Poppy Mayberry, the Monday

by Jennie Brown

After that nerve-wracking History of Nova class, I walked into Miss Maggie’s room to be greeted by her fun (and did I mention, awesome?) accent.

  “Welcome, dearest Poppy,” she said with what I swore was a twinkle in her eye.

  After we all sat down Miss Maggie sauntered over to the bookshelf in the corner of the room. “I have a surprise for you all today,” she said, glancing in my direction. She daintily lifted her right hand and pointed her finger toward the wall. In a quick flick of the wrist the bookcase made a rumbling sound as it glided to the right, revealing a built-in set of six shelves.

  “Wow!” Matilda shouted and clapped her hands. “Too cool.”

  Miss Maggie’s heels clicked as she paced in front of the shelf and began. “Before this was Power Academy, they used to do experiments on Weekdays in the hopes of better understanding our powers.” All eyes were glued on her. That sounded creepy. “There are secret compartments like this all over campus,” she said nonchalantly, as if explaining to us something as ordinary as tying a shoe.

  But that wasn’t ordinary. Thinking of those disturbing old haunted hospital and insane asylum movies my dad likes to watch, a shiver went down my spine at the mention of the words old and experiments. Ick.

  “Back then, the doctors liked to keep some of the medications and medical tools hidden away from the crazed patients,” she said with her voice hushed in a way that made it sound like she was telling some sort of ghost story. I felt like we should have all been sitting around a campfire.

  I looked over to see everyone staring at her, wide-eyed. I could feel my own eyes bulging out of their sockets. This place was just too much and too creepy.

  The hidden compartment that she was pointing to was not filled with medical tools and medicine like the ones years ago. Instead, boxes of candy, chocolate-covered pretzels, sweets, and gummy bears lined the shelves. Stocked by Miss Maggie.

  Miss Maggie flicked her wrist once more. We all gasped as the bookcase slid shut over the shelves.

  “It’s that easy,” she said, snapping her finger.

  “Maybe for her,” I muttered so that Matilda could hear me.

  “Move the bookcase back using your powers alone, no hands, and you all get what’s inside of it,” Miss Maggie said, smiling.

  Awesome! Those were some high stakes. Overall, Power Academy was lacking in the “bad foods” department and some sugary goodness would be fantabulous!

  Miss Maggie read off our names in the order of our turn. I was dead last on the list.

  Each of the six other Mondays took their turn. They were pretty unsuccessful. The closest person to even moving the shelf was Matilda. The shelf wiggled and wobbled a little bit, but that was about it. Poor girl.

  But Matilda remained upbeat as usual. “Next time I’ll get it.” I loved that girl’s optimism, and wondered if I would be seeing her around Nova Middle next year. I hoped so. Through the few short interactions we’ve had at Power Academy, I decided that we could totally be friends.

  “And now you, Poppy. You’re everyone’s only hope for candy,” Miss Maggie dramatically stated, throwing the back of her hand to her head.

  “Goooooo, Poppy,” Matilda said like an overenthusiastic cheerleader. I imagined pom-poms shaking in each of her hands.

  This was definitely the heaviest and bulkiest thing I had ever tried to move with my Monday power yet. Well, this was the heaviest and bulkiest thing I’d ever had to move in general, really. Monday power or not.

  Miss Maggie’s British voice cheered me on even more. “I know it’s asking a lot of you, Poppy. But I am confident that if you concentrate hard enough, you can do it.”

  I stared at that case full of books covering the case full of treats and slowly raised my hand like I had watched Miss Maggie do many times before.

  “Pointing at the object helps your control,” she had said the other week during the whole painting exercise. The one that each of us failed at. Bummer.

  I pointed my index finger at the shelf. Slide over, slide over, slide over, I willed it.

  The shelf leaned slightly to the right.

  “Okay, just a little bit more,” Miss Maggie said. “Nice and slow.”

  “Come on, Poppy!”

  “You got this!”

  “Just concentrate.”

  All the encouragement distracted me for a moment, and then I used it as inspiration to push myself even further.

