Supergifted

Supergifted Plot Summary

Introduction

The propane truck rolled down Staunton Street like a steel harbinger of death, its brakes snapped, momentum carrying six thousand gallons of liquid fire toward a sleeping family's home. In that crystalline moment before disaster, two boys watched from opposite ends of capability—one a genius who analyzed everything, the other an impulsive fool who acted on instinct alone. What happened next would transform both their lives in ways neither could predict. The genius would taste fame and find it intoxicating beyond measure. The fool would discover that heroism often comes with a price no medal can repay. Between them lay a secret that would challenge the very meaning of friendship, forcing them to confront whether true worth comes from the spotlight's glare or the shadows where real courage dwells.

Chapter 1: The Genius Who Craved Normalcy

Noah Youkilis possessed the highest IQ ever recorded at Hardcastle Academy—a mind so brilliant it had exhausted every challenge the gifted program could offer. Yet as he sat in another advanced physics class, solving equations in his head while classmates struggled with calculators, he felt nothing but crushing boredom. At thirteen, Noah had already mastered concepts that would challenge college professors. Swiss conferences were held to discuss how to educate him. But for all his intellectual gifts, Noah craved something his 206 IQ couldn't provide: the simple pleasure of being wrong. "Being a genius isn't hard," he confided to his friend Donovan Curtis, the only regular kid who'd ever ended up at the Academy by administrative mistake. "What's hard is being normal." Donovan, whose own academic career was built on spectacular failures and creative disasters, couldn't understand Noah's obsession with mediocrity. But Noah's mind was made up. He began deliberately sabotaging his perfect record, writing essays in languages teachers couldn't read, solving math problems without showing work, creating projects so advanced they couldn't be properly evaluated. His masterpiece came in Home and Careers class, where he programmed an artificial intelligence to create the world's most unique soufflé. The result combined ingredients from across centuries of recipes—cardamom and quail eggs, camel's milk and ground durian seed. Scientifically perfect, it burned like rocket fuel, filling the school with toxic smoke that sent the fire department scrambling. As Noah stood amid the chaos, his apron blackened with soot, he felt something he'd never experienced before: the intoxicating thrill of failure. The other students fled from him, but he didn't care. He was finally, wonderfully, gloriously average. Within weeks, Noah had achieved his goal—expulsion from the Academy and acceptance at regular Hardcastle Middle School, where his intellectual gifts meant nothing and every day brought new opportunities to stumble toward normalcy.

Chapter 2: An Accidental Hero's Reluctant Sacrifice

Donovan Curtis woke to his phone vibrating against his pillow, dog slobber coating the screen. His friend Daniel Nussbaum's panicked voice cut through the early morning silence: Noah was walking down Staunton Street dressed like a deranged wrestler, carrying a folding chair, heading straight for Hash Taggart's house. The pieces fell together with sickening clarity. Noah, despite his genius, had convinced himself he could learn combat from YouTube wrestling videos. He was going to confront the school's star athlete to defend Donovan's honor—a confrontation that would end with Noah in the hospital and Donovan's dog Beatrice facing euthanization for her previous bite incident. Donovan sprinted through the pre-dawn streets, his lungs burning as he chased down his friend. He found Noah shambling up the steep hill in skin-tight thermal underwear and spray-painted "boots," a folding chair tucked under his arm like some medieval weapon. "Go home!" Donovan gasped, tackling the smaller boy from behind. But as they struggled, a propane delivery truck rounded the corner above them. The driver jumped out, snaking his hose around the house, unaware that his vehicle's parking brake couldn't hold against the steep grade. With a metallic snap, six thousand gallons of liquid propane began rolling toward catastrophe. The truck picked up speed, aimed like a missile at the Tudor house across the street where the Mercury family slept. Donovan watched in horror as the massive tanker bumped onto the lawn, heading straight for a picture window. There was no time to think—only time to act. He launched himself at the moving truck, diving through the driver's window as the vehicle closed the final yards to impact. His hands found the gearshift, throwing it into neutral as brick wall filled the windshield. One desperate wrench of the steering wheel sent the tanker careening past the house, through a wooden fence, and into the backyard swimming pool with a tremendous splash. When Noah fished him out of the water, sputtering and disoriented, Donovan's first thought wasn't of glory or recognition. It was of Beatrice, and the promise that any more trouble would mean her death. "Promise you won't tell anyone!" he choked, gripping Noah's shoulders with desperate intensity. The secret was born in that moment—a secret that would soon take on a life of its own.

