Sticks and Stones

by Sarah Mlynowski

  “Oh, we’ll get it sorted with practice,” said Coach. “Don’t be a worrywart. You’re going to be a kittenball legend, Nory Horace. Tigerball legend, I should say. Really, you could go pro with that thing.”

  “What about Bax?” Nory said.

  “What about who?”

  Nory pointed.

  “Oh! Him! Bax, yes!” Coach said.

  Bax smiled grimly. Yep, me, the other person in the room. I just put out a fire on your foot and you still didn’t know I was here.

  “What about him?” Coach said.

  “What do you want him to do?” said Nory.

  Coach faced Bax. “Flux, please.”

  “Not today,” Bax mumbled.

  “See?” Coach said to Nory. “I can give him carrot juice and flaxseed, certainly. But how can I help him if he won’t show me what he can do?”

  “But it’s tutoring for both of us,” Nory said.

  “Nory—” Bax said.

  “No, Bax, for real,” Nory snapped. “You want to get your magic together. I know you do, because I know how much I want to get mine together.”

  Bax got the lump in his throat again.

  “Bax. Come on. Show him,” coaxed Nory. “So he can help.”

  Nory and Coach waited. They kept their eyes glued to him.

  “Can you flux for me, son?” Coach said. It was almost gentle.

  Bax did want Coach’s help. He felt ashamed of wanting Coach’s help, but what else was new? He felt ashamed about turning into a rock, too. A deep heaviness filled Bax’s body. His bones felt stiff.

  Then he fluxed.

  The next thing Bax knew, he was in the nurse’s office.

  Of course. As usual.

  Coach was there with Nurse Riley. Nory stood there, too. “Coach said I should stay,” she explained, when Bax gave her a look. “He said we were a team, the three of us, and I should stick around.”

  Coach put his hands on his legs and bent closer to Bax. He peered into Bax’s eyes. “Do you particularly like rocks?” he asked.

  Bax shook his head.

  “What about rock candy? Do you like rock candy?”

  Bax looked at him funny. Nurse Riley did, too.

  “What?” Coach said. “Rock candy has no nutritional value. None! If a child was to eat a lot of rock candy, who’s to say what might happen?”

  “Does Nory eat a lot of kittens?” Bax asked. He hesitated, then went for it. “Do you?”

  Nory burst out laughing.

  “Fine, fine,” Coach said gruffly. “But nutrition could be a factor here.”

  “I hadn’t considered that,” said Nurse Riley. “Maybe he can keep a food diary.”

  Coach sat on a stool, his muscly bulk awkward on the small seat. “Bax. Let me get everything clear. No one knows why you flux the way you do. Is that what I’m to understand?”

  Bax nodded.

  “It’s happening more and more,” Nurse Riley added. He held up the Burtlebox and pursed his lips. “The doctor had this potion formulated just for Bax, and it does work. His parents give it to him at home as well. He takes it more often than I’d like, though. With these individual potions, you don’t always know how a person’s body will react with long-term use.”

  “I’m fine,” said Bax. “It doesn’t bother me. It just tastes bad.”

  Coach clapped his hand on Bax’s shoulder. It felt heavy and warm. “Listen here, son. I’ve not given you the attention you deserve, but we’re going to figure this out. Ms. Starr, Nurse Riley, and I are on your team! Teamwork is the answer in kittenball, and it’s the answer here as well.”

  Bax wanted to believe him. He met Coach’s gaze.

  “What does it feel like when you flux, son?” Coach asked.

  “Before I flux, I feel heavy. Then I feel nothing. And then it hurts, after.”

  “What do you mean, nothing?”

  “I don’t feel anything,” Bax said. “I can’t hear, can’t move, can’t smell. It’s like I’m not even there. Not the me part of me.”

  “Hmm,” Coach said. “You flux a lot by accident, but you can also choose to flux on purpose. Yes? Yes. That’s an excellent starting point. Are you always a rock?”

  “Every time but once,” Bax said. He paused. “I fluxed into a leash—”

  “A leash!”

  “On purpose, too. Because Andres needed me.”

  “It was amazing,” Nory said.

  Bax blushed. “But I’ve never done that again.”

  “How did you do it that one time?” Nurse Riley asked.