  A loud screeching sound came from the case as it began moving even more slightly to the right. Awesome! It was about two inches from where it was when I began. That was a start at least, right?

  “Keep it going, Poppy!”

  My index finger was steady, pointing at the shelf. The rest of my fingers were digging so hard into my palm that I was sure there would be finger indentations on it when all was said and done.

  “You go, girl,” Matilda cheered.

  “Pahhh-ppy, Pahhh-ppy, Pahhh-ppy,” everyone chanted. I was sure they were more excited at the prospect of candy more than anything else.

  I could do this. Only two feet to go, and I was in the clear.

  “Pahhh-ppy, Pahhh-ppy, Pahhh-p—”

  And that’s when it went wrong. Instead of sliding the rest of the way, the shelf leaned over so that all of its weight rested on the bottom right corner. I began to panic, afraid that it might crash on its side.

  Set back down, gently, I willed it. But instead of setting down gently, the shelf rocked back down on its left bottom corner and then swayed back and forth a few times. The books slid from one side to the other with each rock, and then they landed in a position that made it look like an earthquake had just hit Power Academy.

  When the shelf finally came to a rest, it had completely covered the hidden compartment—looking exactly as it did before we even began.

  Fail.

  “Awwww.” Matilda sighed. I felt her hand on my shoulder. “You’re bound to get it soon. You are so close. Just so close, Poppy.”

  Although I was not as advanced as the Mondays back in Nova, I felt pretty good compared to the others here. I mean, at least I got the entire shelf to move, right? Not that the others here weren’t good, they just needed some time. And I could tell that they all would make amazing Mondays by the end of the summer.

  The fact that I didn’t complete Miss Maggie’s big lesson for multiple days in a row totally made me nervous. Especially since we had to find Pickle and all the other stuff, and I hadn’t even proven my Monday power yet. I thought about my poor furry girl.

  Before I could even say thanks for the other students’ encouragements, the bell rang and everyone gathered their stuff for lunch.

  “See ya tomorrow, Poppy,” Matilda said, smiling at me. If we had any luck tonight, then maybe I wouldn’t.

  As I headed toward the door, I felt something hit my back. I spun around to see that everyone had left the classroom except for Miss Maggie who was working on something behind her desk. After taking a second look around the room, I glanced at the floor to see a perfectly folded paper airplane crashed next to my feet.

  I unfolded the wings to see the words Embrace your powers. Good Luck, Poppy.

  Miss Maggie looked up and winked. I tilted my head to the side and hesitantly smiled back.

  I read back over the message a few times as I walked to lunch and shoved it into the back pocket of my jean skirt. Did Miss Maggie know about the challenge? I was totally confused.

  And then it dawned on me that she might have created that last lesson specifically for me. But why?

  Chapter Sixteen

  At lunch, Logan and Sam filled us in on why they were so late to blind-as-a-bat Barkdoll’s class this morning and almost jeopardized our secret break-in we had planned for tonight.

  “So, we decided to leave a bit early for class in hopes of seeing if we can use those numbers Ellie found us,” Sam said with a goofy grin aimed at Ellie.

  “And, did you get in?” I perked up. Maybe this
was the break we needed.

  “It didn’t happen,” said Logan. “Of course, Larriby was in there.”

  Ellie and I frowned at each other.

  “But, we overheard parts of a conversation between Mrs. Larriby and someone else—”

  “Who was it? Who was the other person?” Ellie interrupted, eager as ever.

  Sam jumped in, “We couldn’t really see, ’cause that person sat right behind her office door.”

  “But it was definitely a woman, we know that much.”

  Logan and Sam shrugged in unison.

  “But the weird thing—”

  “Yeah?” Ellie interrupted again.

  I smirked at Logan, and we shook our heads. Typical Ellie.

  “Headmistress Larriby didn’t even sound like Larriby at all,” added Sam.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, knowing that there was no mistaking her manly voice, like, ever.

  “She was all nervous-sounding and stuff and stuttering all over the place.” Logan smirked. “Whoever Larriby was talking to made her really jumpy.”