Chapter 3: Rise of the Counterfeit Superkid

The mystery of Hardcastle's hero consumed the town within hours. The Mercury family had awakened to find a propane tanker at the bottom of their pool, their home miraculously spared from an explosion that could have killed them all. The driver spoke of a brave boy who'd appeared from nowhere, diving through the truck's window to steer it away from disaster. Noah watched the fevered speculation with growing excitement. Here was his chance to help his friend while solving his own problems. When the town's desperation for answers reached its peak, he made his move. Standing before Mayor DaSilva at a hastily called press conference, Noah produced the St. Christopher medal that had broken free during Donovan's heroic act. With his eidetic memory, he recited every detail of that morning—the truck's acceleration, the physics of its trajectory, the split-second decision that saved lives. The crowd erupted in celebration. Noah Youkilis, the scrawny genius who'd never shown an ounce of athletic ability, was revealed as their superkid. His scientific explanations only reinforced his credibility—who else could calculate the exact forces involved so precisely? Donovan watched the announcement on television with his family, his stomach churning as Noah basked in applause that rightfully belonged to him. But beneath his frustration lay something deeper: relief. The secret was safe. Beatrice was safe. And Noah seemed genuinely happy for the first time since leaving the Academy. "What a wonderful boy," Donovan's mother gushed. "Such a hero." Even his Marine brother-in-law Brad, who'd spent months trying to mold Donovan into a disciplined soldier, looked at the screen with genuine admiration. "That's the kind of person you should aspire to be, Donnie. Someone who puts others first." The irony was suffocating. Donovan had risked his life to save strangers, and the lesson his family drew was that he should try to be more like the friend who was stealing his thunder. But as Noah's fame exploded beyond their small town—interviews on television, articles in newspapers, a sandwich named in his honor at the local deli—Donovan began to see the wisdom in staying anonymous. Heroes belonged to everyone. Privacy belonged only to yourself.

Chapter 4: Fame's Intoxicating Deception

Noah's transformation was swift and intoxicating. The awkward genius who'd once hidden in shadows now commanded every room he entered. Students lined up for selfies, teachers beamed with pride, and his cheerleading squad—which he'd joined in his quest for normalcy—suddenly treated his clumsy routines as charming quirks rather than dangerous liabilities. The attention fed something in Noah he'd never known existed. For thirteen years, his intelligence had isolated him. Now his borrowed heroism connected him to everyone. He signed autographs, posed for pictures, and retold his fabricated tale of courage with increasing embellishment. "People see me on TV or read about me in the newspaper, and they feel good," he explained to Donovan during one of their increasingly strained conversations. "What difference does it make if I'm not the actual person who saved the house? They don't have to be right; they just have to believe it." Donovan watched his friend's metamorphosis with growing alarm. The Noah who'd once cherished getting a D on a wood shop project now reveled in unearned A-grades in popularity. He bought new clothes, styled his hair, and spoke with the confidence of someone who'd never known failure. Meanwhile, Donovan found himself pushed further into the margins of Noah's expanding social circle. Hash Taggart, the very bully Noah was supposed to have confronted, became his new best friend. The cheerleaders who'd once mocked Noah's performances now hung on his every word. The most painful transformation came during their robotics class at the Academy. Noah, once the team's most dedicated programmer, barely participated in preparing their robot Heavy Metal for a demonstration before the governor. His attention was consumed by interview requests and social media notifications. "The real Noah would have solved this in a heartbeat," complained their teammate Abigail as the robot malfunctioned repeatedly. "That's the superkid, and he's too distracted by his own press." Donovan bit his tongue, knowing that the "real" superkid was standing right beside her, helpless to fix problems that required the genius they'd all taken for granted. Fame had given Noah everything he'd never wanted, while stripping away the gifts that made him extraordinary. The lie was consuming them both.

