Gabby Duran and the Unsittables Novelization Read online

  Copyright © 2020 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

  For information address Disney Press, 1200 Grand Central Avenue, Glendale, California 91201.

  ISBN 978-1-368-05638-0

  For more Disney Press fun, visit www.disneybooks.com

  Visit DisneyChannel.com

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Bzzzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzz.…

  Gabby Duran was not a fan of mornings. Or her new town of Havensburg. So at 7:45 a.m., when her pink alarm clock rudely buzzed her awake, she did what any sensible person would do. She slammed the snooze button…with a brick. Sure, there might have been more elegant ways to quiet the clock. But hey, it got the job done. From Gabby’s perspective, that was a win.

  She curled up under her fuchsia covers. Recently, Gabby had come to believe that mornings were for suckers. As was this lame town. Havensburg had nothing on Miami, where she’d spent all thirteen years of her life living it up. Gabby had pretty much ruled that city. Then, three weeks ago, everything changed. She and her mom, Dina, and her eight year old sister, Olivia, had packed up their belongings and moved to the quiet town of Havensburg. Talk about upheaval. Gabby missed her friends; she missed the beach; she missed doing her thing. Her mom and sis both slid into suburban life without a glitch. In fact, they were thriving there. But Gabby? She slid in like…What’s the opposite of a smooth operator? Doesn’t matter. She slid in like someone who didn’t fit in. Her life was over the minute she hit Havensburg. More like Havens-boring.

  Gabby tugged on her comforter and glanced around her room. She’d tried to put her own spin on her new space. She painted the walls electric blue, then papered them with concert flyers, cute animal prints, and posters from her top five favorite horror films. She’d strung strands of lights from the ceiling and even painted the wall above her bed with a stylized Gabby D. Her room looked sick, but there was only so much style her neon LATER HATER sign could bring to this cookie-cutter town.

  Gabby laid her head down on her pillow, her long ombré hair splayed messily about. At least she could snooze the day away, so it wouldn’t be a total loss.

  No sooner had Gabby shut her eyes than her bedroom door swung wide open. “Morning, sunshine. Up and at ’em,” sang her mom, who was dressed in a pale blush sweater, matching blush pants, and a smile that was way too big for the time of day.

  “Your morning attitude, it’s off-putting,” groaned Gabby.

  Dina crossed the cluttered room and raised the window shades. Gabby grimaced at the bright light it let in.

  “I’m going to need you to watch your sister for a couple hours today, okay?” As a single mom, Dina counted on her older daughter to look out for her younger one.

  Gabby gave her mom a major eye roll. Babysit? Today? But in truth, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. No one was blowing up her cell to hang out or texting her to join in. She might as well watch Olivia.

  Babysitting, Gabby thought. If you’ve got a younger sibling, you’re gonna get roped into it sooner or later. Fortunately, I pretty much rule at it.

  An hour later, Gabby sat at the kitchen counter wearing a cropped gray hoodie and counting the cash in an envelope clearly marked Emergency $.

  “Crazy idea,” said Olivia, approaching her sister. Clutched in her hands was a colorful homemade spinner. “What if we spent the day making a new chore wheel?” She pushed her glasses up on her nose.

  Wearing a crisp white-collared shirt underneath a neat light blue sweater, Olivia didn’t look dressed for a Saturday. Did the girl even own a pair of sweatpants? Gabby would have to work on that.

  “Liv, I love you, I do,” said Gabby, and she meant it. Her sister was the best. “But someone needs to save you from yourself.”

  As the older sister, Gabby figured, it was her responsibility to help Liv live a little. Show her there was more to life than chore wheels and rule following. With that goal in mind, Gabby fanned out the crisp bills in her manicured hand. “What if, instead, we spent this twenty bucks Mom left us in case of emergency?”

  Liv scrunched up her face, looking perplexed. “But this isn’t an emergency.”

  “If we’re talking chore wheels, this is as dire as it gets,” Gabby said, studying Olivia’s blunt bob and severe bangs. Gabby had so much to teach Liv about the art of loosening up.

