Showing Off

by Emily Jenkins

  “He’s always believed in proper footwear,” said Hawthorn.

  Nory heard Father’s deep voice say something about dinner.

  “Oh, zwingo, we’ve got to go,” Dalia said.

  “We’ll call again when we can,” Hawthorn promised. “Just don’t go wonky at the Show Off! We’ll get Father there and everything will be great.”

  There was a click. The line went dead.

  Zamboozle. Father was coming to the Show Off? They were all coming? Nory felt woozy.

  “Nory?” Aunt Margo called from in front of the television. “Are you coming back?”

  “Of course!” she said brightly. But what Nory really wanted to do was turn into a beaver-kitten, build a bitten lodge in the backyard, and hide in it until after the Show Off was done.

  Pepper met Ms. Starr at Dunwiddle early the next morning for extra tutoring time. She was already there when the teacher arrived at the supply closet with Carrot in the box. “She’s not in a box at home,” the teacher explained as she sat down. “At home she’s got free run of the yard and there’s a little rabbit door that leads inside.”

  Carrot hopped out and climbed into Pepper’s lap. She wiggled importantly. “I can feel the buzz of your magic, Pepper,” the rabbit said, “but it’s just an annoyance. I can take it. In fact, today we thought you could try to scare me. Go on.” She paused. And waited. “Are you trying yet?”

  “No,” Pepper confessed. “I don’t want to scare you.”

  “Do you want to get the hang of your magic?” asked Carrot. “Because Eloise said you wanted to get the hang of your magic! She and I went over a whole lesson plan.”

  Ms. Starr nodded.

  “Then scare me,” Carrot demanded. She held her pink nose high in the air and adopted a brave countenance, as if preparing to be given a shot.

  “Um … boo,” Pepper said.

  Carrot bolted out of Pepper’s lap, as if electrocuted. Her fur stood on end and her ears stood straight up. She shrieked as if she were being murdered.

  Pepper cringed. Oh, no! Had she given poor Carrot a heart attack?

  “Carrot!” Ms. Starr cried, scooping the bunny into her arms. “Are you all right?”

  Abruptly, Carrot stopped shrieking and thrashing. She straightened her whiskers with her paw. She shook her fluffy tail.

  “I was kidding!” the rabbit chided. She eyed Pepper. “You didn’t really think you’d scared me, did you?”

  “That was a trick?” Pepper said. “You looked like you were being electrocuted!”

  “Rabbits have a lot of dramatic flair. Half of that nose twitching you see common garden rabbits do is for show, don’t you know?” Carrot cocked her ears. “This time, don’t insult me by saying ‘Boo.’”

  “What she means is, try to feel the magic inside you, Pepper,” said Ms. Starr. “Remember the way we talked about feeling the paint in the foot-painting exercises. It feels ticklish, and you can use it creatively. Right? You can decide what you want to do with it. You know how it felt when we painted. Now see if you can feel it with your magic.”

  Pepper felt inside herself.

  She could feel the magic.

  She hadn’t ever really been able to understand what part of her was magic and what part of her was just Pepper. But now she could.

  She focused on Carrot. Then she imagined that she was an electric fence, and that her magic was the electricity. Go! Go! She imagined crackling bolts of energy, the way she had with the wasps. Go!

  This time, Carrot didn’t fluff herself up or stiffen her ears or squeal. Silently, she dove headfirst behind the boxes of cat litter.

  Pepper let her magic relax. She stood up and peeked over into the very narrow crack between the boxes of litter and the wall. The bunny was squashed in there, shaking.

  Hiding!

  Ms. Starr bent over and touched Carrot’s back. “You all right, my friend?”

  “Mrwwfflfel,” said Carrot.

  “What?”

  “Monster magic!” said Carrot a little louder.

  “Are you ready to come out?” asked Ms. Starr gently.

  Carrot wiggled backward until she was out of the crack. When she was back in the center of the supply room floor, she shook herself like a dog. “Wow,” she said finally. “I didn’t really think you could scare me.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Pepper.

  “It’s okay! I asked you to. Eloise is rewarding me with a huge broccoli for helping you, so don’t worry. I’m getting paid! Wow, again. It was like you turned into a horrible monster. Congratulations! You are a very strong magician when you put your mind to it.”

