “I should go. I have a client.” She hugged Nory once more. “I’m going to miss you.”

  Nory grinned. “I’ll be too busy petting dragons to be homesick.”

  “Just don’t bring any of them home with you. They’re cute when they’re little, but they take up a lot of room when they’re older!” With one last smile, Aunt Margo wrapped her scarf around her neck, tilted herself into flying position, and took off to pick up the latest passenger for her flying taxi service.

  Flying was one of the five types of typical magic. Then there were Flares, Fluxers, Fuzzies, and Flickers.

  Flyers flew.

  Flares worked with fire and heat.

  Fluxers could turn themselves into animals.

  Fuzzies could talk to and connect with animals.

  Flickers could turn invisible or make other things invisible.

  But not everybody had typical magic that could be neatly described by a word starting with F. Nory didn’t, and neither did Marigold. Marigold shrank things and couldn’t make them big again. Nory was an Upside-Down Fluxer.

  When Nory had turned ten, her magic had bubbled up, like everyone’s did. But her magic had turned out to be … unusual. She didn’t flux into everyday animals like kittens, dogs, and goats. Instead, she turned into mixed-up animals. A puppy with squid legs, for example. A squippy! Or a kitten mixed with a dragon—a dritten!

  Nory’s father, Dr. Stone Horace, was the headmaster of a fancy private magic school called Sage Academy. It was one of the best schools in the country. Nory’s older brother and sister went there.

  But Nory had flunked the Sage Academy admissions test.

  Father had been very, very disappointed in her. That was why he had sent her to live with Aunt Margo. Aunt Margo lived near Dunwiddle Magic School, a public school where an experimental Upside-Down Magic class had just started up. Nory was enrolled there.

  Nory’s teacher, Ms. Starr, turned out to be awesome. And there were only seven other fifth-grade kids in the Upside-Down Magic class, so everybody got a lot of individual attention.

  In the parking lot, Elliott Cohen and Pepper Phan came over to Nory and Marigold. Elliott was Nory’s best friend. He was an Upside-Down Flare. He froze things instead of heating them.

  Pepper was Nory’s other best friend. Pepper was tiny, especially in her enormous puffy coat. She had come to see them off, since she wasn’t going on the trip. The Dragon Haven people thought her magic posed too much of a risk. Pepper was a Fierce, which was a rare kind of Upside-Down Fuzzy. If a typical Fuzzy met a scurry of squirrels, her animal magic would get them eating peanuts out of her hand in no time. But instead of charming animals, Pepper frightened them. Squirrels squinted their tiny eyes and ran away. Hedgehogs dove into holes. Chickadees pooped in terror.

  “I still can’t believe you’re not coming,” Nory said.

  “I just can’t,” Pepper said. “If I fierced an injured dragon, it could hurt itself more. If I fierced a flying dragon, it could escape.”

  Nory pouted. “I know. But it’s so unfair!”

  Pepper shrugged. “Anyway, I get the days off from school. Have double fun for me, all right?” Pepper gave Nory such a quick hug that Nory didn’t have time to hug her back. Then she was gone.

  Nory, Marigold, and Elliott were silent and solemn for a moment. Then Nory forced herself to look on the bright side. “Do you think we’ll get to stay up super late?” she asked her friends.

  “The boys’ cabin is planning ghost stories one night,” said Elliott, nodding.

  “We’ll get to see Ms. Starr in her pajamas!” Nory said to Marigold. “What kind do you think she wears?”

  “Hot pink,” said Elliott.

  “Candy-apple red,” said Marigold.

  Ms. Starr always wore bright colors. Here she came now, in blue jeans, bright green sneakers, and an electric-orange jacket that looked great against her dark skin. Above her floated Andres Padillo on a leash.

  Andres was an Upside-Down Flyer. Like typical Flyers, he could fly, but he went a lot higher than other Flyers his age. The upside-down part was that he couldn’t stop flying.

  At all.

  Half the time, Andres wore a backpack full of bricks to make sure he didn’t float off into the sky. Right now, his brickpack was being carried by Nurse Riley, the school nurse, who was coming on the field trip as a second chaperone. Today was the first time Nory had seen him out of his scrubs. He wore cargo pants and a brown woolly sweater. He looked tough, Nory thought. Like a mountain man instead of a tenderhearted goof who doled out cough drops and Band-Aids.

  Nurse Riley nodded at Ms. Starr and heaved Andres’s brickpack over his shoulder. He made it halfway to the luggage compartment of the bus before dropping the pack and bracing his hands against his legs. “Wow, that’s heavy,” he muttered.

  “We should help Nurse Riley load the bags,” Nory declared.

  She, Marigold, and Elliott formed an assembly line, passing bags from one person to the next until they reached Nurse Riley. He arranged everything in the storage compartment under the bus.

