Switched Up! (DC Super Hero Girls)

by Tess Sharpe

  Copyright © 2020 DC Comics.

  DC SUPER HERO GIRLS and all related characters and elements © & TM DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

  WB SHIELD: TM & © WBEI. (s20)

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web!

  rhcbooks.com

  dcsuperherogirls.com

  dckids.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 9781984895066 (trade) — ISBN 9781984895073 (library binding) — ebook ISBN 9781984895080

  ep_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1: A Big Copycat Named Doris Zeul

  Chapter 2: Harleen Quinzel…in the Lab…with a Pumpkin

  Chapter 3: This Is Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into!

  Chapter 4: Magic Squash and a Superpowers Switcheroo!

  Chapter 5: It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Breaks the Floor

  Chapter 6: Hay Is for Horses (and Mazes and Goats)

  Chapter 7: Squash—Two Ways…and Both Equally Messy!

  Chapter 8: New Heroes, Same Problems

  Chapter 9: Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

  Chapter 10: Standing Up for Yourself, Even If You’re Not Completely Yourself

  Chapter 11: The Quiet Before the Storm…Er, Attack…Er—Detention!

  Chapter 12: Now Things Get Really Weird

  Chapter 13: One…Two…Three…Frosting Smash!

  Kara Danvers was many things: A secret super hero. An aspiring musician. A good friend (she hoped!). A rebel down to her Girl of Steel bones. And, despite being a rebel, a prepared test-taker.

  She didn’t have the mega–science smarts of her lab partner, Karen Beecher. Karen was a brilliant engineering and science type who had created the battle suit she wore as her secret identity, Bumblebee. Karen had been nice enough to give her a few test quizzes—and Kara had aced them.

  So Kara had felt ready to take on any challenge their science teacher threw at them. But rumors that this latest test was the hardest one Mr. Kincaid had ever created were flying around Metropolis High. That made her nervous. Had she studied hard enough?

  “We got the lucky spots in the middle!” Karen exclaimed as the two partners entered the lab.

  “What’s lucky about it?” Kara asked.

  “I don’t like being up front where everyone can see me,” Karen said. “But I can’t see the board in the back. So the middle is just right.”

  “Sounds like a real science, Goldilocks!” Kara teased. “But you’re a science star, Karen. You should be front and center.”

  “No thanks!” Karen shook her head. The two girls sat down at their table. “You look nervous, Kara.”

  “I heard the test was hard,” Kara confessed. “I hope I get a good grade.”

  “I brought extra pencils! Who needs one?” Their friend Barbara Gordon, better known as Babs, bounced over to them. Babs was the tech whiz of their friends. She could do anything with computers and gadgets. She could probably ace this science test blindfolded.

  “Me, please,” Diana Prince said. Babs handed her a pencil. “Oh! These pencils have mighty warrior steeds painted on them!”

  “Unicorns,” Babs explained.

  Diana, an Amazon princess—and exchange student—from the island Themyscira, frowned. She wasn’t familiar with all the myths and legends of the World of Man, as she called it.

  “These horses have weapons attached to their foreheads. To aid them in battle, yes?” Diana asked.

  “Not exactly.” Kara smiled—though she could imagine herself in a motorcycle jacket, riding a rock and roll unicorn into battle.

  “I’ll explain unicorns after the test,” Babs told Diana. The Amazon nodded solemnly, as though an unbreakable vow had just been agreed to.

  “Maybe we can go see some,” she said eagerly.

  “Um, maybe!” Babs replied.

  “I need a pencil, too, Babs!” Harleen Quinzel waved to Babs, even though she was at the table right next to Kara and Karen’s. Doris Zeul sat beside her, frantically reading through their science textbook.

  “Oh no,” Karen whispered to Kara. “It looks like Doris forgot the test was today.”

  When the bell rang, the students hurried to their lab tables. Mr. Kincaid was strict about not talking, no matter what, once a test had started. Kara blew the blond lock of hair that always hung down from her bangs, and gave Karen a confident smile. But inside, she was anything but confident. She felt like Kryptonite butterflies were banging around in her steel stomach until she got past the first two questions.

  Later, when she glanced up at the clock to make sure she would have enough time to check her work at the end, Kara noticed that Doris was leaning across her table, staring at Karen’s test!

  Kara glared at Doris, who just smirked at her. “The nerve!” Kara fumed. “How dare she copy Karen’s work!”

  Kara nudged Karen underneath the lab table. Karen needed to cover her paper. But Karen was so focused on her own work, she didn’t even look up. So Kara glared at Doris some more. Being a rock and roll rebel was all well and good in most instances, but Kara wouldn’t stand for cheating.

  Stop copying, she mouthed at Doris. She didn’t dare say it out loud. Mr. Kincaid’s rule about no talking really meant no talking.

  Doris smiled and mouthed, I can’t hear you.

  Kara felt like her entire body might explode in anger. What a fiend!

  Kara knocked her foot lightly against Karen’s underneath the table. Karen looked up at her, confused. Kara jerked her chin toward Doris.

