“Fruity Doodles.”
Aunt Margo didn’t blink. She bought two boxes of Fruity Doodles, as well as half a dozen apples and a pint of chocolate ice cream.
“I arranged for a neighbor boy to walk you to the first day of school tomorrow,” Aunt Margo said over dinner. It was takeout pizza.
“Who is he?”
“His name’s Elliott. I taxi his mom to work at the hospital a couple towns over,” Aunt Margo said after swallowing a bite of pizza. “Her shift is early, so I’ll be gone when you wake up. Can you fix yourself a bowl of Fruity Doodles?”
“Yes.”
“And be sure to switch off the lights when you leave. Oh, and Elliott’s in the Upside-Down Magic class, too. That’s pretty great, don’t you think?”
No, Nory didn’t think it was pretty great. There was nothing great about any part of the situation. But she knew Aunt Margo was being thoughtful. “What’s Elliott’s magic?”
“He’s a Flare. And an unusual one, from what I’ve heard. I haven’t seen him in action. He’s—well, you’ll see when you meet him. But he’s a nice, nice boy. He’ll swing by to get you at eight.”
* * *
The next morning, Nory woke up to an empty house. It took her a moment to remember everything. When she did, her heart felt empty, too.
She looked on the bright side. Hawthorn wasn’t there to make her wear a dress or braid her hair. That meant she could choose her own clothes.
Nory wiggled into her lucky purple pants, pulled on a hoodie, and left her hair big. She was dressed for school by seven thirty, which gave her plenty of time to eat breakfast, watch cartoons, and get really and totally terrified.
Would everyone else know one another from ordinary school?
What if no one spoke to her?
What if she didn’t make any friends?
What if she never made any friends and she spent her lunches hiding in the girls’ bathroom trying not to turn into a bitten?
The doorbell rang. Nory jumped, then answered the door. The boy on the steps was pale and tall, with nice straight teeth and long legs. He had big hair, too. Short loopy curls sprang over his head, defying gravity.
“Hi,” said the boy. “I’m Elliott.”
“Hi.” Nory made herself smile.
“You’ve got a fake smile,” Elliott observed. “But that’s okay. So do I.”
“What?”
“It’s the first day of school. Der. And it’s the first day of Upside-Down Magic class. Everyone’s going to be staring at us, and not in a good way.”
Nory blinked.
“We are now officially wonkos,” Elliott said. He shook his head. “I know some of the Upside-Down kids from before, and a few of them are scary. Others are just …”
Nory still couldn’t find her words. Scary and wonky? Oh, why couldn’t she just be at Sage Academy?
“Come on,” Elliott said, jumping down Margo’s front steps one at a time. “I’ve lived here all my life, so I know the quickest way to get there.”
Is the quickest way really the best? Nory wanted to ask. But she didn’t, so Elliott peppered her with questions instead. He was a talker.
“What’s your favorite kind of ice cream?”
“Chocolate,” Nory said. She and Dalia liked chocolate. Hawthorn liked peach. Father didn’t eat sweets.
“What’s your favorite animal?” Elliott asked.
“Dragon,” Nory said. She had never seen one—although for a brief time she’d almost been one—but she was hoping to travel to Australia one day and see them in the wild.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Purple.”
“I heard about your mixed-up animals from your aunt. Is it scary?”
Nory snapped to attention. He knew? Of course he knew. Father had told her aunt. Her aunt had told the school. That was how she’d gotten into the Upside-Down Magic class.
“Yeah, it’s scary,” she told Elliott.
“Can you do normal ones?”
“Sometimes.”
“Why are you black when your aunt’s white?”
“My dad’s black. My mom was white.”
“Do you want to tell me about your mom?”
“No, thanks,” she said to Elliott. What could she tell him? What did she really know? She didn’t remember much.
But he wouldn’t stop. “Is she dead? I heard she was dead.”
“Sounds like you already know.”
“Want to tell me about your dad?”
“No.”
“Want to tell me about anything?”
