Ben Braver and the Incredible Exploding Kid

by Marcus Emerson

  Plus the chickens.

  OMG, the chickens …

  It was a chaotic mess of fire and ice. Lightning and thunder. Beaks and feathers.

  It was out of control.

  I crawled across the ring, trying to get to safety, but more kids piled on top of me.

  Windows shattered when power blasts missed their targets. Factory machines collapsed. Concrete crumbled. The entire building shook, floors and walls and everything.

  This was bad.

  Worse than Noah and Dexter in the street.

  And then someone grabbed my ankle.

  It was Arnold, and he had a huge smile.

  I tried to wiggle free, but his grip was too strong.

  He pushed my pant leg up.

  And then he bit me.

  I shouted in pain as he laughed like it was all some kind of joke. But his laughter suddenly stopped. He stared at me, puzzled.

  His power was absorbing other people’s powers.

  What happens if there’s no power to absorb?

  I saw the exact second he figured me out.

  It was in his eyes.

  Suddenly all the lights came on with a loud CHUNK!, and a large door at the front clanged open. Headmaster Archer and Coach Lindsay marched inside, shouting orders at students as they froze in place.

  That’s why Jennifer wasn’t there – she was too busy snitching on the Power Battle.

  But then I saw the real snitch stroll through the door with a smug smile. He tapped the headmaster’s shoulder and pointed at the ring.

  Headmaster Archer’s eyes homed in on me, and his face grew bright red. If we were in a cartoon, steam would’ve been shooting out of his ears.

  I was wrong.

  It wasn’t Jennifer who snitched.

  It was Dexter.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Midnight.

  Headmaster Archer’s office.

  I was in the headmaster’s office, getting scolded by Headmaster Archer and Coach Lindsay.

  I’d never seen Archer so mad, but honestly, he had only half my attention. The other half was worried about what Arnold was gonna do with my secret.

  ‘Do you know how long it’s going to take to wipe the minds of all those people?’ Archer said furiously. ‘I don’t like doing it!’

  ‘Because of all the vomit?’ Duncan asked, floating through the door. ‘Mind-wiping ends with a lot of vomit.’

  ‘Do you know he’s wearing one of your suits under his clothes right now?’ Archer said.

  Duncan turned slowly to face me. ‘Which one?’

  ‘The antigravity one,’ I mumbled.

  ‘Did you use it?’

  ‘Yes …’

  Duncan spoke calmly and quietly, which was only more upsetting. ‘Are you freaking kidding me right now? Do you know how lucky you are that you didn’t rip anybody apart with that thing?’

  ‘I didn’t know it was that powerful,’ I said.

  ‘Thankfully, Dexter Dunn had the right mind to tell me about the battle,’ Archer said. ‘Of all people! Dexter! Dunn!’

  ‘Is this really a big deal?’ Lindsay asked. ‘Power Battles are an unofficial tradition. Let’s focus on the positives – student kidnappings are down one hundred per cent compared with last year. Give Ben detention for using the suit and send him on his way.’

  Archer’s death stare turned to Lindsay. ‘None of this would’ve happened if you’d done your job!’

  ‘My job?’ Lindsay repeated. ‘My job is to make sure this school isn’t attacked by Abigail’s partner!’

  ‘Do we even know if Abigail was actually working with someone?’ Duncan asked.

  ‘No,’ Lindsay said. ‘We don’t, but it’s not my job to know that. All I need to do is keep the school and its students safe.’

  ‘Which can’t happen if the students aren’t even at the school!’ Archer said loudly.

  ‘How can I possibly keep track of every single student?’ Coach said even louder.

  I wondered how much Coach actually knew – if Jennifer told him anything about the Power Battles or if this was all new to him. It probably wasn’t the best time to ask.

  ‘I don’t know why Donald even allowed you to attend this year,’ Archer said to me. ‘We’re wiping your mind, and you’re going home tonight. In fact, maybe we’ll wipe you from the minds of everyone here. It’ll be like you never even existed!’

  My stomach sank. ‘You can’t do that! Headmaster Kepler told me I could stay!’

