Super Secret Series (Book 1): Super Model (4 page)

“No. No. No. No. NO!!”

It was after five and Audrey and I were out on the street in front of the Council building. Before we left, Miss Fine set up appointments for my assessments—one for that Friday and the other the following Monday.

Before she dismissed us, Miss Fine told Audrey that she’d have to be my Big Super for now but that once I’d taken the tests, she’d make sure I’d get a real one. And Audrey had been saying that one word to me ever since.

“But it’s only temporary. In a week when I’m done with those tests, you’ll be off the hook.”

“No! That’s what you said when you convinced me to come here in the first place! I’m not falling for it again!”

“But—”

Audrey cut me off. “I don’t want to be a Big Super, Kid. Didn’t you hear her in there? If you want to get into the Academy, you need to get with someone who can help you. And that’s not me.” She turned and started walking toward the 1 train’s subway stop.

I followed behind her, running to keep up. “But you were so great in there. You knew exactly how to get her to help me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even be getting a chance.”

Audrey shrugged but continued walking and didn’t look back at me. “I’ve dealt with her before. All she cares about are rules and her job and how things look. I guarantee she has no friends, no love life and no plans except to work until she dies. A note in her file would kill her.”

“See? You know stuff. You
have
to help me.”

Audrey stopped short and whirled around. I almost ran into her again. “Look, Kid, I’ve done my part to help you. Now you’ve got to leave me alone. I have to get uptown for a dinner appointment. If I’m late, I’ll never hear the end of it.” She turned and stalked away from me, into the subway entrance.

I stood there in the January evening cold, watching her walk away from me. Something—call it a glitch or fate or whatever—had brought us together. Me, a wannabe Super with no powers, and her, a Super who knew what it was like to be mediocre. That had to mean something. And now she was walking away from me.

What now?
I asked myself. But I already knew what I had to do.

I waited a second and then followed her down into the subway.

“You’re terrible at following people.” The train was packed but Audrey spotted me pretty quickly. Once she did, I wiggled through the crowds and found a spot next to her. She tried to ignore me but finally couldn’t help herself. She still wouldn’t look at me, though.

I shrugged. “Well maybe if you would teach me this stuff, I’d learn. This is why I want to go,” I paused and looked around, “you-know-where. Help me!”

“I already told you that I can’t. Where are your parents? Go ask them to help you. And wouldn’t they be worried about you following a strange woman around?”

“My parents have nothing to do with this.” It wasn’t a lie. My mother literally had no idea. And my dad was gone. He couldn’t help me with anything now. It was Audrey or nothing. “And stop treating me like a kid. You adults think that just because you’ve lived longer that you can treat anyone younger than you like we don’t matter. I’m a person just like you, you know.”

Audrey snorted but didn’t correct me. My phone buzzed a couple of times during the ride. It was Mom. She’d texted me a couple of times since I’d left school. Now she was calling me every few minutes. I turned off my phone and buried it in my backpack.

“Looks like somebody is looking for you, Kid. Maybe it’s time to pack it up and head home,” Audrey said, looking out of the window instead of at me.

“My name is not kid,” I gritted through my teeth. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s Penelope. What kind of name is that anyway? Sounds like the name of someone’s pet pig.”

“What kind of name is Audrey?” I threw back. “What happened? Did you fall out of a time machine or something?”

Audrey gave me the bird and went back to staring out of the window for the rest of the ride.

“Why are you still following me?”

Audrey got off at the Ninety-sixth St stop and walked along Broadway, making a right on Ninety-fourth St. By then it was dark. I followed behind, close enough to have a casual conversation with shouting.

“Just agree to help me and I’ll go away. I mean, for now,” I added as I took a few extra steps to catch up with her. “We’ll obviously have to meet up later to figure out a plan.”

“It was a glitch, Kid! A mistake. You really shouldn’t be putting all of your eggs in one glitch.”

“But. . .” I lowered my voice. “I had a vision about you. I saw your apartment and your name. And
then
I got the letter. That’s a sign. I know you’re supposed to help me.”

But Audrey wasn’t impressed at all. “No. I don’t care if you’re a psychic or something. I don’t care what your tea leaves told you. The answer is no.”

