Poppy Mayberry, a New Day

by Jennie K. Brown

  Ten minutes later, I was at Ellie’s house, and the biggest adventure of my life was about to begin.

  Chapter Nine

  The only streets in Nova run through town itself, not in and out. So if anyone wants to leave, they have to take the only form of transportation—the train.

  The no-roads-leaving-Nova thing doesn’t matter too much, though, because people rarely leave the confines of our magical town. For as long as I could remember, Mayor Masters had always boasted, “The town of Nova is so quaint and so perfect, what reason would we have to leave or go anywhere else?” She’d say this at town meetings, before the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at the beginning of the holiday season in the center square, and during the opening remarks at the annual fall festival. I’d heard it here and there on the first day of school address and before the curtain raised at school musical programs. Sometimes she’d add, “Plus, what’s the point of leaving when you can’t reveal your weekday powers anywhere else?” Now that I thought about it, she told us the same thing at every single event where a crowd of Nova people gathered.

  She did have two valid points, though. Up until this time in my life, I never really considered leaving Nova. But now that we knew Logan’s parents were living outside the Nova city limits (I sure hoped so at least), that raised a few questions.

  This whole situation wasn’t sitting well with me. So there I was, doing the most unlike-Poppy thing ever. Leaving my precious little Pickle behind for a few days. Sneaking out of town. And worst of all—lying to my parents.

  “We only have a few minutes,” Ellie said, breaking me from my stream of thoughts. “We’re doing it for the right reasons,” she reassured me. “The boys will meet us at the station.”

  Logan, Sam, and Mark took a page from my book and told their parents they were staying at one another’s house to work on the science project for the weekend. Ellie’s parents were spending the weekend at the Nova Luxe Spa on the other side of town, so we didn’t have to worry about them. And on that note—who would leave a 12-year-old home alone for an entire weekend? Ellie’s parents, that’s who. After Ellie’s mom found out she was a Monday just like her, their relationship got better for like two seconds. I felt bad for Ellie. It was like her mother didn’t even notice she was around. As much as I hated to say it though, it worked out to our benefit in this case.

  Ellie and I met the boys at the Nova train station. As soon as I stepped foot on the platform, my legs totally buckled underneath me.

  “Whoa,” Logan said, catching me before my entire body crashed into the pavement.

  “Are you okay, Poppy?” Ellie’s forehead creased in concern.

  I stood up shakily. “I’ve just never been on a train before.” The fear and enormity about what we were about to do rushed through me.

  You don’t have to go, Poppy, Logan thought. His eyes burned into mine. It’s okay, he added and then squeezed my hand.

  “No. There are just too many unanswered questions about … well … everything.” I looked at the four friends in front of me. “We do this together,” I said, nodding my head forward.

  Logan brushed a few strands of spirally strawberry hair from my face. “I’m glad you’re with me.”

  “Come on, you two!” Mark urged.

  We moved to the end of the platform to where a ticket kiosk stood. I used the money I earned from being a Power Academy counselor from last summer and bought my first ticket out of Nova.

  “Well, that was easy.” Ellie shrugged.

  I heard the chugging of the train barreling down the track. My hair whooshed around my face with the wind of the giant steel train as it came screeching to a halt in front of us.

  “All aboard?” the conductor yelled, but he said it more like a question. I had a feeling people in Nova truly never left. The conductor looked the five of us over from head to toe, and as the door slid closed behind us, he let out a, “Hmmm.”

  What’s up with him? Ellie thought.

  Beats me, I responded.

  We sat down, and the black seat felt cold and hard under my butt. I immediately warmed up when Logan took the seat next to me. He pointed to a map above my head. “Looks like we’re seven stops away from Morlantown.”

  “How far do you think it is?” Ellie asked.

  Sam pulled a tiny book from his pocket. He unfolded it, and I read the word “atlas” on the cover. I chucked inside.

  “I didn’t realize people still used those,” Ellie snarked. She pointed a black fingernail at him.

