Carlyle and his team never showed up to the science lab, but I snuck a peek at their section of the room. It had been completely cleaned out as if they were never there.
Their robot was probably gonna blow ours away. I knew it, especially after Carlyle destroyed ours. But staying in the competition wasn’t about winning anymore. It was about showing Carlyle that we weren’t going to sit back and let him do whatever he wanted.
But as Dante and I carried Hup-Hup down the hall, I had a glimmer of hope in the back of my mind that maybe we had a chance at winning.
I sent a text to my friends before going to the library, letting them know that I had a surprise and that I hoped they showed up.
Principal Davis held the library door open so Dante and I could carry our robot through.
The crowd of kids parted as we walked through. The library was just as packed as it had been on Monday. Dr Tenderfoot wasn’t anywhere I could see.
When we got to our spot in front of the staircase at the centre of the room, I thought we’d have a table to set Hup-Hup down on, but we didn’t. Instead, the middle of the room was taped off and empty. It looked like a boxing ring.
Carlyle’s team was in one corner, huddled around their robot, which was also covered with a sheet. Carlyle was in the middle of the huddle, but Olive wasn’t with him.
Wyatt was waiting in the opposite corner all by himself. Zoe and the rest of the team weren’t there. Without them, things felt foggy, like I was watching my life from behind a dirty window.
‘About time,’ Wyatt said. ‘What took you so long?’
‘What took us so long was that there were only two of us carrying this beast,’ I said. ‘We woulda been here sooner if you helped.’
‘You coulda just asked,’ Wyatt said.
‘I did!’ I said.
Wyatt pushed his hands into his front pockets. ‘Didn’t hear ya.’
‘Right,’ I said.
Dante and I carefully set Hup-Hup on the floor and pushed it gently into the ring.
I looked over my shoulder, and checked my phone for texts. Nothing.
‘Have you seen the others yet?’ I asked Wyatt.
He shook his head. ‘Nope,’ he said. ‘But I sent them a text about how they didn’t need to show up.’
‘You did what?’ I said. ‘Dude, what’s the matter with you?!’
‘What?’ Wyatt said. ‘They don’t need to be here! They didn’t help fix our robot, did they? It was just you and me!’
‘And me,’ Dante said.
Wyatt ignored him. ‘Why should they stand with us when we were the ones who did all the work?’
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Was Wyatt actually delusional?
‘We didn’t do all the work,’ I said. ‘We all worked on it, and then because of you, it was destroyed!’
‘And then you and I fixed it,’ Wyatt said, nodding like we were on the same page.
‘And me,’ Dante added.
Again, Wyatt ignored him. ‘Dude, what’s the big deal? That means this bombastic prize will be just for us. What d’you think it’ll be? A million bucks? How sweet would that be?’
‘I don’t want that!’ I said.
Wyatt looked at me like I was crazy. ‘You … don’t want a million bucks?’
‘No, of course I want a million bucks,’ I said. ‘But I don’t want to shut out the rest of the team!’
‘Chase, listen,’ Wyatt said. ‘You’re not thinking of the bigger picture. Think of yourself for once, dude. Your chums will be mad, but they’ll get over it.’
‘Not the point,’ Zoe said from behind us.
Team Cooper was with her – Brayden, Faith, Gidget, Slug and Naomi. And they looked angry.
‘Cripes,’ Wyatt said. ‘I told you guys you didn’t need to be here!’
Zoe laughed loudly. ‘Where do you think we were gonna go?’ she asked. ‘This is a school-wide event! And I’m the president who planned it!’
‘Did you think we’d just stay home or something?’ Faith asked, pushing past Wyatt. She lifted a corner of the sheet covering our robot. ‘Is this Hup-Hup? Did you really fix him?’
‘Uh, yeah,’ Wyatt said. ‘Chase and I fixed him.’
‘With my help,’ Dante added sheepishly.
Wyatt tried to ignore him again by talking, but I shut him down right away.
‘Oh, Dante’s on our team now,’ I said. ‘He was the one who helped us fix it. Without him, Hup-Hup would still be dead.’
I expected them to kick up a fuss, but they didn’t.