  I laughed at the thought of something or someone actually intimidating Headmistress Larriby. “I would love to have heard that.” But what did this have to do with anything?

  Ellie’s eyes darted from mine and then across the table to the boys. “Okay, but what does this have to do with anything?” she asked, reading me. I tilted my head in annoyance, and then just let it go. Ellie was just being typical Ellie, and I realized that I would never be able to change that.

  She smirked.

  “The other woman in there made it very clear that she was not happy with Headmistress Larriby and how ‘everything’ was going,” Logan said, and his eyes glanced sideways at Sam.

  “What do you mean, ‘everything’?” I asked.

  Sam jumped in again. “From what we heard, we think—” He hesitated. “Well, we know that their conversation had something to do with,” he looked around the crowded cafeteria to see if anyone was looking and whispered, “the challenge she gave to us.” He and Logan exchanged glances, like they were unsure if they wanted to say more.

  “Go on, puh-lease,” Ellie said impatiently.

  “How do you know it has to do with us, though?” I jumped in before Ellie read it and said it.

  “The woman mentioned something about maybe Mrs. Larriby had ‘chosen unwisely’ again,” said Sam with those air-quote thingies.

  “Wait … what? I mean, chosen unwisely could be about a lot of things, and if we don’t even know who was in there with her, then how could you know it even relates to us?”

  The boys hesitated again. They were hiding something. I could tell.

  “Just spit it out,” Ellie spat and grimaced at Logan. “Don’t worry about hurting our feelings. We can take it,” she said totally unconvincingly, noticeably reading his mind.

  The boys looked at each other and then sighed together.

  “This person said to Larriby that if the chosen four really have potential then they should be able to complete the challenge within the next day or two.”

  “That’s how we know the conversation was about us,” Sam said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

  I thought back to totally bombing at Miss Maggie’s challenge just thirty minutes ago. Only two days to show that I had mastered my power? Craziness!

  “There’s more, I know it,” said Ellie.

  The boys said nothing.

  “Come on, guys. Tell me … uhr … us,” she demanded.

  “Fine.” Logan’s green eyes met mine and softened. “Then this person said that it was probably …” He paused.

  “Probably what?” Ellie demanded, becoming flustered.

  Logan spoke cautiously. “That it was probably the girls holding the four back. We heard her say that the two girls would be the reason Team Five would fail.” Once Logan finished he flinched away, waiting for Ellie’s backlash.

  Sam put his hands up in surrender. “Told you it was about us.” He paused. “Please, don’t shoot the messengers.” He shyly linked eyes with Ellie and faked a smile.

  I played Logan’s words over in my head, attempting to understand.

  One: We only had a few days to work together, find our stuff, and prove our powers were strong enough to get the heck out of here. And I was waaayyyy behind.

  Two: Ellie and I were the reason we might not get to leave early.

  Who was that woman?

  Surprisingly, Ellie didn’t say a thing right away, but I could tell that her anger, or hurt, or whatever it was, was brewing. The reddening of her face told me she was not happy, and would burst at any second. Unfortunately, I was right.

  “What the heck? This is totally ridiculous! How can that … that … woman, whoever she is, say such a preposterous thing? I am a-maaay-zing with my powers, and everyone knows that and knows that I shouldn’t be here anyway. You, maybe,” she yelled, pointing down at me and pushing herself up from the table, and then continued, “but definitely not me!”

  I stood and hesitantly placed my right hand on Ellie’s shoulder, unsure if she would snap at me or not. Even though the words she spoke had stung, I had to calm her down before she made an even bigger scene. After all, Headmistress Larriby had said that if anyone else knew about our challenge, then we would be stuck here for sure.

  “Look. We know you’re great, Ellie. It’s just—”

  Ellie flicked my hand away, “Don’t even try, Poppy! I still blame you for me even being here in the first place!” As she turned to stomp off, I was pretty sure I noticed tears welling in the corners of her eyes.

  Drama Queen, Logan mouthed.

  “We’ll talk later, guys,” I said, following after Ellie. It was Ellie and I who needed to talk now.

