Marcia's Madness

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

  The Sisters 8 Book 5

  Marcia's Madness

  Lauren Baratz-Logsted

  * * *

  With Greg Logsted & Jackie Logsted

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

  BOSTON • NEW YORK • 2010

  * * *

  Text copyright © 2010 by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Lisa K. Weber

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from

  this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,

  215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  SANDPIPER and the SANDPIPER logo are trademarks of

  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  The text of this book is set in Youbee.

  Book design by Carol Chu.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Baratz-Logsted, Lauren.

  Marcia's madness / by Lauren Baratz-Logsted with Greg Logsted and Jackie

  Logsted.

  p. cm.—(The sisters eight ; bk. 5)

  Summary: The Huit octuplets discover Marcia's special power—the ability to

  see through things—which helps when their evil neighbor calls Social Services to

  report that they are living alone because their parents have not returned

  from wherever they disappeared to.

  ISBN 978-0-547-33401-1 (hardcover)—ISBN 978-0-547-32864-5 (pbk.)

  [1. Sisters—Fiction. 2. Abandoned children—Fiction.]

  I. Logsted, Greg. II. Logsted, Jackie. III. Title.

  PZ7.B22966Mar 2010

  [Fic]—dc22 2009049693

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  SOFTCOVER DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  4500214415

  CASEBOUND DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  4500214186

  * * *

  For Sensei George Chaber,

  teacher, friend.

  * * *

  PROLOGUE

  Questions! Questions! Questions!

  The lives of the Sisters Eight are simply filled with questions!

  Of course, there are a few things they know the answers to.

  They know that each has to discover her individual power and gift in order to figure out what happened to Robert and Lucy Huit, the Eights' model father and scientist mother. They've already discovered the powers and gifts for four Eights. Annie has the power to be as smart as an adult when needed, and her gift is a ring with a purple gemstone. Durinda's power is that if she pats her right leg three times rapidly and then sharply points her finger at someone, she can freeze a person for various lengths of time (except it doesn't work for Zinnia). Durinda's gift is dangly screw-on earrings with emerald-colored gemstones. Georgia's power is that she can twitch her nose twice and make herself invisible. Her gift, which she initially sent back, is a gold compact mirror with her name engraved on the front. Jackie's power is that she can run faster than a speeding train. Her gift is a red cape—not monogrammed like Superman's.

  What will the powers and gifts turn out to be for the remaining Eights?

  Nobody knows yet.

  Some other things they know? Which people are in on their secret. These people include Pete the mechanic and Mrs. Pete; Will Simms, their classmate, whom they love; Mandy Stenko, their classmate, whom they're learning to like more than they once did; and their teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, also known as the McG, who was recently appointed principal of the Whistle Stop, where the Eights are in third grade. Well, the McG sort of knows. She doesn't want to know everything.

  The Eights also know they live in a magnificent stone house, practically a mansion. The address: 888 Middle Way. Country: unknown.

  Oh, and they also know they have eight gray-and-white puffball cats: Anthrax, Dandruff, Greatorex, Jaguar, Minx, Precious, Rambunctious, and Zither. How could they possibly forget the cats? But...

  Questions! Questions! Questions!

  At the end of Annie's Adventures, they thought Mommy was working on the secret of eternal life, but the Top Secret folder was empty. Perhaps Mommy was trying to throw evil people, like their toadstool of a neighbor the Wicket, off track? So they're not really sure what's going on with that.

  At the end of Dunnda's Dangers, having sent the Wicket on a wild-goose chase to Beijing, they began wondering if there might be other enemies out there in the world. This has been partially answered. Serena Harkness, Frank Freud (who was the principal of the Whistle Stop before the Eights forced him into early retirement in Australia and the McG took over his job)—neither of them turned out to be very nice, and there are probably still more not-very-nice people out there.

