Chapter One There are very few truly extraordinary things in the world You see extraordinary is extremely rare Extraordinary only comes around on a snow day a cheap movie Tuesday or in a carton of cold chocolate milk Extraordinary is the golden star on your book report brightly painted toenails and stained glass windows in unexpected places It can only be found in orange the fruit not the color It’s as special as a blue raspberry sour candy or the perfect horizontal striped T-shirt lovingly worn in and still warm from the dryer The word extraordinary is extraordinary in itself because it ends in a Y which is the only letter that has a tail And only the most 5
Eliza Martin extraordinary animals have tails so that’s why it’s a very extraordinary letter The way I woke up this morning though Completely extra ordinary The door sounded like it was going to split in half from the force of Dominic’s knocking WAAAKE UUUP he yelled I pulled the pillow over my face breathing in floral patterned flannel extra ordinary is a whole other word extra ordinary isn’t extraordinary at all it’s much much worse I mean ordinary is okay but extra ordinary is extra okay If you think about it it’s really really bad extra ordinary is your older brother pounding on your bedroom door like a woodpecker practicing practicing Morse code at exactly seven thirty in the morning on your eleventh birthday MIMIIIIII Mimi short for Miriam is an extremely extra ordinary named given to me by my great aunt Miriam Nothing extraordinary has ever been given by a great aunt Aside from dusty old names great aunts only give doilies raisin oatmeal cookies you thought were chocolate chip and fleece pajamas with itchy tags Very extra ordinary things indeed 6
Harvey and the Extraordinary At least that’s what I’ve decided Oh and did I mention that I’m the chief authority on all things extraordinary because you see I invented Extraordinaryism I’m an expert That is I have a long chart taped to my bedroom wall where I write down everything in my life as extra ordinary ordinary or extraordinary It looks like this extra ordinary ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY Bucket hats Pumpkins Turnips Irish dancing Ruffley umbrellas Zebras Falling asleep in movies Orange color Principal Miller’s coffee breath Back crawl Hawaiian pizza Orange fruit Video games Non-chocolate milk Raisins Skateboarding Aunt Daphne’s ramps kisses Mom Art class Dominic Putting on sunscreen Cheesecake White chocolate Orange soda Dad Painted toenails Turquoise 7
