No. They aren’t psychics. They’re just Supers who work at the Council.
Before I could text him again, he sent me another message.
Get a deck of cards and start practicing guessing which card you’re going to pull.
It sounded so simple but something deep in my gut told me it wasn’t going to be.
What should I do if I don’t get any right?
He didn’t text back right away. I looked back to see if he had gotten caught up in the meeting or maybe he went back to get another cookie. But no, he was just sitting there, staring back at me. It made me so uncomfortable, I broke eye contact and turned back to face the front. After what seemed like a long time, my phone buzzed.
Keep going until you do.
* * * * *
“You know, I can’t tell if you’re an idiot or not.”
Audrey said it just as I bit down on my slice of pepperoni pizza so I had to chew before I could answer her. We were at Monty Q’s, a dive pizza joint right across the street from St Jude. Audrey said when you get news like we just did, the only thing to make it better was grease and pepperoni. So I texted my mom that I was doing extra credit work for history and we found a booth in the back for privacy. I filled Audrey in on everything that happened with Dale and she listened carefully before wondering aloud whether I was an idiot.
Truthfully, I didn’t know how to respond. It actually wasn’t even a question. It was a statement with room for comment. “What do you mean?”
Audrey snarfed down the rest of her slice before answering. “Because you don’t have to do this. You can just go home and go to regular high school next year and live happily ever after.”
She made it sound so easy. “We’ve been over this already. I can’t live happily ever after if I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do.”
“But why risk it? If you stop now, maybe you can walk away without a wipe. If you fail, you’re going to lose probably every memory of your dad since you found about Supers. You really want to lose the last year you had with your dad?”
“But I’m not going to fail!” I don’t know if I was trying to convince her or myself. “I’m going to pass with flying colors.”
“And then what?”
“And then everything will work out.”
“If you say so,” Audrey shrugged. “But I still can’t decide if you’re doomed or not.”
“I hope when I get old I’m not so negative about everything.”
She choked on her pizza. “I’m not being negative. I’m trying to be realistic. Age does that do you.”
“You’re a terrible Big Super. You’re supposed to encourage me.”
“Ha! One, I already told you this would be a bad idea. Two, you don’t even know what a Big Super is supposed to be like because you have no reference,” Audrey ticked off on her fingers. “And third, it doesn’t matter if I’m a bad Big Super or not. You won’t remember me after your mind wipe, anyway.”
She had a point there. I changed the subject. “How come you didn’t tell them about my powers situation?”
“Because Nathaniel is kind of a goody-two-shoes,” she explained. “He likes to do everything by the book. If I told him that you don’t have any powers, he would have said that means that you don’t need to go to the Academy. I don’t necessarily disagree with him but I do think that if you want to try, you should be allowed to,” she added.
I took a sip of my root beer. “You know him pretty well, huh?”
Audrey shrugged. “I haven’t worked with him that long. He was my probation supervisor and now I’m working on this task force he put together. But he’s pretty much a golden boy so I know he’s not going to be up for any shenanigans.”
“How can you even stand to be around him when he’s so, so. . .” I trailed off, unable to find the words to describe him.
“Hot?” Audrey offered.
“Charming,” I shot back, but I already felt the blush creeping up my neck and into my face.
Audrey shrugged again. “You get used to it. Besides, once he’s yelled at you for messing up a mission or two, he stops being so hot. You gonna eat that?” She pointed at the last slice of pizza. I shook my head no and pushed the tray over to her side of the table. She scooped it up and snarfed it down, while I chewed on my own thoughts.
Chapter 12
Thursdays were always my favorite day of the week. Sure I had to go to school and it was still one more day until the weekend. But on Thursday nights, Mom and Dad would let Jeannie, Skye, and Marty run the show at the diner, and we’d all go do something together.
It was little stuff. Nothing big. Maybe a movie. Or a rare dinner out. I always got to pick, though. When I was eleven, I made them take me to the night show at the planetarium seven Thursdays in a row. It was the same show every time but I loved it.
After Dad was gone, me and Mom tried to keep it up the weekly tradition but it wasn’t quite the same. And then Skye followed her boyfriend to LA and Mom went back to working Thursday nights.
That’s why I was kinda shocked when Mom slowed down during breakfast just long enough to suggest that we go to a movie that night. “But what about the diner?”
“It hasn’t been very busy lately. I think Jeannie can handle it by herself. What do you think?”
I scrambled for something, anything to say. I had plans with Audrey that night, but it wasn’t like I could tell her that. “Um, I actually had plans tonight.”
“Plans?”
“I, um, I—”
“Excuse me? Ma’am?” One of the customers waved at Mom and went over to find out what he wanted. There seemed to be something wrong with his eggs. Mom had to take them back to the little kitchen and argue with Ray about it.
I took a deep breath and thanked God for the interruption. I had no idea how I was going to finish that sentence I’d just started. What excuse was I going to use?
