by A. J. Ponder
Everyone’s paired up with their friends, except the girl with the pink streak and the boy in the bug t-shirt who’s gone from staring at the butterfly exhibit to sketching a weta in his notebook. He’s paying careful attention to get the spikes just right.
You need to make a decision, do you team up with:
Spider Girl?
Or
The boy drawing the weta?
Team up with Spider Girl
You hurry toward the girl with the pink streak.
She smiles at you. “Hi, I’m Rose. Have you got your worksheet?” Before you can say anything, she rifles through her pink shoulder bag. “Don’t worry, I’ve got an extra one. “Ah, here it is.”
The sheet falls out of a notebook covered with super heroines. Mostly they’re hanging from spider webs.
“How about we do spiders?” she says. “Do you see this little tarantula here? She’s a girl. I can tell because she doesn’t have special hairs called fusillae.”
“Okay.” She really is a total spider nerd. Which is great because she’s busy doing all the work and talking a mile a minute as she fills in the form. She’s not even looking at the info board as she runs from one spider exhibit to the next, pointing out the different spiders. The prettiest one is the coastal peacock spider (Maratus speciosus) from Western Australia. It’s a tiny little thing with a bright blue metallic abdomen, cute orange markings, and white hairs on its face and legs. It looks a bit like it’s been snowed on.
A video of it doing its little dance is playing on a screen.
Rose the(Spider Girl says, “You should see the video of Maratus speciosus playing the bongos on the internet, it’s so cute. Just not as cute as Robin Hood, my pet Brown Huntsman. She used to jump on people’s heads and freak them out all the time until my Grandma squished her.”
Someone in a green mask enters the room. “Mwah ha ha ha,” he yells. “I am the Bugma—”
He’s cut off by someone at the back of the room. “You work here. You’re wearing a museum shirt!” they yell.
The guy’s pretty skinny, like the tour guide who stole Frankie’s transmogrification remote. Then you notice the guy’s still wearing his nametag. Jeremy Wilder. He is the tour guide.
The Bugman (aka Jeremy Wilder) glares in frustration before continuing, “As I was saying, I am the Bugman, soon to be Grand Ruler and Greatest Entomologist of the Whole World. Prepare to bow to my will.”
“You can’t possibly be the greatest entomologist in the world,” says Rose. “I am.”
“Ahem,” says the boy who was rushing after the butterflies. “I’m the greatest entomologist. You’re just the greatest arachnologist.”
“Whatever, butterfly boy.”
Half the class cracks up laughing.
Ms. Xavier isn’t taking it so lightly. She rushes out in front of everyone. “Please stay away from my students. They’re busy working.”
“Pay attention, I’m not fooling around.” The Bugman points Frankie’s transmogrifier at Ms. Xavier.
She shrinks before your eyes. Soon she’s no bigger than a bug on the floor.
“Toxic tarantulas,” Rosie curses. “That contraption of Frankie’s really did work.” The class is no longer having fun. No one is laughing, and all chatter has stopped
You look at Rose. “We can’t leave Ms. Xavier like this. If you distract him, I’ll figure out something.”
Nodding, she approaches Jeremey Wilder. “Mr. Bugman,” she says, “I love spiders, please don’t hurt them.”
“I’d never hurt spiders.” Mr. Bugman laughs a reedy laugh. “In fact, I’m going to use them to take over the world.”
He’s definitely distracted now. There are three things you could do:
Grab the remote?
Or
Rush to save Ms. Xavier?
Or
Help Rose distract the Bugman?
Grab the remote
Bravely, you sneak up and snatch the remote from the Bugman’s hands – just as he fires it.
There’s a flash of light. In seconds, you’re as tiny as the Bugman’s thumbnail.
Above you, people are screaming and rushing around. You run, ducking left and right to avoid being trampled.
Your hand hurts – it’s holding on very tightly to Frankie’s transmogrifier. If only you knew how it worked, or had time to look. There must be somewhere safe. You dodge another foot. There’s a table! You run toward it.
