Sticks & Stones

by Emily Jenkins

  Bax regarded his dad. He was a kind man. And so sad. About his upside-down magic, about his divorce, about losing his job.

  I will tell Ms. Starr, Bax thought. Ms. Starr, who wore bright clothes and matching sneakers. Who believed in headstands and Hula-Hoops and trust exercises. Who taught her students to understand their feelings deeply, rather than control them.

  He would tell her right away, and explain everything, because if anyone could help Dad, it was Ms. Starr.

  “Look,” Nory whispered, pointing out the window.

  The chipmunks had left the windowsill. The squirrels were perking up. The cats stretched their backs; the mutts had started sniffing around the yard. The basset hound still looked mournful—but then, he was a basset hound. He hitched up his hind leg and scratched a flea.

  Everything wasn’t instantly better, but Bax’s dad felt relieved, and so the animals felt relieved.

  It was a start.

  First thing Monday morning, Bax, his dad, his mom, Nurse Riley, Coach, and Ms. Starr all met in Principal Gonzalez’s office. Nory slipped into the room just as their meeting started, and Ms. Starr turned to Bax and explained that she’d asked her to join them.

  “If that’s all right with you,” Ms. Starr said.

  “Sure, I guess,” Bax said. Nory shrugged at him, and he shrugged back.

  “It’s my fault for giving Bax so much Burtlebox,” Nurse Riley said, picking up where he’d left off.

  “No, it’s not,” Bax’s dad said. “What choice did you have?”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Bax’s mother said. “We couldn’t have known. The doctor prescribed it. They’re working on a new potion for Bax now.”

  “We are all in new territory,” Principal Gonzalez said. “But we can learn from this, and the school will make it our mission to support Bax in every way we can.”

  Ms. Starr smiled at Bax. “Coach and I will work together to help Bax gain control of his fluxing—”

  “And now that he’s learned how to keep his human mind, it won’t be long until he can flux back on his own,” Coach said. He rubbed his hands together. “I’m very optimistic. We have the food diary now. We will show it to a nutritionist and learn if any foods are irritating his system, making him flux involuntarily. The doctor can test him for allergies, too. And we can start adding high-nutrient foods to his diet.”

  “We’re sorry this happened,” Principal Gonzalez said to Bax’s parents. “And we will do everything in our power for it not to happen again.”

  “This is your team,” Coach told Bax. “Right here. Us and your doctors. We have your back.”

  Bax’s mother squeezed his hand. His dad put his arm around his shoulder. Bax felt choked up. All he could do was nod.

  Everyone stood up, and the grown-ups shook hands. Coach opened the office door for Bax’s mom and filed out behind her.

  Nory moved to follow, but Ms. Starr said, “Nory, hold on, please. You too, Bax. Mr. Kapoor, can you stay a little longer?”

  Bax’s dad looked confused. Ms. Starr closed the office door, and those in the room sat down again.

  “What’s this about?” Bax’s dad asked.

  “Bax told me you’re an Upside-Down Fuzzy,” Ms. Starr said.

  “What?” Bax’s dad said. He turned red. “I don’t … I certainly wouldn’t—”

  “Mr. Kapoor, I think I can help,” Ms. Starr said. She gave him a warm smile.

  Bax’s dad gulped. “And why’s that?”

  “Because I’m an Upside-Down Fuzzy as well,” Ms. Starr answered.

  “You are?” Nory exclaimed.

  “What?!” Bax had hoped Ms. Starr would be able to do something for his dad, but he hadn’t expected this.

  Principal Gonzalez templed his fingers. “Eloise is quite extraordinary,” he said. “We’re extremely lucky to have her.”

  Eloise, Bax thought. Eloise Starr, an Upside-Down Fuzzy. He and Nory shared a marveling look. Ms. Starr had hinted to the class that, like them, her magic was upside down. But she’d never said more than that.

  “Can we tell the others?” Nory asked.

  “You may,” Ms. Starr said. “But do me a favor, please, and don’t make a big deal out of it. I don’t think it’s best if I show my magic during class time. We’ve all got a lot on our plates right now.”