  ‘Ray, that’s too harsh,’ Lindsay said. ‘The battle isn’t Ben’s fault. He didn’t organise the event.’

  ‘Maybe not, but he’s certainly the mascot!’ Archer said, holding up a Braverboy doll.

  ‘That wasn’t me!’ I said. ‘I mean, that’s me, but I didn’t make it!’

  ‘Have you seen the way kids look up to him?’ Lindsay said. ‘He’s literally their hero.’

  ‘Which is the root of our problem!’ Archer shouted, pounding his fist on his desk.

  Lindsay shook his head. ‘If you send him home in the middle of the year, you’ll just make him a martyr.’

  ‘I hate to say it,’ Duncan sighed, ‘but I have to agree with Lindsay. We avoid a lot of baggage if Ben finishes the year. That is, if he finishes the year quietly.’

  The silence was crushing as we waited for the headmaster to speak.

  ‘Fine,’ Archer finally agreed. ‘Ben, you can stay, but you won’t be back next year. And you can be sure we’re wiping your mind before you go home.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Lindsay said.

  ‘Oh, don’t thank me yet, Lindsay. Because of your gross negligence, you are no longer head of security.’

  Oh, crud.

  I just got Coach demoted.

  Lindsay chewed his lip. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘The position didn’t come with a pay raise anyway.’

  Archer dismissed me with the wave of his hand.

  Coach walked me out to the hallway.

  ‘Thanks for having my back,’ I said under my breath.

  ‘Don’t!’ Lindsay snipped. ‘I told you I wouldn’t be as forgiving if this happened again, didn’t I?’

  If my goal was to make everyone hate me, it was working.

  ‘Right,’ I said, head down. ‘I’m sorry.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Valentine’s Day.

  A couple of weeks passed after the Power Battle was busted.

  A couple of weeks of lame-o normal school as exciting as watching Chewbacca get a haircut.

  No, wait, that’d actually be pretty sweet.

  I was headed home at the end of the year, never to return. At first, I was heartbroken, but after a good cry, I accepted my fate. I think a small part of me wanted to just go home and forget everything.

  My mind was getting wiped at the end of the year anyway, so it’s not like I was gonna remember any of this, right?

  I tried to be remarkable, and I failed.

  Whatever.

  The students involved in the Power Battle were sentenced to community service for the rest of the year, which meant cleaning the Lodge up and down, back and forth, inside and out.

  Bathroom duty was the worst.

  Guess which guy had bathroom duty.

  This guy.

  Lindsay meant it when he said I’d be sorry.

  Dexter had become the most hated kid in school for ratting out the battle, but that kind of thing didn’t bother him.

  It only made him stronger.

  And then there was Arnold.

  TBH, I wasn’t sure if Arnold actually knew my secret.

  He hadn’t said a solid word about it, and it wasn’t like I could go up to him and be all.

  The Braver Ravers still worshipped me, but without the Power Battles anymore, it just felt … wrong.

  And Jennifer. I had no idea what happened to her because I had no way of contacting her. When Coach got demoted, she probably got fired.

  I was never gonna see her again.

  Noah,
Jordan and I were cool again, but only after I took one bite from a soggy brown apple. They said if I was really sorry, I’d do it, so I did and gagged so hard I almost barfed. I’ve never heard them laugh so hard in my life.

  And then there was Penny. She stopped talking to me completely. She was avoiding eye contact. Turning around if she spotted me in the hallway. She even covered up the hole in her floor.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t get it – I got it.

  Plunging a thousand toilets gives a kid some time to think.

  I let fame get to my head.

  I was a giganto jackwad who hijacked Penny’s battle.

  I owed her an apology, but I hadn’t gotten there yet because I was too busy feeling stupid. And I knew I needed to soon because without her, I just felt … off.

  ‘This better be awesome,’ Jordan said, sporting a fancy tuxedo. ‘I don’t get dolled up for nothin’.’

  ‘You look like a headless penguin.’ Noah chuckled, pushing the down button on the lift.