  Sam did something he’d become used to doing over the past two years—he ignored her. He studied the map and then pushed his glasses up his nose. “That’s better,” Sam said, as light instantly emanated from his fingertips. “It looks like it’s about seventy miles from here.”

  “You can’t do that!” Ellie shouted.

  Logan snatched the map from Sam’s hands.

  “What?” Sam raised his hands in surrender.

  “We aren’t supposed to use our powers outside of Nova,” I reiterated. “What if people saw?” I looked around the train car. There was nobody there. “Oh,” I said.

  “Nova is where the train starts, so no one will get on until the next stop,” Mark said matter-of-factly.

  Phew!

  “What do you think would happen if you guys used your weekday powers?” Mark asked. We looked at one another in silence. Our entire lives we’d been told not to use our powers outside the city limits. But in order for that opportunity to even happen, we’d have to leave Nova. Something hardly anybody had done.

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t think I want to find out,” Logan answered.

  Suddenly, visions of being magical freaks locked behind bars in a carnival filled my mind.

  Then a weird feeling crept over me … almost as if someone were watching. I glanced around the car again and leaned back in my seat once I was satisfied it was just the five of us. This whole sneaking around thing was making me paranoid. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I didn’t wake up until the whistle sounded at our stop. Our first time outside the town we’d lived in for the past almost-thirteen years.

  “Arrival at Morlantown,” a man shouted on the overhead speaker.

  The metal and glass doors slid open, and we walked into the crisp air of a new town—the weight of the world suddenly feeling heavy on my shoulders.

  Chapter Ten

  The first thing I noticed after stepping off the train platform was the fact that this place—Morlantown—looked nothing like the quaint town of Nova.

  “Gheesh,” Ellie said, as almost a dozen or so people rushed past us to make the train before it departed. She grabbed at the strands of hair whooshing back from the wind created by the on-coming passengers’ quickness.

  “That’s weird.” Sam gestured toward a man sitting in the corner of the station. The man wore a dirty jacket that looked to be two sizes too small. There were holes in his pants, and he held a cardboard sign.

  Will work for food. Or money.

  Or shelter.

  I frowned, realizing he was one of the homeless people we’d read about. Just another reason Mayor Masters was always so adamant about people not leaving Nova. “There are scary people out there,” she’d say about any town away from our town. But I wouldn’t call this man scary. Something rattled my stomach—I felt sad for him. Although there was inequity in Nova when it came to powers, people didn’t starve or have to beg. I looked to Mark. Even Saturdays and Sundays lived normal lives.

  “Come on, Poppy.” Ellie grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and pulled so hard I thought it might rip off.

  “Just wait a sec,” I said, as my eyes met the man’s. “Can’t we just give him something?” I walked over to him and pushed a dollar into the shoebox that sat in front of him.

  “Bless you,” he said through a toothless grin.

  “Come on.” This time it was Logan pulling on my sleeve. “We need to get our beari
ngs straight.”

  Sam rubbed his belly as a sound bellowed from it. “And I need to eat some food,” he said, giving Ellie an embarrassed look. Now it was her turn to pretend not to notice.

  “What about that place over there?” Mark pointed toward a neon sign reading “Ice Cream and More.”

  “Perfect.” I smiled at him.

  We walked into the Ice Cream and More shop, and the first thing I noticed was that it looked just like Novalicious. Big vats of soft-serve ice cream lined the walls, and a buffet of add-ons (including gummy bears, all kinds of chocolate, crushed up cookies, and sprinkles in every color of the rainbow) were displayed next to the cashier. For a split second, I totally forgot we weren’t standing in the middle of Novalicious in Nova. But one glance around and a lack of weekday power usage reminded me we weren’t in Nova anymore.

  “What can I get you?” the man behind the counter asked without an ounce of enthusiasm. Okay—he was most definitely not like the bubbly servers at Novalicious who used their telekinetic powers to scoop the ice cream and send orders flying across the room.

