“What would you say are some of his faults?” Joey’s offscreen voice asked.
On the screen, Noah glanced down. “I don’t know. I guess he gets hung up sometimes about people treating him differently because of his name.”
I glanced over at Noah. He gave a small shrug and a nod in a Well, you do kind of way.
It was true. If anyone was sick of listening to my worries about being treated differently, it had to be Noah.
“Interesting,” Joey’s voice said. “What do you think Tom worries people would say to him if they thought he was getting special treatment?”
Onscreen Noah rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I don’t know… probably something like”—he straightened and looked right into the camera—“ ‘Get over yourself, Tom Swift. Just because your name’s on the school doesn’t mean that you’re a big deal. You probably wouldn’t be here if your dad hadn’t built the school. You’re not even that good of an inventor.’ ” Noah shrugged. “Something like that, I guess.”
“That’s great,” Joey’s voice replied. “I think that’s all we need for now.”
The screen went black as the clip ended.
The four of us blinked at one another, stunned.
Sam pointed to the screen. “So, Joey just showed you that part?”
I nodded.
Amy covered her mouth. “How awful.”
My face grew warm as I felt both embarrassed and angry at once—angry for being so easily manipulated, and ashamed for being so upset with Noah that I’d said horrible things about him. At least Noah hadn’t meant what he’d said. I had.
I could barely look at my best friend. “I’m so sorry, man.”
Noah held up a hand. “No, I’m sorry. And I would be furious too if I saw that clip.”
“Yeah, but the stuff I said—”
Noah held out a fist. “Don’t worry about it.”
I smiled and bumped his fist with mine.
“Okay, we get it. You’re both friends again,” Sam said, shaking her head.
Amy covered her mouth and giggled.
“The bigger issue here is that you were being manipulated into hating each other.” Sam nodded at the workstation. “Since there are so many people at each other’s throats, do you think Joey has been doing this to everyone?”
Amy’s fingers raced over the keyboard. “I can find out.”
Just then, we heard voices coming from the computer lab.
“Both camera crews lost them,” Joey said, his voice getting louder. “But they’ll pick them up tomorrow.”
The four of us exchanged looks. We were trapped with no way out.
11 The Obliteration Objective
“IN HERE,” I WHISPERED, PULLING back the curtain to the confessional.
We crammed into the small area. It was tight with four of us and all of our backpacks, but I was just able to pull the curtain closed again.
“Wait a minute.” Amy shoved past me and hurried back to the workstation.
My heart raced as I watched her lean over the keyboard. Joey could walk in at any moment. Amy quickly closed out Noah’s video clip, and then backed out of all the open folders. Soon the screens matched the way we had found everything. At least, I assumed they matched. Amy was the one with the photographic memory, after all. She pushed in the chair and then scurried back to us in the confessional.
No sooner had I closed the curtain again than I heard Joey enter the room. “I’ll get Tom in the confessional again first thing in the morning. We’ll show him Noah’s new clip. You have it cut down already, right?”
“All done,” I heard Danny respond.
I shot Noah a questioning look. He shrugged and winced in reply.
“Great,” Joey said. “Now, show me where you are with the new narrative.”
There was the sound of tapping keys before the speakers boomed with dialogue:
“Everyone’s very competitive at Swift Academy,” came a girl’s voice. I think it was Jessica Mercer. “We’re always trying to top each other.”
The background sound changed to that of a busy hallway. “You totally stole my idea,” said Toby Nguyen’s voice.
“That’s not true,” replied Ronny Jenkins’s voice. “My invention is completely different. Besides, you said you were done with drones anyway.”
I probably wouldn’t have recognized Toby’s and Ronny’s voices, but I had seen that exact exchange a few days earlier.
The background noise shifted again, and another student’s voice filled the room: “If Barry thinks I’m doing all the work on this project, he better forget it.”
“She’s just mad that I thought of the idea first,” came a boy’s voice from a different scene.
Hiding next to me, Sam shook her head in disgust. I felt the same way. Danny had edited the footage to make it seem as if the whole academy was constantly squabbling. Sure, there were disagreements sometimes, but nothing like this. Thinking back to Noah’s footage, I wondered how many of those disagreements were incited by Joey himself.
“There’s one person to watch out for, though,” said another girl’s voice.
“Tom Swift,” said a boy’s voice.
“Tom Swift,” repeated a girl.
“Tom Swift,” echoed another boy.
I looked at my friends in disbelief. They met my gaze, wide-eyed.
I couldn’t help myself. Slowly, I peeked my head out from behind the curtain just enough to glimpse the back of Joey’s and Danny’s heads as they watched the main screen, where Jamal Watts was sitting in the confessional.
“Tom’s dad created the school,” he said. “He also owns Swift Enterprises next door.”
The scene cut to a shot of Jim Mills. “That’s where I built my roll cage,” Jim said. “But I could only finish it during the school’s lock-in.”
Next was Evan Wittman. “I bet Tom has access to all the cool equipment over there anytime he wants.”
Then the video cut to an all-too-familiar clip. “Get over yourself, Tom Swift,” Noah said. “Just because your name’s on the school doesn’t mean that you’re a big deal.”
