The Society of Super Secret Heroes (15 page)

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Authors: Phyllis Shalant

BOOK: The Society of Super Secret Heroes
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“I'll look it up,” he said stiffly.
“Okay. I've got to go now—my mom's waiting. Bye, Finny!”
Finch tried to smile, but he could only grit his teeth. He turned his back and peered into his pack.
“Fin, is everything okay?” his mother asked from behind him.
“No—my homework pad is missing.”
Mrs. Mundy sighed. “Look around the floor. You probably dropped it somewhere.”
Finch checked in the kneehole of his teacher's desk and under the table that held the crab tank. He looked on the bookshelves, in the Banking Center, and beneath the Art table. He even poked in the garbage can. “Quell, quell the speechless spell!” he chanted. “Cape, where are you?”
The only thing he heard was his own fast breathing.
His mother had her car keys out as she approached him. “Maybe someone picked it up by mistake. I'm sure whoever has it will return it Monday.”
“No! I mean I need it to do my homework.”
“It's Friday night. Tomorrow you can call one of the guys for the assignment. Now let's go. It's getting late.”
“I can't leave!' Finch yelled. “I've got to find it.”
His father joined them. “Is something wrong, Fin?”
“My notepad is gone.”
“I'm sure it will turn up,” Mrs. Mundy said. “Don't be unreasonable.”
Finch clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I need to keep looking.”
“Elaine, if you want to go home, I'll search with him a little while longer,” Mr. Mundy offered.
“Would you? Thanks. I'm bushed.” Mrs. Mundy pecked the top of Fin's head. “See you later.”
 
Fin and his dad traced the route along the corridor from the classroom to the gym. The custodian, Mr. Paul, let them into the front office to search the Lost and Found box. In the boys' room they checked the stalls. Fin didn't find the cape.
“I think we've looked everywhere. Let's go home, buddy,” Mr. Mundy finally said.
Finch hung his head. He felt as if he were going to cry. As they walked out of the building, his father put an arm around him. “What was in your notepad, anyway? It wasn't just homework, was it?”
Something in his father's voice made Fin feel as though he could tell the truth. “I didn't really lose my notepad. I lost my cape.”
“The old one with the lightning bolts?” His father looked surprised, but not like he thought it was funny.
“Yeah,” Finch said. He didn't try to explain. To his relief, his dad didn't ask him to. They got into Mr. Mundy's station wagon and drove in silence for a while.
“Your teacher told me you're the first friend he's made here,” Mr. Mundy said finally. “He thinks you have an unusual ability to empathize with people and hermit crabs.”
“What does
empathize
mean?”
“It means you're a caring, understanding kid.” Pete Mundy reached across and ran a hand over Fin's hair.
Fin felt like a giant rat. He couldn't believe his dad was saying nice things after the way he'd behaved tonight.
“I've got an idea. How about sleeping over at the apartment? Lisa makes great pancakes, and after breakfast, you and I could take Jake to the park. I could call your mom right now.”
“I don't really feel like it tonight.”
“Listen. I'm sorry I haven't shown it lately, but I think you're a really special kid. I know I've been wrapped up in Jake. I just wanted to give him a good start, so he grows up to be a superhero like you.”
Fin closed his eyes. His dad had it wrong—he wasn't special. And without the Thinking Cape he definitely wasn't a superhero.
