Chapter Nine

“ It looks like a carnival in here!” Lucy exclaimed as we entered the community center gym.

I took Lucy’s hand and gave it a squeeze. It felt like ages since our first coding club meeting. We were ready to rock: Lucy was wearing her sparkly red heart studs, and I had on my lucky star hoodie.

We walked under a massive balloon arch. Multicolored pennants hung from the ceiling, and there was a table with free snacks and drinks. Signs marked the bathrooms, and loud music was playing. Not that we needed it: I could feel the excitement in the air. I’d been to the community center tons of times for basketball games before, but I’d never seen so many people packed inside. It felt like another world.

A large sign on the wall announced the schedule:

I leaned toward Lucy. “I wonder what the special activity is.”

Welcome to the Community Center Hackathon!

Schedule of events:

• Mixer time!
• Get your robot plug-in modules
• Start coding!
• Lunch
• More coding!
• Special activity!
• More coding!
• Practice maze runs!
• Official maze runs for prizes!

“Me too!” she squealed. “This is so awesome!”

There were streamers across the ceiling and posters on the walls advertising companies that were sponsoring the event—there was even one for the Bakeshop with images of cake pops all over it, and my mouth started watering.

“Look!” Maya pointed at one poster.

TechTown, your local software company, is proud to sponsor this year's hackathon!

Our Chief Technology Officer, Ana Kamat, is a judge.

Don’t miss her presentation on TechTown’s newest products!

Erin eyed the poster. “OMG, this sounds amazing.”

“It really does,” Leila said, looking around the rest of the gym.

We made our way through winding aisles of tables full of laptops. There were kids hanging around in clusters, but I didn’t see anyone I recognized. I wondered if Sammy and his group were here yet.

“C’mon, guys,” Maya said, leading us to the registration table. She told the woman behind the table our team name, and we got name tags and tote bags. I peeked inside and saw granola bars, water bottles, an apple, and a book about coding.

We were assigned to a table in the center of the gym. As we nudged past groups of kids on our way toward our area, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Fatima—a girl I knew from basketball camp. “Wow, hi!” I said, giving her a quick hug. “I didn’t know you coded!”

She grinned. “I was going to say the same thing to you!” We talked for a minute, and then I rushed to catch up to my friends.

“Hey! Sophia!”

I turned and saw Marco, who went to another middle school. He managed his school’s basketball team.

He told me his team was called Coding Whizzes, and that their robot was going to blink and talk. “What’s your robot gonna do, Soph?” Marco asked me.

“We’re using a movable arm for one of the modules and—”

“Sophia!” I heard from across the room. It was Daisy and Rachel McIntyre. They waved at me. Their parents owned a popular sports store in our town.

Maya looked over at me. “Jeez, do you know everyone here?”

Before I could finish telling Marco what our robot was going to do, the start of the hackathon was announced. Teams moved quickly to their tables. I hurried to join mine. Each of us had our own laptop, and there were pencils and scrap paper for us to share.

“To begin the day, we’ll be doing an icebreaker,” a voice called over the loudspeaker. “Near your computers you’ll find a sheet of yellow paper.”

I picked up the paper. “It has a bunch of questions on it,” I whispered to the others.

The announcer continued, “Your task is to find students, teachers, or volunteers at today’s event who can answer the questions. Then, get that person’s signature. The winning team will be the first to get signatures for all twenty questions. And there’s a prize for the winners.”

When the announcer said, “Go!” I read the first question out loud. “Find someone who has moved to town from another state. It can’t be someone in your group.”

For the next fifteen minutes, we went around the room meeting students from other schools and finding out who loved movies, who read mysteries, and who had dogs. It was a bit awkward at first, but since everyone was doing the same thing, we didn’t feel awkward for too long—plus, I knew a lot of kids there, so it made it easier to find people to answer the questions. Within about ten minutes, we had most of the questions answered. But there was one blank we were having trouble filling.

It said: Find someone who worked on MARS.

“That’s such a weird question,” I said, tapping my pencil on my chin. “No one has ever been to Mars.”

“There are some people I’d like to send there,” Erin said with a smirk.

“For real,” Lucy said, bobbing her head.

“Can I see the paper?” Leila asked me. I handed it over. “It’s M-A-R-S, not Mars. All in capital letters.”

“M-A-R-S,” Maya repeated. “What could the letters stand for?”

“Oh!” Lucy said, snapping her fingers. “I know! Mobile Autonomous Robotic Systems! I read about it in my mom’s TechTown newsletter. It’s a new robot Ana Kamat is making.”

