7

Min Plots Bots During Carpool

Min had mastered the art of writing neatly on her lap in a moving vehicle at a young age, which was a good thing, because so much of Min’s time was spent in CAR, her parent’s makeshift prototype self-driving automobile. (CAR? Computerized Automotive Responder.)

Her mom and dad worked together as a team of inventors. They were each other’s perfect partners. Dad designed and Mom built. Creative and practical. Dad had impossible ideas and Mom, somehow, made the impossible possible. Well, at least that was the idea.

Take CAR, for example.

CAR started as the family’s beat-up minivan but was heavily modified to be a fully autonomous vehicle. Dad had a lot of ideas on how to make CAR safe (safety first!), which required Mom to build a car that always avoided fast roads, complicated stoplights, and busy streets.

Despite CAR’s modest (okay, junky) appearance, by the time Mom was through adding Dad’s 900,000 modifications, CAR was safer than any other form of transportation. CAR always got wherever it was meant to be going safely. The downside was it almost never got there quickly.

CAR always arrived, it just sometimes took forever.

Truthfully, Max and Min hadn’t been on time to school once in almost three years now. As a result, Min had learned to make good use of her time inside CAR. Generally, 100 percent of her homework had been completed in CAR, which gradually became more like a moving office than a standard form of transportation.

Mini fridge? Look in the way back. Printer? Check the rear, accessed through the backseat. Pencil sharpener? Try the glove compartment. Thanks, Mom and Dad . . .

Min sharpened her pencil and checked her calculations on the blueprints for her latest robot design. Once she was convinced everything was perfectly correct, she slid the document back into its neatly labeled folder.

Sure, there were a few things to work out on the design side, but the mechanics were beautiful, practically perfect. Min’s robot was going to crush the competition at the Bayside Battle of the Bots this year—which, in Min’s opinion, was the only competition worth winning.

Last year’s winner won a trip to NASA to see the robots for the new Mars mission! This year, the winner would get to go for an entire SUMMER to work with the Mars team. Who knows, she might even get to drive the Mars Rover!

Min was a full-on NASA fan-girl. Her dream was to someday be the head of the Mars Exploration Program, so she was determined to win.

Even if her parents were going to miss the whole thing . . . because they (super annoyingly!) . . . had dropped everything (including their children!) . . . and gotten on a plane to China (just like that!) . . . because of their top secret project (why is it secret from me??) . . . to go fix whatever was wrong (I could have helped if it wasn’t secret!).

Still.

Min was going to win the Battle of the Bots and someday be in charge of NASA, and her parents were going to be proud. Min was determined of that, and when Min was determined about a thing, it usually happened. To the women of the Wengrod family, there was no such thing as impossible. If it seems impossible, Mom liked to say, it’s just not finished yet.

So she worked hard, and then harder (unlike her lazy brother, Max). Her homework was never late (even if her brother’s always was). She always checked her work—twice (even if her brother didn’t even check once). She had been promoted to pre-algebra (her brother was in regular math). In her spare time . . . well, there wasn’t any.

Which sometimes bothered her, especially when her brother’s whole life seemed to be made up of nothing but spare time. All he did was mess around with video games. He never did anything important. Think up things? Draw characters? Design levels? Play games? She loved her brother, but by her own standards, he was kind of a . . .

Don’t say it. That’s so mean . . .

But at least you’re not saying it out loud?

And it’s not like you can stop a person from thinking it . . .

L-O-S-E-R.

Just as she thought the word, Min looked out the window as CAR curved down River Road. She saw Max walking home alone, just as he had insisted (weirdo!)—but now she could see he wasn’t alone at all.

He was being followed by . . . what? Min narrowed her eyes.

Are those . . . cats?

Min rolled down the window and stuck her head out for a better look. It was true.

CATS.

Why is Max walking home from school with two cats?