“Why not?”

“You know this is how little girls get kidnapped all the time, right?”

I ignored her. I’d done too many out-of-the-ordinary things in the past twenty-four hours to be worried now. “Where are you going anyway?”

“Some place you’re not invited.”

“Audrey, all I want you to do is help me a little bit. Just tell me what the assessments are like so I’ll know what to expect.”

“Uggghhh!” she cried. “Just leave me alone!” She slowed her stroll in front of a brownstone. “This is my parents’ place. I have a family dinner that I’m supposed to be at, like, right now.”

“Do you parents know you’re a Super?”

She gave me a funny look. “Of course they do! But they have enough—”

The door at the top of the stoop opened and a large man with reddish brown curls in a half moon around his head appeared. “Audrey? What are you doing? Who is that?”

Audrey turned and walked up the stairs. “Hey, Dad. I was just about to come in. And this is nobody.”

Her dad looked over her shoulder at me. “Hi, Nobody. Are you coming for dinner, too?”

“No!” Audrey said just as I said, “Yes!”

Her dad looked at both us curiously. “Well come in, then.” Audrey trudged through the door. I gave her dad a bright smile and followed behind.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend, Audrey?”

Audrey hadn’t spoken another word to me since we got inside, even though we’d stood next to each other as we took off our scarves, gloves, and coats to hang up in the front hallway. Her dad walked deeper into the house and called out that Audrey had brought someone with her.

I trailed behind her as she made her way through a living room area into an adjoining dining room. Around the table were a bunch of people in the middle of an intense conversation about somebody’s cat being pregnant. Audrey didn’t bother to greet any of them. She just sat down in a chair and I sat right next to her.

The table was full. Across from us was a woman that looked like an older, more put together version of Audrey. She was sitting next to a big guy with a blond crew cut. At the end of the table, a woman that must have been Audrey’s mother looked at me curiously. It was her that asked Audrey about me.

“No.” Audrey took the bowl of mashed potatoes from the center of the table, slapped a huge helping onto her plate with a thud, and then passed the bowl to me.

“I’m Penny,” I said, taking the bowl from her and giving her a pointed look. “It’s nice to meet you guys. I hope Audrey introduces you all to me.”

“Oh my God,” Audrey moaned through a mouthful of food. “This is my mother, Mrs. Hart. That’s my dad, Mr. Hart. That’s my sister, Ella. That’s her. . . Rodney.” Then she pointed at me. “And
this
is my stalker, who Dad just let in the house like he doesn’t care about my safety or wellbeing.”

Ella rolled her eyes. “Are you saying this little girl is making you feel unsafe?”

“If she was it wouldn’t matter to you guys. You’ll let anybody in here.”

“No, I wouldn’t. And if she gets out of line, I think I can take her.” Her Dad winked at me. “Let me know if you’re about to attack Audrey, Penny. I gotta protect my daughter. I think they told me that at the hospital when we agreed to take her home with us.”

I laughed. “I’m actually her Little Super.” Before I could get the words all the way out of my mouth, Audrey kicked me under the table hard. “Owwwww!” I cried but Audrey just glared at me and shook her head.

Rodney looked confused. “What’s a ‘little super’?”

Everyone at the table froze. Then Ella stepped in. “Oh it’s just some inner city youth mentorship program that Audrey is completely unqualified to participate in. Sweetie, I was supposed to bring back that paint swatch to my mother but I think I left it in the car. Can you go get it for me?”

“Sure, Babe. Where is it in the car?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Check everywhere. The glove compartment. The trunk. The engine. Everywhere.” Rodney nodded and lumbered out of the room.

As soon as the front door clicked shut, everyone at the table was talking at once.

“You can’t talk about that kind of thing in front of Rodney. We’ll all get a Council inquiry!”

“
You
signed up to be a mentor? Why? How did you even get through the vetting process?”

“The
first
thing you should teach your Little Super is not to talk about being a Super with civilians.”

Finally, Audrey cut through all of it. “Hey, hey, HEY! I didn’t sign up! It was some mistake and this kid has been following me ever since.”