As the screen went blank, I was so shocked that I kept my head poked out from behind the curtain, my mouth wide open. Luckily, Sam pulled me back into the confessional before either of the men could turn and see me.
“Excellent,” Joey said. “And I already told Sean and Lori to get some more footage along the same narrative.”
I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation. I was too horrified by what I’d already seen and heard. Not only were they making our school seem as if it were full of bickering brats, but they were making me out to be the biggest brat of all. A big part of me wanted to rip back the curtain and confront the film guys right then and there, but before I got the chance, I heard their voices trailing off. They must’ve been leaving the editing suite.
After a long moment of complete silence, Sam whipped the curtain back. “Unbelievable!”
“That’s horrible,” Amy said, shaking her head.
Noah put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, man.”
“It’s all right,” I told him. “I saw how you were manipulated into saying that stuff.”
After watching Noah’s entire clip, I knew he didn’t mean any of the rotten things he had said. What troubled me more was what everyone else had said on film. Did all of the other academy students really think of me that way?
“I can’t believe what everyone else said, though,” I muttered.
Sam stared at the workstation, her hands resting on her hips. “You said it yourself, Swift. Noah was manipulated into saying those things. I bet everyone else was too.” She let out a long breath. “Now… can you delete everything, Amy?”
“What?” Amy asked.
“What?!” Noah and I echoed.
“Just get rid of all that garbage,” Sam said, swiping her hand through the air. “Delete the whole thing.”
I suddenly noticed Sam’s body language. If there
were a baseball bat handy, I bet it would have taken all three of us to keep her from smashing the entire setup.
“Whoa, Sam,” Noah said. “I get that you’re angry. I know I am. But that’s someone else’s stuff.”
Sam rounded on him. “That’s us. All of us! If anyone has the right to delete it, we do.”
I shook my head. “Noah’s right. We have to do… I don’t know, something, just not that.”
“We could tell Mr. Davenport,” Amy suggested.
“Good idea,” I said. “He thinks this show is going to promote the school. If he knew what it was really about, he would stop it right away.”
Sam pursed her lips. “Fine.”
“If we hurry, I bet we can still catch him,” Noah said, heading toward the door.
But as I followed the others, a thought popped into my mind. I turned and surveyed the suite. “Hey, Amy… where’s that hard drive with everyone’s plans?” I suddenly didn’t want those TV people to have access to my blueprints or anyone else’s. They didn’t deserve to even look at them.
Amy came back into the room and looked around both workstations. “I don’t see it.” She crouched to look under the desks. “Maybe they moved it.”
“All right,” I said, heading for the door again. “First things first.”
The four of us jogged downstairs to the main office. Ms. Lane wasn’t at the reception desk so we breezed by, straight to the principal’s office. Luckily, we caught Mr. Davenport just as he was about to head out for the day.
“Ah, you four,” he said. “It’s never good when you come to see me together.” He raised an eyebrow. “What burned down?”
“This school’s reputation, for one thing,” Sam said as she marched inside.
“What?” Mr. Davenport asked as we followed her inside.
“We just saw a clip of the ‘reality’ show,” Noah said, making air quotes as he said “reality.” “And it’s anything but real.”
The four of us took turns telling Mr. Davenport what we had seen. Actually, just three of us. Amy only added the occasional “It’s horrible.”
The principal raised his hands. “Whoa, slow down. Joey warned me this might happen.”
“He did?” I asked.
Mr. Davenport nodded. “He said that the show was going to be more than just inventions. He said it had to be… what did he call it… character driven.”
“But it makes it look like everyone’s fighting,” Sam insisted.
Mr. Davenport shrugged. “Not everyone gets along all the time.”
“Yeah, but we think Joey’s starting fights to begin with,” Noah added.
“Really?” Mr. Davenport said with a raised eyebrow. “Did he make any of you read from a script? I know I didn’t during my interviews.” He glanced at his watch and grabbed his briefcase.
“But it’s the way they’re editing everything together,” Amy said, finally jumping in to support our argument.
Mr. Davenport was already moving toward the door again. “Look, I’m sure not everyone will be thrilled with how they appear on camera.” Mr. Davenport held out a hand, ushering us out. “It’s called a reality show for a reason. Sometimes reality isn’t as neat and tidy as a scripted program.”
Once we were back in the hallway, he turned and locked his office door. “I really have to be going, but I’ll ask Joey about it tomorrow, don’t you worry.”
Then Mr. Davenport walked out of the school and left us standing in the main entryway, dumbfounded.
“He didn’t believe us,” Amy said.
Sam threw up her hands. “See? We should’ve deleted everything.”
“It looks like Davenport fell for the hype like I did,” Noah said.
“We all did,” Amy admitted.
“What about your dad?” Sam asked me. “He’ll believe you, right?”
I nodded. “He should.”
“Well, that’s it, then,” Noah said. “He’ll put a stop to this.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll tell him tonight and then text you what he says.”
The four of us split up. As usual, I strolled down the street to Swift Enterprises. I often hung out there and finished my homework before my dad took me home. It was a very convenient arrangement for both of us.
