by John Zakour
That was the plan. It would stop the angry plants, but it also meant me going back to the drawing board. That’s the thing with science; it often takes a whole lot of tries to get the results we want. The good thing is, we can learn from our mistakes. From this, I learned I’d made the Venus flytraps smart; just not smart enough or maybe too smart. I would work with Computer and Grandpa J to fix this!
Chapter XII
For the next few days, everything ran as smoothly and normally as possible when you have a crazy giant lab. I put the pollution-eating plants on the back burner and concentrated a bit more on other fun projects. I figured I could always save the world, but being a kid, I needed to have fun as well.
My team of Dexter, Tina and I worked on getting our robot ready; well, we started at least. We knew our first match would come sooner than we thought. Dexter and I butted heads on more than one or two or three occasions. If Tina were not on our team, I would have gone insane. Luckily she was, so she could talk me down from clobbering Dex.
Dexter stood up in front of us. “I hereby and henceforth nominate myself to lead this team!”
“Why you?” Tina asked. Tina didn’t fall for Dex’s charm like the rest of the girls.
“Well, I have a perfect school grade of 4.0,” Dex announced proudly.
Tina pointed to me. “So does, Maya.”
“I plan to lead the boys’ soccer team in goals,” Dex added.
“Maya plays on the girls’ team!” Tina countered.
“Yes, but will she lead in goals?” Dex asked. “Look, Maya, Tina, I like you two. You are nice girls. And Maya, you are really smart. But I am a leader!” Dex said.
Funny, I should have been angry with Dex for saying what he did. Not about me being nice, I was nice. But about him being a leader. After all, being male doesn’t make you a better leader. It just gives you a bigger head. Although, I liked the idea that Dex called me smart.
“Look, Dexter!” Tina said. “My main girl, Maya here, can lead just as well as you can.”
Debbie and Jackie snickered from across the room.
Henry spoke up, even though he had no right to make decisions for another team, “Maya, I like you. You’re cool and smart, but Dex is a leader. He leads the stamp club, the chess club, the young leaders’ club, and the soccer team.”
Dex nodded. “The team needs a strong leader.”
“Maya is strong!” Tina insisted.
“I am?” I asked.
“Yes, and you’re also modest!” Tina smiled. That smiled worried me. “You could crush him at arm wrestling!”
“I do not believe that is so,” Dex said. “I am much bigger than she is.”
“So, tomorrow after school, you two are going to have the arm wrestling match of the century!” Tina announced.
“Why tomorrow?” Dex asked.
“Yeah, why tomorrow?” Henry was also interested.
“You need time to prepare mentally!” Tina said.
Dex nodded in agreement. “Makes sense. Arm wrestling is as much about mental strength as it is arm strength.”
I gave Tina a look.
She leaned into me and whispered, “I’ll explain my plan later.”
Walking to my house after soccer practice, I told Tina, “You’re crazy!”
“Thanks!” she said.
“How do you expect me to beat Dex at arm wrestling?”
“Easy,” Tina grinned. “Marko and I have been working on a bionic arm.”
“Say what now?” I stared at her.
“Well, Marko, Computer, and I,” Tina replied. “Well, mostly Computer. But still, Marko and I have been coaching computer about the importance of power.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
Maya Message: I guess it couldn’t be too bad that my best friend and little bro were working with Computer on projects of their own. Yeah, I probably should have paid better attention.
When we reached the lab, Polly greeted us. “Do you kids ever go out to play?” Polly asked, landing on my shoulder. “I know this lab is, groovy and stuff, but geez Louise, go out and play some!”
“We’ve already been at soccer practice. And we did walk here!” I noted. “Also, nobody says groovy anymore!”
“Sure they do! I just said it!” Polly crowed.
“Soccer practice was full on today. Plus, it’s a long walk to get back here!” Tina added. “But it was fun. It’s our ‘me’ time.”
“Shouldn’t it be your ‘our’ time?” Computer corrected.
“See, that’s why you’re a computer, and I’m not,” Tina said.
“Where’s Grandpa?” I asked Computer.
