Zoey liked to be a rebel. Some days, she wore mismatched socks. Sock rebel. One time, she used the boys’ bathroom. Bathroom rebel. On the day of the lightning, she even broke Ms. Linda’s number one rule: NO CHEWING GUM IN CLASS. Gum rebel.

Unfortunately, the purple lightning struck, which put Zoey in a rather sticky situation.…

At first, Zoey just thought her power was being pink. “I’m pink! Coolest power ever!” But when she raised her hand, it streeeeeeeeetched all the way up to the ceiling. When she yawned, she blew a big pink bubble. Then, when she tried to get up from her desk, her feet stuck to the floor, so she fell. As Mark walked past, he accidentally stepped on her head—and she got stuck on the bottom of his shoe.

Zoey was human gum.

“Oh crud!” Mark said. He hated stepping on gum. (Who doesn’t?) He tried to peel Zoey off his shoe with a pencil.

“Ouch!” Zoey shouted. “That hurts!”

The more Mark and Zoey tried to separate the gum from the shoe, the more Zoey stretched.

“Who has been chewing gum in this classroom?” Ms. Linda asked, furious.

“I’m not chewing gum,” Zoey said, “I am chewing gum.”

“So are you chewing gum or aren’t you?” Ms. Linda asked, confused.

“Ms. Linda, please help me!” Zoey said.

“This gum is talking!” Mason yelled, freaking out.

“A super-stretchy superpower,” Fatima said, “but obviously not the best.”

Together, Fatima, Ms. Linda, and Mark carefully removed Mark’s shoe. They went to the school library to research how to get Zoey unstuck. According to the Internet, they could:

• Freeze her overnight in a plastic bag and then peel her off

• Pour boiling water on her

• Iron her with a clothes iron

• Use peanut butter and a knife to scrape her away

“Zoey, which would you like us to do?” Ms. Linda asked.

“None of them!” she cried. “They all sound like torture. I’d rather stay on Mark’s shoe.”

Mark’s shoe was stuck to the side of Zoey’s head and Zoey had one thought stuck in her head: Whatever happened, she would never chew gum again.