by John Zakour
I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I broke down into tears. “I don’t want to lose you twice!” I sobbed.
The bright lights began to flicker and turn black. Grandpa's image looked tormented like he was fighting off some invisible force.
Between grunts and huffs and puffs, I could see Grandpa's image had tears on its face as well. With a gasp, it seemed like Grandpa stopped struggling.
“Maya! Thank you so much. A virus trapped me. I would have been doomed if you hadn’t persisted. You truly are my hero.” Grandpa said, full of emotion.
I beamed at him. “So good to have you back Grandpa J!”
“I would never ever willingly tell you to leave. I always want you around,” Grandpa said.
“And I would never want to harm you or our team!” Computer added. “I knew I wasn’t evil, just sick!”
It was these kinds of moments that made me wish I could hug them both.
“Good job!” Tammy told me.
“Good job to you, too!” I replied to her.
“Hey, what about me?” Polly squawked. “Don’t I get any credit for this?”
“Yes, Polly,” I laughed. “You’re getting some top-notch bird seed. Remember? And I’ll throw in some extra tasty crackers as well!”
I turned to Tammy. “Any idea who would put a virus into our system?”
She nodded. “I have some leads. Let me follow up on them!”
Chapter XIX
After everything had finally settled down, it was time for me to return to school with a clear mind. Well, not totally clear. We still needed to figure out who was behind the virus. But I would let Tammy handle that. For now, I was particularly excited because our robots would be battling each other for the first time. I was confident that Sebastian would be a winner.
I might have overestimated our robot, though. When we placed him into the battle arena, he looked tiny compared to the bot that the other team had created. Oh, for the record, the other team consisted of Hailey, Wendy, and Henry. They called themselves HWH!
Maya Message: I should have known better than to judge Sebastian's capability by comparing his size to the other guy. Isn't that exactly what the whole school did to me when I arm wrestled Dex? Plus, as Grandpa says, “It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog.”
The robo-battle began. The HWH robot had a big hammer on its front that it used to pound the ground. Its aim, of course, was to pound the opponent. HWH at first seemed proud they’d decided to replace the plow with a hammer. I saw Dex sweating a bit as he quickly moved the controls. The other bot was bigger than Seb, but it wasn’t as fast. For a moment or two, I worried that we were going to lose because Seb seemed to sit there helpless. HWH closed in on him, hammer up high, ready to smash it down. The second the hammer dropped, Dex pulled Seb back in reverse. The hammer hit nothing but ground.
“Now!” Tina yelled.
Dex pushed Seb forward and lowered his plow. POW! Seb hit HWH and sent him (well, it) tipping over onto its top. Its wheel spun, but it was helpless.
“We give up!” Henry said.
We won! And as a bonus, Seb didn’t even get damaged! The HWH bot was pretty beaten up, though. Dex and I hugged, and Tina almost body slammed me from excitement. She sure is fun.
The next fight was the final class fight. It was Seb against Chad and Zack’s bot. Their bot looked more like a streamlined gold sports car with a plow than a robot. Everything on it shone. It looked very expensive.
We put Seb in the ring. The bell rang for the right to begin.
“Hit him fast!” Tina shouted.
Dex pushed Seb forward, rushing at the golden bot. Chad and Zack were so impressed with their bot’s shine that they didn’t even have time to react. Dex lowered Seb’s plow, using it to flip the golden robot over. The fight ended almost before it had even started.
We won again! And this time, it meant we’d get to represent our class in the school competition. However, just because our bot had won, didn’t mean Sebastian was perfect.
Everyone in the class had ideas for how to improve him and his performance. It was fun to team up with everyone to make Sebastian even better. Ms. Hector said we could keep Sebastian as a class pet once he was finished competing. The school-wide competition was only two days away, and a city-wide contest would follow it. Everyone was hopeful we’d get that far.
Back in the lab, the search to discover the cause of the computer virus was underway. Tammy, K9, Computer, Grandpa, Crash, and even Polly were working diligently to find the source. They hoped that finding the weak spot which the virus had entered through, would also reveal the spies and all the information they’d gathered.
Grandpa always loved little windup toys, so he had a bunch of them on his desk. I’d never thought anything of it. Marko suddenly took more notice of them. “Why would Grandpa have toy soldiers? He hated wars!”
That was a great point.
Grandpa J nodded. “Yeah, my bad! I should have realized they were there.”
Moving over towards Grandpa’s old desk, Tammy put on a glove and picked up one of the toys. Putting a little microscopic glass on her eye, she examined the toy. “Wow! This thing has transmitters. Somebody has been watching us!”
“Smash it!” K9 shouted.
Tammy threw the toy at the floor, smashing it into millions of pieces.
“That was close!” Crash said.
All the other toy soldiers on the desk started growing. They took on lifelike qualities, rolled off the desk and started marching toward my friends and me. The lead soldier held up its rifle.
The soldiers grouped together. They cornered us, chanting, “We must stop Maya and her friends.”
Tina made her hands into fists. “I’ve got this.”
“No need!” Grandpa said. “I’ve got this!”