Sheesh. Nory was at a loss. She wasn’t sure she wanted to open up yet. Or ever. But she didn’t want to upset Elliott, either. He was the best chance she had of making a friend here.
“Knock, knock,” she said.
He smiled. “Who’s there?”
“Me.”
“Me, who?”
“Knock, knock,” she repeated.
“Who’s there?”
“Me.”
“Me, who?”
“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Meow.”
“Meow, who?”
She grinned. “Just meow. I got bored waiting for you to answer the door so I turned into a cat.”
Elliott paused. Thought.
And laughed.
He had a great laugh. Big and snorty.
They reached the top of the hill. There was a red brick building with kids milling around it. Elliott stopped and waved at it dramatically. “Here we are: Dunwiddle Magic School,” he said. “And look, there’s Andres. He’ll be in our class for sure.”
Elliott tipped his big-hair head at a boy a few yards away, floating in the air. He was brown, probably Latino, Nory thought. He had shaggy hair and wore a stripy shirt. He was a Flyer, obviously, but he was much higher up than any beginner flyer Nory had seen. Every so often his body jerked forward. He flailed his arms. Around one ankle was a red rope. An older girl held the other end and chatted with her friends.
“Is he on a leash?” Nory whispered.
“That’s his sister Carmen holding the other end,” Elliott said. “Want to know what happened?”
Nory nodded.
“On the day before his tenth birthday, Andres flew up into the air during math. Just flew up. Not on purpose or anything. Our classroom had a ceiling fan. Andres went straight into it. His hair got caught. He spun around three times and then flew off into one corner. He hasn’t been able to come down to the ground since. He has to sleep up on the ceiling, eat up there, everything. If he wasn’t on the leash, he’d float away like a helium balloon.”
This sounded awful. “Poor Andres.”
“Yeah. No one hangs out with him anymore,” said Elliott. “It’s awkward.”
“So, what’s wrong with you?” Nory asked.
Elliott barked another laugh. “You mean, why am I in Upside-Down Magic?”
“Uh-huh.”
“My problem is that I’m a Flare, only …” He broke off in the middle of his sentence and dragged Nory behind a bush. “I don’t like people to see,” he whispered. “But you’re gonna see it anyway in school. I might as well.” Elliott picked up a twig and held it out at arm’s length. A zap of light set the twig on fire.
Nory jumped back, not wanting to get burned. But there was no need. The twig flamed for only an instant. Then the light went out. The entire piece of wood crackled over with ice.
Ice!
“I flare but then it freezes,” Elliott moaned. “Or else it doesn’t flare at all.”
Nory touched the ice twig and looked at Elliott in awe. She’d never known anyone who could freeze things before. She’d never even heard of people who could freeze things before.
“Come on, before the first bell rings,” said Elliott, changing the subject. He dragged Nory out from behind the bush. “I hear the cafeteria food is gross. I hear the principal is invisible. I hear we get recess every day after lunch and you�
�re not supposed to go in the wooded area. Still, everyone goes in there anyway. The lunch duty ladies don’t pay good attention. Oh, and watch out for Pepper. Pepper will definitely be in our class, which is not good news.”
“It’s not?” Nory said. “Why?”
“Pepper’s an Upside-Down Fuzzy—in other words, a Fierce. There have only been, like, two Fierces in all of history, I think. Extremely wonky. I know because I went to ordinary school with Pepper. On the day Pepper’s powers came in … pow!”
Nory’s heart thumped. “What happened?”
“Stampedes, howling, peeing on the carpet. Our neighbors have goats, and Pepper made them stampede through the fence. And I know these other people who used to have a pet dog. Pepper scared it so badly it hid for two weeks. Then when it finally came home, it was always trying to bite people. Pepper terrified that dog into permanent meanness. The people had to give the dog away.”
“Wow.” Nory shivered.
“I’ve heard other stories, too. Horses crying. Cats trying to hide in mouse holes.”
“What do Fierces do to Fluxers?” she asked. “Like, if a Fluxer is in animal form and Pepper comes along?”
“Pepper terrifies them, just like any other animal.”
“What if we’re in our human form?”
