Chapter 16:

Reset Button

And that’s how my first science fair turned into a disaster. A pudding . . . creamed corn . . . disaster. And that’s how Ralph and I ended up in the principal’s office.

Principal Merriweather was in the middle of a world-class rant. Like, if she were in a movie she would probably get an Oscar for this. She didn’t even seem to notice we were there anymore. She had a red pen in her hand, and she was waving it around like a sword of fury to punctuate her yelling. Every time she waved it, I imagined that she was making an exclamation point in the air.

“And another thing! Those grape juice stains! On the floor! Are probably never! Going to come out! And the custodians! Are going to need overtime! To stay here late tonight and vacuum! Industrial wet-dry vac! And that’s going to cost money! From the budget! This school is on a tight budget, Maya!”

When she got to that part, my eyes began to well up with tears. Seeing my project totally destroyed was one thing. A food fight mess was another. But what if I hurt the whole school? Were field trips and after-school programs going to be canceled because of me?

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?” She stared at me expectantly. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I would start sobbing. I pressed my lips together and looked at the floor, ashamed.

Ralph, sitting next to me, seemed confused by the whole situation. I had never seen him confused before, but his eyes had turned blue. They were wide and round, and his mouth was turned down slightly. When he saw that I was about to cry, he reached over and patted me on the back.

MAYA IS SAD.

He looked up at Principal Merriweather, as if he didn’t understand why she didn’t view this as an emergency.

MAYA IS SAD.

“And that’s another thing! This robot! Surely you need some sort of . . . license or something for him. I’m going to tell your parents that I think he’s a danger.”

When she said that, I lost my composure. “No!” I cried out. “Not Ralph! He’s not a danger! He’s my friend!” I began to cry.

“Don’t you raise your voice at me, young lady. My job is to look out for you and the other children of this school. Not to worry about robots. We don’t even know what went wrong with him! What if that happens again? Why did he malfunction? Can you tell me that?”

I looked at the floor again, embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know. I thought I had gotten so good with Ralph, that I understood how he worked. Maybe I had gotten overconfident. And the consequences were bad.

“This discussion is over.” Principal Merriweather picked up the phone. To call who, I didn’t know. My parents? The police? Whoever comes and drags kids away when they get expelled from school? She began to dial.

I sat and watched her, not knowing what to say for myself and wishing there were a hole in the floor that I could crawl into and never come out of. My parents were going to be so angry at me, especially if they had to leave work in the middle of the day and come pick me up. I looked at Ralph. He looked down at me, apparently clueless about the destruction he had caused. Was he going to be taken apart and recycled? If he was, it would be my fault. The proof of Christopher’s hard work, his brilliance, gone. For nothing. And it would be on me, for bringing Ralph to school and putting him in an unfamiliar situation. He had been a good friend to me, and this is how I repaid him. By ruining everything.

I leaned against Ralph and closed my eyes. I wanted to make a wish, but I didn’t even know what to wish for. Instead, I cried, and for once I didn’t even think to be embarrassed about it.

Just then, there was a small crash. What now? I opened my eyes.

“Principal Merriweather! Wait!”

Jada and MJ had burst into the office, pushing the door so hard that it smashed against the wall. They were followed closely by Ms. Montgomery, and . . . Elijah? MJ did a double take when he noticed the damage done by the doorknob. “Oops. Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“Principal Merriweather, I’m sorry,” Ms. Montgomery said. She was out of breath, as though she had been chasing them. “I tried to tell them you were—”

“It’s not Maya’s fault!” interrupted Jada. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but this is important! The food fight. It’s not her fault.”

Principal Merriweather narrowed her eyes at them and slowly lowered the telephone. “And whose fault was it, then?”

Elijah was fiddling nervously with a pencil. He looked like he did not want to be in the principal’s office, even if he wasn’t the one in trouble. MJ, who was panting and leaning against a chair for support, looked up at him and nodded supportively. “Tell her, bro.”

Elijah stepped forward and swallowed hard before speaking. “Zoe Winters. I saw her messing around with the robot before the fair started. She opened up his back, and she was messing with stuff and pressing things.”

Principal Merriweather and Ms. Montgomery looked at me. “Is this true?”

Zoe? But when could she have . . . ?

I gasped. “The water. She told me to go get some water before the fair. That’s why she was being so nice to me. She was trying to get me out of the way so she could mess around with Ralph.”

Principal Merriweather nodded thoughtfully. “Ms. Montgomery, do me a favor. Go and fetch Ms. Winters and let’s see what she has to say about this.” Ms. Montgomery nodded and stepped out of the room.

I swallowed, closed my eyes for a second, and took a deep breath. This time, when I spoke, I went slowly and chose my words with care. I had to make it count.

I looked at Principal Merriweather and tried to use my most grown-up voice. “Principal Merriweather, you asked me what went wrong and why Ralph malfunctioned. He usually has a special voice command keyword. He’s not supposed to do something unless you tell him to do it. Like a smart phone. So normally, saying ‘throw food’ should not make him throw food. That would be very inconvenient, if you think about it. He’s never done anything like that before.” I turned to Ralph. “Ralph, what’s the status of your voice command function?”