  Karen sighed and shook her head firmly at Kara. She wanted Kara to drop it. But Kara couldn’t drop it. Why should Doris get away with cheating?

  But Kara also respected her friend. She knew Karen didn’t like being the center of attention. Kara didn’t really understand that. She loved attention! Still, she didn’t want to do something that would make Karen feel bad.

  So Kara turned back to her paper. There were only ten minutes before class was over, and she still had three more questions to answer. She took a deep breath and focused. She managed to answer them all before looking up again. This time, Doris had taken it too far! She was leaning halfway across the aisle to look at Karen’s paper!

  “Stop it, Doris!” Kara snapped. Those words came out so loud and so fast that the floor rumbled a little! “Whoops!” Kara slapped her hand over her mouth.

  Luckily, things like floor rumbles and mysterious happenings were kind of normal at Metropolis High. Not so luckily, Kara had broken Mr. Kincaid’s biggest test rule: no talking!

  Karen looked at her with wide, shocked eyes. She couldn’t believe Kara would go this far. Breaking the test rule was a big deal.

  “Ms. Danvers, what do you think you’re doing?” Mr. Kincaid asked.

  “Doris is copying Karen’s test. She’s been doing it this whole time,” Kara said. “I can’t stand by while such an—an…injustice occurs!”

  “Hear, hear!” Diana cheered, raising her fist in passiona
te support.

  “Ms. Prince, that is quite enough!” Mr. Kincaid shook his head in disappointment.

  “Mr. Kincaid, Kara was just trying to defend me,” Karen said, looking terrified at breaking the no-talking rule herself.

  “I just don’t know what they’re talking about, Mr. Kincaid,” Doris said, batting her eyes innocently.

  “She’s lying!” Kara protested.

  Harleen, who was sitting next to Doris, looked up from her test with a very annoyed frown. She scribbled something on her paper and then held it up. In addition to her test already being neatly completed, the outer edges of the page were covered in doodles and on the top of the paper she had written in big block letters: Be quiet! I’m doodlin’!

  “That’s enough,” Mr. Kincaid said as Harleen put her test down before he could see her note. “I will deal with the four of you—Ms. Zeul included—after classes today…in detention. Disrupting the test like this is not acceptable.”

  Kara slumped back in her seat, defeated. She knew from fighting villains and evil that justice was hard-won. But now she’d gotten her friends in trouble. She felt horrible…and steaming mad at Doris.

  The bell rang and the students gathered up their tests to turn in. Doris was one of the first people out the door.

  Kara grumbled as she watched her leave.

  “Oh, Kara,” Karen sighed. “I wish you had just let it go.”

  “It wasn’t fair that she was copying your test,” Kara insisted. “You’re one of the smartest people in school, and you work so hard. Doris shouldn’t get to steal that from you!”

  Karen smiled at her friend. Kara’s passion and rebellious spirit were amazing. They also got her in trouble. And now they had gotten them in trouble.

  “I’m sorry I got you roped into detention,” Kara said.

  “It’s okay,” Karen replied. “Detention in the science lab may be a punishment for some…like, say, Doris. But I think it will be good practice.”

  “For what?” Kara asked.

  “For when I have a lab that’s bigger than the one in my basement!”

  Kara grinned. “Only you would be excited about detention.”

  “Let’s just get through it together,” Karen said. “And no more fights with Doris!”

  Kara sighed. This was going to be one long detention session.

  Barbara Gordon was done with her classes for the day. She was going to meet up with her friend Harleen and get some triple-sprinkle donuts at Sweet Justice. But after the ruckus in science class, Babs was worried about her friends.

  “I can’t believe Mr. Kincaid gave you all detention,” Babs said to Diana by their lockers. She was waiting for Harleen to arrive. Harleen was usually late to everything.

  “It is a price we must pay in the name of loudly calling for justice,” Diana said solemnly. “It was wrong of Doris to try to copy Karen’s test. I do not regret speaking in support.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Zee Zatara, a magician’s assistant and resident fashionista, asked as she strolled up. Zee was carrying a pumpkin tucked under her arm.

  “Detention,” the two girls chorused.

  Zee made a face. “Kara was glaring at Doris all through lunch. If looks could scramble brains, we’d be in trouble!”

  “How is Kara going to get through detention with her?” Babs wondered.

  “I do not know,” Diana said. “But I guess I shall find out. Mr. Kincaid told us to clean the science lab from top to bottom.”

  “I think I’d better come with you,” Zee said. “Together, we can all make sure Kara doesn’t melt anyone with her heat vision…or worse!”

  Babs made sure no one could overhear them. She spotted Harleen skipping down the hall. Her friend had a giant red-and-blue slushie that was slowly melting into purple.

  “Hiya, everyone!” Harleen said. “Are you ready for triple-sprinkle donuts?” she asked Babs.

  Babs explained to her the change of plans. At first, she was worried Harleen would be upset. But Harleen beamed with delight.

  “I love detention!” she cackled. “Detention is even better than rainbow sprinkles! And I love rainbow sprinkles! Let’s go!”

