The Secret Order of The Gumm Street Girls - Plot

Plot

At the start of the novel, Franny Muggs is surveying Gumm Street, scowling at the thought of Pru and Cat when she spots a new family moving to #5 Gumm. She’s immediately intrigued and scurries down her steps to greet her new neighbors. She is greeted by former beauty queen, Pearl Diamond, and her daughter, Ivy. Pearl fusses over a piano arriving as Mr. Staccato introduces himself lavishly with his two dogs, Fred and Ginger. He offers to teach Ivy piano lessons in light of their new instrument. Ivy accepts the offer and quickly makes friends with Franny.

Ivy and Franny soon discover a letter tucked into a creepy portrait of Aunt V (the relative that left the Diamond family the house) saying that she faked her death to avoid a run-in with taxes. Pearl excuses it as simply Aunt V losing her marbles and Ivy discards the letter.

As the novel progresses, Ivy quickly learns from Franny the social situation on Gumm Street. Pru hates Cat, Cat hates Pru, they both don’t like Franny and Franny doesn’t like either of them. Cat’s stuck-up and thinks she’s “all that” with her ESP and Pru is a coward thinking of nothing but books. Franny points out that Ivy should try her hardest to get into Liverwurst, a class at Sherbet Academy,because she is in Liverwurst. Cat and Pru being the “stuck-up know-it-alls they are” are in Tuna-on-Rye. The origin of this class system goes back to Heironymus Gumm, the founder of Sherbet Academy. He named the classes after his favorite sandwiches: Egg Salad, Bacon Lettuce and Tomato, Liverwurst, and Tuna-on-Rye.

Abiding by Franny’s request, Ivy does her best to take the placement test to get herself into Liverwurst. However, when the door opens, she’s introduced to the Tuna-on-Rye class. Cat immediately sees Ivy’s Jinx, freaks out, and is sent out of class because of her disruption. Pru, however, take the opportunity to introduce herself to Ivy, for any enemy of Cat’s is a friend to Pru. Much to Pru’s dismay, she finds that Ivy is too strange too hang out with her group of friends. After learning Ivy made it into Tuna-on-Rye, Franny abandons her and Ivy is once again left alone to curse her Jinx.

After a depressing day, she makes it over to Mr. Staccato’s for her first lesson at # 7 Gumm Street. She’s greeted by the strangely human terriers, Fred and Ginger, and first sees the glamorous Ruby-Red slippers from the MGM film, The Wizard of Oz. Mr. Staccato teaches Ivy middle C on the piano because this is where “it all starts” or sometimes “where it all ends.” During the lesson, Ivy learns about Mr. Staccato’s past and his involvement in The Wizard of Oz film.

After a few days of misfortune, Ivy discovers that Mr. Staccato’s house is the only place she feels safe and away from her Jinx. Ivy asks Mr. Staccato if, after school everyday, she can clean his house as a job. He agrees and offers that in exchange for teaching her lessons for free.

The days slip by until Franny begins talking to Ivy again. She exclaims that she’s going to be in Liverwurst (as a result of Ivy failing Tuna-on-Rye). The time of the ever ominous piano recital comes and Pru plans to beat out Cat and be the star of the whole show. Cat has no worries about the event; only, she’s having uneasy feelings and consults her I Ching. It warns her to pack up and leave town as well as beware of hurricane Cha Cha. She dismisses the warning as ludicrous. She also unknowingly conjures a wizard in a balloon that tells her “Heironymous Gumm... Behind” and to watch out for a backwards tidal wave. On the actual day of the recital, Ivy and Franny are at #5 Gumm and Franny gives Ivy a shirt with “Carpe diem” written on it. Ivy then wishes her hair wasn’t so stringy, and Franny offers to cut it. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a choppy disaster. With no time to fix it, Ivy and Franny whisk off to the recital.

The two crash in during Pru’s performance, ruining it, and much to Pru’s horror, Cat uses the opportunity to ridicule her. Ashamed, she storms out of the room. Ivy then gives a lukewarm performance and after going offstage, Pearl spots her is mortified at the sight of her daughter’s new haircut. Misplacing her anger, she takes it out on Franny and demands that Ivy come home. Mr. Staccato scolds Cat for her cruelty towards Pru; shortly after, Cat apologizes along with Franny and Ivy for ruining her performance, but Pru accepts none of it. She vows never to speak to any of the girls again. Humiliated and guilt-ridden, Ivy begins to cry whereupon Mr. Staccato’s tells her, her unique talent: strength. Mr. Staccato also reveals to her the origin of the ruby slippers. He also tells her that she is the true owner of the slippers, also warning her never to give them up.

