“So, if we cut out the seat of this shopping trolley and attach it to these two sewing machines, we’ve got a start to the body of the craft.”
Halinka and Millie watched with their heads cocked as they listened closely to their clever friend.
“These pedals will turn the handle of the sewing machines, pushing the needles up and down, trapping compressed air into these tomato cans underneath. The compressed air will then shoot through these old pieces of hose pipe and power the whisks, onto which Millie can weld two propellers, which, once in flight, should be enough to push the craft across Lake Cosmos.”
“What propellers?” Millie asked, looking befuddled.
“Four serving spoons bolted together like this!” Pearl held up her contraption, smiling.
“But how are we going to get the wings to flap, now that we don’t have access to all the solar power motors that were in the engineering suite?” Halinka asked. “And what are they going to be made from?”
Pearl pulled a huge tattered umbrella out from underneath one of the boxes.
“Ta-da!” She smiled, twirling it about and looking very pleased with herself.
Millie and Halinka both stood studying the chalk drawing.
“Well,” Halinka said, “if you’re sure it’ll work, then let’s get building.”
“It has to work. We can’t be split up. We must win this competition,” Pearl said.
They looked determinedly at each other. They would not split up for good.
Chapter 7
“Mmm, this spinach-and-raspberry smoothie is gooood!” Pearl said to Millie, who had arrived at the school gates on her Smoothie-Making Penny-Farthing.
“Here,” Millie said to Halinka, passing her a bottle of green gloop. “Try this walnut-and-kiwi smoothie. It’ll set you right up for a day of flying!”
“No thanks!” Halinka said, turning up her nose. “I don’t want to attract any squirrels, so it’s best to avoid anything with nuts!”
“Suit yourself.” Millie shrugged before guzzling down the gloop herself.
A loud swooshing noise from above caused the three friends to look up.
“It’s the Grrl Bot! Megan and Heather must have sent a reply!” Pearl said in a relieved tone.
Halinka reached up and retrieved the Grrl Bot from the tree where it had landed using her telescopic grabber arm, and the three girls flicked the switch to watch the monitor on the Grrl Bot’s tummy.
A grainy black-and-white image appeared, but it was clearly Heather and Megan.
“Turn it up, Halinka,” said Pearl as they struggled to hear the muffled message.
“Nice try, Bunsen burnouts! We know your game. You’re trying to get us to step down from the competition, so you have a better chance of winning. Well, bad luck! See you at Lake Cosmos this afternoon!”
“Are they really that stupid?” Halinka said, her mouth hanging open.
“They think we’re trying to trick them?” Millie said. “But we’re trying to save them!”
“I guess, because they’re so mean, they assume everyone else is too,” Pearl said, wondering what to do now.
“Look,” Halinka said, “we tried our best. We can just tell the organizers this afternoon when we get there. They won’t let Atom take part if students are in danger.”
“At least we tried,” said Millie. “That’s probably more than they would do.”
“Now for the most important part: the test flight!” Pearl said, leading her two friends onto the playground, where they had left the flying machine overnight.
“No sign of any squirrel damage,” Halinka said, inspecting the machine. “For once.”
Millie made a few final adjustments before helping Pearl up onto the seat and making sure the wings were positioned correctly.
“Ready for takeoff?” Millie said, licking her finger and holding it up to the sky to test the wind direction.
“I think so,” Pearl replied, shakily pulling her goggles down over her eyes and nervously looking out at the long stretch of playground in front of her.
Pearl held her finger down on the small silver button on the top of the left lever and waited for the engine to spark up.
“It’s not doing anything!” Halinka said, panicking.
“Let me just adjust the wiring,” Millie said, poking her screwdriver into the control panel.
Suddenly, instead of steadily coursing along the runway and gliding into the air smoothly, the machine shot straight up! It flipped over, leaving Pearl hanging upside down, like a fruit bat.
“What’s it doing?” Pearl shrieked.