  “I don’t know. I mean, I wanted to—and I just did. And then I got stuck, like always.”

  Nurse Riley nodded.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do,” Coach said. “First, I want you to write down what you eat and when you flux. Like a schedule, see? We can see if you have any allergies that are making it hard for you. After we check for allergies, I’m going to have you start eating seaweed and sardines and other high-nutrient foods. At the same time, I’ll teach you some tricks to help you hold on to your human mind as you flux. I have some ideas that might help. After that, you can work on doing that leash again, but this time, you’ll hold on to your human mind when you do it. Sound good?”

  Bax nodded.

  “I’m going to work with Ms. Starr on this,” Coach said. “It’ll get better, son.”

  “Will it?” Bax said. He heard the hope in his voice, and his face grew warm.

  Coach squeezed Bax’s shoulder. “It will.”

  Coach left. Nurse Riley told Bax he wanted to take his temperature, but then another student came in, a Fuzzy who had gotten a very small toad stuck up her nose. Nurse Riley had to take her into the back room to extract it. He left Nory and Bax alone.

  “So I guess we should keep food diaries,” Nory said, kicking her feet as she sat on the cot. “To see if we have allergies or need more protein to be good Fluxers, or whatever.”

  “You don’t have to,” Bax said. “Coach said just me.”

  “It’s only fair that we both do it,” Nory said. “Though maybe I’ll write down that I’m eating a regular diet of kittens, just to mess with Coach.”

  Bax smiled. “I’ll write about eating gravel.”

  “Ew.”

  “What about puppies? And goats? And squid? Are you gonna tell him you eat those, too?”

  “Of course,” Nory said. “Also dragons. But only, like, once a week.”

  “Careful with dragons,” Bax warned. “I hear they’re really spicy.”

  They both started laughing.

  Nurse Riley returned to the room. “What’s so funny in here?” he asked. He held a tiny toad in a pair of tweezers. He put it gently into a small plastic terrarium with air holes.

  “Nory, don’t eat that toad, please,” said Bax. “It’s supposed to go back to the Fuzzy lab.”

  “I wouldn’t eat that one,” said Nory, giggling. “That one’s been in someone’s nose! Don’t be gross.”

  Nurse Riley shook his head as he took Bax’s temperature on his forehead. “Your temperature’s healthy,” he said. “Though your brain is maybe deranged.”

  Bax’s mom drove him to Andres’s house on Saturday afternoon. Everyone from the UDM class was there when he arrived.

  It was a warm and welcoming house, and Bax was interested to see how the Padillo family had adapted things to his friend’s floating situation. There were enormous bags of bricks in every room, heavy enough to keep Andres down when needed. Andres’s bed was nailed to the ceiling. His sheets and comforter were strapped into place with a big elastic band. A set of bongos and some other drums were attached to the ceiling in one corner.

  Mr. and Mrs. Padillo were very friendly, and Andres’s sister, Carmen, had put together party games in the basement rec room. Stomp the balloon! (Sebastian had to wear his blindfold—the sound waves were intense.) Freeze tag! (When Elliott was It, he accidentally froze Willa’s hair for real.)

  Back upstairs, everyone had pineapp
le upside-down cake (of course). Nory and Bax wrote it in their food diaries. Also, cheese-flavored potato chips, barbecue potato chips, ranch-flavored potato chips, regular potato chips, and corn chips.

  Then Andres opened presents on the ceiling. He carefully handed the gifts to his parents to put on the kitchen table, but wrapping paper remnants drifted slowly down and landed on the guests.

  “Andres, do you live near Lacey Clench?” asked Pepper, removing green ribbon from her hair.

  “No, but Rune lives down at the end of my block.”

  “Ah, that must be it,” Pepper said. “I saw the Sparkies in a tree house on my way here.”

  “Rune has a tree house, all right,” said Elliott. “I used to go there all the time, back when we were friends.” A shadow crossed his face. “Back when I thought we were friends.”

  “I used to see you there sometimes, remember?” said Andres. “In ordinary school, before my magic came in, Rune and I hung out all the time, because of how close our houses are.”

  “I wonder if they’re plotting against us,” said Nory.

  Bax lowered his voice. “We could spy on them,” he ventured. “If we wanted to find out what they’re plotting.”