  Sebastian joined them. As usual, he was dressed a little formally, as if he were going to a tea party instead of a wildlife refuge. He had pale skin and bright red cheeks, and he wore a cone around his head, the kind dogs wore after having surgery.

  Sebastian was an Upside-Down Flicker. Typical Fli
ckers could make themselves or other things invisible. Sebastian, on the other hand, could see invisible things, like sound waves. Music was beautiful, he told the others, with intricate patterns. But big crowds and upset tempers hurt his eyes and gave him headaches.

  That’s why he wore his cone when it was going to be a noisy trip. It blocked out some, though not all, of the sound waves that bothered him.

  Finally, it was time to go. They had an entire school bus to themselves. Nory skipped to the last row and Elliott sat down beside her. She leaned back against the vinyl seat. Her stomach felt fizzy with excitement, and she wondered if it was possible for a person to feel her own eyes sparkling.

  She turned to her left. “Hey, Elliott—are my eyes sparkling?”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind,” Nory said. She was sure they were.

  Hey!” Andres called as his leash pulled against his wrist. He had been floating on his back, looking up at the lovely, boring, always-there sky. Now he flipped over—and his pulse rocketed.

  The doors of the bus were closed.

  Closed!

  Ms. Starr, who held the other end of his leash, was in the bus.

  And the bus was moving.

  “HEY!” Andres yelped. The sound ripped out of him. The bus was picking up speed. Everyone down there had forgotten about him.

  He thought about the world that way now. Everyone else was down there. Ever since his upside-down magic kicked in during fourth grade, the world had split in two: up here (sky) and down there (ground).

  It would have been okay if he’d had company in the sky. But the typical Flyers rarely bothered to talk to him, and none of his upside-down magic friends could fly at all, unless you counted Nory when she had wings.

  The bus picked up speed as it crossed the school parking lot.

  Really, people? Andres thought. Really?!

  Luckily, the speed and wind pushed him down until he was level with the windows of the bus. Sitting in the last row he could see Nory, smiling blissfully and doing weird things with her eyes.

  He rapped on the glass. “Hey!”

  Nory startled at the sound. She turned toward him and beamed. “Andres!” she called, and waved.

  She. Actually. Waved.

  Andres scowled. “Let me in! You guys forgot me!”

  Nory’s brow furrowed, and then her mouth opened into a perfect O. She dashed up the aisle.

  The brakes squealed. The bus came to such a hard stop that Andres was flung forward.

  “Ow,” he cried, rubbing his wrist where the leash had dug in. It was probably sprained. It was probably broken! It would probably drop off his arm like a dead fish, and Nory and the others wouldn’t even notice!

  Would his dismembered dead-fish hand float up, like the rest of him? Or would it fall to earth? Either way was bad, and Andres felt very unlucky.

  Ms. Starr pushed through the doors of the bus and ran to him, the handle-end of his leash around her own wrist. “I’m so sorry, Andres. I got distracted by Sebastian. And, oh, I guess I’m a little nervous. It’s my first field trip and my first year teaching, you know. A million things are running through my brain. Anway, I’m truly sorry. I can’t apologize enough.” She tugged him onto the bus.

  Andres rolled his eyes. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

  Ms. Starr released the leash now that they were inside. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Get your brickpack on and find a seat,” she instructed. “Don’t forget to buckle up!”

  The bus lurched forward.

  Andres flew immediately to the top of the bus and bumped his head and back on its roof. He looked for his brickpack. Where was it?

  He could ask Ms. Starr, but Sebastian was having a crisis, whimpering and rocking back and forth. The plastic cone circling his head rocked back and forth with him.

  “Too zippy,” Sebastian moaned. “Too much noise.”

  Ms. Starr patted his back. Nurse Riley suggested he close his eyes.

  “You don’t understand!” Sebastian complained. “Closing my eyes helps a little, but the light still leaks in. I can’t believe I forgot to pack my blindfold. The vibrations of the bus engine, the grinding gears … they hurt!”

  Ms. Starr glanced at Nurse Riley for help. “Does anyone have a scarf we can use for a blindfold? The cone isn’t enough!”

  The bus took a right out of the parking lot, and Andres made his way to the back of the vehicle. He really needed his brickpack. It would weigh him down and keep him in a seat. He looked. And looked.

  Oh, no.

  It wasn’t here.

  The bus made a turn and Andres bounced painfully across the ceiling. “Can someone help?” he called.

  Willa Ingeborg jumped from her seat and leapt for the leash. “Got you!”

  The bus bumped over a pothole. The leash ripped from Willa’s hand, and Andres flew back to the roof.

  “Lost you,” Willa said miserably. Tears welled in her eyes. Then large, round raindrops drip-drip-dropped over Willa and her seatmate, Marigold. Willa was an Upside-Down Flare. Instead of fire magic, she had water magic. She could make it rain, but only indoors. And when she got upset, she often rained by accident.