“Dunno. It’s probably still bad. I’m a human, and Pepper scares me,” Elliott said.
Nory wasn’t sure how she’d ever survive her class.
They were almost to the stairs leading to the school’s front door when Elliott abruptly peeled off to the left. “Just saw my Flare friends from ordinary school,” he said, talking over his shoulder. “I haven’t seen them all summer, practically. They must miss me! You’ll be okay, right? I’ll see you in class.”
Nory wasn’t sure she’d be okay at all, but before she could even wave, Elliott had been swallowed by the crowd.
First day. So many students.
Just one Nory.
Okay. Deep breath. You can do this, Nory told herself. It won’t be that bad. Maybe it’ll even be fun.
She would look on the bright side.
Starting today, she was going to learn new things and make new friends.
I really, really will.
She held her head high and walked inside.
The hallways of Dunwiddle School were nothing like the friendly hallways of Nory’s old ordinary school. And they were nothing like the elegant hallways of Sage Academy, either. The floors of Dunwiddle were linoleum. The walls were white and there were red fire extinguishers hanging every two yards. Large signs announced rules in big black letters:
NO FIRES EXCEPT IN THE FLARE LAB.
NO FLYING EXCEPT IN THE FLYERS’ COURT OR THE YARD.
VISIBLE HUMAN SHAPES TO BE USED IN THE HALLWAYS AT ALL TIMES.
And: ANIMAL FRIENDS ARE NOT ALLOWED.
Not everyone was obeying these rules, however. Two big Fuzzy boys had mice peeking out of their jacket pockets. Several Flyers were hovering two feet off the floor, talking about their summer vacations. Nory turned a corner and nearly stumbled over three black kittens running away as if their lives depended on it.
They must have seen Pepper, she thought. Poor little kittens.
Ahead of her, she saw a water fountain. Then she didn’t. It had disappeared. Then a girl walked by. A stream of water splurted from the invisible fountain and soaked the girl’s shirt. She scowled and said to the air, “Jeremy Huang, I know that’s you.”
Nory couldn’t see Jeremy Huang, but she could hear his laughter.
There didn’t seem to be anybody around to stop him from playing the trick again.
Nory made a mental note to stay at least five feet away from every water fountain.
Dunwiddle felt like a maze. The deeper Nory went, the more lost she got. Where was she supposed to go? What was her classroom number again? Margo had told her before bed, but that seemed so long ago now. Nory couldn’t remember.
A Flare girl with flaming candlesticks ran past, laughing deliriously. Nory jumped to the side. Then she turned a corner and had to duck fast as a bat nearly crashed into her head.
Ahhhh!
She hadn’t been in school for more than ten minutes, and already she needed a break. She looked around and saw a door marked SUPPLY CLOSET.
Very cautiously, she opened the door and found … a nice, ordinary supply closet. Phew. She could rest there for a minute. Without anyone noticing, Nory slipped inside and let out a shaky sigh. It was dim, but not completely dark. There was a window at the top of the door. Nory saw brooms and mops and buckets in the back. Metal shelves lined the walls, stocked with cleaning products. There were about twenty fire extinguishers and way too many bags of cat litter.
Nory sank to the floor. She drew her legs to her chest and propped her arms on her knees.
Deep breath, she told herself again. Look on the bright side. Remember?
“Would you like a lemon drop?” a voice asked.
Nory’s head snapped up. She peered into the shadows.
A girl stepped out from behind the mop. She was small and Asian-American with a sweet round face. She had thick black hair in two ponytails and wore a baggy denim dress. It looked like a hand-me-down.
The girl fished a lemon drop from a small yellow box and handed it to Nory. “Why are you hiding here?” she asked.
“It’s my first day,” Nory said lamely. She popped the lemon drop into her mouth. It was sour and good.
“Mine, too.”
“And it isn’t anything like my ordinary school,” Nory explained. “It’s so big. There are all these animals. And invisible water fountains. And a million fire extinguishers. A bat flew at my head. I got turned around and couldn’t find my classroom.”