“Use the levers!” Millie shouted from far below. “Pull the left one back and push the right one forward a little!”
Pearl maneuvered the levers, and the flying machine flipped back up the right way.
“Now flap your wings!” shouted Halinka.
Pearl pulled the two levers at her side, and gradually, her umbrella wings began to flap back and forth.
“It works. I’m flying!” Pearl cried as she glided about above the rickety rooftops of Miss Bunsen’s school.
“Go, Pearl!” Halinka shrieked, jumping up and down and clapping wildly.
“I’m feeling a bit emotional,” Millie said, wiping a little tear away from her eye. “It looks like we have a chance of all staying together after all.” She and Halinka hugged each other tightly, not noticing that Pearl and the machine had started to lose altitude in rapid bursts.
“COMING THROOOOOUUUGH!” Pearl hollered as the machine suddenly dove toward the ground before swooping back up just in time.
“What’s it doing now?” Pearl cried. “I can’t control it!”
“Watch out, Mr. Bell!” Millie cried as the old caretaker jumped out of the way just before Pearl flew at speed up the school steps and in through the school’s front doors.
Pearl corkscrewed her way along the main corridor before bursting though the main hall doors, where Bunseners were gathering for morning assembly. She flew in out-of-control circles above their heads.
“Coming down!” Pearl shouted, covering her eyes. When she reopened them, she had somehow exited the school and had Brains clinging to her back.
Slowly, the machine descended back onto the playground, where Millie and Halinka were running around beneath her, trying to figure out a way to cushion her landing if she kept falling.
“It started flying smoothly again! I don’t get it,” Pearl said, pushing her goggles back onto her forehead.
“It suddenly seems to be working okay.” Millie looked confused.
“It’s a miracle recovery!” Halinka said.
“The flying machine was totally out of control! It was only when I somehow acquired Brains on board that the whole thing began to fly a little better, but it’s still not perfect!”
“Oh, good boy, Brains!” Millie said, lifting the ball of fur and scrap metal down from the flying machine and giving him a tight squeeze.
“Don’t squeeze him too t…Oh. Too late,” Pearl said, looking at the trickle of wee running down Millie’s shirt.
“Look!” Halinka said, suddenly pointing to Brains’s back. “What’s this?”
“It looks like some sort of turbocharger,” Millie said. The three friends looked more closely at the small pack on the cat’s back, which had a long metal pipe bending out from it.
“That’s it!” Millie shrieked excitedly. “It needs more power on takeoff and landing to set the craft on a straight trajectory. If there’s not enough power, the flying machine won’t gain enough velocity and will just lose control.”
“So we need to attach the turbocharger to the engine?” Halinka asked.
“Ideally, yes,” Millie said. “Problem is this charger is done—it’s too damaged and old now to reuse, and I don’t have the time or the equipment to build a new one before the competition.”
“I guess that’s it then. We’re doomed to get wet,” Pearl said, looking at the flying machine with a tear in her eye.
/> “All that hard work for nothing.” Millie whimpered.
“Look,” Pearl said. “Everyone is starting to move their machines down to the lake.”
“Come on. You need to get this machine down to Lake Cosmos and at least give it a go,” said Halinka. “I’ll meet you there.” She pulled her backpack onto her shoulder and strode off.
Pearl watched her friend disappear out of the gate and wondered again why she didn’t even seem slightly upset. Maybe her worries that Halinka didn’t care because she really didn’t want to stay at Miss Bunsen’s that badly anymore were right after all. Did she want to make some new friends at Velocity College? Maybe Pearl wasn’t a clever enough friend anymore for Halinka and Millie—after all, now her flying machine didn’t even work.
Millie started trying to lug their machine across the grounds, but Pearl stood still for a moment. If they didn’t win this competition, they’d be split up—but maybe that was what Millie and Halinka wanted.
