Poppy Mayberry, a New Day

by Jennie K. Brown

  Ellie batted her eyelashes right back at him.

  Logan pushed on Sam’s shoulder, shoving him down the hallway. “Okay … if the two of you are done making googly eyes at each other, can we get to work?”

  We got downstairs, and as we stepped on Ellie’s porch, I saw the silhouette of someone standing on the other side of the fence.

  “What are you doing here?” Ellie asked, surprised as Mark Masters stepped out of the shadows.

  “I want to help,” Mark said matter-of-factly. Like Logan, he wore dark jeans and a black hoodie. “Logan asked me if … I … um … ”

  Ellie held a manicured finger up. “Just give us a moment, Mark,” she said, gesturing for Sam, Logan, and me to meet her inside.

  “I’ll just wait here!” Mark shouted as the door shut behind us.

  Ellie let out a dramatic sigh. “Is this a good idea?”

  “Look.” Logan stepped forward. “I asked Mark if he wanted to help us. I mean, he knows about my parents. And he knows about the power stuff.”

  “Plus, he did help you guys get into the prison,” Sam added, looking at nobody but Ellie. Her face softened.

  “And I kind of like him,” I chirped. I meant it. Nose picking aside, Mark was a nice boy, and I could see him fitting in with the four of us easily. Fab four plus one.

  “Alright,” Ellie huffed. “The more help the better, I suppose.”

  When we walked back onto the porch, Mark stood fidgeting with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. His chin rose as the door shut behind us.

  “I really want to help,” Mark said, looking from Logan to Sam to Ellie and then finally to me. “Well?” he asked with wide eyes.

  Logan stepped forward and shook Mark’s hand. “Looks like the five of us are breaking in together.”

  We took the Nova Public Transit and arrived at Power Academy thirty minutes later. It would have been much easier to teleport, but that would mean leaving Ellie, Sam, and Mark behind. Plus, we sort of hadn’t told anyone I could do that yet.

  “Do you think our parents will figure out what we’re up to?” Sam asked. “I mean, how many study sessions will we have at each other’s houses until they get suspicious?”

  Logan huffed. “If nothing turns up this weekend, then we’ll be done with it,” he said matter-of-factly. “I promise.”

  It seemed like all I’d been doing the last two days was going back and forth from home, to school, to Power Academy, back home, to school, to Power Academy, and all over again! I reminded myself that all the running around would be worth it in the end. Hopefully we’d find Logan’s parents, tell them Mayor Masters is safely behind bars, and bring them back to Nova.

  I’d checked the Nova City schedule of events this morning and saw that Headmistress Larriby and her greasy sidekick Mr. Grimeley were giving a presentation to wannabe weekdays’ parents at Nova Elementary tonight. It was only two years ago that my parents probably sat in the exact same meeting. I could just imagine how it went. Headmistress Larriby probably boasted about the beautiful library and the intense coursework that was sure to make any wannabe weekday master a power to get the heck out of there, while Mr. Grimeley nodded his semi-bald head along with her every word. Ugh.

  I pushed those thoughts from my mind and focused on the task at hand. There were a few things I’d strung together. One—Logan’s parents worked at Nova Power Corporation when they lived here. Two—they were thought to have passed away in some sort of freak accident, yet Logan found the letter detailing the fact they were very much alive. And three—Headmistress Larriby had, indeed, known who they were, and she was hiding something. And with the history of secrets she kept, maybe even something big.

  So here we were at Power Academy, ready to dig up any other information we could find.

  “What exactly is the plan?” Sam asked, looking in Logan’s direction.

  Logan pushed a piece of hair from his face. “Well, Clothes-too-tight Larriby was obviously hiding something, so I’m sure she’d keep her secrets close.”

  “Office,” Ellie and I said in unison.

  “But how are we getting in?” Mark chimed in.

  “There’s a perk to having Friday and Tuesday powers,” Logan said, suddenly disappearing, but we could still hear his voice. “The plan is to teleport inside Power Academy, disconnect the security camera,” he paused and then his voice sounded right next to Mark. “With double cusp Wednesday powers, you can make it appear like some freak electricity failure, right, Sam?”