Chapter 5: The Unraveling of a Necessary Lie

Television reporter Russ Trussman had built his career on instinct, and every instinct screamed that Noah Youkilis was hiding something. The boy's story had holes—why would someone with no athletic ability dive through a truck window? How could he forget details with his supposed perfect memory? And what about that mysterious folding chair found in the pool? Trussman began stalking Noah with professional persistence, appearing at school, calling his home, interviewing anyone connected to the story. His questions grew more specific, more pointed, designed to trip up a nervous teenager playing a role too big for his thin shoulders. "You couldn't even swim," Trussman confronted Noah during what should have been a celebration at head cheerleader Megan Mercury's birthday party. The same pool where the truck had landed became the scene of Noah's near-drowning, rescued by Megan's father in front of dozens of witnesses. The contradiction was glaring, but Noah's fame had become too valuable to the town for anyone to question it seriously. Until Donovan himself provided the evidence that would bring everything crashing down. His dramatic arrival at the party—dropping from a tree branch into the pool while trying to spy on Noah—brought more than just embarrassment. In his pocket was Kandy's purple bowwow bone, lost during his original heroic act. When the pool's filter coughed it up weeks later, Megan Mercury finally understood the truth. "Kandahar" wasn't a common name. The connection to Donovan's household, combined with her growing suspicions about Noah's capabilities, led her to the inescapable conclusion: the wrong boy was wearing the hero's crown. But the final unraveling came not from Trussman's investigation or Megan's detective work. It came from Noah himself, whose good intentions had created chaos even he couldn't predict. The bot program he'd hidden on their robot's hard drive to help classmates cheat began interfering with Heavy Metal's systems, turning what should have been a triumphant demonstration before the governor into a disaster that nearly injured dozens of people. As golf balls flew through the cafeteria and their robot spun out of control, Donovan did what came naturally—he acted without thinking. His desperate leap to shut down the malfunctioning machine finally revealed to witnesses the same reckless courage that had saved the Mercury home. The truth, when it emerged, felt less like vindication than exhaustion.

Chapter 6: Redemption Beyond the Spotlight

The collapse of Noah's celebrity came swiftly, but not with the public humiliation Donovan had feared. Instead, the town seemed to exhale collectively, as if they'd been holding their breath waiting for the story to make sense again. The scrawny genius who couldn't swim suddenly fit their understanding of the world better than the implausible hero they'd been worshipping. Noah faced the consequences of his deception with surprising grace. Expelled from regular school for the grade-hacking scandal, he returned to the Academy where his intellectual gifts had never been questioned. But something fundamental had changed in him. The boy who'd once desperately craved failure had tasted success and found it equally hollow. "I got a letter saying I qualified for remedial classes," he confided to Donovan with tears of joy in his eyes. "If I could do that with a 206 IQ, then I really am a new kind of superkid." For Donovan, recognition brought its own complications. Governor Holland's medal felt heavy around his neck during the small ceremony his brother-in-law Brad organized. The same adults who'd spent months lecturing him about Noah's superior character now praised his heroism, seemingly unaware of the irony. But the real reward came in smaller moments. The way Megan Mercury no longer looked through him in the hallways, but offered genuine smiles and waves. The pride in his parents' eyes when they thought he wasn't looking. The knowledge that when it truly mattered, he'd chosen correctly. Most importantly, his friendship with Noah survived their shared ordeal. If anything, the experience had stripped away the artificial barriers between them—genius and regular kid, hero and sidekick, famous and anonymous. They were simply two boys who'd helped each other discover who they really were. The superkid phenomenon faded from Hardcastle's collective memory as quickly as it had arrived. But the lessons it taught—about the price of fame, the value of authenticity, and the strength found in genuine friendship—echoed long after the last interview was given and the final newspaper clipping had yellowed.