Chapter 8
With a warm breeze blowing, the girls of Miss Bunsen’s School for Brilliant Girls began to wheel, push, and carry their amazing and not-so-amazing flying machines down to Lake Cosmos to compete for the grand prize.
“Oh, wow!” Millie looked around at the rows of incredible flying machines all lined up along the bank of Lake Cosmos from all the science schools in the area.
Sienna and Sophie from Miss Bunsen’s were busy polishing the nose cone of their sprout-fueled rocket.
“Oh, Sienna,” Millie said, “this invention is an awesome way to use up all those sprouts that no one ever eats!”
Sienna laughed. “I guess they’re good for something!”
“Just not lunch,” Sophie added. “We’ve got enough gas built up in this little chamber to get us across the lake, I hope!” She patted the three tiny cylinders on the side of the rocket.
“We’re really lucky that we were testing it out on the playground when the fire in the engineering suite broke out,” Sienna said. “I’m so sorry you guys had your design trapped in there.”
“Thanks, Sienna,” Pearl said. “We tried to build something else, but who knows if it’ll make it across?”
Just then, Millie let out a loud shriek.
“Look!” she gasped. “There’s Nova Celeste!”
The Bunsen girls watched in awe as Nova drove up in her electric car, but their view was soon blocked by a tall figure.
“SCHOOL?” demanded a woman. She was clutching a clipboard so tightly her knuckles were white.
“Erm, Miss Bunsen’s,” Pearl replied, pointing at the badge on her blouse.
“No need to be snippy, Pearl Peppersmith,” the woman sniffed. “I’ve heard all about you three and have been given strict instructions to keep you well away from Atom Academy.”
Pearl wondered for a moment why the woman had bothered asking which school they were from if she already knew who they were but concluded that the snooty lady probably just liked shouting “SCHOOL?” at children.
“But, miss,” Millie chirped, “we absolutely must speak with you about the flying machine being entered by Megan and Heather. It’s…”
“ENOUGH!” the clipboard lady snapped. “You are not to mention anything about Atom. They have made it quite clear that you are to be kept well away from them, as your meddling and troublemaking is causing a terrible nuisance. Now keep quiet and stay out of trouble.”
A familiar nasal voice began to echo around the competition grounds. “The contest is about to begin. Atom Academy, please take your places at the side of the lake.”
“Oh no! Atom is going first, and it looks like Megan and Heather are front of the queue!” Millie gasped. “We have to warn them!”
Millie burst out of the line she was in and ran toward Heather and Megan and their shiny, white flying machine, but before she could get to them, an arm reached out and pulled her back. It was the snooty clipboard lady.
“I warned you once! Now you are going to have to stay with me,” she snarled through yellow teeth. She looked at the yellow stain on Millie’s blouse. “Is that cat wee I smell?”
“Millie, you must make them listen about the Freezacon! You take care of that, and I’ll deal with the flight,” she called after her friend.
“I’ll make sure they listen!” Millie called back as she was dragged away.
“Millie’s been caught!” Pearl said, panicking. “How am I going to get the machine started without her help?!” Brains was the only one listening to her. “And where is Halinka?”
Brains looked up at Pearl with his one good eye before coughing up a fur ball, some nuts and bolts, and a piece of copper wire of surprising length.
The nasally voice continued. “Will Megan and Heather please prepare for takeoff?”
“This could be really bad. Why haven’t they been stopped?” Pearl said with genuine concern. She watched as Megan climbed into the swanky, glittery, streamlined, white machine with a row of blue lights along each wing.
Heather did the preflight checks before standing back, looking smug.
The sleek machine began to roll along the grass runway before effortlessly soaring up into the air.
Pearl watched closely, desperately hoping that Atom’s machine made it across the lake. Heather and Megan may have been mean girls, but she would never want them to get hurt.
Suddenly, Brains began to fidget.
“What’s the matter, you silly old cat?” Pearl said before realizing that Brains was trying to point with a grubby paw toward the surface of the lake.