  Sam nodded his camo-covered head at an invisible Logan. “And then I will let you all in, and we’ll begin our search.”

  “Sounds like you have it all figured out,” Mark spoke up.

  Within ten minutes, we were inside Power Academy. Having multiple powers made the whole breaking-in thing much easier than I thought. But the moral part of me felt guilty about it. At the same time though, Headmistress Larriby should have felt just as guilty, if not more, for misleading us. She definitely had a connection to Logan’s parents.

  Even though the security footage was dismantled, we still snuck around quiet as mice, tiptoeing our way through the ginormous foyer. We arrived at Larriby’s office door, and I pushed the numbers that made up her combination. 7-7-6-0. But something unexpected happened—the lights blinked red on the side panel.

  Sam tried the numbers next. “They must have changed the code.” He sighed.

  “You guys?” Logan said right before disappearing again.

  Larriby’s door swung open.

  “Smart thinking, man,” Mark said.

  All of us looked around to one another, like the enormity of what we were doing hit us all at the same time. “This is really bad, isn’t it?” Logan asked. “Like, we could get in big trouble.”

  We had justification though. “This is about righting wrongs,” I said. “We’ve been lied to for so long, so now we’re doing this to maybe find out some truths.”

  “It’s not like we are using our powers for bad—like robbing banks or doing crazy experiments on innocent weekdays,” Ellie said with wide eyes.

  “Hey!” Mark said in response to Ellie’s thoughtless comment.

  “Whoops! Sorry,” she said, frowning.

  But she was right.

  In just under fifteen minutes, we’d searched every nook and cranny of Headmistress Larriby’s office. “Nothing,” Ellie sighed, plopping herself down in the corner chair. Kind of how she did it two years ago before we saw the live security feed behind the bookshelf.

  “That’s it!” Ellie yelled.

  “What?” I asked.

  “What you just thought, Poppy!” she exclaimed. “The bookshelf.”

  On three, I thought to her. One. Two. Three.

  Using our Monday powers together, Ellie and I moved the bookcase out of the way, revealing a hidden compartment behind it. The television feed was still there, but this time it showed a screen of snowy static.

  “Good job, Sam,” Ellie said, staring at the screen.

  Sam blushed in response.

  Notebooks with words Summer Rosters written on their spines lined the shelves. The books dated all the way back to 1984. Naturally, we didn’t even pay attention to these when we discovered the hidden compartment two years ago, because they would have had nothing to do with finding our missing belongings—missing Pickle. Gosh, how I missed Pickle. I’d been so busy the past few days, I’d barely had time to brush out that furball’s hair. Logan picked a few binders from off the shelf and leafed through them.

  “Are you guys finding anything?” Ellie sighed.

  “Nothing over here,” Sam said, pushing around papers and writing utensils in Headmistress Larriby’s top desk drawer. I already checked that spot but decided Sam double-checking would be fine.

  “What about you?” I nudged Mark who was checking out the desk’s side drawers.

  “Don’t think I found anything yet.” Mark smiled. Thanks for letting me help, he though
t.

  “Of course,” I whispered.

  I picked up the folder from our summer here. “Not stuff we didn’t already know,” I said, rifling through pages of names with addresses, emergency contacts, and initial paperwork.

  “What about you?” Ellie took a step closer to Logan.

  His face was buried in a binder from 1991. “Here,” he said, his trembling finger pointing to a name in the middle of the page.

  “Elliot Augustus Prince,” Sam read the name aloud. “But where’s this?” he asked, now pointing to an address that was paper-clipped to the top of the roster.

  Margaret and Elliot Prince

  Phone: 214-555-2675

  Address: 49 Fifth Avenue,

  Morlantown

  In the flick of a wrist, Logan grabbed the small square of paper with the address and shoved it in his pocket. “I guess we’re heading to Morlantown.”

  “And you’re crazy!” Ellie all but shrieked. “Nobody leaves Nova! Let’s just send them a letter telling them Mayor Masters won’t be a problem anymore.”

