The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book One: The Hero Revealed (15 page)

We all groaned. Then I lifted it up to reveal behind it … the one and only remaining, genuine and original, Professor Brain-Drain card.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Homeroom Hysteria

Needless to say, everyone in our class that afternoon was incredibly jealous of us. We allowed the other kids to take a look at the Professor Brain-Drain card, but only from a safe distance. We didn’t want someone like the Spore getting mold all over the thing or Melonhead spitting seeds on it.

Even Miss Marble was impressed. During our last class of the day we told her how we had learned about there being only three cards and how we had found them using the clue we’d been given.

“Very clever,” she said. “And it would appear that you truly do have a very valuable item.”

“That shows her,” I heard Stench mumble under his breath.

“In fact,” she continued, “let’s try a little experiment to see just how valuable it is. Okay, class. How many of you would like to own one of these tiny scraps of flimsy cardboard, printed with a penny’s worth of ink to form an image of Professor Brain-Drain?”

Every hand in the class shot up. “Me, me, me!” they all shouted.

At this point Transparent Girl turned to me and offered me two dollars for the card, which, after all, she informed me, had only cost me a dollar. I told her to disappear completely and turned my attention back to Miss Marble.

“Tell me, Puddle Boy,” Miss Marble said, “how much would you be willing to pay for a card like this?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ten dollars?” he said hesitantly as a thin ripple spread across the pool beneath his desk.

“I’d pay twenty dollars,” offered the Human Sponge. She turned to the Spore and asked him if she could borrow twenty dollars.

“Twenty dollarth?!” Melonhead said, spraying seeds everywhere. “I’d give thirty, pluth my entire thet of Thouth Theath thea thellth!”

“I’d trade fifty dollars and my bike,” shouted Lobster Boy.

“The handlebars are all clawed up,” accused Cannonball as everyone in the class began to shout. “I’d give seventy-five dollars plus all my bowling trophies.”

“I’d give my allowance for an entire year,” the Banshee suddenly screeched.

We all plugged our ears and ducked just in case one of the windows shattered. Thankfully, the Banshee got ahold of herself and the shrieking subsided quickly.

“I’d trade all thirty-two of my Amazing Indestructo cards for just one Professor Brain-Drain card,” shouted Transparent Girl.

The fact that anyone could even utter such words brought first a gasp and then a crushing silence to the room.

“That’s crazy!” gasped the Human Sponge as she finally absorbed what Transparent Girl had said.

Everyone was shocked. Such disloyalty to AI was unthinkable. Why, he was the greatest superhero in Superopolis, which surely made his cards more valuable than—

“I would, too,” hollered Lobster Boy, breaking the tension.

“Tho would I,” agreed Melonhead.

“Me, too.” At least four other voices rang out in unison.

“I would trade them, too,” the Banshee screeched yet again.

As we all covered our ears for a second time, Miss Marble finally acted, and I felt my entire body freeze. She started to speak, but none of us except the Banshee could hear what she had to say because we had all been frozen with our hands over our ears. By the time Miss Marble’s power had worn off, everyone had finally calmed down.

“You’ve all just gotten a perfect example of the concept of scarcity,” she said. “In this classroom alone I count seventeen kids besides you five who want this Professor Brain-Drain card, but only one exists. As a result, the amount that someone is willing to pay for it increases beyond its actual cost. In fact, the more peo- ple there are who want something rare, the higher the price of that item will rise. That is how the value of anything is determined.”

“But this isn’t the only card,” I said, and immediately wished I hadn’t. The entire class turned toward me like a pack of hungry animals. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop talking now, or they probably would have ripped me apart.

“One of the three cards is right here.” I cautiously handed the card back to Stench. I knew he would be able to protect it. “Another one was destroyed at Lava Park. We think the last of the cards was at the arcade, but if it was, it was stolen before we confirmed it. But that means—”

“There’th thtill one card out there!” blurted Melonhead, seeds flying everywhere.

At exactly that moment, the bell rang. If anyone had been outside the classroom just then, he would have been trampled by seventeen stampeding junior heroes determined to find the last Professor BrainDrain card. The five of us who already had one got up to leave as well, but much more calmly. Miss Marble watched us as we headed for the door.

“Be careful with that card,” she said soberly as we filed past. “It could end up causing you an awful lot of trouble.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

TROUBLE INDEED

Keeping a close watch all around us, the gang and I headed straight for our headquarters. With something as valuable as what we were carrying, we needed to get it to safety as quickly as possible.

“Can you believe how crazy everyone is acting?” Plasma Girl said.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Tadpole responded. “We have the most valuable object ever in the entire history of the known universe.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s
that
valuable,” I countered.

