Sticks & Stones

by Emily Jenkins

  Just then, Pepper ran up and stopped in the middle of the street. She flung out her arms and twirled. She was red-faced and breathing hard, and she was beaming.

  “I fierced them,” she cried.

  “Zamboozle,” said Nory.

  “Amazing,” said Bax.

  “Nice fiercing,” said Elliott. “Really nice.”

  “You rescued us!” Nory cried. “Pepper to the rescue, abracazam!”

  “But where did the animals come from?” Willa asked.

  “They were all in front of one house,” Pepper said, shrugging. “On the porch. In the yard.”

  “I saw them,” Andres said, nodding.

  “Me too,” Elliott said. “They took up most of the lawn. It was like a zoo—only a really sad zoo, because until Pepper went over to them, they just stood there.”

  “They seemed unhappy,” Andres said. “Is it normal for squirrels to sit so quietly, all in a line?”

  “I wonder why they were there,” said Nory.

  “Who knows? But as soon as Pepper showed up, they went berserk,” said Elliott. “Then all she had to do was chase them in the right direction and they scared the Sparkies!”

  “We win!” cried Marigold.

  They all high-fived.

  * * *

  Andres was scratched up from the tree. Sebastian and Nory had small burns, but they weren’t too bad. They decided to go back to Andres’s house and eat the last of the pineapple upside-down cake. There was probably ice cream left, too, Andres said.

  Nory, Bax, and Elliott walked together at the back of the group. The sky turned golden orange as the sun went down.

  “I still can’t figure out why those animals were in the yard,” Nory said.

  “Maybe some kid had a petting zoo birthday,” Elliott suggested.

  “With pigeons? Who has pigeons at a petting zoo?”

  “Someone might,” said Elliott. “Some people like pigeons.”

  “No,” said Nory. “Nobody wants to pet pigeons.”

  Bax dug his thumbnail into his palm. He knew it wasn’t a petting zoo.

  It was his dad’s house. His house.

  First the ladybugs had started living on the couch. Then the gloomy chipmunk had arrived on the steps. Then, day after day, more animals had arrived. They pressed against the windows, moped on the porch, sprawled on the lawn. A couple of butterflies had made their way indoors. They fluttered unhappily around the kitchen.

  Bax didn’t know why. He had asked his dad if he could use his Fuzzy magic to tell them to leave, but his dad had just shrugged. “They’re not bothering anyone.”

  “My parents are divorced,” Bax blurted. “I go back and forth between my dad and my mom. And—”

  Nory stopped walking and looked at him. So did Elliott.

  Bax swallowed. “That was my house. My dad’s house. With all the animals.”

  “Oh,” said Nory.

  “Really?” Elliott asked. “How come?”

  Bax shrugged miserably. “They’re not pets or anything. They just keep showing up, and they won’t go away. The goats? I hadn’t even seen them yet. They must be new. I was hoping my dad would do something about them, but …” His voice trailed off.

  “Weird,” Elliott said. “Is it scary to have all those animals in your yard?”

  “Not scary,” said Bax. “Sad, I guess. They don’t seem happy.”

  “Do you think they’ll come back now that Pepper’s not fiercing them anymore?”

  Bax sighed. “From what I’ve seen so far? Yeah. I’d say there’s a good chance.”

  “Do you think it’s magic?” asked Elliott. “Is your dad a Fuzzy?”

  They reached Andres’s house. The other kids went on inside, but the three stayed outside, talking.

  “Yeah,” said Bax. “But he’s—well, that’s funny.” He bit his thumb. “My dad’s allergic to animal fur, but he hasn’t had any problems with all these animals in our yard. No sneezing, no runny eyes, no rash, nothing. I know he trimmed the hedges this week, and watered the plants and cleaned out the garage and dug up weeds. All with the animals right there. I hadn’t thought of that before.”

  “Your dad did all that this week?” asked Elliott. “Gosh. My dad gets like one thing done in the yard in a month.”

  Bax looked at Elliott. Then at Nory. “He doesn’t have a job right now. So he’s got a lot of time on his hands.”

  At first no one spoke. Nory tilted her head. Elliott pulled his eyebrows together.

  Then Nory said, “I don’t live with my parents at all.”

