Against the Odds

by Amy Ignatow

  Farshad blanked. His usual answer was “study” but they’d just finished the exam minutes before. “I . . . my parents need me. For stuff. For doing things. At home.”

  “It’s all right if you don’t want to go because it scares you,” Martina had told him.

  “I’m not scared.”

  “Okay.”

  “No, really, I’m not, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “All right.”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea?” he’d asked her.

  “It’s an idea,” she’d said, which didn’t really answer his question in the slightest. “Would you like me to let you know what we find out?”

  “Uh, sure,” Farshad had said, even though he sort of didn’t.

  “Okay,” she’d said, walking away.

  “I’m not scared!” he’d found himself calling after her.

  “Okay,” she’d said, not turning around. She could be very unnerving, even when he wasn’t seeing her eyes change colors every few minutes.

  The rest of Farshad’s weekend went by slowly. His parents drilled him on the test, asking what sort of questions were on it and how he thought he’d done. He thought he’d done well, particularly given the circumstances (the humming vending machines, the fear of breaking all his pencils with his freak thumbs, the sounds of Jay Carpenter’s protests as he was led out of the cafeteria). But he omitted any mention of the drama and stuck to what he could remember of the exam. On Sunday he went for a long run, taking care not to find himself outside Cookie’s house again.

  Farshad was not happy to see Nick ambling up to him as he entered the school on Monday morning. “What’s up?” Farshad asked him, trying to sound unfriendly without being too mean.

  “Cookie wants you to meet up with us today after school,” Nick started.

  “Are you her errand boy now?” Farshad asked.

  “No, we just thought that I’d probably be the best person to talk to you . . .”

  “Farshad, old sport!” Jay came up behind him and clapped him on the back. “You will not believe the story that Nick and the others heard on Saturday. They tried to email you to meet up.” He turned to Nick. “Did he get the email?” he asked. Nick looked at Farshad expectantly.

  “I had some computer problems,” Farshad said, and with a sigh of resignation, lowered his voice. “I accidentally smashed my dad’s laptop with my thumbs.”

  “Fantastic,” Jay breathed. “So you’re meeting up with us at the Understeps after school, yes? Yes! Paul, old man!” Jay spotted Paul Yoder down the hall and bounded up to him.

  “Is he friends with the Farm Kids?” Farshad asked Nick incredulously.

  “They were in the other testing room when he was moved for the exam. They heard how he bit Izaak Marcus and now he’s their hero.” Nick looked grimly at his friend, who was chattering amiably with Paul and some of the other Farm Kids. “He has a way of forcing people to like him.”

  “That’s insane. Why would he even want those guys to like him?”

  “He doesn’t care, actually. But they like him.”

  “I like him,” Martina said, appearing next to Farshad as if from out of thin air. That girl was like a cat. “He’s always interesting.” She walked away.

  “I am not used to her,” Nick said.

  “Truth,” Farshad replied.

  “But come to the meeting,” Nick said. “I know you’ve got your doubts, but you’ve got to hear what we found out.” He lowered his voice. “It’s about Auxano.”

  “Oh,” Farshad said. “About that. Ms. Zelle called my parents and asked their permission for me to have my blood drawn when we go to Auxano with the Science Club field trip.”

  Nick’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me.”

  “No. They’re going to show us how to do differential centrifugation.”

  “That seems like a very terrible idea.”

  “It’s just a process that separates organelles from whole cells . . .”

  “I know what it is,” Nick said, and thought a moment. “No, actually I don’t, but that’s not the point. It’s a terrible idea for any of us to give our blood to Auxano. There’s no way we can trust them with it.”

  “I’m still not convinced that Auxano is evil.”

  “Then tell me where Willis Fisher is.”

  “Who’s Willis Fisher?”

  “I’m coming with you.” Jay was resolute. “I don’t need anyone to come with me.” Farshad was on the verge of turning around, leaving the Understeps, and never talking to the rest of them ever again. It was making Nick very nervous—it was hard enough enticing him to come to the meeting in the first place. Nick didn’t think he had ever met anyone so guarded.