As I walked toward the looming office building, my mind went back to all the things the other students had said about me on the video. If I went running to my dad to fix this problem, I would be exactly the kind of person those students said I was. Whether my classmates were manipulated or not, I didn’t want to come off that way. Besides, my father has told me in the past that he didn’t have any say in how Mr. Davenport ran the school. Perhaps telling Dad wasn’t the answer after all.
By the time I entered the office building, I already had a plan B in mind. I marched toward the reception desk. Mr. Cruz sat in his usual spot, typing on his keyboard. The thin man smiled when he saw me.
“Afternoon, Tom. Your father told me to tell you that he’s in a meeting and he’ll find you when he’s done.” Mr. Cruz pulled out a visitor’s badge and slid it across the counter.
“Thanks,” I said. “Actually, can you tell me where Ms. Jensen’s office is? I’ve never been to the PR department.”
“Oh,” Mr. Cruz said, his eyebrows raised. “I guess you haven’t heard. Ms. Jensen is no longer with the company.”
So much for plan B.
12 The Simultaneous Simulation
THE NEXT MORNING, I HAD my dad take me to school early. I hadn’t told him about the reality show, much to the frustration of my friends. We had all video-chatted the night before, and I finally convinced them that there had to be a better way to stop the show. After some brainstorming, I think we had it.
As soon as I arrived, I stowed my gear and then ran up to robotics. I made sure my robot was fully charged and brought it with me down to the editing suite. As I’d hoped, Danny and Joey were already there.
“Tom,” Joey said, his eyes alight. “Just the man I want to see.”
“Hi,” I said as I hauled my robot toward the confessional. “I was hoping to talk about my new invention today.”
“Oh, uh…” He stroked his beard. “Actually, that’s something for the other camera crews. In here, we just record your thoughts and feelings about everything.”
“Oh,” I said, trying to look disappointed. “Actually, the real reason I brought it along is because I was hoping to hide it here.”
“Hide it? From whom?”
“Noah,” I replied. “He threatened to tear it up the next time he saw it.”
A smile pulled at Joey’s lips. He held up a finger. “Hold that thought,” he said before ushering me to the chair in front of the camera. Once he was seated beside the camera, he turned it on. “Okay, tell me again. Why do you want to hide your robot?”
I repeated what I’d said before. “Noah said that the only reason I got the idea for it was because of his app.”
Joey nodded thoughtfully. He couldn’t hide his delight. “And how do you feel about that?”
“I couldn’t believe it! Noah and I are supposed to be friends.”
Joey turned toward the curtain. “Danny, play back Newton fourteen, will ya?”
“You got it,” Danny replied, and the screen beside the camera snapped on. It showed Noah in the confessional.
“Me? Jealous of Tom Swift?” Noah on the screen asked. “Did he invent a cool app that everyone in the school is using? I don’t think so.”
Noah had already warned me about what he’d said in his last confessional. He felt horrible about it. It was recorded just after Joey had shown him what I had said about him, so not only did I totally understand his anger, but I was also prepared. The recording wouldn’t catch me off guard like last time. Noah and I had even worked it into our plan.
The image of Noah onscreen jumped as if part of the scene had been cut out. “He wouldn’t even have that robot if it weren’t for me,” Noah continued. “He totally got the idea for it fr
om my app.” The video switched off abruptly.
I nodded. “Yup. That’s what he told me yesterday.”
“And what would you say to him if you could?” Joey asked.
I tried to look angry. “I’d tell him so what? I don’t see him building a cool VR robot. He’s just a programmer afraid to get his hands dirty. If he tried to build something like I have, it would probably blow up.”
None of that was true, of course. Noah was a first-rate engineer and a top programmer, as far as I was concerned. But I needed to give Joey what we thought he wanted.
“That’s great,” Joey said. He made some notes in his notebook. “Now, do you think any of the other students are jealous of—”
“Actually, I have to go,” I interrupted. I pretended to check the time on my phone as I stood. “Can we pick this up later today?”
“What? Oh, okay,” Joey said, closing his notebook. “But definitely make some more time for this. It’s very important to the show.”
“I will,” I agreed as I pulled back the curtain. “And thanks for keeping my robot safe.”
“Oh, I will,” Joey said.
Yeah, right, I thought. He’d probably love to have a clip of Noah messing with it for his not-so-real reality show.
I left the computer lab and went down to algebra. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends how smoothly everything had gone. Unfortunately, when I walked into class, I realized that I’d have to keep my mouth shut. One of the camera crews was already there, watching—recording. Still, I gave Sam and Amy a subtle thumbs-up as I sat down.
I couldn’t communicate with Noah. We were still supposed to be feuding after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why the crew was waiting for us in our first-period class. Joey probably texted them to find Noah and me and wait for some kind of blowup.
They didn’t get one, though. Noah and I simply ignored each other completely.
During our chat the night before, Noah thought it would be fun to come up with some scripted arguments for the cameras, but Sam quickly talked him out of it. It would be much easier to pretend to give each other the silent treatment than to go for an Academy Award–winning performance with zero rehearsal time.
Augmented Reality Page 7
