Ms. Starr herself was Pepper’s tutor because she, too, was an Upside-Down Fuzzy. Ms. Starr wasn’t a Fierce like Pepper, though. Pepper didn’t know what made Ms. Starr upside down, actually. Ms. Starr hadn’t showed her magic at school yet, and she hadn’t told the students exactly what it was.
“It’s not going well,” Pepper told Nory. “So far, all we do is nostril breathing and extra hula-hooping. Ms. Starr thinks those activities will balance my energy or something. But hello? Obviously not working very well.”
When they arrived at the UDM classroom, they saw a ream of white paper spread across the floor. All the kids stood in bare feet. “Girls! Finally!” Ms. Starr exclaimed. Her smile faded, and she gave a puzzled blink. “I’m glad to see you. But where’s the paint?”
They had some explaining to do.
Ms. Starr went to get the paint herself.
When she got back, she explained that the foot-painting activity was a way to “explore their roots,” since feet were the rootiest part of the human body. “Magic is grounded in the feet,” said Ms. Starr. “I want you to come alive to the sensations in your toes and heels. Make a connection between those feelings and artistic expression as you paint. We all know art and magic are connected!”
She climbed a ladder and taped paper on the ceiling for Andres. Sometimes he used backpacks of bricks to bring him down to earth for activities, but Ms. Starr said she didn’t want him to be weighed down during foot painting.
“Don’t worry about the product,” she instructed. “Focus on the process. Enjoy the process!”
Nory didn’t mind most of Ms. Starr’s UDM activities. She found interpretive dance super awkward—all that flailing about and pretending to be the song—and she knew Bax hated headstands, but a lot of their exercises seemed to be working. Since she’d started at Dunwiddle Magic School, Nory had learned to control her magic more often. She could now hold a kitten shape long enough to go to after-school kittenball class. She’d also gotten better at making mixed animals, like the dritten, the way she wanted to, and at keeping hold of her human mind.
Nory liked the feel of paint on her feet. She chose purple and walked the length of the long sheet of paper and back, stepping just along one edge. Pepper painted each of her toes a different color and then pressed them neatly into the paper. Marigold and Sebastian were trying to paint with just their heels, sitting on the floor. Bax had made a detailed picture of a castle with his toes.
Andres had small paper cups of paint lined up on top of the ladder, but he kept accidentally tipping them over onto people. “Sorry!” he cried as bright red paint splashed down. “Sorry again!” he called as Nory’s hair got doused with yellow.
Nory was reaching for a paper towel when the bell rang.
“Oh, dear,” Ms. Starr called out. “I forgot we have an assembly today! Right now, in fact! I’m sorry.” She took in her students’ paint-covered bodies. Marigold was wiping off her hearing aid. Bax had huge handprints on his shirt. Everyone had wet, paint-covered feet. Ms. Starr herself still had shoes on, but her jeans and hot-pink cardigan were spattered with paint from Andres’s accidents. Her dark brown skin and neat, braided bun had splashes of white all over them. “No time for cleaning up. We’ll just go as we are!” She shooed everyone up and out of the room. “To the auditorium, everyone!”
“This is so awkward,” said Pepper. “How can we expect people to stop calling us wonkos when we show up at an assembly looking like wonkos?”
“On the bright side,” Nory answered, “we get to track footprints in the hall!” She turned to watch the mess they were making as they walked.
“I feel bad for the janitor,” said Pepper.
Outside the auditorium, the UDM class lined up next to the fifth-grade Flares.
Drat.
Being next to the Flares meant being next to the Sparkies, a group of snooty Flares led by Lacey Clench. Lacey was enormously mean and extremely committed. It was a dangerous combination.
All the Sparkies hated the UDM kids, in part because Lacey told them to. Lacey hated the way Nory and her classmates didn’t fit any of the usual rules about magic. Also, Marigold had once shrunk Lacey to the size of a gerbil and Nory had once doused Lacey with skunkephant spray. The Sparkies had even tried unsuccessfully to kick the UDM kids out of Dunwiddle Magic School.
