Luciana

by Erin Teagan

  Everyone looked up and I scrambled off the floor to see what she was holding. It was definitely our motor module and I grabbed it, all of us crowding around, checking for damage with the flashlight, in case the RoboEngineers had tampered with it. But it was okay. Someone had simply just put it in another box.

  “What?” Johanna shook her head. “He put it in another tub? To trick us? Wie gemein!”

  “Did you just say a bad word?” Charlotte asked.

  Johanna blew out a breath. “No, it means, like, how mean that he could do that.”

  It dawned on me. The perfect plan. James and his team had stolen our part and then hidden it in another plastic tub so no one would ever know they’d done it.

  “No,” Meg said. “Johanna told me to put the part away. She said to go put the part in our box. So I put it in number eight.”

  I smacked my head. “No, Meg. We’re box eighteen.”

  Ella stood up. “Meg! Why didn’t you say something before?”

  Meg’s face turned so red, I could see it even in the dim light. “I … I … you said it was stolen. I thought it was stolen!”

  “Why didn’t you check the box when everyone else was looking?” I said. “If you knew you had put it in box eight, why didn’t you look there?”

  Meg was crying now.

  “All you had to do was look, Meg—”

  Ella grabbed the flashlight from me, shining it in my face. “Leave her alone, Luciana. Stop.”

  “I thought … It was an accident … I thought someone else had already looked there …”

  I felt a crushing feeling in my body because Ella was right. This wasn’t Meg’s fault, it was mine. I was the one who had jumped to the conclusion that the part was stolen. I was the one who wanted to prove that I had what it took to be a good leader. “Meg,” I said. “I’m sorry, Meg, it’s not your fault.” I tried to hug her, but she squeezed in closer to Ella. I was going to be the worst big sister in the entire history of the planet. The worst. Actually, what was I even good at anymore? Forget about showing everyone that I had what it took to be an astronaut. Forget about everything.

  “This whole time, James was innocent,” Charlotte said, and I could feel her looking at me through the darkness.

  Just another situation when I’d acted too fast. When I didn’t think. Ella shined the flashlight on the broken robot.

  “Can you fix it, Johanna?” she asked through the quiet.

  Johanna’s head shook in the shadows. “Nein. It’s going to cost them a lot of bolts.”

  “We can give them all of ours!” Meg said, popping up.

  Charlotte sighed. “With all of our bolts together, they’d barely be able to replace two of their sensors, not to mention the competition is the day after tomorrow and how are they going to rebuild that fast?”

  Johanna knelt on the floor, placing robot parts back in their plastic tub. She held up one of the sensors. “See? Kaputt. Cracked.”

  Ella sniffed, and together with Meg, she joined Johanna.

  “What’s going to happen?” Meg said, whispering, her throat sounding swollen from crying.

  “I can’t get sent home,” Johanna said. “My family saved for this camp for so long …” She wiped her face and Charlotte reached over and hugged her.

  Meg and Ella joined the hug. Then it was just me, standing there by myself next to a lump of robot parts, the cold of the cement floor seeping through my slippers.

  I couldn’t sleep that night. Not even when we were all safely back in our habitat. Not even when I heard the sleeping sounds of the rest of my bunkmates. I couldn’t stop thinking about how maybe I’d just ruined my chances at ever becoming an astronaut. Because if I couldn’t make it through Space Camp, how could I ever make it through real astronaut training?

  The sun was barely up when I finally gave in, slid out of bed, and padded down the stairs to the common area. Unlike last night, the area was lit up and the galley was a flurry of activity. Cooks flipping pancakes, frying up everyone’s favorite star-shaped tator tots. Getting ready to start another day at Space Camp. Thanks to me, though, there was a chance it would be Habitat 4b’s last one.

  The rocket phone booths were empty, so I closed myself into the first one and dialed my parents’ number. If anyone knew what to do, it would be them.

  “Luci?” Mom picked up on the first ring.

  “Hi Mom,” I said.

  “You’re calling so early. Is everything okay?” Her voice didn’t sound like her normal voice, almost like the phone was too far from her face.