‘Cool,’ Slug said, putting his hand on Dante’s shoulder. ‘But if you’re on our team, you’re gonna have to work on your anger management, okay?’
Dante laughed.
‘Nobody cares that Dante’s on the team now?’ Wyatt asked, clearly annoyed.
Everyone shook their heads. Brayden sprayed a shot of cologne on his chest.
‘What?’ he said as everyone stared at him. ‘In case we win! I wanna smell good for the ladies!’
The lights in the library switched off and then back on again, letting everyone know the competition was going to start in a minute.
‘Have you seen Dr Tenderfoot yet?’ Zoe asked, looking over everyone’s head.
‘No,’ I said. ‘He’s supposed to be here, right?’
‘I think he was here before school,’ Zoe said. ‘But I never got a chance to see him.’
‘Maybe his helicopter hasn’t dropped him off in the parking lot yet,’ Brayden said.
‘He came by helicopter?’ Naomi said. ‘Man, how cool is that?’
‘Super cool,’ Dr Tenderfoot said, walking past us towards the staircase. ‘But definitely too cool for this guy. I drove.’
Dr Tenderfoot was wearing his top hat, tuxedo jacket, jeans and sneakers. A small chain dangled from the monocle on his right eye.
Tenderfoot took a few steps up the staircase and grabbed the microphone.
‘Welcome, welcome, children of Buchanan School! It’s been entirely too long since we last met, and I hope life has been good to you in the meantime.’
A couple of kids clapped, but stopped when they realised nobody else was.
‘As you know, we have three teams that will be participating in the competition,’ Tenderfoot continued. He pulled his sleeve up and glanced at his watch. ‘Which we really must begin as quickly as possible because I’ve got a load of meetings today.’
‘See?’ Zoe said. ‘He’s a busy dude.’
‘Remember,’ Dr Tenderfoot said. ‘The winner today will receive a prize bigger than they can even imagine.’
‘A million bucks split nine ways is still a ton of money,’ Wyatt said, hopeful.
‘Who said it was a million bucks?’ Gidget said, perking up. ‘Is that really what’s on the table?’
‘No,’ Zoe said. ‘Nobody knows what the prize is. Wyatt’s just hoping, that’s all.’
‘First up,’ Dr Tenderfoot continued loudly, pointing one finger in the air. ‘Dante Sullivan and his team, if you could please make your way to the ring.’
Dante stepped forward with his hands stuffed into his pockets. ‘I’m sorry,’ Dante said, embarrassed. ‘But I don’t—’
I jumped forward, waving at Dr Tenderfoot. ‘He’s on our team now!’ I said, cutting Dante off. ‘We thought we could do more if we teamed up!’
Dr Tenderfoot’s eyes squinted at me like he was studying some kind of bug. He took his monocle in his fingers and adjusted it. And then he pinched his moustache and rolled the end into a point.
‘Interesting,’ Tenderfoot said. ‘So rather than three teams competing today, we’ll only have two?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I said.
Dr Tenderfoot said nothing. He just stared at the centre of the ring while twisting the end of his moustache. The microphone was picking up the breaths he took through his nostrils.
‘What’s he doing?’ I asked.
‘Thinking?’ Zoe said. ‘I don’t know.’
Final
ly, the man with the moustache jolted back to reality. ‘Very well! The competition will be between two teams. I believe it makes things a little more interesting. We’ll have a clear winner and a clear loser. The stakes are high, are they not?’
All he got was confused murmuring from the crowd.
‘Our first robot will come from Chance Cooper’s team,’ Dr Tenderfoot said.
‘Uh,’ I said, raising my hand. ‘It’s Chase. Chase Cooper.’
‘Of course,’ Dr Tenderfoot said, nodding once at me. ‘My sincerest apologies, Chase Cooper.’
‘It’s cool,’ I said, pushing our robot out to the centre of the ring. ‘People make that mistake all the time.’
Except they really didn’t. I just didn’t want Dr Tenderfoot to feel stupid. I pushed Hup-Hup to the centre of the ring and hesitated, holding a corner of the sheet. I’m not sure why I paused. Maybe it was because I knew our robot looked like junk after putting it back together. Or maybe it was because those moments before a big reveal were my favourite.
