Andi Under Pressure

by Amanda Flower

  I turned back around to face the chalkboard and found Ava frowning at me from two rows up.

  “What?” I mouthed.

  She didn’t answer. Instead she spun around in her seat, hitting Jake in the face with her ponytail. I had no idea why, but Ava Gomez was out to get me.

  CASE FILE NO. 3

  At the end of chemistry, I slid my notebook into my backpack while Colin waited for me by the classroom door.

  “Andi?” Dr. Comfrey ran a black eraser across the chalkboard. “Can you stay after class for a moment?”

  I swallowed hard. Did Dr. Comfrey know Colin and I had been a few minutes late for opening that morning? I couldn’t think of any other reason the chemistry professor would want me to stay behind. But if that were true, wouldn’t she have asked Colin to stay too?

  Colin raised his eyebrows. I gave him a sideways smile and gestured he should go with Dylan and the rest of Hydrogen to biology. He waited in the doorway for a half second longer and then disappeared down the hall.

  My sneakers squeaked on the tile as I shifted my feet in front of her desk.

  Dr. Comfrey dusted chalk off of her jeans. “Chalk is terrible stuff. It gets everywhere. I will definitely have to stop at the store for markers tonight.”

  I murmured that that was a bummer for her, still wondering what she wanted to say to me.

  The chemistry professor sat behind her desk. “I asked you to stay after class because I wanted to tell you how excited we are to have you as part of the program this summer. You had the highest test scores in the sciences of those who applied.” She stacked a pile of papers on her desk. There was a glossy pamphlet on top. It had a photograph of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Washington DC on it. “Undergraduate Think Tank” was splashed across the cover above two smiling college students in lab goggles and coats.

  I blinked. “I did?” I paused. “What about Colin?”

  Colin was the kid genius, not me. I had even heard people in town call him that.

  She smiled. “Colin’s were the highest overall, but you shone in the sciences.”

  “Wow,” I murmured. My chest constricted. I wished I could tell my parents. Both had been award-winning botanists, but they had died in a plane crash in Central America only a few months ago. I looked down, suddenly feeling a wave of the pain that never really went away.

  “I can’t tell you how much it excites me. We need more female scientists.”

  “What about Madison? She’s going to be a scientist, isn’t she?”

  The professor pursed her lips together. “Yes, she is. A gifted one. Just like you. Discovery Camp is very selective with only thirty-two spots for both seventh and eighth graders.” She tapped the think tank brochure. “You might be going to this someday. I’m able to recommend one student every year for the program. One of my best students, Fletcher, is there right now. If you follow the path you’re going, this could be you in eight or ten years.” She frowned. “If the funding for the program comes back, that is. We won’t be able to send a student next summer because of budget cuts.” She flipped the pamphlet over, hiding the smiling college students’ faces. “But enough about that. I’m so glad you applied, and we made an exception to give you a spot even if it was well after the deadline.”

  I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. The deadline had been April first, but I applied in June. My aunt, who was an English professor at Michael Pike, requested special permission for my application to be considered because Bethany and I had just moved to Killdeer to live with her after the plane crash. If there were only thirty-two spots, that meant I took a spot away from someone who had already earned it.

  I glanced at the open door and saw a swish of dark hair pass over the opening. Was that Ava?

  The chemistry professor removed her reading glasses and dropped them into one of the huge pockets of her lab coat. “Something wrong, Andi?”

  “If only thirty-two kids get into Discovery Camp, and I applied late, I took somebody’s spot.” I dug the toe of my sneaker into the leg of her desk.

  She shook her head. “We didn’t kick anyone out of the camp to let you in, if that’s what you are afraid of. The student you replaced gave up his spot even before you applied. Instead of coming to Discovery Camp, he went to spend the summer with his grandparents.”

  I blew out a sigh of relief.

  She sat in her desk chair and opened a drawer. “Now, off to biology with you. Dr. Ruggles will be annoyed with me for keeping you so long.” She smiled. “It’s my free period now, and I’m going to see if I can track down some dry erase markers.”

