CHAPTER 6 An Overgrown Ball of Glop
“So, Debbie, how’s it going?” Newton asked, sliding onto a stool next to Debbie Danning in the chemistry lab.
“Fine,” Debbie said. “What’s up?”
“Oh, you know. I realized that with my amnesia and everything, I don’t know a lot about the other kids in the school,” Newton said, trying to sound casual and friendly. “You and Donnie, where are you guys from?”
“Seattle, Washington,” Debbie replied, and Newton stared at her blankly. “In the United States.”
“Right! I’ve heard of those,” Newton said. “And you guys were born in a regular hospital, right?”
Debbie made a face. “What kind of question is that?”
“Just a very normal, friendly question,” Newton replied. “I mean, being born is a pretty important thing, right?”
“I guess,” Debbie said. “But we weren’t born in a hospital.”
A flame of hope rose in Newton. “No?”
“Well, Dad was all nervous, and when he tried to teleport Mom to the hospital, we ended up in the rain forest of Borneo,” Debbie explained. “Mom is still mad about that. But luckily, Donnie and I came out okay.” Debbie pressed a button on her tablet, and a screen flickered in midair.
“That’s me and Donnie right after we were born. I was born five minutes earlier, so I’m older,” she explained.
“Right,” Newton said. The screen showed a woman holding two babies wrapped in leaves near a giant flower, but there was no sign of a pod. Newton tried another line of questioning.
“So, are you a good swimmer? Like, so good that you can breathe underwater?” he asked.
Debbie rolled her eyes. “Listen, Newton, if you want to ask me out, just ask me. You don’t have to lead with a bunch of silly questions.”
“Ask you out?” Newton started to blush. “No. I mean, sure, that would be… but—that’s not what I—bye!”
He hurried away and sat next to Theremin.
“How did it go?” Theremin asked.
“She thought I was asking her out,” Newton said.
“So you didn’t find out anything?” Theremin asked.
“Well, I learned that she and Donnie were born in a rain forest,” Newton said.
Theremin tapped his tablet screen. “Hmm. That makes six students born in some kind of forest, three on a space station, and two in an alternate universe.”
“Any pods yet?” Newton asked.
“Nope,” Theremin replied. “And no cases of amnesia, or long-lost relatives, or amphibious traits, like you have.”
Newton sighed. “This isn’t working, Theremin. I think we’ve talked to almost everyone in the school at this point.”
“ ‘Almost’ doesn’t mean this is over,” Theremin said.
“No,” Newton said. “I just wish Professor Flubitus would tell me. Or Mumtaz! I know she knows something. If she hadn’t confiscated Gustav’s mind-reading device, I’d try it on her.”
Newton slumped in his seat.
“Maybe you don’t have to read her mind,” Theremin said. “She’s got files on every student, right?”
“Shelly and I tried sneaking into Mumtaz’s office once before,” Newton said. “That’s the first time I camouflaged. I didn’t even realize I had done it.”
“Oh yeah,” Theremin said. “That was before you got better at it.”
“I did get better at it, didn’t I?” Newton said. “I can control it more now. I could camouflage myself and sneak into her office again, and this time it might work!”
“I’ll go with you,” Theremin said. “Or Shelly or Higgy will. You shouldn’t do this alone.”
Newton shook his head. “No, you guys have done enough. I don’t want you to get in trouble. Besides, I thought Shelly had set up a study session for you guys at the library tonight.”
“Yeah, well, we were going to go to the Brain Bank, but Gustav told me that something weird is going on there. Rotwang won’t let anyone in,” Theremin said.
“Rotwang?” Newton asked.
Theremin nodded. “Yeah. Probably Odifin wants to hog all the brains for himself. Typical. So Shelly’s doing this thing where she’s looking up questions from the last few trivia contests, and we’re going to test ourselves. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
Newton shook his head. “I really want to figure out who my relative is.”
“Sure, Newton,” Theremin said. “But just remember, no matter what happens, I’ll always be your robot bro.”
“Ro-bro,” Newton said, combining the words “robot” and “bro” for fun, and he smiled for the first time all day.
“Yeah. Ro-bro,” Theremin said. “I like it!”
That night, after the sun had gone down and the school was quiet, Newton dropped down through Higgy’s secret entrance to the school’s underground tunnels. Higgy had a trapdoor hidden under his bunk bed that he used in order to go on midnight snack runs to the cafeteria (among other things). Newton walked in a tunnel until he spotted the grate leading to Mumtaz’s office above him, and stopped. He tried to sense if there was anyone in the room. He didn’t feel that tingly feeling he got when there was danger, so he pushed up the grate, pulled himself up, and went inside.
No one was there, so he stood up and quietly replaced the grate. He moved toward Mumtaz’s desk, where she accessed the school database using a hologram. He waved his hand in the air, and a hologram of the database appeared.
“Yes!” Newton cheered in a whisper. Then he stopped. What if someone walks in? he thought. He knew what he had to do. Camouflage, he told himself, and he closed his eyes, concentrating. When he opened them, he saw that his body was shadowy gray, and patterned with the shelves and objects on the wall behind him.
Now stay! he thought. He hadn’t had too much practice with camouflaging himself on command, but he knew he could keep it going as long as he kept thinking about it, especially if he was scared.