Nory narrowed her eyes. “It happened while she was crying.”
“Drizzling!” Willa yelled.
“What’s going on, kids?” Ms. Starr asked, coming over. “Everyone okay?”
Willa looked like she was about to burst. “I need to go outside so I don’t rain!”
“Of course, Willa. Go ahead.”
Willa ran out the library door that led into the schoolyard. The drizzling inside the library stopped as soon as she was outdoors.
Nory turned to Elliott. “I can’t believe you told her. Not cool.”
“You shouldn’t put me in the middle,” he said. “And I told you not to label people!”
Ms. Starr put a hand on Nory’s shoulder. “I know you two are very good friends. Would you like to do some deep-breathing exercises together?”
“No, thank you,” said Elliott.
“Really, no, thank you,” said Nory. At that, they both laughed, just a little.
“Then please figure out a way to get along,” said Ms. Starr.
“We do get along!” Nory protested. “Elliott and I get along fine. It’s Willa who—” She broke off.
Elliott glanced away.
“Well, I trust you to be mature about the situation,” Ms. Starr said. “All of you.”
Hmph.
Nory didn’t want to be mature. She wanted to yell some more! Or turn into a dritten and breathe fire!
Bax came to the rescue. “Nory, look!” he said. “People used to make homemade liver sausage.” He pointed to a recipe in a book.
Nory was glad for a distraction. She leaned over to see. “That is super disgusting.”
“Do you want to see oysters on toast?” asked Bax. “There’s a picture of that one.”
“They put everything on toast back then,” said Elliott. “They were obsessed with toast.”
The oysters on toast looked like slimy eyeballs. “Eeewwwwww,” said Nory.
She peeked at Elliott. She could tell he felt bad about telling Willa what she’d said.
And she did feel bad about calling Willa a crybaby.
“Look,” she said, pointing. “Mushroom ketchup!”
“Mushroom ketchup!” cried Elliott. “Bax, Nory found the perfect gross food to round out our poster!”
Nory sat down with the two boys for the rest of the period. They talked about mushroom ketchup and celery soda and barley water.
By the time the bell rang, she and Elliott were friends again.
Willa sat on a bench and watched some sixth-grade Flyers play a game of fly-ball. She knew her class had gone to lunch, but she didn’t feel like eating with the UDM kids. She didn’t feel like eating, period.
Well, maybe just her cookie.
After a few minutes, Marigold appeared and sat down next to her. “You okay?”
Willa shrugged. “My magic is annoying. Most of the time, I wish I didn’t even have it.”
Marigold nodded. “I used to feel like that, too.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. Willa caught a glimpse of her small, skin-toned hearing aid.
Willa considered this news. Marigold shrank things. There was no label for her magic. None of the five Fs was the opposite of shrinking. How would it feel to be Marigold and have a type of magic that wasn’t even upside down?!
“The night before the parent-teacher conferences,” Marigold said, “I had a dream that Ms. Starr told me that I had fitting magic. Like, I was a Fitter.”
“Fitting magic? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Neither had I. But I thought, oh, fitting magic has to do with size! That’s me! I have that! And I woke up feeling amazing. I mean, I know it’s not a thing. But it got me thinking. What if there are more than five types of magic?”
Willa arched her brows. “There aren’t.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “Flare, Flyer, Fluxer, Flicker, Fuzzy.”
“Maybe. But what if you have water magic?” Marigold pressed. “You and Elliott. I’m not saying you do! Just …”
“What if,” Willa whispered.
It would make sense. She didn’t have weak Flare magic, like Elliott did. She had no flare at all. She’d believed everyone when they labeled her an Upside-Down Flare, because the people who said that were her parents and her teachers.
But what if?
“Maybe I’m an … Aqua talent?” she tried. “I can do things with waves in tutoring. Just tiny things, but I can do them.”
Marigold nodded. “It’s good to give it a name, I think. But we need it to start with F. A Flater.” She said “Flater” to rhyme with “water.” She shook her head. “No, that sounds too much like Farter.”
Willa snorted.
