Marcia's Madness
Authors: Lauren Baratz-Logsted
The Sisters 8 Book 5
Marcia's Madness
Lauren Baratz-Logsted
With Greg Logsted & Jackie Logsted
H
OUGHTON
M
IFFLIN
H
ARCOURT
B
OSTON
• N
EW
Y
ORK
• 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.
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
Table of Contents
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.