“Hooray!” one of the giant students yells in a deep booming voice. From your perspective, it’s hard to see what’s happening, but it looks like they’ve restrained the Bugman. At least you hope they have. There’s a huge leering grasshopper mask not so far away. You glance over again, but you can’t see a thing, there’s too many feet in the way.
A tiny person rushes up to you. Ms. Xavier. Of course.
“Run!” you yell as a black shoe the size of a house looms overhead.
You both run as fast as you can.
“Head for the table,” you yell. “If we can shelter under it, we’ll be okay. It’s not far now.”
Something large and brown is scuttling under the table. A cockroach!
“Oh no! Cockroaches!” Ms. Xavier says. “I hate cockroaches.” She pulls off one of her sensible shoes and starts swatting at the creature.
Another cockroach appears.
“We have to get out of here.” You point Frankie’s remote at the attacking cockroach. There’s a blue button, a pink button and a black button. You randomly push the blue button. Hey, better to test it on bugs than people.
Whoosh. The cockroach grows fast, upsetting the table as it heads to attack the rest of the class.
Over the screams and crashing furniture, Ms. Xavier yells, “Quick, press the other button.” She’s given up on her shoe and is hitting a cockroach over the head with her handbag. It doesn’t seem to be doing much damage either. Which is a problem, because another six are on the way.
Pink button or black button? All at once, you realize you could turn yourself and Ms. Xavier big again. Then worry about the cockroaches.
You point the transmogrifier at Ms. Xavier and press the blue button.
She starts to grow.
Then you turn the remote on yourself and you’re big too – but there’s still a giant cockroach terrorizing the rest of the students. Mr. Adams is backed into a corner waving the worksheets ineffectually at the creature ‒ like a heavily armored giant insect could be beaten back by homework!
You look at the remote. Pink or black? Which one will shrink the monstrous cockroach before it does more damage? Although, to be fair, it is eating Mr. Adam’s worksheets, so it’s not all bad.
Rose calls, “Press pink, it’s my lucky color.”
So you do.
The giant cockroach shrinks. It’s still chewing on the worksheets, so they shrink too.
Mr. Adams wipes chewed bits of paper from his trousers. “Don’t worry, I can always print out more.”
Everyone groans, except Rose and the butterfly boy. They both turn in their completed worksheets.
“You put my name on that too, didn’t you?” you whisper to Rose.
“Course,” Rose says. She bends down and scoops up the cockroach. “I’m going to call you Howie, the homework eater.”
Congratulations, you’ve made a new friend and saved Mr. Adams, and perhaps even the whole world. Who knows how much trouble the Bugman would have been if he’d kept Frankie’s remote.
The following day, Ms. Xavier moves you and Kennedy into her class. She’s also let Rose bring Howie the Homework Eater to school, which seems weird, but Ms. Xavier says it’s important to face their fears and not blow little things like a small outbreak of giant insects out of proportion. So, he’s now officially the class mascot.
You get a week’s worth of detentions for no reason. It’s totally horrifying, until you realize you’re really working with a secret team of trainee spies. As soon as you’ve figured it out, Ms. Xavier gives you the t
itle of Spy in Training, and then it’s detention every day for the rest of your school life. Or survival club – depending on who you’re talking to. Basic spy training starts with Lying 101. To be fair, the lessons are all about survival skills.
On your last day of school ever, you’re finally brought to the WOS (World of Spies) headquarters with Rose and find out you’re both already famous for saving Ms. Xavier. You climb the stairs to the stage, where she gives you, and several other recruits a piece of paper.
After all your spy training, you’re pretty sure it’s not blank, but it takes a lot of testing before you realize that to read it you have to wave a black light over it during a full moon. “Congratulations for becoming a member of our prestigious organization,” it says. There’s even a picture of a button, with a small caption underneath. Press this button and you can join the WOS mailing list. You never know when or where you might find an adventure, in fabulous locations, like on the train, the bus, airplanes and even your own bedroom. Also, watch out for underground bunkers and discounts on books.
