Free The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

quiet, pleasant hum. The thakerak likes the water.
    “We’re underwater?” I ask in awe.
    “We’re at the bottom of the Great Beniss Basin,” Mortin says. I stare up at scaleless blue as Ada offers me her arm and leads me to the table. She moves lightly. I feel bumbling and stupid, my elbow in hers, as I hobble on my bad ankle. It’s the first time a girl has ever touched my arm. Her hand is warm and smooth.
    I lie down. Mortin stands at my head. Ada stands at my feet. Ryu watches everything with his arms crossed, making me feel small and inadequate, even though he isn’t taller than me, like the Ryu at camp wasn’t. It’s his attitude that makes him tall. What a trick!
    Ada pulls a rope down from the ceiling and puts it around my ankle.
    “Ow! Not too tight!”
    Ryu laughs. Ada raises her eyebrows at me.
    “Fine. Make it tight.”
    She pulls the rope taut. It grips my ankle like a claw. I wince but hold the pain in. The rope leads to the glass above me, where it attaches to a hook. Above the hook, on the other side of the glass, a thin metal rod sticks into the Great Beniss Basin. I shake my foot. The rope moves; the hook and rod move with it. It’s like I’m attached to a car antenna. It’s fun. I kick my foot aside and accidentally clip Mortin.
    “Ow!”
    “Stop him!” Ryu says. “Keep him still!”
    “Don’t move,” Ada whispers, grabbing me.
    Mortin holds his side. “Are you okay?” I ask. “I didn’t kick you that hard.”
    “It’s fine. I just—I’ve got a bruise there,” Mortin says, shaking it off.
    Ada holds me still. “Gamary will go nuts if you interfere with the Basin. Just relax your foot while we take the reading.”
    “But what are you reading? How does it work?”
    “Mortin? Permission to do a formal introduction?”
    He nods and waves her on, still holding his side.
    “Yes.” Ada pumps her fist. It’s wonderful to see. Ryu sighs like we’re wasting his time. Ada flits back around the room, carefully avoiding the thakerak, and returns with a notebook full of the strange writing that I saw on the bag of hepatodes.It’s a leather-bound notebook with a thick cover, alien but familiar—a school notebook. I’d know a school notebook no matter what language it was in. When she opens it, I see doodles in pencil on the side.
    “This is my first introduction,” she says. “It’s a big honor. I’ve been preparing.”
    “Like a test?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You’re doing great.”
    She clears her throat. “Peregrine Eckert—”
    “Perry. Perry’s fine.”
    “I like Peregrine.”
    “But I really—”
    Ada blinks. Her eyes are blue like her hair. When she blinks, I think maybe she doesn’t find me so shrimpy and untouchable.
    “Peregrine’s fine,” I agree.
    “Thank you. Peregrine Eckert, I’d like to welcome you to the World of the Other Normals!”

32
    THERE’S A MOMENT WHEN IT FEELS LIKE people should clap, but no one claps, so I clap.
    “Hold still!” Mortin orders.
    “I have a question: what do you guys call it? When you’re talking to each other. You must call it something else. Some real name.”
    Ada looks to Mortin. “Show him,” he says. He slides a panel aside in the wall. Behind it is an array of buttons, dials, and wheels. He focuses on these while eyeing the rod in the water, which jitters as my ankle moves with my breathing and circulation.
    “It’s called—” Ada starts, and then her mouth moves but her voice cuts off, just like Dale Blaswell’s did back in the nurse’s office.
    “What?”
    Ryu laughs. Ada explains, “The true name can’t be understood by your mind. When you hear it, it doesn’t register.”
    “That’s ridiculous. I have to call this place something. ‘World of the Other Normals’ is too long. What about ‘Anormalia?’ No, that sounds like a disease.”
    “Hurry it up,” Ryu says.
    “Freaking Americans.” Mortin adjusts dials and levers. “They have such problems with names. I bring somebody over from