Sherbet’s first hurricane strikes during the conversation. They receive a phone call from Pearl; Ivy speeds off home at the thought of her mother’s wrath, but Staccato has more to tell her. Regardless, she promises to visit him tomorrow.

At #3 Gumm, Franny once again observes the street through her binoculars when she spots Mr. Staccato’s form levitating in the sky. He tells her, “You make a better door than a window” and disappears into the stormy clouds. Shocked, Franny wakes up Ivy and tells her the Mr. Staccato’s dead. Shortly after, Fred and Ginger show up on her doorstep crying.

The next day, the hurricane dissipates and the two friends make their way over to #7 Gumm. Ivy takes the Ruby Red Slippers. Just then, Cha Cha, a glamorous woman claiming to be Mr.Staccato’s sister, then niece, appears demanding ownership of the shoes. She also threatens to call Judge Gumm if Ivy doesn’t cooperate. Ivy and Franny manage to escape and in Ivy’s room, they discover that the ruby red paint is rubbing off of one of the slippers, revealing its true silver color. Ivy and Franny both realize the seriousness of this predicament and agree to call Pru for help. She refuses to even consider helping Ivy, but at the thought of Cat coming too, changes her mind joins them. Once there, she reads passages from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They all conclude that Ivy, whose mother’s middle name is Gale, is a descendant of Dorothy, and that Fred and Ginger are related to the famous terrier, Toto. Despite Pru’s protest, they agree to call Cat and ask for additional assistance.

However, before she can provide much help, the four Gumm Street Girls hear Cha Cha entering the house. Ivy ushers them into her closet, for she doesn’t wish for them to get into trouble either. Cha Cha, once again, request she hand over the silver shoe, even offering to make Ivy a deal. If she gives her the shoe, she’ll take the Jinx off her hands forever. Holding out still, Cha Cha tries to take them by force and is electrocuted across the room. Cha Cha then discloses she meant to give the Jinx to Pearl in the first place, and threatens to do so now. Backed into a corner, Ivy gives up the shoe. Still unsatisfied, Cha Cha asks where the other one is located. Truly clueless, Ivy says she doesn’t know. Cha Cha makes her exit, as the Jinx becomes one with Ivy’s shadow once again.

The closet door opens, revealing a passed out Pru. They’re all abuzz about their situation and Cat suggests that this villainous Cha Cha is the Wicked Witch of the West or someone related to her. Cat then explains how she conjured up the Wizard that said “Heironymus Gumm... Behind.” Pru starts up an argument again, saying that the girls wouldn’t have believed her if she was saying all this. Cat consults the I Ching, which brings more ambiguous bad news. Franny gets excited and says they should start a secret club appropriately named, “The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls.” They see the idea as either lame or unimportant. Ivy insists she can handle this on her own, but Franny points out the eye on her hand (which she got from first touching the shoe) and that she has a witch after her! Franny persuades the girls to put their differences aside and ‘stick together’ to help Ivy.

Meanwhile, Cha Cha has enchanted all of Sherbet with her stylish clothing and tips on fashion. Even the girls’ parents, including Pearl, find her to be simply fabulous. The Gumm Street Girls all come up with a plan to solve their witch problem once and for all. They pack up a few things in backpacks and disguise an ordinary high heel with silver paint in a false surrender to Cha Cha. At the Colossal Candy Bar, the girls’ plan backfires and Cha Cha ends up trapping them in a champagne-colored Cadillac filled with jellybeans, sending them off in a “backwards tidal wave.” They speculate whether or not they’re going to end up in Oz.

Franny, Ivy, Cat, Pru and Fred and Ginger wake up to find themselves in a place called Spoz. The peculiar place is covered ceiling to floor with the color pink. Small pink people they conclude are munchkins walk about ignoring the visitors. The girls realize they’re actually underground with no running water and meet the vicious teens, Bling Bling and Coco. They introduce themselves with a string of insults and their title as Cha Cha’s nieces (or the Wicked Witch of the West's daughters). The sisters find themselves in a predicament as well. Without Cha Cha, their beauty and “visibly firm skin” will all disappear and are not content with waiting until their aunt returns. Both are eager to try the Beautyliator, an odd machine used to transform raisins into grapes, on humans. Unwilling to be insubordinate with Cha Cha, they enslave the girls and send them to harvest potatoes and make French fries for them for the rest of the summer. The four girls and two terriers agree to stick together and see each other through this.

With most of the summer worked away peeling potatoes and properly disposing of toenail clippings, the girls’ situation doesn’t seem to be getting much better. One day, Pru is caught by Coco under her bed. Pru is shocked to discover that Coco has transformed into an old hag with many fine lines and thick ankles. In a desperate attempt to save herself from being thrown into the Beautyliator, she offers to go pick up Coco’s vitamins in Spudz (the mysterious place the sisters have been threatening the girls with all summer). However, before Pru can make her daring journey, Cat and she wake to find that Ivy and Franny are missing. It turns out that Ivy decided to face her Jinx once and for all and in doing so, she injures her arm and ends up in the dreaded Spudz. Franny wakened to find Ivy gone and followed after her.