Now you’ve completed your mission and become a spy, you’re able to go back into the past using Frankie’s new patented Wonder Time Link Technology. Do you want to know what would have happened if you’d made different decisions in the museum that day? Maybe you could have discovered a self-destructing lair, how to solve spy codes, or a kid in a onesie looking for a balloon.
The machine is right in front of you, and on the screen it says, For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Rush to save Ms. Xavier
As you bend down to pick up Ms. Xavier, the Bugman turns Frankie’s device on you. There’s a flash of light. Suddenly you’re as small as a thumbnail.
Ms. Xavier frowns at you. “That’s the worst rescue attempt I’ve ever seen, but at least you tried.”
“Thanks,” you say.
A shadow looms over your heads. The Bugman’s foot. It’s coming down fast.
You run, but not fast enough. The last thing you see is Ms. Xavier rolling away.
It could have been worse, at least one of you escaped, but you’re squished, and quickly eaten by insects. Which you would think is the end of this adventure – but after Ms. Xavier returns to her normal size, she gets Frankie to create a time machine, just to rescue you.
A second before the foot reaches you, Frankie appears. “Quick, we only have a moment,” she explains, shoving a screen in front of your face. “You need to make a different decision, or all you’ll get is a posthumous medal for bravery. It’s kind of pretty, but is it really worth it? To avoid death, click on one of these three options:”
Help Rose distract the Bugman
Or
Grab the remote.
Or
Choose from any part of the adventure with the Adventure Contents
Help Rose distract the Bugman
While you and Rose are talking to the Bugman, Mr. Adams gets braver. He emerges from behind a giant model of a termite mound and helps evacuate the class and the miniature Ms. Xavier.
When the conversation slows, you mention the pretty spider with its woggly spider dance.
The Bugman looks amused. Rose says, “Yes peacock spiders are awesome. But I prefer tarantulas.” Within minutes they’re arguing so loudly neither of them notice the swat team in camouflage gear creeping up on them. Heart in mouth, you wonder if you should move, or talk, or do something to help. Then one of the swat team’s boots squeak.
The Bugman raises his remote. “Traitors! You have betrayed me!”
You dive out of the way, pulling Rose to safety. The beam of light grazes her bag, you expect it to shrink like Ms. Xavier, but nothing happens, unless you count a grey-black singe on the side.
“Phew, that was close,” Rose says.
The guy with the squeaky boots tackles the Bugman, knocking Frankie’s remote from his hand.
Before you can catch it, the remote hits the floor, and smashes into a pile of plastic and circuit boards.
The Bugman is on the floor with two of the swat team standing over him when Frankie arrives. “Oh, no,” she says, and starts to cry. “I’d recognize those circuit boards anywhere. That took me a month to make. How could you?”
The swat team looks over at her nervously. “That’s Frankie, isn’t it? She’s not going to attack us with monsters or anything, is she?” a burly guy mutters. “I’ve heard the stories.”
Their commander shrugs. “Buck up. We’ve got a job to do.”
“Wait a minute,” Rose says. “Where’s Ms. Xavier?”
“Oh, I’ve got her,” Mr. Adams holds up his hand.
Ms. Xavier is sitting on it eating a jellybean as big as her head.
“Oh, dear,” Frankie says.
“What do you mean, oh dear?” Ms. Xavier squeaks. “I am going to turn back to normal size, aren’t I?”
“Um—”
The tiny Ms. Xavier glares at Frankie.
Frankie gathers up her pile of circuit boards and plastic. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The next day at school, you’re told you’ve been moved to Ms. Xavier’s class. You hurry in late. Ms. Xavier’s voice is booming out over a loudspeaker. “Hurry up and sit down!”
You look around, but still can’t see her.
