by John Zakour
Tina and I both moved in opposite directions. The drones split up to follow us. Not quite sure what I was hoping for. Actually, I had no idea what I was hoping for. One drone stayed on my tail, firing at me but not quite hitting me. For a drone, it appeared to be a pretty bad shot. I guess I shouldn’t have complained.
I stayed down and low, figuring it would be harder for the drone to hit me. Of course, I also moved a lot more slowly like this. It seemed only a matter of time until the drone would get me. After all, the drone was a machine and didn’t tire. Though I was in pretty good shape thanks to our training with the holograms, I would still eventually tire.
“Give up, small slight human!” the drone said. “You have no chance against me. I will not stop until I stop you!”
“Why are you trying to stop me?” I asked, standing up slowly.
“Because it is what I was built for!” the drone said. “I compute that I enjoy doing what I was built for.”
I raised my hands. “I surrender… you win.”
The drone buzzed in my face. “Nice that you came to your senses!” it told me. “Now prepare to be stunned!”
“Say what? Why do you have to stun me? I’ve surrendered to you.”
The drone spun around and around and around. It stopped with its red dot eye beam facing me. “You know…I am not sure. But I cannot argue with my programming. My programming says to zap you; so I will zap you. I guess it will take the fight out of you.”
I waved my hands in the air. “The fight is out of me. I have given up.”
The drone whirled some more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tammy running towards us. She had a look of sheer determination on her face. I knew I would have to stall just a bit more.
“So drone, what’s your fave number?” I asked it.
The drone stopped spinning. “Wait. No human has ever asked me that before. I have so many numbers that are special to my chips. For instance, I love 3.14, 42.424242, -100,000,000, 18,600 and of course -1234.”
“What about 0?” I asked.
The drone started pulsating. “Zero is not a real number! No, I must…”
“Hiya!!” Tammy shouted, leaping through the air at the drone. The drone spun towards her. The drone fired at Tammy. She reflected the beam with a metal shield on her elbow. She smashed that elbow into the drone, shattering it.
Tammy landed on the ground and stomped on the drone pieces.
“Tammy! Tina’s in trouble with a drone too!” I told her.
Tammy smiled. “Nah, I took that drone out first.”
“How’d you get here?” I asked.
“I’m eighteen; I can drive,” Tammy said.
“How’d you get by the guards?” I asked.
Tammy showed me a bright diamond that she wore around her neck. “I hypnotized them. I didn’t want to hurt them since they were just doing their job.”
“And the guard dogs?” I asked.
“Hypnotized them too!” she said proudly.
Tina and Cousin Earl came running up to Tammy and me.
“I’m so, so sorry!” Cousin Earl said. “You have to believe me.”
Tammy showed me a piece of a shattered drone. It said…MADE BY MEGA MAX. “Oh, I so believe you,” Tammy said.
I frowned. “Looks like we need to find a way to talk to Mega Max!”
Tina grinned. “I’m betting you can use your charms to convince Dex to set up a talking date with his grandpa!”
I could only hope that she was right!
Chapter IX
The next day at school, I waited for a chance to talk to Dex about his grandfather. I needed to work it in subtly, so Dex or his grandpa didn’t get suspicious of my motives. I wanted it to seem like a nice normal, everyday conversation. The trick would be working my supposedly dead grandpa and Dex’s super-rich grandpa into the conversation.
I thought about trying at lunch. We had chicken nuggets and salad. I considered attempting opening lines such as… “My granddad loved chicken nuggets! What about yours? Speaking of lunch foods, did your grandpa invent any lunch foods? So, what’s your grandpa up to this week? Must be nice to have a super smart grandpa! What’s your grandpa like? Does your grandpa like cheese? My grandpa said your grandpa was way smart; what did yours think of mine? When was the last time you saw your grandpa? Does your grandpa like Italian dressing? Does your grandpa help you with math? Your grandma was almost my grandma…” I didn’t use any of them though because I figured the last one was just creepy.