  The three of us were on our way to the Valentine’s Day party in the banquet hall. Nothing too fancy – balloons, probably a dance floor, and definitely some red velvet cake.

  When the lift doors opened, Penny was inside. She looked like she was gonna say something, but she folded her arms and huffed instead.

  I hesitated, but then I got on because waiting for the next one just would’ve been awkward.

  Noah and Jordan didn’t move.

  ‘Are you coming or what?’ Penny said to them.

  ‘You know,’ Noah said, yanking Jordan’s sleeve. ‘I left something back in the room.’

  ‘What?’ Jordan said. ‘Were we supposed to bring a thing?’

  Noah jabbed Jordan’s arm. ‘That one THING!’

  ‘Oh … that thing,’ Jordan said.

  Penny rolled her eyes.

  My friends weren’t subtle.

  The lift doors shut, leaving me alone with Penny as Elvis Presley sang a song about the devil in disguise over the janky speakers.

  ‘Hey,’ I said.

  Penny stared at the floor. ‘… Hey.’

  ‘Soooo … cold outside, huh?’

  ‘Really? Colorado’s cold in the winter?’

  ‘Yeeeeep.’

  Penny reached for the button for the ground floor.

  ‘No, wait!’ I said without thinking.

  She stopped but didn’t say anything.

  Ugh! Why was this so hard?

  Just tell her you’re sorry!

  ‘I, uh, I’m … um, so …’ I stammered.

  Penny finally looked me in the eye, and I just caved. I threw my arms around her, hugging her in a manly fashion.

  She kept a straight face for about a second before buckling.

  ‘Fine,’ she said, hugging me back. ‘I forgive you, but don’t be like that ever again! You were a real knob.’

  ‘I won’t!’

  ‘And you should’ve let me fight my own battle!’

  ‘I know!’

  ‘But it’s not even that,’ Penny said. ‘It’s that you didn’t even give me the chance! I could’ve stomped Arnold, but you jumped in before I could do anything!’

  ‘You’re right!’

  ‘Are you even listening to me?’

  ‘Yes!’ I said. ‘I mean, I already know all these things you’re saying! And you’re right! I’m just happy to hear your voice again!’

  Penny smiled.

  ‘We good?’ I said.

  ‘We good,’ Penny said.

  We bumped fists and blew it up.

  The doors opened. Turns out the lift never moved, so we were still on my floor. Noah and Jordan were right outside.

  ‘Awwww!’ Noah and Jordan said together.

  ‘Shut it,’ Penny said, pinching her fingers together.

  The four of us went to the lobby as a team again.

  It was like the stars had realigned, and everything was right in the world.

  Too bad it was only gonna last for about a second.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  The lift doors slid open, and there stood Arnold waiting patiently. Dexter and Vic were behind him like henchmen.

  I mean, henchman and henchwoman.

  Vic put her foot in the doorway so the lift wouldn’t close, and then she pinned us against the back wall using her power. We struggled to get free, but it was like trying to stand up straight on the Gravitron at the carnival – impossible.

  The three of them stepped into the lift and let the doors shut behind them.

  They had us cornered.

  Arnold reached into his pocket and took out a stack of note cards.

  Did he rehearse a speech or something?

  ‘I have had a lot of time to think in the past couple of weeks,’ he said flatly. ‘I have even lost sleep over it, and I think it is the first time in my life that I have felt actual heartbreak.’

  He did rehearse!

  ‘What’s he talking about?’ Penny asked.

  ‘He bit me,’ was all I needed to say.

  ‘When this school gave us fear, you gave us hope. You gave us strength to be ourselves – our true selves. But it all turned out to be a big fat groady lie. I have never felt this way about anyone before. I have never felt this much’ – Arnold flipped to the next card – ‘disappointment.’

  Arnold sounded like a villain, but he was one hundred per cent right.

  Those kinds of villains are the worst.

  ‘At first, I was sad,’ Arnold said, still reciting, ‘but then I just felt anger. And hatred. You lied to us. Acted like one of us, like you belonged here, but you don’t, do you?’

  My friends and I said nothing.

  What could we say?

