CHAPTER ONE
My name is Ben Braver, and I am a nobody.
For you noobs out there, here’s the deets …
Two years ago, I was invited to Kepler Academy for sixth grade.
It’s a super-secret school for super-secret kids with super-secret superpowers. The whole thing was super-secret. Obviously, I accepted the invite—because who could say no to that?
I was pumped!
Was I invited because I had a power?
Was I gonna get a power?
Was I gonna be the Chosen One?
The answers to those questions are nope, even more nope, and nope with some extra salt.
Turns out, the only people in the world who have powers are those born with them. And they’re all descendants of the Seven Keys—seven peeps who were experimented on in a laboratory. None of them got powers, but their kids (a.k.a. “the descendants”) did. And since I’m not a descendant, I’ll never have any powers.
Bummer, right?
So why the heck was I invited to the academy at all?
Because I was destined to save the school.
Twice.
Turns out the headmaster, Donald Kepler, is a time traveler, and he saw a future where his academy needed a no-powered nobody like me.
He had seen a future where the world ended, destroyed by some jerk named the Reaper. But it didn’t end, because Kepler changed history—and trapped the Reaper outside the universe so he could never ever become the bad guy. Kepler spent the rest of his life protecting this timeline from that terrible fate.
But now, I’m at Kepler’s funeral.
And the Reaper?
He’s back.
CHAPTER TWO
Ten hours ago …
So there I was, sitting in the last row at Headmaster Kepler’s funeral on the very last day of seventh grade, roasting marshmallows on Noah’s head. His hair had gone full Human Torch a few months back, and nothing he did could snuff it out.
Penny and Jordan were chillin’ on the other side of me. You see Penny’s arm around my back?
Yeah, no, I just wanted you to see.
It’s not around Jordan’s back.
Just sayin’.
Anyway, those three are my BFFs, but sadly, I knew it was the last day I’d ever get to hang out with them.
The school year was over, and in just a few hours, I’d be on my way back to my parents at home, never to return to Kepler Academy.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to go home. As far as the school? I was over it. Too much danger for this kid.
I mean, I had almost died there.
Like, a hundred times.
But I wasn’t ready to leave my friends.
Not yet.
We were all decked out because that’s usually how it goes for funerals. At least I think it is. I’d never actually been to one.
Technically, I still haven’t, because Kepler wasn’t exactly dead. He was badly injured after saving me from a horrible explosion. If he’d stayed in our world, he would’ve died, so he escaped outside the universe. Now he’s stuck there, alone in a place where time doesn’t exist.
I’m still alive because of him.
And I never got the chance to say thanks.
Onstage, one of the teachers took the mic and started in with a boring story about the old headmaster, but she was interrupted by a loud crash.
I got this gross feeling, deep in my gut—the kind that tells you to run away because something terrible is about to happen.
I’m really good at ignoring that feeling.
Students stood on their chairs, making it impossible to see what was happening from the back row, but I could hear it over the speakers.
I jumped up from my seat and tore down the aisle.
“Ben, wait!” Noah said. “What’re you doing?”
“Getting a better look!” I said.
I stopped in front of the stage. On the center of it was a kid wearing an Elvis Presley mask, writhing around like he was wrestling something invisible.
And even though I couldn’t see it, I knew what it was because the same thing tried to suction-cup itself to my head a couple months ago.
It was an invisible creature that ended the world in an alternate timeline, a.k.a.… the Reaper.
And then the kid stopped.
He ripped off the Elvis mask, frantically searching his body for whatever had been clinging to him, but when he shrugged it off, I knew it was too late—the Reaper wasn’t on him anymore.
And it was obvious that the kid had no idea what he had just wrestled with—if he did, he’d be freaking out just as much as I was, but he was totally calm.
When he saw Headmaster Donald Kepler’s portrait, he blew a raspberry and pouted. “I’m at my funeral?” And then he raised a fist.
The new headmaster, Raymond Archer, approached slowly. “Young man, are you … lost?”
“Nope,” the boy said, vigorously rubbing his head once more to check for the invisible creature.
Still nothing.
The boy jumped from the stage and strolled back to the school like he owned the place.
Students mumbled, trying to figure out what was happening, but I already knew—it was Donnie Kepler, the eleven-year-old version of Headmaster Kepler. Donnie had been skipping through time, playing hide-and-seek with the older version of himself, and now he was here.
And he had accidentally brought the Reaper with him.
“Holy donks,” I whispered.
I pulled my shirt over my head to protect myself and frantically started searching for the invisible creature that was most definitely nearby.
My friends caught up with me as Headmaster Archer ran to the school, disappearing through the front doors.
“Bro, you gotta stop running off like that,” Noah said. “Next time, wait so we can come up with a plan.”
My friends didn’t realize the Reaper was with Donnie. They’d FREAK OUT just as much as I was if they knew. But it didn’t matter because Penny was clearly freaking out, too.
She yanked my shirt down and stared at me with the fire of a thousand suns burning in her eyes. “What’s wrong?? You’re acting like something horrible is happening!”
I wanted to tell her everything. To tell her that the monster who destroyed the world was literally standing around us somewhere, probably thinkin’ about destroying the world again.
But I couldn’t.
Because, at that moment, the Reaper didn’t know I knew he was there, which meant I had the upper hand.
I needed to get to Donnie. He was wrestling that thing when he bounced on the stage.
“I need to get to Donnie,” I said. “Where’d he go?”
Noah pointed to the front of the school. “He’s up there.”
Donnie was at the buffet tables that had been set up for the funeral lunch. He was putting food on his plate like he didn’t even care he’d brought the apocalypse with him.
Did he even know??
I was about to run to Donnie but stopped because Penny looked like she was about to have a meltdown. She was whipping her hands like she was trying to shake water off them.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it!” she said, mocking me, and then she shoved her hands into her pockets. “I’ll catch up! Just go without me!”
She didn’t have to tell me twice, so I started running.
“Ben, come on, man!” Noah said, annoyed. “Do you hate plans or something?”
None of the kids working the buffet tables seemed to care that Donnie was grabbing some grub, except for Dexter and Victoria—the academy’s unofficial bullies. They were helping with the lunch setup, but only because it gave them first dibs on all the food. They glared at Donnie as he carefully stacked potato chips on his plate.
I stopped a few feet from him, not sure what to say.
“You guys still eat hot dogs in the future,” Donnie said, grabbing one with his free hand. “That’s so lame.”
“Why?” Vic asked.
“I just expected more,” Donnie sighed. “Where are the flying cars? The floating cities? I mean, do you guys even live on the moon yet?”
Vic stared at the boy. “Who are you?”
“Donnie Kepler.”
“No,” Dexter said. “Donald Kepler’s dead.”
“Right. That Donald Kepler’s dead,” Donnie said, nodding toward the funeral. “But I’m not.”
Copyright © 2020 by David Halvorson