We rushed across the gym to where Ms. Kamat was unloading boxes from a cart. She had long black hair clasped loosely in a big clip and was wearing a burgundy-colored blazer.

“Hi, Ms. Kamat,” Lucy said breathlessly. “We’re the Rockin’ Robots. We were just wondering—have you worked on MARS?”

Ms. Kamat looked up at us. “Why yes, I have!” she said warmly. We gave her our paper, and she signed her name in the blank. “Which Rockin’ Robot figured it out?”

We all looked at one another. “We worked together,” I said, gesturing toward all of us.

“Lovely,” Ms. Kamat said. “It’s so nice to meet you all. Since you figured it out first, you get a prize.” She handed us TechTown string backpacks. I glanced inside and saw sunglasses and a box labeled “Fitness Tracker.” I’d heard of those—my mom had some that she recommended to patients who were trying to be more active. They helped keep track of how much you exercised.

“Thanks!” we all said at pretty much the same time. I hadn’t realized we’d be getting such cool freebies—it made me want to win even more!

Ms. Kamat smiled at us. “I have a good feeling about the Rockin’ Robots,” she whispered. “Good luck today.”

After the icebreaker ended, it was time to start working on our robots. One of the judges walked around the room handing out robot rovers and motherboards and told us that we could pick up our modules from a table in the middle of the gym. Maya and I headed toward the table while Erin, Leila, and Lucy stayed behind to connect our laptops to the motherboard.

A woman at the table handed us a form to list our four modules. “The judges need to see exactly what each team took,” she explained.

Mrs. Clark was at the table, too, which was crowded with students picking their modules. “If you change your mind at any time,” she told us over the noise, “you can come back and make a trade.” With her long layered dark hair, stylish gray glasses, and chunky black boots, Mrs. Clark looked like someone’s older sister—not a middle school teacher.

“I think we’re set,” I said. “A ball, arm, button, and speakers, please.”

She handed us our modules. “Good for you for being prepared.”

Behind me, I heard a familiar voice say, “We’ll take what they’re taking . . .”

Then I heard a low, throaty chuckle.

Maya and I spun around, and Bradley and Sammy grinned at us. As soon as I saw Sammy, my heart started racing. Ugh, why was this happening? I’d been fine in study hall the other day. But he was looking awfully cute in his green sweater . . .

Maya looked Bradley up and down. He was wearing his team shirt that said MACHINE MADNESS in a blocky font. No one else was wearing their team T-shirts yet—I didn’t think we were supposed to until the end. “How’s world domination going?” she asked him, cocking an eyebrow.

Bradley held up a mechanical arm. “We’re one step closer to my goal.”

Mrs. Clark held out the button, a ball, and the speakers. “Here are the other modules the girls took, if you want the same ones.”

“Yeah, thanks, Mrs. C.” Bradley turned to us with a smirk. “Our plans changed.”

I was still tongue-tied, but it wasn’t like Sammy was saying anything, either. I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me or at the modules I was holding.

“Wow, you’re copying us. What a surprise,” Maya said, frowning hard. “No more robot clone army?”

“Oh, there will still be an army, Maya Banana, but not today. First, we must conquer the maze.” Bradley pointed to where the maze was set up in the back of the gym. “C’mon, dude, let’s go.” He gestured to Sammy.

Sammy started to walk away. Then he turned back to me. “See you at the finish line, Sophia.”

I nodded meekly. What was wrong with me?

“Okay, he’s definitely going to pay for using my name and a fruit in the same sentence,” Maya scoffed as we headed back to our table. She adjusted the mechanical arm and sensor. “Sammy was totally staring at you, by the way.”

I gave her a sideways look and moved my modules to one arm. “No he wasn’t.”

“Um, Soph, I have eyes, you know. How did you not notice?”

“Because he wasn’t.”

“If he wasn’t, then I’m Maya Banana,” she countered, pushing her way through the crowded room.

We passed the maze on our way back to our table and took a peek at it. It looked like the size of one of the football bins in the equipment shed—about six feet long on each side. It wasn’t very high, but there were a lot of walls for robots to get around. The outer wall came about to my knee, and was made of high blocks. The inner walls were stiff cardboard and weren’t as high—they only reached my ankle. The maze was painted red and had inspirational lines on the walls like Way to go! and You’re almost there!

Maya and I turned to each other, clutching the modules in our hands.

The intensity of the moment hit us. “Let’s do this, Soph,” Maya said, a determined look on her face.

I nodded. “Time for the Rockin’ Robots to rise . . . as one!”