Weather or Not

by Sarah Mlynowski

  She found the magic in her and she connected her water magic to the water in the sky. She imagined a great finger gently pushing the storm clouds aside.

  Just scooch over that way, please, she told the clouds. Rain on the high school, rain on the park, but right here on Main Street, we’re celebrating sunshine, okay? I’m just going to coax you gently over to the side.

  Gasps peppered the air around her, then rippled out farther within the crowd.

  Willa felt the caress of sunlight on her face, buttery and warm.

  The rain clouds hadn’t disappeared, but they’d moved over, just where Willa had pushed them. Now, instead of raining on the entire town, the clouds left Main Street alone. The parade zone was dry.

  Pale yellow sunlight shone on the marching band, the cloggers, and the floats. It shone on the crying toddlers, and their wails dried up. It shone on the gleaming tubas, and the tuba players once again belted out their jolly song.

  The other musicians picked up the tune. The cloggers resumed clogging. The mayor took off his bowler hat and waved it through the air.

  “Onward!” he cried.

  The crowd erupted in hoots and hollers and wild applause. Willa felt cool fingers find her hand. It was her mother.

  “You did that,” she told Willa, amazed. “Sweetie, you moved the rain.”

  “Now you won’t have to live in the shed,” said Edith. “Next time you rain in the house, you can move it to the bathroom or something.”

  “She was never going to live in the shed,” said Mr. Ingeborg. “Edith, behave.”

  “That was pretty cool, actually,” said Edith, ruffling Willa’s wet hair. “I’ve got to give you credit.”

  “Three cheers for Willa!” yelled the UDM kids. “Hip hip hooray!”

  “Well done, Willa!” Ms. Starr exclaimed. “That was some extraordinary upside-down magic.”

  “Actually, I don’t think it was upside-down magic.” Willa spoke loudly, and her parents and Ms. Starr leaned in to listen. “Marigold made me do some thinking … and Ms. Cruciferous made me think more.”

  “Think what?” asked Willa’s mother.

  “I don’t think I’m upside down, exactly.”

  “You don’t?” said Ms. Starr.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t flare. Not ever.”

  “That’s true,” said Willa’s mother. “She never does.”

  “So I think I have some kind of water magic, not upside-down flaring,” said Willa. “Like, a different category. Maybe we could call me a … Fluid!”

  “Ooooh, that’s way better than Fishie,” Marigold said.

  “What do you think, Ms. Starr?” Willa asked.

  Ms. Starr gave a bright smile. “I think it’s absolutely possible! There’s so much about magic that doesn’t fit our five F categories. And you definitely have a right to call your magic a name that feels true for you. We can all respect that in the future.”

  “Hooray!” Nory cried.

  Marigold hugged Willa. “I’m so proud of you.”

  Willa’s mom hugged her, too. “There’s a lot going on in your head, little missy,” she said. “So much to talk about when we get home.”

  “Hey, Elliott,” said Nory. “Did you see how I helped Willa to realize she could save the parade? I was the one who told Willa to do it! Did you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” said Elliott. “I did, actually. You were really encouraging.”

  “I helped Willa do amazing Fluid magic!” Nory continued. “And do you know what that makes me?”

  “No.” Elliott looked puzzled.

  “Gertrude Raspberry!”

  Pepper nodded. “Yeah, I can see that!”

  “Gertrude was the unsung humble hero who saved Dunwiddle! Just like me!” said Nory.

  Willa laughed. “How can you be the unsung humble hero if you tell everyone you’re unsung and humble?”

  Nory stopped for a minute. “Okay, fine. Good point.” Then she smiled. “Willa, you saved Bing Day. Willa saved Bing Day!”

  Willa glowed. She had saved Bing Day. All of these townspeople were clogging and bagpiping right this very second because she had moved the rain. Without her, Willa Ingeborg with the Fluid magic, everyone would have gone home, soaked and sad.

  Willa put her arm around Nory. “Thanks for the encouragement, Gertrude.”

  Nory winked. “Anytime, Zeppy.”

