Andy Roid and the Field Trip Terror

by Felice Arena

  Contents

  Previously…

  1. New Kid

  2. Trouble

  3. Calculate

  4. Talk the Talk

  5. Scream

  6. Hero

  7. Complicated

  8. Strike

  From the author

  When I was a kid I was invincible – or so I imagined. My brother and I would combine all the powers of our favourite comic and TV superheroes and have the most epic battles in our backyard. We would zap at each other with our awesome laser fingers, run faster than a cheetah riding a Ducati (now that’s fast!), and jump over buildings (more like the swing set) in a single bound.

  With Andy Roid, I’ve been able to let my imagination play like never before. It’s been so much fun to create this series and I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved writing it!

  Felice Arena is the bestselling author and creator of many popular and award-winning children's books including the Specky Magee series. For more information about Felice and his books visit his website at:

  felicearena.com

  … WHEN YOU’RE HALF BOY, HALF MACHINE, IT’S HARD NOT TO BE A HERO …

  Andy Reid thought he was just a regular kid. The most exciting thing in his life was his friend Molly – the first girl he’s ever really liked. But then, one day, a man with a gun tried to kidnap him and everything changed. After surviving a horrific truck crash, Andy learned that nothing in his life was as it seemed …

  His parents were government scientists, specialising in robotics. To save his life, they rebuilt their son using their latest, untested research, giving him superhuman strength and speed and some amazing apps that give him superhuman powers. His parents nicknamed him Andy Roid, but it’s more than just a nickname: it’s his government code name.

  And there’s a dangerous enemy – Dr Baffi and the Triple S – on their trail. Andy’s not just a way to get to his parents, he’s their latest, best invention. He had to keep his powers under wraps and stay hidden. But when Molly was in danger, he’d had no choice. He saved her life, but he put his own in danger. So his family was forced to go on the run, leaving everything and everyone behind.

  Now Andy’s a new kid in a new town and he can’t trust anyone. Can he hide his powers? Is he really safe? And will he ever see Molly again?

  It wasn’t easy acting normal, not from the moment Andy walked through the gates of his new school.

  He was met in the hall by a geeky-looking boy wearing thick glasses. ‘Welcome to Renfrew High!’ he said. ‘Are you Andy or Judd?’

  ‘I’m Andy.’ For a second he struggled to remember his new last name. Andy …’ Finally it came to him. ‘Andy Masters.’

  ‘I’m Reginald Hopkins. But everyone calls me Reggie. You’re in my class. I volunteered to show you and Judd around – he’s the other new kid coming today. We just have to wait here until he arrives. Funny, huh? Two new students on the same day … What a coincidence, right? I’m reading this incredible novel about coincidences. It’s about an alien race on a new planet and …’

  Reggie went on and on for the next couple of minutes, barely taking a breath. Wow, this guy can really talk! Andy thought. He started to zone out and glanced around at the other students pushing past to get to their lockers.

  ‘Oh, okay, I see that I’ve lost you,’ said Reggie, looking a little dejected. ‘I know what you’re thinking. Why am I stuck with this total nerd? If you prefer someone else to show you around, then I can ask the teacher …’

  ‘Nah, it’s cool,’ said Andy. He hadn’t meant to upset the first person he’d met at his new school. ‘Actually, my parents are total nerds. They’re scien …’ Andy almost let slip his parents’ true identities – government scientists who specialised in military robotics – but he remembered just in time. ‘Um, they’re graphic artists. You’d probably really get along with them, but … I think this could be Judd,’ Andy added, happy to be changing the subject.

  Reggie turned to look at the kid standing in the middle of the hallway.

  Judd didn’t look anything like the other Renfrew High students. He looked as if he’d just stepped off the set of a rock film clip. He looked like he knew it too. He was wearing mirrored shades and from the way he was chewing his gum, Andy could tell this dude thought he was literally too cool for school.

  ‘You must be Judd,’ said Reggie as they approached.

  He nodded.

  ‘Hi there!’ Andy said, but he didn’t get any response. ‘So we’re both new,’ Andy tried again. ‘Where did you move from?’

