I really thought having a robot would change my life. But except for hanging out at the Robotics Fair, life was pretty much the same. And by the same, I mean weird.
For instance, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a snowmato explode in your face, but it’s a tough thing to get out of your nostrils. I found that out after Stick introduced it as the newest lesson in his pain-inducing bag of dirty tricks.
For those of you taking notes, a snow-mato is a squishy tomato packed inside a snowball. The sting is impressive. The splatter is unbelievable. When the attack was over, I looked like the test dummy in a red paintball factory. I must’ve blown my nose fifty times, but everything still smelled like pizza sauce.
Including me. So, naturally, when I saw Josh Gutierrez and Skyler Pritchard in the hall at school, I kept my distance. They were scary enough without my making them hungry.
I’d slipped past them and was on my way to my next class when the fire alarm sounded. This was a startling development, and not just because it was loud. It broke the rules.
Here’s the deal: When it comes to fire drills, there’s an unspoken agreement between kids and schools. We agree to march outside in an orderly fashion, and, in exchange, they let us out of class. Only this time, the bell rang in between classes. It wasn’t fair! Unless, of course, there really was a fire, in which case the rules would go out the window, along with a number of my classmates. But I didn’t smell any smoke, just the lingering scent of squishy tomato. So if this wasn’t a real fire, what was going on? Everyone froze in place, looking surprised and confused.
Well, everyone except Trevor Duke.
Trevor just kept walking down the hall like he had somewhere to be. He didn’t miss a step. Something about it seemed strange — and then it got stranger. While the other kids were rushing out of the building, Trevor stopped at a window and looked outside. I started to leave, but then — he did something that made me padlock my eyes to him. He made a peculiar gesture with his hands, like a signal. He was signaling someone outside the building! From the way he was acting, it seemed to me like he was trying to hide what he was doing, but it didn’t matter. I saw what I saw. When Trevor turned around, he caught me staring at him, and, for a second, I thought he might pull the same move on me that he had pulled on Ernie Wilkins. But when I saw the look on his face, I realized it wasn’t anger. It was fear.
Trevor ducked his head and raced out the door.
What was he up to?
I joined the rest of the kids outside, and we stood there freezing in our thin shirts and sweaters until Vice Principal Hertz blew his whistle.
“False alarm!” he yelled.
So there was no fire. That meant the only thing burning was my desire to solve the mystery of Trevor Duke.