by Raymond Bean
Emma walked back out to the grass with Robbie and the baby lamb. The rest of the kids came over to pet it. They were all sitting on the ground, petting the lamb, giggling, and smiling.
“What is going on out here?” I asked Mr. Gonzalez.
“More than you realize,” Mr. Gonzalez said mysteriously.
CHAPTER 22
Let’s Go!
The next day was the All-World Science Challenge orientation. It was a chance to meet some of the other kids and allow the judges to get an idea of the work that would be presented on the day of the challenge. Sweet Farts didn’t display anything for the orientation. We only went so we could get an idea of what the real event would be like.
Mr. Gonzalez had scheduled a van to take all of us into New York City that day. It was to arrive at my house at six a.m. in order to miss the morning traffic. I was glad we were leaving early because it was raining again, and when it rains in New York, the traffic goes from bad to insane. It has always amazed me that the drive to New York City, which usually takes an hour, can take almost three hours when the traffic is bad.
I scooped up the last of my yogurt and shouted, “EMMA! Let’s go.”
Mom walked into the kitchen. “Keith, why are you screaming?”
“I want to get going. I’m anxious to see what the AWSC is all about. I wish you and Dad could come.”
“I wish we could, too. You’ll tell me all about it tonight.”
Mom had started picking up shifts at her old job ever since I made my “we-should-get-a-bigger-house” comment. I think it bothered my parents that they couldn’t afford a larger place. I wish they would just let me buy a new house for us.
“Mom, you really don’t have to go to work anymore. I want you and Dad to use some of the Sweet Farts money.”
“Keith, you know your father and I are not going to use your money to pay for our family expenses. Your father and I have been talking about buying a bigger house someday, though, long before you made your suggestion. Maybe one day soon we’ll get that bigger house. But we’ll get it because your dad and I decided it was time.”
Mom had been a nurse at the hospital before Emma and I came along. She worked on the floor that delivered the babies. We went there with her sometimes to visit her nurse friends.
“Mom, why don’t you work for Sweet Farts? You can help out at the lab and…”
“Keith, it’s okay. I like my work. It’s sweet that you want to help out, but I can’t take your money, and I definitely can’t work for you.”
I spotted a white van pulling up the driveway. “Suit yourself. EMMMMMAAAAAA!” I shouted. “The van is here.”
CHAPTER 23
Someone Made a Poop in the Van
The rain was coming down, and I had to put my hood up as I rushed to the van. The music was so loud I could hear it from outside the van. It was my favorite band, Turpentine Fire Line, playing their new song, “Ghost Ride.” That meant one thing.
“Good morning, Grandma,” I shouted, opening the van door. “I didn’t know you were driving us.”
“Who did you think was? I’m not going to let just anybody drive my precious cargo to the city. We’re going to have fun today,” she shouted back.
“I don’t know. You are aware that we’re picking Anthony up, right?”
She turned the radio down. “Mr. Gonzalez told me. It will be fine. You two need to put your issues aside and get on the same team already.”
“Trust me, I’ve tried.”
“Well, keep trying.”
Emma climbed into the van. “Gross! This weather is terrible.”
“Good morning, Sunshine Face,” Grandma said. I was always amazed at how upbeat Grandma could be. It was the crack of dawn, and we were about to go on a rainy, traffic-filled ride to the city, but you would have thought she was driving us to the beach on a sunny day. With Grandma, the weather didn’t matter; her mood stayed the same. It was one of the things I loved most about her.
The van had two rows. I sat right behind Grandma, and Emma sat next to me; at least Anthony wouldn’t be able to sit next to me. Grandma turned the radio down and waved to Mom as we pulled away.
“So are you excited to go learn about the All-World Science Challenge?” she asked.
“I am,” Emma replied. “Mom said they would probably have lots of snacks there. Mr. Gonzalez said there would be a lot of animals, too.”
We pulled up in front of Scott’s house. He came running out through the pouring rain. Again, he didn’t have on a raincoat or an umbrella with him. By the time he had climbed into the van, he was soaked.
Scott was shaking with the chills when we got to Anthony’s house. “Too bad you can’t make virtual reality clothes,” I said.
“Yeah, that would be awesome. Maybe I’ll get to work on that.”
Anthony climbed into the van, slid back behind me, and sat next to Scott. I didn’t say anything and neither did he. Grandma turned the radio down even lower.
“Well this is fun,” Emma finally said.
“Yeah,” Scott added. “How long are you guys going to stay mad at each other?”
“I’m not mad at anyone,” Anthony said, as if he didn’t even know I was mad. “Who’s mad? What are you talking about?”
“Come on, Anthony!” I said, turning around to face him. “You really expect me to believe that you don’t know I’m still mad about what you did at school?”
Anthony looked at Scott and shrugged. “Should I have known that? How would I know that, Keith? You haven’t told me. I may be brilliant, but I’m not a mind reader.”
“Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? It was in front of the whole school!”
“Keith, I was kidding. It was a joke. In case you haven’t noticed, I like to joke around.”
“Yeah, so do I, but you’re always embarrassing me and making people think I’m farting when I’m not.”