  “Mom?”

  “Sweetie, we’re on the line with Abuelita …” And then I heard her talking to Dad, muffled, almost like she had her hand over the phone speaker.

  “Mom? What—”

  “Abuelita is trying to help us because …” She took a deep breath into the phone, and then she was gone again, speaking to Dad in a low voice.

  “What? Is it Isadora?” My heart was racing again. Not the baby. Please. Please. Not the baby.

  Dad got on the line, clearing his throat, and I could hear Mom blowing her nose in the background.

  “Luci, they’ve located Izzy.”

  “That’s good, right?” My entire body was thumping, my pulse in my ears. I cracked the phone booth door, cool air trickling in. “Right?”

  “She’s in the hospital, Luciana,” Dad said.

  “Oh, no. Why?” I got frustrated; my parents were taking too long to answer my questions. “Dad, is she okay?”

  “Abuelita is on her way to the hospital now, but it seems that she is very sick. We do not know many details.”

  And then we were both silent for a minute because what was there to say? How could nobody know anything more? How was it that we weren’t running to the airport right now to be with her?

  “Luci?”

  I shut the door to the phone booth again and leaned against the glass. “I want to be with her. I want to go to Chile.”

  Dad took a breath. “I know, honey, I know. This is hard, but we are so lucky to have Abuelita close by. We just found this out a few minutes ago and there are a lot of questions we still need answered, Luci.” He paused. “For all we know this could be a mistake and Abuelita will get there to find the baby is not Isadora at all. We will wait and be patient.”

  I stood up again, wiping my face. The common area was starting to fill with campers.

  “Sweetheart,” Dad said. “We did not want to burden you with this information until we knew more. I am so sorry.”

  I didn’t know what to say except that it felt like everything was falling apart at the same time.

  “Is everything okay at camp?” he said. “Are you okay? Happy?”

  “I—” But then I couldn’t tell him. Not with the news about Izzy. “I was just calling to check in.”

  “Hey, Luci?” Dad said, talking fast all of a sudden. “That’s Abuelita calling us back. Let me take that. I’ll call you when we hear something. Okay? Love you!”

  And then he hung up.

  I stumbled out of the phone booth and for a minute all I could do was stand there, watching campers lining up for breakfast, buying gum and ChapStick and pens at the Space Camp store, digging through the lost-and-found bin.

  And then someone called my name.

  “Luci!” It was Johanna, waving from the top of the stairs. She ran down to the common area. “Mallory is looking for you. We didn’t know where you went. We haven’t told her anything, by the way.” She looked at my face. “Are you okay?”

  I flopped onto one of the giant pillows on the floor. “They found Izzy. My little sister. She is in the hospital.”

  Johanna sat next to me. “She’s sick?”

  “They’re not even sure it’s her, but if it is, yes, my dad said she is very sick.”

  Johanna sucked in a breath. “No. Das tut mir Leid.”

  I looked at her and she said, “I am so sorry for you.”

  “Well, maybe all of this is happening because I woul
d be a terrible big sister,” I said. “Maybe someone figured out that I’m a really bad role model.”

  Johanna shook her head. “No, no, no.”

  I thought about the rover situation we were all in because I had been convinced James had stolen our part.

  “Everything will be okay,” Johanna assured me. “She will get better.”

  I smiled at her, knowing she couldn’t promise that. Nobody could. Sometimes things went wrong even when you read all the books and turned in the paperwork and knew all the rules.

  Mallory appeared at the top of the stairs and rushed toward us, holding Orion, the rest of the bunkmates behind her. Meg was biting her nails.

  “Leo called an emergency meeting in the robotics lab,” Mallory said, and Johanna and I popped up. It was obvious from the smile on Mallory’s face that she didn’t know why we were having a meeting. Charlotte looked like she was about to hyperventilate next to Ella.

  Orion led the way like he did every morning, except nobody had trouble staying behind him. All of us trudged along, taking our time, dreading the sight of the RoboEngineers.