Grandpa channeled the bright light he originally used on us when he was infected, and with Computer’s help, he focused the light down into a laser. With the laser, Grandpa sawed the toy wooden soldiers carefully in half. They flopped down in front of us, rendered harmless.
“Now I’ve figured out where these things have come from!” Tammy exclaimed.
All the robot solider heads talked at once. “Begin self-destruct!”
They all began shaking and smoking.
“Grandpa, do you have another laser blast in you?” I asked.
“Yeah, I can do it again!” he said. “I’ll just need a long nap afterward!”
“Blast the head off of the lead toy!” I ordered.
Grandpa focused a thin green laser beam at the toy solider, slicing off its toy head.
Leaping forward, I grabbed the rolling head. Somersaulting away from the self-destructing toy soldiers, I shouted, "Computer, put up a force field between them and us."
“Who’s them?” Computer asked.
“The things that look like they’re about to explode!” I shouted.
“Right! I should have known that!” Computer replied.
I saw an energy field flicker between ourselves and the downed, shaking toy soldiers. The toys exploded in a burst of fire.
BOOM!
“Cool!” Polly said.
“Actually, it’s quite hot!” Computer replied.
I looked at the toy head I had just retrieved. “Grandpa, can you and Computer activate this?” I asked.
“Just give us until tomorrow!” Grandpa told me.
Excellent, tomorrow that head and I would talk! It would be a big day. First, a robot contest and then a robot talk.
Chapter XX
Finally, the time for Sebastian to shine had arrived. He dueled against the fifth graders first and ran right over their bot. They seemed upset, and even I had to admit that it seemed like an unfair pairing. Of course, it was kind of their fault for making their bot out of Lego.
Next, we had to compete against the sixth graders. They put up a good fight but lost because Sebastian smashed a hole in the side of th
eir bot’s belly. It seemed obvious that they shouldn’t have made their bot’s body out of Styrofoam, but I wasn’t gonna question it. Tina guessed that they did it to make their bot, which they called Foamy, faster. He did get crushed pretty fast.
Finally, we had to duel the eighth graders. Their bot was big and made totally of metal. They’d also shaped it like a dragon with wings. It looked cool.
Oh, and it could breathe fire through its mouth. That impressed us all.
Tina, Dex, and I talked strategy. The rest of the class (well, most of them), stood behind us, offering their advice too.
"It's big, but we can out-maneuver it," Dex said.
“That fire breath is a killer!” Chad said. “So watch out!”
“You guys got this!” Randy Ross said, pounding his fist into the table.
“Remember, dragons have a weak underbelly,” Henry Mann said.
“That’s only in books!” I told Henry.
“I know; I just think it’s a cool fact!” Henry replied.
The bell buzzed, signaling for the match to start. The dragon bot quickly moved into the middle of the arena (well, the area of the room the school was using for the fights.)
Tina whispered something to Dex. The dragon raised its head and breathed a puff of fire. “Now!” she shouted.
Dex pushed Seb forward. Seb shot directly under the bigger bot’s body. Once behind the dragon bot, Seb spun and kept ramming the back of the dragon with his plow. The dragon tried to turn, but Seb kept smashing into the dragon’s tail.
After a few good smacks, the dragon's tail fell off. The super-confident eighth graders’ faces dropped with the tail. They knew they were beaten. Seb just kept ramming away at their bot.
“We give up!” one of the eighth graders shouted.
Oh my goodness! We actually won!
Our class went wild!
We would get to represent the school in the city-wide competition!
Maya Message: Isn’t it amazing what hard work and team spirit can accomplish?
Once we’d all high-fived and hugged and cheered, Tina decided it was her cue to leave. I was a little uncomfortable being alone with Dexter, but I was too happy to worry about it.
"I'm so proud of us," Dexter said with a smile.
“I think we work really well as a team, Dex," I replied shyly.
“You’re absolutely correct, Maya. I’m really glad we’ve become closer. There’s so much about you that I don’t know, but I really want to get to know you better,” Dex said.
“Maybe we can bond over arm wrestling,” I replied with a wink. “For now though I have to get home. My, ah, family needs me!”
I hated to leave, but my lab’s safety had to come first.
Walking out of the school, I saw Debbie and Ivy standing by the door. Out of all the kids in our class and grade, I felt pretty certain they were the least happy with our win.
“You got lucky!” Debbie said.
“Yeah, the dragon ran out of steam!” Ivy said.
I shrugged. "Well, as the saying goes, I'd rather be lucky than good. And in my team's case, we are both."
I walked away with my head held high. You can’t let mean girls get to you.
Chapter XXI
When I arrived home, I raced down to the lab. Tammy and Marko stood next to Grandpa. Tammy had connected the toy head to some computer wires.
“Took you long enough to get here!” Marko said.
“How’s it going?” I asked Tammy, ignoring my little brother.
“Your grandpa has been directing me,” Tammy said. “I think we’re almost ready.”
“We are!” Grandpa said. “Right, Computer?”
“Correct!” Computer said.
“How do you want to do this?” Tammy asked me.