  The Duran sisters stood in the Havensburg grocery, staring up at a towering wall of cereal boxes. There were rows and rows of Dax Flax, Treasure Flakes, and, high on the top shelf, way out of reach, the grand prize: Blammo Bombs.

  “Um, you’re sure we need Sugar-Frosted Blammo Bombs?” asked Olivia. Just the thought of bending the rules made her itchy. There was still time to turn around.

  “The fact that you even have to ask that tells me that we do,” said Gabby. Spending the crisis cash on sugar cereal was the plan of a super genius, if she must say so herself.

  “Get climbin’,” she instructed with a flick of her hand. For a girl in camo shorts and a bucket hat, she sounded pretty authoritative.

  Liv started to scale the cereal wall. “Um, these shelves don’t feel super sturdy.” She looked down; the ground seemed really, really far away. “Are you even watching me?” she asked Gabby.

  “Of course I am,” said Gabby, not bothering to look up from the box label she was studying. Who knew cereal contained so much riboflavin? Fascinating.

  Olivia stretched out her arm as far as she could to grab the Blammo Bombs with the tips of her fingers. But suddenly, the shelf beneath her feet collapsed and she tumbled to the ground with a thud, buried beneath an avalanche of Dax Flax and Treasure Flakes.

  Gabby looked up. Huh, who would have thought the shelves weren’t sturdy? She learned something new every day.

  Gabby opened the front door to the Duran house with one hand and held a bag of frozen peas to Olivia’s head with the other. She was not about to let this minor cereal incident slow the Duran girls’ roll. She checked Liv’s head for bumps and bruises. “Well, there’s no swelling, so that’s good. You sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Liv said, smiling. “Plus, how could I be mad? You introduced me to these guys.” She hugged a box of Blammo Bombs to her chest. Olivia shoved a fistful of cereal into her mouth and scampered off to read a book.

  See? Babysitting’s a piece of cake, thought Gabby. The key to being a stellar babysitter wasn’t staying clear of trouble; it was untangling the trouble before the parents came home.

  The next morning, the Duran sisters sat side by side eating breakfast at the kitchen island. Gabby threw back a couple of breakfast taquitos while scrolling through social media. Her old Miami friends’ feeds were filled with beach selfies and sunlit smiles.

  “Aw, Katrina and Michelle. I miss those girls,” said Dina, peering over Gabby’s shoulder. “You shou
ld call them. There’s no reason you girls can’t be friends.”

  “Mom, it’s been three weeks and we moved eight states away. They’ve already moved on,” said Gabby. She stared at an image of three girls cracking up. What she wouldn’t give to be one of them.

  “They have not moved on,” insisted Dina.

  “They’ve already replaced me. You see this girl? I don’t know this girl.” She held up the phone for her mom to see. “Say hello to Gabby 2.0. The new me.”

  Gabby swiped through picture after picture of Katrina and Michelle with the mystery girl. The fact that they’d filled her spot so quickly stung. “Can we just move back to Miami?” Gabby asked.

  Dina smoothed her black dress; her hair and makeup were camera ready. “Gabby, I know this has been hard for you. But it is what’s best for the family. I mean, the school district here has a gifted program that can challenge Olivia in ways her old school just couldn’t.”

  Gabby didn’t understand why her social life had to suffer just because her sister was some kind of brainiac.

  “And Mom was offered an on-air position for Local 6. How could she pass that up?” chimed in Olivia.

  “Maybe this will cheer you up: I’m on mugs now!” Dina held up a Local 6 News Team mug with her face on it.

  “Mugs, Gabby!” said Olivia, bursting with excitement.

  Gabby stared at the coffee cup and her face broke into a giant smile. “Wow, that does actually make me feel

  better.”

  “Really?” Dina smiled.

  “Nope,” Gabby said emphatically. Look, she was thrilled about her mom’s success; she’d worked tirelessly to rock her career. But that didn’t change how Gabby felt about Havensburg. It was the pits.

