Neverland Academy (8 page)

“Got
any Cheetos?” Finn hollered.

“Not
‘til this afternoon,” Lily hollered back before she returned to Daphne. “She
used to be. Back when Finn and I were together. But ever since that ended she’s
been okay. Usually, she just avoids me. She wouldn’t want to be caught
associating with ‘the help.’”

Finn
rolled his eyes as he returned from the shadows with a box of graham crackers.
“She’s not that bad, guys. Give her a break, will you?” He offered the open box
to Daphne, who politely took one to nibble on.

Lily
laughed it off. “I suppose you both are hungry? Just give me a sec.” She rinsed
off the remaining dishes and stacked them neatly to the side to dry off. She
peeled off the gloves, tossing them over the side of the industrial sink. “Be
right back.”

Lily
crossed into the cooking area of the kitchen. Most of the cooks had already
left for break, but a few were still around, cleaning the stovetops and mopping
the tile floor. With a quick glance to check if anyone was looking, she whipped
open the only oven in the kitchen that didn’t work, and pulled out two large
plates wrapped in foil. The oven may not have worked, but it kept the plates
somewhat warm. She quickly scurried to the back of the kitchen and gave the
plates to Finn.

“So,
you cook food for them?” Daphne inquired.

“Not
exactly. I just sneak some of the food we cook for each of the meals and stash
it somewhere safe until Finn or one of the guys can come pick it up. And when
we have some extra dry food I stick it behind the panel. The boys have always
been nice to me, so I try to do my part to help them out. If they weren’t here,
I’d be terribly lonely.”

Daphne
sympathized with Lily. She knew what it was like to be alone, or to be
surrounded by people who just didn’t
get
you. She made a mental note to find some time to spend alone with Lily for some
one-on-one girl time. Plus, she’d need someone to borrow her ‘monthly stash’
from.

“Hold
on,” Lily said and then pulled a bulging brown paper bag from under the sink
and dumped it into Daphne’s arms. “These are the apples that the students
didn’t eat yesterday. Usually they’re thrown away but I rescued them.” Daphne
scrunched up her nose a little at the thought of eating garbage-bound food.

“Don’t
worry,” Lily assured her. “I washed each and every one. Some have bruises or
dents, but they are totally safe to eat.”

“Thanks,
Lily,” Finn said. “You’re the best.”

***

Finn
and Daphne slipped back into the hole in the wall and Lily replaced the panel
behind them. The tunnel behind the wall was only about 18 inches wide and
though Daphne’s figure was narrow enough to squeeze through straight on, Finn
had to shuffle sideways holding each plate to the side of him like a an old
fashioned scale. Daphne followed his lead until they reached the end of the
tunnel where a rope ladder hung. From the floor below, it stretched up into the
ceiling and beyond. Daphne wondered where it might lead. She asked Finn.

“That
goes to the upper level. Mostly faculty bedrooms up there. And Trappe’s office.
I’ll give you the full tour after breakfast.” Finn handed her one of the
plates. “Hold this for a sec.”

While
still holding the other plate, Finn descended the ladder. Daphne passed him the
rest of the food and followed.

Daphne,
Finn, and the other boys convened in what appeared to be an old cellar that lay
directly under the kitchen. It pretty much looked like the rest of the tunnels:
brick walls, stone floor, old wooden support beams. Shelves lined two of the
walls and a staircase led to a door that had been bricked over when the tunnels
were sealed. Between the support beams, the ceiling was heavily insulated with
foam, pink stuff, and even old blankets arranged with duct tape. The boys had
obviously made some effort to soundproof the room.

Kevin
was squatting by the far wall with Shag looking over his shoulder. An old box
TV set sat on a wooden crate just behind them. Toot and Hangman were sitting on
a pile of pillows watching Trick play some video game on an iPhone. On the other
side of the cellar were cluttered stacks of computer equipment spilling out
from the shelves. Daphne resisted the urge to pick through it and find a laptop
that works. There probably wouldn’t be any way to charge it here anyway. And
speaking of chargers, what’s with the phone?

“Breakfast
is served!” Finn announced and all the boys except Kevin crowded around him as
he unwrapped the foil from the plates. Daphne stood back and smirked at the
boys’ lack of table manners as each grabbed link sausages, buttered toast, and
bacon and crammed them into their mouths. No plates. No forks. No napkins.