Instead, I said, “I like nuggets.”
“That’s deep!” Tina said, mocking me.
“I love nuggets,” Dex said. “I mean, come on, they are finger foods. I love food you can pick up to eat. It makes me feel so primal.”
“Agreed,” I replied weakly.
Ivy walked over to us. “You guys are going to beat the chump, Norman. Right? The kid came to our school, my school, just to taunt me…”
“He kind of taunted all of us,” I told Ivy.
Ivy rolled her eyes. “Maya, not everything is about you!” She turned to Dex and smiled. “But Dex has the hopes of the entire school resting on his broad shoulders.”
“You know that Maya and I are on the team too!” Tina said.
“I kind of lead the team,” I pointed out to Ivy. “Remember, I beat Dex in arm wrestling?”
Ivy rolled her eyes again. “Oh, come on, Dex let you win because he was being a gentleman and didn’t want to make you look bad in front of the class.” She glanced at Dex. “Right Dex?”
Man, this was a moment of truth. I knew for a fact that Dex had tried his best to beat me. If he lied and told Ivy that he’d let me win, I might have to explode on him. That would put a crimp in any future relationships, not to mention my efforts to get Dex to talk to his grandpa and give me information.
Dex took a deep breath. He turned a little red. “Nope, I did not let her win, I wish I could say I did let her, but that would be a lie. She beat me fair and square. Maybe I had an off day, but I tried my best.”
I smiled and nodded at Ivy. I felt a little bad about Dex’s fair and square comment since well, I did cheat a little. But it was for a good cause. Still, Dex stood up for me, and I needed to save him a little.
“I just got really lucky,” I told Ivy. “I was feeling really pumped that day. I had a lot of adrenaline pumping through me.”
“So you cheated?” Ivy framed her statement as a question.
Actually, Ivy was right but for the wrong reason. I had to shut her down. “No, being excited isn’t cheating. It’s called being a living breathing person. You should try it.”
Ivy laughed. “If you’re saying I’m so perfect, then you’d be mistaking me for a hot robot. And I say thank you.”
“Actually, you’d be an android,” I corrected.
“A hot android,” Ivy counter-corrected. “I can deal with it. BTW you guys are training our robot today. Right?”
“Of course, we’re meeting in the classroom after school,” Dex said.
“I’d like to help, I really would. But I need to do some extra workouts today. Sure, I am the fittest person in the school. But I want to be fitter so that I can go to college on a sports scholarship. Not that I need it since my mom has such a great job. But I like the thought of getting something so expensive for free!” Ivy remarked.
“You sure you’re not an android. You seemed to be able to talk for a LONG time without breathing!” I told Ivy.
Ivy simply turned and walked away. “If you need my help, just text me…”
“Oh, we won’t…” I said.
“Ditto,” Tina said.
“I don’t know,” Dex said. “She does know a lot about design.”
I shot Dex my ‘don’t you dare say that again’ look. He dropped back down in his seat. “Forget I mentioned it…”
I continued to stare at him. “Smart man!”
Needless to say though, I didn’t bring up our grandpas over lunch.
After scho
ol ended, Tina met me at my locker before we went back to the classroom to work on perfecting our robot, Seb. “This is your chance to bring up Dex’s grandpa,” Tina reminded me.
“How?” I asked.
“The guy’s a tech genius. Right? I mean, Chad’s dad might be funding this project, but Dex’s grandpa might be able to give us a few hints on how we can perfect our bot.”
“But…” I said.
“You know that’s a good point, right?” Tina told me. “Plus, it gives you a chance to bond with Dex. Get to know him better. Plus, you can really shine. You tend to glow when talking about robots.”
“I do not,” I said. I could feel myself smiling just thinking about our robot. “Okay, I do…”
Tina placed her hand on my shoulder. She looked me in the eyes. “Look, this will allow you to optimize your time and solve two problems with one move.”
I nodded. “Let’s get into the classroom.”