“He’s taking a nap,” Computer answered.
“Man, that simulation is truly accurate,” I gushed.
Tina, Computer, and I worked on the arm strength enhancer. Marko helped too, I guess, by giving us encouragement and words like…
“Make it green, no make it skin color. No, make it invisible. Will this make you stronger than the hulk? No, of course not. The HULK is crazy strong! Can I use it later? I’m hungry! Anybody else hungry? K9, bring me something to eat!”
“Kid, I’m a security robot dog, not a servant!” K9 told him.
“Polly, bring me something to eat!” Marko ordered.
Polly laughed at him. “Kid, I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
When Marko finally quietened down, we did some more tweaking and came up with something that looked like a skinny brown elbow pad connected to an almost invisible wristband. A few circuits crisscrossed from the elbow pad to the wristband. It didn't look like much, which I liked.
I slipped the elbow pad and wristband onto my arm. I put my elbow down on a lab bench. "Okay, let's test this out!" I said, wiggling my fingers as a challenge to Tina.
Tina wrapped her fingers around mine.
Polly landed on top of our hands. “Alrighty, now, when I fly off, you begin!”
Polly flew up. Tina's face turned red. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Her face turned even redder. She huffed and puffed. But I couldn't feel any pressure at all.
“Are you trying?” I asked.
Tina pointed to the stain under her right armpit. “That wasn’t there a minute ago. So, yeah!”
“Wow, I hardly feel anything!” I told Tina.
“Okay, now push my hand down,” Tina said. “See if you can do it!”
I pinned Tina’s arm without any effort at all.
“Ouch, ouch!” Tina said. “Loosen your grip!”
Opening my hand, I told her, “Oops, sorry, don’t know my own strength!”
Tina started flexing her hand back and forth. Her hand was pale white. She shook her hand. The color finally started to come back. “I think it’s safe to say that it works!”
“I would prefer further testing,” Computer said, speaking up.
“But you’re a computer,” I said.
"Exactly!" Computer replied. "That's why I know what's best and coolest."
“Do you?” I asked.
I saw Crash walking towards us. He wore shorts and two boxing gloves.
Tina smiled. “I like the look, Crash!”
“Thanks!” Crash said, tapping his gloves together.
Staying seated, I asked. “Ah, what’s the logic behind this?”
“It’s fun!” Tina said.
“I can’t wait to see it!” Marko announced, strutting towards us. “I gave Computer the idea.”
“Of course you did.” I rolled my eyes.
“It’s actually quite logical,” Computer said. “We know the arm strength enhancer, or the ASE, makes your arm stronger, but we want to learn if you can use that strength to help defend yourself!”
Maya Message: Computers and computer lovers make acronyms like ASE or DOS or RAM or ROM or IBM or PC or… well, you get the idea.
“I like this,” Tina said again.
“I love this!” Marko smirked. “We just need popcorn. Or peanuts? Candy?”
Polly landed o
n his shoulder. “Look, kid, I’m not bringing you food!”
"I am looking forward to the challenge!" Crash said.
“I don’t know what to make of this!” I sighed.
Tina motioned to me. “You’d better get up.”
I reluctantly stood. “I still don’t get this.”
“It is only logical to see if you can adapt this strength to other situations,” Computer told me. “You will box with Crash!”
I sighed again. I readied myself. I stepped away from the table. Computer had placed a little hologram boxing ring near us. I slid into the ring. I waved to Crash. “Come on!” I coaxed.
Crash walked through the holographic ropes and put up his arms as a guard.
“I will ring the bell!” Computer announced. “And then you start!”
“Okay!” I figured maybe this would be fun. I certainly would learn something from this. I like learning things.
Luckily for me, I had been working out a bit with the fighting simulation I’d made for Tina. I knew I had to keep my guard up and not stay still. I understood that moving targets were a lot harder to hit. I figured Crash had a reach and size advantage over me. But I also figured that I was a much smaller, harder to hit target if I did this right.
Maya Fact: There is a reason why boxing is often referred to as the sweet science. Rather than using sheer brute force, a successful fighter thinks and plans. Timing is essential.
