Flip the Silver Switch

by Jackie Yeager

  “Yeah,” I continue. “We thought that would make sense since the glasses will be syncing with the satellites that are stationed up in the sky.”

  “Cool, but can you help us with this? Because if there isn’t a way to sync with the satellites, this invention won’t work at all.”

  She’s right, so Jillian and I help with the search and try to make sense of the information we find, mostly scientific words I’ve never heard of before. My head pounds trying to figure out what goes with what and I can feel myself wilting. My teammates look like they’re wilting too. So we agree we need lunch and head over to le Cantine.

  “Do we really have to meet Martina at the pool?” I ask. Even though I’d rather swim with frogs than research using the air screen for another million hours, we’re finally making progress on this task, and I don’t want to stop. Besides, why would any of us want to swim with Martina?

  Jillian shrugs. “It’ll be fine. And I’ll get to wear my new bathing suit.”

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad,” says Ander. “We can race her team across the lily pads.”

  “Yeah, I guess that would be harmless.” I reply. “It’s not like they’re going to drown us or anything.”

  THE IDEA SWINGS

  We get to the pool and Martina is swinging on the Idea Swings alone. The boys on her team are trying to cross the problem-solving bars—and failing. She sees us and grins.

  “Wow, New Yorkers, you came. I thought you’d be too busy being interviewed or something.”

  “Nope,” says Mare. “No interviews this afternoon. Probably after dinner and then again before we go to bed, but for now we’re free to hang out with you.”

  Martina looks like she doesn’t know how to answer her. But finally she says, “Yeah, well, you better swim while you have time, then.”

  I can’t figure out the look on Martina’s face. She looks like she doesn’t like what Mare said, but she also looks sad. I don’t know why I care, I mean she is Witch Girl. Whatever. I jump into the pool, and Jillian follows me, where we sit on either side of her on the Idea Swings. I’m not going to be friends with her or anything, but she’s the one who invited us here, so I’m just curious. That’s all. Mare jumps in too but hangs out along the edge of the pool.

  “Come on, Jax,” says Ander. “Let’s go jump on the Thinking Pad.”

  I pump my legs to get the swing going. Martina and Jillian do the same but none of us say anything. It’s sort of awkward, and I hate it being so silent. I don’t really know what to say to Martina though. All we have in common is this competition, but it’s not like I want to ask her about her team’s project.

  “So did you know any of your teammates before you went to Camp Piedmont?”

  “Nope. We all came from different parts of Michigan.”

  “What part are you from?” I ask.

  “Kalamazoo.”

  “Oh. Is it nice there?”

  “I guess so. I’ve never been anywhere else, well except for New York once. My grandpa lives there.”

  “Oh. We’re from Crimson Heights,” I say.

  “Yeah, I know. Everyone knows you’re from Crimson Heights.”

  I feel my face turn red. “Oh, right.”

  “My team thinks you guys are weird.”

  Jillian looks at her. “What’s weird about all of us?”

  “It’s a big coincidence that you all came from the same school.”

  “Well, it just happened like that. We go to a really good school.”

  “Then why hasn’t anyone from your school ever won before?”

  “How do you know that?” I ask.

  “It was all over the news. Remember?”

  My face heats up even more. “Oh yeah.”

  “I’m sure you’ve considered that the competition was fixed though, right?”

  “What do you mean, fixed?” I can’t believe she’s even suggesting it.

  “Like the judges in New York picked all of you or changed the results so that you’d all win.”

  “Why would they do that?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. I’m just saying. It’s really the boys on my team who told me about the theory. They heard it from a lot of other kids here at Globals. But when I heard them say it, it made me wonder, that’s all. I mean, haven’t you wondered about that? Wondered if all of you really scored the highest in New York?”

  “We did,” says Jillian.

  “Okay, if you say so. Like I said . . . it was the boys who brought the idea up. It wasn’t me who thought it.”

  The truth is . . . I have wondered the same thing. Kind of a lot. I’ve wondered how it could be that all five of us came from the same school, when no one from Crimson had ever won before. But I never thought that somebody messed with the results. I pump my legs harder on the swings. The Idea Swings are supposed to give us great ideas for the competition, but the only idea I’m thinking about is that someone—or all of us—didn’t score the highest in New York, that somehow one of us—or all of us—don’t belong here. That someone changed our scores.

  The boys yell for us and we swim to the Thinking Pad. The boys on Martina’s team are jumping with them. Mare swims over too and we jump for a while, but all I keep thinking about is why Martina wanted to hang out in the first place—and about what she said.

  “Come on, guys,” Mare says when we’re all jumped out. “I’m starving. Let’s go to dinner.”

  We climb out of the pool, and Martina stares at us. “You’re leaving now? Okay.”

  “Yeah, I guess we’re going to eat,” I say.

  “Don’t worry about what I said before. Not everyone thinks the New York results were fixed. I just was telling you so you’d know what some people are saying.”