Finn,
seeing the look on Daphne’s face, grinned. “We don’t exactly have a place to
wash up dishes here. Hey guys! Save some for Daffy!” Daphne glanced down at the
scraps left on the plate: one sausage link, a broken half of bacon, and two
halves of buttered toast.

“It’s
okay,” Daphne said. “I’ll just eat an apple.”

“You
sure? Here.” Finn offered the plate to her but she just took one half slice of
toast and nodded. “Sorry, I should have offered to you first. These guys are
bottomless pits.”

“Got
it!” Kevin announced happily. “Now we just need to shut the power down while I
link the wires, then we’ll be all set.” He strolled over to Finn, pride driving
each step forward until he saw Finn had eaten the last of the scraps. “Dude,
where’s breakfast?”

Chapter
Nine

Zapped

Daphne spent her
first full day at
Neverland Academy learning the layout of the building. Finn led her through all
the secret passages between the walls, pointing out specific rooms and giving
her pointers on remaining unheard and unseen. He was more of a mentor to her
that day than a friend. She was his apprentice, taking in every drop of
information he doled out. It was strange how Finn could turn off his
mischievous side as easily as switching off a lamp and become serious as an
authoritative figure.

Finn
guided her through the tunnels as well, but with no landmarks or visual cues of
any kind, she still couldn’t make sense of the maze.

They
met Lily in the kitchen for lunch, and again for dinner. Each time, Lily and
Daphne would chatter briefly. Lily was easy to talk to, warm and open. It
didn’t take Daphne very long to place her trust and friendship in Lily. She
hoped she could spend more time with her in the future. It’d be nice to have a
girlfriend around, especially since she had to watch her back around Belle.

Exhausted
from the day’s activity, Daphne collapsed onto the mountain of pillows in the
cellar. She didn’t care that they were infested with that teenage boy smell,
like dirty socks and aged cheese. She was too tired to move. Finn left her
alone for a few minutes and came back with a book in hand. The other boys
followed.

“Hey
Daffy, can you do something for us tonight?” Finn asked.

“Hmm?”
Daphne’s eyes remained closed, but she listened.

“It’s
something we do every night before we go to sleep. But tonight will be the last
night since Kevin’s going to get the new outlet working.”

“What
is it?” Daphne peered through one open eye. Finn tossed a hardback book onto
the pillow beside her. As the cover flapped, she could feel the light breeze
tickle her cheek and smell the scent of old musty pages full of decaying
knowledge. “A book?”

“Tomorrow
we’ll have TV. Tonight, we read. Or, I should say, you read and we listen.”

“You
want me to read you a book? You live under a school, for God’s sake. Can’t you
read?”

The
boys laughed collectively. “Of course we can read,” Hangman offered. “We just
prefer to do it together every night. To make it more social.”

“It’s
kind of like a group prayer, or something. A final activity to end the day,”
Kevin added as he lay behind Daphne on the pillows, propping himself on his
elbow.

“And
sometimes make fun of the boring parts—rewrite them verbally so that
they’re more entertaining,” Shag mused. The boys chuckled.

“Oh.”
Daphne looked down at the book and lightly brushed her fingers over the glossy
typeface on the cover. “Great Expectations. You guys are into the classics,
huh?”

Finn
snorted. “Neverland’s library isn’t exactly up to date on popular fiction. Not
to mention Trappe’s fundamentalist views put a ban on anything with vampires,
werewolves, or zombies. Not even Harry Potter, which I’ve heard was quite
good.” The boys all snickered as Finn grinned. He leaned over and cut a hand to
the side of his lips, whispering, “I stole a copy from one of the students.”

“Do
you steal everything here?” Daphne accused.

“I
prefer the term,
borrowed
, but in this
case I actually helped the kid out. If Trappe had found the book he would have
spent a week in detention. I did him a service!” The boys erupted in quiet
laughter as they took pillows and sat around Daphne in a semi circle.

“Okay,
I guess I’ll read to you.” Daphne sighed.

“We
left off on chapter six,” Finn instructed.

Daphne
leafed through the pages until she reached the sixth chapter and began reading.
At first she stuttered through the words nervously, unaccustomed to having this
many eyes on her in any circumstance that didn’t involve throwing punches. But
after a few pages, she eased into the story, at times forgetting the boys were
even there. They remained so quietly transfixed on Daphne that not one of them
even moved to scratch their nose or bat an eye. They didn’t make any vulgar
comments as she had expected, perhaps because she was so uncomfortable reading
aloud, or maybe because she was a girl and they didn’t want to offend her.

