The Quirks, Welcome to Normal Read Online Free

again. “You’re exactly the same.”
    Molly sighed. This was one of the problems with her grandfather’s Quirk—sometimes, the same conversation would happen over and over again. “Yes, we’re twins,” Molly
answered. As she spoke, she quickly led Penelope and Stella away from the tree. “But we’re not identical. Almost, but not quite.” She and Penelope shared a secret smile.
“We’re in Mr. Intihar’s class,” Molly said, again. “Are you?”
    “Yeah,” Stella said, waving to some kids getting off another school bus. “There’s only one fourth-grade classroom. Normal isn’t that big, you know. That’s why
we were all excited when we heard you’d moved to town. Everyone has been waiting to meet you!”
    Penelope and Molly followed as Stella ushered them through the front doors and toward room six. Normal Elementary School was built in a circle, with the library and lunchroom in the center of
the building. The classrooms were lined up side by side, and you could walk all the way around the circle to get back to where you started.
    Stella told them about some of the other kids in their class as she led them past the library and the school office and the bathrooms. But Molly barely heard a word—she couldn’t stop
thinking about Penelope’s white rabbit and their grandfather in the tree and how, when she looked down, she saw that Penelope’s shoes had turned into ruby slippers.
    They were doomed.
    When Molly, Penelope, and Stella walked through the door to room six, their teacher, Mr. Intihar, was nowhere to be seen. There were a few other kids milling around who smiled at the Quirks, but
none were as friendly or chatty as Stella. Most people just sort of stared, then went back to what they were doing.
    Twenty-four desks were lined up in the classroom, organized in six rows of four. Each desk had a different animal sticker stuck to the top right corner. On each sticker was a name. Penelope ran
her hand across the desk closest to the door as they walked into the classroom. The name Raade was printed across the top of a snake sticker that had been neatly affixed to the desk.
    Molly glanced back at her sister and her eyes widened. The snake sticker on Raade’s desk flicked its tongue. It had come to life! The tiny snake slithered and wrapped around the corner of
the desk, heading for the floor. Usually Penelope wasn’t this bad. But her imagination was running wild!

    Penelope curled her fingers closed and squeezed her eyes shut. She and Molly had only recently discovered that closing her eyes helped keep Pen’s imagination in check. She sometimes wished
she could keep her eyes closed all the time—but that was sure to attract too much extra attention. After a few seconds, the snake curled up on the corner of the desk again and settled back
into its sticker form. No one had seen what had happened. Molly sighed as another one of their classmates walked through the door into room six just moments later.
    “Here’s your desk, Molly,” Stella cried, her loud, raspy voice booming across the classroom. “Right next to mine!” Stella stood beside a desk in the front row,
pressed up against the window. A lion sticker had Molly’s name printed on it in neat navy-blue letters. “And there’s yours, Penelope.” Stella pointed to a desk in the back
row, three desks behind Molly’s. Pen’s desk had a tiger sticker with her name written in swirly black letters.
    Stella turned away to talk with another girl sitting in the front row. At the exact moment Stella shifted her attention, Penelope’s tiger sticker turned into a very small, very real tiger
and jumped off Pen’s desk! It leaped over Pen’s chair and scratched its way onto the desk right behind Molly. The tiger yawned, letting out a big, belching roar. Both Molly and Penelope
coughed loudly to try to cover up the sound of a miniature beast in their classroom.
    Molly’s eyes grew wide and scared. Thanks to her sister’s