by Mark Young
And Shelly was right—letting Mimi cut wasn’t a big deal, because the line moved quickly. Soon the three friends were sitting at their usual table, each with a plate containing one Extreme Pancake.
“Remind me why these are extreme?” Newton asked as he stared down at his pancake.
“I dunno,” Theremin replied. “I don’t eat, remember? I took one so I wouldn’t feel left out.”
“Each one contains a thousand percent of a day’s nutrients and all the most popular breakfast ingredients—eggs, bacon, cereal, sausage, oatmeal, toast, and orange juice,” Shelly replied. “Taste it.”
Newton picked up his fork, when he heard a squishy sound behind him.
“Mind if I sit down?”
It was Higgy, dressed up for a typical day of school in his usual gear—a bandage-covered face, dark goggles, a heavy coat, black boots, and a wool cap on his head.
“Sure,” Newton said quickly, and Shelly screwed up her face.
“Sorry, Shelly, but my regular table has been taken over by Fern Faraday and her pesky two-dimensional hamsters,” Higgy said, motioning. “I promise to keep my slurping to a minimum.”
“Thanks,” Shelly said, with a look of relief.
Higgy plopped down his plate and slid into his seat beside Shelly. A green goo tendril slithered from his coat, picked up the pancakes, and shoved it in the gap between his face bandages.
Slurp . . . slurp . . . slurp . . . strange squishy noises emerged from Higgy’s face. Newton was getting used to it and could tell Higgy was trying to be quiet, or at least as quiet as possible for a kid made of goo.
Shelly pushed her plate forward.
“Not hungry today, I guess.” She smiled, trying not to hurt Higgy’s feelings.
“Too bad. This is delicious!” Higgy said. Then he let out a loud burp.
“By the way, Higgy, nice try earlier, trying to scare me,” Newton said. “But it didn’t work.”
“I don’t . . . burp . . . know what you . . . burp . . . mean,” Higgy replied.
“Trying to sneak up on me in the hallway,” Newton said.
“I swear, roomie, it wasn’t . . . burp . . . me,” Higgy protested.
“Really?” Newton said as he touched the hairs on the back of his neck. “That’s weird.”
“Not as weird as what happened to you at the Mad Science Fair, with those Predictive Virtual Reality Goggles,” Shelly said. “You put them on, and then you started freaking out and screaming.”
Another shivery feeling crept up Newton’s spine as the memory returned. The goggles were another entry at the Mad Science Fair. They could show what happened to something in the past or predict what might happen to it in the future.
“It . . . it was really disturbing,” Newton began. “I put on the goggles and looked at a lizard. That’s when I saw the lizard growing backward in time, becoming a tadpole, and then an egg.”
“Cool!” Higgy burped.
Newton nodded. “And seeing that lizard egg triggered a memory, I think. I remembered being inside a kind of a bubble or a glass pod filled with water. Then a bright light flicked on, and I could see the shadows of people coming closer and closer. Then the glass pod started to crack . . . and then . . .”
His three friends leaned in closer.
“Then what, Newton?” Shelly gasped.
“The memory stopped. I screamed because I wanted to see what happened next.”
“Sounds like the goggles malfunctioned.” Theremin chuckled. “Besides, how could that have been a memory?”
“I guess you’re right, but it sure felt like one,” Newton said as he took a bite of his pancake.
Shelly was nodding thoughtfully. “It is a memory, Newton,” she said. “It matches what we already know about you. You’ve got extra-grippy fingers and toes. You can camouflage yourself in dangerous situations. You can see in the dark, and I saw you sprout gills when you jumped into the pool.”
“What does that have to do with me being in a . . . a glass pod?” Newton asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Shelly admitted. “But we do know that you’re an extraspecial human. So, you must come from some extraspecial place.”
“Right,” Theremin laughed. “Like an extraspecial glass pod.”
“I don’t know,” Newton said. “The pod didn’t feel special, exactly. It felt . . . strange. I just want to be like everyone else.”
