The Quirks, Welcome to Normal (14 page)

That night, after Bree got home from Crazy Ed’s, Molly and Penelope were forced to take action. They had to tattle on their little brother. They usually tried not to, since their mother
had no tolerance for snitches, but the situation was spiraling out of control.

“It wasn’t me,” Finn announced, after the girls had finished telling their mother about the terrible day. He crouched on the arm of the couch, preparing to launch again into a
pile of pillows on the floor that Molly kept trying to pick up. Grandpa, who was dozing on the couch, startled awake with each of Finn’s jumps. “I didn’t do any of those things. I
would
never
sneak out of class.” Finn turned to Molly as he said that and grinned a big, lopsided grin.

“He’s lying, Mom! If you could see the look on his face right now, you’d know.” Molly stared back at Finn, hard. He pushed a chewed-up wad of melted M&M’S out
of the hole between his front teeth.

Bree Quirk collapsed onto the couch. “I
can’t
see him, Molly.” Their mother refused to make Finn show himself at home. She was always going on and on about how
exhausting it must be for Finn to keep himself visible at school all day. So he was usually invisible when they were inside the walls of their own house. Bree sighed. “Finn, I need you to
tell me the truth.” She focused her energy on her son, whom she could feel pressed up against her knee.

Finn squirmed and closed his eyes and tried to wriggle away, but finally he cracked. “I did it, Mom,” he confessed in a rush. “I liked doing all of those things, too. And
that’s the truth.” He hung his head sadly. “It’s too boring to stay visible and act polite all day! And the thing is, when I’m
in
visible, it’s just too
fun to play pranks.” Finn shrugged, looking only a little ashamed.

It was almost impossible to lie in their family. The only person who could get away with anything was Molly, since she was immune to her mother’s charms. But Molly was far too well behaved
to take advantage of that perk.

“What are we going to do about this, Mom?” Molly asked, pursing her lips. “We need to figure something out before we get kicked out of school.” She squeezed her hands
into fists. Molly was trying as hard as she could to keep herself calm, but her brother made her so mad! He couldn’t stop himself from being a pest, even though he finally got to go to school
like he wanted. And her sister seemed like she was just giving up lately—her hot-dog legs, and Nolan’s dog tongue, and trying to turn their teacher into an ant, and . . .
“Argh!” Molly groaned.

Bree chuckled. “Yes, darling, I know we need to sort it out. And I will. You need to just enjoy school.”

“How am I supposed to enjoy school when I feel like I’m going to have to leave at any minute?” Molly let all the frustration that had been bottled up inside hurl itself to the
top of her throat and jump out as words. “I feel like no one else in this family is as worried about fitting in here as I am!” Molly shouted. “I want to stay in Normal. I wish we
were like everyone else.” She took a deep breath, then screamed, “Sometimes I hate being part of this family!”

That last piece slipped out from between her lips like a slimy cube of Jell-O. Molly slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to push the words back in. But she didn’t have the kind of
powers that would let her do that. The thing was, she didn’t hate being a part of the Quirks—she just hated that everything was so hard. But it was too late to say what she’d
meant in a different way.

She’d said what she’d said, something terrible, and now her mother, her grandfather, her sister, and her brother were all staring at her with big open mouths. Penelope snuck out of
the living room without a word. Molly heard the third stair squeak, which meant Pen was headed upstairs to cuddle up next to Niblet. And probably to cry.

“I didn’t mean that,” Molly murmured.

No one said anything. Grandpa, who was now awake, tried to rewind time to let Molly take it back, but his magic was too sleepy. Molly felt time twist and turn, but they had only gone backward a
few seconds, just long enough for Molly to hear the third step creak again as Pen walked up the stairs a second time.

Bree Quirk closed her eyes, then said loudly, “All of you, come here.”

Penelope walked back down the stairs, and the others moved to stand in front of Bree near the couch. She stared at each of them in turn and said, “I need you to forget what Molly just
said.”

As Bree repeated herself three times, making sure Finn, Penelope, and Grandpa were all convinced, Molly held her breath. Within their family, Bree only used her magic to try to get Finn to help
clear the table or to get Grandpa Quill to turn off the TV or to convince someone to tell the truth. But she’d never had to use her magic to fix something serious—not that Molly knew
about, at least.

Slowly, Penelope turned and left, heading up to the girls’ room again. She probably had the sense that she was upset about something but couldn’t remember exactly what it was
anymore.

Finn resumed leaping from the arm of the couch onto the cushions on the floor, Grandpa carried on with his dozing, and Bree turned the TV up.

It was almost as though Molly’s outburst had never happened.