  At the end of Georgia's Greatness, they discovered that evil substitute teacher Serena Harkness's real last name was—wait for it!—Smith, the exact same last name their mother had before she got married. Is Serena, who looks similar to Lucy Huit but about ten years younger, some sort of relation? And what of that other woman they saw in the picture with Serena and their mother, the woman who looks exactly like their mother?

  At the end of Jackie's Jokes, the Wicket returned from Beijing. What will this evil neighbor do now? Also at the end of Jackie's Jokes, a flock of carrier pigeons delivered a ton of scroll-like notes, each with the same message: Beware the other Eights! There was a similar note found earlier behind the loose stone in the drawing room, where the Eights always find mysterious unsigned notes. This led to the biggest question of all. As Jackie put it so well: Other Eights? What other Eights?

  Oh, and have you noticed that a book is talking to you again? There's a good question for you: Who am I?

  Questions! Questions! Questions!

  And hardly an answer in sight.

  It's a good thing for all involved, then, that Marcia's month is about to start. You remember Marcia, don't you?

  Marcia, the sane one.

  Marcia, the rational one.

  Marcia, the observant one with the scientific mind—you know, the one who would never do anything crazy.

  ONE

  We each thought it would be nice to be a great detective, like Nancy Drew. If we were all like Nancy Drew, every time a mystery arose we could devote all our energies to solving it. Of course, we'd done our research. We'd gone to the library and looked at the Nancy Drew books there.

  That's when we discovered that there were fifty-six books in the original series and that Nancy was eighteen years old in book one and still eighteen at the end of book fifty-six. Marcia had pulled out her calculator and done the math: Nancy Drew solved mysteries at the rate of one every 6.5178571 days. We couldn't compete with that!

  We'd learned the hard way that there was no hurrying time. Things would happen when they happened, and there was no use in our trying to solve things quicker. We would get our powers and gifts when the time came, and we'd learn answers when the time came. We'd had to learn patience, not an easy thing to learn, particularly for Rebecca. And Georgia. And Zinnia.

  Plus, unfortunately for us, we weren't old enough to be great detectives. We were each only seven years old and wouldn't even be eight until August 8, 2008. This meant that, although we would have liked to spend all our time trying to solve the mystery of our parents' disappearance and all the other mysteries that had arisen since then—like, what was Mommy really working on? how was Crazy Serena related to us? what was the Wicket up to now that she was back? and, oh yeah, what other Eights?—we simply couldn't. We had no time to solve the mini mystery of what those two women were doing in that picture with Mommy, and we had no information on other Eights. And no one else lived a life like we did, so who could we ask? It wasn't exactly like we c
ould go to the police...

  We were too busy leading the lives of normal kids: doing homework, taking care of the house—cleaning up after that flock of pigeons had been no small feat!—plus preparing all our own food, paying bills, driving cars, and fighting against evil when it reared its ugly head. So we really didn't have endless amounts of time to spend on trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, much as we might have liked to.

  Yes, sometimes it was hard being us.

  ***

  "Mayday! Mayday!" Annie cried, emerging from Daddy's study.

  "Yes." Georgia yawned. "We all know it's the first of May, also known as May Day."

  "Don't you remember?" Rebecca sneered at Annie. "We were all there at school today when the McG, following Mandy Stenko's suggestion, had us all dance around that silly Maypole in honor of the day."

  "I thought it was kind of fun," Petal said quietly. "All those pretty colored ribbons wrapping around the pole."

  "Ribbons," Zinnia said wistfully. "Ribbons always remind me of presents. It would be nice if it were a real holiday—you know, a present-giving one—so that maybe I could—"

  "I didn't say May Day!" Annie was exasperated. "I said may day!"

  We all reflected on this, at least the ones of us who were there. No one had seen Marcia since we'd come home from school.

  "May Day? Mayday?" Rebecca shrugged. "I fail to see the difference."

  Jackie looked at Annie. "Do you mean mayday as in 'an international radiotelephone signal word used as a distress call'?"