“Of course it is,” said Stench. “You heard Miss Marble. She said it was worth a fortune.”

“She also said it could cause us a lot of trouble,” I pointed out. “So let’s be careful with it.”

As soon as we got to the tree house—I mean, headquarters—we climbed up and pulled the ladder in behind us. Taking our usual seats on the couch and chairs, we set the card down on the table between us. All of us just stared at it for at least five minutes, not saying a word. Finally, Tadpole broke the silence.

“Do you think it will be safe here?” he said.

“Safe?” Stench said, clearly insulted. “Of course it will be safe. No one’s ever gotten into this place that I didn’t want to get in.”

“You tell him, bro’.”

We all spun around, and there was Stench’s annoying older brother, Fuzz Boy. He must have come in before us and been hiding in the kitchen. I noticed that he was also now sporting a goatee that he must have created himself. As much as he’d like to think otherwise, he’s not old enough to shave yet.

But he’s definitely old enough to be irritating.

“How did you get in here?” Stench demanded as he got to his feet. “You know Dad said you’re supposed to keep out.”

“Take it easy, little whisker,” Fuzz Boy said soothingly. “I was just hiding out here until I was certain Mom had gone. She was threatening to haul me in for a haircut.”

“You really could use one, Fuzz Boy,” I spoke up. “How do you even see with so much hair hanging in your eyes?”

“The name is just Fuzz,” he said, pointing both index fingers at me and striking a pose that I think was supposed to look cool. “Drop the
Boy
, boy.”

“Get out of here, or I’ll drop you,” Stench hollered, clenching his fist as he stepped right up to his brother.

“Chill out, little one,” Fuzz Boy—er, excuse me,
Fuzz
—said as he swiftly stuck his finger under Stench’s chin as if to tickle him. The touch was slight, but it was enough to cause a small clump of hair to grow out almost three inches. “You know what they say—hair today, gone tomorrow.”

That was supposed to be the moment when Fuzz grabbed the rope ladder and made a smooth escape from the tree house. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize we’d pulled the ladder in. There was nothing for him to grab, and he ended up plunging almost ten feet down to the lawn below, letting out a high-pitched, girly scream in the process. It wasn’t exactly the graceful exit he had planned. Stench checked to see that he was okay, and then we all started laughing.

Unfortunately, Fuzz Boy’s unwanted presence had revealed a flaw in our plan.

“Well, so much for our supersafe headquarters,” Tadpole said snidely. “Now where do we put the card to protect it?”

“I could take it home and hide it inside some frilly outfit in my doll closet,” Plasma Girl offered—quite sensibly, in my opinion.

“I should keep it at my house,” Tadpole insisted loudly.

“It should stay with me,” Stench insisted. “I’m the strongest one and I can protect it.”

“No way, Stinky,” Tadpole said, facing Stench belligerently. He had never been mad enough to call Stench by that name before.

“Stop fighting, you two,” Plasma Girl interjected. “If anyone should take it home it’s O Boy. He’s the one who found it.”

“Keep out of it,” Tadpole and Stench turned to Plasma Girl and shouted simultaneously.

All three of them began screaming at one another. I glanced over at Hal who was silently staring off into space. I knew how he hated to see any of us fighting. So did I. Miss Marble’s final words to us were beginning to make an awful lot of sense. It was time for me to speak up.

“Everybody stop fighting,” I hollered. I wasn’t the Banshee, but I could yell when I had to.

There was an immediate silence, but before I could say anything, another voice spoke up.

“How about keeping it in the Hall of Trophies?” Halogen Boy suggested, indicating the upside-down aquarium. “It can go right next to our souvenir from the Mysterious Case of the Turning Doorknob.”

All three of them looked at Hal like he was an idiot, which really made me mad.

“Are you kidding?” Stench sputtered incredulously. “It would be right out in the open where anyone could take it!”

“What a lousy idea,” Tadpole seconded.

“I’m afraid I have to agree.” Plasma Girl shrugged.

“Actually, it’s a brilliant idea,” I said, making no attempt to hide how angry I was. We all knew Hal wasn’t as smart as the rest of us, but there was an unspoken rule that none of us would ever let him know we knew that.

Now I just had to figure out how to transform his idea into a brilliant solution.

NAME:
Halogen Boy.
POWER:
Able to illuminate himself to the intensity of the brightest light.
LIMITATIONS:
Requires apple juice to achieve maximum intensity.
CAREER:
On call for emergencies at the lighthouse on Hero’s Cape, Halogen Boy is also a member of the Junior Leaguers.
CLASSIFICATION:
We predict a bright future, in at least one respect.