  That didn’t make Pepper feel better. “I don’t want to be a horrible monster.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Carrot said. “What you do with your magic is under your control. Or it will be. Hopefully. You’re not a horrible monster. You just can be one—if you have to be. And that’s very cool. I really have to respect you, Pepper.”

  Carrot climbed into her lap, which made Pepper feel a little better. But there was still a lot she didn’t understand.

  At lunch, Pepper got pasta, cauliflower casserole, and apple slices. She went to sit with the UDM kids, as usual.

  Nory was already sitting down. She had dark circles under her eyes, and she hunched over her food, stabbing her casserole but never taking a bite.

  “Nory? Are you okay?” Pepper asked.

  “Huh?” Nory blinked.

  Elliott sat down beside Pepper, making the table jump when he banged down his tray. “Listen up, people,” he said. “Every other fifth-grade class knows what they’re doing for the Show Off. Every class but us. We have to nail down a plan.”

  “How do you know they know?” Marigold asked, sitting on Pepper’s other side. She parked Andres on his leash above them.

  “Bax heard it from Nurse Riley,” said Elliott. “Nurse Riley knows all the gossip. Kids open up to him while they’re getting ice packs or having frogs taken out of their noses.” Bax himself was still at the back of the lunch line with Sebastian. As Willa sat down, Elliott counted off on his fingers: “Nurse Riley told Bax that the Fuzzies are commanding a camel. The Fluxers are doing a kitten dance. The Flickers are doing something called Oranges Away! The Flyers are doing a traditional flag dance, and the Flares have some sort of colored-light-firefly thing. We need to come up with something good. Right, Nory?”

  Nory seemed to be in a daze. “What?”

  “You wanted us to enter!” Elliott slapped the table. “So let’s figure something out!”

  “He’s right,” Marigold said. “We can moan and gripe, or we can come up with an idea.”

  “I vote for moaning and griping,” Bax said, taking his seat.

  Pepper figured now was her best chance to speak up. “I’m not going to be in the Show Off,” she told them. “I’m not even going to be in the audience, because I’ll fierce the animals. Anyone who wants to opt out, we could go get ice cream that night or something.”

  “Ice cream?” said Bax. “Count me in.”

  “No, you guys, wait till you hear what I’ve been thinking!” Elliott said. “We could do a drama. Like, Nory could flux into a spider. Willa would stand on a chair and go, ‘Oh, no! Oh, no! A spider!’”

  Willa snorted. “Or not.”

  “Then Bax could walk onto the stage as himself, just a regular guy—but maybe with a mustache?”

  “Why a mustache?” Andres called down.

  “Dramatic effect,” Elliott said, warming to his idea. “Bax could say, ‘Oh, dear, I see you have spider problems. No need to fear, rock man is here!’ And then Bax could turn into a rock and I could come on and roll him. Right before he squishes Nory to a pulp, KABOOM! He turns back into a boy!”

  Elliott’s face was alight. He looked at the other UDM kids.

  They stared back.

  “If anyone is going to get rid of a spider, it would be Pepper,” Marigold said.

  “I don’t need to be saved from Spider-Nory!
” Willa exclaimed. “What if I like spiders? My aunt Jen’s a Fluxer and she always does spiders!”

  “I don’t even do spider yet,” said Nory, shaking her head.

  “And no one would see the spider from the stage,” called Andres.

  “I wouldn’t be able to turn back,” said Bax.

  “Isn’t that what you’re working on in tutoring?” asked Elliott.

  “A little,” said Bax. “But I haven’t actually done it yet. It’s crazy tricky to flux back when you’re an inanimate object. Coach has me working on other stuff, too.”

  Sebastian joined them. As was his custom during lunch, he wore a large plastic cone around his head to block the sound waves from his vision in the cafeteria. “I heard there will be hundreds of people at the Show Off,” he said. “If everyone’s family comes.”

  Nory gulped. “H-hundreds? We can’t do a spider drama with hundreds of people watching!”

  “I’m trying to find an idea! If you guys don’t like the spider story, come up with one yourself!” Elliot said, raising his voice.

  “We just can’t embarrass ourselves!” Nory said. “I mean … I don’t know. This is a big deal. Bigger, maybe, than we first realized.”

