by Jennie Brown
I looked at Ellie and frowned, thinking of last summer’s shenanigans and what an embarrassment I was at first with my lack of skills in the whole power department.
“Just think, Poppy. It’s only six weeks this summer!” Ellie had smiled at me, her legs now curled under her on the oversized chair. She was right. I could do six weeks. On the bright side, it was much better than being there for an entire summer.
“And then we can be back to lounging by the pool, sipping on lemonade?” I asked, and she nodded her assurance.
So after a bit of deliberation, I decided, what the heck? A few weeks at Power Academy couldn’t be that bad. Right? Plus, at least this time we were getting paid.
***
So here I was now, taking the ball from greasy Mr. Grimeley. I opened Pickle’s crate, and threw it in – just like last year.
“Hey, Ellie!” I yelled, as we walked into Power Academy together.
Chapter 2
And so it began. Clothes-too-tight Headmistress Larriby wobbled her way down the center aisle of Power Academy’s library. Today she looked like a rotting tomato. A giant rotting tomato to be exact. The red dress hugged her curves in all the wrong places, and spots of brown fluffy fabric dotted it. This was definitely not one of her best looks. Well … she’s never had a good look at all.
I glanced around to see about forty wannabe weekday students buzzing with anticipation. The Mondays were in a corner focusing, pointing fingers, squinting eyes, and attempting to make things move with their minds. To think, I was one of them last year.
A group of Wednesdays stared at the light fixture in the middle of the room. I read their minds, but they were totally empty, putting every ounce of energy into their lack of power. All those poor Wednesdays wanted to do was flip the lights on and off a few times, but by the constipated look on their faces, they were definitely struggling. Not even the slightest spark few from their fingertips.
“Psssst.” I turned around to see Logan suddenly appear behind me. My cheeks grew warm. They did that every time he showed up. He was just too cute. He nodded his head in Larriby’s direction. I didn’t have to be a mind reading Thursday to know that he was thinking the same thing about her outfit as me.
“Where have you been?” I whispered. I glanced at the clock to note it was 9:15. An hour later than when we were supposed to report.
“You know, got caught up at home with Gram and Pops,” he said, smiling that crooked smile at me. Not only was he a disappearing Friday, but Logan had the luxury of being one of the few teleporting Tuesdays at Power Academy. Sometimes I thought I wanted to be a teleporting Tuesday, but I prefer moving things and reading minds. Anyway, I was happy that Logan had two powers to focus on. I mean, I kind of felt sorry for him. Both of his parents passed away years ago and he has to live with his powerless grandparents.
A piece of dirty blond bang fell into Logan’s eye. With a simple flick of my wrist, I willed the hair to shoot straight back his head. I chuckled at the Mr. Greasy Grimeley-esque comb over I just gave him.
“Thanks a lot, Poppy,” he said through a smirk. His hand ruffled the hairs back into their original position. I remembered back to last summer when I could barely even move a feather with my mind. Now I’d practically perfected my power. Gone are the days of flying spaghetti sticking to my dad’s bald head, Pickle getting hit by out of control dog brushes, and headbands violently shattering against chalkboards. Now when there’s a disaster and I use my powers, I do it on purpose.
“So has anyone talked to you about what we’re actually doing here?”
“Nope, not at all,” I said, pulling my out-of-control curly red hair into a messy bun – something Ellie Preston had recently helped me perfect. Seriously, my hair was a disaster zone last year. “Mayor Masters said that we’d be helping the powerless and stuff, but she never mentioned the specifics,” I said, looking over his shoulder at Clothes-too-tight Larriby and Mayor Masters (nose-picking Mark’s mom and the Mayor of Nova) in a heated discussion.
“Well, if it’s anything like last year, I’m out,” he said, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.
His comment brought me back to those few awful weeks at the prison that was Power Academy. In order to help us come into our weekday powers last summer, Larriby and Grimeley had hidden our personal items from us. My precious dog Pickle had been locked up in a cage in the middle of a supposedly haunted forest. In the end, I guess we did master our powers, and learned that we were cuspers. I still hadn’t completely warmed up to Clothes-too-tight Larriby and her greasy sidekick Grimeley though.