  Nory and Bax glanced at each other again. She was right about that.

  “As for you, Mr. Kapoor,” she went on. “Maybe we could meet sometime and discuss some techniques that might be useful for you?”

  Mr. Kapoor’s smile was big and wide. “You bet,” he said. “I’d like that very much.”

  * * *

  When Nory walked into class, she was itching to tell the others what she’d learned about Ms. Starr, who’d stayed behind with Bax and his dad. But the room was already buzzing, and Elliott, Andres, Pepper, and Marigold begged to know everything that had happened at the kittenball game.

  Marigold said, “I’m sorry I got angry yesterday. I could have been a lot nicer.”

  “It’s okay,” Nory said. “I understand why you didn’t want to come to the game.” She looked up. “You, too, Andres.” He smiled at her, and she turned to Elliott. “It was nice of you to take Andres home.”

  Elliott nodded. “I couldn’t stick with him and stick with you. I didn’t know what to do and I—well, I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help. It sounds like it was a bit rocky.” He grinned, and Nory couldn’t help but laugh.

  Sebastian was full of news. “The arena got changed back,” he told everyone. He was recommitted to his head cone and moved it from side to side so he could see people’s faces as he talked. “The game never finished, and the Catnips have to replay the Tidbits this Friday.”

  “How did they change everything back?” asked Nory.

  “Mr. Vitomin and Nurse Riley used a mix of Burtlebox, pomegranate juice, sardine oil, and anti-itch cream, dissolved in almond milk. The same thing they used when the stuff in the lockers turned to stone. But this time, they put it in a high-volume sprayer. It was very cool and it didn’t even generate a lot of sound waves,” said Sebastian. “I stayed to watch even after my dad came to pick me up. I heard it took most of the weekend to change everything back. People picked up their stuff this morning at the arena. It was all okay, just a little damp and smelled like sardines.”

  Bax came through the door while everyone was talking. “Excuse me!” he said loudly. “I have something to say.”

  His gaze met Nory’s. The room fell silent.

  “It was me,” Bax said. “The rocks.”

  A gasp rippled across the room.

  “What the zum-zum?”

  “No way.”

  “Yes,” Bax said. “From the very beginning, with the pennies, and then the lockers, and then the arena—it was me.”

  Bax explained how he hadn’t known he was responsible for anything until last night. And he told them about the meeting he’d had that morning. The team, allergy testing, a new potion the doctors wanted to try.

  “But I’m really sorry about the rocks.” He scuffed the floor with his sneaker. “I made us look bad. The UDM class, I mean. The Sparkies and all those people who signed the petition, they wouldn’t have been so upset about the Upside-Down Magic class if it hadn’t been for me.”

  “It was an accident,” said Ms. Starr, who had come in behind him. “We all understand that it wasn’t on purpose, Bax.”

  “Are you okay?” Pepper said. “With the Burtlebox side effects and everything?”

  “Yeah, are you?” Willa said.

  Bax grinned. They cared about him. “Yeah. Nurse Riley and the doctor think there might be other potions they can use, and Coach wants to make me eat a bunch of gross nutritious things after the allergy testing is done. And he says he’ll spend extra tutoring hours with me. My mom’s excited because Ms. Starr said I should go to yoga with her more often.”

  “We could keep it a secret,” Andres offered. “That it was you who did the rocks
.”

  “No,” Bax said. He thought about his dad and all his years of keeping his upside-down magic secret. He thought about Ms. Starr—Ms. Eloise Starr—and how she was willing to share her secret, even though she was a teacher.

  He hitched his shoulders. “You can tell other people if you want. I am what I am. But I’m going to start a new Pennies for Potions drive, to replace the coins I ruined,” he said, holding up a jar of his dad’s spare change. “If you want to help, I’ll be collecting in the neighborhood after school.”

  * * *

  Kittenball practice was that afternoon in the yard. Coach gave them all seaweed and pomegranate juice. Then he got excited about everyone eating kale chips and ran back to his office to get some from his fridge. Nory was alone with Paige, Akari, and Finn.