  Nory worked her mouth as if she wanted to say more, then pushed back from the table and took off.

  Pepper hurried after her. “Nory! Nory, wait up!” she called.

  Pepper could tell Nory was upset about more than just finding an act for the Show Off. She ran into the hall, but it was empty.

  Had Nory fluxed again, accidentally?

  Maybe she’d gone to see Coach in his office, or maybe she’d headed to the bathroom.

  Pepper walked down the hall toward the supply closet. That seemed to be the most likely hiding place. On the way, she passed the Flare lab. Inside, she could hear two girls arguing.

  Pepper peeked in. It was Lacey and Zinnia. Lacey’s features were screwed up like a rotten peach. Her skin was blotchy. Zinnia was on the verge of tears. “I’m not going to be in the Show Off!” she said. “I hate performing, and I’d rather just watch. I told you a million times. You can’t make me!”

  “I can so make you,” Lacey said harshly, squeezing her fists by her sides. “I can so. Because I! Am! The Boss!”

  “Not! Of! Me!” Zinnia cried. “Not anymore!”

  Pepper backed away from the Flare lab door and hurried to the supply closet before either of them saw her. She slipped inside the closet and, sure enough, Nory was there. She was sitting in the dark with her head in her hands.

  Pepper flipped on the light and offered Nory a cherry unicorn gummy from the bag in her pocket. “Unicorn?”

  “Thanks.”

  “Have as many as you want. Are you okay?”

  “I guess.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Pepper, sitting down.

  Nory shrugged. “The Show Off.”

  “What about it?”

  “Well, you know I don’t live with my dad, right? Just with my aunt.”

  Pepper knew.

  “Well,” Nory explained, “Father sent me to Dunwiddle to go to UDM, but he also sent me away from our home in Nutmeg. Because my wonky magic upsets him. It’s embarrassing, and it makes life crazy, and I was always destroying the furniture. I haven’t even talked to him since I left. He hasn’t called. Or written. Or visited. The only thing he did was send me rain boots, and that was great—it was nice he thought to send me a present—but it also made me care again. Like, I was able to pretend I didn’t miss him until I got the rain boots. And then I missed him a lot. And they didn’t have a note. And now he’s coming to the Show Off.”

  “So you can’t opt out of performing,” said Pepper, putting the pieces together. “Because if you do, your dad won’t visit.”

  Nory nodded. “But I also can’t do anything wonky onstage, or he’ll never visit again.”

  Poor Nory.

  Pepper hated her magic, and she hated not having a dog anymore, but her parents were always proud of her. She loved that they were proud of her.

  They sat in silence. They each ate another cherry unicorn gummy.

  Finally Pepper said, “Guess what I heard just now when I went by the Flare lab? It’s about Lacey Clench.”

  Nory brightened. “Ooh, is she plotting evil?”

  “Not exactly,” said Pepper. “She’s failing to plot evil.”

  “We should get out the chocolate for this,” said Nory, standing up to pull a bag of choco fire trucks from their secret hiding place. She sat back down with the bag and crossed her legs. “Okay. Tell me all about it.”

  That afternoon, Nory went with Bax to meet with their fluxing tutor, Coach Vitomin. Coach smelled like sweat and herbal tea. He made them both eat disgusting high-nutrient foods, like seaweed and sardines, which he said were important for fluxing. But Nory thought he was a good teacher.

  Nory had been working on keeping her human mind when she was a dritten. Bax was working on turning into objects other than just rocks. He was making progress.

  “Ready, Bax?” said Coach Vitomin. “Go!”

  Bax scrunched up his face and then, suddenly, fluxed. His head wobbled on his shoulders, there were some popping sounds, and … he became a swivel chair. Not a rock, but a swivel chair.

  “Zamboozle!” cried Nory.

  “Fantastic. Are you still in touch with your human mind, son?” asked Coach Vitomin.

  Swivel-Bax started to spin. Around and around and around.

  “Amazing!” Nory said. Bax had never been able to move before. His rock couldn’t roll. But this new swivel chair swiveled like crazy!

  Swivel-Bax stopped, teetering from side to side.

  “I think he made himself dizzy,” Coach said.

  “I didn’t know a chair could look sick,” said Nory.

