Geek Girl - Books 1, 2 and 3

by John Zakour

I thought about what they’d said. I didn’t totally agree. But I knew it was nearly impossible to argue with one normal grandpa. I figured it had to be totally impossible to argue with two different holographic versions of Grandpa. I knew to pick my battles. This was one I couldn’t win.

  I held out my hand. “Nice to meet you, AL!” I said.

  He fist bumped me. “Likewise, even though I have known you forever.”

  Maya Message: Never argue with a hologram…you can't win, and they don't tire out or wear down. Though I had to admit, the holographic grandpas were kind of right. They were different, at least a little different. I guess we all change and mature with time. If current me met five-year-old me, we would certainly treat each other like different people. Hmmm, that might be a fun mental exercise.

  Feel free to try that yourself! Have a conversation in your mind with a younger version of you!

  Chapter VI

  While I was having the time of my life, Marko pretty much moped around the house. He didn’t cry or complain, but you didn’t have to be a genius to tell he felt sad.

  I tried helping him to build something new with his Lego, but even that didn’t really seem to help much. As we sat at the Lego table (made from Lego) in his room, I told him, "You know, Grandpa Jack would want you to be happy."

  Marko nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You don’t look happy to me,” I commented.

  “Yeah,” Marko agreed. “I miss him. A LOT. This place just makes me miss him even more. I don’t know why we have to live here.” He took a deep breath and then shouted, “I HATE IT HERE! I HATE IT HERE!! I HATE IT HERE!!!”

  Yeah, Marko wasn’t one to beat around the bush or hold back his feelings.

  “But it is a pretty cool house. Gramps wanted us to have it.” I tried to sound as upbeat as possible. I actually felt upbeat cause I knew the truth. But poor Marko didn’t.

  “It's not right. Not without Grampa Jack!” He stomped his foot on the floor. “Not right! Not right!! Not right!!!! At all!” He stopped only to breathe. “I'm never, ever, ever, never going to be happy here!” he groaned loudly.

  I took him by the hand. “Come with me!” I said.

  “Where are we going?” he asked as I dragged him out of his room.

  Pulling him into my room, I said, “Here.” Closing the bedroom door behind me, I pointed to my closet and said, “Follow me into the closet.”

  “But it’s filled with girls’ stuff and your smelly shoes!” Marko protested.

  “My shoes do not smell!” I said, pushing him into the closest.

  I positioned us both in the middle of the closet.

  “My nose disagrees,” Marko said.

  I stomped on the floor seven times.

  “Are you crazy?” Marko asked. “Have you lost your mind from sniffing your stinky shoes?”

  “My shoes don’t smell!”

  The floor started to sink.

  “What the?” Marko said.

  Yeah, I knew there was a risk doing this with Marko. But I needed to do something to raise his spirits. Hopefully, he would keep the secret. Even if he didn’t, the truth was far too outrageous for anybody to believe.

  We dropped down into my lab.

  “What the?” Marko repeated, this time with his mouth remaining wide open.

  “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” K9 shouted, rushing over to us.

  A net flew out of K9’s nose, entrapping Marko. Marko laughed. “That is so cool.”

  “Not the result I expected!” K9 remarked.

  “K9, this is my brother, Marko,” I said.

  K9 spun around in circles. "One week! You couldn't go one week without exposing your top-secret lab to the outside world!"

  Pointing at Marko and pulling the net off of him, I said, “Marko is hardly the outside world. He doesn’t even have a phone yet.”

  “This is great!” Marko said. “But what does this have to do with Grandpa?”

  “Because it was my lab and now I want Maya to have it!” Grandpa announced.

  “Grandpa!” Marko said, his eyes popping open and his feet nearly jumping out of his shoes. He shot forward, throwing himself at Grandpa. He passed through Grandpa’s image, landing on the floor. “What? What the?”

  Grandpa explained. “Marko, lad, I’m just a computer image these days.”

  Marko looked up. “That means I can’t hug you?”

  Grandpa nodded. “Correct. But we can still talk and chat and play games together like we used to do.”