  The next Monday, after the last bell, Nory skipped along with the rest of the UDM kids to the high school pool. Ms. Starr had arranged a celebration.

  True, the day had started with a bit of a bummer. The UDM students had all received their grades on the Bing Day projects and Ms. Starr had given Nory and Willa a Q for Quite good, but nothing to bang a drum about.

  It wasn’t a grade worth calling Father about.

  In fact, it was a grade to avoid telling Father about.

  But truthfully, Nory hadn’t been surprised at the grade. They had deserved that Q. On the bright side, Nory had learned a lot about Gertrude. And some stuff about teamwork, too. Mostly, she’d learned a lot about Willa.

  But other than getting that Q, the day had been awesome. After lunch, a package had been delivered to Ms. Starr. The Bing Society had mailed the UDM class a box of white chocolate polar bears with marshmallow filling. Polar-Bear-Gertrude candies! Ten bears: one for each kid, one for Ms. Starr, and one for Carrot. It was a thank-you treat in honor of Willa, for saving the parade. And to thank the UDM kids for helping save the museum from rainy ruin, even though it was their fault the museum had to be saved in the first place.

  Now Nory was hopped up on sugar. She’d be the first kid in the water!

  She cannonballed into the deep end.

  “Jump in!” Ms. Starr encouraged the others, waving them toward the pool. Their teacher wore an electric-yellow bathing suit with black stripes. It made her look like a joyful bumblebee.

  Elliott dove into the deep end with Nory. Willa followed, and Nory didn’t even feel jealous when Willa popped up and gave Elliott a splashy high five. She figured she’d join them eventually, but first she swam to the shallow end, where Marigold and Pepper were using the stairs to get into the pool. “Come on in,” Nory told them. “It’s warm once you get used to it.”

  Bax got in but refused to use the unicorn floatie, even though it had been repaired with duct tape. Instead, he stayed in the shallow end and held on to the wall. Andres wore his brickpack and stayed in the shallow end, too. He and Bax started a splash war. Coach and Ms. C sat on the edge of the pool.

  Sebastian joined Elliott and Willa at the deep end, wearing large flippers and holding on to a foam noodle.

  Nory dove beneath the water and popped up again. This was the best way ever to celebrate Willa’s amazing Bing Day accomplishment!

  Nory found Ms. Starr. “Can I flux? Pleasie please please?”

  Ms. Starr glanced at Coach, who glanced at Ms. C.

  “Young lady,” said Ms. C, folding her arms over her chest, “I do not want to see that porcuphin in my pool ever again.”

  “No porcuphin!” said Nory. “I promise.”

  “Keep it small. And nothing with fur. Good gracious. You have no idea how many hair balls I had to pull from the drain after your squitten.”

  Hair balls? Gross. “Okay, nothing with fur,” Nory agreed.

  “Do you think you can do pure squid?” Coach asked.

  Nory shook her head. “I think my squid will go furry.”

  “Hey, Nory!” Willa called. “Can you flux into a puffer fish?”

  “Do it!” called Elliott.

  “Or don’t,” Bax groused. He sighed. “And if you must, don’t you dare poke me.”

  Silly Bax. Nory wouldn’t poke anybody! And puffer fish were nice and small.

  But could she do puffer fish?

  Could she do any fish without adding fur? Or growing huge?

  “I think you might have puffer fish in you,” said Coach encouragingly. “Because of
the porcuphin. You know, spiny water creatures are a very specific kind of fluxing. People who do narwhals, for example, can do cowfish, puffer fish, and occasionally even sea urchins.”

  He gave Nory some reminders about holding on to the human mind plus some fish-fluxing hints he’d read up on since their awkward lesson in the pool.

  Nory listened carefully. Then she shook out her limbs. She swooshed her hips. She did a flip in the water. Bulge, fwoomph, pop!

  “She did it!” Willa cried. “Look, everybody! Nory’s a puffer fish!”

  Puffer-Fish-Nory waggled her fins. She could breathe in the water! She zipped around in circles and then flung herself into the air, flapping her tiny side fins wildly. Briefly, she saw her reflection in the water.