23
AN URGENT MISSION
At seven o'clock in the morning, Fin knocked lightly on Elliott's front door. “Hi, take off your shoes,” Elliott whispered as he opened the door to his apartment. “My mom likes to sleep late on Saturday.”
With one hand, Fin patted El's big golden retriever, Peewee. With the other he yanked off his sneakers. Then the boys slid down the narrow hall in their sweat socks. The dog trotted after them.
Raj and Kev were already in Elliott's room. The guys all knew about the missing cape. Finch had called them after his dad dropped him off, even though it was late.
“It's going to be okay,” Raj said as Finch settled down by the door. “The cape survived for a thousand years. It can take care of itself till we get it back.”
“I bet Thorn has it,” Kev announced. “He was smirking when he asked if you had a towel, remember?”
Finch shrugged deeply. “But my backpack was in the classroom with us all the time. I don't see how Thorn could have taken the cape out without someone seeing him.”
Raj extracted a deck of mini-playing cards from his pocket and displayed the jack of spades. “My magician's book says anything is possible through the art of distraction.” He tossed the card up in the air and caught it. But when he opened his fist, the card had turned into the king of diamonds.
“Are you sure you brought the cape to Back to School Night?” Kev asked. “Maybe you forgot to pack it.”
Finch nodded. “I'm sure. It was being kind of a pain.”
“There's something I don't get,” Raj said as he toyed with a mini-card in his hand. “If the cape was being stolen, why wouldn't it have called you for help?”
Finch hung his head. “It couldn't. I got mad because it kept trying to make me apologize to my dad for something I'd said. So I put the speechless spell on it.”
“But I still don't see why those guys would even look in your backpack,” Elliott said as he rubbed Peewee's soft muzzle. “No one but us knew you kept the cape in it, right?”
Ugg! Finch squeezed his eyes shut as a memory flashed before him. “Bud came to Mimi's yard sale with his older brother, Ollie. He saw me put the cape in my backpack after it accidentally almost got sold. He might have heard me talking to it.”
Kev leaped up. “Let's go over to Bud's right now. We'll make him give it back! If he doesn't have it, we'll go to Thorn's.”
Raj adjusted his glasses on his nose. “We can't just knock on their doors and demand it without proof that one of them took it. Besides, we might only make things worse. They could decide to throw it away somewhere we'll never find it.”
Finch had a vision of Thorn and Bud on a boat in the middle of the ocean. They were about to drop the cape into the water when a copper bottle floated up to the surface.
“I bet there's a jinni in there!” Thorn exclaimed. “If we catch it, we can make it give us three wishes.”
The scorpion and the dung beetle flung the cape overboard so they could reach for the bobbing bottle. But before it hit the water, a gust of wind whipped up. Like a strange green bird, the cape was sent flying toward land.
“Yes!” Fin murmured.
Raj shook his shoulder. “Yes, what? Are you okay?”
Fin blinked. “Yeah. I was just thinking. You were right about the cape being able to take care of itself. But we're still going to get it back.”
“How?” Elliott whispered.
“By doing what the cape would want us to do,” Fin said. He'd never felt more certain or more determined in his life. “We're going to outsmart Thorn and Bud. We've got to.”
 
