Skye Penderwick didn't believe in bad days. She also didn't believe in fire gods, fate, or energy drinks, but that was beside the point. Bad days were physically impossible by the natural laws of the universe. The possibility that enough things would line up and go wrong to cause a bad day was astronomically small. One in a billion wouldn't even cover it. And yet, somehow, Skye was having one of those days.
It had started very early that morning. Very early. At 4:33 am, Skye was awaken by the distinctive sound of Hound throwing up. How he had gotten into her room in the first place, she didn't even stop to consider. As she shuffled downstairs to grab the cleaning supplies, she stubbed her toe on Batty's wagon. Howling in pain, she jumped around on one foot for a bit.
What she didn't count on was landing on the cat. As Asimov screeched and Skye cursed under her breath, the rest of the house continued to sleep in peace. Somehow, that didn't seem quite fair to Skye.
By the time nine o'clock rolled around, Skye had somehow managed to reign in her temper. She was going to be pleasant at breakfast if it was the last thing that she did. As she slid into her place between Rosalind and Jane, Iantha grinned as her.
"Well, now that everyone's here, your father and I have something we want to tell you." She smiled and leaned forward as if about to tell a secret. "You're going to have a new brother or sister in a few months."
Skye choked on her scrambled eggs.
At 11:00 it became apparent that she and Jane had just lost their first soccer game of the season. At 11:05 Skye was forced to shake hands with Melissa and congratulate her on a 'good game'. As she walked away, one of the other players tripped her.
At lunch, Iantha was craving brussels sprouts and kale. Skye decided to skip lunch. As she thumped upstairs to her room, she spotted a suspicious mound of shredded papers that could only have been Asimov's handiwork. Upon closer inspection, it proved to be her favorite math book.
At 1 o'clock she mad Batty cry.
At 1:30 the door bell rang. It was Pearson.
"Hey, Skye! Look, I was just wondering if you would like to go out -"
At 1:45 Mr. Penderwick received a furious call from Pearson's mother, asking what he planned on doing about his lunatic of a daughter who went around breaking nice boy's noses.
What he planned on doing was making his daughter go out with that nice boy after all, as an apology.
At 2 o'clock, she made Batty cry again.
The next few hours passed without a hitch, and Skye was regaining confidence in probability and its effect on bad days. Sure, she had had a terrible few hours, but that didn't constitute to a bad day, did it?
And then, at 4, something occurred that made her positive of that fact. The doorbell rang again, and, from her seat on the sofa, she could see that it was none other than Jeffrey. Jeffery Tifton, all the way from Boston!
Jumping to her feet, she raced over to the door. As she launched herself at him in a big hug, she slipped and banged her forehead right into his. As she felt the world spin and stars began to obscure her vision, she decided that maybe, just this once, bad days were possible.
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