After a stupid dinner–no one asked Michael K. anything about how his day went, or what was going on–Mom K. and Dad K. spent the rest of the night talking to each other and messing around with stuff in the dining room.
They didn’t even come up once to check on him.
Michael K. closed his bedroom door, turned off his light, and lay on his back.
His phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Michael K. ignored it.
Another text.
Michael K. closed his eyes.
Another text.
And another.
Michael K. picked up his phone and read his texts.
VENUS
ARE YOU OKAY?
TELL ME WHAT U R THINKING.
TJ
WHAT’S UP?
HERE’S A SHOT OF OUR LATEST MISSION.
BOB
WE ARE IN DEEP-CLEANING TROUBLE.
HELP US, MICHAEL K.
JENNIFER
GET READY TO RUMBLE.
IT’S PAYBACK TIME.
MAJOR FLUFFY
EEEE EEK EEEK WEEK.
GOOO GLAR BOO BOO.
Michael K. put down his phone and rolled one of his finger skateboards across his desk.
The Brainwave was gone. No doubt about that. That hurt. He had been suckered into helping put the whole scam together. That hurt even worse.
Michael K. ollied up onto his science book.
So now what? If the Spaceheadz and General Accounting were telling the truth–and that was still a big if–this planet Gonf was going to get bllrrped. But how bad would that be?
Nosegrind along the desk edge.
Okay, pretty bad for everything that lived on planet Gonf. But it’s not like he knew anybody on Gonf. And maybe they were just a bunch of creepy-looking slugs or something that lived on Gonf. So who would care?
That would be pretty bad to have everything on your whole planet killed just to have it turned into a parking lot. Especially if somebody could stop it.
Frontside boneless to helicopter.
Yeah, but maybe it was also just another big fake. And then when someone saved the planet Gonf, it would turn out that there was another planet in worse trouble that someone would have to save.
Vert to spacewalk.
Tomorrow was a new day. He had a plan, and he would stick to it.
Michael K. picked up his phone, hit the edit button, then
DELETE ALL