“DING!” Computer said.
Keeping my feet moving, I circled Crash. I had known Crash for a little while now. I understood speed was not his strong point. He could take a beating and keep on going.
Grandpa J’s hologram appeared outside of the ring. He held a bag of holographic popcorn. “Go get him, honey!” he shouted.
“Thanks!” Crash and I both said at the same time.
Looking at Crash, I said, “He was talking to me!”
Crash kept his guard up. “You don’t know that for sure!”
I stepped forward to throw a right jab. Crash hit me with a quick punch to the nose. My head shot back. “Ouch!” I said. My ears started to ring. I felt a bit of blood trickle down from my nose.
“That was a friendly tap!” Crash told me.
“Keep your guard up!” Tina shouted.
“What she said!” Grandpa yelled.
“Go, Crash! Nice shot, buddy!” Polly shouted.
I turned and scoffed at Polly. He shrugged. “Hey, I’ve known him longer, and nobody ever roots for the crash dummy!”
“Point taken!” I said.
Crash darted forward.
He hit me on the jaw.
I fell to the floor. Now my jaw, nose, and back all screamed at me.
“Pay attention to your opponent, not the dumb bird!” Tina shouted.
“Yeah,” Grandpa J said. “But Polly isn’t dumb!”
“Thanks, Doc!" Polly said. He turned towards the ring. “But yeah, pay attention to the robot trying to clobber you. It’s the first rule of lab fight club!”
Crash stood over me. “Do you wish to stay down?” he asked.
Glancing up at him, I saw three of him. I blinked a couple of times until I saw just one. “No!” I said. “I have not yet begun to fight.”
“That seems clear!” Crash said. He wasn’t taunting; he spoke the
truth. “I will allow you to get to your feet.”
“Thanks!” I said, even though I didn’t really mean it.
Turning to my side, I pushed myself up. I spit out a bit of blood.
Crash pointed to the blood. “I am sorry about that.”
“Gross!” Polly said. “But I like it!”
Tina looked at him. “You’re a very strange bird!”
Polly nodded. “I’m exotic!”
I took my fighting stance. I moved towards Crash, my fists ready to fly. He kept his guard up. I weaved and bobbed. I thought I noticed him drop his left arm. I shot forward, aiming for his jaw with a right jab. My punch hit him! His head shot back. He went staggering backward a couple of steps. I stood there, amazed. “Oh my gosh!!!” I said the words in awe. That punch had packed some mean power. Man, I could hit. I looked at my fist in wonder.
Turning to Tina, I shouted. “Tina, did you see that?”
Tina shook her head. She didn’t look pleased.
"What's wrong?" I yelled at her.
Tina pointed in front of me. “Never take your eyes off your opponent.”
Polly groaned. “Yeah, the second rule of lab fight club is to always pay attention to the first rule!”
I turned to see a fist coming at my nose. My super strong hand shot up. I blocked the punch with my right. I felt good. Crash went for my nose again with the same hand. I thought that was silly. Turned out it was a fake. Crash jabbed at me with his right. I blocked with my left, my normal non-enhanced arm. I deflected the punch, but not enough. His hand hit me square in the jaw.
I dropped to the floor. “Wow, those stars are pretty!” I said.
I heard Computer begin counting backward: ten, nine, eight…
Part of me said, get up! Another part of me, said, stay down. It didn’t matter what my brain wanted; my body had lost all the fight. I stayed down. I took a little nap.
Maya Message: By ‘nap,’ I mean I passed out.
When I came to, I found Polly, Tina, and Grandpa J all looking down at me. Marko was nearby as well, but he was building a robotic arm out of chips and Lego.
“Where’s Crash?” I asked.
“He felt bad about knocking you out so easily,” Polly said. “He shut himself down for a few hours to reboot and meditate.
I told him he shouldn’t feel bad. He was teaching you a lesson, and you like to learn.”
“I do like to learn,” I said.
“And what did you learn?” Tina asked.