The girl nodded. “I got locked in a locker,” she said. “Three eighth-grade Flickers made me invisible. Then they tossed me in without anyone noticing. They just left me there.”
“That’s awful.”
“Well, I’m very short,” said the girl. “It’s tempting, I suppose.”
“How did you get out?”
The girl sighed. “Principal Gonzalez is a Flicker. He heard me banging on the locker. He opened it and made me visible again. Then he told me to go right to class, but I saw those same mean eighth graders coming down the hall, looking for more victims, so I ducked in here instead.”
“I have to go to this class for wonky kids,” Nory blurted, surprising herself. “Everyone else in the class is going to be wonky, too. Can you think of anything more terrible? The kids who are normal are going to make fun of us the whole year. I know it.”
The girl nodded. “Upside-Down Magic. They put me in that class, too.”
“They did? Why?”
The girl checked her watch. “Class starts in one minute,” she said. She extended her hand and helped Nory up. “It’ll be okay. Maybe. Come on.”
They slipped out of the supply closet. Nory kept close to her new friend as they strode down the hall.
They stopped a few feet in front of a classroom. “Room 151,” the girl said. “This is it. Ms. Starr’s class.”
Nory grabbed her arm. “Hey, watch out for a kid named Pepper,” she whispered. “He’s a Fierce, and there’ve only been two in the whole world. He’s super dangerous, even to humans.”
The girl looked shocked. “What?”
“We should sit together,” said Nory. “Okay? We can protect each other. From Pepper.”
The girl looked at her funny and opened the classroom door.
The room inside was bright and sunny, with eight desks on one side and a large carpeted area on the other. A stack of mats was rolled up in one corner, and a pile of yellow umbrellas leaned against the wall. A large cupboard with a glass door was filled with what looked like brightly colored sweaters. Another held art supplies. There was a bookshelf stuffed with paperbacks. A poster on the wall read: Remember the kid who gave up? Neither does anyone else.
There were still fire extinguishers all alo
ng the walls, but at least it was a cheerful room.
Ms. Starr walked toward them as they entered. She had perfect posture and bright lipstick. She had darker skin than Nory and wore her hair up in a bun. Her bright yellow cardigan matched a shirt with yellow polka dots. She ushered Nory and the girl with the lemon drops into the room.
“Our last two students!” she said. “Welcome, welcome. I am Ms. Starr.”
Nory looked at her classmates. The eight desks were in two rows of four. Two girls and two boys sat in the front. Elliott was by himself in the back row. He gave Nory a quick wave. Nory smiled back. The three desks nearest to him were empty.
Andres floated on the ceiling with his red leash dangling down. One of the empty desks was probably his. That left two empty desks—one for Nory and one for the lemon drop girl. So everyone in the class was here. Eight desks, eight kids.
Nory studied the two boys in the front row, trying to figure out which one was Pepper. One was a large, freckled, blond boy with ruddy skin and thick eyebrows. Maybe even thuggish eyebrows. He wore a sports jersey. The other was a darker, wiry boy with short hair and a hole in his jeans. He slumped in his chair and spun a pencil in his fingers.
Nory guessed Pepper was the large, thuggish one. She was scared of him already.
Ms. Starr shook Nory’s hand. “You’re Elinor Horace, yes?”
“Yes. But I go by Nory.”
“Class, say hello to Nory Horace.”
“Hello, Nory Horace,” they chorused.
Ms. Starr turned to the lemon drop girl. “And here you are, as well,” she said. She smiled at the girl as if she already knew her and liked her. “Class, say hello to Pepper Phan.”
“Hello, Pepper Phan.”
Nory gulped.
Pepper?
Did Ms. Starr just say Pepper?
The thuggish boy wasn’t Pepper the Fierce.
The girl with the lemon drops was Pepper the Fierce.
Nory’s vision blurred and her heart sped up. Her body started to tingle.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
Fur. Tail. Claws. Teeth.
There, in the first period of the first day of school, Elinor Boxwood Horace turned into a bitten.
Upside-Down Magic Page 3