“Ugh,” said Kevin, smacking one of the little bloodsuckers into a red splotch on his arm. “We gotta tell Mim to stop eating so many spiders.”
“Yeah,” said Warner. “By the way, where is the little purple spider eater?”
“Tara said she was going to pick him up from the shed,” said TJ.
“Okay, cool,” Kevin said. “I just want to walk him through our presentation before the convention.” He pulled out the walkie-talkie and pressed the call button. “Tara. You with Mim? Over.”
A few seconds later, Tara’s voice came through the receiver. “I can’t find him,” her voice crackled. “He’s not with you guys?”
“Wait, what do you mean you can’t find him?” Kevin was starting to get worried. If they didn’t have an alien to show, they had no proof that their invention actually worked.
“I’ll check the shed again,” Tara promised.
“Let’s split up. TJ, you check the bunk. Warner, check the mess hall, and I’ll check the labs,” said Kevin. “Tara, if he’s not in the shed, you check the forest. We’ll report back here in one hour.”
An hour later, Kevin waited for his teammates outside the field house, kicking the dirt. Kevin had searched the camp high and low, but Mim was nowhere to be found.
A few minutes passed and Warner, TJ, and Tara approached, looking down in the dumps. Kevin started to realize this was about to be the worst Invention Convention ever.
“You guys,” said Kevin, “what are we going to do? Without Mim, this thing is useless. No one’s going to believe we were talking to a real live alien unless we can show them a real live alien!”
Warner slapped his hand down on Kevin’s shoulder. “Whether we win or not, you know that we did something incredible, so that’s all that matters. Even though that trip to Hawaii would have been really cool.”
“I guess you’re right,” Kevin said, trying to calm his nerves. He just couldn’t believe that he was going to lose to Alexander once again.
Kevin accepted defeat as the Extraordinary Terrestrials made their way into the field house, but before they could enter the convention, the Vainglorious Math Nerds strolled by. Kevin squinted coldly as he and Alexander locked eyes. Without breaking his glare, Alexander sneered and dragged his index finger across the width of his neck.
Doing his best to ignore his nemesis, Kevin pushed past him and led the way into the gymnasium, while Warner and TJ rolled their now useless galactascope in behind him. Setting their invention off to the side, they climbed the bleachers and took their seats in the crowd, waiting for the convention to begin.
Camp Director Dimpus made his way onto the stage and raised his arms to signal the crowd to simmer down. “Welcome to this year’s Invention Convention! Thank you all for participating. It’s been an amazing summer so far, and I’ve had the privilege of witnessing some of the most impressive creative thinking and dedicated work in all my twenty years at this camp. Before me sits a fine collection of young scientific minds, and I know you’re all excited to see what your fellow campers have invented. So without further ado: may the best scientists win.” The crowd applauded, and Dimpus introduced the first team.
As Alexander had told them, Team Quasar had indeed developed a formula for a kind of soda pop that turned the drinker’s hair purple. Using one of their teammates as a test subject, they demonstrated the effect of the soda. Kevin watched as their teammate guzzled the fizzy beverage, and within a few seconds, his light-blond hair magically turned a dark shade of purple.
Time couldn’t have gone slow enough. Maybe Mim was still running on his old planet’s time. Maybe three o’clock here was like thirteen o’clock there. It didn’t matter. The Invention Convention had already begun, and Mim was a no-show. Kevin’s stomach fell and his chest tightened. He couldn’t believe that after everything, Mim had really bailed on him.
All he could do was sit back and observe as others qualified to win the prize and stature that was rightfully his. Kevin had to admit, though, there were some other pretty cool inventions this year.
One group had created a filtration system that could reuse and purify bath and shower water for future baths and showers, which Kevin thought was good for the environment, but also kind of gross. Another team had built a robot that cleaned and did other basic chores. And another had made a superstrong bike helmet that looked identical to a baseball cap.
Then it was Alexander’s turn. The lights in the gymnasium dimmed.
