Rex

by Cody B. Stewart

  ***** ***** *****

  “Are you wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday?” Ellen studied TJ suspiciously, her Mom senses tingling.

  He mumbled something incoherent as he sat down in front of a bowl of cereal. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and he was practically drooling on himself.

  He did not sleep well.

  He’d stayed up late teaching Rex all the commands he’d need to know to pull off his robot act. Then, anxiety ridden dreams plagued him when he finally did sleep. He was constantly running but didn’t know where he was going or how to get there. He was always forgetting something but couldn’t remember what. Everything seemed just out of reach, questions on the tip of his tongue, answers on the edge of his brain. Downing a few glasses of warm milk only made him have to go to the bathroom.

  Ellen slid a mug of hot chocolate under TJ’s nose, which was getting dangerously close to his cereal bowl. He snapped up, the rich, sugary smell rousing him slightly.

  “You awake?” Ellen partly chuckled, but there were traces of worry in her voice. “Or are you coming down with something?”

  TJ slapped his cheeks and rubbed his eyes. He knew he couldn’t afford any questions or extra attention this morning. “No, I’m fine. Just had a rough night. Bad dreams.” He slurped down his cereal and knocked back a hearty swig of hot chocolate. He screamed silently as his tongue boiled inside his mouth. The rush of pain cleared the fog from his head. “But I’m good to go,” he mumbled. Ellen started to say something, but he bolted upstairs before hearing what it was.

  He dismantled Rex’s hideout in the back of his closet. The individual components of the robot suit were laid out on the floor. After some gentle coaxing and some not so gentle pushing and tugging, TJ attached it all in place. Rex strutted around the room like a rooster in a hen house.

  TJ laughed and pretended to challenge the alpha dino. “Oh, you think you’re something?”

  Rex squared off with him. The gears on his back shook and clanked with the growing rumble deep within his chest. Like outlaws under a hot, Old Western sun, they stared each other down. Neither flinched. Neither backed down.

  Then Rex unleashed the rumbling in his chest in one ferocious roar and charged. TJ took a step, but Rex was on him before he could move any further. The two fell back and rolled around, wrestling for control. Rex pinned TJ on his back and unleashed a steady barrage of licks to his face.

  TJ threw his arms up in self-defense. “Ok, you win! You win!” Rex collapsed on TJ’s chest, tired from the ordeal. His head bounced up and down with TJ’s laughter. TJ wrapped his arms around Rex and hugged for all he was worth. Rex nuzzled into his shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you, pal.”

  A slow whine echoed in Rex’s throat. TJ took it to mean I’m gonna miss you, too.

  ***** ***** *****

  TJ tried to set the box down gently, but it landed with a thud on the kitchen floor. Rex growled his displeasure from inside. Ellen turned a confused eye toward them from the stove. TJ quickly faked a coughing fit to cover it up.

  “Oh, man, maybe I am coming down with something,” he said, patting his chest. If he could get a sick day out of this too, the more the better.

  Ellen set a skillet full of pancakes on the table. “Maybe this will help,” she said as she slapped a stack of four on a plate. “You ran off before I could tell you I made them.”

  The box at TJ’s feet shook. Rex must have smelled the pancakes. In his hurry to get him ready for his big debut, TJ had forgotten to feed him. As soon as Ellen turned her back, TJ lifted the lid of the box and dangled a pancake over the edge. Rex ripped it out of his hand and devoured it in a blink. This only seemed to make Rex more impatient. TJ started slipping the rest of the fluffy pancakes into the box and bumped the side, urging the gluttonous dinosaur to keep quiet.

  Ellen turned around just as TJ picked up the last pancake. She looked from the empty plate to the pancake dangling from TJ’s hand. TJ, suddenly very aware that he had a fistful of flapjack, shoved the whole thing into his mouth.

  Ellen would have been disgusted if she wasn’t so confused. “Hungry?”

  The muscles in TJ’s jaw tired long before he finished chewing. “Just pretending I’m camping,” he mumbled through a mouthful of buttermilk goodness.

  “Try pretending you’re civilized.” She slid a fork to him. That’s when she noticed the box at TJ’s feet and leaned over to peek at it. “What you got there?”

  TJ pressed down on the lid to make doubly sure it was shut. “Oh, just my project for the science fair.”

  Ellen’s face lit up. She had always been impressed by TJ’s aptitude for science, although she had no clue where it had come from. When she was in school, English was her best subject, and TJ’s father didn’t have a best subject. The man was an absolute dolt. “What’d you make? Let me see.”