  “You are an evil genius, Bax Kapoor,” Nory said.

  Bax flushed with pride.

  “The most important thing is stealth,” said Bax, a couple of minutes later. The UDM kids were a few houses down from Rune’s, huddled together and buzzing with nerves. “Nory, you flux into a kitten,” he instructed. Bax’s mom was a detective, after all. She had told him about stakeouts. “No bitten, no mitten, no koat, no dritten, no funny business,” he went on. “Can you do it and stay kitten-shaped?”

  Nory nodded. “No bitten, no mitten, no koat, no dritten.”

  “Good,” said Bax. “You do that and then climb up the tree and act like an actual kitten. Stay hidden! Andres, you need camouflage. We’re going to decorate you with leaves.”

  “Someone still needs to hold my leash,” said Andres.

  “I will,” said Willa.

  Bax found some leaves and vines to camouflage Andres and Willa. “Now, does anyone want to be shrunk by Marigold? That would be a great detective move.”

  “I am not doing that to anyone again,” said Marigold. “I refuse.”

  “Okay. It was just an idea,” said Bax. “It could be a really useful talent for police work, you know.”

  Marigold smiled.

  “Everyone ready?” said Bax. “Nory, flux! Andres, pull that one twig a little farther over your shirt—perfect. Willa, sneak into the bushes and let Andres float up near the tree house. The rest of us will be just around the corner in case you need backup. Go, go, go!”

  Nory liked the idea of being a detective on a stakeout. Lots of detectives were Fluxers. She fluxed into an ordinary kitten and climbed as close as she could to Rune’s tree house.

  Lacey was holding court. “I was practically trampled four times that day,” she said. “And everyone looked like ugly giants. They were so big.”

  “Except really you were small,” said Zinnia. “And also, we’ve heard all this before.”

  “Zinnia?” Lacey said sharply. “Watch it.”

  Zinnia bowed her head. She sat beside Lacey. On Lacey’s other side sat Rune and two other kids from the fifth-grade Flare class.

  They’ve added to their ranks, Girl-Nory thought. Not good.

  The talk continued, and this larger group of Sparkies had plenty of negative things to say about all the UDM kids. They said Marigold should be kept home from school because of how dangerous she was. They made fun of Sebastian and how he ducked to avoid the sound waves in gym class. They called Pepper “cruel to animals” and mocked Elliott.

  “He tried to roast a marshmallow once, and it just froze into a Popsicle!” Rune laughed. Nory hoped Elliott couldn’t hear him.

  “That skunk-elephant girl is disgusting,” said one of the new recruits. “She’s the one who’s really wonko.”

  “That’s Nory Horace,” said Zinnia.

  “Can she do other wonko shapes? Someone in the lunchroom said something about a mosquito kitten.”

  “Gross!”

  At that moment, Girl-Nory wanted to try for the driger—dragon-tiger—and show these kids what scary really meant.

  But then she’d blow her cover.

  And she might burn them.

  Or eat them.

  She probably couldn’t even do a driger. She didn’t have tiger yet.

  So she kept quiet, even though she liked what they said next even less.

  “Bax,” Lacey was saying, “is as dumb as a box of rocks.”

  “Instead of playing rock, paper, scissors,” Rune went on, “he probably plays rock, rock, rock—and still loses. And then there’s Willa. She rains anytime anyone says boo to her. She’s the biggest crybaby in the world.” He laughed.

  Kitten-Nory couldn’t say anything, but she looked down at Willa in the bushes and saw tears running down her face.

  Andres was tangled in the tree branches. Nory couldn’t see his expression.

  “Enough complaining. Let’s get something done,” Lacey said. “We’ve all signed the petition, but we need to get more people. Too many people are saying no to me. That’s why we have to think about what the worst things those UDM guys could do. Then we need to make them do those things.”

  “How?” asked Zinnia.

  “By making them mad or teasing them or whatever—and we need to make sure everyone sees. If they mess up in a really big way, people will agree they don’t belong at Dunwiddle.”

  “Willa’s an easy target,” one of the new Sparkies said. “The indoor rain does a lot of damage.”

