Ben Braver and the Incredible Exploding Kid

by Marcus Emerson

  I didn’t want to know.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Later that day.

  The library.

  ‘Earth to Ben Braver,’ Penny whispered. ‘Come in, Ben Braver. Put that away and pay attention to me!’

  Noah, Penny, and I were in the library digging through old yearbooks to figure out who Fifteen was. Jordan had passed on helping because he said it felt too much like homework.

  Well, Noah and Penny were doing research. I was too busy sketching absolutely necessary stat cards for Dexter and Vic because bomb-diggity detectives take notes on everything, like strengths and weaknesses.

  So I guess I could say I’m kinda like Batman.

  I shut my sketchbook. ‘Sorry. Find anything yet?’

  ‘No, but nothing’s labelled,’ Penny said. ‘All we need is 1963. Fifteen’s portrait should be in there if he went to school here.’

  I grabbed a random yearbook off the shelf, skimming photos until one caught my eye – it was of a girl sitting with the statue of Brock, eating lunch while reading a Garfield book.

  She sat in the exact spot that I did when I ate lunch with Brock last year.

  The girl looked incredibly sad, like one of those circus clowns, but without all the makeup, silly clothes or props. So, really, nothing like a clown.

  ‘Found it!’ Penny said. ‘1963!’

  Noah and I huddled over Penny.

  She mumbled after every page until she found the first class’s group photo. ‘Boo-yah! Yup … There’s only fourteen students in this picture.’

  ‘That’s the extra kid right there. Upper left corner,’ Noah said, comparing Penny’s mobile phone pic with the yearbook photo.

  ‘He’s kinda cute,’ Penny said.

  ‘He’s, like, seventy!’ I said.

  ‘Not in the picture, he’s not!’

  The photos were completely different, too. It wasn’t that Fifteen was erased – it was that they took a second photo of the class without him. Students were in different spots, wearing different clothes.

  Penny flipped through pages, scanning for another pic of Fifteen, but there weren’t any.

  Zero. Zip. Zilch.

  No portrait.

  Nothing in the club photos.

  It was like he never existed, even though he totally did.

  Penny opened to the double-page montage at the front of the book.

  ‘There!’ I said, jabbing my finger on one of the pictures. ‘That’s Fifteen, right?’

  Far in the background of the orientation-day photo was a boy wearing a plaid backpack. He was next to a woman with a Bride of Frankenstein–style beehive.

  ‘He was there,’ Noah whispered.

  Conspiracy confirmed.

  The school was legit hiding a student from its own history. Something weird was def going on.

  ‘That’s gotta be his mum,’ Penny said, tapping the beehive lady.

  ‘This would be easier if we knew his name,’ Noah said.

  Penny snapped a picture of the picture with her phone. ‘This school documents everything, so there’s gotta be extra photos from Year One. Miss Sweeney’s in charge of Yearbook Club. I’ll ask her for help.’

  ‘But don’t tell her why,’ I warned.

  ‘Duh,’ Penny said. ‘I have a history report about one of the Seven Keys anyway. I’ll tell her it’s for that.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Mid-September.

  Lunch.

  In the meantime, I turned back to my other ongoing investigation: discovering why Dexter and Vic had been in the forest the night we arrived at the academy. I spied on them all week, but I still had nothing.

  My only observation was how tired they were all the time, but nobody would bust them for that.

  The sky was crystal clear as Penny and I headed to Brock’s statue for lunch.

  ‘You notice how all the adults are acting weird this year?’ I asked. ‘Like, they’re super cheerful all the time.’

  ‘They’re acting like last year didn’t happen,’ Penny said. ‘They think students are freaked out, so they’re pretending everything is all sunshine and rainbows.’

  ‘Most kids don’t seem freaked out, though.’

  ‘Then maybe they’re pretending to make themselves feel better.’

  ‘Oh … That’s wicked deep.’

  As we walked up, we saw Coach sitting by Brock with a crumpled cupcake wrapper in his hand. Two untouched cupcakes were beside him, one with a burned-down candle.

  ‘He would’ve been forty-four today,’ Coach said. ‘I always have a cupcake with him on his birthday.’