  ‘Just around. What’s it to you?’ said Judd, looking down at Andy over his shades.

  So much for trying to be friendly, Andy thought.

  ‘I’ll show you your locker,’ said Reggie, but before he could get another word out a football whizzed through the air and thumped him in the back of the head. He jolted forward and whacked his face against the lockers.

  ‘Whoa!’ Andy looked around at the other kids in the hallway, expecting someone to step forward and help Reggie. But no one did. Every one was pretending that nothing had happened. Andy couldn’t believe it.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, picking up Reggie’s glasses for him.

  ‘Yeah, I think so,’ Reggie said, rubbing his head.

  Andy turned to see a group of boys about his age, laughing their heads off. A tall, muscley boy standing in front of the group was laughing the loudest.

  ‘That’s Hunter Wilson. He’s in our class. He does things like that all the time, especially to me. Just ignore him. I do,’ said Reggie.

  ‘That’s it? You can’t just let him get away with that,’ Andy exclaimed. ‘He can’t, can he, Judd?’

  Judd shrugged as if to say, ‘It’s not my problem.’

  ‘Nice of you to be worried for me, Andy,’ said Reggie. ‘But I’m okay, really. Everyone knows that Hunter and his mates are just brainless bullies. If you tell them to stop, you’ll get bullied too.’

  WHIRRRRRR!

  Andy heard the whirl of another football flying towards them. Judd was looking for something in his bag and Reggie was still talking – neither of them knew what was coming.

  Ever since Andy had become Andy Roid his hearing had been sharper than ever – he didn’t even have to be ‘switched on’ to hear the faintest of sounds. But he knew that if he spun around to catch the ball, the speed of his reaction would give him away. I can’t risk blowing my cover, he thought. Reggie will just have to deal with another whack in the head.

  But suddenly he felt the ball smack him in the back of the neck! Hunter had been aiming at Andy – not Reggie.

  A bolt of electricity surged up Andy’s spine and he knew his palms would be glowing brightly with a pale-blue fluorescent light.

  Andy felt angry and humiliated at the same time, as Hunter and his friends cracked up again. Without thinking, he picked up the football and with the strength of a bulldozer’s claw, he squeezed it.

  KAAAAABOOOOOOOOMMM!

  The football exploded in a cloud of smoke. A million pieces of leather and rubber scattered everywhere. Hunter and his friends stopped laughing. Actually, everyone stopped what they were doing. They were all totally gob-smacked.

  ‘How did … did you do that?’ stuttered Reggie.

  ‘Whoa,’ Judd muttered, tilting down his sunglasses.

  ‘Um, um …’ Andy stammered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He knew he had to cover up what he’d done. He couldn’t believe he’d let his emotions get the better of him. ‘Must’ve been a faulty ball. Yeah, I think I read that one brand has been recalled by the company that makes them. They just randomly explode. Phew! Is everyone okay?’

  Andy wasn�
�t sure if anyone had bought his lame excuse. But it didn’t matter because all eyes had now turned to Hunter. He clenched his fists and marched directly for Andy.

  ‘You are SO gonna pay for that, new kid!’ he snarled.

  Hunter wrapped his giant ape-like hand around Andy’s neck and launched him up against the lockers. It took everything Andy had in him not to let his robotic self take over and throw Hunter across the hall with just the flick of his finger. But no matter how much Andy wanted to, he wasn’t going to fight back.

  ‘Say you’re sorry, loser!’ Hunter barked, tightening his grip.

  Andy choked and gasped for air. He couldn’t say sorry, he couldn’t say anything. He could see Reggie’s panicked face as he looked around for help. But just as Andy thought he might pass out, he saw Judd spit out his gum, stick it on the lockers, and step forward.

  Judd reached out and gripped Hunter’s left shoulder with his fingers. Hunter screamed in agony and dropped to his knees in pain.

  Andy slumped to the ground taking big gulps of air as Hunter released his grip on his throat.

  Hunter now seemed totally paralyzed and Judd didn’t even seem to be trying.

  That’s some bad-ass ninja move! Andy thought, dazed. Who is this Judd dude?