  “We know he probably can’t turn back,” said Coach. “We better take him to Riley. But good job, son. That was really something, there, with the swiveling.”

  Nory steered Swivel-Bax to Nurse Riley’s office for his medicine. At least she didn’t have to use the wheelbarrow. In fact, Swivel-Bax could roll his own wheels. He just didn’t seem to know which direction to roll them.

  Nory had kittenball after school. After practice, she walked home with Elliott. He had stayed late for Flare tutoring.

  “The Fluxers are definitely doing a dance to that song ‘Kitty Grooves,’ ” Nory told Elliott as they walked. “Half are going to be butterscotch kittens. The other half are going to be black. They’re going to be in pairs.” She sighed. “They’re doing back spins and leg breaks and nae naes.”

  “Whatever. We’ll find something better.” Elliott kicked a pebble.

  “I hope. Guess what Pepper found out?”

  “What?”

  “The Sparkies are losing their spark. Zinnia and Lacey are fighting, and Zinnia might skip the Show Off.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “No, seriously. Pepper heard them.”

  “Okay, but, Nory? Zinnia’s always done everything Lacey tells her to. Just like I used to do everything Lacey told me, back in ordinary school.”

  “Well, today Zinnia told Lacey that she wasn’t the boss of her.”

  “I don’t buy it. Remember, I hung out with those kids from kindergarten till fourth grade.” Elliott widened his eyes, then nodded in a knowing way. “Never mind. Now I get it.”

  “Now you get what?”

  “Just tell me this: Did they know Pepper was there?”

  Nory frowned. “No. I don’t think so. How would they? Pepper eavesdropped. But not on purpose.”

  Again, he nodded. “I think they knew. Nory, how many times have the Sparkies played tricks on us?”

  “Too many times to count?”

  “Exactly. They’re up to something.”

  “But—”

  “Nory, if Pepper saw Lacey and Zinnia fighting, it’s because they wanted her to. They planned it. It was a performance.”

  Nory bit her lip.

/>   “Don’t believe me? Let’s go talk to Pepper,” Elliott said. He veered onto Magnolia Street, and Nory trailed behind. They passed the small neighborhood playground and took a left onto Spiderweb Street, where Pepper lived. Elliott marched right up to Pepper’s cute blue house and rang the doorbell.

  “She might not be home,” Nory said, suddenly feeling nervous.

  The door opened and Pepper grinned. “Elliott! Nory! Hi!”

  One of her twin brothers clung to her leg. The other toddled behind her with two wooden spoons. Their hair stuck straight up on their heads and they had fat, round wrists. “Bam jam bam!” the second one yelled, beating the spoons together.

  From within the house came a boom. It sounded like cymbals crashing together, but deeper.

  “Pep-Pep, now!” Nory heard a little voice say. “‘Crazy-Daisy Shame’!”

  Pepper turned bright red. “Taffy! Shush!”

  “But you promised!” Then another bang, then footsteps. A chubby-cheeked little girl in overalls and pigtails wiggled her way into the frame of the open front door. “Hi! Pep-Pep’s taking care of us. It’s the law. And she’s going to do the clappy thing for ‘Crazy-Daisy Shame,’ aren’t you, Pep-Pep?” She gave Nory and Elliott a no-nonsense look. “’Cause that’s the law, too.” She ushered Nory and Elliott inside with a flourish of her arm. “Come. You may be the audience.”

  Elliott grinned. He and Nory followed Taffy to a battered sofa surrounded by upturned mixing bowls of different sizes.

  “The song ‘Crazy-Daisy Shame’?” Nory asked Pepper. “By Everyday Cake?” Everyday Cake was one of Nory’s favorite bands. Everyday Cake was one of everybody’s favorite bands.

  “No clappy thing with people here,” Pepper told Taffy.

  “I love Everyday Cake,” Nory said. She was trying to be nice. She could see Pepper was anxious.

  The twin who had been attached to Pepper’s leg slid free and went to the biggest mixing bowl and sat behind it. The twin with the spoons went over, too. He smacked the spoons rhythmically, and his brother picked up the beat on the bowl, drumming his palms against the top.

  “Wow,” Nory said. She and Elliott had come to Pepper’s house for a reason—hadn’t they? She couldn’t remember what it was now.