  Bax had met Nory’s aunt Margo, but now that he thought of it, he’d never met her mom or dad. “Why not?” he asked.

  “Her dad’s the headmaster of Sage Academy over in Nutmeg,” Elliott said. “And her mom’s dead.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.” He looked her in the eyes when he said it. Poor Nory.

  “My dad sent me to live with my aunt because of my upside-down magic,” Nory explained, not looking away. “I guess he thought I was hard to live with. You know, just little stuff, like I set his couch on fire and chewed up his desk and squirted squid ink all over the bathroom. Also, I flunked the admissions test for his fancy school.” She lifted her shoulders. “Anyway. His loss.” Her tone was light, but it didn’t fool Bax.

  “Yeah,” said Elliott. “His loss.”

  “I’m just saying that I know what it’s like when your life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would,” said Nory to Bax. She bit her lip, then did something totally unexpected. She threw herself at Bax and hugged him.

  Your consciousness is a flame,” Coach told Bax at Tuesday’s tutoring session. He squatted slightly so that he was at Bax’s eye level.

  Bax and Nory were in Coach’s office, sitting on the small couch. Coach propped his hands on his thick thighs. “Do you go camping?”

  “No,” Bax said. He wouldn’t mind going camping. He liked the outdoors. He liked the stars. But his dad never wanted to go in the wilderness because of all the animal fur on the animals out there.

  Coach looked shocked. “No? Your father doesn’t take you camping?”

  Bax shook his head.

  “Not your mother, either?”

  “My mom does yoga and goes to book club,” Bax said. “And she’s a detective. My dad used to do business stuff for a museum and now he watches TV and works on the yard.”

  “Well, for beetroot’s sake,” Coach said. He scratched his head. “Can you imagine going camping?”

  “I haven’t been camping either,” said Nory. “My dad’s a headmaster and he reads boring books. My aunt’s a taxi and she watches TV and goes to restaurants with her boyfriend. My brother plays sports and does housework, and my sister—”

  “We are not talking about our family hobbies!” snapped Coach. “We are talking about camping!”

  Bax looked at the floor. Nory did, too.

  “Just imagine it,” said Coach. “I’m trying to help you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  Coach rubbed his hands together. “So. When you go camping, you build a campfire. Right?”

  Bax and Nory stared at him.

  “Yes. You build a gosh-dang campfire when you go camping. Can we agree on that?”

  “And sing campfire songs?” Nory asked. “I like to sing, even though my brother says I sound like a hyena?” Her eyebrows flew up. “Ooo, I wonder if I could flux into a hyena one day. I’ve heard they’re really hard.”

  “Forget hyenas!” Coach said. “Forget campfire songs! I’m talking about the fire, people. The fire!” He pushed his hand over his bald head. “And when you build a fire, you have to keep the flame lit.”

  Nory blinked.

  “You protect the flame,” Coach went on. “You cup your hands around it. You shield it in any way you can.”

  “We aren’t Flares,” said Bax. “Our hands would get burned.”

  “What?”

  “If we stuck them into the campfire, to prot
ect the flame.”

  “It’s a pretend fire. For the love of lemon juice, son, just try it!”

  Bax pretended to build a campfire. He patted the air and pretended to add sticks. Nory struck imaginary matches.

  Coach waved his hands about in disgust.

  “No. Stop.” He sighed. “That’s your homework before the next time I see you, all right? Light matches. Safely. Under supervision. Light them, and keep them lit by cupping your hand around the flame. Understand the fire.”

  “Real fire?” asked Bax. Maybe his mom could help him tonight.

  “Yes, real fire. You need some experience.” Coach blew his whistle. “New topic. Kittenball. I want both of you at the game this Friday at five, cheering for the team. It’s the first kittenball game of the season, Dunwiddle Catnips against the Twinkle Tidbits. Did I tell you the Tidbits have a player who can flux into a kitten with six toes on each paw? Anyway. Fluxers should support their fellow Fluxers. And frankly, it’s good if the older kittenballers see you UDM kids making a show of school spirit. I think that goodwill will go a long way around here. Can I count on you? Nory? Bax?”

  “I’ll be there,” Nory said.