“Who’s that?” Logan asked, taking me from my thoughts. Waltzing down the middle of the library aisle was a man that had the letters N.P.C. stitched into the upper right pocket of his jacket. A wide brimmed black hat was pulled down low over his eyes. He was not your typical-looking Power Academy instructor, especially with those tight black skinny jeans (yuck), but for some reason he looked familiar to me. As he lifted his head to talk to Headmistress Larriby, I realized exactly where I’d seen him before. I thought back to last week at Novalicious, when I’d told my other best friend, Veronica White, about my plans for the start of summer. She had been more than bummed.
***
“So, you’re telling me that you’re going to spend every single day the next two months at Power Academy?” Veronica blinked hard. “With Ellie?”
Veronica and I had been best friends since … well … forever, and she was still getting used to the fact that my ex-enemy Ellie Preston and I were now seeing eye to eye. I wanted to be completely honest with Veronica about the whole cusp power thing, but we had all promised Mayor Masters that we would keep that to ourselves. That was something else Ellie and I had in common that I didn’t have with Veronica. Even though Veronica had no clue about the whole mind reading thing, she had definitely sensed a stronger connection between Ellie and me over the last year. I guess I couldn’t blame her for being a little jealous.
“It’s actually only six weeks,” I said as I threw the Power Academy brochure down on the table in front of her. The bright greens and blues on the pamphlet made the place look pretty appealing. I was happy to see they’d revamped the brochure from last year.
Using her Monday power, she pushed the pamphlet back to my side of that table and took a lick of her cone, totally avoiding eye contact.
Did she have to be so dramatic?
During the gap of awkward silence, I had glanced around Novalicious to see all sorts of other people using their weekday powers. Niel Porter, a boy that was in my 5th period history class used his telekinesis power to suspend three cones in mid-air as he reached for a fourth. After paying at the counter, Mr. Ellison and his son Trevor (both Tuesdays who frequented Novalicious) vanished into thin air. Obviously they teleported back home.
I glanced back at Veronica just in time to see her smiling at me. She was back to her normal non-jealous self. “Look, Poppy. You are totally going to be fantabulous helping those other students,” Ronni stated in between bites of her two scoops of peanut-butter, chocolate chip goodness. “I’m sorry I get a bit—” She stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes widened at the sight of whoever just walked through the glass door. “Look! Look! It’s one of them,” she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Her head nodded toward the entrance of Novalicious.
I turned around to see a tall, skinny man in a long black jacket shuffling through the line. On the upper right corner of his coat was a shield emblem containing the initials N.P.C.. His black baseball-style cap had the same exact lettering.
“Those Nova Power Corp. guys totally freak me out,” I whispered, leaning forward in my chair and away from him as he passed behind me.
“What about your dad?” Ronni asked. “Does he freak you out too?”
“Very funny.” I said, unenthusiastically. My dad does work at Nova Power Corporation, but he’s a security guard, not whatever this guy was. I stole a glance over m
y shoulder. The man’s dark eyes scanned across Novalicious from one person to the next. I’d seen that look enough times to know that he was a mind reading Thursday. When his eyes met mine, they lingered on me for just long enough to make a shiver run down my spine. My default thought of dog poop entered my head.
“He’s obviously looking for something,” Veronica said, leaning in closer to me.
I swallowed. “Or someone. Dun. Dun. Dun,” I added ominously.
The man got in line behind Mr. and Mrs. Ream – two poor, powerless weekends.
“Or maybe he’s come to personally escort you to Power Academy,” Veronica said with a giggle, lightening the mood even more. I was glad to have my BFF back, and not the jealous person who sat across from me just a few minutes ago.
“Yeah, right!” Over the last year, under the direction of Mayor Masters, Nova Power Corp. moved its location to the grounds of Power Academy due to some space issues, so it wasn’t entirely out of the question considering the logo on his jacket. Nevertheless, it was still laughable that he would venture outside of N.P.C. to pick up a measly Monday (and semi-Thursday) who was still getting used to her new mind reading power.