For this practice session, we didn’t have the whole class. Just Dex, Tina, Harry and I showed up. I’m pretty certain Harry mostly came because he liked Tina. Tina didn’t return his feelings, but Harry wasn’t one to give up easily. I gave him credit for trying. Tina claimed it drove her crazy, but I think that deep down, she liked it.
Our practice session went pretty well. I thought it would be good to work on the basics, and Dex and Tina agreed. Norman’s robot, Crusher, might excite the crowd, but a robot team with strong fundamentals will win more times than not.
We set up a little toy brick obstacle course and worked on making Seb run the course as fast as possible, both forward and backward. Dex also worked on extending the battery life. Seb wasn’t as big as Tinker Town’s bot, but we figured we could avoid their bot and then hit it when it slowed down.
“We need to find a way to get the battery to hold its max charge longer,” Dex said.
“Agreed,” I replied.
“Maybe we can ask your grandpa?” Tina said to Dex.
“Say what?” I said.
“Say what?” Dex said.
Tina rolled her eyes. “Think about it, your grandpa is an expert in robotics, right?” she asked Dex. “And your grandpa loves you?” Tina added.
“Yes, of course,” Dex replied.
Tina pointed at me. “Surely, Dex, your grandpa knows about Maya. After all, your grandpa and Maya’s grandpa used to be the best of friends.”
“True.” Dex nodded.
“He sent a really nice note to my parents when my grandpa died,” I explained to Dex.
Dex nodded again. “Grandpa says he feels bad that he never got to say goodbye to your grandpa…”
“Well, what better chance to make up for it,” Tina suggested. “He can talk to you and Maya and me about how to make our robot better.”
We heard a snicker behind us. There stood Norman with an iPad in his hand and a pink seahorse on the front of his sweater
.
“Don’t you have a school of your own to go to? Is the food better here? The girls much better looking?” Tina asked. “I bet that’s it.” She batted her eyes at Norman. “I bet you love us. Right?”
“Hardly,” Norman said. “I am here to inform you that our robot is superior to yours in every way possible. You do not stand a chance against us. But I hope you show up anyways because I want to see the looks on your little faces when we crush your robot and shatter it.”
Dex shot forward faster than I had ever seen him move. He grabbed Norman by the shirt. “Listen, you little punk, nobody comes into my school and threatens my robot.”
“Our robot,” I corrected, smiling.
“Our robot,” Dex said, putting his face in Norman’s face. “Got it Norm?”
Norman pretended to be brave. But I saw beads of sweat forming on his brow. I saw his eyes twitch a little. “I warn you; I’m a brown belt in karate.”
Maya Message: Eye twitching when talking is often a sign that a person is lying.
“You’re lying!” I told Norman.
Norman nodded. “Okay, I’m a green belt,” he said, his eyes still twitching.
“Still a lie,” I argued.
“Okay, I’m testing for my green belt in a few weeks,” Norman said, eyes not twitching.
“Yeah, that seems like the truth,” I replied.
“I still like my odds against you!” Dex growled.
I kind of liked this side of Dex.
Maya Message: Okay, I might have some issues…
Dex pointed to his chin. “To be fair, I will even give you the first move. Then I’ll feel better when I beat you up.”
Norman took a few steps back. He put down his iPad and dropped into a karate stance. “I warned you.”
Tina gave me a look. I shrugged. Okay, I smiled and shrugged. I kind of enjoyed watching this macho Dex. I also enjoyed watching what I assumed would be Norm getting a lesson taught to him.
Maya Message: Sometimes, that inner brain, the part of the brain that is less evolved, the reptile part that we all have in common, takes over. I try to fight it most of the time.
Tina sighed and rushed forward.
Norman, to his credit, did attempt to kick Dex in the chin with a snap kick. Tina blocked the kick, easily pushing Norman’s attack to the side. Bending down, she spun around and kicked Norman’s non-kicking leg out from under him.
Norman fell back onto his butt.
Tina stood over him. “You can’t even come close to taking me. How do you expect to take Dex?”
