— Chapter 19 —
Oscar walked back to his house, but before he went inside, he went next door and knocked softly on Asha’s bedroom window. She was inside sitting on her bed, and she reached over to open the window as soon as she heard him.
“So?” she whispered through the screen.
“I found him! He was stuck in a tree,” Oscar whispered.
“And?”
“And he’s okay, I think. He hurt his foot, but I walked him to the hospital.”
Asha’s eyes widened.
“No, it was actually fine,” Oscar said. “Well, not fine. He yelled a lot, but then I helped him get down. It’s hard to explain, but by the end he didn’t seem to be that mad at me.”
“But is he going to tell on you?” Asha asked.
“I don’t think so,” Oscar replied. He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “But I don’t know for sure. I think I did everything I could do, and now I just have to wait and see what happens.”
Asha looked concerned. “I hope he doesn’t want revenge,” she said.
Oscar shivered at the thought, but he decided to try not to think about it too much. He changed the subject. “Did you get in trouble for being gone so long?” he asked.
“No,” said Asha. “I came home with a couple of books. Will you be in trouble for being late?”
Oscar shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ll just tell them I hurt myself, and I had to walk home really slowly.”
Asha looked him up and down. “But you don’t look like you hurt yourself,” she said. “You’re not a mess like usual.”
Oscar smiled. “I didn’t trip once today,” he said proudly.
“Yeah, but you need to look like a mess so they’ll believe you,” Asha pointed out.
Oscar took a few steps away from the window and threw himself down on the ground. He rubbed one knee in the dirt and piled dry leaves on top of his head. He hooked his sleeve around a thorn on the bush next to him and pulled until the sleeve gave way with a loud RRRRIP! As the sleeve tore, Oscar really did fall backward, right into the same dirt he’d just smeared on his knee.
Asha watched him toss himself around and laughed. She heard her father calling her and stood up to close the window. “Sleep well, Oscar!”
“I doubt I will, but I’ll try,” he replied as he headed back to his own house.
As he walked through the front door, he remembered to limp. His story about injuring himself, combined with the dirt on his pants and his torn sleeve, convinced his parents. He felt bad for not telling the whole truth so soon after Asha’s accident, but he figured rescuing a bully from a tree probably made up for it.
Later, as he pulled the leaves out of his hair and brushed his teeth, Oscar realized he hadn’t told Asha that he’d given Zach the repellent. What was I thinking, he wondered, bribing a bully like that? And how do I know that threatening to tell Gretchen that he cried will actually work?
Oscar was terrified that by giving Zach the repellent, he had unleashed something awful on the other kids the bully liked to pick on. After several hours of tossing and turning, he finally fell asleep. But even then, he was haunted by images of kids flying off the playground monkey bars into space, and Zach shouting, “See ya, snotbrain!” as he pushed them.
* * *
Asha looked as tired as Oscar felt when they met on the front sidewalk the next morning.
“Did you sleep?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“I didn’t either,” Asha replied.
“I kind of don’t want to go to school today,” Oscar said.
“Yeah, me neither,” Asha said. Oscar raised his eyebrows. Asha normally loved school, so she must have been as worried as he was if she didn’t want to go.
Oscar sighed heavily. “I guess we might as well get it over with,” he said. He looked at her crutches. “Hey, isn’t your dad driving you?”
Asha shook her head. “I feel like walking,” she said. “After last night, I’m getting pretty fast.”
Oscar had taken out the last bottle of gravity repellent and emptied it into another spray bottle. He put some on Asha to help her walk with the crutches, then took the bottle back inside and stashed it in his room. He decided to try his luck going without it.
Besides, Oscar thought, if Zach and all his friends want to gang up on me, no amount of gravity repellent will help.
Oscar and Asha started walking to school. He held his breath as they came around the corner where Zach and his friends normally hung out. The boys were all in their usual spots, shouting and hollering.
Oscar watched them closely as he approached to see if any of them were floating or moving in a strange way. Zach’s left foot was in a big black boot-thing with straps across the top, but otherwise nothing looked out of the ordinary.
The other boys looked at Oscar as he approached, nudging each other and laughing. Zach looked up and saw them, and Oscar and Asha braced themselves.
“Hey, snotbrain!” said one of the boys. “Are you still a piggy bank? ’Cause I wanna go buy a soda, and I need some change.”
Oscar rolled his eyes. Having confronted Zach last night, he’d realized these other boys weren’t so scary anymore either. His heart beat a bit faster, but his throat didn’t feel tight. Oscar glanced at Zach to see if he was going to say anything, but Zach just looked off into the distance, ignoring what his friend had said.
Even though his hands were starting to shake, Oscar decided to be bold. He walked right up to the boy and stood as tall as he could. “Get your own stupid change, and don’t call me snotbrain!” he said.
For a few moments that felt like an eternity, no one said anything. The boys stared at Oscar, and Oscar stared back. At last, Zach broke the silence.
“Yeah, man, why should this dude buy you a soda? He’s not your mom,” Zach said. The other boys laughed, and the one who had teased Oscar looked embarrassed.
Oscar didn’t say anything else. He wanted to look at Zach to see if they had an understanding after the previous night, but he didn’t know if that was a good idea in front of the other boys. Instead, Oscar turned away and continued on to school, gesturing for Asha to go in front of him.
As Oscar passed Zach on the sidewalk, he braced himself, just in case the bully said or did something to him. But Zach just nodded and said, “Later, dude.”
Oscar looked straight ahead and said, as calmly as he could, “Later.”
As Oscar and Asha walked away, they heard Zach’s friends ask him how he hurt his foot. Zach started describing an epic stunt he did on his skateboard as his friends ooh-ed and aah-ed.
“That was weird,” Asha said after a moment.
“Really weird,” Oscar agreed. “But in a good way.”
They walked the rest of the way to school in relieved silence. Oscar had a feeling that he’d been bullied by Zach for the last time, and that he’d never see him or the other boys in the clearing again.
* * *
That day in gym, Oscar and Asha’s class played kickball. When it was Oscar’s turn to kick, the ball flew straight out from his foot, and he made it to first base.
For most kids, this wouldn’t have been an accomplishment. But Oscar did it without tripping and falling, which he had never managed to do before. He had daydreamed about this scene many times, and in his imagination, his classmates had cheered for him as he ran to the base in slow motion. What really happened wasn’t nearly as exciting — no one seemed to notice at all.
But maybe that’s a good thing, Oscar thought to himself.
As he stood on first base waiting for the next kid to kick, Oscar glanced up at the bleachers and saw Asha sitting there, her crutches beside her. She smiled at him, remembering, as he did, that he hadn’t put on any gravity repellent that morning.
* * *
After lunch, Asha passed Oscar a note.
What else is in the caboose?
Oscar wrote back:
Let’s find out today after school
They passed notes back and forth for the rest of the afternoon, mostly drawings of items they imagined were hidden in the old train car.
Instant Math Homework (just add water!)
Bully Repellent (new & improved sixth-grade formula!)
Lego Multiplier (makes as many as you want! Amaze your friends!)
Extra Finger (when you need a spare!)
Oscar watched the second hand on the clock, which was moving painfully slowly as he waited for the school day to end. He and Asha couldn’t wait to get back to Dr. Oopsie’s weird and fascinating laboratory to see what other wonders awaited them.