  Bax said, “Um.”

  “Terrific, you can go with Nory,” Coach said. “Excellent team spirit, just excellent.”

  * * *

  On Wednesday, Nory had to walk to school alone again, but at least this time, Elliott called the night before to say he wasn’t coming. “I have a thing to do,” he’d said mysteriously.

  Nory was a little hurt. Elliott was her best friend at school. So why was he keeping secrets from her?

  She left the house early to avoid the Sparkies, and when she arrived at school, Paige from kittenball was waiting for her near the front door. Akari and Finn were with her.

  Nory spotted Bax a few yards behind them. He was here unusually early, she thought. He was sitting on the floor with his back to his locker, reading a paperback. She thought about calling him over, but Paige looped her arm in Nory’s.

  “Do you want to come to the store with us before practice?” Paige asked. “We decided we need chocolate to erase the taste of pomegranate juice and seaweed.”

  Nory glowed. “Yeah. Absolutely.”

  “Great,” said Paige. “Meet us back here at three o’clock.”

  Nory grinned. She had kittenball friends. They were inviting her to go buy candy! Abracazam!

  From the opposite side of the hall came a scream.

  Who, what, where?

  It was Lacey Clench.

  Her hand was on her open locker, and rocks were tumbling out, landing around her. On her. The floor shook with the clatter.

  Nory’s heart stopped.

  Rocks? More rocks? Why?

  “What the zum-zum?” Lacey yelled. She stomped her foot. “Who turned my stuff to stone?!”

  Kids stepped closer. Akari walked over, knelt, and hefted up a large gray rock, which he held high so everyone could see.

  “It’s shaped like a notebook!” he called. “That is so cool!”

  Nory was worried. Lacey would blame this on UDM.

  “This one’s a pencil,” said Paige, picking up a pencil-shaped piece of quartz. To Lacey, she said, “It’s really pretty.”

  Lacey snatched it back. “It’s a stone! My math book is a stone! My English journal is—”

  “A stone?” Akari asked. He and Finn laughed.

  “Shut up,” Lacey snapped. She spotted Nory and scowled. “You!” she said, pointing. “You did this, Nory Horace. You and your wonky friends!”

  “No!” Nory said. “I swear!”

  “I know you did,” said Lacey. “You Flops are up to something! You were spying on us this weekend!”

  “Yeah, and you threw flaming tennis balls at us,” said Nory. “But I did not turn the stuff in your locker to stone. I’m a Fluxer, Lacey. I couldn’t even do it if I wanted to.”

  “My dad is going to be so mad!” Lacey barked. “This is the work of upside-down magic for sure.”

  “Calm down, Lacey,” Zinnia said. “I’ll loan you whatever you need, all right?”

  She opened her locker, which was three down from Lacey’s, and cried out. Her school supplies had been turned into rocks, too. “Zowie!”

  Rune opened his locker, and same thing: A spiral notebook made of granite slid out and landed on his toe. “Ow!”

  “They’re out to get us,” Lacey said to her friends. “Don’t you see? First the Flops spied on us, and now they’re ruining our stuff!”

  “We are not out to get you!” Nory said. “You’re out to get us! You’re trying to get us to do messed-up magic so we get in trouble! In fact—oh, zamboozle! Did you replace your own books with fake rocks? To make it look like we don’t belong in school?”

  But Lacey wasn’t responsible. She couldn’t be, because as students arrived for the day, more and more stones spilled from more and more lockers. Stones shaped like books. Stones shaped like pencils, and rocks shaped like pencil cases. Stones shaped like locker mirrors and packs of gum and hairbrushes. There was no way Lacey could have pulled off a prank this massive.

  Bax, though. Nory felt like a traitor just for thinking it, but Bax had been at school when Nory arrived. What if he got here early for a reason? A rock reason?

  She searched for him. He wasn’t sitting on the floor and reading anymore. He’d gotten to his feet, and she watched as he twisted the dial on his locker. He opened the door, and a landslide of rocks poured out.

  No. It couldn’t be Bax, then. He would never turn his own things to stone.

  Two lockers down, the same thing happened to Marigold.

  Principal Gonzalez waded through the crowd. “Please keep calm,” he called. “Go to your classes. Your studies are more important than these rocks!”