Mom badgered a fresh pair of eggs out of Ray, delivered it to the customer, and was back at my side in less time than I would have liked. But by then, I knew what I wanted to say. “Mom, I didn’t want to tell you this but I got a tutor.”
Her face lit up. “For the SHSAT? I thought you weren’t going to do that.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been thinking about my future and I think you were right. I need to take this thing seriously. I signed up to take it next month.” The lie slipped out easily but I still felt like crap.
I didn’t feel any better when Mom pulled me into a tight hug. “Penny, this is such good news. I’m proud of you. It’s a little late to be applying to schools but if you work fast, you’ll meet the deadlines.”
“Slow down, Mom. I have to take the test first.”
Mom released me from the hug long enough to yell into the kitchen. “Ray!! I need more bacon. My niña is going to need extra protein for all the studying she’s doing!” Then she ran into the kitchen to get it.
As for me, there was nothing else to do but to eat bacon I didn’t deserve and try not to look as guilty as I felt.
* * * * *
“Did you get them?”
I’d spent most of the day in school, taking some time to go to the guidance counselor’s office to pick up some practice tests and answer sheets as props for all the lies I was telling my mother. Around five, I headed over to Audrey’s place with my overwhelming sense of guilt and a new deck of cards I picked up from the bodega nearby. Audrey opened the door and let me in without saying hello.
“Yeah.” I pulled out the cards I’d bought at the bodega up the street. “You think this will work?”
“You have any other ideas?” I shook my head no. “Then get in here.”
Audrey’s place looked a little neater than last time I’d seen it. At least there weren’t any clothes on the floor. Crash had a new bowl and seemed a little livelier, too. As if reading my mind, Audrey explained, “I tidied up for you. Sit down. You want a soda? I know you can’t have beer.”
“Thanks.” I looked for the cleanest pa
rt of her couch and sat there.
She came back with a Dr. Pepper for me and a beer for her. “I hope you know that I had plans tonight. I’m ditching those plans to help you. I’m basically the best Big Super ever.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What plans?”
She took a swig of her beer. “I’m a very busy girl, Penny. I could be anywhere in the world right now but I choose to be here with you.” I just stared at her. “Fine. I barely leave Brooklyn. But still.”
“What do you even do?” I actually really wanted to know.
“Are you serious? I have to keep this building running. People are always getting locked out or breaking their toilets. Then I have to run around collecting the rent. I have a civilian boyfriend who doesn’t know about my powers so I have to work really hard to pretend to be normal so he won’t break up with me.” Her eyes got big and I could tell she was getting into the whole thing. “I’m the maid of fucking honor in a wedding and I get like twelve text messages a day about it. My sister is going to kill me because a cat I gave her is pregnant. And on top of all of that, I basically have to save the world every day.”
I didn’t understand half of what she was talking about so I changed the subject. “So how do you know what you’re supposed to do when you’re actually a Super? Do you get, like, instructions?”
“Depends. You get a district assignment, but that’s just the area you work in. If you do really well in school and meet the right people, you’ll get more specific assignments. If you don’t, you’ll just do a lot of patrol shifts and handle the small stuff.” Audrey took another gulp of her beer. “I started with patrol shifts but now I work with Nathaniel’s task force. So I don’t have to wander around some park in the middle of the night trying to prevent people from stealing purses or whatever.”
She walked back into the kitchen and came back with another beer. “I mean, I know I talk a lot of shit about the Super lifestyle but the truth is that it’s pretty much all I’ve ever known. I really thought about leaving it a while back but ultimately, I realized I actually wanted to change the way I handled being a Super. What do you think being a Super is going to be like for you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only really thought about being like my dad. I don’t feel like my dad really had a secret life from me and Mom. He basically seemed like a regular guy.”
“Because that’s the gig, Penny. If you become a Super, you have to be pretend a regular person and hide that part of yourself from everyone who isn’t one. Are you ready for that?”
I thought about my mom and all the lies I’d been telling her lately. I didn’t know if I wanted to keep that up forever. But if that’s what the job was, that’s what I’d do. “Whatever it takes.” Just as I was about to ask her what she thought it would take, there was a knock at the door.
Audrey groaned and got up to answer it. When she opened it, there was that weird guy I’d met when I first went to find Audrey. He was still in the outfit he’d been wearing the last time I’d saw him.
He peered around Audrey at me. “So I see you found her.”
Audrey turned to me. “You know Bob?”
Before I could answer that I’d only spoken to him for a second and he wasn’t all that helpful, Bob answered for me. “We’ve met. What are you two doing anyway?”
“I’m mentoring her.” Audrey stumbled over the words. “It’s temporary, though. Don’t get used to it.”
Bob looked concerned. “Someone let you mentor a kid?”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Bob?”
“Can I borrow a cup of milk?”
“Why?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah. Because it’s my milk and I want to know.”
“Fine. I’m doing some baking and my recipe calls for milk.”
“Where are you baking? And where are you baking it? You’re homeless.”