  I thanked her and floated from the room. I had the highest scores in science. Even higher than Colin’s. Maybe I would be a great scientist someday like both of my parents had been. They died for their careers on a research trip in Guatemala searching for endangered plants.

  My tennis shoes squeaked on the waxed tile floors. The hall was empty. Was Dr. Comfrey right? Would I be going to a CDC think tank someday like Fletcher? That would have impressed my parents.

  In the middle of the hallway was a glass display case. Behind the glass, there were photographs of three students. I recognized two: Madison and Dylan. There was another boy in between them. He was a nerdy-looking kid. The name “Fletcher Manuel” was beneath his photograph. This was Dr. Comfrey’s student who was at the think tank this summer. Above the photographs there was lettering which read, “Our Top Chemistry Students!” Madison was in the first position. Her grade point average was 4.0. Fletcher and Dylan were close behind with 3.85 and 3.8.

  A sharp clatter interrupted my thoughts, followed by a gasp. I spun around to face the noise, but no one was there. The dim hallway was empty. I took a step. At the end of the hall, I heard the sound of running footsteps followed by a loud bang like someone threw a book against a locker.

  I chased the noise. “Is someone there?”

  I skidded to a stop at the end of the hall, where it took a sharp turn and led to another passageway. This one was lined with closed doors with names on them — the science faculty offices, I figured.

  The first doorknob I tried was locked. As much as I wanted to try every door, I knew I had to return to Hydrogen. The next lab session already had begun, and stuffy Dr. Ruggles must have noticed my absence by now.

  I turned and immediately had the eerie feeling I was being watched. Up and down the hallway, all the doors were shut. A piece of white plastic about the size of my thumbnail lay near my feet. I picked it up but had no idea what it might have belonged to or where it came from. Dropping the piece into my shorts pocket, I ran to the stairwell and took the steps two at a time to the second floor. When I pushed open the heavy stairwell door, I heard shouts coming from the biology lab.

  Through the doorway, I saw Dr. Ruggles — who was built like Mr. Potato Head with a thick trunk and skinny arms — crawling on the floor like a baby in a race. His toupee sat off-kilter on the top of his head. He wasn’t the only one on the floor. Half of the class was on all fours too.

  “Try not to step on them!” the professor shouted as he fast-crawled around the desk in pursuit of something I couldn’t see.

  I inched into the room. Chirp-chirp. A cricket hopped over my foot.

  “Andi, don’t let that one get away,” the biology teacher ordered.

  I bent to scoop up the cricket but was too slow, and it slipped under a lab table.

  Colin’s foot stuck out from behind a rolling television cart at the back of the lab. Gingerly, I stepped over my crawling classmates to reach him. I was about to ask Colin what was going on when he pounced. “I got one!” His glasses sat crookedly on his nose. He grinned up at me, and another cricket jumped and bounced off his cheek. He swatted at it, and as he did the cricket he’d just caught escaped.

  “If I didn’t know better, I would say these are mutant crickets, capable of rational thought, who were working together as a team,” Colin muttered.

  “How did the crickets get out
?” I asked.

  Colin stood and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “No idea. We came into the lab and Dr. Ruggles was already on the floor gathering crickets by the dozens.”

  The biology professor’s face was dangerously red. I don’t think Mr. Potato Head was built for crawling on the floor. Dr. Ruggles crawled to the other side of the room. “Everyone, catch those crickets!”

  A few feet away from Colin and me, Ava covered three crickets with a bowl and slipped a piece of paper beneath the bowl. When she flipped the bowl over, the paper was on top and the crickets were trapped inside. She dropped them into a large aquarium with even more crickets. After depositing the crickets, she took her bowl and searched for her next catch.

  Jake jumped across his desk and caught another. His camp binder slammed to the floor. I winced to think of any cricket in the binder’s path.

