Geek Girl - Books 1, 2 and 3

by John Zakour

  Looking her in the eyes, I said. “I look forward to the challenge! I’m glad I inspired you to be better!” I then added. “But I think it takes more to impress a guy like Dex than being good at soccer.”

  “I’m also beautiful and smart!” Ivy countered.

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t forget humble and modest.”

  Tina and I walked past her into the homeroom. “Great, now you’ve got Ivy all fired up!” Tina remarked.

  “Don’t worry; we can handle her! We’re a team; we’ve got this!” I said, trying to convince myself as much as Tina.

  Chapter VII

  After school ended for the day, I sat on the back of Tina’s bike as we headed to my house.

  “Do you mind if we stop at the bank where my mom works?” Tina asked. “My grandma sent me a check for ten dollars, and I want to cash it.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “The Second World Bank is right near our house.”

  “My mom loves being a bank teller,” Tina said. “I used to want to be a bank teller too until I learned you didn’t get to tell people what to do all the time!”

  I laughed. “I remember when your mom told you that. You were so disappointed.”

  “Now I’ll settle for being a pro-soccer player, I guess,” Tina said. She paused then added. “Unless of course that Android of yours shows me up again.”

  I fought back a sigh. I’d hoped Tina had put that behind her. Though I felt confident she would eventually let it go, she clearly needed to get in another dig.

  “I don’t know what you were thinking, letting an Android play for you anyhow!” Tina said.

  Alright, maybe she needed a couple more digs. My first thought was to fight back and point out that she’d loved the idea of playing with a better version of me. But I knew that wouldn’t be productive. Instead, I went with the humble approach. “Yeah, I messed up. Sorry!”

  “I guess that’s why you have me in your life. I’m the common sense one with the coordination and the wisdom. You’re the super brain, but I bring you back to Earth.”

  I patted her on the back. “Phew, I’m so glad I have you!”

  The bank came into view, and Tina slowed down her bike. Slowing down wasn’t how Tina normally rolled. She became quiet, and her attention focused on the door of the bank.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Something’s wrong,” Tina said, pulling the bike off the road and onto the sidewalk. “The bank has all the blinds drawn, and it’s only 3 o’clock. Plus, look, there is a black car with the engine running in front of the door. OMG! They’re robbing the bank!” Tina exclaimed.

  Tina jumped off her bike; she started storming towards the bank. Rolling off the bike, I chased after her. I grabbed her arm and pulled her down behind a car.

  “What are you doing?” Tina demanded. “My mom is in there!”

  “I know, but so are a lot of other innocent people. Plus, there are two people in there robbing the bank who are probably armed!”

  “How do you know there’s two of them?” Tina asked.

  “I’m very observant. I can see both passenger doors are unlocked and the windows rolled down. I believe it’s so the robbers in the bank can make a fast escape.”

  Tina tried to stand up. I pulled her back down. She looked at me. “Geez, Maya, use those muscles for fighting the bad dudes!” She pointed at the bank. “I know the bank has a silent alarm; the police can’t be more than three or four minutes away.”

  “Good, then it’s our goal to delay the bad guys, not confront them,” I said, as I rifled through my book bag. Pulling out an old red pen, I smiled. “I still have my lucky pen!”

  “You’ve had that pen for years. How’s it going to help us?” Tina asked, not at all pleased with me right now.

  “This pen writes great! But it’s useful for other things as well,” I said.

  I pulled the ink strip out of the tube that held the ink strip. I showed the empty tube point to Tina. I blew air in one side. It came out the other side and hit Tina in the face.

  She frowned and shook her head.

  I pulled out one of the spikes that I’d designed for Seb’s wheels. “These things are way sharp! Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn’t have brought them into school. I was so excited to show them to Dex; I couldn’t help myself. I used the 3D printer to make them, so they’re very light.”

  Tiny rolled her eyes. “Your point?”

  I showed her the point on one the spikes. “My point is…these things have an amazing point! One that can pierce a tire!”

