"I put on my imaginary thinking cap. Mine is a hot pink, domed helmet with purple lightning bolts on the sides. It pulls down from a long spring coil above my bed... So with my cap in place, I started thinking of possible homework excuses. Maybe I could tell Miss Haven that I'd spent the last two weeks under alien hypnosis and they'd erased any memory of a school project..." Meet twelve year old Gemma Martin. She wants to be an actress, but school is getting in the way. Gemma has used all of the usual excuses to avoid her homework, but this time she's facing serious consequences and must rely on her vivid imagination to create the most extraordinary homework excuse ever. Initially, Gemma's stolen project story skyrockets her popularity, but it isn't long before things start to spiral out of control and Gemma is headed for disaster. No Ordinary Excuse is the story of how our biggest mistakes are often our greatest teachers.