The Quirks, Welcome to Normal (12 page)

Molly buried her face in Penelope’s pillow and growled. She was frustrated with her family for getting in the way and being so different all the time. She was annoyed with her sister for
giving up. But mostly, she was disappointed in herself for not being able to make everything work out the way it should.

She and Pen lay in the dark, listening to the sounds of their coordinated breathing, each girl thinking her own thoughts. As she began to drift back into sleep, Molly thought about something
she’d considered a hundred times before: Why had the universe or God or whoever was in charge given her no Quirks at all, while her sister was stuffed so full of magic that she couldn’t
contain it?

Penelope fit in with the other Quirks, but she might never fit in outside their house. Molly might never fit in as a Quirk . . . and
because
of her family, she was always going to have
a hard time fitting in with the outer world, too.

It just wasn’t fair.

O
n
M
o
n
d
a
y
,
Bree drove all three
of her kids to school for Finn’s first day. It took several hours—and all of Bree’s energy—but eventually she was able to convince Finn’s teacher and the principal and
the school secretary that Finnegan Quirk had, in fact, been sitting quietly at the empty desk in the back row since the first day of the school year. He’d been so quiet, she said, that none
of the other students had even noticed him. Finn slipped into Mrs. Risdall’s class without any major glitches—just a lot of stares—and Bree treated herself to a king-size
chocolate bar on her drive back home.

During his first days as an honest-to-goodness kindergartner, Finn learned that he was behind in reading—always struggling with the long vowel sounds, which the class had learned in the
first month—and he never seemed to remember his classmates’ names. He hadn’t yet gotten used to actually
chewing
gum, so he often pulled it out of his mouth in a long,
sticky strand and stuck some to his table or a wall or the circle carpet where they read stories. But these were tiny issues, compared to what could have happened.

Worrying about Finn’s first few days at kindergarten kept Penelope and Molly distracted enough that they didn’t have time to worry about the sleepover party. The week flew by for
everyone until suddenly the weekend—and the night of the sleepover—was
there
.

Bree dropped the girls off at Stella’s house just before dinner on Saturday night. She followed them inside so she could introduce herself to Stella’s mom, Heather. Meanwhile, Molly
and Pen stepped into the living room and saw that several other girls from their class had arrived already—Izzy, Amelia, and Norah had also been invited. The six girls buzzed around for a few
minutes, zipping between the living room and Stella’s room, while Stella’s mom got plates and cupcake-decorating stuff ready on the dining room table.

Molly looked around Stella’s house and immediately noticed how
clean
it was. They’d grown so accustomed to the clutter surrounding them that sometimes Penelope and Molly
forgot what regular houses looked like. Molly made a mental note to remind her family to clean up now and again—they weren’t cave people, after all. She wished her house were more like
Stella’s house. Clean, tidy, and normal.

Unfortunately, Penelope was thinking the same thing at the same time. Moments after they arrived, pillows popped off the couches and settled in on the floor. Live dust bunnies hopped out of the
corners and melted into gray, dusty piles around the living room. Molly hastily slipped the pillows back on the couch and pushed at the dust bunnies’ butts to force them under the couch. She
poked her sister in the ribs. Pen smiled, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down.

“Don’t forget!” Stella announced loudly, a few minutes after the Quirks had arrived. “They’re announcing the Normal Night challenge live on tonight’s news. We
can practice for whatever the dare is, after they announce it!” She clapped excitedly.

“So Normal Night is really fun, huh?” Penelope asked.

“Of course it’s fun!” Amelia answered, flopping down on the couch. “It’s the best night of the
year
in this town. Everyone comes, and it’s just a
huge party. You guys are going to love it.”

Izzy nodded. “The dare is always really cool and super silly. I’m so excited to find out what it’s going to be this year.” She made a funny face. “I hope it’s
not pancakes again. I don’t think I can even look at pancakes after last year’s dare.”

“Did they have anything like Normal Night in your old town?” Norah asked quietly. She chewed at a piece of her hair. “Where did you live before Normal?”

Molly ignored the second part of Norah’s question. She hated telling kids they’d lived in twenty-six—or was it twenty-seven?—towns. It made people ask too many questions
about why they kept moving. “No,” Molly said, shaking her head. “We’ve been to a couple of fall carnivals and a Renaissance festival and an apple festival and one time we
got to go to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade . . . but nothing like Normal Night, I guess.” She shrugged.

Izzy’s mouth fell open. “That’s a lot of festivals and stuff.”

Penelope and Molly looked at each other. At the same time, they said, “I guess.”

The doorbell rang, and Stella popped off the couch. “Pizza!” she shouted, hustling to the dining room table. As the other girls got settled at the table, Stella’s mom bustled
around, dropping slices of pizza on each person’s plate. Penelope got a piece with mushrooms. Pen hated mushrooms. She stared at her pizza, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. She began to
hum, a low, strange sound that made everyone stare. Molly sang along, trying to make Penelope’s odd behavior less obvious.

