We carry our materials out to the hallway where Seraphina and Gregor meet us. I can’t believe it’s over! Our families hug and fire questions at us about our costumes, play, and spinner—especially about the spinner. It’s a crazy scene in the hallway and I’ve never felt so proud of something I’ve done before.
Seraphina hugs us, one after the other. “That was incredible. You guys were awesome! Even better than in practice. The judges were definitely impressed you did a play. I can tell.”
“I agree,” says Gregor. “That was certainly unexpected.”
“Do you think they liked the Ancestor App on the spinner?” I ask.
“Are you kidding?” asks Seraphina. “They were in awe.”
We spend the next half hour taking pictures with our sets. I’m sure every team is doing the same thing today, but our parents are going overboard. We pose in a straight line. We pose in a clump. We pose around the spinner. We pose with our preceptors. The boys pose with Gregor. The girls pose with Seraphina. We pose with our wrist bands. We pose with our own families. By the time we’re done, I decide to invent a camera that takes faster pictures—I mentally add it to my list of inventions.
We change out of our costumes and pack them away, just in case we need them for the Finals. Gregor arranges for our sets to be sent back to the Team Storage area, and then we all head back to Meeting Room Twelve at Piedmont Chamber to pass the time until we can pick up our scores. Seraphina has ordered pizza and scrambled apples for everyone. I hope she ordered a lot, because I can probably eat most of it myself.
The room has not been transformed. It’s just the way it looked on the very first day we met here—plain tables and plain chairs. That’s okay, though. We don’t need anything fancy today. All the crazy brothers and sisters will be enough.
We devour the pizza and scrambled apples and find a corner in the back of the room to crash. Ander tells jokes. Jillian’s little brother Davis laughs. Daphne paints Mare’s nails. Ryne teaches Jax’s sister Micha dance moves. Mare’s brother Ace and my sister Malin talk in the other corner. Jillian’s brother Dexter pretends he’s a news reporter. The rest of us are so tired. We just sit and watch.
Meanwhile, the parents talk like they’ve known each other forever. After a while, Ander whispers in my ear. “Come on. Let’s go follow Gregor.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I’m bored and he’s creepy. Besides, he’s been acting weird—weirder than usual, ever since we got back here. He keeps checking his phone and looking around to see if anyone’s watching him. He just left. Let’s go see what he’s doing.”
We grab Jillian, Mare, and Jax and tell the brothers and sisters to hang out until we get back. Seraphina yells as we race down the hall. “Don’t go too far. Our scores will be ready in thirty minutes!”
I force myself not to freak out. “Okay, we’ll be right back.”
“Where are we going?” asks Jax.
“Just taking a walk,” says Ander. “You know, team bonding.”
“I think we’ve bonded enough,” says Mare.
“Let’s just go,” says Jillian. “My brothers are getting annoying already.”
“How do you guys think we did?” I ask.
“I think we did well,” says Jax.
“Me too,” says Mare. “And I didn’t even mind being in front of all those people.”
“And the spinner didn’t get stuck or anything,” says Jillian. “Even when my feather boa got in the way.”
“We were awesome,” says Ander. “The judges loved us.”
“Our families loved us. We don’t know what the judges thought,” I remind him.
“I’d rather think like Ander,” says Jillian. “No other team is dressed like us. No one else did a play, I bet, either.”
“And no other team built a spinner that can bring people back from the dead,” says Jax. We laugh because he’s right. Maybe the judges did love our solution.
We turn the corner. Gregor is at the end of the hall with his back to us. He’s talking on his phone. Ander motions for us to be quiet. We realize he wants us to spy on him so we scoot into a nearby closet. It’s hot inside and gets hotter as we squish together. Mare groans and we shush her. With the door cracked open we can still hear what he’s saying.
“Yes,” he says in his stiff Gregor voice. “I do think my team was able to pull it off . . .Yes. They had a very well put together presentation today . . . They will certainly score high for creativity . . . That’s not the portion I was concerned with . . . It was the task solving portion . . . I agree. Their original solution was amateur at best . . . Of course I’m happy I got rid of it . . . Their revised solution was a great improvement . . . Yes, the scores should be ready soon. I hope the judges think their solution was as good as I think it was . . . You’ll be hearing from me soon.”
He’s happy he got rid of it? What? Gregor did it?
My teammates and I stand frozen.
His footsteps pound the floor. They head back in the direction of Meeting Room Twelve. Soon, they’re just a patter. When I can’t hear them anymore, I peek my head out to be sure he’s gone and when he is, I push open the door.
“Oh my gosh!” Mare squeals and we pile out of the closet.
Ander screams at the top of his lungs, “I. Hate. Him. So. Much.”
Jax shakes his head. “I can’t believe it was him.”
“How could he do that to us?” Jillian asks.
I can’t believe this is happening. “Why would Gregor, our own preceptor, destroy our solution, with just one week to go before the competition?”
“It makes no sense,” says Jillian.
Ander waves his arms like a mad scientist. “But you heard him. He did it! I knew he wasn’t a good guy. I knew it!”