  “That Pepper girl can do more than she lets on, I’m sure,” Rune said. “I bet she can force animals to do things for her, out of fear. We could, I don’t know, go to the Fuzzy lab, release all the animals, and then get Pepper to scare them so they wreck stuff.”

  “What about Elliott?” Rune said. “He turns stuff to ice. How could we use that? What would be the worst thing we could get him to freeze? How big can he go? Let’s make him do something terrible!”

  There was a rustling in the tree. A frantic shaking of branches. “What kind of person are you?” Andres shouted at Rune. “Elliott brought peanut butter cookies up to this very tree house! I was there! You ate them!”

  “Andres?” Rune said. Nory saw him look from side to side.

  “Yes! Remember me?” He’d totally lost his temper, and the branches were going crazy.

  They had to get him out of the tree. Nory leapt down to the sidewalk and fluxed back into a girl. She grabbed Willa’s hand. “Come on!”

  “Hey!” Rune called, looking down from the floor of the tree house. “They were spying on us!”

  Nory and Willa pulled on Andres’s leash, but Andres was caught in the branches.

  They yanked.

  Andres yelped.

  They yanked again.

  Then five Sparkie faces appeared over the walls of the tree house. All five faces were angry.

  Nory and Willa yanked again, even harder this time. Finally, Andres came loose from the branches with a crackling of wood. Leaves fell everywhere.

  “Run!” he screamed.

  “Get them!” the Sparkies cried. They swarmed down from the tree house.

  Nory and Willa fled from the yard. Andres bobbed behind, trailing leaves and bits of vine. They got to the street where the rest of the UDM kids were.

  “Go, go, go!” Nory cried.

  They charged up the block. Andres kicked wildly through the air.

  Nory looked over her shoulder. Lacey was a grim bulldozer, running in front of the Sparkies pack.

  Nory felt heat on her neck. The sound of pounding feet rose and roared behind her. Lacey grabbed the collar of her shirt and jerked.

  “You are so going down, Nory Horace,” Lacey panted.

  Nory tugged free and ran, but a flaming tennis ball whizzed past her ear.
Then another. Then another.

  Unsupervised flaring! Horrible!

  Marigold reached out a hand and tapped one of the flaming balls as it zipped by. It shrank to almost nothing! She did the same to the next one.

  Unsupervised shrinking! Awesome!

  Elliott iced a tennis ball and kept running. But more tennis balls came, orange streaks of flame behind them.

  One scorched Nory’s ear. Another burned Sebastian’s elbow.

  The UDM kids needed to do something before someone got hurt worse.

  Willa couldn’t make it rain. Her rain only worked indoors. Sebastian couldn’t help, and neither could Bax or Andres.

  Should Nory flux into a dritten and defend her friends?

  She could if she wanted to! She could breathe fire at those Sparkies and really show them unsupervised flaring, if that’s how they were going to act. Nory was this close to fluxing when she heard a loud chorus of barks. Yappy barks, menacing barks, deep barks, feverish barks.

  She looked down the street. An army of dogs was running toward them. Marigold and Sebastian hopped over a fence into a nearby yard. Elliott threw himself into a bush to avoid being trampled. Nory pressed her spine to a maple tree and soaked in the scene with amazement.

  Dogs, everywhere! A chocolate Lab, a Yorkshire terrier, half a dozen mutts. But not just dogs! There was also a crew of yowling cats … ​a chittering rush of squirrels and chipmunks … ​ then a jackrabbit and a couple of goats. Finally, a swirl of butterflies, bluebirds, and pigeons, a rush of flapping wings.

  The Sparkies screamed. They dropped their tennis balls and pivoted on their heels. Then they ran back the way they’d come. The dogs and cats and squirrels and birds, the cardinals and chipmunks and butterflies—they chased the Sparkies down the street and out of sight.

  One lone tennis ball rolled into the gutter, smoking now that its flame was out.

  Nory stepped away from the tree. Marigold and Sebastian joined her.

  “Where did those animals come from?” Willa asked, dropping down from the tree branch she’d been clinging to. She untangled Andres’s leash and pulled him behind her.

  “Were they chasing the Sparkies?” Elliott said, brushing bits of leaves off his jeans. “It looked like they were chasing the Sparkies—but that’s not possible. Is it?”