His hovercraft lit up and rose off the court as Alexander spoke from the cockpit, holding a wireless microphone. “I decided to design this hovercraft after getting cut from my seventh-grade B team in basketball. I’m sure many of us have felt that same pain and humiliation. But I knew I could do something those basketball-dribbling jocks couldn’t. Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the HoverTron.”
The hovercraft flew about seven feet off the ground. Alexander steered it over the free-throw line, facing one of the hoops in the auditorium, where Dante and Luke were waiting beneath him with a rack of basketballs that they began to toss in the air. Alexander’s hovercraft floated toward the rim, and he caught three consecutive alley-oops from his buddies, dunking the balls like an NBA superstar.
The camp broke out in a thunderous applause, everyone except Kevin, Warner, TJ, and Tara, who sat there with their heads in their hands. Alexander locked eyes with Kevin again and winked, blowing him an obnoxious little kiss.
Kevin caught Alexander’s air kiss and threw it to the ground, stomping it with his foot as he stood up. The Extraordinary Terrestrials were up next, and Kevin walked to the stage with his friends. He cleared his throat, preparing to explain that they had nothing to show, when Tara interrupted him.
“Fellow campers,” she said, pushing her way in front and unzipping the backpack she was wearing, “we, the Extraordinary Terrestrials, will now demonstrate the great power of the human mind by using this invention, which my team and I have dubbed the Telepathy Helmet.” She lifted the alien headgear out of the bag with a flourish. “For this, I’ll need a volunteer.”
A few hands in the audience shot up, including Alexander, who stood quickly and said, “I’ll do it.”
“Yes,” said Tara. “You will make an excellent guinea pig, Mr. Russ.”
“Dude,” Kevin said, nudging Warner in the rib cage. “What is she doing? That’s not ours. We didn’t invent that.”
Alexander sat down at the card table on the stage across from Tara. “This ought to be good for a laugh,” he said.
“Please allow me a moment while I make some preliminary predictions.” She placed the alien helmet on her head and activated the power source. The brain-wave sensors on the crown of the headpiece rotated around, gathering subconscious data from Alexander’s mind.
“Mr. Russ,” Tara continued her psychic lady routine, “I’m going to need your utmost focus.”
Alexander rolled his eyes as Tara pulled on the telepathy helmet and the visor lowered in front of her eyes automatically. “Whoa,” she said out of the blue, and then looked up at her subject.
“Been having some strange dreams lately, Mr. Russ?”
Alexander glared at her suspiciously and chuckled. “Don’t we all? The average human dreams about fifteen hundred times a year. That’s 4.10958 dreams a night, for those of you who can’t divide in their heads.”
“That’s 4.09836 on a leap year,” she retorted calmly.
“Yeah, yeah,” Alexander said. “Let’s just get on with this charade so I can collect my blue ribbon.”
“Very well,” Tara said. “We shall see.” She ignored him and continued the demonstration. TJ then appeared next to Alexander, holding a pair of swimming goggles with black tape blocking out the clear plastic lenses. “Please allow my assistant to blindfold you for this demonstration.”
“Whatever you say, lady.” Alexander crossed his arms, and TJ put the goggles on him.
“Mr. Russ,” Tara said with utter politeness, “now would you be so kind
as to think of three words? Be sure to think of three really hard words no one but you would ever be able to guess.” As Alexander thought silently, Tara took out three pieces of paper and began to scribble something down on each sheet, then handed them over to TJ.
“Now,” she said. “Say the first word aloud.”
TJ was already behind Alexander, holding up the predicted word written on the paper for the audience to see. It said: ECTOPLASM.
“Ectoplasm,” Alexander said, still blindfolded. The crowd gasped, and everyone held their breath. “Now say the second,” she said.
TJ shuffled to the next piece of paper. It read: BARF FACE.
“Well,” said Alexander, “it’s actually two words, but the words are barf face.”
“And lastly,” Tara said.
“Scrumdiddlyumptious,” Alexander said.