  “Can we go fishing?” Marko asked.

  “I can’t leave this room,” Grandpa told him.

  “But I can set up a fishing simulation,” I told them both.

  “I’ll take it!” Marko shouted.

  Kneeling down to Marko’s level, I said, “Now Marko, we need to keep this secret lab between us. Just our secret...yours, mine and Grandpa’s.”

  “Yes, that’s worked out really well so far!” K9 grumbled.

  "The boy was heartbroken!" I scolded. "I had to do this! He’d lost his grandpa and his home."

  “I totally understand,” Grandpa said.

  “I can keep a secret. You know I can. Like the way I never told you that I look at your messages!” Marko said. He shot his hand over his mouth. Oops!”

  “Say what?” I said.

  “Good thing I can’t read, yet,” Marko told me.

  “Yes, and I’m also putting a lock on my messages!” I replied.

  Maya message: Make sure to put a lock on my messages. And Marko, if you’re reading this, I am so going to hurt you!

  Chapter VII

  The moment I walked into Silver Valley Middle School, my best friend, Tina Quick, came running over to me. Tina was tall with short brown hair and a fair complexion. She was a bundle of energy and looked the exact opposite of me. We’d been BBFs since we first met in third grade in the sandbox. Ivy Jones tried to knock over this amazing three story sandcastle I had built. Tina tackled her to the ground. It was friendship at first sight or well, tackle.

  Tina hugged me, lifting me off the ground. “Girl, I so missed you while I was on vacation. I mean, summer in Alaska was fun, but it’s not the same as hanging out with my girl! The animals in Alaska are so big! Some don’t smell great. The northern lights are cool, like nature’s light show at night. Very nice shades of green in the sky. How have you been doing? I’m so sorry about your Grandpa Jack. He was a cool, good guy and super smart. When do I get to see the new home?”

  Tina could talk way fast; changing thoughts like most people change channels.

  Maya Fact: The northern light or the Aurora Borealis or the polar light or the northern lights is a beautiful natural light show in the sky! The entire explanation as to why these light shows occur is pretty complicated for such a cool thing. Let’s just say they are caused by solar wind (yes the sun has winds) bouncing off the Earth's upper atmosphere because of the earth’s cool magnetic field. The winds lose energy, creating a light show. That’s a really simplified description.

  “I missed you too!” I told Tina. Pointing to the ground, I said. “Ah, can you put me down?”

  Tina eased me to the ground. “Sorry, it’s just so great to see you! When do I get to see the cool new house?”

  We started walking towards our classroom.

  “Actually, it’s a cool old house,” I corrected. “How about after school today? We have some lost time to catch up on!”

  “I'll text my parents to make sure it's okay, but I'm betting it's going to be fine!” Tina said. “For some reason, my parents never mind seeing less of me!”

  Arriving at the door of our classroom, I heard a cough behind me. Turning, I saw Dexter Rose. Dex was kind of both the boy I had a little crush on (a very little one) and also my biggest rival in school. You would think a boy named Dexter would be sort of uncoordinated and talk like a geek. Not really sure why I thought that. It’s not that the name makes the person. But it’s what I think when I hear the name Dexter. Only this Dexter
is tall, with muscles, and not bad to look at.

  Offering me his hand, he said. “Maya, I look forward to another spirited year of challenges from you.”

  Okay, he did talk a bit like a geek, but it added to his charm.

  Maya Message: Dex and I shared a mostly friendly rivalry. It reminded me a bit of Tesla and Edison. We brought out the best, and maybe the worst, in each other. Plus, we kind of liked each other, I think. It’s hard to judge with this kind of thing. At our age, sometimes insults hide deeper emotions, at least with some kids. I think. I might be smart with some things, but when it comes to the heart, I’m mostly a moron.

  Okay, in googling it, we were like Tesla and Edison but without the intense rivalry. Those guys were intense!!

  “Oh, hi, Dex,” I said with a little giggle, even though I had no idea why I giggled. I said nothing else. Tina gave me a friendly shove. I talked again. “I’m looking forward to school too!” I said.