“What’s wrong, Penelope?” Amelia asked, concerned. The other girls stared. “Don’t you like pizza?”

Molly’s eyes widened as Penelope nodded and stuffed a big bite into her mouth. She tried to smile and began to chew. No one else was paying close enough attention to realize that
Penelope’s mushrooms had turned into slugs. Molly covered her own mouth, totally grossed out. She worried she was going to be sick.

Instead, Penelope leaped up from the table and ran to the bathroom. Molly heard the door slam. “She’s fine,” she said lightly, trying to laugh it off so the others would stop
staring. “She just doesn’t really like mushrooms.”

“I can get her a different piece,” Norah offered kindly, standing up. “She should have said something.”

Pen returned to the dining room then. There was a large orange safety cone sitting atop her head. “What are you
wearing
?” Izzy asked with a laugh. “Is that a traffic
cone on your head?” Amelia, Stella, and Norah all laughed, too.

Oh no!
Molly thought, groaning. Penelope must have been thinking about the “cone of safety” they’d been joking about.

Penelope fled from the room. “She’s hilarious!” Izzy giggled.

“Penelope is always super funny,” Amelia agreed, laughing. “Where did she even
get
a traffic cone?”

Molly laughed, too, but she didn’t think it was that funny.

As the night went on, things didn’t improve. While they played games, Penelope’s pieces kept moving on their own. When everyone was busy setting up their sleeping bags in the
basement, Molly caught Niblet peeking around the door to wave at them. By the time they went upstairs to get late-night snacks, Pen was slumping along behind everyone else with slitted eyes and a
sour look on her face. Both Quirk girls were exhausted and miserable. Stella, Izzy, Norah, and Amelia had spent the night talking and giggling together, while Molly and Penelope had stayed on the
outside of everything, trying to keep Pen’s magic out of view. It was the
opposite
of fitting in. Molly was crushed.

“Ladies!” Stella’s mom called to the girls from the living room. They were in the kitchen, hastily filling bowls with M&M’S (every piece of chocolate in the bag had
mysteriously turned red, Pen’s favorite color). “They’re announcing the challenge for Normal Night! Come quick.”

All the girls ran to the living room just in time to hear the announcer say: “And now, it’s time to reveal this year’s challenge for Normal Night! As everyone in the region
knows, Herman Normal Night is a big deal in the fine town of Normal. Party time!” The newscaster chuckled and adjusted his tie. Then he looked down and yelped. His orange tie looked
suspiciously like an orange safety cone hanging off his neck. Molly swung around and saw that Penelope had joined them on the couch. She shrugged miserably and hummed to herself.

“Well, then,” the announcer said, touching his tie again. “There were more than eight hundred suggestions this year—can you believe it, Georgie?” He turned to the
woman sitting beside him.

Georgie shook her head and said, “I can’t, Tom. There are only two thousand and some people in Normal—that means almost half the town must have made a suggestion. That’s
what I call town spirit!” She laughed, a tinkling little laugh that sounded like tiny bells. Molly knew Finn and Grandpa Quill had put a lot of those suggestions in the box.

“So,” Announcer Tom continued. “This year’s challenge, which was selected by the descendants of Herman Normal, comes from a suggestion made by a young man named Finnegan
Quirk.”

Molly’s and Penelope’s eyes opened wide, and all their friends gasped. “That’s your brother!” Amelia cried.

“He’s famous!” Izzy seconded.

“No one
ever
gets their suggestion picked for Normal Night. At least, no one I know,” Stella said. She looked a little disappointed. Molly knew Stella had put a few
suggestions of her own into the box.

The announcer continued, and Norah shushed them. “This year, the town of Normal will be trying to build the world’s largest ball of ABC gum on record.” He stopped, then flipped
the card in his hand over, looking for more information. “What
is
ABC gum? Is that some kind of brand? Or a flavor? Do you know, Georgie?”

Georgie’s face split into a smile. “If I’m not mistaken, Tom, ‘ABC’ stands for ‘already been chewed.’ It sounds like the people of Normal are going to
be making a big, sticky ball of chewed-up gum.” She and Tom looked at each other and laughed. “All I can say is, watch where you step that night, folks! Sounds like a mess to
me!”

Tom nodded, and Molly noticed his tie had turned back into an orange fabric tie. “Good luck, Normal. And now, to sports!”

Stella’s mom flicked off the TV.

“ABC gum?” Stella said, her mouth agape. “That’s awesome!”

“I can’t wait for Normal Night,” Norah agreed. “This one is going to be good. I wonder how big the ball of chewed-up gum has to be?”

The girls stayed awake late into the night, practicing their gum chewing and talking about Normal Night. Penelope curled up inside her sleeping bag and focused everything she had on chewing.

Chomp
,
chomp
, bubble.

Chomp
,
chomp
, bubble.

Eventually, they all fell asleep. When Penelope woke up in the morning, she was happy to discover gum in her hair—and that was all. Nothing magical, nothing mysterious. Nothing at all that
a little peanut butter and a pair of scissors couldn’t cure.