Higgy snorted. “Roomie, I’m made of gaseous green goo without a skeleton. So, if anyone here is not like everyone else, it’s me—not you.”
Shelly frowned thoughtfully. “Even so, maybe it’s best if we all keep this a secret for now,” she said. “Until we know more, at least.”
Newton nodded. “That’s fine with me. I feel like I’m just starting to fit in here. I don’t want that to change.”
Suddenly, the cafeteria walls changed color to a pulsing bright blue as a robotic voice calmly announced, “Period four. Time for period four.”
Shelly stood up. “We’d better get to class!”
After a few weeks at the school, Newton had finally settled into a routine. Today was a Monday, so that meant he had History of Mad Scientists, followed by Neo-Evolutionary Biology, Electro-Fluid Physics, Lunch, Genetic Friendgineering, and Dark Matter Matters.
Hours later, Newton and Shelly walked out of their last class together.
“There’s a meeting of the Monster Club right now,” Shelly said. “Wanna come?”
“Sure,” Newton replied. “I’ve been thinking of joining, you know, since I’m sorta not human. Maybe I can learn something.”
“Awesome!” Shelly replied. “We’ve been playing around with some pretty advanced stuff lately, but I’m sure you’ll catch on.”
“Well, you said you’re related to that famous scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, right?” Newton asked. “There’s a whole chapter on him in my History of Mad Scientists book.”
Shelly nodded.
“So, do you think that’s why you’re good at making monsters?” Newton asked.
“Maybe,” Shelly replied. “I mean, I guess it makes sense.”
“And is your whole family good at it?” Newton asked. “Like, does your family get together with other Frankensteins and make monsters together and stuff?”
Shelly shook her head. “I’m a Ravenholt. We Ravenholts are all good at making monsters, but we don’t hang out with the Frankensteins.”
“Shelly! Newton!”
Newton felt a powerful hand slap him on the back. He caught his balance then turned to see Tootie Van der Flootin grinning at him. As usual, she had her hair tied in a braided bun on top of her head.
“You guys totally rocked the Mad Science Fair,” she said.
“Thanks,” Newton and Shelly said.
Tootie pushed past them into the classroom where Professor Gertrude Leviathan led the Monster Club. The professor sat at her desk, a mass of pink curls framing her face. She was wearing her trademark leopard-print lab coat and entertaining a small group of students, who seemed to hang on her every word.
“And then I said, ‘If you want that horsefly to play the piano, I’m going to have to give it at least ten fingers!’ ” and everyone laughed. She looked up when Newton, Shelly, and Tootie entered.
“Looks like the gang’s all here!” Professor Leviathan said. “Great! We can get started.”
“Professor Leviathan, can I ask a question first?” Shelly asked, and the teacher nodded. “Well, when I decide where I want to go with my portal pass prize, I was wondering . . .”
“Say no more, I’d love to be your virtual chaperone!” Leviathan exclaimed in a voice so loud that Newton swore he felt the floor shake a little under his feet.
“Thanks, Professor Leviathan.” Shelly smiled.
“Okay, Monster Club, let me tell you what I’ve got for us today, because it’s pretty exciting.”
She picked up a glass vial from her desk. The students gathered around to get a closer look.
“Each o
ne of these contains a nanochip,” she said, “barely visible to the naked eye. They are based on microchip technology used to store identifying information about pets, in case they get lost. But I think we can find some more creative ways than that to program them, don’t you?”
A murmur rose as everyone began to talk excitedly about the project.
“I knew you’d love this!” Leviathan said. “Great. I’d like everyone to work in teams. Newton, you can stick with Shelly, since you’re new. But I’d like you two to work with Tootie.”
“NO!” Tootie and Shelly blurted out.
Shelly blushed. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just, you know that Tootie and I work differently, Professor. She likes to make big, scary monsters. And I like to help modify creatures to make their lives easier.”
“Boring,” Tootie muttered under her breath.