  “Smooth,” Tina whispered to me.

  Before Dex could say anything else, Debbie Parker, Jackie Bates, and Ivy Jones walked over to us. “Hi, Dex,” the three girls said with a wink in their words.

  “Oh, hello, ladies,” Dex replied. “I hope you had a pleasurable summer filled with exciting escapades and gratification.”

  Maya Message: If I’d used those words, those three girls would have eaten me alive. But Dex, being tall and handsome, was able to get away with being a geek. When you look like Dex, they call it, ‘having a unique personality.' BTW I'm pretty sure Debbie, Jackie, and Ivy have no idea what the words, escapades, and gratification mean.

  Another message: Mean girls love to travel in groups.

  “Hi, Girls!” Tina said. “I’m psyched for soccer this year!”

  “We are too,” Debbie nodded in agreement.

  Ivy finally noticed I was there. “I hope you ‘re going to play as well, Maya. After all, somebody has to sit on the bench and keep it warm for the rest of our butts.”

  “Plus, it’s a step up from when you were towel manager,” Debbie offered, trying to be nice, I think. “If you keep improving, someday you might touch the ball in a game.”

  Maya Message: Being towel manager let me be part of the team. But yuck! It's amazing how bad some girls can smell.

  “She did touch the ball once,” Jackie Bates said. “During the game versus Tinker Town, when their forward kicked the ball that accidentally hit Maya in the head, she got a headache. And we got a penalty.”

  The three girls laughed and headed into our classroom. Tina, Dexter and I followed.

  “Don’t mind them,” Tina told me.

  “Oh, I don't. I'm glad they find my input entertaining!” I said.

  “Come in, guys. Settle in,” our teacher, Ms. Hector, said from the front of the room. “I’m super excited about this year, as I hope you are also!”

  Henry Mann raised his hand. Henry could be a bit of a teacher’s pet. At least that’s what he wanted to be. “Ms. Hector, first off you look lovely this year. Second off, I am most eager to take part in this school year.”

  Randy Ross laughed and mumbled and coughed. “Geek.”

  Randy happened to be about twice the size of any kid in our class. He tried to be gruff and pretend he wasn’t that smart, but he actually was quite smart.

  “And proud of it!” Henry replied to Randy.

  Chad Silver strode into class at the last minute, which is what he loved to do. Chad’s family was way rich and owned a lot of the town. Chad liked people to think he was in charge. He wasn’t, but since his parents did donate a lot of money to the school, some of the teachers did go easy on him. I don’t think that’s fair, but I’m smart enough to know life isn’t always fair.

  “Sorry I’m late, but my driver did NOT listen to my instructions!” Chad balked.

  I hated to admit this, but as annoying as Chad was, he certainly belonged in this advanced class because he was pretty darn smart. He was no me or Dexter, but he was still right up there.

  “That’s fine,” Ms. Hector told him. “Just take your seat next to Randy.”

  Rounding out our class, were the twins, Hailey and Wendy Combs. They were pretty nice girls and seemed to get along with everybody except each other. They were both quite artsy. I liked that. All in all, not a bad group of kids. And Ms. Hector was cool.

  “Class, I’m extra excited for this year because I’ve convinced the principal, Mr. Snell, to let us build a robot for the battle of robots.”

  “Our town always loses to Tinker Town Middle School!” Henry called out with a sigh.

  “That’s because this class has never built a robot before!” Ms. Hector said.

  “Oh wow,” I whispered the words in my head. With my amazing lab, we could so win this. But then I realized that would be cheating, plus I'd have to somehow come up with an explanation about why my robot was so much better than the rest. Guess I would have to work with what the school gave me.

  “Of course, in order to make it into the competition, our class will have to beat another robot from this school! I’m sure the eighth graders will be tough to beat!”

  “Don’t worry, class,” Chad said. “With my dad backing us, and our brains, we’ve got this.”

  Debbie leaned into me. “Say, what do you know, Maya? You might actually be useful for once.”

  “Do ya think?” Jackie asked.