  Jackie was big on vocabulary. Sometimes it seemed to us that she had swallowed a whole dictionary!

  "Is Jackie right?" Durinda asked Annie soothingly. Durinda was big on soothing. "Is that what you mean?"

  "Oh no!" Petal said. "Not a distress call! Does this mean we're on the Titanic? Do we need to send out an SOS?"

  "No, we're not on the Titanic," Annie said. "But we may need to send out an SOS if I don't find out what happened to all those bills."

  "What do you mean," Rebecca demanded, "'what happened to all those bills'? If you're talking about the bills that come to the house each month—for electricity and cable TV and things like that—it's your job to pay them."

  "Yes, I do know that," Annie said irritably. "The problem is, I can't find them!"

  "I still don't understand," Georgia said, "and that's really saying something. After all, as everyone knows, ever since getting my power and having my own month, I am marginally smarter than I used to be."

  "Believe me"—Rebecca held her thumb and forefinger about one-sixteenth of an inch apart as she sneered at Georgia—"that is a very small margin."

  Annie shook her head, ignoring the squabbles of siblings.

  "It's like this," Annie said. "Every time we get the mail, I take all the bills out and put them in the top drawer of the desk in Daddy's study."

  "Oh, that sounds like a real system." Rebecca rolled her eyes.

  Annie continued ignoring Rebecca.

  "Then," Annie went on, "I pay all the bills on the first of the month. It's a habit I've gotten into since reading a book on household finances that suggested doing it this way so it's easy to remember."

  "Well, yes," Rebecca admitted. "You may have something there—you know, regarding a system."

  "The problem is," Annie said, "that today is the first of the month, and when I went to look in the top drawer just now—all the bills were gone!"

  "Oh no! Oh no!" Petal cried. "This is awful!" Petal stopped looking distressed long enough to look puzzled. "What does that mean, the bills are gone?"

  "They're gone means they're gone!" Annie said, looking almost as distressed as Petal had a moment before. "Somehow they've become misplaced. And if I don't find them, if I don't pay each and every bill on time, the bill collectors will come after us."

  "Oh," Durinda said soothingly, "I'm sure it can't be as awful as all that."

  "But it is," Annie insisted. "It's what that book I read on household finances said: if people don't pay their bills on time, the bill collectors come after them!"

  "Why don't we just start looking, then?" Jackie suggested in a reasonable tone of voice. "I'm sure if we all look, we're bound to find them."

  "That's good." Annie visibly fought to gain control of her panic. "That sounds like a good idea."

  "Great," Jackie said, and then she began to organize all of us. All of us except for Marcia, that is, who still hadn't shown her face. "Durinda," Jackie said, "you search the kitchen."

  "What would bills be doing in the kitchen?" Rebecca said with a sneer. "They can't just walk there on their own."

  "I don't know," Jackie said. "Maybe robot Betty was using them as a fan to flirt with Carl the talking refrigerator."

  "Aye, aye!" Durinda saluted Jackie smartly.

  "Georgia, Rebecca, Zinnia, you check out Spring, Summer, and Fall," Jackie directed, naming three of the four seasonal rooms that our scientist-inventor mother had created so we could go to whatever season we wanted whenever we were in the mood for a change. "I'll take Winter."

  "What about me?" Petal asked.

  "Why don't you check out the basement and the tower room?" Jackie suggested.

  "The basement and the tower room?" Petal gulped. "All by myself? But that's where the spiders are most likely to—"

  "How stupid of me." Jackie cut Petal off midworry. "What was I thinking? Of course you can't do that."

  "Then what can I do?" Petal asked.

  Jackie placed her hand on Petal's shoulder as though she were about to give her the most challenging mission of all. "You just stay here and worry," Jackie said solemnly. "Have fun with it."

  "And me?" Annie asked.

  "Go through the other drawers in Daddy's study," Jackie said.

  And we were off—all of us except Marcia—to do the things Jackie had directed us to. Petal was particularly good at her part.