“Who cares what they think? You are the inventor of Sweet Farts. What do you care if a bunch of kids at school think you’re a fart machine?”
I glanced up at Grandma, who was pretending she wasn’t listening. I turned back to face Anthony. “Because I am not a fart machine. You are.”
“Yeah, but it’s so much fun making people think it’s you. The way you get sooo upset, it’s ridiculous. You need to toughen up already. You are the president of a very successful company, but you don’t act like it. That is why I feel I should…”
“We know, Anthony,” Scott interrupted, “you want to take over the company. You guys are unbelievable. You both have made these cool discoveries. You both have your own spots at Mr. Gonzalez’s lab. You both have lots of money. But you can’t have fun with it. Do you even understand how cool the lab is?”
“Yeah,” Emma added. “When I was little I wanted to be a part of the company so badly. Now that I’m in it, I realize you guys argue more than the kids in my class. It’s kind of lame.”
I couldn’t believe Emma had just called us lame. It seemed like just yesterday she was talking like a baby and now she was becoming part of the group. “Emma, we’re not lame. We’re just having a hard time getting along.”
“I agree with Emma. You guys are being pretty lame,” Grandma shouted, turning Turpentine Fire Line way up.
What a great way to start the morning. Standing up to Anthony hadn’t worked, and now Grandma and Emma thought I was lame.
No one said anything for a while after that. We still had a long way to go until we reached the city. We were on the expressway and we were already in traffic. I was staring out the window, watching the cars next to us crawl forward, when I got a whiff of Anthony.
“Come on, man!” Scott shouted and held his nose.
“EWWWW!” Emma screamed. “Someone pooped in here! Someone made a poop in the van, Grandma!”
“I’m pretty sure no one pooped, Emma. Unless, of course, you snuck a few bunnies into the van,” Grandma said.
“Emma,” I said. “It was Anthony. He doesn’t
take Sweet Farts tablets, so he smells like a barn.”
“Keith, don’t try to blame it on me,” Anthony replied.
“Anthony, that is disgusting,” Emma scolded.
“Sorry to be the one to tell you this, Emm,” he said. “It’s your brother. He doesn’t even take his own Sweet Farts tablets. It’s pretty gross if you ask me.”
Emma turned back to look at me. She was holding her nose. “Keith, did you make that horrible smell?”
“NO!” I said. “Of course I didn’t. Anthony has been doing this to me since last year. He is a flatulist; he farts when he wants to. You can’t seriously think that was me.”
The whole rest of the trip I tried to convince Emma that it wasn’t me, but she wasn’t totally buying it.
“Why does everyone have such a hard time believing that I am not a farter?”
No one answered.
CHAPTER 24
The Blue-ringed Octopus
I couldn’t believe how many people were at the convention center. It was this massive building that reminded me of the mall, but without the stores. There were tables set up all over the place and kids busy preparing their displays. Every table featured colorful banners and posters. All of us got to wear a badge that had Sweet Farts written on it.
Since we weren’t setting up our own booth, we decided to walk around and see what the competition was all about. We passed table after table of kids with all kinds of cool stuff. There were electronics, machines, things bubbling, boiling, blasting, smashing—it seemed to go on forever.
Then we came to a booth with a bunch of fish tanks set up. Each tank had at least one octopus in it. Emma and I were looking at one of them when this kid with huge black glasses walked up next to us and said, “It’s awesome isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said. It was awesome. The octopus had crazy blue circles on it. I had never seen anything like it.
“It’s beautiful,” Emma said.
“Yeah,” the kid said back. “But it can kill you.”
“No it can’t,” I heard Anthony say.
The kid just looked at Anthony. “It most certainly can. I raised it myself. It’s a blue-ringed octopus.”
“Well, it can’t kill you. It’s not even that big,” Anthony argued.
“Okay, then stick your hand in and grab it,” Scott suggested.
Immediately, Anthony started rolling up his sleeves. The kid with the glasses grinned.
Emma tapped me on the shoulder. “Not now, Emma, this is too good.”
She tapped harder. “What?” I finally asked.
She just pointed to the poster on the wall behind the table. It read, “Kyle Farneswerth: Deadly Octopus Exhibit.” I looked at Anthony. He already had his hand in the water and was reaching for the blue-ringed octopus. Kyle’s smile widened. Scott was so excited he was jumping up and down.
“NOOOO!” I shouted, pulling Anthony’s arm back and out of the tank.
Anthony tried to resist, but I was able to get his hand out safely. “What’s your problem, Keith?”
Emma pointed to the poster on the wall again and shook her head. “You boys aren’t very bright.”
“You were going to let me get killed?” Anthony shouted at the octopus kid.
“Of course not,” Kyle said. “I’m working on an antidote to their venomous sting. I would have given you something that would have probably saved you.”
“Probably saved me?”
“Yeah, it’s hard to test my antidote because people don’t get stung by them very often. But I’m almost positive you would have lived.”
It’s not very often that Anthony is at a loss for words. But he just stood there glaring at the kid. Kyle was just looking right back at him, and finally said, “Well, are you going to stick your hand in or not? My antivenom isn’t going to invent itself.”
