Marcia's Madness (5 page)

With heavy sighs, we picked up our pencils and bent our heads to the test.

***

"Annnnnd...
time!
" the Mr. McG called out. It seemed to us that it had been a week since we'd started taking the test, but a look at the clock on the wall revealed that only two hours had passed.

Still, a
two-hour test?
Our new teacher was evil!

Didn't he realize we were just little kids? We mean, it's not as though we were in college or anything.

"Please put down your pencils," the Mr. McG instructed, "and pass your test sheets to the front of the room."

When we'd done as he requested, he had another announcement to make.

"You may all take recess now," he said, "while I grade your papers. So enjoy your fun while you can." He paused, then added darkly, "And then we'll see what we shall see."

***

Outside in the play yard, we tried to take our minds off our troubles by hanging upside down on the jungle gym, which was not easy to do. The hanging-upside-down part was easy enough, but taking our minds off our troubles? We shuddered every time we thought of that two-hour test.

"Did you see all those questions?" Zinnia asked.

"Yes," Petal said. "I was so busy counting how many there were, over and over again, I forgot to answer most of them."

"What state is St. Louis the capital of?" Georgia asked.

"I'm pretty sure it's still Missouri," Mandy Stenko said.

"Oh dear," Georgia said. "But I put down New Orleans!"

"New Orleans isn't a
state!
" Rebecca said. "It's a country!"

"No, it's not." Will Simms corrected her, but in a nice way. "It's a city in Louisiana, but I for one can certainly see where Georgia would make such a mistake. See, both St. Louis and New Orleans are known for music-jazz, specifically—so even if the geography isn't quite the way Georgia imagines it, it should be."

We all paused to beam at Will. He was so good to us.

But then he spoiled it all by saying, "I really like our new teacher!"

"You
what?
" Jackie was shocked; in fact, a little outraged. She was always the most even-tempered among us, but even she couldn't possibly condone a teacher who sprang surprise two-hour tests on us!

"But I do," Will said. "It's kind of nice for me, after all these years, having another male in the classroom."

Huh. We had never thought of that: the idea that there might be a loneliness factor for Will in being the only boy with nine other girls plus a female teacher.

Still, that was not a good enough reason for Rebecca.

"Honestly, Will," she said, for once disgusted with our favorite boy in the world. "If you want male companionship that badly, we could buy you a boy puppy!"

We continued to hang upside down from the jungle-gym bars, most of us not even noticing that the whole time we'd been out in the yard, Annie had said nothing about the test.

Neither had Marcia.

***

The Mr. McG stood at the head of the classroom, our fate in his hands.

Okay, maybe we were being a little dramatic about it, but we did want to know how we had done on that test.

"This has all been very revealing," the Mr. McG said as he began handing back tests in an arbitrary manner. "Some of you aren't quite as smart as you probably think you are." He placed a test face-down on Mandy Stenko's desk and we heard her gasp in horror as she turned it over. She'd gotten a big B- with an 83 next to it.

"Some of you did quite nicely indeed," he went on, placing a test on Jackie's desk. We couldn't see what it was but she looked happy when she turned it over.

"Some of you have peculiar minds." He placed a test on Rebecca's desk before moving on to Petal's. "While some of you..." He merely shook his head as he placed the graded test on her desk. Poor Petal. When she turned it over, she instantly burst into tears.

"As a group, you really could use quite a bit of work," he said, proceeding to place tests on the desks of Durinda, Georgia, Zinnia, and Will.

"In fact," he said, placing the final tests on the desks of Annie and Marcia, "only two of you did work that I would say was in any way superior."

Annie turned her paper over first and we could all see the big A+ with the 99 next to it.

Well, of course Annie had done the best. She was the one who'd studied the hardest, plus she was the smartest.

Then Marcia turned her paper over to reveal that her grade was an A+ as well, beside which was the only three-digit number any of us had scored:

100.

Marcia had received the highest score in the class.

FIVE

Marcia waited until the little yellow school bus had deposited us back home and we were inside our house before requesting:

"A re-vote," she said. "In light of what happened today, I think we should have a re-vote to see which one of us should be head of the family."

Who would have suspected that one of our own might stage a hostile takeover?

"I'm just curious," Rebecca asked, "why this sudden grab for power?"

"There's nothing sudden about it," Marcia said. "The way things are around here—it's been bothering me ever since Annie made me switch rooms."

We knew what she was talking about.

Before our parents' disappearance, our sleeping arrangements had been the following: Annie, Durinda, Georgia, and Jackie—the four older Eights—in one bedroom, with Annie being the leader of that bedroom; Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia—the four younger Eights—in the other bedroom, with Marcia being the leader of that bedroom. The two bedrooms were connected by a bathroom we all shared.