  He was talking about Brock.

  Obvi.

  ‘You gonna eat those two extra cupcakes?’ I asked, eyeballing the sweet treats.

  ‘Go ahead.’ Coach smiled. ‘They shouldn’t go to waste.’

  Penny held out her hand as I grabbed both cupcakes and set them on my lap.

  ‘Oh, cool, they’re both for you,’ Penny said sarcastically. ‘Enjoy both of your cupcakes, Scrooge.’

  I made a ‘whatever’ face before handing one over.

  ‘Did you know him?’ I asked.

  ‘I didn’t,’ Coach said. ‘But I knew his sister.’

  ‘He had a sister?’

  Coach nodded. ‘Angel Blackwood. She came here in 1994, a year after my twin sister, Olivia, and I started. Three years before that was when Brock turned to stone. Angel would eat lunch with this statue every day, a lot like you did last year, Ben.’

  ‘Oh, I saw a picture of her!’ I said. I looked down at my cupcake. ‘She looked like the saddest girl in the world.’

  ‘Probably cuz she was eating lunch with the stone-dead body of her brother,’ Penny said. ‘That’s dark. Like, dark dark. Like, mess-you-up dark.’

  ‘What if Brock’s not dead?’ I asked, hopeful.

  ‘If he’s not, then I hope he’s asleep,’ Penny said. ‘Or else he’s trapped in a nightmare – turned to stone but able to see and hear everything?’

  ‘That’d be the worst,’ I said.

  ‘Nah,’ Coach said, standing. ‘Nobody really knows what happens when you die, but there’s worse in life.’

  ‘Worse than turning yourself into a statue?’ I asked.

  ‘I believe the worst thing to happen when you die would be meeting the person you could’ve become.’

  ‘How’s that worse?’

  Penny thought for a moment. ‘Hmm, how can I put this into nerdspeak? Okay, Clark Kent is Superman, right?’

  ‘Right,’ I said.

  ‘So what if Clark Kent didn’t know he could be Superman? And he was just a boring farmer until he died of old age. And he never became Superman.’

  ‘That’d be lamest of lames …’

  ‘Right, but it’d be lamer if Superman showed up right before Clark Kent died and was, like, “Hey, dude, you could’a been me, but now you’re dead. LOL. Too bad, so sad. Hashtag, sorry not sorry.”’

  ‘Superman’s a jerk in your lesson,’ I said.

  Penny took a bite of her cupcake. ‘He sure is.’

  Coach chuckled. ‘Angel Blackwood’s power was similar to yours, actually, Penny, if not identical.’

  ‘Descendants can have the same powers?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s rare, but it happens,’ Coach said. ‘Usually it happens between siblings. My twin sister and I both had superstrength.’

  FYI – Coach’s sister died a long time ago.

  ‘Angel controlled animals with music,’ Coach continued, ‘but she didn’t use a ukulele. She used her voice. She sang, and animals listened.

  ‘Your power probably works like hers did,’ Coach said. ‘We all have some kind of energy inside us, keeping us alive. A soul, a spirit, whatever. Angel could manipulate her energy – her spirit – and use it as a weapon by projecting rays of pure energy. But a side effect of her power was that she could transfer a small part of it into another living being, basically turning them into a mind-controlled slave. It’s what you do to mice.’
>
  ‘Are you saying I’ll be able to shoot energy blasts someday?’ Penny whispered excitedly.

  ‘The academy would frown upon that,’ Coach said with a smirk. ‘I’m saying that controlling mice isn’t your real power.’

  A red flag suddenly snapped in my head. ‘Abigail said she was working with someone who could mind-control people! What if Angel is who she was talking about?’

  ‘Not possible. Angel died in 2008.’

  ‘How do you know she didn’t fake her own death?’

  ‘Because my sister died with her.’

  ‘Ohhh … kay, then,’ I said, feeling stupid. ‘Sorry.’

  Coach continued. ‘Angel always had a cupcake with Brock on his birthday even after she graduated. She would make a trip to the school just for that. Sometimes my sister would go along, too. One night, Angel and Olivia were at the end of their trip. Angel drove all day, fell asleep at the wheel, and veered off a bridge close to here.’ Coach took a slow, deep breath. ‘Her car exploded when it hit the ground.’