Bob narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have any milk, do you?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”
“Because I wanted to know what was going on.” Bob gave her a dirty look and Audrey went on. “Go upstairs and ask Mike. He usually has stuff in his refrigerator that hasn’t expired.”
Bob turned to go but stopped short. “You guys still dating?”
“Yeah, we’re still together.”
He started to go up the stairs again. “I get why you’re with him. I don’t get why he’s with you. He probably needs to rethink some of his life choices.”
“Good bye, Bob.” Audrey shut the door and turned to me. “Sorry about that. Someone knocks on my door every damn minute of the day.”
“That guy’s a weirdo. He was here the day I came looking for you.”
“Yeah, we call him Outside Bob because he basically lives outside but is always around. He’s the very definition of weird.” Audrey came back to the couch. “Now bust out those cards and let’s get started. Time to get your psychic juices flowing.”
Chapter 13
I’d never been an early riser but on Friday, I fell asleep after midnight and popped up around four in the morning. I just couldn’t sleep, knowing that my testing would start that day. Still I couldn’t actually go anywhere until it was time for school. I just lay in bed playing the card flipping game the way I had all Thursday night—first with Audrey and then alone in my bedroom. My percentage was still anywhere from twenty to thirty percent, depending on how long I played. But I kept going back to it, thinking that maybe I’d shake something loose in that crazy brain of mine.
I sat through another boring day of junior high school. The only difference from every other day of my life was that I had a deck of cards burning a hole in my pocket. Every time I had a spare minute, I used it to practice with the cards. By the time I caught the train to Midtown, I was at a solid twenty-four percent. Average. Nothing special. I walked into Council building with a heavy heart.
After checking in with the security guard on the ground floor, I took the elevator headed toward the eight floor ready to face the music. On the second floor, the elevator slowed to a stop, beeped, and opened its doors with a swoosh. All I saw was a blur rushing toward me before knocking me to the ground, spilling papers everywhere.
“Owwww!” I yelped as me and the person fell to the ground together.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” the person tangled up with me repeated.
I tried to untangle myself and stand up but I kept slipping on the papers she had dropped when she crashed into me. When we finally got on our feet, I saw that the kamikaze that ran into me was just a girl. She was maybe college aged in an office worker outfit, a pair of glasses, and a haircut that made her look like a poodle.
“I’m so sorry,” she said again. This time I noticed a slight southern accent. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah,” I said, dusting myself off. “Here, let me help you.” I bent down to the help her pick up all of the papers she dropped. They looked like the little bubble answer sheets you get with a standardized test, except the answers were punched out instead of filled in. They were fresh in mind because I had a bunch of them in my book bag just in case I had to convince my mom I was really practicing for the SHSAT.
I always thought that it was interesting how those tests answers can look like pictures when they’re all filled in. I picked up one that kinda looked like the Pisces constellation. I only knew that because my birthday fell on March second and I’d been to the planetarium enough times to recognize all of the zodiac constellations. I could make out the double fish in the pattern, with a few marks that didn’t fit the pattern.
When we finally picked up the last of them, I handed her my stack and stepped out of the way of the elevator doors so they could close.
The elevator girl was looking down at the paperwork trying to arrange the stack in a neat pile. “I’m just always rushing. I had to go down and make the copies and then I forgot to get the keys. And then I couldn’t f
ind the box I was looking for. And I’m supposed to be upstairs”—she looked at her watch—“I’m supposed to be upstairs right now. Can you push the eighth floor button for me? Good. You already pushed it.”
Upstairs we went our separate ways. I checked in at the admissions office and sat in the waiting room with a couple of other kids about my age. I tried to give them the once over without them noticing but I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. There were also a couple of parents there, too. But one or two of the kids were alone. At least there’s that, I thought.
I was only waiting for a few minutes before the elevator girl walked into the waiting room. “Everyone here for the clairvoyance assessment exam one, follow me.”
We all stood up and followed her down a hallway to another room. She stood by the door while we filed in. That’s when she noticed me. “Hey there. Fancy meeting you here. . . again.” I returned her smile and tried to look like I knew this was gonna happen because I actually had powers.
It was a classroom with rows of student desks and a large instructor’s desk in the front of the room near a whiteboard. I took a seat near the back. Once we’d all found seats, the elevator girl stood at the front and started talking.
“Hi guys, I’m Lindsey and I’m going to be your proctor for today. Basically, I’m just going to give you the test and standby for any questions you may have.”
She wrote her name on the whiteboard followed by a little heart. “I want you guys to know that it’s perfectly normal to be nervous but I promise this is going to be painless. Your test has been specially selected for you. Not for what you might know but for what you won’t know. Instead, we want you to use your instincts and let any special feelings guide you. It’s multiple choice and there can be multiple answers for each question.
“No one expects you get all of these right. We just want an idea about what you can pull off when you’re in a stressful situation.” She ended with a little head nod that I think was supposed to be reassuring.
Super Secret (Book 1): Super Model Page 5