VOICE COMMAND KEYWORD DISENGAGED.

“How did it get disengaged?”

ON SYSTEM RESET, NEW VOICE COMMAND REQUIRED.

System reset?! Zoe must have turned Ralph off and back on. Without me there to re-establish the voice command, he must have gone haywire—especially in a noisy cafeteria with lots of loud voices chattering at once. “What time did system reset happen?”

LAST SYSTEM RESET OCCURRED AT EIGHT FIFTY-EIGHT A.M.

But how did she even do that? “Ralph, turn around.” I examined his back, where the carefully concealed access panel was. There were harsh scratches around the panel, as though someone who didn’t know how the latch worked had tried to pry it open it with keys or a pen or something sharp. “Look at this! Look what she did to him! This is horrible!”

A small voice behind me said, “Well, it doesn’t look that bad.”

I looked up to see Zoe standing in the door. Without warning, a hot rage filled my whole body, and I started to fling myself at her, fists out. “You did this! Look what you did to my friend! You hurt him!”

Jada and MJ each grabbed one of my arms. “It’s not worth it, Maya,” MJ hissed into my ear. “Let her be. She knows what she did.”

“She hurt Ralph for no reason! She’s always bothering me, and she was mad that I had a friend.” I gave up fighting MJ and Jada and slumped into their arms, defeated. “She wanted to hurt me. So she hurt Ralph.”

Principal Merriweather pointed her red pen at Zoe. “Is that the case, Zoe?”

Zoe looked around the room, searching for something to say. “I . . . I thought it had games on it.” The lie was so weak that Ms. Montgomery openly rolled her eyes and Jada let out a loud pfffft noise. I snorted.

“Ha!” said MJ. “If that ain’t the biggest lie I ever—” Principal Merriweather held up a hand, and he stopped.

“Zoe, please spare us. No need to insult our intelligence. Why did you do this?”

Zoe looked at me, then looked at the floor.

When she looked back up, her eyes were red. “Maya is so good at science, and she’s always talking about the book she finished reading or the movie she watched. She thinks she’s too cool for everyone. I thought that this year since she wasn’t glued to her other two friends for once, and we were in the same class, maybe she and I could be friends.” She sniffled. “But she just . . . She ignores me! She’ll even talk to the new kid! But not to me!” Now she was full-on wailing.

I was stunned.

“Zoe . . . if you wanted to be my friend . . . you could have said hi. Or something.”

Elijah tilted his head to one side. “Just so you know, she wouldn’t really talk to me, either.”

Man. I guess I had been . . . not the best to Elijah. That’s not how I was taught to treat someone who was new and needed a friend. I looked up at him and whispered, “I’m sorry, Elijah. I have a hard time with . . .” I didn’t know how to end the sentence. “Friend. Stuff.”

He smiled. “It’s okay. But Zoe, why didn’t you just say hi, like she said? I at least tried that.”

Zoe sniffled again and looked at both of us with her mouth open, but no words came out. Then she furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t know! I guess . . . I guess . . .” She trailed off and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

Everyone looked around the room awkwardly, avoiding eye contact, until Jada spoke up.

“Maybe it was just hard,” she said. She looked around the room, then directly at Zoe. She repeated herself. “Maybe it was just hard. To say hi.”

Zoe nodded. I looked at her, listening to her quiet sniffles and not knowing what to say to her. Principal Merriweather cleared her throat.

“Okay. Zoe, it seems you and I need to have a conversation,” said Principal Merriweather. “Maya, are you able to fix your robot?”

“I should be able to,” I said.

I looked at Ralph, and he looked back at me, waiting for instructions. “Ralph, re-engage voice command. Set keyword to ‘Ralph.’ Set my voice as primary user.”

VOICE COMMAND KEYWORD RE-ENGAGED.

“And we owe everyone an apology, Ralph. It was an accident, but we made a really big mess. Ralph, please apologize.”

Ralph stood up from his seat. It took him a second, since he wasn’t used to sitting down, and he bent his knees and stretched them carefully as he figured out the process of standing back up. He turned his metal bucket head left and right, looking around the room. He put his hands behind his back politely.

I AM VERY SORRY ABOUT THE MESS. MAYA IS SORRY TOO. MAYA IS SAD. WE ARE SORRY.

Principal Merriweather actually smiled. “You’re forgiven, Ralph. Now, everyone out of my office.” We all headed to the door, including Zoe.

“Oh, Ms. Winters, not you. We need to chat.”

As Principal Merriweather was shutting the door behind them, I caught a last view of Zoe. She looked close to tears again. I said the only thing I could think to say. “Hey. It’s going to be okay,” I told her. She looked startled, then nodded. The door closed.

The rest of us stepped into the hallway. Jada and MJ each put an arm around me, and Ralph put his hand on my back. And I wanted to feel better, I really did.

But now I had no science fair project at all. It was wrecked. I was going to get an F. And Zoe getting in trouble would do nothing to change that.