  But after searching all the places Jackie had suggested, along with several that she hadn't, we met up again—all except Marcia—in the drawing room to admit that none of us had had any luck.

  "They must be here somewhere." Jackie tapped her lip thoughtfully, and then her eyes lit up. "I know! What about behind that loose stone where we always find the notes?"

  Jackie had made it halfway across the room when Marcia sauntered in, hands behind her back, Minx sauntering right along beside her.

  Zinnia cocked her head to one side. "Is that Minx I hear," she wondered aloud, "whistling a tune to make others think she's innocent when in reality she's up to no good?"

  We rolled our eyes. That Zinnia! Still pretending she could communicate with cats! It was as though she thought she was Dr. Dolittle!

  "What have you been up to?" Rebecca narrowed her eyes at Marcia. "I know what being up to no good looks like because I've looked that way before."

  "Rebecca's right," Georgia said. "We've both been there. We've both done that."

  Marcia sauntered right up to Annie, produced a fistful of stamped envelopes from behind her back, waved them under Annie's nose, and said sweetly, "Were you by any chance looking for these?"

  "The bills!" Annie grabbed the envelopes from Marcia's hand. "You found the bills!" Annie looked relieved, but as she thumbed through the stack, concern came over her face.

  "But I don't understand," she said, holding up an envelope. "The address of the electric company is showing through the window on this when it should be our address I see."

  "Oh. That." Marcia studied her fingernails as though she'd just had a manicure.

  "Yes," Annie said. "That."

  "Well, see," Marcia said, still studying her nails, "I went into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom after we got home from school and grabbed the strongbox. Then I got out the black ledger—you know, the one with the checkbook inside." Marcia shrugged. "And then I just went to Daddy's study and paid all the bills."

  Seven of us gasped.

  "You did what?" Annie was practically purple with rage. Purple was a good col
or for Annie—which was probably why the ring she'd received as a gift had a purple gemstone in it—but not when it was the color of her skin.

  "But Annie pays the bills." Durinda was stunned. "She's the only one who knows how."

  "I feel faint," Petal said, fanning her face with her hand like crazy. "This is chaos!"

  "It's not chaos," Marcia said. "It's simple math."

  "You probably did it all wrong," Annie said.

  "Oh no!" Petal cried. "If Marcia did everything all wrong, Bill Collector will surely come!"

  Petal was so upset, Durinda, Georgia, Rebecca, and Zinnia all had to fan her to keep her from fainting. Rebecca did so only reluctantly.

  "I really hate giving in to this panic nonsense," Rebecca said, "but the cats are all underfoot now, and it would be awful if Petal crashed to the floor and crushed Rambunctious."

  "Fine." Marcia placed her hands on her hips as she addressed Annie. "Then why don't you check?"

  So Annie did. She slit open envelope after envelope, looking to see if Marcia had done everything correctly.

  "Huh," Annie said when she was finished. "You did everything right."

  "I told you," Marcia said.

  "And the checkbook?" Annie said. "You balanced that correctly too?"

  "Yes," Marcia said. "But you can go see for yourself if you don't believe me," she challenged.

  "No, that's all right." Annie spoke slowly, as though she were trying to wrap her mind around a new idea. "I believe you."

  Then Annie directed Georgia to stop fanning Petal and go get the tape so she could seal all the envelopes back up.

  "Um, Marcia?" Annie asked after Georgia returned with the tape. "What I don't understand is, why did you do all this? Why did you take it upon yourself to pay the bills this month?"

  There was something odd about Marcia's expression then. Was it sympathy? Was it resentment? Was it a too-sweet something we couldn't name? It was a puzzle.

  "I just thought you'd be pleased," Marcia said. "I figured it must get tiring for you, being the only one of us who can do certain things. And it really was easy—the bill-paying, that is—not at all like rocket science, which, I might add, I can also do." Pause. "Can you?"