The School for the Insanely Gifted Read Free Page B

school today, Miss Snodgrass,” she would say (or “Snods” for short), and Daphna would curl up in her lap and they would talk. Daphna sighed, and a deep sadness washed over her.
    Dah, da, da, dum, dum, dee!
    Daphna heard the glimmer of a new melody in her head. Time to transform the living room back into a music room and put the finishing touches on her rhapsody. But turning to Harkin’s control panel, she stopped short.
    Was that a noise?
    Daphna knew every sound the old apartment could make. The squeak of the refrigerator. The creak of the closet door. But this particular creak—for that’s what it was—sounded different.
    Was there a pigeon on the windowsill?
    Worse, a mouse in the bathroom?
    Daphna drew in a breath and turned slowly to face the empty apartment. The room was still. Too still. Was someone hiding behind the sofa? Under the coffee table?
    â€œRelax,” she told herself, exhaling. Her heart pounded. “It’s okay.”
    Daphna opened the one window wide and drew in a cleansing breath of warm spring air. The street below was quiet and peaceful. Daphna calmed herself enough to turn back to the apartment when a shadow appeared out of the far closet. Before Daphna could so much as gasp, a tall, dark figure lurched her way but tripped over the coffee table and hit the floor with a loud “Oof!” In the half-light, Daphna saw that the intruder was dressed entirely in black. On his face was a mask that made his eyebrows and ears abnormally large and turned his nose into a snout. Though his face was hidden, Daphna simply knew: it was the same man she had seen lurking outside her building before Cynthia’s opening.
    â€œWhere is it?” he demanded, rising quickly to his feet.
    â€œWhere is what?” Daphna managed.
    In a flash, he was across the room, lifting Daphna by the armpits. Up close, the mask was terrifying. It was as though Daphna were being accosted by a giant antelope.
    â€œThe Flex-Bed.”
    At least that’s what Daphna thought he said, because by that point she was too scared to be sure of anything.
    â€œWhere’d she keep it? Is it with Billy?”
    Billy?
    Daphna had never been in a fight in her life, but instinct told her what to do next. As the man lifted her closer to his face—close enough to smell his sour breath through the strange mask—she jerked up her knee and connected with the soft part of his gut. With a loud grunt, the man dropped her to the floor and stumbled backward. Daphna flew across the room and slammed the heel of her palm into the button next to the word Kitchen. The coffee table rose off the floor, and the stove barreled from a far closet toward its place by the grandfather clock. To Daphna’s dismay, the man was able to gather his wits enough to dodge it.
    â€œHah!” he shouted. “Missed!”
    But he never saw the refrigerator.
    Bam!
    Daphna had never been so happy to have needed some air. The intruder somersaulted through the open window and fell two stories onto a parked car. By the time Daphna was at the window herself, he was hobbling down the street.
    â€œWait!” Daphna called after him. “What’s the Flex-Bed? Who’s Billy? Who are you?”
    The man broke from a pained trot to a half run. A moment later, he was around the corner. Then Daphna heard a frantic knock on her door. She knew who it had to be: Ron. This time he was holding Little Jack, who was wide-awake in his pajamas. Jazmine stood to their side, in her nightgown.
    â€œAre you all right?” she asked.
    â€œWe heard the loudest noise,” Ron said.
    â€œBig noise!” Jack said. “Like a choo-choo.”
    Though Daphna briefly considered telling them what had happened, she quickly decided against it.
    â€œNo, no,” she said. “I’m fine.”
    Ron looked skeptical. “Really?”
    â€œI just forgot to move a box when I pressed Kitchen. The fridge slammed it