  Coach was quiet for a moment.

  It was one of those sad, awkward moments you always read about but never experience.

  ‘Throw those wrappers away when you’re done, okay?’ he said, leaving Penny and me alone with the statue.

  We spent the rest of lunch eating in silence.

  CHAPTER NINE

  5:55 p.m.

  Late September.

  Watching Dexter had gotten me nowhere, but I knew something sinister was definitely goin’ down. So it was time to start following him.

  Earlier that day, Millie tipped me off on some chatter she’d overheard about kids going with Dexter after dark. Real hush-hush stuff.

  It was the opportunity I’d been waiting for.

  The plan was simple – use Penny’s mobile phone as a tracking device to follow him.

  Jordan and I would wait in our dorm while Noah and Penny would wait in the lobby. Once Dexter exited the lift for dinner, Penny would call us using the coffee shop phone – our signal to sneak into Dexter’s room and plant her phone in his backpack. Then we’d use the Phone Finder app on Penny’s laptop to track him.

  Pretty brilliant, right?

  It would’ve worked perfectly except dinner was almost over, and Dexter was still in his room.

  I called the coffee shop from Penny’s cell.

  ‘Cool Beanz, how can I help you?’

  ‘Is Penny Plum there?’

  ‘Penny? No, sorry, bud, you got the wrong number.’

  ‘She’s one of your customers.’

  ‘You called to talk to a customer? This line is for business—’ The phone dropped. ‘Hey! Let go – get off the counter!’

  There was muffled shouting, then Penny’s voice spoke loud and clear. ‘Heeeey.’

  ‘Where’s Dexter?’

  ‘I don’t know. He hasn’t come out of the lift yet.’

  ‘Is he just sitting in his dorm or something?’

  ‘Uh, I don’t know?’ She paused. ‘Oh … oh, wait. There he is! I see him! Uhhhh-oh. He’s getting into the lift. I think he was already at dinner!’

  ‘For real?’

  ‘Yeeeeah,’ Penny said. ‘We must’ve missed him the first time. Bummer. You should go, ’kay? Bye!’

  ‘Flippin’ eggs!’ I said, ending the call.

  With Dexter in the lift, we had only a minute to plant the phone.

  It was go-time.

  Jordan and I raced to Dexter’s dorm. Jordan beat me to the door so he could pick the lock, but the thing wasn’t even locked!

  I pushed past Jordan to get into Dexter’s dorm.

  The air was thick and wet and smelly. It was like getting punched in the face with a fart.

  Jordan shut the door and kept watch through the peephole while I searched for the backpack.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Jordan said.

  ‘I can’t find it!’ I said, tearing through the wardrobe.

  ‘Check the bathroom!’

  I pinched my nose and poked my head inside. ‘Why would he keep it in— Oh, there it is.’

  Dexter’s backpack hung from the showerhead he probably never used.

  Instead of schoolbooks, I found purple and yellow clothing rolled up inside. After putting Penny’s phone under the fabric, I went back to Jordan.

  ‘The phone’s planted. Let’s book!’ I said.

  Jordan reached for the door handle, but it turned before he touched it.

  Dexter was about to come in.

  I panicked and latched the deadbolt.

  ‘Good thinking,’ Jordan whispered. ‘He’ll never suspect the door locking itself.’

  ‘Hey, who’s in there?’ Dexter shouted from outside. ‘Who’s in my room?’

  Jordan and I were trapped.

  There were only two ways out of that mess. Battle the troll at the door … or risk our lives out the window.

  I think we made the right choice …

  CHAPTER TEN

  Twenty minutes later.

  ‘You know, looking back, this might’ve been the wrong choice,’ I said.

  ‘Ya think?’ Jordan said.

  We were standing on a ledge three storeys off the ground.

  The easy part was inching back to our window four rooms away. The hard part was trying to unlock the window from the outside. They’re not really designed to do that.

  Penny and Noah hadn’t returned from the lobby yet, so we’d been stuck outside for twenty minutes.

  And it was starting to rain.

  Finally, my front door opened. Penny and Noah raced over and slid the window open.