"Just because you're strong, doesn't mean you can fight. Just because you've done a few simulations, doesn't mean you can fight. Don't take your eyes off of your opponent. Getting punched in the nose can hurt. You need a pre-plan before you fight. But you need to be able to adapt that plan once you get smacked. I could go on.”
“Those were all good takeaways from the fight,” Grandpa J said. “But you also learned that you could take a punch and get up and walk away from it.”
“Eventually,” Polly added.
“Plus, just because I didn't win the fight, doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from that fight!” I replied.
Chapter XIII
I felt a little sorry for Dexter at school the next day. After all, I kind of liked the guy. I did like the guy. But I also wanted to lead the team. His arrogance needed to be checked at the door. I knew what I was doing was kind of like cheating, but ultimately the team would end up with a capable leader, and maybe Dex would learn a lesson about doubting women’s strength.
Of course, I also learned from my little match with Crash, to be ready for the unexpected. Sure, I had the enhancer, but who knows, maybe it could break down. Or maybe Dex had a trick up his sleeve, and his suspenders.
All day, I could tell people were talking about the arm wrestling match. I heard whispers in the halls, and everyone looked at me like I was a wounded animal. I hated being pitied. This only fueled my fire and would make it even better when I won. It made me sad that it wasn't just Dex who doubted me, but the whole school. I then fought off that sadness by thinking positive thoughts…we would all be better after this encounter.
Maya Message: Remember, you can control your feelings; your feelings shouldn’t control you. Take a breath and decide to feel positive. It really works.
At last, there we were. I sat across from Dexter at the lunch table; we eyeballed each other competitively. Everyone in the lunchroom was gathered around to see who would win. The suspense was thick in the air. Actually, the only real suspense in the air was over how fast Dex would beat me.
Henry said, “I give her three seconds at most!”
Ivy said. “Please! There is no way she’ll last that long!”
A lot of the mean girls laughed.
I felt confident that I would win, but I didn’t want anyone to catch on to my little helper, so I kept my ego in check. To help do that, I replayed the scene when I was defeated by Crash in my mind.
Dexter, however, was overly confident about his skills. He was making quite a show of it, flexing his muscles and basking in the attention. I was SO ready to show him and the school who was boss! He was about to find out that just because someone is physically smaller, doesn't necessarily mean that they are weaker or less capable. Still, I had to be careful. Not only did I not want to get cocky, but I had to be ready for any tricks he might try.
Tina refereed our match. "Alright!" Tina yelled. She then let out an almighty wolf whistle.
The whole lunchroom went dead silent. Leave it to Tina to command a whole room with a word and a whistle.
“Listen up!” she shouted “The rules are simple. Keep your elbows on the table and your other hand behind your back. If I see anyone cheating, the other person automatically wins. When I say ‘go,’ you can begin. Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Dex and I said in unison.
“On your marks, get ready… GO!” Tina said, paying close attention to us both.
I tried to go easy on Dex at first because I didn't want to raise suspicion. But he was stronger than I thought he'd be. The part of me that liked Dex was impressed by his strength. But the part of me that wanted to prove everyone wrong was even stronger. I put a little more effort in. I could see him getting a little sweaty. I remained cool and calm, which I’m sure managed to put him off his game some. I smiled at him.
After struggling back and forth for what felt like forever, I decided just to end it. It was getting embarrassing for Dexter, and I did like the guy a little. I didn’t want him to hate me. I made sure to make eye contact with every one of the mean girls, plus everyone I’d heard openly doubting me. I exerted a tad more force downward. I pinned his arm to the table in one swift motion.
The crowd that had formed around the table went wild. I felt awesome, but I could tell Dex was embarrassed and ashamed. Once everyone quietened down, I made sure to loudly tell Dex how much of a challenge it had been, and how I was sure nobody else in the school would have lasted as long as he did. To be fair, I didn't think anyone wanted to try. That perked him up a little. We both climbed on top of the cafeteria table (which was totally against the rules, but whatever), and Dex raised my hand in a victory stance. Checking out my underarms, I saw that I didn’t have even the slightest hint of a sweat stain.