  Nory’s mouth was dry. She was nervous. But Bax had been brave enough to tell the UDM kids the truth about the rocks. Nory had to be brave enough to tell the kittenballers about them, too.

  Still, it was embarrassing to admit that an upside-down magic kid had caused the trouble. Nory had argued with her teammates until they’d believed her.

  Okay. She was going to tell them.

  Now.

  Okay.

  Now, for real.

  Paige was fluxing in and out of kitten form. Akari was working on getting his tabby to be orange instead of gray, though right now it was only orange on the left ear. Finn was in kitten form and chasing his tail.

  “Guys!” Nory said, still human. “Listen up.”

  The three kittens lined up in a row and looked at her.

  “I was wrong about something,” Nory said. “I didn’t mean to tell you anything untrue, but I did.”

  “Mrwow?”

  “Pdddp?”

  Nory gulped. “The rocks and the lockers? And what happened last night, at the arena? It was because of someone in my class.”

  Paige popped back into human form. Akari and Finn followed.

  “You’re kidding,” Paige said. She put her hands on her hips.

  “Seriously?” said Finn. “ ‘It wasn’t us, it wasn’t us,’ and now you’re admitting it was?”

  “They weren’t pranks and nothing was on purpose,” said Nory. “Someone’s magic got messed up with too much of this potion called Burtlebox.”

  Paige dropped her arms to her sides. She looked willing to listen. Same with Finn and Akari.

  So Nory gave them as many details as she could. The only thing she left out was the part about Bax’s dad.

  “Anyway, Bax is super sorry,” Nory said.

  Paige nodded. “It sounds like it really wasn’t his fault.”

  “Marigold is sorry about shrinking Lacey, too. And I’m sorry about the skunkephant and the mitten.”

  “Well, like you said, it’s not really any worse than a Flare accident or invisible toilets,” Akari said. “At camp this summer I turned into a kitten, wrapped myself around my counselor’s leg, and bit her ankle.”

  “I turned into a rat and chewed all my pencils,” Paige said.

  “I used my dad’s closet as a litter box,” Finn admitted.

  “Who hasn’t?” Nory asked.

  The others nodded.

  “I wish I could say nothing like this will ever happen again,” said Nory, “but I don’t know if it will or not. Upside-down magic is upside down.”

  “We’re all four of us kittenballers,” Paige said. “That’s not going to change.”

  “Yeah,” said Akari.

  “Finn?” Nory looked at him nervously.

  “Okay already,” said Finn. “Hey, I’ve got peanut butter cups. Anyone want candy before Coach gets back?”

  “Are you kidding?” Nory said. “Yes!”

  The others laughed, and Finn passed out the peanut butter cups, which everyone unwrapped and shoved into their mouths. Nory felt happy and energized and ready to swat the yarnball.

  “So what are you guys going to do about the petition?” Paige asked, wiping chocolate off her mouth. “After the rocks on Friday, Lacey went around and got, like, a million signatures. And then a million more this morning.”

  “Oh,” Nory said.

  That stupid petition.

  She’d thought everything was better. She’d thought everything had been fixed.

  But she’d forgotten that petition.

  Principal Gonzalez called an assembly first thing on Tuesday morning. He announced it over the loudspeaker. He told the teachers to bring their students to the gym.

  Ms. Starr asked the UDM students to breathe deep and stay strong. “I don’t know what he’s going to announce,” she said, “but we are not ashamed of who we are. We will hold our heads high. Who’s taking Andres? Okay, thank you, Pepper. Now everybody do a quick headstand before we go to the gym.”

  Nory was nervous. She could tell Bax was nervous, too, by the way he kept twirling his pencil in his fingers. The students were quiet as they filed out of the classroom.

  Except Willa. And Elliott. Because they weren’t there.

  Where were they?

  Why were they never where they were supposed to be? Nory couldn’t believe Elliott was still keeping secrets.

  “Students of Dunwiddle Magic School!” Principal Gonzalez boomed from the platform in the gym. “We have all had an unusual couple of weeks.”