  Jillian and I exchange glances. “Um, okay, thanks.”

  Later that night as I try to fall asleep in my sleeping egg, I think more about what Martina said on the. Could she be right? Could the results of the New York Piedmont Challenge really have been changed? But why? Who would do that? I turn over on my other side and listen to Jillian and Mare breathing in the same rhythm. What Martina said was horrible. But then I realize Principal Bermuda could have done it, and I think of an even more horrible thought. If the results were changed, which one of us doesn’t belong here? Is it Jillian or Jax? Ander or Mare? Is it me?

  I toss and turn trying to think about something else instead. Like Grandma Kitty. I haven’t talked with her for a few days and I suddenly miss her a lot. I have so much to tell her about, like the Creativity Pool, our new invention idea, the French team, and these tree suites. She’ll definitely want to hear about all of it. I keep trying to push the stupid thing Martina said further out of my brain, but it keeps shoving its way back. So I guess there’s only one thing I can do. Starting tomorrow morning, I’ll find out if it’s true. I’ll find out which of us doesn’t belong here.

  THE PEBBLES

  In the morning, we walk over to le Cantine for breakfast. On the way, I consider which of my teammates could be a weak link, who didn’t really win the Piedmont Challenge. What if it’s Mare? What if it’s Jillian? Or even Jax? But, oh no, what if it’s Ander? The Piedmont Challenge tests who’s the best in all the categories, and I don’t know for sure if Ander is really good at all of them. I mean maybe he is, but he’s Ander. There’s just no telling with him.

  What if it is him? What if he really isn’t supposed to be here? He does want to take a lot of breaks. He doesn’t work all that hard—and he jumps up on stuff when he has an idea. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. Oh, I don’t know. He’s my best friend on the team. How can he not belong here? But what if it’s true? Shouldn’t I tell him that it could be a possibility? Should I tell them all? And what about Jillian? She heard what Martina said. I wonder if she’s wondering the same thing about me. If it was me, I would want to know.

&n
bsp; My head hurts as I think about how I would tell Ander something as awful as that. I decide I can’t tell him. I need to know for sure first. But how do I find out for sure? There has to be someone I can ask. Someone who knows.

  “KK, are you there?” Ander is snapping his fingers in front of my face. “What’s up with you? I’ve been talking to you for like a minute. Did you hear anything I said?”

  “What? No. I’m sorry, I was thinking about something else.”

  “Well, I asked you if you want me to teach you how to juggle when we get back. I’ve been practicing every night in our tree suite, and I want to show you how awesome I am.”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, come on. Let’s finish breakfast and then I’ll race you there!”

  After breakfast, we start to race back, but then we end up walking and talking instead. Ander spouts random facts about the history of juggling, the science behind it, and the mathematical probability that I’ll be able to juggle three balls on the first try, the second try, and the tenth try. I really hope it’s not Ander that doesn’t belong here. I don’t care one bit about juggling, but I would miss the way he talks about it if he wasn’t around.

  We gather around the table in the Work Room to work on our project, the Satellite Spectacles Box. The five of us work together to add a tiny satellite antenna to the frames. Then we attach a cable to the inside of the box that will hook onto the glasses. When activated, it will turn on the power and sync the computer chip in the glasses to the satellites.

  Next, we cover the box with duct tape, using all our favorite colors—yellow, pink, green, light blue, and dark blue, but leave the hole on the front for an activation button. Then we paint over the duct tape using a combination of the same colors, making a swirling cloud-like pattern over the whole thing.

  While the box dries, we flop onto the pillows to figure out what else we need to do. “The Satellite Spectacles are the most important thing,” says Jax. “We need to keep working on the program for those.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out,” I say, even though I’m not sure how.

  “Then what else?” says Ander.

  “We need paperwork showing how we’re using all six categories in our solution,” says Mare. “And we need another script.”

  “And a song too,” I say.

  “Don’t forget the costumes,” says Jillian. “We have to fix up the ones we have. Can I work on that?”

  None of us dares to tell her no. She races back to the craft area in search of our costume container.

  “I want to get the computer program figured out before we start another project,” says Mare. “I’m going to the tech area.”

  “I’ll help you,” Jax offers. “I want to get that part finished too.”

  “Maybe Ander and I should stay here to work on the script so we can all begin learning our lines.”

  Mare nods. “Okay, sounds good. See you guys later.”

  When the rest of my teammates leave, I grab a notebook from the Work Room and open up to a new page. I stare at it on and off while Ander takes pebbles from the waterfall, trying to juggle them while he “thinks.” Most of them end up flying across the room. Finally, I can’t ignore him anymore. “Can you focus please?”

  “I am focused.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re playing with pebbles.”

  “So? That doesn’t mean I’m not focused.”

  “We’re never going to get this script written if we don’t come up with some good lines. We could use more help too, but Jillian is going to take forever in the craft area. How long does it take for her to fix our costumes? It’s not like they’re changing so much, and what are Jax and Mare going to do anyway?”