  “Hey, anything is possible!” Ivy said. “And for what Maya lacks in looks, she somewhat makes up for it with her brain.”

  Ms. Hector spoke up. “One thing I decided to do, to make this a bit more fun at first, is for our class to have an internal competition. We’ll break up into teams, and each team will make their own robot. May the best robot win!”

  Ivy looked at me. “In that case, you won’t be useful to me yet.”

  “We could team with her?” Jackie suggested.

  Ivy shook her head. “Nah, I’d rather lose at first than have to spend time with Maya.”

  “Good point,” Jackie said.

  Chapter VIII

  I was determined not to let the mean girls get to me. I had faith in me, and I liked me. That was what was important. Plus, I always had Tina. Though I now had to brainstorm ideas. I made a mental note to talk to Tina about it at lunchtime.

  The morning was dragging on. And I had so many partial ideas running through my head. Some of my ideas concerned the contest; some were about the wonderful lab I had waiting at home, one or two were about Dex. I briefly considered making a mute ray to use on mean girls; I fought that thought back. I finally started to understand why Grandpa could be so nutty sometimes. I accidentally called one of my classmates ‘Crash’ while daydreaming about the projects in the labs.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lunch bell rang. Everyone rushed to the cafeteria, but I was more interested in finding Tina than eating the gross school food. Everybody else went bonkers for the mac and cheese that the school cafeteria served. But to me, it didn’t taste good at all and gave me an upset stomach.

  Maya Message: I must remember to ask Grandpa if he’s made any advancements in the field of digestion. Maybe if there were a supplement I could take, I wouldn’t have to pack my lunch every morning. That gets super annoying! I know that Ivy is lactose intolerant, which is perfectly normal. Maybe I am too, but I don’t like the idea of having anything in common with a meanie.

  I saw Tina in the corner of my eye standing by her locker, fumbling with her backpack. I made a beeline over to her to see what she was doing.

  “Whatcha lookin’ at?” I asked.

  Tina giggled. “I have a surprise for you. I think you’ll find it very interesting!”

  “What is it?” I asked, secretly hoping it had something to do with the robot we were going to have to build.

  “Okay, close your eyes and hold out your hands!” Tina ordered.

  I did as I was told. I felt something really heavy land in my hands. It felt like a cereal box, or something similar. When I opened m
y eyes, I discovered it was a leather-bound book. It looked way old.

  "Uhhh… Tina? Why did you just hand me the oldest book I've ever seen? What's even in this? Spells?" I half-joked.

  “Well, in a way!” Tina said, not giving away much. “It’s blueprints for a bunch of robots, from simple to complex, plus assembly instructions and a list of necessary materials!”

  “Oh, um, wow! You're right; this is like magic.” I squealed. This really was awesome! “Where'd you get this?!” I asked, incredulously.

  “The public library was selling some books on the weekend, and this one caught my eye,” Tina told me. “Weren’t you just going talk to me about robots?”

  “You know me so well! You even know what I think before I say it.” I said, ultimately very grateful for that fact.

  We sat down and unpacked our lunch bags. I had brought a PB&J on whole wheat bread, an apple, and some raisins. Tina brought a Go-Gurt and a container of gummy worms. I have no idea how she stays in shape when she eats so unhealthily. Genetics I guess.

  Maya Message: Gummy worms are okay to eat in small amounts. Moderation is key! Though Grandpa would say, “Some real worms would be more nutritious than those things!”

  “Okay, so my idea was that maybe if we team up with Dex, our combined brains and resources might lead to us having the best robot of them all,” I said hesitantly, unsure of the quality of my idea.

  “Well,” Tina said slowly like she was thinking about it really hard. "Dex could be very useful. And that could give you some one on one time together with me as your ‘wingman,’ or, maybe it's ‘wing woman'? I don't even know!" Tina teased, laughing.

  “Oh my gosh, keep your voice down!” I said, turning beet red.

  Almost as if on cue, Dex came and sat down at our table.

  “Hi, Dex!” I said a little too loudly. Hey, give me a break. I was nervous.