“Which is exactly why I want you to work together,” Leviathan said. “You two can learn something from each other. Now, everyone pick a lab table. I’ve got some simple test subjects for you to work on.”
Test subjects? Newton wondered what that meant—until he saw a butterfly in a small plastic container on their lab table. It had large black-and-yellow wings.
“Papilo cresphontes,” Shelly said. “Also known as a giant swallowtail. They live all over the island.”
“Why is it called a giant?” Newton asked. “It’s only about as big as my hand.”
“Well, it’s large for a butterfly,” Shelly remarked. “Its wingspan can be as much as six inches.”
Tootie took a seat and emptied the glass vial containing the nanochip into a round port on the computer.
“Let’s get this party started,” she said. She began typing, and a green glowing holographic image of the butterfly appeared in midair in front of her. “Why don’t we make it really giant?”
She typed some more, and the holograph expanded to show a butterfly as big as Tootie. Newton jumped back.
“Whoa!” he cried.
“It doesn’t look so pretty anymore,” Shelly said.
Tootie kept typing. “And let’s make it even scarier,” she said. “How about fangs? And maybe neon orange and some spikes on its wings?”
Shelly quickly leaned forward, pressed a button on the keyboard, and the horrific holographic image disappeared. “That poor butterfly!” she said. “There’s no reason to make it a hideous monster. We should use the nanochip to help it. Like, make it become invisible when a predator is near.”
Tootie pretended to yawn. “What’s the fun in that?” she asked.
“Well, Tootie,” Shelly said, “my parents taught me that the best kind of science finds solutions to problems.”
Tootie went back to her typing. “Who needs invisibility when you can have neon orange wings with spikes on them? Awesome!”
“That is ridiculous!” Shelly said. She turned to Newton. “I can’t do this. We have to tell Professor Leviathan that we need a new partner.”
Newton hesitated. He liked that Shelly wanted to do something good for the butterfly. But Tootie’s plans for the butterfly were pretty impressive.
The fangs, the bright orange wings—they were the opposite of camouflage, the thing that he was able to do when he felt danger was near. It got him thinking.
What if I were like that butterfly? he wondered. What if I got big and scary when I was scared?
That’s when the idea hit him. “Shelly, Tootie, what if you combine your ideas?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Shelly asked.
“Well, maybe making the butterfly big and scary could help it, if a predator was near,” Newton began. “Like, a bird might be afraid to eat it if the butterfly had fangs and spikes and stuff.”
Shelly nodded slowly. “I see . . . so we could program the butterfly to become monstrous . . . but only when it’s threatened by a predator.”
Tootie nodded. “I could live with that.”
“That might work,” Shelly said. “But then how would the butterfly turn back to normal?”
“Well, we could program the chip to reverse the effect after thirty seconds,” Tootie suggested. “Enough time to scare the predator away.”
The two girls smiled at each other.
“So, did I come up with a good idea?” Newton asked.
“No,” Shelly said. “A great idea!” She pulled up a chair next to Tootie. “Let’s program this thing!”
Newton hung behind them, unsure of how to help. He didn’t know anything about programming, or about most things, really. He had started high school with very little knowledge, and he didn’t know why, since he mysteriously appeared at the school with significant memory loss and no idea where he came from. Still, he was a fast learner, and sometimes in class he felt like he understood everything clearly. And other times it was like he was learning for the first time.
He watched as Tootie and Shelly furiously typed code into the computer, programming the nanochip.
“This is pretty easy,” Shelly said as they worked. “The nanochip comes with a basic code structure. We just have to fill it in.”
Still, it took a few hours, and Newton’s stomach rumbled. He was hungry—and a little bored, since Shelly and Tootie were doing all the work.
Just as he started thinking about dinnertime, Shelly turned to him. “It’s ready! Newton, can you help us test it out?”
“Sure,” Newton replied. “What do I have to do?”
Shelly handed him a butterfly net. “I’m going to implant the nanochip into the butterfly. Then we’re going to set it free. You’re going to chase it with the net. When it feels threatened, it will trigger the program.”