Coco grows tired of waiting for their aunt’s return and makes to throw Cat and Pru in the Beautyliator. Cat pushes Coco inside instead and Pru pushes the button for her to be “beautified.” The escapees flee to Spudz after Ivy and Franny.

Ivy meets the fearful and unfriendly, Dr. Iznotz, a giant potato with several eyes and roots for hair. He doesn’t give her medicine for her arm nor Bling Bling’s vitamins. He does, however, give her witch vanishing potion, for he fears that Ivy herself is a witch and her Jinx. She asks where she can find the other silver shoe and quickly suggests talking to someone named Maz in Wormz Pock. On her way there, she’s intercepted by Maz and meets up with Franny. Being the motherly spud she is, Maz gives the two girls a thick liquid that tastes like hot chocolate and heals Ivy’s arm. They fall asleep and when Ivy wakes up, she sees Franny eating pancakes exclaiming that Maz knows everything about Staccato, the shoes and even her Jinx! Maz’s story consists of the history of the silver slippers and how they came to be lost in the desert. Her tale also suggests that the shoes are capable of time travel and unknown power. Ivy asks about her Jinx and Maz says that he will never leave her. “Your Jinx dozz not like being a Jinx.”

Cat and Pru make their way up a potato mountain with Fred and Ginger in search for their friends when they get into an argument over directions. They temporarily stop speaking to each other and sit in discontent.

Under Maz’s instruction, Franny and Pru make their way through the Ooze where they encounter the “zombie” of Aunt V. In the letter, it said she’d faked her death, but it turns out, she met her accidental demise when she electrocuted herself with a fork and toaster. Reminiscent of Cha Cha, Aunt V asks where the shoes are and Ivy refuses to answer. Aunt V proposes that they can be a good team together. Before Ivy and Franny can run off the Jinx grabs Ivy and plunges into the ooze. Franny dives after her.

In their silence, Pru discovers that they were close to the “sky” of Spudz. There was a hole in this sky and she asks Cat for a boost. Much to Cat’s surprise, Pru isn’t afraid. Setting their anger aside, they make their way through the discovered tunnel and along with Fred and Ginger, meet up with Ivy and Franny as they shoot out of the ooze. With the six reunited companions together again, they come across light and find a gingerbread cottage with a picture of Heironymous Gumm inside. There, they catch up on what Franny and Ivy have learned from Maz and Aunt V run-in. They also grieve over Mr. Staccato and decide to name the small house “Middle C Cottage” in honor of their piano teacher.

After a day of being in Middle C, they find a secret passage behind the picture of Heironymous Gumm (Heironymous Gumm... behind) and at the end of it, a safe just like the one at #7 Gumm Street with the title “What is My Unique Talent?” Ivy asks Franny what Mr. Staccato said to her when his spirit was floating in the sky. “You make a better door than a window.” With the words spoken, the safe opens and inside they find the missing silver shoe.

The Gumm Street Girls find themselves in Mr. Staccato’s museum room. Pru finds a newspaper and spots an article on them! Cha Cha had fabricated a story of how the girls were sent off to a special music school for the summer to make sure they weren’t missed. Cha Cha makes her entrance and demands for the shoes. The girls had already prepared the witch vanishing potion, but before it could be used, Cha Cha flings Franny across the room and dumps the potion down the drain. Fred, Ginger, Ivy and the rest run to # 5 Gumm to escape Cha Cha. They smell something burning and realize the house is on fire. Barely making it out, the girls watch the ill-fated house fall on Cha Cha and the Jinx positions himself to attack Ivy. Ivy takes the silver shoes and braces herself. Instead of killing Ivy, the Jinx hugs her and transforms into someone Ivy hasn’t seen in seven years: her dad.

After a week of being back in Sherbet, the Gumm Street Girls rest and prepare for the first day of school. Cat consults her I Ching and it predicts “your work has just begun” while Pru spent the last week of vacation in her room reading books. The reunited Diamond Family found a will of Mr. Staccato’s and discovered that he left his home and all his possessions them. Now, at #7 Gumm, the Diamonds and Fred and Ginger make their home. Ivy, being ever so cautious though, keeps the two silver shoes separated and hidden as Staccato did.

The novel ends with the foreshadowing of Bling Bling’s reappearance and the actual reappearance of the suspicious Aunt V. Franny spotted her through her binoculars and immediately called for a meeting of the Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls the next day.