  “Well, my parents left. And if I need to get out of this town to find them, then I’m going. I’m not forcing you to follow. So you don’t have to go, Ellie.” Logan’s voice had an edge to it.

  Ellie crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re friends, Logan. I’m in.”

  “So am I.” I squeezed Logan’s hand.

  “Me too,” Sam added.

  All four of us turned to Mark. “Well?” Logan asked him.

  Mark’s smile ate up his face. “I guess I am, too.”

  We’d been through enough together already, so why not add on another adventure?

  Chapter Eight

  Before we could just pick up and leave town, our next step was getting our parents’ buy-in. Well, not actually buy-in. More like, concocting a believable plan for the weekend so they didn’t question our whereabouts. How could we sneak out of town without them knowing what we were up to? They’d bought my “studying” cover with Ellie the past few nights, but how could I get away overnight?

  “You’re being awfully quiet tonight, Poppy,” my mom said the next night at dinner. I used my Monday power to pass the serving bowl down to my dad. For a second, I thought back to when I was trying to master my Monday power, at this same dinner table, eating the same exact meal—spaghetti. But that night, I didn’t gently lob a heap of spaghetti on my plate. Instead, at what seemed like a million miles an hour, I catapulted the spoonful across the table so most of it landed on my dad’s bald head and other areas of the dining room. I smiled at the thought.

  “What’s so funny, Poppy?” my brother Willie asked in a condescending tone.

  Ugh. Brothers.

  I twirled strings of sauce-covered pasta around my fork. “Nothing,” I mumbled while shoving the bite into my mouth. Then I scooped in another fork-full, then another, then another, then another. This was what I call nervous eating. Thank goodness my dad’s a Wednesday and Willie’s a Tuesday so I didn’t have to worry about them reading the thoughts from my head. My mom had escaped to the kitchen to refill her and Dad’s wine glasses, so being the only mind-reading Thursday, she couldn’t read my mind if I slipped up. My silence was going to start getting suspicious, though.

  “Actually, nothing’s funny, I guess. Mr. Marfblatt just assigned this huge science project,” I said, acting totally exasperated. I looked up to see all eyes on me, prompting me to go on. I took a sip of water. “I mean, how does he expect us to present our project on Monday when he just assigned it today?” I rolled my eyes, hoping this would further convince my parents of the difficulty of the situation.

  “Well, maybe I could help,” my dad offered, using his Wednesday power to flick the lights on and off a few times.

  My mother handed my father his glass of wine. “Honey,” she said, “just because Poppy mentioned the word ‘science’ doesn’t mean it has anything to do with electricity.” She took her seat at the head of the table. I laughed, which broke the tension bubbling up inside of me. Gosh, I thought my anxiety over lying would explode like a giant volcano.

  “What’s it about then?” My dad asked.

  I shoved a piece of garlic bread in my mouth and mumbled, “Well … urhm … Mm.” They all stared at me as I choked down the bite and then gulped down some water.

  “We are supposed to grow bacteria in these pee-tree dishes,” I sounded out. “And then use all different kinds of soap on the samples and observe which type of soap works the best at killing the germs.” I sounded pretty convincing—it didn’t hurt that Mr. Marfblatt did actually assign the project. My parents just didn’t have to know that the entire experiment was done during class today and wasn’t actually a take-home one.

  “It’s gonna be the yellowy-orange soap,” Willie said through an eye-roll. “Everyone knows that’s the one that works best.”

  “It might have changed since you were in middle school,” I shot back at him.

  Dad sent Willie a stop-pestering-your-little-sister kind of look and then cleared his throat. “Well, I think we can certainly help with that, Poppy. Let’s get started tonight.”

  Tonight? I needed to be on a train to Morlantown tonight. This was so not going the way I had hoped.