Now Lacey looked Nory up and down and pretended shock. She took off her large, round glasses and wiped them clean on the edge of her perfectly pressed blue cardigan. She tucked her short, sharply cut blond hair behind her ears and put the glasses back on.
“Zinnia, I think I’m seeing things,” she said to her best friend, a girl with freckled pale skin and softly puffy red hair. “Are the wonkos changing colors?”
“We were painting, Lacey,” Nory explained.
“I think they were painting,” said Zinnia mildly.
“Don’t be stupid, Zinnia,” said Lacey. “They’ve all caught some wonky disease from each other and now they’re melting like crayons, messing up the hallways. As if they haven’t done enough damage already.”
Her words stung, but Nory wouldn’t let Lacey know that. “Oh, I see,” she replied. “You’re trying to make a joke. But you’re not funny. Better luck next time.”
“You’re the ones who need luck,” Lacey said. “Seeing you guys in the Show Off is going to be the best joke of all.”
“The what?”
Lacey gave Nory a knowing, pitying look. “The Show Off. If you were even a little bit normal, you’d know what that is.” Then her line started moving and she swished into the auditorium. Zinnia followed.
“What’s the Show Off?” Nory asked Pepper as they slid into their seats.
Pepper shrugged.
Coach Vitomin stood behind the podium at the front of the auditorium. Not only was he Nory’s fluxing tutor, he was also the head of the Fluxing Department and the coach of the kittenball team. He had big muscles.
“Arrrrre yoooooouuuu exxxxcited?!” Coach called out.
“Yeah!” almost everyone yelled.
Coach bounced along the stage. “The Show Off is a week from this Saturday! Here are the rules! Every class in every grade is invited to put together an act that shows off your talents! There will be one winning class per grade, plus some fun categories like Most Original, Most Hilarious, and Most Athletic. The competition will be intense. Intense, but fun!”
“I don’t like this,” Pepper whispered, tugging on Nory’s sleeve. “I don’t like this at all.”
Coach went on. “Not every student has to participate, but for the love of vegetables, it’s important to show school spirit. Your act can be anything so long as it’s student work. Teachers aren’t allowed to help. They can give you practice time during the school day, if lessons are done, but the Show Off performance is just like homework: Students have to do it on their own! Find extra time to work on your acts during recess or after school. Got it, everyone?” Coach asked.
“Got it!” most everyone yelled.
“And now, I give you …” Coach paused for effect. “Last year’s seventh-grade champs, and winners of Most Original and Most Athletic, the Flyers!”
Two drummers took seats at the edge of the stage and began a complicated rhythm. The Flyers, now eighth graders, walked out in formation. They wore silver T-shirts and held flashlights.
With a flick of a switch, the auditorium went dark. The Flyers started zooming across the room, over people’s heads! Flashlights on, they made stars with their bodies. A sun. A comet. It was like a live star show at a planetarium, but grander. The Flyers came together and flew apart, everyone perfectly synchronized. The audience oohed and aahed. In the grand finale, the Flyers formed a giant D on the ceiling, for Dunwiddle.
The crowd roared their approval, stomping and clapping like mad.
“The Show Off is going to be great!” Nory cried.
“No,” Pepper whispered. “The Show Off is going to be a nightmare.”
Pepper’s dad was a t
ypical Fuzzy. Animals loved him, especially cats and dogs. He could get the grumpiest German shepherd to wag its tail. The neighborhood cats trotted up to him in the morning as he walked to work, offering him dead mice and snakes as gifts. Once, he’d even made a pit bull purr.
Pepper was the oldest Phan child. Her whole family had looked forward to her magic bubbling up around her tenth birthday—not just her parents, but also five-year-old Taffy and the three-year-old twins, Jam and Graham.
Sadly, the reaction of the Phans’ beloved golden retriever, Toothpaste, was the first sign that something unusual had happened when Pepper’s powers came in. When Pepper had greeted Toothpaste on her birthday morning, he’d trembled and peed on the floor. He’d let out a moan. His glossy yellow coat had turned stark white. He’d hurled himself at the front door, over and over, trying to get away from Pepper the Fierce. He’d actually hurt his shoulder doing it.
Pepper’s family was horrified. Pepper was horrified, too—and heartbroken.