  “I don’t think…” Tina’s eyes popped open. “Oh, I know. I get it now…your pen and your love for African blowguns!”

  “I don’t love African blowguns. It’s just that I did a report on them in third grade and thought, wow, those are neat.”

  “You also perfected your aim with them, if I recall correctly!” Tina commented.

  I smiled. “Yeah, I do have good aim.”

  I carefully loaded the thin spike into the hollow shaft of the pen. I made certain the sharp pointy end faced outward. Inhaling, I put the pen that I’d turned into a blow gun, into my mouth. I exhaled as hard as I could. My dart shot across the street and hit the rim of the tire instead of the rubber part.

  “Darn! You missed!” Tina said.

  I nodded as I loaded my second (and last) spike. “I didn’t account for wind. I’ll try again.”

  I lifted the blow pen to my mouth. Concentrating, I exhaled hard. The spike shot across the street and lodged into the wall of the tire. The tire didn’t pop.

  “Did it work?” Tina asked.

  “I think so,” I said. “But the leak will be very slow. The robbers will probably still get away.”

  Tina glared at the car as though her very look could stop it from going anywhere. “Do you have anything else in your bag that could work?” she asked me.

  “No,” I said. “What do you have in your bag?” I was hoping for a lucky break.

  Tina opened her bag. “Just some books and what’s left of the lunch that my mom packed for me…the woman that’s in the bank with the robbers now!”

  “Did you eat your banana?” I asked.

  “How do you know I have a banana?” she asked.

  “Your mom always packs you a banana,” I said. I knew my best friend well.

  “I tried to eat it because you always tell me they’re high in potassium. But this one was too mushy.” She showed me a half-eaten banana. “I still have a lot left!”

  “Great!” I said.

  “I thought you’d lecture me about not eating my banana…” Tina told me as she waved the banana at me.

  “It’ll be enough to stop the bad guys from getting away!” I said.

  “Maya, this is not a cartoon or a Mario Kart game. We can’t drop banana peels for the bad guys to slip on…”

  “No, Tina, but we can crawl over to the car and plug the car’s exhaust pipe with the banana, making the car pretty useless, fairly quickly!” I held out my hand. “Give me the banana, I’ll crawl over.”

  Tina shook her head. “No, this is my banana, my mom’s bank. It’s your idea, but my execution. Besides, I’m faster and smoother than you. You’re not your Android double.”

  Man, she had to dig me again about the Android. Though she was under a lot of pressure, so I let it go. “Fine, just be careful,” I said.

  For some reason, Tina held the banana in her mouth while she darted across the street. Once on the same side as the bank and the escape car, she dropped to all fours and crawled along the sidewalk towards the car. I lost sight of her until she appeared right behind the car. She reached up and stuck the banana in the exhaust. It had to be hot, but she still managed to do it. Man, Tina was tough.

  A man in a mask carrying a sack of money in his hand came rushing out of the bank. He paused and turned back to the other man behind him.

  The second man was carrying a gun in one hand and an even larger sack of money in the othe
r. “Go, go!” he shouted to the first robber.

  The men jumped into the car in such a hurry they didn’t see Tina.

  “Hit it!” one of the men yelled to the driver, who had been sitting in the driver’s seat, hidden from view.

  The driver must have stepped on the gas because I heard the engine race. I also heard police sirens approaching. Even though the driver of the robbers’ car must have really pushed on the gas, the car simply stuttered and shook as it crept forward like a sick old turtle.

  The clogged car moved about ten yards before it sputtered to a stop.

  I saw one of the men punch the driver in the arm. “You, idiot! I thought you had the car tuned! The boss is going to be so angry!!”

  “I did have it tuned!” the driver insisted.

  “Well, something went wrong!!” the other guy shouted.

  Meanwhile, the sirens grew louder.

  The driver pushed his door open and started to run towards Tina. The other two men leaped out and headed in the opposite direction. The driver ran right past Tina. Well, he tried to, but Tina, being Tina, held out her leg and tripped the man. He fell flat on his face. The man spun around, and Tina kicked him hard in the shin.