  When we walked into the lab, Noah bounced out of his seat. “Cheaters! I saw you last night after lights-out! I saw you!”

  And what could we say back? He was right.

  I couldn’t even look at James, sure he hated me more than anything.

  “Sit,” Leo said, and we sat at the table in the corner. “No, here.” He pointed to the table next to the RoboEngineers’, where they sat around their broken robot, parts scattered across the table. We shuffled over, trying hard not to make eye contact.

  Leo sat in an empty chair on the RoboEngineers’ side and I accidentally looked up and saw that James was slouched in his seat, not looking like the regular gloaty kind of James. In fact, he looked devastated.

  “The RoboEngineers came in early this morning to work on their robot and were surprised to find that their robot was damaged.”

  “Ruined,” Noah said, pushing his glasses up. “By them!”

  Leo shushed him, pulling him back into his seat.

  Mallory was standing behind me now, her arms crossed. “Do not tell me …” Orion was quiet at her feet, not even wagging or barking, like he was mad at us too.

  “It was an accident,” I said, allowing my eyes to flicker up at James. “We—I—thought you stole our motor module and when we went to look for it in your bin, we broke your robot.” I looked up to see unforgiving faces. “I’m so sorry. From the bottom of my heart.”

  James held up a cracked sensor. “Accidentally? How could this be an accident? Did you ‘accidentally’ drop it from a thousand feet?”

  I cleared my throat, shifting in my seat. “We stepped on it. We didn’t mean to. It just … happened.”

  The RoboEngineers flung their hands around and made noises like they didn’t believe me. Like my apology meant nothing.

  James squinted his eyes at me. “Why would I want to steal one of your parts? Did you see how awesome our robot was? We even programmed it with a little screwdriver to break into rocks.”

  Leo looked at us. “Accident or not, your team is responsible for this. It’s very possible the RoboEngineers will not be able to recover before the competition tomorrow. How are you going to make it up to them?”

  “Help them rebuild?” I said, but Noah stood up.

  “We do not want your help,” Noah said.

  I looked at my team, but there was not much else we could offer. “You can take all of our bolts?”

  The RoboEngineers turned around to look at the scores on the monitor.

  “Four million bolts?” James said with a snort. “That will get us nowhere.” They were still at zero from buying the gyro sensor and extra building sessions. And now they had basically spent all those bolts for nothing.

  Leo picked up another one of their sensors. “The good thing is most of your sensors, except for one, are still in working order. I think you should take their bolts and buy another color sensor and start rebuilding. There isn’t much time, but I think with an extra build session or two, you can do it.”

  James looked at his team miserably. “Fine.”

  “What about us?” Meg said. “Are we disqualified? Are you going to send us home?”

  Leo looked at the RoboEngineers and Mallory and Alex. “I can’t say we’ve ever had this kind of situation before. I think …”

  Mallory bumped the back of my chair. “You snuck out to do this? Like, after lights-out?” It was almost a whisper, like our offense was so great, she couldn’t even say it out loud.

  I looked at the rest of the Red Rovers, who were studying their hands or closing their eyes like they couldn’t bear what might come next. “Yes.” I swallowed. “That was my idea too.”

  “You have a lot of really bad ideas!” Noah yelled.

  I waited for Mallory to yell at me too, but she didn’t, and that was almost worse.

  “I should be the one sent home or disqualified,” I said. “It’s not their fault.” I pointed to my teammates.

  “You know,” Alex said, coming to stand next to Mallory, “when you’re an astronaut, the team is everything. If one person makes a bad decision, she takes the whole team with her.”

  How was I ever going to be the first girl on Mars if I couldn’t even make it through Space Camp without messing up? Maybe I didn’t have what it took to be an astronaut.

  “I don’t want to go home.” Meg sniffled and my heart sank.

  Leo sighed. “Well, we can’t really send you home with just two days left of camp.” He glanced at Mallory and Alex. “But sabotaging another team’s robot is a serious offense and it deserves a serious penalty.” He looked at me and the rest of my team. “We’re going to have to disqualify the Red Rovers from the competition. All of your remaining bolts will be given to the RoboEngineers.”