  We ordered our ice cream, added on the fixings (totally boring-like, by hand), and then sat down.

  “Logan—you’re being pretty quiet,” Sam said between bites of peanut-butter-ripple-fudge-dripping goodness.

  Logan shrugged in response.

  And who could blame him for being quiet? Two months ago, he was living a normal life—well, semi-normal considering our powers—and then all of a sudden, he found a note that totally flipped his world upside down. Not to mention the fact he could be extremely close to meeting his thought-to-be-dead parents. How else did Sam expect him to act?

  “This hits the spot.” Mark shoved two more spoonsful into his mouth. A drop of brown hot fudge dribbled down his chin.

  Before any of us had the chance to say a word, Ellie ever so delicately lifted her freshly manicured fingers and pointed to the napkins on a table a good five feet away. I watched what happened next in slow motion. The top napkin lifted from the pile and floated across the restaurant and into Ellie’s fingers.

  Logan caught on quick, and he fake-fell from the chair, taking all attention away from the total faux-pas Ellie just made.

  Soon the commotion died down. “Ellie!” I whisper-yelled. “What were you thinking?”

  My eyes darted frantically around the restaurant to see if anyone else noticed. I was satisfied when I saw people were more worried about Logan falling off his chair than anything else. Everybody, that is, except for a little girl with pigtails who sat in the corner. Her mouth hung open so wide it looked like she was about to bite into a ginormous hamburger. Then the little girl pulled the strap on her mother’s brown leather purse.

  “Mommy,” she said, tugging even harder while her mother placed an order. “Mommy! I just saw that girl over there.” The little girl pointed at Ellie. “She did magic, Mommy! I saw that girl do magic!” Her eyes widened as her mother finally looked over at Ellie.

  The mother chuckled. “You and your imagination, Hazel,” the mother responded, patting her little daughter on the head and then shooting a sympathetic smile in Ellie’s direction.

  Ellie walked over to the young girl who now stared up at Ellie in awe.

  “I had quite the imagination at your age too,” she said. “I sure wish I had magical powers though.” Ellie smiled at the dark-eyed little girl.

  “Thank you,” the mother said, pulling on Hazel’s arm. “Now you know magic isn’t real.” They stood. “You kids aren’t from here, are you?” she asked.

  “No, ma’am,” Mark answered quickly. “We’re from Nova,” he added.

  I swallowed hard, curious what her response would be.

  “Hmm,” the mother muttered. “Never heard of it,” she said as her daughter tugged on the sleeve of her jacket. Never heard of a town just 70 miles away? The mother swiveled toward her young daughter. “Yes, well, let’s get you to your dance rehearsal.” She turned toward us. “Enjoy your stay in Morlantown.”

  Phew. We dodged that one.

  Logan turned toward Ellie as the door closed behind them. “Ellie, you have to be more careful,” he said firmly.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Ellie asked in a huff. “I’m just so darn used to using my powers whenever I want. It’s a hard habit to break at the snap of a finger.” Ellie snapped her fingers for effect. But the snapping noise didn’t sound. I laughed inside.

  “Honest mistake,” Sam said reassuringly.

  “I think it will be a struggle for all of us,” I added, and then looked awkwardly at Mark.

  “Except for me,” he said with a smile. At least he took his lack of a weekday power well. Too bad his mother didn’t accept it.

  “Guys?” I asked. “Nova’s only a few towns over, how could that lady have never heard of it?”

  It got silent.

  “I’m not really sure,” Sam finally said with a shrug.

  This was just odd. I glanced around Ice Cream and More to notice how normal everything was. There was a family two booths away happily licking on their ice cream cones. A few blobs of melted cream fell from the little boy’s spoon onto the table below. His mother wiped a napkin over the mess and cleaned it up effortlessly. No need for magical powers.

  An older couple linked arms and walked out the front door. Bells jingled as the door closed. No Tuesday or Friday power needed.

