Petal's Problems
Authors: Lauren Baratz-Logsted
The Sisters 8
Book 6
Lauren Baratz-Logsted
P
ETAL'S
P
ROBLEMS
With Greg Logsted & Jackie Logsted
Illustrated by Lisa K. Weber
Sandpiper
H
OUGHTON
M
IFFLIN
H
ARCOURT
B
OSTON
• N
EW
Y
ORK
• 2010
Text copyright © 2010 by Lauren Baratz-Logsted,
Greg Logsted, and Jackie Logsted
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Lisa K. Weber
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Sandpiper, an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
SANDPIPER and the SANDPIPER logo are trademarks of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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.
The text of this book is set in Youbee.
Book design by Carol Chu.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is on file.
ISBN 978-0-547-33402-8 paper over board
ISBN 978-0-547-33403-5 paperback
Manufactured in the United States of America
RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4500252473
For Lucille Baratz,
a.k.a. Mom, a.k.a. Grandma
Annie Durinda Georgia Jackie
Marcia Petal Rebecca Zinnia
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
"Oh no! The sky is falling!"
"Oh no! It is raining so hard! What if it rains for forty days and forty nights?"
"Oh no! If the sky falls and it rains for forty days and forty nights, not only will we be orphans, we'll be drowned orphans, dead with the sky crushing our heads!"
"Oh no—"
Sound like anyone you know?
Of course it does.
And you know a lot of other things too. Really, you know all the basics at this point.
Powers. Gifts.
Annie: power—can think like an adult when necessary; gift—purple ring
Durinda: power—can freeze people, except Zinnia; gift—green earrings
Georgia: power—can become invisible; gift—gold compact
Jackie: power—faster than a speeding train; gift—red cape
Marcia: power-x-ray vision; gift—purple cloak
You also know, because you've been paying good attention, that at the end of Book 4:
Jackie's Jokes,
a flock of carrier pigeons thundered into the home of the Eights bearing notes that said,
Beware the other Eights!
You also know, because you have a pretty decent memory, that at the end of Book 5:
Marcia's Madness,
an invitation arrived announcing the wedding of Martha Huit and George Smith on Saturday, June 21, 2008, and cordially requesting the presence of the Eights...
In France.
Honestly, you know so much, you don't need me to tell you a great deal more.
But one thing you don't know, can't possibly know, is that a strange event has happened in the world of the Eights. You know that each sister's adventure occurs within the space of a month. Annie's was January; Durinda's, February; Georgia's, March; Jackie's, April; Marcia's, May. So it should be Petal's turn and June now, right? Only the thing you don't know is that it's not. The Eights are still stuck in May, looking at that invitation and wondering what's to be done about it.
This state of affairs is perfectly fine with Petal. Why, as far as Petal is concerned, it could stay May forever, for all of eternity. You see, Petal doesn't
want
June to come.
But it really doesn't matter what Petal wants, does it? Time can't be stopped. So even if it's not quite June yet, it must inevitably come. And when it does, it will be time for...
Oh no! Petal power!
To which, all I can say is...
Ha!
ONE
"We've been invited to a
wedding?
" Durinda said.
"In
France?
" Rebecca said.
"And who, by the way," Georgia said, "are Martha Huit and George Smith?"
"Don't you remember," Annie said, "our relatives Aunt Martha and Uncle George, who used to come visit us occasionally?"
We supposed we'd always known about these people. We dimly remembered that Aunt Martha thought that everything made her look fat, and Uncle George liked to cook but was very bad at it, which meant we had to lie so as not to hurt his feelings. But we didn't know anything about them beyond that, plus we hadn't seen them in so long that, frankly, we'd forgotten all about them. And anyway, we'd learned to be suspicious of relatives. So, we thought as we narrowed our eyes in suspicion, who were these people really?
"Is it just me," Marcia wondered aloud, "or does anyone else feel like it's supposed to be June already..."
"I'm glad it's not June!" Petal cried. "I hope that wretched month never comes! Perhaps time has stopped, or even started running backward? But oh no! What if it
is
running backward and it keeps on running backward? Eventually, I will be a baby again and then—
gulp
!—after that I will cease to exist!"
"But I don't understand." Jackie was puzzled. She was also ignoring Marcia and Petal, as were we all. "I always thought Aunt Martha and Uncle George were from the same side of the family—you know, brother and sister."
"Oh," Zinnia said wistfully, ignoring nearly everyone and everything. "I would like to go to a wedding. I'm fairly certain they have lots of presents at those."
"Apparently not." Annie answered Jackie, ignoring Zinnia. "The invitation specifically lists them as Martha
Huit
and George
Smith.
" She shrugged. "So I guess they're not from the same side of the family, not brother and sister at all. If Aunt Martha is a Huit, she must be Daddy's sister, and if Uncle George is a Smith, he must be Mommy's brother."
"Who knew?" Jackie looked stunned.
"Apparently not us." Annie shrugged again. "Anyway, now it looks like Daddy's sister is marrying Mommy's brother."
"My, we
do
come from an odd family," Rebecca said, a dark gleam entering her eye. Some of us found that disturbing, how rather pleased Rebecca appeared at the thought.
"So what are we going to do about the invitation?" Durinda asked Annie.
Since Mommy and Daddy's disappearance back on New Year's Eve, Annie had taken over as head of our household. It fell to her to make all the important decisions, like what to wear to Will's birthday party or when would be the best time to change the oil in the Hummer. But some of us thought that in this particular instance—this particular instance being what to do about an invitation to a wedding in France—it shouldn't be left up to just Annie. Some of us thought it would even be a good idea, the
best
idea, to put it to a vote.
Too bad for some of us then.
"We have to say no, of course," Annie said simply.
"But why?" some of us shouted.
In this instance,
some of us
equaled Georgia, Rebecca, and Zinnia. The first two were always up for an adventure, and the third loved the idea of going anyplace where there might be presents, even if those presents weren't for her.
As for the rest of us...
Annie had already made up her mind.
Durinda was content to let Annie decide.
Jackie wasn't the shouting type.
Petal was too grateful it was still May to be bothered with anything else.
And as for Marcia...
"But it is supposed to be June, right?" she said, perplexed for once. "Honestly, am I the only one to notice that there's something wrong here?"
"But I want to go to the wedding," Zinnia said, a tear threatening to spill over the edge of her eyelid. "Even if it's in France, I want to go."
"Don't you see, though?" Annie said gently. "That's part of the problem. It
is
in France."
"Annie's right," Petal said, finding something fresh to worry about, even though she'd just been told it was never going to happen because, according to Annie, we were
not
going to the wedding. "We can't go to France! We'd have to swim there! And if we tried to swim all that way—wherever France is—we would drown!"
"Well, no," Annie said, "we won't drown."
"Of course we'd drown!" Petal barreled on. "How could we not drown? We will—"
"We won't drown," Annie said, beginning to lose patience, "because we won't be swimming."
That stopped Petal in midpanic. She was stumped. "But if we don't swim, then how would we get there? I'm fairly certain France is not right next door ... is it?"
"Of course it's not." Rebecca sneered at Petal, then turned to Annie. "Is it?"
"Well, it could be," Annie said. "But whether it's just a country away or a continent away, we wouldn't swim to get there. We'd fly."
"Oh no!" Petal clutched her head as she began running in circles. "This is even worse than swimming! We can't fly like birds!"
"That's funny," Rebecca said, studying Petal as she ran faster and faster. "You're doing a pretty good job of it. Any second now, you might really take off."