When
Daphne finished reading the chapter, the boys all crowded into the tunnel
toward their private cellar, preparing for bed, and Finn led Daphne back to the
separate hole in the wall—her ‘bedroom’—where she could sleep in
privacy.

“You
know I was wondering,” she told Finn, thinking about the horrible smell that
infected the pillows, “how do you guys clean up here? You know, take showers?”
On the ‘tour’ Finn led her on earlier, he revealed a way to get into a few
bathrooms in case she needed to relieve herself. And they had a large
refillable water jug in the cellar that they used for brushing teeth, pouring
the wastewater into a bucket to drain in the lake. But he’d never mentioned
showers and she’d assumed that it would be too dangerous to do that with adults
roaming the premises. It’s not like you could just slide down the drain if
someone caught you.

“I’ll
show you in the morning so you can get cleaned up. Now get some sleep. We’ve
got work to do later tonight.” Finn smirked.

“Tonight?”
Daphne asked, confused. But Finn had already disappeared, leaving Daphne to
extinguish the lantern and get some rest.

***

“Daffy,”
his voice whispered. “Daffy, wake up!”

A
pair of strong hands clamped around Daphne and shook her viciously. She lazily
rolled over, her eyes refusing to open. “Hmm?”

“Daffy,
it’s time to get up,” Finn cried. “I want you to come with us.”

“It’s
the middle of the night, Finn,” Daphne whined. “Can’t it wait ‘til morning?”

“Not
what we plan to do. At least, not if we want to avoid getting caught.”
Grudgingly, Daphne got up and followed Finn out into the main cellar, where the
other boys were waiting, lively and excited.

“What’s
going on?” Daphne asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Your
initiation,” Trick replied.

“Huh?”

“You
definitely scored some serious points for clapping Trick,” Shag said, “but to
really be one of us, you got to go through a test.”

Finn
laid his arm across Daphne’s shoulder. “Shut up, Shag. Don’t worry Daffy,
they’re just messing with you. But tonight will be a little taste of what we do
here. You and I are going to go shut down the power to the main building.
Kevin, here, is going to use his genius to bring electricity down here to the
cellar. It’s actually much simpler than some of the other stuff we do. It’s
about two a.m. right now, so everyone should be asleep. Even if they’re not, it
won’t take but a minute or two to get things hooked up. Right, Kev?”

“Yeah,
man. Everything’s set up. I just need to connect the wires upstairs. Two
minutes tops.”

“So
that’s it? What about everybody else?” Daphne asked scanning the other boys.

“Oh,
we’re just here for the celebration,” Hangman offered. He held up a half-empty
bottle of generic scotch with a mischievous grin. Toot rubbed his hands
together hungrily. “None for you Toot, not ‘til you’re 14.”

“Aw,
come on, man. Quit teasing.”

As
the boys continued picking on Toot, Finn led Daphne back through the tunnels,
weaving a course that would take them to the circuit breaker in the main
building.

 
“There it is,” Finn whispered, peeking
through a crack in the panel that revealed an old maid’s chamber, which had
been renovated into a janitorial closet. “We should be careful. We got caught
last time we shut down the power, so Trappe may have taken some precautions.
I’ll go first.”

“Should
I stay here?” Daphne didn’t want to admit the chills she felt crawling over her
skin.

“Only
if you’re chicken.” Finn winked and slipped out into the room. His steps were
cautious and silent. His head twisted around from side to side sucking in his
surroundings, expecting a trap. But when he made it to the circuit breaker he
turned and waved Daphne forward. He pointed her to the light switch on the wall
next to the door.

Daphne
had gotten into plenty of trouble in Atlanta. But it was mostly just sneaking
out with her friends, going to loud keg parties, and fighting obnoxious girls
at school. She’d never broken into any place before. Sure, she picked a few
locks, but they were usually locked rooms in her own apartment or her friends’
houses—nowhere that would get her into serious trouble. If she were
caught here, the consequences would be disastrous. This was beyond her scope
and even though she was terribly nervous, there was also a mysterious rush
beginning to build inside her. She quickly joined Finn in the small, dark room.

