Michael K. and Venus sat at the table farthest away from the librarian.
Venus flipped open her sparkly and SPHDZ-stickered laptop and logged on to the library’s free wireless.
“Check this out,” whispered Venus.
Venus launched spaceheadz.com and quickly clicked
“Spaceheadz drawings from Magic BBQ Sauce in Seattle, Washington . . .
“Spaceheadz ads from Toll-Free Fusilli in Lebanon, Indiana . . .
“Spaceheadz music from All-Natural Oven Cleaner in Toronto, Ontario . . .
“Spaceheadz stories from Bold Taste Deodorant in London, England . . .
“Spaceheadz videos from Disposable Chicken Fingers in Barcelona, Spain . . .
“We really did it, Michael K.,” whispered Venus. “We really connected a whole Spaceheadz network.”
He had been so busy going to school, spreading the Spaceheadz word, and trying to keep Bob and Jennifer and Major Fluffy out of trouble . . . that he hadn’t stopped to look at the whole thing. It was pretty amazing.
“And coolest of all . . . ,” whispered Venus. She clicked back to the Spaceheadz home page and zoomed in on the counter. “We are almost at our three point one four million plus one Spaceheadz to save the world.”
Michael K. read the Spaceheadz counter aloud, “Three million one hundred thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and one Spaceheadz? WOO!”
The librarian, at the other end of the room, gave Michael K. a stern look.
Michael K. ducked his head.
“This is great. This is huge. I can’t believe we are going to do it,” whispered Michael K. “Only one hundred more Spaceheadz to go. This is amazing.”
Michael K. stared at the spaceheadz.com counter. Then he had another thought.
“But what if something goes wrong?”
Venus clicked through more Spaceheadz drawings and Spaceheadz ads. “You are such a downer sometimes. We haven’t seen the AAA in weeks. And Bob, Jennifer, and Major Fluffy have been almost normal. What could go wrong?”
“I don’t know,” said Michael K. “You know how weird stuff just seems to happen with Spaceheadz.”
Venus ignored Michael K. She clicked happily through more Spaceheadz pages. “ ‘SPHDZ DOES IT BETTER!’ ‘I’M A SPHDZ / YOU’RE A SPHDZ/ Wouldn’t you like to be a SPHDZ TOO?’ ‘MAKE FRIENDS WITH SPHDZ, MAKE SPHDZ WITH FRIENDS!’ Spaceheadz kids are geniuses!
“And check this out,” said Venus. “Our three point one four million plus one moment is going to be historic. I'm recording the final counter moments in the Spaceheadz admin section so we can have them forever.”
Venus clicked on the tiny words SPHDZ ADMIN at the bottom right corner of the spaceheadz.com page, right next to TERMS OF USE and PRIVACY POLICY. It opened a page asking for another password. Venus typed VENUS. The secret recording page popped onscreen. “Cool, huh?”
“Yeah,” said Michael K., trying to ignore the feeling in his gut. “That is cool. What could go wrong?”
Michael K.’s phone and Venus’s phone buzzed with incoming texts at exactly the same time.
Michael K. checked the sender.
MAJOR FLUFFY
Michael K. opened the message. It read:
EEEEK EEE EEE EEEE EEEK.
Michael used “Fluffy’s Translator” to translate the message into English.
MORE FLAVOR! DELICIOUS IDEA. ASKING NOW OF SANTA FOR MORE SPHDZ!
This message made Michael K. a bit nervous.
Michael K. looked at the picture.
This made him completely freaked out.
“AHHHHHGGGG!” croaked Michael K., pointing at the picture.
“WHAT?” said Venus.
“EEE ARRR GAHHH UHHH!”
Michael K. was so spazzed out that he could not manage to say any real words. He pointed at the face over elf Bob’s shoulder.
“That’s cute,” said Venus. “The Spaceheadz are visiting Santa.”
Michael K. zoomed in on the face revealed by the pulled-down Santa beard.
Michael K. regained just enough power of speech to yell four words.
“Not Santa! Agent Umber!”
The librarian got up from her desk to remove the noisemakers from the quiet room.
But Michael K. and Venus were already out the door, running like the future of the world depended on it.
And it did.