“A Fountain,” Marigold said. “A Fizz? A Fishie?”
Willa snorted again. And laughed. “Please not Fishie.”
“Okay,” said Marigold. “Well, keep thinking.”
“I like that you might be a Fitter. But you know what else you are? It also starts with an F.”
“Fashionable?” Marigold joked. “Fiddling? Wait, I don’t fiddle.”
“Fun!” said Willa. “You’re definitely f-u-n fun. I’m really glad you’re my friend.”
“Friend starts with an F, too,” Marigold said, and she rested her head on Willa’s shoulder.
Aunt Margo was using her Flyer magic to unload the dishwasher. She flew the dishes into the cupboards. Meanwhile, she was doing a crossword puzzle.
Nory sat at the kitchen table, flipping through the weather books she’d brought home from the library. She lifted a corner of the water-damaged poster board and let it fall. How was she supposed to fix this? She hated this project. Hated it!
“AAAHHHHH!” yelled Nory. “I’m never going to get an O with the paper all warped like this!”
Three plates fell to the floor with a clatter.
Aunt Margo gave Nory a look.
“Sorry,” squeaked Nory.
“Well, that’s why we have plastic plates,” Aunt Margo said. “But why the yelling?”
Nory scowled. “I hate my Bing Day project.”
Aunt Margo put down her pencil and stood up. “Let’s go for a fly. Sometimes fresh air changes your mood. And the height helps change your perspective.” She wrapped a thick wool scarf around her neck. “Get your coat. It’s cold out.”
Nory did as she was told. On the edge of the front porch, Aunt Margo held out her hand. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
Aunt Margo bent her knees and launched both herself and Nory into the velvety sky. Up they went, above the houses, above the trees.
The stars were glorious. They twinkled and winked. Below, the town lights sparkled. Nory’s ribs loosened.
“Perspective!” Aunt Margo said over the rush of the wind. She squeezed Nory’s hand. “The whole world is spread out beneath us, and every person in every house has stuff to deal with. Everyone! But flying helps, don’t you think?”
Nory returned Aunt Margo’s squeeze. It did help. It did and did and did.
They flew over Bing Society Memorial Museum. “We’re going there on Wednesday,” Nory said.
“I know! And next week’s the parade,” said Aunt Margo. “Are you excited?”
“Honestly?” Nory said. “I love parades, but I pretty much hate Zeponiah Bing right now.”
“Why?”
“All she does is cause me problems!”
Aunt Margo glanced at Nory. “What about Gertrude Raspberry?” she asked. “Surely you don’t hate Gertrude Raspberry.”
“I might hate her. Who is Gertrude Raspberry?”
“Raspberry was Bing’s amazing Fluxer friend. You don’t know about her? I think you’ll love her.” Aunt Margo tilted to the right, and they flew over the park. The trees were dense and dark.
“If you say so,” Nory said doubtfully. “No one’s mentioned her.”
“In that case, I’ll fill you in,” said Aunt Margo. “Gertrude Raspberry was Zeponiah Bing’s partner. They met when Zeponiah was in college and lived together after
ward.”
“Partner?”
Aunt Margo nodded. “Her life companion, yes. Gertrude was a Fluxer, quite a good one. She did large carnivores. Anyway, she’s the one who read about Dunwiddle’s Great Frost in the newspaper. It was Gertrude who convinced Zeponiah that only she could help. Zeponiah didn’t want to come back to her hometown after so many years away—but Gertrude convinced Zeponiah that we needed her. So they used most of their savings to buy train tickets. And do you know what happened?”
“What?”
“The train got stuck. Because of all the snow! And then Gertrude fluxed into a polar bear and carried Zeponiah all the way to Dunwiddle, where Bing used her amazing Flare powers to save the crops and warm the whole town.”
“Why couldn’t the Dunwiddle Flares save the town?”
“Their magic wasn’t strong enough. Bing saved so many lives. But none of it would have happened without Gertrude!”
Nory pictured a giant polar bear trudging through peaks of snow, her life companion clinging bravely to her fur. “Okay, I do like Gertrude,” she said.