  ‘Let go! Let go! What are you doing to me?’ Hunter cried. ‘It hurts! Someone help me!’

  ‘Don’t you move,’ said Judd, looking over his sunglasses at Hunter’s friends. ‘Or he’ll be hurting even more.’

  ‘WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?’ roared a booming voice.

  Almost all the students in the hallway flinched and started to look nervous.

  Reggie rushed over to Andy and helped him up. ‘That’s Mr Presticott,’ he whispered. ‘We all call him Mr Shouts-a-lot – you don’t want to get on his bad side.’

  Mr Presticott was a solid man with an abnormally big head. He had biceps like a nightclub bouncer and a belly shaped like a barrel. His sandy blond hair was flicked back in an old-fashioned cut and his beady blue eyes were cold and intense.

  ‘HEY YOU!’ he snapped at Judd. ‘Let go! NOW!’

  But Judd wasn’t intimidated. He just shrugged and released his vice-like grip on Hunter.

  ‘Are you okay, champ?’ the teacher asked Hunter. ‘Did he hurt your throwing arm? You poor kid!’

  ‘What the?’ Andy said, looking to Reggie for an explanation, while Hunter scrambled to his feet.

  ‘Mr Presticott is a total sports nut,’ Reggie whispered. ‘He’s our Maths teacher, but he’d much rather be the head of the sports department. In Maths class he takes us out to play sport all the time. That’s okay if you’re Hunter and his mates, I suppose, but I’d prefer to learn something.’

  Mr Presticott ordered a nearby student to tell him what had happened.

  Andy thought for sure Hunter would be in trouble for bullying Reggie and almost choking him to death. He glanced over at Judd who looked as if he couldn’t care less if he was in trouble or not. He just grabbed his chewed-up gum off the locker and popped it back in his mouth.

  ‘Right! You!’ Mr Presticott snapped at Andy. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Andy Masters.’ Andy gulped.

  ‘Well, Andy Masters. I don’t appreciate you vandalising our expensive sporting equipment – you can apologise and you and your parents can buy the sports department a new football.’

  ‘But he hit Reggie in the head with it and then he got me …’

  Before Andy could explain himself, the loudmouth teacher turned on Judd. ‘As for you, you better pray that you haven’t injured our sports star here, or you’ll have me to contend with! I hope for your sake, kid, that you’re a sports lover. Well, are you?’

  Judd calmly took off his shades and slipped them into his top shirt pocket before answering Mr Presticott.

  ‘Karate’s the only sport worth doing,’ he said. ‘Anything else is just epically lame.’

  Mr Presticott snarled. ‘Right! I don’t know who you think you are, mister,’ he growled. ‘But no one speaks to me like that. You’re off to the principal’s office, and you too, Andy Masters. You new lads better change your attitude quick smart if you’re going to be a part of this school. Now get out of here!’

  While waiting outside the principal’s office, Andy imagined how annoyed his parents would be if they heard about this. They had begged him not to draw attention to himself and risk revealing his true identity. But here he was, in trouble again, and he hadn’t even been at Renfrew High for one hour.

  Principal Thompson, a short woman with dark hair, opened the door and sighed. ‘Well, I wasn’t expecting this,’ she said. ‘This must be a record of some kind.’

  She waved Judd into the office. ‘Take your sunglasses off and explain yourself. And, Andy, isn’t it? Can you please wait in the hall? I’ll hear from you in a minute.’

  Andy sat outside the office and fidgeted in his chair. He took a fifty-cent coin from his pocket and twirled it in his fingers. He was so nervous it took him a few minutes to realise that he was bending the coin completely out of shape – as if it were made out of playdough.

  Oops! he thought, quickly slapping the back of his neck and switching himself off.

  Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, and Judd was still in there. He must be getting a real ear-bashing, thought Andy.

  The bell sounded and everyone in the school made their way to first class.

  ‘Okay, so you boys be good. I don’t want to see you here again,’ Andy heard Principal Thompson say.

  Judd swaggered out of her office, smirking.

  ‘She doesn’t want to speak to me?’ Andy asked.

  Judd shook his head.

  ‘So, are we in trouble or what?’ Andy pressed as they walked down the empty corridor.