  He crumpled over, holding his leg. “This is a really bad day!”

  I’m not sure what got into me, but I hopped on Tina’s bike and sped towards the other two robbers who were trying to escape. “Stop, thieves!” I shouted. “This is a citizen’s arrest!”

  The two running thieves saw me gaining on them. They stopped. I’d forgotten about their guns. For a bright girl, I did do some dumb things sometimes. They laughed when they saw me. I kept pedaling towards them. I only had one chance.

  “Pete, we can’t shoot a kid!” one of the guys said.

  “Danny, don’t use my real name!” the other guy said.

  I dropped off the bike, hoping the momentum would roll the bike into them. Sure enough, the bike slid along the ground, smacking both the men in their shins. They jumped up and down in pain.

  Maya Little Fact: The shins are very delicate because they have very little muscle protecting the bones and nerves.

  The two men glared at me, rubbing their shins. “Oh, little girl… why did you do that?” they asked.

  “Freeze!” the police answered for me.

  The men dropped their guns and moaned, “The boss is going to be so angry with us…”

  Tina and I had stopped a bank robbery using our brains and our muscles. We’d saved the day. The police and the bank staff were very grateful. Police Captain Rickey noted that his men would have caught the bad guys once they were on foot. He said that his men didn’t eat nearly as many donuts as people believe, and vowed that they were all in good shape. Still, he was happy that we were successful and remained safe at the same time. He called us, ‘fine outstanding citizens,’ which felt really good.

  Though he didn’t want to broadcast our actions to the public because the robbers had talked about a boss. Until the police brought in the entire ring, the captain figured it would be best to keep our names and faces out of the press.

  Our parents agreed. Our parents were also less than thrilled that we’d risked our lives to stop a robbery. Tina and I were just happy to have helped.

  Driving home in the car, Dad lectured me. At first, it was very positive. “You know, honey, you’ve been amazing lately — first, the soccer game. Then using your brain and your friend’s bike to stop a robbery. I’m so proud of you.”

  I didn’t feel great at all about the soccer game. But I felt really good about breaking up a robbery.

  “Still,” Dad said in a sterner voice. “Using the banana to stop their car, while very smart, could also have been very dangerous if you had been caught.”

  “Sorry,” I said, lowering my head.

  “But chasing after two armed men with a bike? Honey, that’s just too much. Did you think about how dangerous that was?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But I needed to do it for Tina. I was worried the robbers might go back for her. Tina’s tough, but she’s not bulletproof.”

  “Neither are you, honey, neither are you…” Dad said.

  Yeah, Dad had a point. I guess I’ve been so used to training in my lab that I was now treating every situation like it was a simulation. Was it possible that I’d become too brave?

  Though I always thought that if I practiced and prepared, I could handle anything. And I think I just proved that. Right? Heck, if I could take out two armed robbers, maybe if I kept practicing and working on my soccer, I could improve my skills there as well. Yeah, I would never match the skills of Android me, but I could still improve and help my team. Then I wouldn’t feel like such a fake when I talked to Dex about soccer.

  My phone beeped with a text.

  TINA> Hey, you had my back and my front today! I really appreci8 it!

  MAYA>You’re my BFF! I always have ur back. That’s what BFFs do!

  TINA> My parents aren’t happy though. I’m grounded. 2 weeks.

  MAYA>Yeah ditto. I guess I’ll see you at school and on the field.

  Chapter VIII

  Being grounded isn’t so bad when you have a super high tech lab to hang out in. Especially now that I’d figured out I could use the lab to help improve my soccer skills. Yeah, maybe not what Grandpa Jack intended when he left me this lab. After all, I was supposed to use it to make the world a better place. But isn’t making myself a better person, making the world a better place? Tina and I had stopped an armed robbery. That was making the world better for sure. Improving myself would also make the world better. Right?