  Marigold quickly covered her hearing aid so it wouldn’t get wet.

  “Ms. Starr, did you bring any umbrellas?” Nory asked. “Ms. Starr?”

  But Ms. Starr was all the way in the front with Sebastian and couldn’t hear over the noise.

  “Hold on,” Elliott said. “I can help.” With a flourish, he fisted his hand and then flung out his fingers. Willa’s rain turned to hail.

  Marigold stood up. “I’m changing seats.” She walked over to an empty bench where the hail wasn’t falling.

  Nory took her hat off and handed it to Marigold, just in case.

  Up on the ceiling, Andres was scared. The bus was rattling down the road, and the roof was digging into his spine. “Still here!” he called. “Still need help!”

  Bax Kapoor looked up at him. Bax was an Upside-Down Fluxer. He had very short hair, medium-brown skin, and a tendency to wear T-shirts that suggested rock bands, sharks, or pirates. Instead of fluxing into animals, he fluxed into things. Rocks, mainly. Once a piano. Occasionally a swivel chair.

  “Hey,” he said now. “I have an idea!”

  “I KNOW!” Nory cried, bolting up. “I’ll flux into a koat!”

  “A kitten plus a goat? How would that help?” asked Bax.

  “Because goats eat hail!”

  “The hail is on the bottom of the bus,” Bax pointed out. “Andres is stuck on the top.”

  “Also, no, they don’t,” said Elliott.

  “Sure they do. Goats eat everything!” said Nory.

  “Also, why add kitten into it?” Elliott said.

  “For size, silly!” said Nory. “Do you really think a goat on a bus would be a good idea? Hmm?”

  Andres saw Nory do that thing where she scrunched her face and kind of … wavered. She did that when she started fluxing.

  “Nory, koat is not a good plan!” Bax said, but Nory’s eyes bulged, her muscles rippled, and her hair did that creepy thing where it disappeared into her scalp. Soon she had the body and tail of a black kitten and the legs and head of small goat. Her tremendous goat horns almost toppled her over.

  “Baaa,” Koat-Nory said. “Baaa-aaa!” She chomped quickly through her seat belt and wobbled toward the marble-like balls of hail that were rolling about on the floor of the bus. Bax clapped his hand to his forehead.

  “Guys?” Andres called. The bus was turning a corner and he was banging against the roof. “Still need help!”

  Koat-Nory slipped. Her legs splayed in four different directions, and she squealed.

  “For the love of vegetables,” Andres heard Bax mutter. Bax unbuckled, rose from his seat, and grabbed Andres’s leash. Unlike Willa, he didn’t let go. He hauled Andres down and pushed him into a seat.

  “I’m gonna flux now,” Bax said. “Sorry if this is a little weird.”

>   Suddenly, Bax was a rock. A very large rock. And he was on Andres’s lap.

  Relief! Andres was pinned to his seat. He could feel the tug of his magic wanting to lift him up, but he couldn’t float away. Rock-Bax was holding him down.

  Up at the front of the bus, Ms. Starr had managed to settle down Sebastian at last. She’d taken off his head cone and wrapped Nurse Riley’s woolly sweater around his head. Now Sebastian rocked gently back and forth in his seat, his legs drawn up and his arms around his shins.

  Ms. Starr turned now to the chaos behind her, “Nory! Willa! What’s happening back there?”

  With a pop, Nory fluxed back into her girl self. She clambered to stand on her two human feet, holding on to the back of a bench. “Nothing, Ms. Starr. All’s good!”

  “Please sit down, Nory,” said Ms. Starr. “And fasten your seat belt!”

  Nory had chewed through her seat belt, but she found a new place and obeyed.

  “Willa, you seem to be raining,” said Ms. Starr.

  “A little,” Willa said in a small voice.

  “And Elliott, are you freezing the rain into hail?”

  “Kind of?”

  Ms. Starr wiped her brow. “Well, I suppose that makes sense. Go ahead and keep up the freezing until Willa gets calm.”

  Elliott nodded.

  Ms. Starr encouraged Willa to breathe deeply and to recite a poem they had all memorized. It was about mermaids. By the third verse of the poem, the magic rain cloud vanished.

  Ms. Starr counted their heads. Her brow wrinkled. “Students, where’s Bax?”

  Andres pointed to his lap.

  “Ah.” Ms. Starr nodded to herself. “Okay, then.”

  Life with a bunch of wonkos is tough, Andres thought. There’s so much to worry about.

  Nory tapped him on the arm. She leaned across the aisle and held out a box of choco fire trucks.

  He took two.

  “Sorry about all that,” she said. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Nory passed out choco fire trucks to the others. “I’ll save a couple for Bax,” she whispered, patting Rock-Bax in Andres’s lap.

  Andres looked out the window and ate his fire-truck chocolates slowly, making them last.