TJ held up the final sheet of paper, which read: SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS.
The crowd sat in silence for a moment and then ripped up in applause.
Alexander tore off the blindfold to see the last word he had thought of written on the paper.
“This is nothing more than a parlor trick!” he shouted. “You’ll need more than a few lucky guesses to convince me.”
“All right then, you’ll stay for one more demonstration,” Tara said. “Now, Mr. Russ, would you please let your mind go blank? I’m going to perform a bit of hypnotism.”
“Oh, please. You think you can hypnotize this guy?” He pointed to himself with both thumbs. “Give it your best shot.”
Tara reactivated the visor on the telepathy helmet, and the brain-wave sensors started to rotate and focus in Alexander’s direction. The field house grew silent. Kevin held his breath for a few seconds before Alexander rose from his chair, tucked his hands under his armpits, and started to flap his elbows as if they were wings.
“Bawk-bawk-bawk.” Alexander began to cluck like a chicken and strut around. “Bawk-bawk-bawk!”
All the campers burst into laughter, even Luke and Dante, who couldn’t help but chuckle. After Tara let Alexander walk around and cluck for a good ten seconds, the nerd bully sat back down and came out of the hypnosis as if nothing had happened.
“I’m still waiting,” he said, tapping his foot with his arms crossed.
The entire camp burst into applause, hooting and hollering.
“I don’t get it!” Alexander stood up. “What are you all cheering for?”
The whole camp swarmed the presentation area and lifted Tara up off the ground and onto their shoulders, all cheering for the high-tech feat of otherworldly magic. “Hooray!”
Kevin, Warner, and TJ were right there helping her crowd-surf, holding her up by the backs of her knees. Tara giggled down at Kevin, who looked up and shook his head with a knowing smile. “That was incredible!” he shouted with a sudden jolt of laughter. “This is crazy!”
“Tara! Tara!” the campers shouted in rhythm with one another.
TWEEEEET! Dimpus blew his whistle and shouted, “Order!” The campers set Tara back down on the floor and hushed up, all except for Alexander, who kept right on shouting at the top of his lungs.
“What a joke! What a sham! What a hoax!” he hollered over the quiet whir of the mosquito swarms buzzing through the gymnasium.
“Alexander!” Dimpus raised his voice to a sharp bark. “Settle down—”
“I will not settle down, sir, until these imposters are exposed!”
As Alexander’s face flushed red, one of the campers who had been recording the telepathy helmet demonstration came forward and showed Alexander the video.
Alexander snatched the phone and looked at the playback.
“I don’t get it. How did you make me . . . ?” His voice trailed off, defeated. Alexander’s eyes glazed over as he began to mumble, which quickly turned into babbling. “It’s gotta be the aliens. The aliens are real!”
“Aliens?” Dimpus raised one skeptical eyebrow.
“The ones in my dream,” said Alexander. “The aliens made me think it was a dream, but it was real. It’s diabolical!” He snarled viciously and pointed at the Extraordinary Terrestrials. “They’re the ones. They’re in league with the aliens! That’s how they got the technology! The aliens gave it to them. They might even be alien clones!” His voice cracked as he ran out of breath.
Suddenly, Miss Mackenzie, the camp nurse, appeared next to Alexander and took him by the arm. “There, there, Alexander,” she said in a soothing tone. “Let’s go get you some ice cream and a cool washcloth to put on your forehead.”
“Ice cream?” Alexander’s voice was like an excited child’s. “I love ice cream.”
“I know you do,” the nurse said, leading him off to the infirmary.
Now that every group had presented their inventions Dimpus walked up to the Extraordinary Terrestrials. “Hovercrafts . . . telepathy helmets . . . soda that makes your hair turn different colors. This is going to be a tough one to judge. You’ll have my verdict tomorrow.” Dimpus laughed to himself. “You kids are going to take over the world someday. What’s under there?” Dimpus asked, turning his attention to the galactascope, which was sitting under the sheet off to the side.