CHAPTER 25
We Might Be Lame
The more I walked around, the more I realized how amazing the AWSC was. There were kids from all over the world. There were kids who were already taking college-level classes in fifth and sixth grade. There were kids who had made inventions that helped people with diseases. We even met a team that was working with NASA. This was no school science fair. This was the big leagues.
Maybe Sweet Farts wasn’t so amazing, after all. I mean, farts are a problem, but there are much bigger ones out there. And Anthony’s lottery code was cool, but aside from the money he donated, it only helped him and no one else.
I think we were all feeling a little embarrassed as we walked around the convention center. There were so many kids with so many amazing projects, and we had nothing to share. I even think Anthony was feeling a little embarrassed, because I overheard him say to some kid at one of the tables, “I have lots of great stuff I’m working on at the lab right now. It’s just that I was traveling the world for the past few months.”
“Was the travel part of your project?” the boy asked.
“No, it was for relaxation,” Anthony said. I noticed that he left out the fact that his trip was inspired by his love for saying the word fart in other languages.
And there were so many exhibits that involved animals, it made me a little jealous that I hadn’t thought to get some really cool animals and keep them in my lab. Not bunnies and goats like Emma had—boa constrictors, pythons, and maybe a tiger. How awesome would that be to have a tiger at the lab!
Maybe Emma had the right idea from the start. She liked animals, so she had lots of animals at the lab. Sure, she wasn’t doing any science, but she was only five. Back when Mr. Gonzalez invited me to be a part of his lab, he said I could study anything I wanted, and I built a baseball field and a basketball court. No wonder Mr. Gonzalez was so frustrated with us. He expected more.
“I think Emma might be right. We might be lame,” I said to Scott.
“Why? Because you haven’t stood up to Anthony yet?”
“What do you mean? I always stand up to Anthony.”
“You complain about Anthony, but I don’t think what you do could be considered standing up to him. But if you’re not feeling lame about that, what are you feeling lame about?”
“This place. I feel like all these kids are doing such cool science. I wish I were doing something amazing.”
“You are. You’re trying to make healthy food taste awesome. If you can pull that off, you’ll be every kid’s hero,” Scott said.
“Yeah, but I haven’t been working as hard as I should be. Mr. Gonzalez gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted, and I kind of feel like we let him down.”
“Well, thankfully he’s not here because he would probably hire a bunch of other kid geniuses to work in our labs and have us cleaning the toilets in no time,” Scott joked.
“No kidding! We really need to get on the ball. Do you think you’ll have something to enter in the challenge?” I asked.
“I hope so. We still have a few weeks. It’s got to be better than the tornado in a bottle I did last time.”
CHAPTER 26
Leave It to the Guys
The bus ride back to the lab took longer than the ride in. There’s not much worse than the trip home from the city in the rain and traffic. You feel as if you are never going to make it.
Anthony was snoring in the back seat. His tongue was hanging out and he was making loud snarling noises. Every so often, he would open and close his mouth so that it sounded like someone chewing with his mouth open. It was so loud and gross that I felt like I might throw up. He even mumbled a few times. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but I definitely think I heard the word octopus.
“Are you going to do anything for the challenge, Emma?”
“No, I’m not really interested in that stuff. I just want to share my animals with people. I’m thinking about what I should get next. Maybe one of those blue octopuses.”
“Why would you want one of those? They’re deadly.”
“I wouldn’t touch it. I’d keep it in a tank. I think the people at th
e retirement home would love the blue rings. Also, Robbie, the boy with the cast, would love it. I feel bad for him. He had arm surgery and is going to be in the hospital for a long time. He likes blue. It’s his favorite color.”
“What do you mean? The hospital?”
“A lot of the kids who come to visit the animals are from the hospital.”
“I didn’t know that, Emm. Why have you been having the kids from the hospital out to visit the animals?”
“Because I want to help them feel better and cheer them up.”
“Wow. I know I’ve been giving you a hard time about the animals, but it’s great that you set up your little petting zoo.”
“It’s not a petting zoo, Keith. It’s a Smile Farm. Everyone that comes out there ends up smiling. Even you.”
“Yeah, the animals are pretty awesome. Don’t worry about doing a project for the AWSC, Emm. Leave it to the guys. One of us will have something great to present. Maybe you can enter in a few years when you’re older. For now, just have fun with your animals like you’ve been doing.”
Emma just gave me a funny smile.
CHAPTER 27
Almost There
The weeks that followed were extremely busy. We all worked in our labs every free minute. Emma was always hanging out back at her little farm, and Scott, Anthony, and I were hidden away in our labs trying to come up with an amazing invention to present at the AWSC. The three of us would run into each other out on the court or batting cage when we took a quick break, but no one was saying anything about how their project was going. There was just too much on the line.
Once a week we had our meeting, and once a week Scott reported that Virtual Reality Housing was coming along, but he had nothing to show yet. Anthony kept telling me he would be running things soon. And Emma talked on and on about her animals, and how she had invited people from hospitals and retirement homes. Emma definitely seemed to be having the most fun. The guys and I started hanging out back there a bit, too. At least once a day, I went to see the animals. They helped me take my mind off the pressure of the AWSC.