“Told you so,” Aunt Margo said. She shivered, and announced it was time to head home.
As they flew back to the house, Nory couldn’t stop thinking about Polar-Bear-Gertrude. She felt hopeful for the first time in days.
No more boring storm patterns!
No more graphs or charts!
She and Willa would do their report on Gertrude. A wonderful Fluxer and a brave and true friend.
Aunt Margo landed in the front yard. Nory bounced on her toes. She felt tingly and excited. Flying really had changed her mood. “Aunt Margo, could we take Elliott flying?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Elliott’s never flown with you, and I think he’d really like it.”
“We can find a time this weekend.”
“He’s visiting his grandparents this weekend. Could we do Monday? What time do you start work? Could you fly Elliott and me to school? But, like, the long way around so that it’s fun?” The words spilled out.
After what had happened in the library today, Nory really wanted to do something nice for Elliott. After all, he had been right when he said she shouldn’t call Willa names. And he had been right that she shouldn’t put him in the middle. Now he needed to remember what a good friend Nory could be.
“I’d be glad to fly you and Elliott to school on Monday,” said Aunt Margo.
“Great!” Nory grinned. “It’ll be a surprise!”
Nory was pretty sure Elliott wasn’t mad anymore. But it wouldn’t hurt to do something nice for him. Just the two of them, together.
Willa got to school early on Monday morning. She’d spent the weekend thinking about Marigold’s idea about water magic. Now she wanted to talk to Ms. Starr about it.
But Ms. Starr wasn’t in her classroom. Only Carrot was. The bunny sat on her hind legs in the center of Ms. Starr’s desk, nibbling a piece of lettuce. “If you’re looking for Eloise, she’s in a meeting.”
Willa said good morning and unpacked her backpack, stacking her notebooks in her desk.
“Is there something you were hoping to discuss?” the bunny persisted.
“Not really,” Willa said.
“You can talk to me, you know,” urged Carrot.
Willa shook her head. “It’s about magic.”
“I help Pepper with her magic. In fact, I go to all of Pepper’s tutoring sessions. Did you know that?”
“I know you’re, like, the only animal who isn’t afraid of Pepper’s Fierce magic,” Willa said. “You must be awfully brave.”
“Not exactly,” said Carrot. She swallowed her last bite of lettuce and groomed her whiskers. “It’s more that I’ve learned how to navigate my fear.”
Willa didn’t understand.
“Most animals feel a jolt of fear and run,” Carrot elaborated. “Me? I get a jolt of fear, and I’m like, Oh, yeah, there’s a jolt of fear. Hello, fear! It’s still there, but I don’t let it bother me.”
“Wow.”
“It took practice,” said Carrot. “When I was little, my mother adopted a fox cub. She raised us as sisters, and I’m sure that helped.” She eyed Willa. “Rabbits and foxes don’t usually mix, but she was my sister. She still is! You can’t be afraid of your own sister, am I right?”
Willa furrowed her brow. She was scared of Edith sometimes.
“Anyway, if you don’t mind my saying, you could practice the same thing,” Carrot continued.
“What?”
“Your emotions! You could practice feeling them, but not letting them bother you so much. If you feel sad, for example, you could say, ‘Hello, sadness. I see you there.’ And then, hopefully—”
“I wouldn’t rain,” Willa concluded.
“I think you rain when you’re upset,” said Carrot.
“I do.”
“And, as it stands, you can’t help getting upset.”
“No, I can’t.”
“But perhaps you could learn to navigate it. You could navigate your sadness just as I navigate my fear.”
“Can you teach me how?” Willa asked.
“Of course! It’s a matter of stepping back and taking note of your emotions. ‘I’m afraid right now.’ ‘I’m angry right now.’ ‘I want to cry right now.’ That’s step one. Then, over time, you’ll master step two. That’s deciding what you want to do with those emotions. You’ll always feel them. That doesn’t go away. But if you can feel what you’re feeling and still hold on to a level of calm, it’s a useful power to have.”