“I don’t want to hurt the head,” I said. “Unless I have to.”
Maya Message: It’s always best to be benevolent whenever you can. Benevolence means showing kindness, even when you don’t necessarily need to.
“Okay, Head, let’s talk!” I said.
“I am talking!” the head said. “Yak, yak, yak!”
“Who sent you?” I asked.
The toy soldier head locked its mouth shut and mumbled, “I don’t know.”
I frowned. “Then you are telling me that you’re just a dumb toy?”
“No, I am quite intelligent. I saw the laser beam that your grandpa’s image created, and I dodged it!” the head replied. “Therefore, I deduce that I am quite smart.”
“Nope, you’re not!” I said. “You’re a head without a body!”
Polly landed on my shoulder. “If you are trying to butter him up, you’re not doing a good job. In fact, you are doing a terrible job. You know, studies show that you can get more of what you want by being nice.”
“Wait, you’re hardly ever nice!” I told Polly.
“Do what I say, not what I do!” Polly said.
“I’ll be nice if he gives me something I want,” I said. “If he helps me, I’ll help him.”
The toy head turned its eyes toward me. “I’d like a body. Sitting here is very boring. I’m a soldier; I need action.”
“You’re a toy soldier,” I pointed out.
“Okay, I don’t want a lot of action, but I would like some action. I can work on security in your lab.”
K9 rolled over to us. “No! No!! No!!!” K9 pointed his head at me. “This head is a security risk. It’s bad enough I let him in here in the first place.”
“I can control him,” Grandpa said.
“I can work for you!” the head told K9.
K9 blinked a bit. “I’ve never had anybody work for me.” He blinked some more. “But I can deal with that!”
“Good,” I told K9. Turning my head to the head, I said. “If you talk, I will build you a body.”
Crash walked over. “And I will help!”
“And I will supervise!” Polly added.
“How do I know I can trust you?” the head asked.
“You have to!” I said. “That's the way trust works. You get that, right?”
“If I could nod, I would,” the head said.
“Good, then tell me who controls you,” I replied nicely.
The head smiled. “Nobody controls me now. And I like it this way!”
“Okay then, who did control you?” I asked.
“Lemon Computers,” the head replied.
“Hey! That's my cousin, Earl’s company!” Grandpa J said.
Oh, if that was true, this could be bad. So bad! I didn’t think the robot head could lie, but it certainly could have been wrong. We would have to look into this. Luckily, I knew my team and I would be up to the challenge!
To be continued!
The city-wide robot contest and the problems in the lab aren’t the only issues that our favorite geek girl, Maya, will have to face next. In Book 2, one of the mean girls takes a deeper interest in Dex. What does this mean for Maya? And when a new romance takes off, what will happen then?
Find out the answers to these questions in
Geek Girl - Book 2: A Little Romance.
Available Now!
Book 2
A Little Romance
Chapter I
Welcome back to my story…the story of my wondrous new lab that I still can’t believe is in the basement of my grandpa’s old house.
K9, my security robot dog, continues to insist that I should have kept the lab top-secret. But I had no choice. My little brother Marko was really upset about Grandpa Jack and needed cheering up. As for telling Tina, she’s been my BFF forever. I couldn’t keep something THIS BIG from her. That would be grounds for not being best friends any longer, and I couldn’t handle not having Tina as part of my life.
After all, Tina is the yin to my yang. Where I tend to think and think and think, and then act. Tina tends to act, then think. The general rule is to think first, but when you’re being attacked by an out of control robot drone or people-eating plants, you don�
��t have a lot of time to think. You have to think fast, process information, and react. That’s what Tina helps me to do. And once again we’d found ourselves in a situation that required Tina’s strategy.
Two floating boxing drones had somehow gone rogue. The purpose of the boxing drones was to help us stay physically and mentally sharp, which is what you need to be when you run a high-tech lab. They were meant to activate on command when Tina and I wanted some controlled action. The fact that they were suddenly poking us was not what they were meant to do.
One of the two drones proceeded to jab Tina in the back. It said, “Come on, girl, fight me!” It then started waving its arms like a chicken and going, “Or are you chicken? Cluck, cluck, cluck.” The other drone started laughing.
Tina looked at me. “Did you program them to do this?”
I shook my head. “No, I did not.” Looking up, I called to the computer that ran the place. “Computer, did you do this?” In the past, Computer had been known to take matters into its own chip and CPU and do things without telling me.
“Nope, no way, not me,” Computer said. “The chicken thing is not my style at all.”
“Grandpa Jack, are you around?” I called out.
Grandpa Jack’s holographic image appeared before me. It yawned. “I’m always around, honey. I just happened to be taking a nap.” Grandpa Jack noticed the drones with boxing gloves zig-zagging in and out. “Oh, now that’s different…” he said. He smiled. “I like it!”
Pointing at the taunting drones, I asked, “But you have nothing to do with this, right?”
Grandpa Jack nodded. “I do love the sweet science of boxing. I was quite the junior boxer in my day. I did lose all my fights, but I learned a lot from them.”
“What could you possibly learn from losing all your fights?” Tina asked.