Mr. Phan’s business, Furry Friends, brought dogs and cats to old people who needed company but couldn’t take care of a pet any longer. Most of them lived in nursing homes or retirement communities. Many were stuck in wheelchairs or hospital beds. Mr. Phan brought the comfort animals to visit. The creatures were all thrilled to spend the day with him and would do anything he asked. He and his animal friends made people smile, every day.
Toothpaste had remained white, but his shoulder had healed after Mr. Phan took him to the vet. He couldn’t come home again, though. He was too frightened of Pepper. He went to live at Furry Friends, which had a pleasant building and a big backyard for the animals to play in. Toothpaste was happy there and got along with the other comfort dogs.
But Pepper still missed him.
Today, Pepper’s dad had picked up her sister from ordinary school and her brothers from nursery school. They were all in the kitchen when Pepper got home, but Pepper went straight up to her room and laid facedown on her bed.
She’d hated today’s assembly about the stupid Show Off. She couldn’t be in the same room with anyone who’d fluxed into an animal, or with any regular animals. She wouldn’t be able to watch the Fluxer or the Fuzzy competition entries. And what “talent” was she supposed to show off, exactly? She couldn’t be part of any act.
“Pep-Pep? Can we do the clappy thing?” It was her sister, Taffy.
“I’m not in the mood for the clappy thing,” Pepper mumbled into her mattress.
“Would you take me to the playground, then? Please? Daddy said I can’t play with the spray cleaner anymore.”
“Okay,” Pepper said. She could use some fresh air.
The playground was just a couple of blocks away. It had swings and a big sandbox, a climbing structure shaped like a fire engine, and a statue in the shape of a dragon. Pepper pushed Taffy on the swings.
“Pep-Pep, look!” Taffy cried, jamming her legs onto the ground to stop the swing. She pointed to a pair of redheaded girls, one in the sandbox and the other on the top of the climbing structure.
Pepper’s stomach dropped. The older girl was Zinnia. Lacey’s sidekick.
Taffy jumped off the swing. She tugged on Pepper’s arm. “You have to help. You have to help!”
Pepper looked. Zinnia’s little sister was running out of the sandbox at top speed. Behind her was a swarm of angry wasps.
She was screaming. The wasps were chasing her!
“Violet!” Zinnia cried out, seeing the wasps at the same time Pepper did.
Pepper charged over, flung her arms wide, and called on her fiercing magic on purpose, something she had done only one other time in her life.
“Go!” she thundered, feeling slippery all over.
The wasps froze midair. They hung in place for an impossible moment, then zoomed away in a fretful, buzzing line.
Just like that, they were gone.
Wow.
Wow!
Pepper was proud. And embarrassed. And tired. The good kind of tired, the way you feel after you’ve been swimming for a long time.
Violet flung herself at Zinnia and burst into tears. Pepper and Taffy hovered a few feet away.
“Thank you,” Zinnia said to Pepper. Her cheeks were red. “Seriously, thank you. You saved her.” She did a double take, and her expression changed. “Oh, it’s you. Pepper.”
“Yup,” Pepper said, bracing herself for whatever cruelty came next.
“You saved my sister.” Zinnia looked Pepper in the eye gratefully. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Those wasps were dangerous.”
“I couldn’t think of anything to do,” said Zinnia. She fluttered her hands. “I can’t make a firebomb or anything flaming out of thin air.”
“I got stung by a wasp,” Violet whimpered, showing her wrist, which had a red welt on it. “Can we get ice cream? With Taffy?”
“You two know each other?” Pepper asked her sister.
Taffy nodded. “Not that good yet. She’s in Mr. Grapefruit’s class.”
Violet tugged on Zinnia’s arm. “I need ice cream to calm down.” She swept her arm to indicate Pepper and Taffy, her gesture so grand that Pepper had to fight back a laugh. “We all need ice cream. I know you have money, Zinnia. You should treat our friends to say thank you for what Taffy’s sister did.”
“Oh.” Pepper was flustered. It was one thing to save Zinnia’s sister from a swarm of wasps. It was another thing entirely to eat ice cream with Zinnia in a place where other people could see them.