“What is that?” Pearl whispered under her breath, pulling out a pair of tiny binoculars from her shirt pocket.
Floating on the surface of the water were hundreds of tiny flames of white light.
“That must be where the Freezacon is flaking off and coming into contact with the water in the lake!” she gasped.
Nervously, she and Brains watched as Atom’s flying machine reached full height over the center of the lake.
“Look at them go!” the commentator blared.
The craft began to descend, and Pearl covered her eyes.
“Wow, what a flight!” The commentator cheered as Megan landed safely on the other side of the lake. “And only 22.6 seconds!”
Pearl uncovered her eyes and sighed in relief.
Megan pulled off her ice-blue, sparkly helmet and shook her long, blond hair before speaking.
“What do you expect from the best academy in the city? I’ve been working on this special material for some time now, and as you can see, it’s just perfect for a flying machine. Why, I even had time to add this special snow machine for dramatic effect. I know Nova was looking for something different, and I’m sure she’ll be impressed.”
Pearl listened to the selfish speech and glanced over at Heather, who was stamping her feet and shaking her fist at the other side of the lake where her “friend” was taking all the credit.
“Thank goodness they’re okay,” Pearl said to Brains.
The competition continued, and many brilliant, and some not-so-brilliant, contraptions flew over the lake.
There were elaborate inventions that hovered a few feet above the lake’s surface and took forever to cross. There was Sophie and Sienna’s incredible rocket, which zoomed over the lake in a flash! One girl was even shot across the lake from a giant catapult wearing a flying squirrel suit, only to land on a giant bouncy castle on the other side.
Some made it, and some schoolgirls ended up very wet, but no one had beaten Atom’s time yet.
“Next up,” came the nasally voice, “Pearl, Halinka, and Millie from Miss Bunsen’s School for Brilliant Girls.”
“I can’t do this by myself,” Pearl said nervously as she popped Brains into the craft’s seat and began heaving it to the start of the runway. She hoped that Brains could indeed help start the machine and wondered why her friend wasn’t there to help.
“I guess Halinka must have found something better to do,” she said to Brains, trying t
o hold back her tears.
Pearl climbed on board, adjusted the wings, and buckled herself in, while, as expected, Brains was unable to offer much help.
Just then, there was a loud roaring sound and a musical horn.
“Halinka!” Pearl shouted in a mix of panic and delight.
Chapter 9
Halinka revved her Turbo Trike engine as she zoomed over toward the flying machine before screeching to a halt. She jumped off her Turbo Trike and ripped off the turbo before quickly attaching it to the small engine at the back of the craft.
“That ought to see my clever friend over Lake Cosmos,” Halinka said, winking at Pearl.
“But your Turbo Trike,” Pearl gasped. “It’s ruined now!”
“Well, I guess some things are more important than Turbo Trikes—NOT MANY, but my friendship with you is one of them.”
Halinka took Brains and handed Pearl a long piece of wire with a button on the end. “Press this to shut off the diesel engine and turbo when you’re in flight. Then, when you reach the other side, press it again to spark it up to help you land with more control.”
Pearl sighed happily and pulled her goggles down over her eyes. She flicked the switch, and the engine roared to life. Halinka then pressed a button on the turbo, and the flying machine shot off down the runway.
“You can do this, Pearl. Flap, flap, flap for lift!” Millie shouted. She was standing awkwardly; her hands were being held behind her back by the clipboard lady.
“I think I’ve got this!” Pearl cried, buoyed by her friends’ faith in her. She cruised elegantly up into the air and over the edge of Lake Cosmos. Then she pressed the button on the wire that Halinka had given her and shut off the engine and turbo.
But just then, there was a great thud on the back of the machine, and it lurched uncontrollably from side to side. It was Brains. He’d taken a heroic jump and landed on the back of the flying machine.
Light as a Feather Page 3