  So together, the girls headed to the science lab to help the rest of their friends clean it up. Karen, Kara, and Doris were already there. Jessica Cruz, one of their good friends, was also there. Jessica was an environmentalist who fought for the earth and its residents every day. She was also secretly a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Today, she was on a quest to replace the lab soaps with eco-friendly ones. Luckily, Mr. Kincaid was just as passionate about the environment as Jessica, and he had been very supportive of her many environmental campaigns.

  Karen and Kara sat at one lab table, scrubbing test tubes covered with green goo. Doris was cleaning that same green goo off another table. It looked like the freshman biology class had spilled a bunch of pond slime everywhere. It certainly smelled like it!

  “I have brought friends to help,” Diana declared as she swept inside the lab with the gusto of a warrior going into battle. Back on her home island, her mother was Queen of the Amazons. That meant that Diana was royalty. But even royalty had to serve detention!

  Doris snorted, like the idea of friends helping was ridiculous.

  “What are you doing here, Jess?” Zee asked, sashaying into the lab with her pumpkin.

  “First, I’m swapping out the lab soaps,” Jessica said. “Then I’m designing a rooftop garden.”

  “Speaking of gardens…,” Karen said. “Zee, why do you have a pumpkin?”

  “Ooh, I want to know that, too!” Harleen squealed. “Is it for smashin’?”

  “And make a bigger mess for us to clean up?” Doris snarled. “I don’t think so! You Goody Two-shoes have already ruined my day!”

  Harleen pouted and slurped her slushie. Kara glared at Doris, who rolled her eyes and went back to cleaning the lab table.

  “The pumpkin is for a magic trick I’m doing with my father,” Zee said. Zee’s father was a famous magician, and she worked as his assistant. She had been so excited when he loved the pumpkin trick she had dreamed up. But he wouldn’t love it if the orange gourd got smashed!

  Zee didn’t like the gleam in Harleen’s eyes when she looked at the pumpkin, so she put it on the lab cabinet near the fish tank. She smiled as the shark in the tank made a splash at the surface of the water. Then she joined her friends in cleaning up the lab.

  “It stinks in here,” Doris complained, wiping some of the green goo off her hand. “And it’s not just because I have to be around a bunch of goody-goodies.”

  “I’ll open the windows!” Harleen dropped her broom to the ground. It almost crashed into a set of clean test tubes. She flung the windows open, breathing in the fresh air. Then she nearly knocked over the robot project Babs kept in the science lab.

  “Careful!” Babs called out. She hurried over, snatching her robot out of the way. “That’s for my science fair project.”

  “Sorry!” Harleen said cheerfully. She took a long sip of her slushie. “I’ll watch where I’m going.”

  “Why don’t you feed the shark?” Kara suggested to Harleen. “Mr. Kincaid said we needed to feed her, too.”

  Harleen liked the sound of that. Mr. Kincaid kept the shark’s tank covered during their science class. The shark slept until the afternoon. Their class was in the morning, so she never got a good look at the toothy gal. Harleen wished she could sleep in. If only she could live the life of a shark. She’d swim around and snap her teeth at anyone who messed with her. And she’d never have to go to school—she’d just have schools of fish to eat!

  Harleen bent down to look the shark in the eye. When the small shark saw Harleen, it snarled. It had so many teeth! She grinned, baring her own teeth back at the shark. The creature swam tow
ard Harleen, tapping its snout against the glass. Harleen giggled and did the same.

  “She likes you,” Diana said. She held out a jar of shark food. It was a brighter purple than Harleen’s slushie. Harleen wondered if the food should be that color. Wasn’t fish food brown and flaky and kind of stinky?

  “The shark comes from the waters surrounding my homeland,” Diana said. “I brought her back with me the last time I visited home—to show Mr. Kincaid. He wrote a paper about her! This Themysciran water plant is her favorite treat.”

  Diana handed Harleen the jar. She plucked out a piece of purple plant and dropped it into the tank. The shark gobbled it up in seconds.

  “This is my kind of detention,” Harleen said. She gave the shark another treat. It chomped and snapped. The purple leaf stuck between the shark’s teeth in the same way that spinach sometimes got stuck in Harleen’s. Poor shark! She couldn’t exactly offer it a toothpick or some floss. A few more treats and Harleen’s job was all done. She knew she should help the others clean—that would be the good thing to do. But Harleen wasn’t exactly good at being good.

  Harleen was secretly the villainous Harley Quinn, which meant she was fearless and bad to the bone. But Harleen Quinzel knew not to cause too much trouble when there was a cranky science teacher waiting to check on the lab. A smart villain was one who knew how to lie low at the right time. “But a true villain also doesn’t mop floors,” she thought. That was what minions were for. “Rats!” She had none—minions or rats!

  Harleen turned away from the shark and spotted Karen, who was trying to put a rack of clean test tubes on the top shelf of the lab cabinet. But even on her tiptoes, Karen couldn’t reach. Harleen to the rescue! She zipped over to the cabinet.