  “Careful!” was Dr. Ruggles’s muffled cry from under his desk

  Brady and Chase, the last two members of Hydrogen, crowed when they each trapped a cricket.

  Spenser peered under the desk at the biology professor. “Maybe we should let the geckos out. They can catch the crickets for us.” He pointed to the aquarium near the classroom door where three geckos lived. I noticed two of them had their faces pushed up next to the glass, watching the action. Maybe they wondered why dinner was on the floor.

  “No! Do not let out the geckos.” The plump professor struggled to his feet.

  “It was just a suggestion,” Spenser muttered and resumed the hunt.

  Dylan slipped into the classroom. I hadn’t noticed he was missing until just then. Where had he been while Group Hydrogen hunted crickets?

  The counselor winked at me as he perched on a stool. “I feel like I should have brought popcorn to watch this show. Witnessing Ruggles crawl on the floor is highly entertaining.”

  “Why don’t you help too?” I asked as I scanned the ground for another cricket.

  He grinned. “I wouldn’t want to take away the fun from all of you.”

  Chase crowed in victory as he caught another cricket.

  “See what I mean?” Dylan asked.

  Ten minutes later, Dr. Ruggles clapped his hands. “Stop! Stop! Go to your seats please. We caught all the crickets we can for now. Please return the classroom to normal.”

  Kids pushed their desks across the floor back to their places.

  Dr. Ruggles adjusted his toupee on his head in the reflection of a metal filing cabinet in the corner of the room before facing us again. “I hope this wasn’t someone’s idea of a funny prank. Because if it is, I will find out who did this, and that student will be kicked out of the program.”

  “Why does he think it’s on purpose?” I whispered to Colin.

  Colin wiped his glasses on the hem of his T-shirt before setting them back on the tip of his nose. “At the start of class, he said when he got here this morning the tops of both cricket aquariums were open. My guess is they were opened last night sometime because most of the crickets had escaped into the room. Dr. Ruggles was steamed.”

  Dr. Ruggles pointed at us. “Discovery Camp is not playtime. You have the opportunity to learn real science. You were hand-selected to be part of this program. Don’t fritter that away for a practical joke.”

  “Did he just say fritter?” I heard someone behind me whisper.

  Dr. Ruggles folded his arms. “Mr. White, if I find out that one of the campers is behind this, I will hold Discovery Camp responsible.”

  I turned to see Dylan’s reaction. The counselor paled.

  Ava ninja-caught a cricket as it hopped onto her desk and then shot me a superior look. Oh great, not only did she not like me, but she had ninja skills. Just what I needed. Dr. Ruggles dusted his hands off on his lab coat. “Now, let’s salvage what class time we have left, as it seems that most of the crickets have been caught and returned to their aquariums.”

  Chirp! Chirp!

  Dr. Ruggles glared at the noise, and I covered my mouth to stop the laughter bubbling up inside.

  CASE FILE NO. 4

  “What did Dr. Comfrey want to talk to you about?” Colin asked as we followed Hydrogen across campus to the cafeteria for lunch.

  I slowed my pace, so that the others in class wouldn’t overhear. “She told me she was happy I applied for Discovery Camp.”

  I didn’t tell Colin my science scores were higher than his. He didn’t need to know that.

  I kicked a pebble off of the sidewalk with the toe of my sneaker. “She said there needs to be more girls in the sciences.”

  “What about Ava? She’s a girl too. Why didn’t she pull her aside and tell her that too?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe she already had.” I lowered my voice. “Is Ava from out of town?”

  Colin pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “No, Ava lives here in Killdeer. She’s in our grade too.”

  Terrific.

  “Is anyone else in Hydrogen from Killdeer?”

  “Spenser lives here too. He’ll be in eighth and lives a couple of blocks from us.”

  That might be good. Spenser was built like a tank. Maybe if I got to know him better he could protect me from Ava’s glares — or at least block my view of them.

  I quickened my pace. The class was well ahead of us now. “Don’t you think it’s strange that both of our classes today had problems?”

