Whoosh!
The glass tube leading to the cafeteria whisked Newton, Shelly, and Theremin to the fourth floor in seconds. Newton still hadn’t gotten used to the sensation.
“Hold up a sec. I’m dizzy,” Newton said as his friends hurried toward the food line.
“Sure,” Theremin replied. “I guess that’s one good thing about being a robot. I never get dizzy.”
The smell of hot food made Newton’s stomach rumble as they got in the line of kids waiting for food. After a minute he felt someone tap his shoulder, and he turned around.
“Great job at the Mad Science Fair on Saturday.” It was Tori Twitcher, a freshman at the school. “I thought my robotic shark was cool, but your Sticky Savers were much more useful.”
“Thanks,” Newton said. He motioned to Shelly and Theremin. “We all worked on it together.”
Gustav Goddard walked up next to Tori. “Yeah, everyone is still laughing! When Mimi’s volcano began to erupt, and she grabbed your sticky socks and gloves to climb up the walls to save herself—I’ve never seen her move so fast! She was so scared!”
“Ahem!”
Newton turned behind him to see Mimi Crowninshield standing there. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was tapping her foot on the ground.
“Uh, hi, Mimi,” he said.
Mimi ignored him and glared at Gustav. “I can tell you for a fact that I was not scared,” she insisted. “If you must know, I was doing Newton a favor. Nobody was paying attention to his stupid invention until I demonstrated it. Then the judges saw that the Sticky Savers could actually be useful in emergencies.”
Theremin’s eyes angrily flashed red. “Oh yeah? Well—” He stopped short. Theremin was working on having better control over his emotions. “You know, you might have a point.”
“Of course I do!” Mimi said smugly as she thrust her nose in the air. Then she cut in line right in front of Shelly.
Theremin nudged Shelly. “Hey, are you going to let her get away with that?”
Shelly shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Anyway, she’s right. We wouldn’t have won first place if Mimi’s volcano hadn’t erupted.”
Newton nodded. Ms. Mumtaz had just awarded their Sticky Savers third prize when Mimi’s volcano had started to erupt accidentally. Mimi grabbed the Sticky Savers and used them to scamper up the wall all the way to the ceiling! When the judges saw that, they awarded Newton, Shelly, and Theremin first prize.
And Shelly was right—letting Mimi cut wasn’t a big deal, because the line moved quickly. Soon the three friends were sitting at their usual table, each with a plate containing one Extreme Pancake.
“Remind me why these are extreme?” Newton asked as he stared down at his pancake.
“I dunno,” Theremin replied. “I don’t eat, remember? I took one so I wouldn’t feel left out.”
“Each one contains a thousand percent of a day’s nutrients and all the most popular breakfast ingredients—eggs, bacon, cereal, sausage, oatmeal, toast, and orange juice,” Shelly replied. “Taste it.”
Newton picked up his fork, when he heard a squishy sound behind him.
“Mind if I sit down?”
It was Higgy, dressed up for a typical day of school in his usual gear—a bandage-covered face, dark goggles, a heavy coat, black boots, and a wool cap on his head.
“Sure,” Newton said quickly, and Shelly screwed up her face.
“Sorry, Shelly, but my regular table has been taken over by Fern Faraday and her pesky two-dimensional hamsters,” Higgy said, motioning. “I promise to keep my slurping to a minimum.”
“Thanks,” Shelly said, with a look of relief.
Higgy plopped down his plate and slid into his seat beside Shelly. A green goo tendril slithered from his coat, picked up the pancakes, and shoved it in the gap between his face bandages.
Slurp . . . slurp . . . slurp . . . strange squishy noises emerged from Higgy’s face. Newton was getting used to it and could tell Higgy was trying to be quiet, or at least as quiet as possible for a kid made of goo.
Shelly pushed her plate forward.
“Not hungry today, I guess.” She smiled, trying not to hurt Higgy’s feelings.
“Too bad. This is delicious!” Higgy said. Then he let out a loud burp.
“By the way, Higgy, nice try earlier, trying to scare me,” Newton said. “But it didn’t work.”
“I don’t . . . burp . . . know what you . . . burp . . . mean,” Higgy replied.