  I could see that Tammy agreed. The second she saw me, she ran over and hugged me, lifting me off the ground. “Maya! I’m so proud of you!”

  “You don’t think what I did was stupid and reckless?” I asked.

  “Oh no, I certainly do. It was incredibly stupid and reckless,” Tammy said, still smiling. She lowered me to the ground. “I admit that my feelings are complicated. Feelings usually are. Yes, you did something that only a trained professional should do, and even then, only in rare cases. Going after armed men is cuckoo and cray, cray.”

  “Okay, I am getting a mixed message here!” I replied.

  Tammy smiled. “As I said, it’s complicated. As a babysitter and guardian, I think you shouldn’t have done what you did. But the fighter in me, the one who loves to serve justice says, you go, girl!”

  “Is the fighter in you, a grandma?” I asked jokingly.

  Tammy gave me a friendly little push. “You know what I mean. I’m proud of you for not overthinking. You thought just enough to use your brain and your brawn to stop a robbery.”

  “Thanks, my goal was to stop them, but I couldn’t let them hurt my BFF. So, I jumped…well, biked into action!” I told her.

  “I’m proud of you,” she repeated. “Just don’t ever do that again! But still, let’s train, just in case you do get in another tricky situation. Man, this is complicated. But I want to make sure you’re ready.”

  “Well, I do want to be in great shape for soccer,” I said.

  “Good, I can help you learn to defend yourself better too…jujitsu, judo, and pressure point fighting,” Tammy told me. “Let’s hope you don’t need it, but you might. After all, my sources tell me those three you brought down are from a gang of ten professional bank robbers. They are led by a woman named Nanny Handy.”

  “You’re kidding,” I said.

  “We think it’s a nickname,” Tammy explained. “Computer, image up please!” The image of a short and sweet looking grandma type lady with bluish-white hair tied up in a beehive style bun appeared. “That’s her!” Tammy said.

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that out.”

  “She’s an evil genius mastermind!” Tammy exclaimed. “Back twenty years ago, she posed as a Nanny for hard to control and problem children. Parents thought she did wonders with them. They didn’t know that she mentally programmed them to do what she wanted. Her goal was to create a t
eam who would be very obedient robbers twenty years in the future. It looks like she succeeded.”

  Polly landed on my shoulder. “You gotta give the lady props for planning ahead.”

  Tammy and I glared at Polly. He shrugged. “Hey, I give props where props are due!”

  Grandpa, K9, and Crash walked over to us. They were all smiling. Crash held a belt in his hands.

  “Honey, stopping those robbers was both reckless and smart at the same time!” Grandpa said.

  “Yeah, I get that,” I replied.

  Grandpa’s smile widened. “I’m proud of you for brushing your fears aside and leaping into action!”

  “Actually, she pedaled into action,” Polly corrected as only Polly can.

  “For going into action,” Grandpa said.

  “Actually, she just kind of fell off her bike and her bike rolled into action,” Polly said, thinking about this way too much.

  Grandpa shook his head. “Whatever! I’m proud of you, Maya. But of course, I’m also worried about you. The team and I have researched Granny Handy, and while she has a cool name, she is not to be taken lightly. Therefore, I have worked with Computer, K9, and Crash to develop something for you.”

  Crash passed me the belt that was in his hand.

  I looked at it. “It’s a belt?”

  `“Yes, very good!” Grandpa said, his face lighting up. “It’s a belt that I developed from some of your notes. You jotted down ideas for a personal force field that is powered by the body’s kinetic energy…”

  “I came up with that idea when I was ten,” I said. “I forgot all about those notes!” I admitted.

  “Well, it’s an excellent idea…a belt that stores the energy you create by walking, breathing, your heart beating, and yes, even farting,” Grandpa said.

  Tammy cringed. “You could have left out the farting.”

  “Nope, I couldn’t.” Grandpa smiled. “I like saying farting; it's a fun word. Plus, farts do generate energy that we can store and use!” He looked at me. “Maya, try it on. ”