  ‘Every single person at this school is better than you, and you know it. That is why you faked having a power. And that is why you are a pathetic loser. Your presence sullies the school, like a dirty nappy left out in the sun.’

  Dexter and Vic laughed as Arnold stuffed the note cards into his back pocket.

  Vic let us drop from the wall.

  ‘I’m sorry I lied to you!’ I said.

  ‘I don’t care,’ Arnold said.

  ‘Then what is this?’ Penny said. ‘You stopped us just so you could give your speech? If that’s all this was, then we’re out.’

  Arnold looked at Penny and then to Noah and Jordan, disgusted. ‘You guys knew he wasn’t one of us, but you helped him anyway.’

  ‘C’mon, man,’ I said. ‘What do you want from me?’

  ‘Two things,’ Arnold said matter-of-factly. ‘One – you’re my servant for the rest of the year. And two – you reject Millie’s gift.’

  ‘What gift?’

  ‘You’ll see, but dude, I feel sorry for her the most,’ Arnold said. ‘Did you know she almost didn’t come back to school because of what happened to her last year? She doesn’t talk about it much, but she only felt safe coming back because she knew you’d be here, too, protecting everyone.’

  ‘I didn’t know that,’ I said softly.

  Arnold continued. ‘Yeah, she’s ba-nay-nay about you, but that’s why I need you to break her heart.’

  ‘But why?’ Jordan asked.

  ‘Because it’ll be funny,’ Arnold said, like ‘duh’.

  ‘Dude, let’s just go,’ Noah said. ‘Who cares about your secret?’

  ‘Ben cares!’ Arnold said. ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Ben is more than just a hero here. He’s like the poster child for our future. Can you handle crushing that many dreams? And think of how they’ll turn on you – nobody wants a normal kid around threatening our school. Some won’t care, but you’ll have to watch your back for the ones who will. Real powers can be deadly.’

  My stomach turned.

  My lie didn’t just affect me.

  It affected everybody.

  Arnold laughed an evil laugh. ‘In a way, I’m kind of saving you by doing this. I’m showing you mercy.’

  Arnold and his goons allowed us to leave t
he lift after that, and the four of us trudged into the banquet hall for the Valentine’s Day party.

  We sat at a table as students danced, laughed and flirted all around us.

  Arnold was at a table across the room, eyeballing me the whole time. Our conversation hadn’t lasted long, but it didn’t have to. He told me what needed to happen, and I couldn’t argue if I wanted my secret to be safe.

  The music stopped, and a microphone crackled. Millie’s voice came through the speakers.

  ‘Is this thing—’ she said, tapping the mic. ‘Oh, yeah, it’s on. Can I have your attention, everybody? Look up here, please?’

  My heart pounded.

  Did this have anything to do with Millie’s gift?

  ‘First, I just wanted to say thank you to all the students who helped with this party,’ Millie said. ‘It looks mind-obliteratingly amazing. Like, seriously, guys, two thumbs way up.’

  The double doors at the back of the room burst open.

  ‘And second, I, with some help from the Braver Ravers, have been working on a little something to honour the bravest boy I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.’

  It was the gift.

  And it was a doozy.

  My fan club wheeled out a giant float of me lying on my side.

  It was shirtless, ripped and hairy.

  Penny was so flabbergasted that she kept nudging me to look, even though I already was.

  ‘This is to say thanks for saving our lives last year,’ Millie said.

  The applause was awkward.

  Arnold nodded at me.

  I took a deep breath and looked at Millie’s face, beaming with pride. The statue was bizarre, but she was so proud of it.

  Arnold furrowed his brow and then nodded again but faster and angrier.

  ‘Do you like it?’ Millie asked, excited.

  All eyes went to Arnold as he stood, clinking a glass, rapid-fire, to get everyone’s attention.

  He was gonna tell my secret.

  ‘No!’ I shouted.

  The eyes all darted back to me.

  I swallowed hard, curling my toes. ‘No, I don’t like it! It doesn’t even look like me! I don’t have a hairy chest!’

  Millie laughed nervously. ‘Good one, Ben.’