That morning Bella was the first to arrive in Ms. Gibbons’s classroom. Still thinking about her dream, she pulled out a notebook. She began sketching a picture of her race car. She wanted to capture all the details before the dream faded.
“Cool car!”
Bella looked up. Her friend Emily Adams was leaning over the edge of her desk, trying to get a better look at Bella’s drawing.
“Thanks,” Bella replied. “Last night I dreamed I was driving it. But it was also sort of driving itself because I wrote the code so it would follow the race course. Only I might have miscalculated the turning axis, because—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Emily held up a hand. “Slow down, Bella. You’re light-years ahead of me when it comes to programming. Though, if you want some help with the engineering, I’m game. There are some pretty simple things you can do to make the car go faster. Like tapering the back, or adding a spoiler.”
Bella grinned. “When I do build my dream car, I’ll definitely want you on the design team.”
“What design team?” asked their friend Sam Sharma, who had just arrived. Sam loved to paint and draw. Clearly, the word “design” had gotten his attention.
Before Bella could explain, the bell rang. There was a sparkly purple blur in the classroom doorway as Maddie Wilson dashed in. She was wearing a sequined dress that Bella was pretty sure had been pink the day before.
Bella smiled. Leave it to Maddie to reinvent her outfit overnight!
Maddie slid into her seat, turned to her three best friends, and whispered, “What did I miss?”
“We’ll tell you at lunch,” answered Bella, Emily, and Sam at once.
• • •
Over sandwiches, Bella showed Sam and Maddie her race car sketch.
“It’s from my dream last night,” she explained. “I was thinking maybe it could be the inspiration for our next project!”
The four friends met regularly to do craft projects together, and they were always on the lookout for new ideas.