  I stood outside of our room, listening and waiting for her sobs to die down. Ellie sounded awful. It was obvious that she had issues with me, and I knew I had to find out exactly what those issues were.

  It was now or never.

  I placed my knuckles to the door and knocked three times.

  No answer.

  I knocked again. “Ellie, I know you’re in there,” I said with force.

  No answer.

  “Look, if we want to get out of here, we need to at least talk to one another,” I said gingerly, hoping she would say something. She could at least give me one of her annoyed sighs. Anything.

  No answer.

  “Please, Ellie.” I leaned against the door. Her sobs had died down, and I knew she was listening.

  Why do you hate me? I thought, knowing she was listening in.

  And then the door clicked open. It was noon, and Ellie was standing in the doorway in her pink pajamas. Although the tears had dried, her cheeks puffed up from her crying.

  I hesitated, unsure if she would snap at me again.

  “I’m not mad anymore, promise,” Ellie said softly.

  I entered the room and sat down on my lopsided bed across from her.

  “I don’t hate you, Poppy—”

  “Well, you sure act like it,” I cut her off. My words came out harsher than I intended. But I knew they were true and that I meant them.

  “I deserve that,” she said. “You shouldn’t be nice to me at all after the way I’ve treated you.”

  “Is it ’cause of the whole headband incident last year?” I asked, looking for her reaction.

  She shrugged and flicked her wrist. “I’ve forgotten about that,” she said convincingly, as if she truly did forget about that.

  I thought back to the nasty looks, hurtful notes, and the mean tricks since then. “I thought the headband thingy was the reason you’ve been so mean to me, though.” But deep down, I knew her hatred of me started way before that.

  She uncrossed her legs and moved to the edge of the bed. “I guess it’s just …” She sighed. Her legs swung nervously back and forth. “That headband thing was just another excuse.”

  I didn’t
want to cut her off this time. I was hopeful that we might actually finish the conversation we began a few days ago. I said nothing and thought nothing, wanting her to go on without my prompting in any way.

  She did. “It was a reason to be mean to you,” she said quickly, looking away. But I could tell that she was trying to hold back tears. “I hate the fact that you are naturally smart and good at stuff. You don’t have to manipulate people through your powers like I do.”

  Was it possible that Ellie was actually jealous of me?

  “Honestly, I didn’t even know what manipulate meant until I looked it up after Mr. Wobble-Wible used it that day in his office when we got sent here,” Ellie said.

  I could believe that.

  “But you would know what it means,” she continued, her eyes still avoiding mine. “I would totally fail my classes if I didn’t use my Thursday powers. I just can’t remember things, and it’s easier just listening to the answers and stuff.” She finally made eye contact with me. “I’m not naturally smart like you are, Poppy.”

  Was perfect pretty girl Ellie Preston saying that she’s not really that perfect? Other than the snoring and the gross retainer, this was the most human and honest I had ever seen her.

  “You need to give yourself more credit,” I said, actually feeling sorry for her. “I bet you would do just fine without the whole mind-reading thing. You don’t need it to feel better about yourself.” I realized that came out a bit too adult-sounding. “I mean, you’re smart in your own way.”

  She nodded. “Maybe.” She paused, and I could tell she was conflicted and fighting with herself over something. “You wanna know something crazy?”

  I nodded.

  “Something I’ve never told anyone.” Her face was super serious now. “And I probably shouldn’t tell you of all people,” her voice trailed off.

  “Sure,” I smiled. Oh my gosh. Ellie was going to confide in me? This sure was a strange day. Heck, the last week had been strange.

  “Remember when we used to hang out when we were like, really little?”

  I nodded. Of course I remembered it. We grew up, and still lived just a few houses from one another. The Prestons’ home was three times the size of mine and had a five-foot tall stone wall surrounding it, which made it look totally out of place in our middle-class neighborhood. Nevertheless, when we were small Ellie’s mom would always have me over for soda and snacks and stuff. Ellie and I would go swimming, play with dolls, and set up fun lemonade stands. Once, we even put together a neighborhood fun fair with swings and corndogs and everything. That’s when Ellie was nice and we were friends, not best friends, but friends at least, and before …