  “It’s actually a group project, and we have all the supplies at Ellie’s house, so … ” I trailed off. “Plus, we are supposed to record the change in bacteria cells every three hours from tonight through Sunday night.” This was when my acting skills needed to be up to par. I looked my dad straight in the eyes, making my best poker face. “So I guess you can help me by taking me to Ellie’s every three hours. Thanks, Dad,” I said enthusiastically. I looked at the clock above the door. “It’s 5:30 now, so I’ll have to be at Ellie’s at six.”

  Dad gave Mom a funny look, and then she nodded. “Why don’t you see if Ellie just wants you to sleep over? Don’t you think that will make the process go a bit smoother?” Yes! I smiled, and then my eyes caught Willie, and a knowing smirk curled up his cheek. I looked at Mom, and her red hair bounced up and down as her head nodded in agreement. That was a little easier than I thought.

  “Great idea, Dad.” I forced a smile. My plan worked, so why did I feel so bad?

  I pushed the uneasy feeling away and finished the rest of my dinner. Pickle stood in the doorway, just waiting for bits of spaghetti and crumbs of bread to vacuum up with her little mouth. I tossed her the corner of my garlic bread, and she gobbled it up.

  After helping Mom with the dishes, which I totally did to alleviate any more suspicion, I headed back up to my bedroom to pack my overnight bag for the trip to Morlantown. When I got to the top of the stairs, Willie stood just outside my bedroom with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “What’s up?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible.

  Willie followed me into my room and shut the door behind us. I swallowed hard, afraid of why he was so serious. He had to know about the secret trip to Morlantown. My cheeks started to burn.

  “I know what you’re up to,” he stated matter-of-factly, his eyes in an I’m-on-to-you squint.

  Oh my goodness. He knew. This was totally over. He was going to tell Mom and Dad, and I would be grounded for, like, the rest of my life.

  I gulped hard. “Um … I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I turned my back to him so he wouldn’t see more of the red spreading across my face and down my neck. I pulled a few items of clothing from my drawers and shoved them in my purple overnight bag.

  “Come on, Poppy? You might have Mom and Dad fooled, but not me.” He swaggered toward me. “I know just as well as you do, that little science experiment is done in class.”

  Silence. I didn’t say a thing. Instead, I just replayed the conversation at dinner over in my head again and again. I played it pretty cool. Mom and Dad couldn’t have caught on. Right?

  Willie’s eyes narrowed. “Of course I’ve noticed your study session excuses all week.” He used the ai
r-quote thingies when he said the words “study session.”

  “Well, that’s what they are,” I answered. “We’re in seventh grade now. Don’t you remember all the homework you got?”

  I knew the answer to the question right after I asked it. Willie never did homework. He was one of those just-slide-by-C-students who was perfectly content being average.

  Willie sat down in the purple papasan chair in the corner of my room, something he’d never done before. Pickle growled at him as he took her favorite comfy spot. “Well, one of the unspoken rules of siblings is keeping secrets like this,” he said, leaning back in the chair with his hands crossed above his head in true comfort.

  “Secrets like what?” At this point, I didn’t think he was talking about the find-Logan’s-parents thing, but I still had no idea what he was thinking.

  “I’ve seen the way you and that Logan kid look at each other.” A mischievous smirk took up his entire face.

  I threw a few more items into my overnight bag and zipped it closed, totally avoiding eye contact with my brother.

  “Are you about ready, Poppy?” my dad’s voice bounced down the hall and right into my room. “It’s five till six.”

  “Be right down,” I yelled back. Thanks for the save, I thought.

  My brother took that as a cue to get up. A breath I didn’t know I held escaped from my mouth.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Your secret study sessions with your boyfriend are safe with me. I mean, I’ve been studying with Katie Ellerton for years.” He made those air quote thingies again around the word “studying.” I blushed, having a pretty good idea what Willie meant. At least he was far off from knowing what I was actually up to.

  “Thanks,” I said, kissing Pickle atop her head, pushing my way past Willie, and rushing down the stairs. “Just please don’t tell Mom and Dad.”

  Willie stood at the top of the steps. “No prob, Little Sis.”

  For my entire life, I always wished my brother and I were closer. But after that awkward exchange, I wasn’t so sure.