  Ander stares at me. “KK, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Why are you freaking out?”

  “I can’t think of anything, and our script has to be perfect because if it isn’t, no one will understand our invention. It won’t make sense and we’ll get an awful score and we won’t win.”

  He stares at me, longer this time, and then walks out of the Inspiration Room.

  “Are you leaving me here to work on it myself?”

  He turns around and grins. “Nope, come on. We’re going someplace else. This room stinks. It’s way too quiet. Besides, all that water is making me have to pee.”

  I grab my notebook and follow him. I’m not sure where we’re going but we head down the stairs and out of the tree suite. We make our way along the brick path, away from colony square and the Creativity Pool, away from everyone.

  “So what’s actually wrong? Something’s bugging you. I can tell.”

  I consider keeping it in, not telling him what Martina said to me. I don’t want him to be upset too. But all this thinking about which one of us doesn’t belong here is all I can think about.

  We walk for a while, past the New Mexico tree suite. Just beyond it, we find a dirt path that leads into the forest. We turn onto it and keep walking, mostly in silence.

  “Well?”

  “Why do you think something’s wrong?”

  “Well, earlier, when we thought we might have to build a box, you asked Mare how she knew for sure how to get the right dimensions, if she would use any equations to figure it out. You asked her if she’s ever read any books about building or designing things.”

  I look down at the floor remembering Mare’s face when she said, “Just because you don’t take a course in something, Kia, doesn’t mean you don’t know how to do it.”

  “And when we were walking past the Swirl and Spark training facility, you asked Jillian how hard she studied for her tasks before the Piedmont Challenge. You wanted her to tell you exactly how many hours.”

  Jillian looked at me like she didn’t even know me.

  “And at breakfast you asked Jax if he was any good at Human history, and you asked me how I usually score in Art Forms.”

  Suddenly I feel bad for grilling my teammates.

  “So, what’s the deal, KK?”

  I look up at Ander, who has climbed onto a giant boulder halfway buried in the ground. I climb onto it too, and we both sit down.

  “Martina said something to me and Jillian yesterday.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She said there are some people who have been wondering if all five of us really deserved to win the Piedmont Challenge.”

  “What do you mean? What people?”

  “She didn’t tell me. She said she doesn’t think it, but some people do and she wanted us to know.”

  “Know what? That it’s weird that all five of us came from the same school? Well, it is weird, but who cares?”

  I bite my pinky nail. “I do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I want to be sure we all really won.”

  “We did all really win! Master Freeman called our names. One at a time. You first. Then me. Then Mare. Then Jax. Then Jillian. That’s how it happened. We all got called up on the stage. And the big screens were there too so all the other kids in NY state saw us. We definitely won, KK. We did.”

  “I remember all that, Ander. How could I forget it? It was the best day in my whole life. But think about it. Look what Principal Bermuda did to Gregor.”

  “So?”

  “What if he did something to make us all win?”

  “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He looks at me, right in my eyes. Then suddenly his eyes get huge, like he finally realized what I’ve been wondering for a long time. “He could have done that, couldn’t he?”

  “He’s a really bad man, Ander.”

  “But why would he do that?”

  “We’ve already seen what a big deal he’s trying to make of our team. Maybe he wants to be the famous one.”r />
  “I don’t know, KK.”

  “What if he messed with our task scores?”

  Ander’s face goes blank. He looks like he might even cry for a second. But then it’s like a switch goes off in his brain. “No way, KK! He didn’t do that! We all won. We were the best five in all of New York, and now we’re here at Globals, and you can’t wreck it!”

  “I’m not trying to wreck it!”

  We sit quietly for a few moments and then he looks at me. “You believe it, don’t you? You think one of us—or all of us—didn’t really score the highest.”

  “No, I don’t, it’s just—”

  “That’s why you’ve been asking all of us those questions.” He stands up and walks away.

  “Ander, wait! I just thought—”

  “Whatever, Kia.”

  I jog to catch up to him. “Why are you mad at me? I just want to make sure.”

  “But why? I thought you wanted to win?”

  “I do want to win.”

  “Then why are you trying to figure all this out?”

  “Because if Martina’s right, it’s like we’re cheating by being here.” I hate saying those words aloud. I hate that it could even be true.

  Ander doesn’t look at me, and he doesn’t say anything else either. I want to stay here. I want to be at this competition. I want to win. And I really want the Ancestor App to be built. But if we didn’t earn our place, we can’t compete. It wouldn’t be right.

  I take a deep breath. “Maybe we should see what the rest of our team thinks.”

  He gasps like I just slapped him across the face.

  “Ander, don’t you want to know if we earned our place here fair and square?”

  “I already know we did.”

  “I think we should ask Mare and Jax and Jillian.”

  “Why? So then they’ll wonder too?”

  He breaks into a run down the path. I chase after him, but this time he’s way faster than me, and he runs out of sight.