Catching sight of you, Rose waves. Frankie’s there too, snoring gently. You go over and sit in the empty desk next to them.
“Shush,” says Rose. “She’s been up all night trying to fix her contraption. Pleased to see you’re now a spy with us.”
“A what?”
“Oh, haven’t they told you yet? Don’t worry, you can be an entomologist with me. It’s safer than being a spy. Well, usually.”
Spy?
There’s a squeak of feedback from the loudspeaker. “Hush,” Ms. Xavier says.
Everyone covers their ears, groaning from the awful noise.
Finally you see Ms. Xavier. She’s hopping over to the overhead projector on a bridge made out of rulers and science laboratory retort clamps. “Well,” she says to the class, “I’d like to congratulate two people. The budding arachnologists in our class, and the only people, besides Eric, to turn in their homework. Without them the whole city, maybe even the whole world, would be a very different place right now.”
It’s probably not a good time to mention that Rose did the worksheet, so you just nod and try not to make a fuss. Two new classes in less than a week. That has to be a record. You don’t want a third.
Later, when your spy training is almost complete, you’re brought to the WOS headquarters where they shower you with praise and give you a blank certificate.
Frankie looks at it. “I bet that’s my patented paper. How dare they? Anyway, it’s not that good. It only ever works under a full moon, and that’s providing you have a black light to wave over it. Terrible stuff.”
From a doll sized podium, with giant WOS flags as a backdrop, the still-tiny Ms. Xavier gives a big long boring speech about duty, and saving the world. But it doesn’t matter ‒ you, Rose, and Frankie have already decided that the WOS (World of Spies) world isn’t for you.
Rose wants to be an entomologist and Frankie is determined to be an inventor – although she’s given up on returning Ms. Xavier to her normal size, especially as Ms. Xavier insists she’d rather be small. “It’s amazing how useful my size is,” she says. “I can get anywhere without anyone noticing. Not to mention, the food’s better, and I’m really saving on living costs.”
Eventually you tell Ms. Xavier that you’re not going to become a spy, because you’re going to do a double degree in biology and engineering. That way you can work with your friends to make tiny bug-sized robots. From time to time, the WOS and other important organizations call on your expertise.
Sometimes you wonder what would have happened if you’d made different decisions. Would you have enjoyed being a spy after
all? Learning how to crack codes and use exploding gum might be fun. Or would you rather join the Bugman, and find out what life would be like as an evil minion?
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Team up with the boy drawing the weta
You wander over to the boy in the bug shirt.
He keeps on drawing the weta.
You tap him on the shoulder, and he glances up suspiciously.
“Um, hi,” you say.
“Oh, right, you’re the new kid. I’m Eric Williams,” he says, talking really fast. “Don’t worry about the project. I’ve already done it. So, what do you think of this?” He holds up a completed worksheet. “Didn’t want to waste my time filling it in when I could be looking at all the insects.”
He shows you his sketches: butterflies, weta, bumble bees, and something called an antlion. They’re pretty cool. “Come on,” he says, all excited. “Let’s look at the ants. Aren’t they amazing? They can carry up to 50 times their own weight.” He starts sketching again.
A door bangs. You turn. Someone in an ugly grasshopper mask peers in, through a staff only door, before walking through.
“Hey, who’s that?” you ask. Then you see his museum shirt. The name tag’s still on it: Jeremy Wilder. The tour guide? He’s skinny enough, so it must be.
Eric, the bug boy, points at Jeremy Wilder as he wanders past the fire alarm. “Leaping Locusts. Why would the tour guide dress up in an inaccurate bug mask?” Eric says. “It’s not even Halloween.”
Jeremy Wilder hurries toward you, yelling, “Mwah ha ha ha, I am the Bugman, soon to be Grand Ruler and Greatest Entomologist in all the world. Prepare to bow to my will.”
Do you:
Ask Jeremy Wilder, “Why?”
Or
Stay silent and see what happens?
Ask Jeremy Wilder, “Why?”