  Ella choked in a breath next to me.

  This was a nightmare.

  Nobody really felt like eating lunch. Johanna didn’t even get a second helping of macaroni and cheese. I kept my eyes on my bowl of fruit salad, my mind searching for ways to make all of this better. At the same time, the idea of Izzy, so sick in Chile, took my breath away and clouded my thoughts.

  I pictured an echoey-quiet house without a little sister running around, and my lunch formed into a heavy ball in my stomach. It was hard, but I knew I had to stop thinking about Izzy and concentrate on the problem right in front of me, so I stood up with my lunch tray. It was time to talk to the guy with the robotic unicycle.

  “Where are you going?” Johanna asked.

  “I’m going to knock on the robotic-unicycle guy’s door,” I said, “and see if he has any sponsorships left. For the RoboEngineers.”

  “Good idea,” Johanna said. “I’ll go.”

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “I got us into this mess and I’m going to fix it. I can do this on my own.”

  Nobody said anything, so I spun around and walked my tray of dirty dishes into the kitchen. When I got back, Charlotte stood up, stuffing the rest of her chocolate-chip cookie into her mouth. “I’m going too.”

  I shook my head.

  “You heard what Alex said: The team is everything.” Charlotte put her hands on her hips. “And we are all part of the same team, so we are going to do this together.”

  Ella stood up too. “Luci, stop taking all the blame for this. I’m the one who stepped on the robot. And Meg put the part in the wrong tub.”

  Meg nodded, wiping red sauce off her face.

  “And we all snuck out,” Johanna added.

  “Without you we wouldn’t even be a team. I hope you know that,” Ella said, looking at the floor.

  Charlotte grabbed Ella and gave her a strangling hug. “I’m so proud of you!” She pointed at me. “You are a good influence on her.”

  I laughed, a flicker of hope lighting in my heart. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Thanks, guys.”

  “So, now what?” Meg asked.

  Jo
hanna raised her fist. “We make socks!”

  And then, together, we took the back way to the habitats, through the museum floor with the capsules that were actually used in space, past the moon rock on display, and over the floor pillows scattered around the common area.

  “You go first because you are the bravest,” Meg said to me, hiding behind Ella.

  The door was in front of us now, tucked in the very back corner. A door that could have easily been missed by any Space Camper who wasn’t looking for it.

  “Director of Artificial Intelligence,” Johanna read from the sign that hung on the doorknocker.

  “Someone knock,” Ella said.

  Charlotte bit her nails. “Maybe we should just go, and there’s a great chance that this person doesn’t want guests otherwise—”

  I knocked.

  The rest of my team skittered away.

  “Will you guys get over here!” I said, sending all sorts of threatening looks in their direction.

  I straightened, hearing a shuffling from behind the door. Johanna heard it too, and, being the good friend she was, she joined me, standing close. And then Ella stepped forward as well, Meg pulling Charlotte to stay back with her.

  We could all hear the movement behind the door and also the sound of something else. Flapping? Chirping? And then the door flew open and a regular-looking guy stood there. Like, the kind of guy who you’d see walking down an everyday street instead of zipping around on a neon-lit robotic unicycle. Which is not that normal.

  Except that he had a robotic bird on his shoulder. “SQUAWK! WHO GOES THERE, ME HEARTIES?”

  The guy reached up and tapped the bird on his plastic head. “Sorry, he’s in pirate mode right now.”

  “Oh, that’s okay,” I said because I didn’t know what else to say. Johanna nudged me. “I’m Luciana Vega and these are my friends: Johanna, Ella”—I turned around, pointing—“and Charlotte and—”

  Johanna tugged my shirt sleeve. “He’s gone.”

  I peered through the door. “Uh, hello?”

  As I poked my head in farther, I saw a giant office with a workbench, a couch, and some pictures on the wall. Not to mention there was also a dinosaur made entirely out of building bricks and beams that was so tall, it hit the ceiling. The bird was sitting on a perch by the window that looked out to the Pathfinder.