  “But who’s going to get in trouble?” Lacey whined. “And who’s going to make everything normal?”

  Paige glanced at Nory. “I know you didn’t do this, but it looks pretty bad.”

  “Why?”

  “You just said Lacey and those Sparkie guys threw flaming tennis balls at you. Now she and her friends have their stuff ruined.”

  “But Bax’s stuff was ruined, too,” Nory said. “So was Marigold’s!”

  “I know,” Paige said. “Just, other people might think you did that on purpose so that you wouldn’t look suspicious. Plus, that one friend of yours can turn into a rock for real.” Paige shifted uncomfortably. “People might wonder, that’s all.”

  * * *

  Ms. Starr made them do another trust exercise. This one meant finding a partner and falling backward, trusting the other person to catch you. Willa was partnered with Elliott, Nory with Marigold, and Bax with Pepper. Andres couldn’t do it. Sebastian had to partner with Ms. Starr.

  Bax caught Pepper just fine, but when it was Pepper’s turn to catch him, he couldn’t make himself fall backward. He felt awkward and he nearly fluxed. Still, he managed to calm himself down and stay human.

  “Don’t worry,” Pepper told him. “Do you want to try it again?”

  Bax watched Marigold almost drop Nory.

  “Oops,” Marigold cried, clutching Nory by her armpits. “I panicked. I didn’t want to shrink you.”

  “Now,” said Ms. Starr, gesturing for them to return to their desks. “In an atmosphere of trust, let’s talk about what happened with the lockers today.”

  “It wasn’t me!” Bax said, flushing.

  “No one said it was,” said Ms. Starr.

  “But you’re thinking it. You all are. I can tell!”

  “Did you maybe do it and then forget?” Marigold asked.

  “Do you ever shrink things and then forget?” Bax asked.

  Marigold looked ashamed. “No. Sorry.”

  “You were at school early,” Sebastian said.

  “He had rocks in his locker, too, though!” Nory said.

  Bax tensed his jaw. “I only got here early because I spend Tuesday nights at my mom’s house
. She drove me to school today.” He swallowed. “But Andres was here before I was.”

  Andres shrugged. “Carmen had a project she needed to work on. She made us get here an entire hour early.”

  “And you,” Nory said, pointing at Elliott. “You said you had ‘a thing to do.’ But you wouldn’t say what it was. Where were you? Don’t say it was tutoring, because you don’t have tutoring on Wednesdays.”

  Everyone stared at Elliott.

  He turned red. “I was working with Willa.”

  “On what?” Marigold asked.

  “Yeah,” said Nory. “On what?”

  “We can’t tell,” Willa said, a small smile on her face.

  Nory didn’t really suspect Elliott. He was too nice a person to turn people’s stuff to rocks. And his magic wouldn’t let him do it, anyway. Would it? But she wished she could wipe that smile off Willa’s face. And she wished Elliott would stop keeping secrets.

  “Let’s move on,” Ms. Starr said. “It doesn’t matter who was here early, because no one in this class was responsible for what happened with the lockers. I know that none of you were responsible. All right, kids?”

  She gave them a hard look, as if to drill into each and every one of their minds that she believed in them. Nory’s chest loosened. The atmosphere in the entire room loosened.

  “Still, people are talking and rumors are flying. It’s no fun to be on the receiving end of unkind behavior,” Ms. Starr said. “Let’s brainstorm together some appropriate ways to handle mean remarks.”

  Bax had an idea. “What if Lacey did it herself? Or together with the Sparkies?”

  “Why would she turn her own stuff to stone?” Marigold said.

  “To set us up. To make it look like it was us,” said Bax.

  “I thought of that,” Nory said. “But how would they get rocks shaped liked books? Do you think they could have actually flared stuff into rocks?”

  “Class!” said Ms. Starr. “Our goal is to work through the rumors and unkindness in a positive way, but you keep playing the blame game. How does that help anyone?”

  Everyone fell silent. Bax felt sorry.

  Ms. Starr blew out a sigh. “Tell you what. Let’s stop discussing this for a bit and instead practice our headstands. Seeing the world from an upside-down perspective always helps us, one way or another.”