“Oh, nothing,” Kevin said. “Just some other project that didn’t really work out.”
As the camp director walked off, Warner punched Kevin in the shoulder as hard as he could.
“Dude!” Warner said, hugging his pal. “We totally just won the Invention Convention!”
“We’ll find out tomorrow, I guess,” Kevin said, looking a little glum.
“Cheer up, Kev,” TJ said, patting his friend on the back. “Even if we don’t win, we still made Alexander squawk like a big chicken.”
Kevin cracked a half smile. He was still a little bummed about Mim, but TJ was right. It was pretty funny.
“Pretty funny?” said a little voice in his head. “It was hilarious!”
Kevin looked over at Tara, who had put the telepathy helmet back on and was aiming it at him. “Will you take that thing off already and get out of my head? Jeez!”
Kevin and the gang strolled back to the bunks after dinner. Everyone at camp was chattering about how awesome this year’s Invention Convention was, especially the telepathy helmet. But Kevin didn’t feel like celebrating. He kicked the dirt in frustration and made a grumbling sound.
“What’s the matter, man?” Warner asked. “You still upset about Mim’s no-show?”
“I just didn’t think he would do that,” said Kevin. “He promised me! He promised us!” Immediately he heard how whiny his voice sounded. “Never mind.”
“It’s probably for the best, Kev,” said Tara. “It would have been pretty risky anyway.”
“Yeah,” TJ said. “If we’d unveiled a real live alien, it would have been all over the news. A bunch of government dudes could have come and taken Mim away.”
“Not to mention the space poachers could have intercepted the transmissions,” added Tara.
“I guess you’re right,” Kevin said. “I haven’t been able to think straight since we started working on the IC. I just wanted to beat Alexander so bad.”
“Well, guess what, buddy?” Warner said. “That’s exactly what we did.”
“Not yet,” Kevin said. “And we didn’t even get to do it with our own invention. Don’t you guys feel like we cheated a little bit?”
“Maybe we didn’t invent the telepathy helmet,” Warner said. “But we created the galactascope, which brought us the alien that brought us the helmet.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Kevin said. “But it’s not the same.”
“Bottom line, man,” TJ said. “We made Alexander cluck like a chicken in front of the entire camp.”
Kevin chuckled. “That was pretty funny, huh?”
“Okay, boys,” Tara said, walking off toward her bunk. “I’m gonna go chill out for a little bit. Hit me up on the walkie-talkie if anything’s going on.”
“See you later, Tara!” the boys called out as
she strolled away.
Kevin opened the door to their cabin, and the boys looked down at the floor. The place was a mess. Mim was scrambling around frantically, picking things up and throwing them over his shoulder. The fluffy, purple-furred alien turned to them with hysteria in his eyes. “Where’s the telepathy helmet?”
“Umm,” said TJ. “We kind of had to borrow it.”
“You what?”
“We needed it for the Invention Convention,” Warner said. “Because you didn’t show.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m just glad to know you have it. If that device fell into the wrong hands, it could have terrible consequences.”
“Well,” said Kevin. “Next time you’re gonna flake out, could you let us know ahead of time?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know I messed up,” said Mim. “But I had a terrible feeling the trackers were getting closer, and I couldn’t risk being out in the open. For all we know, they could already be here.”
Just then Mim groaned and doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach.
“You okay?” Warner asked.
“Just hunger pains. I get them sometimes,” said Mim. “You got anything to eat?”
“All I have are these s’mores ingredients,” Warner replied.
“What’s a s’more?” Mim asked.
“I’ll show you outside,” said Warner. “Hey, TJ, do you think you could use your Boy Scouting skills to start up a bonfire for us?”
“Sure,” said TJ. “We’ve got an hour before curfew.”
“Great,” said Warner. “We need to refuel, especially if those poachers are on their way.”
“Yeah, we deserve it,” said Kevin, starting to forgive Mim a little. “Lemme call Tara.”
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