“Thanks, Mom,” Molly said, glancing at her mother. She was embarrassed. She couldn’t make her mom forget what she’d said, and she knew she’d hurt her feelings.

Bree didn’t look at Molly. Instead, she collapsed back onto the chair while Molly sat primly on the edge of the couch, waiting. She prepared another apology in her head, wishing she had
the power to make her mom forget. But after Molly sat there for nearly ten minutes, it was obvious her mom wasn’t in a talking mood. Bree hugged Molly, then closed her eyes and lay back.

Finally, Molly headed upstairs, hoping her mom would forgive her by morning.

M
o
l
l
y
Q
u
i
rk woke in a mood. As she dragged her spoon
through her soggy cereal, she tried her hardest to act like everything was normal. She pushed Finn away when he poked his stinky fingers in her mug of sodden shredded wheat. She tried to laugh when
Grandpa threw his eggs at the wall to see if they would stick (of course, he rewound time afterward—it was never fun to get egg grease off wallpaper). And she begged her mind to forget all
about last night.

It should have been easy to let it go. No one in the family—except her mom—remembered what Molly had said. But
Molly
knew, and she knew her mom couldn’t forget,
either.

Bree made Finn promise to behave at school that day. Molly appreciated her help, since Finn’s promise would give her a little break from her brother’s pranks at school.

Even so, school wasn’t great and Molly’s mood soured as the day went on. She moped through math, sulked through reading, and grumbled through gym. She hated pull-ups, and they had to
do ten. Penelope had no trouble doing them, but Molly just hung there like a lump of clay and couldn’t get even one. By lunch, her mood was so foul that when she accidentally dropped her
sandwich on the floor of the lunchroom, she stomped and kicked at it and people turned to stare. Penelope’s eyes widened, watching her sister lose control.

“Um, Mol? Why are you such a grouch today?” Pen asked quietly. Molly watched as her sister’s sandwich suddenly morphed into two on her tray. Her twin handed her the extra.

“I’m not a grouch,” Molly mumbled. She bent over to peel her sandwich off the floor. Raspberry jam had oozed out the sides, and the bread was stuck to the gritty wooden
surface. “I’m just having a bad day.”

“But tomorrow is Normal Night,” Penelope reminded her. “How can you be a rude mood dude when we have something so fun to look forward to?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Normal Night is part of the problem,” Molly grumbled. “
Families
go to Normal Night.”

“Of course they do,” said Penelope. “Finn picked the challenge. And Gramps’s been practicing his gum chewing all week. They’re super excited about it!”

And
that
was the reason Molly was dreading it. She was secretly worried about what her classmates would think when they saw her family. What if Grandpa time-twisted and spun everyone
through space, until no one knew when or where they were anymore? What if Penelope panicked and made the ABC gumball explode? What if their mother used her magic so much that she spun until her
hair wrapped into a tangled mess on top of her head? What if Finn did one of the
zillion
things he could do to make mischief? And what if Molly couldn’t cover it all up?

Molly felt guilty about saying she wished she wasn’t a Quirk, but she felt even guiltier that—deep down—she wished she could hide her family from everyone forever. She
didn’t say any of that, but Penelope understood. “Oh,” Pen said, tipping her head down low. “You think we’re going to screw up real bad, don’t you?”

“How are we, ladies?” Mr. Intihar suddenly appeared, towering above Molly and Penelope as Molly worked to scrape the remnants of her sandwich off the floor. Bits of napkin were stuck
to the jam, and now there was just a big pile of mess on the floor. “Are we looking forward to Normal Night tomorrow?” He lifted his eyebrows expectantly. “I hope that charming
mother of yours will be joining us?”

“Yeah,” Pen said nervously. “Mom’s coming.”

“And the rest of your family? Charlie’s going to be here, and I’m hoping he and Finn can spend some time together,” Mr. Intihar said. He was balancing his lunch tray
awkwardly, and Molly watched as his milk carton began to slide toward the center of his tray. If it kept sliding, it was going to tip everything off balance and their teacher’s lunch would
join Molly’s sandwich on the floor.

But then, as if by magic, the milk carton grew tiny little legs and waddled back to the outer edge of his tray again. Penelope shot Molly an apologetic look. Mr. Intihar continued, “This
will be a good chance for your family to get to know some of the other folks in Normal.”

Molly grimaced. “That’ll be great,” she said, but didn’t mean it. She didn’t want her family to meet anyone. She wanted them to stay tucked back behind the fence
with its hammy paint and just keep to themselves. If her family suddenly started prancing around town, making themselves noticeable, that would be the end of Normal. She was sure of it. And she
knew Penelope knew it, too.