“Frankly, I think you might be tougher…” Norman said from the ground.
Tina smiled. “You may have a point.”
Dex nodded. “Agreed.”
Harry, who had been almost invisible up until now, simply said, “Wow what a woman…”
Tina pointed to the door. “Now get out, and if I catch you in this school again before the competition, you and I will have a problem. Do you want a problem with me?”
“No, I certainly do not!” Norman said.
Tina offered him her hand. He took her hand. She pulled him up to his feet with ease. “I don’t want to see you again until the competition. I don’t really want you there, but I will tolerate you.”
Norman grabbed his iPad and turned and ran out of the room.
“I think he wet his pants,” Dex said.
“What a woman,” Harry repeated.
Dex turned to me. “I’ll talk to my grandpa. I’m sure he’ll want to help us out. Especially when I tell him about that jerk, Norman.”
“Thanks,” I smiled.
Well, what do you know… that jerk, Norman actually helped me out!
Chapter X
Later that afternoon, I decided to head down to the lab while Tina kept Marko occupied with his Lego in his room. Sometimes Marko could really get in the way, and I had some questions bouncing around in my brain about Dex’s grandfather. I wanted some time without Marko around so I could question Grandpa J. The only things I knew about Tony Rose were…he was an esteemed scientist, and he was respected in his field. He may also have tried to steal my grandma from my grandpa before they dated. I’m not sure about that story, so I decided to use that as a front to get more information.
I approached the interface that housed the wires and circuits which were responsible for projecting Grandpa’s hologram. Within a second, Grandpa’s image shimmered to life in front of me.
“Hello, sweetheart. What’s up?” Gramps asked.
“You seem to be in a chipper mood today,” I remarked.
“I just finished taking a nap. I don’t need to take them, but sometimes I do it just for fun,” he told me.
“Well, Grandpa, I’m actually here because I want to know the story about you and Grandma and Dexter’s grandfather.”
“Well, that’s a long story. Are you sure you’re ready to hear the whole thing?”
“Ugh! Are you gonna bore me to death again with that story?” Polly asked, swooping in out of nowhere. “It’s so darn complicated.”
I
ignored Polly. “Even if it is complex, I’m ready to hear it.”
“Actually, we kind of switched girlfriends,” Grandpa told me.
“Wow. Weird, but go on,” I responded.
“Well, I was dating a spark plug named Diana. She was as bright as a whip, and pretty cute if I do say so myself,” Grandpa said, clearly proud of his former self.
“I’ve seen pictures. She was cute!” Polly said. “Hey! I’m just giving credit where credit is due.”
“Anyways, Tony was dating the woman who would go on to become your grandma,” Grandpa continued. “So, don’t believe it when Polly tells you that I stole Tony’s girl. It was more detailed than that.”
I nodded. I could tell where this was going to go.
“As Tony and I were both scientists, we ran into each other quite a bit. Even though Diana was an amazing woman, I knew I was meant to be with your grandmother. I broke up with Diana and sent your Grandma Maya roses every day until she agreed to see me. We went out to dinner one time at a little Italian place, and she left Tony the very next day,” Grandpa explained.
“So then Diana and Tony got together?” I assumed.
“Matter of fact, they got married. They were very happy together for a long time. That’s really what led to their undoing. He was so swept up in their relationship that his work took a backseat. She grew unhappy with the shortage of money and divorced him. In the split, she took half of his savings and patents for his life’s work,” Grandpa reminisced.
“She sounds awful!” I said.
“Well, Tony knew what he was getting himself into. He knew that funding was a priority for Diana. It’s his own fault for giving up on science,” Grandpa joked. He paused for a moment and then continued, “Tony got bitter after the divorce. Instead of blaming Diana or himself, he blamed me and vowed to upend all the work I had done. I guess, even after my death, he still hasn’t stopped.”
“Okay, thanks, Grandpa,” I said. “Anything else you want to tell me about Diana or Tony?”