I always got chills at the movie theatre right before the show started. When the previews end and the lights dim? Man, that’s one of the best feelings in the world. It makes my heart race. Sometimes it’s better than the movie!
I pulled the sheet off Hup-Hup, showing him to the entire school. Wyatt, Dante and I managed to force the cow shell over the top of him, so he kind of looked okay, but if I told you a bunch of kindergarteners built it, you’d totes believe me.
Gidget snapped a selfie with Hup-Hup. Brayden and Slug gasped, shocked. Zoe and Faith raised their eyebrows at the same time. Naomi let out a puff of air through her nose with a short laugh.
Dante was smiling like the robot was his BFF.
Wyatt just looked angry.
Some kids in the crowd giggled. I ignored the few comments that said the robot looked pathetic.
‘Dr Tenderfoot,’ I said boldly. ‘This is Hup-Hup. He’s our robot, and we’re proud of him. He might not be pretty, but he’s ours.’ Dr Tenderfoot’s face was hard to read. He didn’t look at the robot like it was a pile of junk. He looked at it like he was seriously interested.
‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Explain your choice in design.’
I looked at Carlyle, and then back to Tenderfoot.
‘We had some trouble about halfway through the project,’ I said, shooting a quick look at Carlyle. I wasn’t going to rat him out. ‘This little guy’s had a hard life for only being a week old.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Tenderfoot said, half smiling. ‘What matters is that it performs the way you’ve built it to.’
Nervously, I dropped to a knee and pressed on the switch on the bottom of the robot. The last time we tested it, Hup-Hup worked perfectly, including the change that Dante made at the last second.
I looked at the rest of my team, who were watching with shiny eyes. I took a deep breath, and slid the switch to the ‘on’ position.
Nothing happened.
I stared at the robot, hoping I could wish it to life. Did robots have fairy godmothers? Pshhhh, who am I kidding? Of course robots had fairy godmothers!
‘Don’t do this to me, Hup-Hup,’ I whispered, barely loud enough for even me to hear. ‘Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends!’
I flipped the switch, but again, nothing happened.
Wyatt was standing in the corner, clenching his fists.
Dante looked like he was about to cry. I think he wanted the robot to work more than I did.
And then I heard the quiet buzzing sound. The frayed wires! I put my hand through the hole and rolled the top of the wire between my fingers the same way that Dante had.
Just like that, Hup-Hup jumped back to life.
His little robot arm raised and lowered perfectly. His hand twisted in circles to look like he was waving at everyone in the library. And with Dante’s addition, Hup-Hup slowly tilted back and forth while his body rotated.
Dante had a thin plastic pipe that pushed against the ground every time the hand rotated. Because the pipe was attached at an angle, it made the robot slowly spin in a circle.
The light bulb made the robot’s eyes shine bright, and for a moment, I felt like it was a living thing.
Our team cheered loudly, raising their arms in victory – not because we thought we were going to win, but because we got the dang thing to work at all!
Dante was celebrating the hardest. He was running back and forth, giving awkward high-fives to anyone who wanted one.
‘Disqualified!’ Carlyle shouted from his corner. ‘Their robot didn’t even work at first! It wasn’t finished in time! That prize should be ours!’
Dr Tenderfoot raised his hand to tell Carlyle to quiet down. ‘It’s alright,’ he said calmly. ‘All that matters is that it’s doing what it was built to do. Some bumps in the road are inevitable, and can be a learning experience in and of themselves.’
Carlyle stepped back, but didn’t say anything else.
Dr Tenderfoot extended his hands towards my team and applauded. Everyone in the library followed his lead.
‘Next team?’ he said, waving at Carlyle.
Carlyle put his hand on his chin and cracked his neck. The library was so quiet that you could hear the crunching sound.
He tapped once on the top of his covered robot, which by the way, was the size of a baby bear. The machine jostled, and then started moving toward the centre of the ring all by itself!
‘Interesting,’ Tenderfoot whispered, his voice carried by the microphone.
‘Avast, ye landlubbers!’ Carlyle said as he walked with his robot. ‘Pay close attention – history is about to be made!’