Chapter 7: Finding Authentic Worth in Imperfection

Noah continued his cheerleading career even after returning to the Academy, riding the minibus between schools just as Donovan traveled for robotics. Under the rigorous training program Donovan's brother-in-law had designed, Noah's performances actually improved. Not to excellence, but to competence—a victory more meaningful to him than any academic achievement. Meanwhile, Donovan discovered that genuine heroism brought its own quiet rewards. His parents stopped comparing him unfavorably to others. His relationship with Brad evolved from antagonistic to respectful. Even his ungainly puppy Kandy seemed to sense something different in his owner's bearing. The town's brief obsession with celebrity had revealed something deeper about human nature—the hunger for heroes was really a hunger for hope. Noah had provided that hope through illusion; Donovan had provided it through action. Both were necessary, both were flawed, and both were ultimately human. The robotics team eventually solved Heavy Metal's problems, though the governor never returned for a second demonstration. Russ Trussman moved on to other stories, his suspicions validated but his audience already distracted by newer mysteries. Life in Hardcastle returned to its normal rhythms, marked not by dramatic gestures but by daily choices to be better than the day before. In the end, both boys learned that worth couldn't be borrowed or stolen, celebrated or hidden. It lived in the moments when no cameras were rolling and no crowds were watching—when you chose courage over safety, truth over comfort, friendship over fame. The real superpower wasn't intelligence or athleticism or public adoration. It was the quiet strength to remain authentic in a world that constantly demanded otherwise. Their story became one more layer in Hardcastle's history, remembered not for its spectacular moments but for its simple truth: heroes aren't born or made—they're revealed, one choice at a time.

Summary

Noah Youkilis and Donovan Curtis began their journey as opposites—one cursed by genius, the other blessed with mediocrity. Their shared secret transformed them both, teaching Noah that fame without foundation crumbles under scrutiny, while showing Donovan that true heroism requires no audience except one's own conscience. The superkid illusion ultimately freed them both to become their authentic selves: Noah embracing his imperfections as victories, Donovan accepting his heroism as simply doing what needed to be done. In the quiet aftermath of their ordeal, both boys understood that the most profound changes happen not in grand gestures but in the daily choice to support those who matter most. Their friendship, tested by lies and strengthened by truth, became the real miracle in a story that had begun with borrowed heroism and ended with earned wisdom. Sometimes the greatest superpower is simply knowing who you really are.

About Author

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Gordon Korman

Korman explores the complexities of youth through engaging narratives that blend humor, adventure, and suspense. His career began serendipitously in seventh grade when a school project evolved into his first book, "This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall", published when he was only 14. This early success foreshadowed a prolific writing journey, during which he authored over 100 books and captivated a global audience with stories that have been translated into more than 30 languages. While initially drawing from his own school experiences for inspiration, Korman expanded his thematic repertoire to include suspense and adventure, as seen in his "Island Trilogy" and the crime-focused "Son of the Mob" series.\n\nHis writing method often involves thorough research, which ensures authenticity and depth in diverse topics such as survival challenges and complex social issues. Korman's ability to craft relatable young protagonists navigating everyday school life and extraordinary adventures has made his books especially appealing to both reluctant and avid readers. His bio reveals a talent for connecting with young audiences, making literature accessible and enjoyable while subtly weaving in themes of friendship and teamwork.\n\nReaders benefit from Korman’s vivid storytelling, which not only entertains but also encourages exploration of personal growth and moral dilemmas. Notable works like the "Swindle" series and contributions to "The 39 Clues" series further showcase his versatility and skill in keeping readers engaged. Over his career, Korman's books have consistently resonated with audiences, earning him spots on "The New York Times" bestseller list and reinforcing his impact on children's and young adult literature.

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