  “I’m glad you two have a new job and a new school. But what do I have here?” asked Gabby. She already knew the answer to her question. She had nothing. Nada. Blank emoji.

  Dina hated to see her daughter rattled. “You’re gonna find something, Gabby. I know you,” she said with an encouraging nod.

  Gabby stood, not all that cheered up, and grabbed a handful of taquitos for the road. She had to get to school. Because nothing said fun like a day at Havensburg Junior High.

  Gabby stood in the crowded school hallway and surveyed the scene. Groups of cheerful students chatted away at their lockers. They chuckled at private jokes she wasn’t in on and rehashed weekend memories she wasn’t a part of.

  Her eyes darted from student to student until they fell on Wesley. Wesley, a kindhearted kid who wore his weirdness with pride, was the president of the Mysteries of Havensburg Club. He was tall for his age, and his mussed-up auburn hair gave him another two inches of height. He’d always been fascinated by the idea that there was more to life than met the eye. At that moment, he was attempting to enlist new members to his cause. “Join the Mysteries of Havensburg Club!” he called out, waving a pamphlet in his hand.

  Gabby noted that Wesley’s recruitment skills left something to be desired. He solicited every kid who walked by. And every kid ignored him.

  Wes shouted, undeterred. Still, he couldn’t help feeling perplexed. Had those people no sense of curiosity? Didn’t they ponder the existence of paranormal forces at work right there in Havensburg? There had to be one other person who thought the town was messed up.

  That was when he noticed Gabby standing alone in the hallway. With her gold sneaks and black floral backpack, the new girl looked like someone who believed in conspiracy theories. Or at least someone who wasn’t afraid to think her own thing.

  “Gabby,” he said, pointing at her. “Care to sign up for the Mysteries of Havensburg Club?”

  Unlike the others, Gabby didn’t scurry away. She walked toward him.

  Wes smiled; he’d never gotten that far in a conversation with a potential recruit. “We investigate weird and potentially paranormal occurrences around town. You know, ghosts, Bigfoot…Dobek the janitor. I think he’s been collecting student garbage.”

  Wes side-nodded toward a completely unsuspicious-looking gentleman in a green uniform at the end of the hall. “I have no idea why, but I’m pretty sure the reason is paranormal-slash-supernatural in nature,” he whispered. “I’d bring my trash home with me if I were you.”

  Gabby’s eyes traveled to Wes’s unzipped duffel, which was overstuffed with crumpled papers and orange

  peels.

  “So, you interested in signing up? We could use a second member,” Wesley said in a singsong.

  Gabby considered him. Wes’s obsession with Dobek was weird, but his commitment to the theory was impressive. He looked so hopeful standing there, with his cute eye-inside-a-pyramid T-shirt. Plus, Gabby liked that Wes wasn’t afraid to be different. He gave off an “I’m here, and I believe in ridiculous nonsense, so deal with it” attitude that Gabby could respect.

  “Eh, it weirdly does sound kinda fun,” admitted Gabby. And if she was planning to stick around Havensburg, she might consider joining. “But I don’t think I’m gonna be in this town much longer.”

  As if on cue, the school PA system clicked to life and a loud voice boomed over it: “Gabby Duran to the office. Now.”

  Gabby’s face lit up with happiness. “I’m getting kicked out of school,” she said.

  Gabby had never done anything in Miami that caused her to be called to the principal’s office. But desperate times called for bold measures, which was how she found herself seated across from Havensburg Junior High’s own Principal Swift. The peculiar man was dressed like an over-layered professor, in a suit jacket, an argyle sweater-vest, a button-down collared shirt, and a bow tie. Swift seemed fidgety and awkward in his own skin, but Gabby chalked that up to the fact that he was British.