  She looked like a soccer ball, but blue.

  She landed in the water and went under again. She sucked in a mouthful of water and popped her face out to spray it all over Bax.

  “Aaaaaah!” he cried, trying to splash her back—but Puffer-Fish-Nory was already underwater again. A sea of tiny bubbles gurgled out behind her. She flapped her fins and launched herself across the pool, popping out of the water and skipping over the surface like a well-thrown stone.

  She shot high into the air—whoop! Then landed smack in Willa’s outstretched arms. Ploomp! Like a balloon!

  Willa lifted Puffer-Fish-Nory over her head and tossed her to Elliott. “Hey, Elliott, catch!”

  Puffer-Fish-Nory landed in Elliott’s arms. She squirmed underwater for a quick breath before Elliott tossed her back to Willa. Pepper swam over to join the game. So did Sebastian. Bax paddled his floatie closer.

  “I’m open!” he called, lifting his hands. “Throw her here!”

  Again and again, Puffer-Fish-Nory soared through the air, dunking underwater every so often to catch a quick breath.

  “Hey, Bax, can you do volleyball net yet?” Elliott asked.

  “No.”

  “Well, maybe one day.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Bax said. “Sheesh.”

  But Puffer-Fish-Nory thought maybe Bax would want to someday.

  And she thought maybe, someday, Willa would rain outdoors.

  And maybe she, Nory, would flux into a whale.

  Or a kitten-whale. A kale!

  Or even a mermaid. Anything was possible.

  Gratitude and magical snowstorms to the team at Scholastic, including but not limited to: David Levithan, Rachel Feld, Maya Marlette, Charisse Meloto, Monica Palenzuela, Lauren Donovan, Tracy van Straaten, Lisa Bourne, Sue Flynn, Melissa Schirmer, Emily Heddleson, Robin Hoffman, Lizette Serrano, and Aimee Friedman. Bags of choco fire trucks and a ye olde clogging dance to Laura Dail, Tamar Rydzinski, Barry Goldblatt, Tricia Ready, Elizabeth Kaplan, Lauren Kisilevsky, Eddie Gamarra, Lauren Walters, and Deb Shapiro. Old-time embroidered pantaloons to Bob, with thanks for all the support. We are grateful to our families: Randy, Al, Jamie, Maya, Mirabelle, Alisha, Daniel, Ivy, Hazel, Todd, Chloe, and Anabelle. Unicorn floaties for all of you! Finally, thanks to our readers. We know you have magic inside of you. And you get to decide what to name it.

  SARAH MLYNOWSKI is the author of many books for tweens, teens, and adults, including the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series, the Magic in Manhattan series, and Gimme a Call. She is also the co-creator of the traveling middle-grade book festival OMGBookfest. She would like to be a Flicker so she could make the mess in her room invisible. Visit her online at sarahm.com.

  LAUREN MYRACLE is the New York Times bestselling author of many books for young readers, including the Winnie Years series, the Flower Power series, and the Life of Ty series. The Backward Season is the most recent book in her Wishing Day trilogy. She would like to be a Fuzzy so she could talk to unicorns and feed them berries. You can find Lauren online at laurenmyracle.com.

  EMILY JENKINS is the author of many chapter books, including Brave Red, Smart Frog, the Toys Trilogy (which begins with Toys Go Out), and the Invisible Inkling series. Her picture books include All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah, A Greyhound, A Groundhog, Princessland, Lemonade in Winter, and Toys Meet Snow. She would like to be a Flare and work as a pastry chef. Visit Emily at emilyjenkins.com.

  Also by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle,

  & Emily Jenkins:

  #1 Upside-Down Magic

  #2 Sticks & Stones

  #3 Showing Off

  #4 Dragon Overnight

  Copyright © 2018 by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

  First edition, September 2018

  Cover art by Juliana Kolesova, © 2018 by Scholastic Inc.

  Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi & Mary Claire Cruz

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-22149-7

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