“Please say yes. It’s my treat,” Zinnia pleaded.
How can I say no? Pepper thought. I can’t say no.
So she didn’t.
Nory woke up and twirled across her bedroom the next morning. She put on her red jeans, her red sneakers, and her white shirt with cherries on it. She bounced out of her bedroom and poured a bowl of Fruity Doodles. She was alone in the house. Aunt Margo was a Flyer who ran a one-woman airborne taxi service, so she left early for work some mornings.
Nory didn’t bother with milk. She ate the Fruity Doodles straight. Then she put her hair in a high ponytail and brushed her teeth because she’d promised Aunt Margo she would.
She felt lucky, wearing what she wanted to wear and eating what she wanted to eat. Father had insisted on protein like eggs or sausage every morning, and he never allowed sugary cereal. Also, he liked Nory to wear a dress and have her hair tightly braided. Mornings with her brother, Hawthorn, and her sister, Dalia, had been busy, busy, busy: Father wiped counters and Nory took out the trash; Hawthorn cooked; Dalia’s bunnies hopped about and got in the way while she cleared the table. People finished up homework and Father made phone calls and no one stopped moving until they left the house for school and work.
Nory didn’t miss that at all.
Okay, maybe she missed it a little bit.
But she liked it here at Aunt Margo’s, too. She opened the door to a glorious day. The sky was a shimmering blue. The sun was an egg yolk. Not a rain cloud in sight.
She stepped out—and tripped on a box.
It was a brown package addressed to Nory Horace. No return address.
How odd.
Nory knelt and opened the box. Ooh, it was a present! Inside the brown paper mailer was a shiny purple box with a white ribbon. She opened the box and pulled out a pair of size four purple rain boots. Stripy purple rain boots! Nory’s heart did a happy flip.
She loved them. She loved them sooo much.
She kicked off her sneakers and tugged them on. A perfect fit! A perfect present.
But who had sent it? Had Aunt Margo ordered them for Nory?
Nory ran back inside and grabbed an umbrella. Now she was hoping for rain.
Maybe Willa could help her out.
At school, morning meeting was dedicated to a discussion of the Show Off. “Let’s start by sharing our hopes and fears about the event,” Ms. Starr said. “Don’t make a plan for an act just yet. Let’s first express our feelings.”
&
nbsp; “I don’t have any feelings,” said Bax.
“I have a feeling of dread,” said Pepper.
“I have a feeling of dread, too,” said Marigold, her pencil shrinking in her hand as she spoke.
“I have a lot of emotions swirling inside of me,” said Sebastian. “Zoom. Whoosh. Bang.” Most people would have said these words loudly, but Sebastian kept them quiet, because he could see sound waves. He was an Upside-Down Flicker. Loud noises bothered him, because he could see them.
“We don’t have to do an act at all,” Bax said. “It’s optional.”
“Every class always does one,” said Andres, from over their heads. He knew this stuff because of his older sister, Carmen. “Not every kid is in the act, but the only time a class didn’t offer one was the year the sixth-grade Flickers all gave one another lice. So I think we should. My emotion is eagerness.”
“I want to do it!” Nory said. “My emotion is excitement.”
Bax groaned. “That’s because you have cool magic, Nory.”
“I have embarrassing magic,” said Nory, sharply. “But I think we could figure something out that nobody else in the whole school could do. We might actually win the fifth grade.”
Elliott nodded. “I’m feeling like I agree with Nory.”
Willa nodded, too. “I’m feeling like I agree with Elliott, who agrees with Nory.”
“That’s because you and Elliott did the snowball prank,” said Bax. “Rain magic and ice magic—those are cool talents. I’m feeling like you should think about the rest of us. The rest of us don’t want to get laughed at by everyone at Dunwiddle.”
“Are we having a vote?” Nory asked Ms. Starr. “I think half of us wants to and the other half doesn’t.”
“We’re not having a vote,” said Ms. Starr. “The truth is, UDM is going to enter the Show Off. Principal Gonzalez and Coach both told me they think we should. Our class really needs to connect with the larger Dunwiddle community.”
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