Steel Trapp: The Academy

241 Pages·2010·1.71 MB·English

by  Ridley Pearson

Copyright © 2010 Page One, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published by Disney • Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No
part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the
publisher. For information address Disney • Hyperion Books, 114 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10011-5690.
Printed in the United States of America First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
ISBN 978-1-4231-1532-8
Visit www.disneybooks.com
www.ridleypearson.com
Table of Contents
1. TRESPASS
2. DELIVERY BOYS
3. BLAST FROM THE PAST
4. THE FIFTEENTH SQUEAK
5. SIR DAVID'S NEGATIVE SPACE
6. THE BOATHOUSE
7. GARGOYLES AND SHADOWS
8. VIGILANCE
9. AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
10. ROOM 1426
11. GOING GA-GA
12. NO PLACE LIKE HOME
13. PENNY
14. SHREDDED WHEAT
15. A WORD HE DIDN'T KNOW
16. THE TRYOUT
17. AN EYE TOWARD THE ALTAR
18. A PERFECT COVER
19. CLICK
20. UNDERGROUND
21. INTO THE PIPES
22. A VOICE FROM THE DARK
23. NUMBER SEVENTEEN
24. SWORDS
25. BRANCHING OUT
26. THE SPUD AND THE OCTAGON
27. ALL FREAKS
28. A DAY TO BE REMEMBERED
29. WHITE SOCKS AND BLACK TUNNELS
30. GRINNING IN THE DARK
31. BREAK
32. ALL WELCOME
33. A SAFE PLACE
34. PURSUIT
35. ONE OF THE GOOD DAYS
36. A BOOST UP
37. THE BEST PLACE TO HIDE
38. STANDOFF AT THE STANDISH
39. A PAIR OF FREAKS
40. MALFOY AND THE PUNCH BOWL
41. IDENTICAL TWINS
42. DOWNLOAD
43. IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET
44. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
For Storey and Paige
Thanks to the faculty and alumni of Pomfret School, the model for Wynncliff.
Peter Wormser and I traveled around in those tunnels…not that anyone ever
knew (I hope). A portion of the proceeds from the book goes to Pomfret. Thanks
also to Bobby K. for our adventures in Boston as young seventeen-year-olds.
And to Marcelle, Wendy, Jessie, Jennifer, Laurel, David, Tanner, and Nancy for
their help through the various drafts. (Any mistakes are all theirs!)
ALSO BY RIDLEY PEARSON
Kingdom Keepers—Disney After Dark Kingdom Keepers II—Disney at Dawn
Kingdom Keepers III—Disney in Shadow Steel Trapp—The Challenge
WITH DAVE BARRY
Blood Tide
Cave of the Dark Wind Escape from the Carnivale Peter and the Sword of
Mercy Peter and the Secret of Rundoon Peter and the Shadow Thieves Peter
and the Starcatchers Science Fair
The brightly lit lower-level corridor stretched out ahead of him, impossibly long,
like some kind of throat, offering no place for Steel to hide.
Steven “Steel” Trapp had walked the same corridor only once, two months
earlier, while being given a guided tour by an upperclassman, a Fifth Form
student—a high school junior by the name of Walker Glasscock. But he could
recall with perfect clarity each door, every name on the plastic plates to the left
of the doors—WRESTLING, A/V, DANCE, TRACK COACH, FOOTBALL COACH,
MECHANICALS, etc.—not only the layout but the exact number of chairs in any of
the rooms he’d seen on the tour. For that matter, he could remember the items on
a Whiskey River dinner menu he’d chosen from two years earlier, the prices and
the phone number of the restaurant, and the name—Chloe—of the waitress
who’d served him that night along with his mother and father. He suspected his
uncanny memory skills were responsible for his winning admission to Wynncliff
Academy.
“Remember,” his father had said when dropping him off, “if you don’t like
it, you can come home. But I want you to—”
“—give it until Thanksgiving before deciding,” Steel had finished for him.
“I know, Dad. You’ve told me that seven times.”
“Seven?”
“That was the seventh, yes.”
His father didn’t challenge the accuracy of his son’s memory. Neither did
his teachers. In fact, it had been a teacher who’d given him the nickname “Steel”
because young Steven “had a mind like a steel trap.” He never forgot anything.
He was something of a freak, but he’d come to live with it. He learned not to
show off or misuse what his mother called “his gift.” Showing off cost
friendships, and lost friendships made him lonely. He’d learned the hard way.
Here at Wynncliff he would have to be careful. Other kids typically
resented his ability. Teachers were intimidated by him. It wasn’t going to be
easy.
But presently he wasn’t thinking about any of that. Because presently some
big kid was chasing him, and he desperately needed a place to hide.
He didn’t have to think to recall things—they were just there, always
available, in the front of his mind, correcting his decisions the way eyeglasses
corrected a person’s vision. His recall was as fast as Google. That was why he
took the fourth door on the right without reading CUSTODIAN on the plate. He
quietly pulled the door shut and wedged himself behind some broom and mop
handles. The closet was the size of a phone booth, a giant sink occupying nearly
half of it.
He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d seen, but now he didn’t want to find out.
Certainly not on the first day of school. He would later discover that a sign had
blown over due to the strong and endless winds that streamed across the hilltop
school. Northeastern Connecticut was all rolling hills and forests, broken by a
few orchards and even fewer farms. It was the strangest location for a school—
so far from everything. He’d already heard a rumor that the school’s sports teams
never played home games—only away games, as if its location were being kept
secret.
A man named William Bromfield Wynncliff had decided to build a
compound of white-trimmed brick buildings in a cleared field on top of a
Connecticut mountaintop, 117 years earlier. The location seemed more suitable
for a wind farm than a school. And it had been the wind that had blown over a
sign reading: GYM CLOSED. DO NOT ENTER. WILL REOPEN AT 12:00 P.M.
So Steel hadn’t seen the sign. His objective had been to put his gym clothes
into his assigned locker. It hadn’t occurred to him that by arriving to the gym so
early he might end up interrupting something. It hadn’t occurred to him that by
keying in a code on the building’s security pad to gain entrance, he might be
violating a school rule. The kid who had toured him around the campus on his
previous visit had used the code—and Steel remembered it, just as he
remembered everything. Having a security lock on the gym—and some of the
other buildings—had been a curiosity to Steel at the time, but he hadn’t said
anything. Now, instead of going back to the administration building and asking
questions, he simply let himself in, figuring this was how it was done. He’d
entered the lobby and, upon hearing voices, had opened the gym doors.
What he’d seen had momentarily paralyzed him: four boys, posed down on
one knee, facing four mannequins across the gym. There was a coach standing
slightly behind them. All four boys were holding long stainless-steel tubes to
their mouths. On the coach’s cue, they fired darts at the mannequin targets.