  ‘Hey, guys,’ Penny said. ‘Whatcha dooooin’?’

  ‘Move!’ Jordan said, knocking me off balance as he fell through the window like a flopping fish.

  He went into the room.

  I went over the ledge.

  Noah caught me by my ankle. Penny grabbed his waist, and Jordan grabbed hers, making a chain of kids trying to save my life.

  I hung upside down far enough that I dangled outside the window of the dorm beneath mine.

  Millie was inside, at the far end of the room. Mae, her roommate, was right next to their open window, reading a book. Both faced away from me.

  Last year, Mae caught me taking a sample of her sweat during my worm-eater investigation, but before I could explain myself, she decked me with a right hook.

  I don’t blame her. I looked like a creeper collecting her sweat. That’s almost as bad as looking like a creeper peeking through her window.

  No sudden movements.

  No loud noises.

  Just pull myself up and everything will be okay.

  Noah’s voice blared from above. ‘Ben! Ben, hang on, Ben! We’re trying to pull you up, Ben, but you’re super heavy!’

  I waved back and forth, trying to get Noah’s attention. ‘Stop shouting my name!’ I hissed.

  ‘Ben, what? Whaaaat, Ben? Why are you whispering? Arrrre youuu okaaay, Ben?’

  I pushed my finger against my lips to tell my friend to shut his stupid mouth, but it wasn’t working.

  I think he knew exactly what he was doing.

  ‘Benjamin Braver, just hang on! We’re pulling you up, Ben Braver from room 310!’ Noah howled.

  Noah tugged on my ankle. I thought we might be making progress when I went up a little, but then my jeans ripped, and I shot back down.

  ‘No!’ I shouted.

  Millie turned around, gawking at me. Mae glanced up at Millie, confused.

  I watched Mae’s head turn ever so slowly.

  Her eyes met mine.

  ‘Hi!’ I said. ‘So this is not what it looks like.’

  She screamed as she threw her book at me.

  I flinched. My jeans tore in two.

  And everything went black.

  I woke up wearing a tuxedo in a room at the Heartbreak Hotel in outer space.

  Stars twinkled outside the window as lights from a floating city glinted from far away.

  ‘Are you oka
y?’ a woman asked from the bathroom.

  My wife.

  I’d know her voice anywhere.

  ‘I think so,’ I said. ‘I had that weird dream again …’

  ‘The one where you fall off a school building?’

  Was that the dream?

  ‘Maybe?’ I said. ‘I had to break into someone’s room … crawl out the window, and … Millie was there …?’

  ‘Who’s Millie?’ My wife stepped out of the bathroom, still fixing an earring to the side of her head, which was weird because she had no ears.

  She was a peanut butter cup.

  We were on our honeymoon on the moon as happy newlyweds.

  At least until that moment.

  My wife marched over, glaring at me the whole way. ‘How dare you think she’s prettier than me!’

  ‘I never said that!’

  ‘That’s exactly what you said when you didn’t say anything at all! Who. Is. Millie?’

  ‘She’s just a friend from school! I-I think I saw her before I woke up!’ I said, terrified because an angry, mutant peanut butter cup was horrifying.

  Why did I marry that thing?

  My wife stopped by the bed and smiled gently. ‘Ah … okay. I understand now …’ she said, reaching under her pillow.

  I sighed. ‘Oh, good, because I thought—’

  The peanut butter cup spun around, igniting a lightsabre and pointing it directly at my face. ‘I understand that my cover’s been blown. Tell me where the Reaper is and maybe I’ll let you live.’

  Betrayed by my own wife!

  On our honeymoon!

  ‘The Reaper? I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ I said.

  ‘I’m talking about the supervillain who killed the world! We know you’re hiding him somewhere on earth! Tell me where he is or you die!’

  The lightsabre buzzed as she drew closer to me.

  ‘He isn’t real! Please don’t do this! Put the lightsabre down, and let’s talk like civilised tweens!’

  Did I just call myself a tween?

  Ew.

  My wife raised the glowing laser sword high above her head and looked at me with sadness in her eyes. ‘Je t’aimerai pour toujours. Au revoir, mon amour.’