  “I don’t know.” Colin shrugged. “Camp just started. There are bound to be problems. Bergita always says ‘be suspicious of a perfect day.’ ”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Beats me.” His brow wrinkled. “I guess that crickets getting loose was strange.”

  “And the missing markers,” I added.

  Colin pulled on the straps hanging from his backpack. “That’s not something that is really wrong. She just forgot where she put them. I mean, it’s not like the crickets.” He leaned closer. “I think Ruggles is right. That was deliberate.”

  “Remember Dr. Comfrey said that not only were the markers at the board missing, but the ones she keeps in her storage closet were gone too.” I sidestepped a crack on the pavement. “If they are related, it’s almost like someone is trying to sabotage the camp.”

  “Why would someone take her markers?”

  “Why would someone let Dr. Ruggles’s crickets loose?”

  He frowned. “Good point. But that doesn’t mean they’re related.”

  I stopped arguing with Colin when I saw Polk painting a park bench with a fresh coat of purple paint. Michael Pike’s school colors were purple and gold, and the mascot was a mountain goat. I had questioned Amelie about this mascot. She said it must be because Killdeer was in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. When I told her the Appalachians were too small to have mountain goats, and the closest mountain goats were in the Rockies, she said, “I got nothing.”

  Curie, Polk’s beagle, snoozed a few feet away under an oak tree.

  As our classmates passed Polk, they stepped as far away from him as they could without leaving the sidewalk. I wasn’t sure if it was his paintbrush or Polk himself they avoided.

  “Let’s stop and talk to Polk,” I said, picking up my pace.

  Colin pulled on my backpack. “Why?”

  It was a reasonable question. I didn’t have an answer for Colin, at least not one that would make sense to his logical mind. Polk reminded me of someone who lost someone or something. His sad expression was one I saw on my sister’s face sometimes when she let her guard down. It was one I saw in my own reflection when I least expected it.

  I approached the elderly man without answering Colin’s question. “Hi,” I said to Polk.

  Colin stood a little behind me and watched as our class disappeared into the cafeteria. Dylan waved them into the building but didn’t seem to notice he was two kids short. If we had been in Madison’s group, she would have noticed and made a note of it on her clipboard.

  Polk dipped his brush into the can of purple paint. “Well, hello.” This close
to him I could see his eyes were more than just slits after all. They were bright blue but set so deep into his wrinkles that I didn’t notice the color until the sunlight caught them.

  “I’m Andi,” I said.

  “Hello, Andi.” He nodded at Colin. “Hello, Colin.”

  “Hi,” Colin said.

  “How is Bergita? She talks about you often when I see her about town.”

  Colin shrugged. “Good. But she’s always good. She’s Bergita.”

  Polk chuckled and dipped his paintbrush into the paint can. “Bergita tells me that you are very bright, but you are a little young to be students here.”

  “We’re in Discovery Camp,” Colin said.

  Polk braced his hand on his leg as he straightened his spine. “Very good. Do you have a favorite class at camp?”

  “I like chemistry,” I said.

  “That was my favorite too. I was an excellent student in chemistry,” he frowned and blinked rapidly. “Maybe too good,” he paused. “Or too confident.”

  I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but Colin pulled on my arm. “Andi, come on. Hydrogen is inside the dining hall. We’ve been late once already today.”

  “It was nice to meet you,” I called over my shoulder as Colin dragged me away.

  “You too, Andi Boggs,” Polk said. “You too.”

  It wasn’t until I was in line for cheese pizza I realized I had never told him my last name. I pushed the thought aside. Bergita probably told him.

  Colin selected a cheeseburger from the cafeteria line and followed me to Hydrogen’s table. During lunchtime, we were supposed to eat with our element groups to “build a team atmosphere.” At least that’s what Madison said when she announced this rule on the first day of camp. I slid into a seat next to Chase, who was inhaling one of the four pieces of pizza on his plate, and Colin sat on my other side.