  Nory’s skin got clammy. If the UDM program was going to get canceled, what would they do? Would they all be separated? Where would she go to school?

  At the podium, Principal Gonzalez coughed. “Due to the nature of recent events, a petition was created by students and signed by many people. It was left on my desk yesterday afternoon.” He held up the petition.

  “Those who signed it feel that the magic of the upside-down students poses a danger. They feel that danger is worse than the dangers of Flare magic, fluxed carnivores, Flicker invisibility pranks, and objects dropped by Flyers. The people who signed the petition wish for the Upside-Down Magic program to be shut down, and the students within it to be moved to other schools, starting next Monday.”

  “No!” Nory whispered.

  Pepper reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “To the students who put together the petition, I would like to say that I admire your effort,” the principal continued. “If there’s something you care about, and you voice your opinion respectfully, then I will extend the same courtesy by listening to what you have to say.”

  “We got fifty signatures,” said Lacey Clench. “That means you have to do what we wrote.”

  He held the petition high. “I am sorry, Miss Clench, but it does not mean that at all.”

  He ripped the petition straight down the middle.

  “It is not for students to decide the worthiness—or unworthiness—of their classmates. We at Dunwiddle believe that an Upside-Down Magic program is an asset to everyone. It is not any more dangerous than other daily magical accidents. When I was your age, I made my chair invisible. It was all very funny until my classmate tripped over it and broke his nose. True story.”

  He waited for the laughter to stop and went on. “I also made countless things invisible that my parents never found, including car keys, the lawn mower, and once, for a terrifying five hours, my little brother.” He took a deep breath. “My point is that the Upside-Down Magic program encourages all of us to embrace and understand difference. Loyalty to your school means loyalty to every member of our community. Upside-Down Magic will stay.”

  Many of the kids cheered and clapped and stomped their feet. As they did, more joined them.

  “We’re still here!” Nory cried. She turned to Bax and shook him back and forth. “Bax! Bax! The petition didn’t work!”

  “I know,” Bax said with a grin. “I heard.”

  “I trust we will move on in a spirit of good fellowship,” Principal Gonzalez said. “And now, I turn the stage over to Carmen Padillo from the eighth grade, for an announcement.” He gestured at the microphone. “Carmen?”

  He stepped down from
the podium, and Andres’s sister, Carmen, stepped up. She wore a jacket and had her hair neatly pulled back. She carried a clipboard and looked like she was ready to give a speech.

  Nory saw Elliott and Willa take their seats in the gym. Both were smiling like idiots.

  What are they up to? Nory wondered.

  Carmen leaned toward the microphone. “On behalf of the eighth grade, and with special thanks to two members of the UDM class, I would like to say—”

  She paused dramatically, and the eighth graders finished her sentence with one voice. “PRANK!”

  A crew of students rushed onto the platform at the front of the gym, pushing wheelbarrows full of snowballs. They wore gloves and parkas. They picked up the snowballs and pelted the audience.

  “Eeek!”

  “Pow!”

  “My hair!”

  “It’s cold!”

  Elliott ran over to Nory and told her, “We made the snowballs! Me and Willa!”

  “You did?”

  “That was why I kept going to school early without you! Carmen saw us at our first tutoring session. Ms. Cruciferous was helping Willa do indoor rain in just one tiny part of the room instead of the whole thing, and I was turning it into snow as it came down. Carmen saw us, and got the idea that with our unusual magic, we could help do a prank that was different from any eighth-grade prank in the history of Dunwiddle!”

  “We’ve been making snowballs all week and keeping them in the cafeteria freezer,” said Willa.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Nory said.

  “Der. Because it was a secret,” said Elliott.

  “But I—I thought you were—I don’t know,” said Nory. “I felt really left out, is all.”

  Elliott’s eyes widened. Nory knew that he knew how it felt to be left out. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you.”

  “It’s okay,” Nory said, and realized it was true. “You couldn’t reveal the eighth-grade prank.”

  “Yeah. But I probably could have kept the secret without making you feel bad,” said Elliott. “If I had just thought about it a little more.”

  Bam! A snowball hit Elliott in the ear.