  Gabby took in her surroundings; so that was what a principal’s office looked like. She was expecting something less generic. The dusty books that lined the shelves seemed like they’d never been cracked. A strange tin labeled Just Normal Mints took center stage on his desk next to a Newton’s cradle. She studied his vintage engraved name plaque and wondered why he bothered. How many students sat across from him and didn’t know his name? Gabby was going to go with a guess of zero. Way to pick a super-lame desk trinket, Principal Swift.

  After several tense moments, Swift cleared his throat and popped a Just Normal Mint into his mouth. His whole face contorted as he sucked on it, as if he wasn’t used to eating hard candies. He stared down at Gabby and began to speak. “Ahem. A curious thing happened as I stepped out to my automobile today. My car had been mummified in duct tape and tagged with graffiti.”

  Swift continued. “It said ‘Gabby Duran did this’ with your student ID.

  “So tell me, Gabby, was the sprayed paint correct?” he asked, his eyes narrowing in inquisition. “Did you indeed cover my automobile in duct tape?”

  “Yup. You caught me. It was me,” said Gabby, eager to claim responsibility. Her grand plan was working flawlessly.

  “Then I suppose I need to thank you,” said Swift, almost giddy.

  Gabby sat up straight with confusion. Guy in the bow tie said what? She’d vandalized his car. He was supposed to expel her, not thank her.

  “Clearly you were just trying to protect it from falling bird excrement,” gushed Swift. “And I must say, I understand the impulse. I, too, despise all these birds and their freewheeling, excrete-as-you-may lifestyle. It’s an affront to civilized people everywhere. So thank you, Gabby, for helping your fellow man.”

  Gabby panicked. How had her plan gone so awry? She was miffed. “So, am I getting kicked out of school, or what?” she asked, hoping to get back to the discipline at hand.

  “I should think not,” he said, laughing.

  That was not the answer Gabby was looking for. “Okay, then,” she said, speaking slowly. “I want you to remember that you left me no choice.”

  Without warning, Gabby frantically swept her arms across Principal Swift’s desk, sending his knickknacks and papers flying. In a fit of rage, she overturned off
ice chairs, tossed his books in the air, and trashed the principal’s office to pieces. His Principal Swift nameplate didn’t stand a chance.

  The sun shone brightly through the living room window, but at the moment, Dina Duran did not have a sunny disposition. In fact, she was exasperated.

  “What were you thinking?” she scolded Gabby. “He could have kicked you out of school.” Dina was shocked when she’d received the phone call from Gabby’s school. She had raised her daughter to be better than that, to show respect for authority and to always carry herself with grace.

  Gabby started to defend herself. “Yeah, but, Mom, I—”

  Dina cut off her daughter with a steely glance and a single raised eyebrow. Olivia, who sat watching the argument, looked discontent, as well. She expected more of her older sister.

  “I know. I know. I went too far this time,” Gabby admitted.

  “You duct-taped the man’s car!” said Dina, raising both eyebrows.

  Gabby couldn’t bear to look her disappointed mom in the eye. So instead she glanced around the room, with its lush turquoise couch and mod yellow chairs. “I just…I want to go back to my old life,” Gabby confessed. There, she’d said it. Maybe now everything could return to the way it was.

  “Gabby, this is your life now. You have to try and make the best of it.” Dina gestured to the mantel; it was overcrowded with Olivia’s academic trophies and Dina’s reporting awards. “Look at your sister: she was just named Student of the Month at her school.” Dina pointed toward a newly framed certificate.

  “Student of the Month?” Gabby said, turning toward Olivia. “We’ve only been here three weeks!”

  Her precocious sister shrugged. “What can I say? It’s been a whirlwind.”

  “Okay, well, we need to get in front of this,” Dina announced, shifting into solution gear. “You and I are going over to Principal Swift’s house to apologize.”

  “Going over to his house?” Gabby’s long hair swayed as she shook her head. Her mom clearly didn’t understand how much the kids at school would laugh if they found out she’d visited Swift at home. And they already didn’t like her. “Look, Mom, I know I stepped over the line this time. But how about I just do it at school tomorrow?”