“What a weirdo!” she said as we watched his head move mechanically from side to side, scoping out the scene. Suddenly, the little ol’ creepster whipped his head around toward us. This time his eyes lingered on me even longer than they did earlier.
“Oh. Em. Gee … do you think he heard us?” Veronica said.
“Nah. Just a coincidence,” I said, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Ever since he entered Novalicious, I had the strange feeling that he wasn’t focusing on anyone but me.
Veronica pulled the hair tie from her ponytail and let a few black strands fall in front of her face. “Okay, for serious though. Now he is totally starting to creep me out,” she whispered.
“Is he still looking in this direction?” I asked. The creepy man had moved up in line, so now my back was to him.
Veronica’s eyes slowly moved from my forehead and then up a bit farther. “Yep,” Veronica said without moving her lips. I really wanted to tell her about my new power. She nodded.
“Let’s finish up here,” I said. Veronica and I licked our ice cream as fast as we could. My head started pounding from brain freeze.
I stood up and could now see the man sitting at a table near the only door in Novalicious. He just sat there with a glass of water. The creeper didn’t even order a drink, let alone a cone, so there was no reason for him to be skulking around.
“Are you almost done?” I asked Veronica, grabbing the orange pendant suspended from my neck. My purple ballet flat tapped on the floor below. I wanted to get the heck out of there. With a quick twist at her hand, Veronica’s trash lifted from her hand, gently flew across the room, and landed in the trashcan directly to the creepy guy’s right.
We rushed out of Novalicious as fast as our legs could carry us, but with each step, I could feel the man’s eyes on me.
And then, it got even stranger. As we left, Mayor Masters flew past us without a glance or even a hello, which was so unlike her.
“That’s weird,” I said. Her son, nose picking Mark Masters, has been in like all of our classes the last five years. That and the personal invitation to be a Power Academy counselor made it even odder that she walked by without saying a word.
“Rude, much? And how long have we been friends with Mark?” Veronica said with an eye roll.
I thought of the many times Veronica had not-so-subtly called Mark out on his, ahem, nose-picking habit.
“I didn’t realize you’d consider him a friend?” I said, not meaning for it to come out as harsh as it did. Thinking back now, I probably should have kept my mouth shut.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she snarked, stopping dead in her tracks.
“Nothing. Just forget about it,” I said, hoping she would. Ever since Ellie started hanging out with us, Veronica had been even more touchy than usual.
“I have to go,” she spat, turning to walk in the opposite direction. “Say hi to you BFF Ellie for me.” Her black combat-style boots stomped away.
Before I even had the chance to yell after her, Ronni had turned the corner and made her way out of sight. That was not the way I wanted to leave my best friend before six weeks away at Power Academy.
***
And now, that same creeper guy that Veronica and I saw at Novalicious was here. At Power Academy. I glanced at Clothes-too-tight Larriby just in time to see a scowl form on her face. Whoever this man was, she was not happy to see him. The mysterious man walked straight up to the stage and leaned in close to Larriby. Her face contorted into an even bigger frown as he whispered in her ear.
“Come on,” Logan said, glancing in my direction. “Use your Thursday skills, Poppy. Larriby looks mad.”
I concentrated really hard on Headmistress Larriby. I wanted to see what she was thinking of this guy’s comments. Typically, when I did this, I was greeted with a few words flying through my head here and there. It was easy to get the gist of somebody’s thoughts. But right now I got nothing but static.
“Well?”
“Nothing,” I said with a frown. “Too many other weekday thoughts flying around. It’s distracting.”
The strange man drew back from Larriby and then proceeded to walk back up the aisle in our direction. As he reached the row where I was seated, his eyes caught mine just like they did at Novalicious.
“I wish he’d just go away,” I whispered to Logan.
By the scowl on Headmistress Larriby’s face, she didn’t want him here either.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Sample Chapters: Poppy Mayberry, Return To Power Academy
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