  “Oh, on the contrary, my fine Persian American friend,” Jay went on, “you need someone with you. Someone to have your back. A second set of eyes. A brother-in-arms. Someone that no one would ever suspect—”

  “Jay, shut up.” Cookie was agitated. “He shouldn’t be going to Auxano in the first place.” She turned to Farshad. “Just tell Ms. Zelle that you can’t go. Tell her you don’t feel well, or you’re afraid of needles, or whatever. Just don’t go.”

  “Why, because they’re going to kidnap me and do experiments?”

  “No, because once they realize that your blood is full of phlebotinum, their suspicions about the bus accident will be confirmed and then they’re going to kidnap and do experiments on all of us!” Cookie said.

  Farshad rolled his eyes. “Come on. Do you honestly think a company that employs half the people in this town—including our parents—would really kidnap anyone? Particularly us?”

  “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me where Mr. Friend went? And where is Willis Fisher?”

  Farshad threw his hands up in the air. “How should I know? I don’t even know who Willis Fisher is. And neither do you. How could a teenager just disappear without anyone knowing about it? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “You see!” Jay chimed in. “You see, this is why I should come with you to Auxano. Your doubt is playing right into their diabolical hands—no offense to those amongst us—ahem—who have actual diabolical hands, specifically the thumb parts of their hands. I am far more savvy and can see what’s really going on.”

  Martina let out a quick bark of a laugh without looking up from her sketchbook. Jay continued, unabated. “You are a scientist,” he told Farshad.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “You are in the Science Club, which is basically the same thing as being a scientist,” Jay continued. “You believe what you see, and you haven’t seen anyone kidnapping any poor Amish kids whose communities are so insular that they’d never report the disappearance anyway. Right?”

  “Why are you even here?”

  “Hush hush, I’m vital to this process.” Jay bounded up to Farshad, who was easily a full head taller than he was. “You should go to Auxano, I will go with you, and we will be SPIES. We will get to the bottom of what happened to Mr. Friend and Willis Fisher, and you will see for yourself that the company is not all that it seems.”

  “You’re crazy,” Cookie growled, turning to Nick. “Your freaky little friend is crazy.”

  “You’re all crazy,” Farshad said.

  “I’m not,” Martina said, eyes still locked on her drawing.

  “Whatever. You’re all crazy, it’s been interesting knowing you, but as far as I’m concerned we’re just some people who were in an accident with odd lingering side effects and there’s really no reason that we have to keep meeting up. Stop trying to drag me into your crazy. I’m out.” Farshad walked away.

  Nick leaned back on the cool cinder-block wall and rubbed his temples. “He’s going to tell them what happened. What we’ve become. This is bad. Very, very bad.” He thought of Rebecca Zook in the bare little apartment, and how she lived in fear that Ms. Zelle was going to find her and take her away.

  “Don’t worry,” Jay said, his mouth set in a firm line of determination. �
�I am going on that Science Club field trip, and if I have to take our Iranian friend down to keep him from talking, then that’s what I’ll do.”

  “And how exactly would you ‘take him down’?” Cookie looked dubious.

  “My dear lady, I believe I’ve proven myself more than capable of holding my own at physical combat. Ask Izaak Marcus, who now quakes with fear at the mere mention of my name.”

  “Jay, please don’t bite Farshad,” Nick pleaded.

  “Biting would be a last resort. I care too much about my overall dental health to go around biting people willy-nilly,” Jay promised. “I’m going to go on that trip and I’m going to make sure that Farshad doesn’t do anything that would put the rest of you at risk, because I care very deeply for each of you.”

  “Thank you, Jay.” Martina said.

  “You’re welcome, Martina, you beautiful and insightful goddess.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Cookie said. “How would you even go on the field trip? Are you even in the Science Club?”

  Jay laughed.

  “What?” Cookie asked.

  Nick looked at Cookie. “You have to understand,” he explained. “This is Jay. Inserting himself into situations where he doesn’t belong is what he does best.”