Then she turned to me. “And never talk about Super stuff unless you know you’re among Supers.”

“But I thought you were all Supers.”

“We’re all Supers.” She gestured to everyone around the table. Then she pointed at the door, meaning Rodney. “He’s not.”

“How was I supposed to know?”

“You
don’t
know until you know. So unless you know, keep your mouth shut. The way you’re going, you’ll lose your license before you even get it.”

“How could you get assigned a Little Super if you never signed up for one, Audrey?” her dad asked. “You need to go down there and get this sorted out.”

“I did! But they won’t assign her a new Big Super until she’s done with entrance assessments to the Academy. She hasn’t even been accepted yet. She might not even get in.”

“Hey!” I felt the panic bubbling in my stomach. “I’m definitely going to get in. Even if I have to take the tests a bunch of times. It’s very important to me. My father was a Super.” I said the last part like it would explain it explained everything but I could tell by the look on their faces that it didn’t explain anything.

Mrs. Hart looked concerned. “Was?”

“H-he died last year,” I stammered. “But he taught me a lot before he did. And he started the process for me to go to the Academy. And I’m going to finish it.”

“I’m sure you are, dear,” Mrs. Hart explained. “But you should know that when someone doesn’t do well enough on the entrance assessments to go to the school, the Council does a mind wipe on them.”

“Mind wipe?”

“All civilians who get exposed to Super matters get wiped. Anytime someone catches a Super flying or stumbles upon the Council or accidentally gets some information they shouldn’t have, the Council sends someone to wipe any memories of it away.”

All of my memories of being a Super involved my dad. I felt a sudden sharp pain in my chest. I didn’t want
any
of my memories of dad gone. They’d have to kill me to get them. “But, they can’t do that.”

“And
that’s
how I know you’re not a Super yet.” Audrey said. “The Council can do whatever they want. I’m surprised your dad didn’t tell you that,” she added.

Just then, Rodney came back. “Um, it’s not in the car, babe,” he said to Ella.

“Oh don’t worry about it, Rodney,” Mrs. Hart said. “Let’s have some dessert. Audrey, help me with these plates.”

And that’s when I remembered that I hadn’t called or texted my mom back. The clock over the mantle to the right said it was almost seven. I’d turned my phone off on the subway but she was probably losing her mind. “I have to make a call,” I said to the table. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where have you been? You missed dinner!” My mother was in full freak out mode when she answered the phone. She’d already sent me a million text messages and filled up my voicemail box.

Reading her increasingly worried texts, I wished I could just explain that I hadn’t made it home for dinner because I had to go down to the Council headquarters to discuss some mix ups with my acceptance into the Council Academy. And then I’d followed my reluctant Big Super home to have dinner with her family. But even without the warnings from Audrey and her family inside, I knew that confessing this to my mother was the last thing I could do.

I took a deep breath. “Mom, I told you. I’m at the library studying. I turned off my phone so I could focus and forgot to turn it back on.” I shivered a bit, partly because I hadn’t bothered to put on my coat and partly because I was definitely lying a lot. This was becoming a habit.

“It’s already seven. It’s time to come home. You need to eat and get some rest for school tomorrow. I’ll come pick you—”

“No! I mean. . . I’m here with some friends. We took a break for burgers a while back so I’m not hungry. And you’re the one that has to get up early to open the diner. You need your rest. I’ll get a ride home with one of the other kids. I’ll be home soon.” I knew the idea of me with friends would make her feel better.

She calmed down but she still sounded tired. “Fine, my love. But you need your rest, too.”

“That’s funny coming from you. You work harder than anyone I know.”

“That’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m a mother. I love you. See you soon.”

I said my goodbyes, hung up, and turned around to go back inside. But Audrey already was standing right behind me, wearing her coat, scarf, and gloves, and loaded down with a tote bag full of Tupperware containers.

She had an uncomfortable look on her face and I knew she had heard my conversation. I kinda expected her to give me grief over it but all she said was “Dessert goes fast in this house. Here.” She handed me a little container of chocolate cake. “That’s my mom’s Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate cake. She wanted you to take some of it home. And she made me promise not to eat it so if anyone asks, you make sure to tell them I didn’t.”