Newton nodded. “I can do that.”
Tootie’s voice thundered through the classroom. “Professor Leviathan! We’re ready for our experiment!”
The large teacher walked over to their lab table, and other students followed. Shelly had opened the butterfly container a crack and was gently injecting the nanochip with a needle.
“This will just pinch a little,” she said soothingly. Then she looked up at Newton. “Ready?”
Newton nodded as he raised the butterfly net. “Ready!”
Shelly flung the lid of the container open. The butterfly fluttered out. Newton stepped toward it, waving the net.
“Hey, butterfly, come here,” he said.
The butterfly calmly flew around the classroom, but it didn’t change.
“Be meaner!” Tootie told him. “Growl, Newton!”
Newton clenched his teeth and stomped toward the butterfly. This time, he spoke in his loudest voice.
“I’m gonna get you!” he yelled.
The butterfly’s movements got more and more frantic. Then, before everyone’s eyes, it began to change.
It grew to the size of a large human. The yellow on its wings became neon orange, and spikes sprung from the wings’ edges. Its front legs became two long, curved claws.
The butterfly’s enormous black eyes fixed on Newton. It started to fly toward him. The wind from its massive wings was incredibly strong, which startled Newton. What was he to do next? As the butterfly came closer, he tried to stay calm.
“Easy now,” Newton said. “This is just a demonstration!”
Whoosh! The monstrous butterfly swooped down on Newton. Its two claws grabbed him by the shoulders.
Then it carried him away!
“Hellllllp!” Newton yelled.
CHAPTER 3
SHINY IN THE SHADOWS
The giant butterfly carried Newton out of the classroom and down the hallways of the school. Students raced to get out of the way. They were used to seeing strange things at Franken-Sci High, but the students were still shocked to see a giant insect, and frantically tried to hide.
“It’s just a butterfly!” Tootie told everyone as she and Shelly chased after them.
That didn’t help.
“Don’t worry, Newton!” Shelly called out. “The butterfly will return to normal in thirty seconds.”<
br />
“Thirty seconds?” Tootie asked. “I thought you said thirty minutes!”
“You programmed the chip for thirty minutes?” Shelly wailed. “That’s not good!”
“Whooooaaaaa!” Newton screamed as the butterfly flew around a corner. Newton struggled to free himself from the creature’s grasp, but its grip was too tight.
Ahead, he could see the wide-open front doors of the school, leading out to the jungle. He imagined the butterfly carrying him out, over the trees, out across the Atlantic Ocean . . .
“Close that door!” Newton yelled.
Two students were standing by the door, talking. They looked up when Newton yelled, and their eyes got wide.
Then they ran.
“Nooooo! Close the door!” Newton cried.
The butterfly swooped toward the open door, and then . . .
Thump!
Newton suddenly fell to the ground. Dazed, he looked up.
The butterfly was back to its normal size. It flew out the door.
“That . . . was . . . close.”
Professor Leviathan ran up, out of breath and panting. She held a small remote-control device in her hand. Shelly and Tootie caught up to her.
“I deactivated the nanochip,” the professor wheezed. “I programmed remote deactivation abilities into all the chips, just in case things got out of control. I didn’t expect that you two would create such a monstrous butterfly. Fast, too.”
Shelly and Tootie looked at each other and dropped their heads.
“Good work!” Professor Leviathan said.
Shelly and Tootie broke into smiles then Shelly turned to Newton.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Newton jumped to his feet. “I’m fine. That was kind of . . . fun. Almost.”
“Let’s go back to the lab and get our notes down,” Shelly said.
Newton’s stomach growled. “Mind if I get some dinner? I’m really hungry.”
“No problem. I’m much too excited to eat,” Shelly said. “I’ll see you later!”
Shelly and Tootie walked off, congratulating themselves for their successful experiment as Newton hopped into the transport tube and was whisked off to the cafeteria.