  “Damned straight, old boy.”

  Cookie checked her phone as she walked home. It had been oddly quiet since the exam, so she shut it down and then restarted it. Still nothing. No texts. She shot one off to Addison and Claire, asking where they were. No response. That was irritating.

  Maybe she had texted too much and her mom had shut off her account? No, that couldn’t be it, they had unlimited texting. Maybe there was just something wrong with the system. Maybe someone totally random had been affected by phlebotinum and now had the ability to block wireless communications.

  Her phone buzzed, and Cookie tried to look nonchalant as she checked to see who it was from (even though no one was watching her, but you never knew). It was a text from her mom, asking if she was coming home for dinner or eating at Claire’s house. Cookie texted back that she was on her way home, and her mom replied with a happy-faced emoji. Her phone was working. Whatever magical, unknowable power that allowed her thumb-typed messages to fly through the ether and end up on her mother’s phone was working.

  Were Addison and Claire seriously not answering her texts?

  That was ridiculous. Maybe there was something wrong with their phones. Yes, that made sense. Cookie could see it—they’d probably been in the bathroom together, looking at their phones at pictures of their celebrity crushes or kittens or whatever and then Addison went to show Claire what was on her phone just as Claire went to show Addison what was on her phone and they knocked heads and the phones flew out of their hands and landed in the toilet and then they had to go home and dismantle the phones and put the pieces in a bowl of dried rice and once their phones were working again they’d text Cookie and they’d all laugh together.

  Wait, that didn’t seem right. The being in the bathroom and showing each other their phones part made sense, but why would they be doing that over an open toilet? That made no sense.

  Maybe they’d been kidnapped.

  Maybe Ms. Zelle had a team of Auxano enforcers that were roaming the streets, picking up middle school girls, and taking them back to the secret lab to test their blood.

  Probably not.

  But maybe she should go by Claire’s house anyway, just to make sure that everything was okay. It was sort of on her way home.

  Fifteen minutes later Cookie was standing outside Claire’s house. She’d been there a million times—Claire’s mom had told her more times than she could count that Cookie was welcome there whenever she wanted. She was practically part of the family. She had never before hesitated to march up to the front door and walk right in. But now . . .

  You have to make them believe that she was at the ice cream parlor.

  You have to tell them about it, but don’t be intense about it. Make her sound like the crazy one. They’re already annoyed with her. This is the perfect time.

  Come on, you can do this. This is your chance to take down Cookie Parker.

  Emma Lee’s thoughts settled directly into Cookie’s brain. She was inside Claire’s house with Claire and Addison, and she was about to tell them about Cookie’s weird ice cream date with Farshad Rajavi and a girl who drew pictures of herself with alien antennae. Cookie was aghast.

  NO. Her brain screamed at Emma Lee, YOU WILL SHUT UP. YOU WILL SHUT UP AND BE SHUTTING UP AND STAY SHUT UP.

  Cookie felt the tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. She had been considering just walking into Claire’s house and making herself at home as if Claire had actually answered her text, but now there was no way—if Addison and Claire saw her tears she’d look like the biggest loser ever. Never let them see that they’ve upset you. She backed away from Claire’s house, and as soon as she was absolutely certain that no one could see her, Cookie started to cry.

  It was bad enough that Jay Carpenter had somehow managed to invite himself along for the Science Club trip to Auxano; that he insisted on being in Ms. Zelle’s car with Farshad made it all so much worse. Not that Farshad wanted to be alone in the car with a woman he didn’t trust, but he really didn’t want to be in a car with that woman and Jay. He was probably the most annoying person Farshad had ever met.

  “So,” Jay said, straining against the child-safe backseat safety belt to lean forward as much as possible. “What are we going to see? Are we going to see a centrifuge? I have always wanted to see an industrial-sized centrifuge.”

  “Actually, we are,” Ms. Zelle said. “I didn’t know you were so interested in science, Jay.”