“Wait
for my signal,” he whispered and pulled an iPhone from his pocket, thumbing a
text. Daphne was puzzled. How did he have a phone? And why was he texting? The
white glow gave an eerie atmosphere to the utility room loaded with cleaning
supplies and various tools hanging on the wall until it shut off, enveloping
them in black again except for Finn’s headlamp, which cast a centered spotlight
on the circuit breaker.

A
few seconds later the phone lit up. Finn opened the panel and flipped the
master switch. All around her, Daphne could hear and feel the electricity
winding down. Outside, she heard the air conditioning unit stutter and stop
whirring. The hum of electricity that one is normally accustomed to hearing as
background noise faded into silence. It was the kind of silence that put you on
edge, because you could hear every little nuance around you. Daphne could have
sworn she heard her own heart beating.

Finn
pointed toward her and she understood. She flipped the light switch and, as
expected, nothing happened. The room remained dark. Finn sent a quick text and
motioned Daphne to join him.

“What
are you doing?” she whispered.

“Texting
Kevin. As soon as he replies I’ll turn the power back on and we can get out of
here.”

Daphne
began to relax, until she noticed Finn tense up. Finn brought his finger to his
lips and Daphne held her breath to keep silent. Just outside the door she could
hear the inhale and exhale of somebody waiting for the right moment to spring.
Finn sharply pointed back to the panel and Daphne followed orders, crawling
back in and closing it until there was a crack just large enough for her to
peek through.

She
had made it just in time. The door to the janitorial closet sprang open and a
tall, dark figure pounced on Finn. But Finn was prepared, and tumbled out of
the way. The hulking figure crashed onto the floor. The scuffle continued, with
Finn always two steps ahead of his opponent, yet he never actually touched him.
Finn always seemed to dodge or duck just before his attacker reached him.
Perhaps the man was blinded by Finn’s headlamp. In a humorous way, the attacker
appeared to be beating himself up, as he tripped over buckets and slammed
himself into the walls. At first Daphne thought Finn was getting hurt before
she recognized his crowing as laughter. There may have been dialogue between
the two, but Daphne couldn’t focus on it. Her heart was racing so fast; the
only thing she could hear apart from Finn’s chortles was a rapid
thump,
thump, thump
.

The
glow of Finn’s phone filled the air. It was time for him to turn the power back
on and get out of there. But as long as the attacker remained he couldn’t leave
the way he came without being seen. Daphne wondered how he would do it, though
she had no doubt he could.

Finn
shut the light off his headlamp. Now the room lay in total darkness. There were
no windows so not even the starlight could trace any outlines. It was pitch
black. Out in the room, she heard crashing metallic clangs and a few thuds,
followed by a sharp click and the whirring of the house coming back to life.
Daphne wedged her fingers through the opening of the panel, so that she’d know
where it is. Next thing she knew, the panel slipped away from her fingers and
she was pushed back, crammed against the wooden supports inside the wall.

“You
okay?” Finn whispered, barely loud enough to make out even though he was right
in front of her.

“Yes,”
she replied, just as quietly. Daphne shielded her eyes when Finn turned the
phone back on to type a final “Done.” Through the luminescent glow she could
see the exhilaration in his eyes. This was what he lived for. Most
thrill-seekers took to the skies or cliffs to get their adrenaline rush. But
Finn sought out a different sort of danger. He liked to be hunted. He delighted
in the challenge of outsmarting his pursuers. It was a combination of action
and wit. Daphne could appreciate that kind of thrill. She felt exhilarated.

Back
in the cellar, the boys had all gathered around, waiting for Finn and Daphne’s
return. They were all sitting on the mound of pillows quietly laughing and
goofing off. Kevin was at the front of the room next to the TV, which Daphne
had noticed was plugged into the new outlet hanging loosely off the wall. Finn
grabbed a couple pillows from beneath Trick and Shag and fluffed them up before
dropping them to the floor on the other side of the room. Daphne sat next to
Finn.

“Now
that we’re all here, let’s get started, shall we?” Kevin happily announced.
“Can I get a drumroll please?”

The
boys made rolling drum noises with their mouths while banging their fists and
feet on the stone floor. Daphne and Finn watched in anticipation as Kevin
pushed a button on the front of the TV. A green light flickered on and off and
the screen buzzed with life. Everybody cheered, but quickly quieted down so the
sound would not carry. Next to the TV set, Kevin slipped a disc into the DVD
player and soon the boys had all quieted down to watch
The Sandlot
.