I opened the container. “There’s a bite taken out of it.”

“Oh shut up and take your coat. It’s cold out here.” She handed me my coat and watched me put all my winter gear on.

While I was getting bundled up, I said, “You’re lucky, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, all of that.” I gestured up to her parents’ place. “Your family.”

“Um. OK. Sure.” Audrey struggled to balance her leftovers. “How long has your dad been. . .” She trailed off without finishing her question.

“Four months.” I tried not to let her hear the lump in my throat but I was sure I failed big time. Audrey nodded and looked away. I took her silence as an opportunity to finally tell her the truth. “I need you, Audrey.”

She let out a weary sigh. “Kid. . .”

“I need you to help me. My dad was a Super like you and your family. And he thought I was a Super, too. He wanted me to go to Super school but he didn’t get too far in the process before he died. And now I have to finish it on my own.”

“What about your mom?”

I shook my head. “She’s not a Super and she doesn’t know about any of this.”

“And you can’t tell her,” Audrey finished for me.

“Exactly. So, I’m pretty much on my own. That’s why I was so excited when I got that letter. I thought there was finally someone I could tell about my situation.”

“But what am I supposed to do?”

“Just walk me through the process.”

“Penny, I don’t know if you were paying attention today,” Audrey started, “But I am not your best bet on this. I am probably the worst Super in the city.”

“And that’s exactly why I need you. You know how to do this without being good at it. And Miss Fine says you barely have any powers.”

“Hey I’ve got powers!” She sounded a little offended. “I can regenerate. It’s actually pretty damn cool. I’d show you again right now but I don’t want to get blood on my leftovers. I’m not that great at using them but I get the job done” .

“Exactly. So you’ll know how to help me because. . .” I paused. The words didn’t want to leave my mouth. “Because. . .”

“Just spit out, Kid!”

“I don’t have any powers.”

Audrey put her hands over her mouth in shock, dropping her bag of leftovers in the process, but I still heard her behind her gloves. “Oh, shit!”

One time when I was little, I went to a sleepover at a friend’s house and we watched a movie called
Train
. The movie was about some college kids traveling on a train through Europe. They get kidnapped and tortured in increasingly gruesome ways for about an hour and a half. At home I wasn’t allowed to watch those types of movies and about twenty minutes into it, I realized why.

I couldn’t get the images out of my head. I couldn’t sleep for days. After a week, my parents were ready to take me to a doctor because I wasn’t eating, sleeping, or speaking much. And I had a look on my face that said I’d seen too much and I didn’t know how to process it.

That’s exactly the way Audrey looked after I told her my secret. I explained the whole thing to her from the beginning—how I had that dream about the bus and how my dad told me about being a Super and how I never had another vision again until I had the one about her.

She sat down the stairs outside her parents’ house and didn’t say anything for a full ten minutes. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well? Are you gonna say something?”

“Don’t do this,” Audrey blurted out. “I’ve worked with Miss Fine before and she was this close to taking my Super license from me. She’s not gonna let you slide. Her name is Elphaba for God’s sake!”

That confused me. “What does her name have to do with it?”

“She’s had to walk around here being called that all of her life. She’s got a chip on her shoulder. She’s not doing anyone any favors, Penny!” Audrey’s voice had gotten higher and more hysterical.

But I didn’t care. “Just help me. Please!”

“What makes you think I can help you?”

“You’re my Big Super. I need a role model,” I stammered. “And I need to figure out how to get my powers working.”

“Well, you just told me about two visions you had. It sounds more like you’re just behind where you should be. Like, you need some remedial classes or something.”

I ignored that. “So you think I’ll develop powers as I get older?”

“I don’t know! Visions aren’t what I do. I know about super fast healing. I get hit by a car at least six times a year. But that’s not going to help you!” Audrey finished by opening my container of cake and starting to eat it.

“Hey! That’s mine.”

“I stress eat! And you are stressing me the hell out right now.”

I patiently waited for Audrey to eat my cake before I spoke again. “Well? What are we gonna do?”

Audrey took a deep breath. “I don’t know, man. I think you might be really screwed.”