  “But of course I am!” Jay said. “I’m terribly interested in science. I’m actually interested in everything. I’d go so far as to say I’m a polymath. Did you know that ancient Sumerians believed that after you died you went to a world made of clay where there was nothing but clay as far as the eye could see and nothing to eat except for more clay?”

  “I did not know that,” Ms. Zelle admitted.

  “Archaeology is just one of my many interests. Just like zoology. Did you know that wombats poop cubes?” Jay asked, and continued talking before Ms. Zelle could answer. “Are we going to be able to use the centrifuge? Can I touch the centrifuge?”

  Ms. Zelle laughed. “No, but we will be seeing it used.”

  “What are we going to be putting in the centrifuge?”

  “Farshad’s blood, actually.” Ms. Zelle quickly looked over at Farshad and smiled. “He’s volunteered to be our guinea pig today. Are you nervous?” she asked him.

  “No,” Farshad said, lying.

  “Why Farshad’s blood?” Jay asked. Farshad felt a cold chill run up his back.

  “Oh, because we thought it would be fun if it came from one of the club members.” Ms. Zelle said lightly.

  “That does sound fun,” Jay said. “Can I do it? Can it be my blood?”

  “Sorry, Jay, it has to be Farshad’s. His parents already signed the permission form.”

  “Tragic. I feel like I’m missing out on the fun,” Jay said.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get to see the whole process.”

  The rest of the Science Club (two other boys and one girl named Kitty, who Farshad had always considered his main rival for valedictorian) were in a car with the other science teacher, Mr. Greene, a quiet man who always looked terrified of his own students. Ms. Zelle parked next to his car and the two groups merged to walk into the main lobby of the Auxano headquarters.

  Farshad was familiar enough with the building. He had been there countless times with his parents and on field trips, but as he entered the main lobby he felt his stomach drop with a fear that he’d never before felt. Without thinking about it he balled his hands into fists, wrapping this thumbs in his other fingers.

  “Don’t worry, old boy,” Jay said in an uncharacteristically low voice, “I’ve got your back.”

>   Farshad said nothing but gave him a slight, almost imperceptible nod.

  “Okay everybody!” Ms. Zelle said, “Gather round, gather round. Who’s ready to see the new ultracentrifuge?”

  “YEAH!” Jay yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

  “Yes!” Kitty added, temporarily caught up in Jay’s enthusiasm. He winked at her and she immediately turned beet-red.

  “Follow me!” Ms. Zelle said, and they headed to an elevator that would bring them to a lower-level lab, stopping at a row of lab coats hanging on the wall and handing them out to everyone. “Most of the labs are underground.” Ms. Zelle said, “Can anyone tell me why?”

  Kitty’s hand shot up.

  “Kitty, we’re not in the classroom, you can just call out an answer if you know it.” Ms. Zelle explained. Kitty turned red again.

  “Because the temperature is more stabilized when there’s no chance of natural sunlight?” Kitty asked.

  “Exactly,” Ms. Zelle said, “ten points to Gryffindor. It’s also where Auxano keeps dungeons full of huuuuuuumans to experiment on.” Farshad paled while the rest of the group chuckled.

  “Ooh, can we go to the dungeons? Is that where Auxano stores the mutants?” Jay asked.

  “You are too much, Jay.” Ms. Zelle laughed, shepherding them into the elevator.

  Jay’s head darted around as Ms. Zelle ushered them into the lab. He appeared to be scanning the large room for electronic access panels to secret chambers.

  “Ms. Zelle was joking about the dungeon, you moron,” Farshad growled at the little freak.

  “Poppycock.”

  “Are you serious? Did you seriously just say poppycock?”

  “I did indeed and I’ll do it again. Poppycock. One of the best ways to hide is to do so in plain sight; if you’re trying to hide something utterly outlandish, tell anyone and everyone. Everyone will think it’s a great big joke and no one will believe for a second that it’s true. For instance, if you had just laughed and told everyone that you were a terrorist then no one would have believed you and your reputation would have been sterling.”