“I’m going to find him!” says Mare, charging down the hall.
“Mare, wait! You can’t!”
She turns around. “Why not? I’ll slap him right across his mean face, and then I’ll tell Seraphina!”
I take a deep breath. “I don’t think we should tell her.”
“Why not?” asks Jillian.
“What if she doesn’t believe us?” I ask.
“Why wouldn’t she believe us? She doesn’t like him either. I can tell by the way she looks at him whenever he talks to us,” says Jillian.
“But that doesn’t mean she’ll take our side. It’s our word against his. Besides, our scores are almost ready. Let’s see how many points we get, and then we can decide.”
“Fine,” says Mare. “But after that, we wipe that stupid smirk off his face.”
The rest of my team reluctantly agrees, and we race back to Meeting Room Twelve. We’re out of breath when we reach Seraphina and Gregor, both of them leaning against the door. I can hardly look at Gregor. All I want to do is pull his legs out from under him and watch him crash to the floor like our Ghost Gallery did.
“There you are,” Seraphina says. “Our scores are almost ready. Come on.”
Once outside, we follow the same cobblestone path we walked along on registration day. I try to find the speakers in the ground, but I can’t see anything beneath the bumpy cobblestones.
We enter a side door to the Coliseum. It doesn’t take us long to find the Judge’s Room. Gregor and Seraphina slip inside, and my teammates and I sit on the floor in a circle. We hold hands until we realize they’re too sweaty. Instead we say, “Please be 150, please be 150 . . .”
Seraphina and Gregor stay in that room forever. Come on! How long does it take to hand someone a score sheet?
REUNION
Gregor walks out of the Judging Room. Seraphina follows, carrying a silver paper and a white envelope. Her expression is normal. What does that mean? “I have your score,” she says and sits down in the circle with us. “The judge wanted me to give you something first though.”<
br />
I groan. “Oh my gosh! Just tell us!”
She ignores me and pulls a set of pictures out of the envelope. I have a picture for each of you, taken on the day of registration—your first day as a team. This is a small reminder of just how far you’ve come together this summer.”
I lean over to see it. “Who took that?”
Seraphina laughs. “It was taken automatically by the magnolia tree, the one at the entrance to Piedmont Chamber.”
Ha! I knew something was up with that tree!
“How did it do that?” asks Jax.
“The team from Massachusetts invented tiny, white cameras that sit on the branches. They added timers and a release system to give the petals an authentic scent.”
Wow.
“Anyway,” she continues. “The head judge told us that he had heard all about the Crimson Five from New York. He knew you had come from the same school, but was warned to judge you fairly, not to expect anything more or anything less than the other teams. He said he vowed that he would do that and he did. So based on your solution to the task, your score out of 200 points is . . . 174.25!”
We explode from the circle screaming—and hugging and jumping! Ander dances and his voice thunders over all the rest of ours, “We’re going to the Finals! We’re going to the Finals!”
Seraphina explodes. “I knew you could do it!”
Gregor stands outside our circle. “Yes, congratulations, team. Job well done.”
“Thanks,” I say, swallowing the urge to spit in his face.
Seraphina smiles. “Wow, not bad, Gregor. Did I just hear you give them a compliment?”
“They have earned the one-hundred and fifty points. That’s worth mentioning.”
“Oh wow, thanks,” Ander mutters.
“Gregor and I have been instructed to pick up an information packet for the National Finals. It won’t take long, and then we’ll join you and your families back in Meeting Room Twelve.”
Seraphina and Gregor walk the other way and I scream, “We did it!”
“No thanks to our evil preceptor,” Mare whispers.
“What should we do about him?” asks Jillian.
“I don’t know,” I say. “What do you guys think?”
“Maybe he was just trying to help us,” says Jax.
I think about that for a second. “That was a rotten way to help us.”
“Yeah,” says Jillian. “It was. Maybe Jax’s right though. He did force us to come up with a better solution. Maybe our other one wouldn’t have gotten us enough points. So in a way, he might have done us a favor.”
“So you don’t think we should tell anyone?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“I don’t think we should do anything yet,” says Jax. “We have the National Finals to get ready for.”
“But I don’t trust him,” says Mare. “I can’t even look at him.”
“I think,” says Ander, “that we pretend we don’t know the truth—for now. We’ll get ready for the competition, but really, all the while we’ll act like Russian Spies.”
“What are you talking about?” asks Mare.
“We figure out a way to prove he did it.”
“But we need to focus on the Finals,” I say. “We only have a few days until we compete again. Besides, after that, we may never see him again.”
“So you want to let him get away with it?” asks Ander.
“No. I just don’t want this to mess up our performance for the Finals.”
“Can’t we just go back to Meeting Room Twelve and tell our parents what our score is?” asks Jax.
“And then we can think up a secret plan,” says Ander.
“Can we take a nap afterwards?” asks Mare.
“Seriously? That’s what you guys want to do?” asks Jillian. “Sleep and play detective?”
“What do you want to do?” I ask.