“You got an e-mail,” Mimi said when Fin got home.
“Who is Anthony Burns? And what did he mean about a party?”
“You read my e-mail?” Finch pushed past her and ran to the computer room. His sister followed right behind him.
“So? What kind of secrets could you have?”
“None of your business!” Finch snapped. As soon as he'd said it, he knew he'd made a mistake.
Mimi's eyes gleamed. “Oh yeah?”
Finch ignored her as he clicked on Anthony Burns's message.
From: Anthony Burns
[email protected]
To: Finch Mundy
[email protected]
Date: Sat. 9/24 Subject: Surprise Party
 
Dear Finch:
 
Thanks for inviting me to the surprise party for Slope. Unfortunately, I'm planning to go camping then. It sounds like he's going to have an awesome time without me, anyway. Ever since he was a kid, it's taken him a while to get used to new situations. But if the other kids in class are as cool as you, I know my little bro' will have a great year.
 
 
Your friend in California,
Anthony Burns
P.S. Don't worry—I can keep a secret.
Finch closed the e-mail. Since the Thinking Cape had disappeared, he hadn't thought about the party at all. Suddenly he felt panicky. They hadn't just invited his class. They'd invited adults—every single one who worked at school. How could he have thought they could give a party for all those grown-ups?
“What's wrong?” Mimi asked.
Finch didn't answer. He knew what the Cape would say about trusting the “sour she-fruit.” And then there was the Oath. The mission was supposed to be a secret. But he didn't have the Thinking Cape to help him now. He needed to talk to someone, even if it was his sister.
“Our teacher, Mr. Burns, is new here and he seemed kind of lonely. So the guys and I invited the kids in our class and all the adults in school to a surprise party for his birthday. I asked his favorite brother, Anthony Burns, to come, too.”
Mimi rolled out her lip and stared at Finch. It made her look just like their mom. “You did?”
“Okay, it was a dumb idea.”
“No, it wasn't—I think it was really nice,” Mimi said. “I can't believe you thought of it.”
“Gee, thanks. Anyway, his brother isn't coming. But what if everyone else does? I don't even know how to give a party.”
“Of course you do. You've had one every year of your life. All you really need is cake and something to drink. The guests will know what to do.”
Finch slapped his forehead. “I forgot about cake.”
“I'll make cupcakes for you. Kelly will help me.” Mimi reached out and messed his hair. “We owe you.”
Finch shook her off. “You're kidding, right?”
“Doh—no,” Mimi said, sounding exactly like Finch. “Don't worry. I'm not going to make it easy for you. You're going to have to wash the pans and bowls, and clean the counters, and take out the garbage, and sweep the floor. When I bake, I always make a really big mess.”
“Wow, thanks,” Fin said. But in spite of the smile he showed his sister, he felt a flush of shame inside. When the Thinking Cape had asked to go to the party, he'd turned it down. Now he would give anything for it to be there.
24
DROWNED HOPES
“Ms. Mitchell—did anyone turn in a green thing to the Lost and Found this morning?” Finch called as he hung over the counter in the school office.
The secretary looked up from her paperwork. “What kind of thing?”
Finch inspected an old mosquito bite on his arm. “It's sort of a towel with strings.”
“And yellow lightning bolts,” Elliott added.
“Oh, you mean a cape.”
All four members of the SSSh stared down at their sneakers.
“I made one of those for my son Michael when he was little. His was blue and red.”
The word
little
made Finch squirm.
Raj wiped at a speck on his glasses. “This one isn't for playing. It's a magician's cape.”
Ms. Mitchell eyed him over the top of her own glasses. “Well, no one's brought in anything this morning. But it's early yet. Check back later.” She looked down at her papers again.
The guys were almost at the door when Kev tiptoed back and slipped an envelope onto the counter. Inside was an unsigned note that that said:
Dear Ms. Mitchell,
Don't forget about the surprise party on Friday. Please call Mr. Burns to the cafeteria at 3:30. Thank you!
Next, the SSSh raced down the hall to their classroom. Mr. Burns was standing on his right leg with the left one bent so his foot rested against the inside of his thigh. “Hey, dudes, this is the tree pose,” he said as they tumbled in. “Want to join me? We could be a forest together.” He gave them an oversize wink.
“We thought we'd clean up the classroom,” Finch said.
Without putting his left leg down, Mr. Burns dipped forward from the waist. As he straightened up, he looked at the guys' blank faces. “That was a tree bough—get it?”
Elliott, Raj, and Kev smiled weakly. Fin could only manage a slight nod. He wasn't in the mood for jokes right now. “We'll just get started,” he said as he headed for the class ragbag.
“Hold on.” Mr. Burns stared down his longish nose at the guys. “Did you forget that we cleaned up on Friday for the parents?”
Raj glanced around. “But it looks messy again.”
“Yeah—I see a gum wrapper under there.” Kev pointed toward the radiator.
“What are you guys—neatness fanatics? Well, if you want to, go right ahead.” Mr. Burns changed legs and did a left-sided tree.
Raj got the broom. Elliott found the dustpan. Kev grabbed the wastebasket. Fin pulled a dust cloth out of the ragbag.
“Hey! What's that?” Elliott whispered, pointing under a cabinet.
Fin's heart leaped at the sight of a tiny corner of something green. He held his breath as Raj stuck the broom under the cabinet and fished it out.
It was only a dusty sheet of green construction paper.
“There's something behind here,” Kev hissed, peering into the crack between the bookcase and the wall. He squeezed an arm into the narrow space. As his fingers reached the thing, a disgusted look appeared on his face. He drew out a half-eaten sandwich that was so green and hairy it looked like a science experiment.

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