‘Dude,’ Brayden said. ‘That thing’s moving by itself!’
Carlyle’s covered robot stopped at the centre of the ring and spun in a circle. ‘Allow me t’introduce ye to my team’s project, Calypso!’ He pulled the sheet off the machine they had been working on all week.
It was amazing. The last time I saw their robot, it was a pile of pieces on the floor of the science lab, and that was on Wednesday! In less than two days, they had created a mechanical masterpiece.
It looked like it was from a sci-fi movie. It had a body with two arms and a head. Instead of legs, it had a metallic cover that I think was hiding wheels. Little lights blinked all over the robot’s head.
Calypso wobbled back and forth, making its way around the ring. As the robot circled around, it waved at the kids in the library. The gears inside squeaked as they moved.
Everyone was quiet, staring in awe.
‘How in the heck did they build that thing?’ Naomi said.
‘They’re good, I guess,’ I said.
Carlyle walked proudly with his hands behind his back as he spoke. ‘Calypso is a state-of-the-art robot, who also obeys voice commands. Calypso, stop!’
The robot stopped in place, turning its head toward Carlyle.
‘Calypso, bring me my book bag!’ Carlyle commanded.
The little lights blipped on the robot’s head, and then with a very mechanical voice, it said, ‘As you wish, master.’
‘Voice activated and can talk?’ Brayden said. ‘Dude, we lose. That’s it. Game over. We’re all outta lives and outta continues.’
Dante frowned.
The whole library watched as Calypso wobbled over to Carlyle’s bag, picked it up by the straps, and then wobbled it back to the pirate. When Calypso finished its mission, it swung back to face the crowd.
Everybody cheered. I even clapped. It was seriously impressive.
‘Calypso,’ Brayden said. ‘Come here and give me a high five!’
The robot turned and said, ‘Unknown user. Command not recognised.’
Brayden laughed, along with a bunch of other kids in the crowd.
Calypso turned towards Carlyle, as if it was waiting for the pirate to tell it what to do. Carlyle squinted, and then waved his fingers slightly, signalling to the robot that he approved the high five.
The robot shook its he
ad slowly.
‘Whoa,’ I said under my breath. ‘That thing just refused to obey a command! This is it … this thing is the beginning of the robot apocalypse!’
Zoe must’ve heard me because she rolled her eyes. ‘Nerd.’
Carlyle stomped his foot down and stuck out his chest. ‘Calypso,’ he said sternly. ‘High five the student who asked for it!’
Calypso hesitated, but finally wobbled over to Brayden. He held his open hand out.
‘What if that thing high fives your hand right off?’ I joked. ‘It is a robot, it probably doesn’t know its own strength!’
Brayden looked at me, panicked. Just as Calypso swung its robot arm toward his hand, Brayden pulled it back and the robot missed.
Brayden’s pine-scented cologne wafted in the air around me. Calypso stumbled forward. I could hear the robot whisper, ‘Seriously?’
It was weird that a robot would have the ability to feel frustration.
And then Calypso sneezed. ‘Aaa-choo!’
Even Dr Tenderfoot raised an eyebrow.
‘Whoa,’ Slug said. ‘Any robot that sneezes is too real for me.’
‘Wait a second,’ I said, watching the robot as it wobbled back to Carlyle. I turned to Brayden. ‘Gimme your perfume!’
Brayden pulled the small bottle from his book bag. ‘It’s cologne.’
‘Whatever!’ I said, taking the bottle. I raised the cologne and pointed it at Calypso, but the robot was too far away.
Without thinking, I ran towards the robot, spraying the cologne as I circled around it.
‘What’re you doing?’ Carlyle shouted.
‘Young man!’ Dr Tenderfoot boomed from the staircase. ‘This rude interruption will cost you the competition! You will be disqualified if you don’t exit the ring!’
Even Principal Davis shouted at me from the edge of the library. ‘Chase, get over here, right now! This is extremely inappropriate!’
Kids were booing, yelling about what a sore loser I was.
But all the shouts stopped when Calypso sneezed again. ‘Aaa-choo!’
My Worst Frenemy Page 11