Jillian shrugs. “I don’t care, as long as we hang out together. Part of me doesn’t want the National Finals to come yet. I’m going to miss being here with all of you when it’s over. This has been fun, even the Gregor part.”
“Aw,” says Ander. I bet you’re going to miss me the most.”
Jillian scrunches her face. He pretends to cry.
“You know what?” I say. “I have a way that we won’t have to say goodbye to each other after the Finals.”
“How?” asks Ander. “We glue ourselves to each other?”
“No. We don’t need glue. We make it to the Global Championships and then enroll at PIPS. That way we’ll get to spend the next two years together.”
“It’s a deal,” says Ander. “But this week when we’re not rehearsing, I’m going to get proof that Gregor is a bad guy.”
We get to Meeting Room Twelve and our families explode like we did, but with so many people it’s more like fireworks. My mom hugs me and smooths out one of my pigtails. “Kia, I’m thrilled for you! I knew you’d get those points.”
“You did?”
“Well, I read through the details of the task last night after we settled into the hotel. Seraphina gave all of us a copy to look at. I must say, I was worried at first. There was a lot of skill that needed to go into solving this problem. I would have had trouble coming up with something good enough.”
“Really?”
“Yes, of course! I only have a science brain, remember?”
I laugh. “Yeah, I know.”
“But you’re good at so many things, Kia. I’m glad you were able to show everyone here today, especially me.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“And I never knew you could perform like that, in front of all those people!”
“Me either, but we had to make them remember us.”
“Well, I certainly won’t ever forget any of this. I’m so proud of you.” She leans close. “I bet your Grandma would like to talk to you too.”
Grandma Kitty is talking to my dad. I break away from my mom and walk over to them. Dad pulls me into a giant hug. “Great job, Little Bear! That was amazing stuff out there. I knew you’d find a way to use all the ideas swirling in your head.”
“Thanks, Dad. Can you stay until this weekend and watch us in the National Finals?”
“Are you kidding? Of course. I need to see my little girl use that Ancestor App again. That was really something.”
I look at Grandma Kitty. Her face looks sad. I’ve never felt strange around her before, but I hug her anyway. “Grandma, I’m really sorry about what I said before. I didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, Sugar Dumpling. Yes, you did. But that’s okay. Can we walk for a bit?”
I look for Seraphina. She and my mom are talking. So is everyone else in Meeting Room Twelve. I’m sure I can sneak out for a few minutes, especially for Grandma Kitty.
We walk in silence out the door where Swissa found me crying all those days ago. Pretty soon camp will be over, and she can go back to her own school where she belongs. That will make her happy. I didn’t think I’d ever want to leave here, but maybe it would be easier if I wanted to go back to Crimson—if I wanted to be programmed.
As we step out into the late summer afternoon, the sun, even though I can’t see it, blinds me for a few seconds until my eyes adjust to the light. The clouds over Piedmont University are swirling in slow motion. I see one arrange itself into the shape of the sun—one of the brightest stars. I want to drag my friends out here with me. We could lie in the grass and call out the shapes we see.
Grandma Kitty finds a bench near the cobblestone path and we sit down. “This is an amazing place, Smartie Girl. I knew it would be.”
Now I feel sad for Grandma Kitty. “But you never got to come here.”
“No, I didn’t. But I dreamed and dreamed about it for more years than I can count. It’s everythin
g I hoped it would be—all because of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think what happened to me in the Piedmont Challenge was exactly the right thing because it eventually brought you here to this camp. You were meant to come here, not me. This is where you belong, and I am so very happy to share it with you.”
“Really, Grandma? Then you’re not sad anymore?”
“Sad? Heavens no! You just earned your spot at the Piedmont National Finals, and I get to hang around all this creative energy for the next few days. Maybe I’ll even set up a blanket under one of those trees and make you and your friends some earrings.”
“Jillian and Mare would love some. But wait, what about the boys? They don’t wear earrings.”
“Well, now let’s see. I’ll just have to let some of my creative ideas come back to me and think up something else to make for them.”
I lean back and look up at the clouds. It feels good to talk to Grandma Kitty again. I had missed her so much. But now I want to get back to my friends. I know they’ll be looking for me, and we need to talk about Gregor.
“Girl, you just got a very strange look on your face. What is it?”
I think about Gregor’s phone call. I picture the pile of junk he smashed our Ghost Gallery into. Grandma Kitty would know what to say to him. She’d probably hunt him down and slug him, even harder than Mare. I can’t tell her about this though. We promised not to tell anyone, and that includes Grandma Kitty. “Oh nothing,” I say.
“I think we should head back inside. Don’t you, Butter Cup?”
I smile and hug her tight. Grandma Kitty always knows what I’m thinking.
BRAIN SWIRLS
Evening Announcements happened hours ago, but none of us can sleep. We can’t stop thinking about what Gregor did, and we’re not going to let him get away with it. Even if he did help us get to the National Finals.
Ander and Jax must have looked like criminals sneaking out of their bedchamber and into ours, and now we’re huddled under a blanket with just the glow of the flashlight to see each other’s faces.
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