But after our parents' disappearance, Annie had switched things up a bit. She'd sent Durinda to be the leader of the bedroom with the three youngest and took Marcia into the bedroom with herself, Georgia, and Jackie, where Marcia was then the youngest. Annie's reasoning had been that since everything was so changed, Rebecca might torment Petal and Zinnia, and Durinda—being the second oldest of us all—was in a better position than Marcia to keep things under control.

Of course we'd been aware that this bothered Marcia, because she'd said so many times, but this much?

"And another thing," Marcia went on. "I don't particular like being the middle child. It stinks."

"But you're not the middle child," Georgia said. "There'd have to be an odd number of us for that to be true."

"Georgia's right," Jackie said. "You're not the middle. You're the fifth of eight."

"And you're the fourth," Marcia said to Jackie. "So we're both in the middle, the boring middle. I
hate
being one of the two middles, don't you, Jackie?"

Jackie looked puzzled by this. "No, not at all. I like who I am. I'm perfectly happy with my position in life."

"Ohhhh," Marcia said, "you're impossible."

"If you ask me," Rebecca said to Marcia, "your reasons are silly."

"Still," Durinda observed, "after what happened at school today, she does have a point..."

"Are we going to have a re-vote or aren't we?" Zinnia asked.

"Yes," Petal said, "I'd really like to know sooner rather than later if there are going to be changes around here because I have to go to the bathroom."

We all turned to Annie, who hadn't spoken yet.

"Fine," Annie said.

"Great!" Marcia said. "All those in favor of me taking over?"

Seven hands shot up.

"Well," Marcia said to Annie, "I guess I don't have to ask about votes for the opposition since we all know you never vote for or against yourself."

Just like that—so quickly!—big change had come to the Huit household.

"I'm sorry," Durinda said, placing a hand on Annie's shoulder. "But I'm sure you understand. If it were only that Marcia could pay the bills like you or impersonate Daddy like you or drive the Hummer like you, it wouldn't be enough. But she
did
score higher than you on that test today."

"It's okay," Annie said bravely, brushing off Durinda's hand. "I do understand. And I'd have voted the same way you all did if I were the sort of person who ever votes against herself."

"Great," Rebecca said. "Now that we've all enjoyed a touching moment, will someone tell me what we're all supposed to do next?"

Instinctively, six heads turned to Annie.
She
always told us what to do when we got home from school. But as six of us looked at Annie expectantly,
she
looked over our heads to Marcia.

"Oh, right," Marcia said. "Durinda and Jackie, make us all a snack. Georgia, get the mail. Petal, go to the bathroom. Rebecca, try not to offend anyone for the next hour. Zinnia, feed the cats."

"Would you like me to get the spear for you?" Georgia offered.

"Yes, that would be nice," Marcia said.

"But what about Annie?" Georgia wanted to know after she'd returned with the spear and handed it over. "Aren't you going to tell her what to do?"

"I think Annie can figure something out on her own," Marcia said. "Besides, I have a headache all of a sudden. I think I need to lie down."

That was odd. Marcia had never complained of headaches before, nor had she ever had to lie down in the middle of the day.

And here's another thing that was odd. We looked over and saw Marcia's cat, Minx, blinking as though she'd been staring at the sun and then slouching down and covering her eyes with her tiny gray and white paws, little frown lines creasing her forehead.

Or maybe it wasn't so odd. After all, there were certain things—like getting our powers—that when they happened to us, they happened to our cats too. So maybe Minx was sharing Marcia's headache?

In any event, as we all hurried to do Marcia's bidding—particularly Petal—and Marcia slowly dragged herself up the stairs, spear in one hand, the other hand to her forehead, we all knew which bedroom Marcia was heading to.

The room where she could once again be oldest of the youngest.

There was a new sheriff in town.

***

That week was a strange one for us. It was odd having Marcia in power. It was odd having Annie out of power. Who was Annie now? we all wondered. And how, we wondered to ourselves but never out loud, would all this affect our chances of discovering what happened to our parents?

It was also a strange week because Marcia's management style was, well,
odd
after what we'd grown used to from Annie. Whereas Annie would give us directions and then keep half an eye on us to make sure her instructions were properly carried out, every time Marcia gave directions, she went to lie down, claiming to have a headache.

"Is all the power getting to you?" Rebecca asked snidely as Marcia dragged herself upstairs yet again, that spear looking heavy in her hand.

Marcia ignored her, muttering to herself something like "I wish those people in the Big City didn't have so many cars—they all whiz by so quickly."

Marcia had been muttering a lot of strange things like that, and Minx had been making pained meowing sounds and covering her eyes. We thought about asking Zinnia to talk to Minx and find out what was going on, but we didn't want anyone to think we were crazy.

And what was strangest of all about that odd week was that Mother's Day was coming up on Sunday. It would be the first Mother's Day of our lives with no Mommy around for us to celebrate.