Willa heard what Carrot was saying, but she wasn’t sure the concept applied to her. Carrot was an adult bunny, after all. Maybe the whole “staying calm while feeling your feelings” thing was more for grown-ups than kids.
“How did Pepper learn to pause her fiercing?” she asked. Because Pepper could do that now. Pepper could be around animals and not scare them, pausing her magic for as much as a couple of minutes.
“That’s one thing we work on in tutoring,” Carrot answered. “I told her to think of her magic as a river. That’s step one. Step two? Imagine a dam, closing across the water and holding back the flow, pinching shut. You might only be able to hold back the river for a short time, but a short time is better than not at all.”
Wow.
Willa could already start and stop her tiny rain clouds. But rain that stemmed from her emotions was big rain, and not on purpose. When it happened, Willa couldn’t control it.
But if Pepper could pause her magic … maybe Willa could pause hers, too?
“Like damming a river?” she repeated.
“It’s a metaphor,” said Carrot. “But you get the idea. Hey, do you have any radishes?”
“No, but I have an apple,” said Willa. She pulled it out of her backpack and showed it to Carrot.
“Put it on the desk.”
Willa hesitated. The apple was for her lunch. But she did what Carrot said. Maybe the bunny was going to show her another important magic technique.
Instead, Carrot pressed on the apple with her two front paws and took a bite. Then another and another.
“Hey!” Willa cried. She hadn’t meant for Carrot to eat the apple! Now she’d be hungry later.
Hold on, she told herself. Take note of your emotions. That’s what Carrot had said.
She thought, I’m angry right now. I’m so angry I feel like crying!
Then she thought, Hello, Weepy Anger. I see you there.
She thought, That bunny tricked you out of your apple and you’re stinkin’ mad. Hello, Stinkin’ Mad. I see you there!
She still felt angry.
Well, annoyed.
But she didn’t feel tears at the edge of her eyes. The frustration at losing her apple was no longer so loud inside her head.
“Good apple,” Carrot commented. “Crunchy.”
Carrot was really, really cute. It was hard to stay mad at such a cute rabbit.
And, okay, now Willa knew that Carrot would t
ake a kid’s fruit. Lesson learned.
“You talked me out of my apple, you tricky rabbit,” she said.
“I haven’t had an apple in days,” said Carrot. “Mm-mm-mm.”
“Next time you could just ask,” said Willa. “I nearly rained on you just now.”
“But you didn’t,” said Carrot. “Not one drop.”
Elliott was the second person to walk into Ms. Starr’s classroom. His curly hair had a dent in it from the hat he’d worn to school.
He swung by Carrot and held up his hand for a high five. Carrot looked surprised but lifted her paw. Next he stopped by Willa’s desk.
She slapped his upraised palm, even though he’d yelled at her on Friday.
“I’m glad I got you alone,” said Elliott.
“She’s not alone,” said Carrot. “Bunnies are people, too, you know.”
“Sorry, Carrot. I meant, I wanted to talk to Willa without the other kids around.” He gulped. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Willa.”
“It’s okay,” said Willa. “I’m sorry I told Nory you told me what she said. I guess I did put you in a bad spot.”
“I didn’t walk to school with Nory today. I didn’t want to talk to her until after I talked to you.” Elliott frowned. “But I just want to make clear: I’m friends with everybody. No taking sides between you and Nory. And I hope you won’t say mean stuff about each other. At least not when I can hear.”
“That seems fair,” Willa said. “So long as Nory keeps to her end of the bargain.”
While Elliott and Willa talked, Nory waited for Elliott to show up to walk to school with her.
She waited. And waited. And waited.
So did Aunt Margo. They were going to surprise Elliott with a flight over the town!
But Elliott never showed up.
Later, when Nory arrived at school on her own, she was worried. Was Elliott home sick? Had something happened to him on his way to her house?
She worried while she put her stuff in her locker. She worried while she got a drink of water at the invisible water fountain. She worried while she dodged Flyers and stepped over a group of Fluxers who were practicing hamsters in the hallways. But when she entered the UDM classroom and saw that Elliott was already there, her worry turned into something else.
Weather or Not Page 5