  And then there were the two little girls who reached for the spoon to scoop gummy bears. Even on their tallest of tippy-toes, their little fingers couldn’t quite reach. A man grabbed the spoon for them and scooped some of the gummy treats on top of their already sugar-coated sundaes. Again—no need for a Monday power.

  “It doesn’t seem to be much of a struggle for them,” Ellie said.

  I smiled slightly. “Should we get going?”

  “Let me just get another scoop.” Mark made his way to the counter.

  “We’ll meet you right outside,” Logan responded.

  Ellie pulled the door open. “Where are we off to anyway?” she asked as we stepped outside. The cool fall air kissed my face.

  “Allow me,” Sam said, once again pulling the tiny atlas out of his pocket. “I’m ready for the address when you are.” He looked up to Logan.

  Logan’s forehead creased as he searched his pockets. “I know I had it right here,” he said, unzipping and zipping the pockets in his book bag now resting on a bench. His hands frantically searched the smaller pockets on the sides. “This can’t be happening.”

  “Let me look, too,” I offered. After pulling out a few pencils, balled-up math equations from Mr. Salmon’s class, and about three dollars in change, I gave up.

  Sam grabbed the bag and searched it himself by holding it upside down and shaking it violently. “You should have put it in your jeans pocket. Keep it close to the body,” he offered, zippering closed the final pocket after he was satisfied no address was in there.

  But Logan didn’t like his suggestion. “You think I don’t realize that now?” Logan shouted. He pushed a shaking hand through his hair and sat down on the bench outside the ice cream shop.

  “Hello? Can’t you just teleport home and get it really quick?” Ellie suggested.

  Logan frowned. “My power is strong, but there’s no way my Tuesday power will work this far away from home,” he said.

  “Then how will we ever find your parents?” Sam asked.

  Great. Here we were, four of the most powerful weekdays who couldn’t even use their powers, stranded in the middle of a new town, with no address and no directions. Even if we could use our powers in this unfamiliar situation, it’s not as if they would do us any good.

  “So what do we do next?” I asked.

  Logan sighed. “We go home.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “No!” I demanded. “I refuse to go home. All we have to do is ask around.”

  I watched people passing by and decided o
ur task would be a little easier said than done. Morlantown residents rushed down the sidewalk, probably hurrying home, or to a late dinner, or who knows where. Here we were, just a bunch of 12-year-olds in a sea of people we didn’t even recognize.

  “I can’t believe we came all this way,” Logan paused, “just to have me screw it all up.”

  “Could we look it up?” Ellie asked. “There has to be an address book somewhere in this town.”She gestured to a sign to our right that read “Morlantown Public Library” with a blue arrow pointing to the right.

  “That won’t work,” I stated matter-of-factly. While Sam dug around Logan’s backpack one more time, I did a quick search on my phone using their names, and nothing popped up.

  “So do you think they are using another name?” I asked.

  “Possibly,” Logan said.

  I took a seat next to Logan on the bench.

  “Oh. But why?” Ellie asked.

  Logan ignored the question.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” I bumped his shoulder. “It’s an honest mistake.”

  “Do you have any idea what it could be?”

  Logan looked up at me with eyes that looked like Pickle’s when she begged for a treat. He had no clue.

  “Maybe there’s some sort of clue in the note they left,” Ellie offered hopefully.

  Logan shook his head. I read it, just as I was sure Ellie did, and there was nothing at all in that letter.

  “So I guess we just get on the train back to Nova and try again another time,” Sam said.

  Mark reappeared with another cone of chocolate ice cream. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Well … Logan here lost the address,” Sam huffed, putting his hands up in the air. They came crashing down at his side.

  “Hey, guys—” Mark began.

  “Do you actually think I did it on purpose?” Logan spat back at Sam.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized maybe this whole thing wasn’t meant to be. I mean, I had to lie to my parents to even start this journey. And if Logan’s parents were gone for ten years, what’s a little bit longer? We would get back to Nova, have time to come up with a real plan, and then try again. This whole thing was kind of spontaneous.