  ‘It’s all good,’ Judd said. ‘I sorted it out. Plus she called our parents to get permission for a field trip in English later today. Beats sitting around in a classroom, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Field trip?’ Andy gulped. He couldn’t forget the last time he’d gone on an excursion – it hadn’t ended well. ‘Are you sure my mum said it was okay for me to go?’

  ‘Yep. Why? What’s the big deal?’

  ‘Um … nothing,’ he mumbled, quickly changing the subject. ‘So who are you? I mean, what type of dude knows ninja moves and smooth-talks his way out of a principal’s office?’

  Judd stopped and turned to look directly at Andy. ‘I should be asking you the same question,’ he said. ‘What guy can crush a football to smithereens with his bare hands?’

  ‘Um, well, I told ya,’ Andy stuttered. ‘It was a faulty ball.’

  Judd rolled his eyes. He clearly didn’t believe it.

  They walked in silence to their first class.

  It was Maths, and Andy and Judd were running late. Mr Presticott snarled at them and sat them at the front of the class so he could keep an eye on them. They were right next to Reggie. He smiled and waved.

  ‘Right, the sun is shining today, so who’s up for a game of baseball?’ Mr Presticott said.

  ‘Yeah!’ cheered Hunter and his mates from the back of the room.

  Reggie’s smile faded. ‘But, sir, when are we going to cover geometric properties?’ he groaned.

  ‘Are you questioning my teaching, Hopkins?’ snapped Mr Presticott. ‘I’ll tell you what – if you can give me the correct answer to this sum, then we’ll stay in.’

  ‘That sucks!’ protested half the class.

  ‘Good one, you loser,’ said Hunter. ‘You’d better get it wrong.’

  Reggie looked nervously back at Hunter and his mates.

  ‘Right … are you ready?’ said Mr Presticott, turning to write the problem on the blackboard. ‘You have three minutes to answer this. And you’re not allowed to use your calculator. Okay, what’s 543 times 78, minus 654, divided by 23, times 33, minus 7, plus 832? Your time starts … now!’

  Reggie hurriedly scribbled the figures on a piece of paper. The pressure was on. Some of the students were ch
eering for Reggie, but most were trying to put him off. They yelled out other numbers to confuse him and Mr Presticott didn’t do anything to stop them.

  Andy would much rather have been outside playing baseball. Maths was his worst subject, but he wanted Reggie to win.

  ‘Come on,’ Andy whispered, urging him on. ‘You can do it!’

  Everyone was focused on Reggie. Everyone, Andy noticed, except for Judd. He was half turned, staring at a girl who was sitting in the second row.

  She was really pretty. She had big, olive-brown eyes and jet-black wavy hair. On her pencil case, written in curly writing, was her name: Gabriella Lopez. It was easy for Andy to see how Judd could be totally bowled over by her, and it made him miss his friend Molly, from his old school, even more.

  ‘One minute to go,’ snarled Mr Presticott. ‘And you … pay attention!’ he said to Andy as he whacked him on the back of the neck with a rolled-up piece of paper.

  Andy couldn’t believe it. Switched on again! The now familiar feeling shot up his spine for the second time that day. He quickly hid his hands under the table, hoping no one would notice the blue glow.

  But then something grabbed Andy’s attention. It was the numbers on Reggie’s page – the problem he was working on. Before they had just been a jumble, but now he was switched on, they suddenly began to make sense. The figures danced and swirled around his head, but in a good way. It was something that Andy hadn’t ever felt before. The calculations suddenly seemed as clear to him as the time on his watch.

  Andy grinned as he realised that he’d discovered another cool application he hadn’t known about. But better than that, he’d discovered a way to get back at Hunter and take Mr Presticott down a peg as well.

  ‘Thirty seconds to go!’ Mr Presticott roared. ‘Get ready to get that baseball equipment out, Hunter.’

  A drop of sweat dripped down Reggie’s face as he scribbled frantically.

  ‘NINETEEN, EIGHTEEN, SEVENTEEN …’ the class began to count down.

  Reggie threw down his pen and put his head in his hands.