  Deep breath, TJ repeated in his head. This is what we trained for.

  His mind raced as he tried to work his Mecha-Rex command word into a sentence that wouldn’t make him sound like a nutcase. Better to sound insane than have your mother find out you have a pet dinosaur. “Power down.” TJ waited a moment, hoping Rex heard.

  He took a deep breath, held it, and took the lid off the box.

  Rex was standing perfectly still. Just like a robot in the “off” position.

  Ellen’s eyes went wide. Her mouth fell open. “Wow! That’s… You made that?” A surge of pride tugged at her face. “You bet your left shoe my son made a robot dinosaur!” She did a little hop. Her face flushed from the impromptu aerobic exercise and, perhaps, a bit of embarrassment. She composed herself, straightened her shirt, and brushed the hair out of her face. “That’s really fantastic, TJ. Bravo.”

  Ellen’s pride hitched a ride on her words, sailed into TJ’s ears, and wiggled into his blood. His heart raced. Then it slowed. The warm feeling pulsing through his body turned frigid. His veins froze. He’d been cryogenically preserved with instructions to thaw once they discovered a cure for being a liar. That beaming expression on his mother’s face was because of a lie—a whopper of a lie—and it made TJ want to crawl under the table.

  The rhythmic knock on the door interrupted him just before he decided to eat the rest of his breakfast on the floor.

  “Come in, Sam,” Ellen called.

  Sam crept into the house and walked cautiously to the kitchen as if unsure of the situation she was stepping into. Apparently she didn’t have as much faith in TJ’s plan as she had let on. Her behavior only drew more suspicion from Ellen. TJ silently mouthed, Be cool.

  “I’ve never heard you be so quiet,” Ellen said to Sam. “Everything okay?”

  Sam’s ability to pull a story out of thin air was legendary. “Oh yeah. It’s part of my science project. I’m conducting a behavioral study to see how people react when I alter my behavior.” She pulled a notebook out of her backpack and jotted something down. “When I acted sneaky, you became suspicious. Very interesting.”

  Ellen just nodded, way past trying to understand Sam, resigned to just accepting her for who she was. “Did you see TJ’s project?” Her face lit up again.

  Sam treaded cautiously, still unsure of what she was and wasn’t supposed to say. “Yeah…uh, did you? See it? And not freak out?”

  Ellen’s eyebrows arched. “Of course. Why would I freak out?”

  TJ quickly mouthed Stop talking, but Sam didn’t see.

  “Oh, you know, just because it’s kind of unusual. But not too unusual. Not, like, weird or violating the laws of nature or anything. A normal amount of unusual. You know, the usual unusual.” Sam seemed pleased with how well she’d covered her tracks.

  TJ slapped his forehead. Perhaps the legends were a bit overblown. Er, more than a bit. “Right, well, better get going.” He hoisted robo-Rex off the floor and made for the front door. “Don’t want to be late.”

  Ellen just shook her head as if to say, Learn to accept them for who they are. That’s all you can do, and sipped her coffee.<
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  TJ stopped as soon as they were out of sight of his house. “What the heck was that?”

  Sam appeared shocked by TJ’s tone. “Pardon me? What the heck was what?”

  TJ echoed Sam. “Behavioral study? Violating the laws of nature? I don’t know about my science project, but you were definitely more than the normal amount of unusual.”

  Sam’s stance widened, and her shoulders went back. “I’m gonna let that go because you’re carrying a dinosaur in a box, and I know this is a high pressure situation, but you better check yourself, Beaumont.”

  All TJ could manage was a nod. He realized he had crossed a line, and he desperately wanted to apologize, but there was so much going on in his head at the moment, he could only focus on one thing. His plan.

  They walked in silence until they reached the edge of the schoolyard. TJ couldn’t bring himself to step onto school grounds. Because he knew that once he did there was no turning back. It was either success or failure from that moment on. Big success or big failure. Rex would either be safely hidden in the swamp, or combat helicopters would be hovering over the school as teams of elite soldiers rappelled down and fanned out, looking to take him and Rex captive.

  Sam swallowed her frustration when she saw him waver. “You can do this.” She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which surprised TJ a little—he thought she might slap him with it. “Rex can do this. It’s just one class, then we skip out, meet behind the gym, and beat feet into the swamp. Piece of cake.”

  TJ knew she was angry. He had called her weird once before. That time, she’d noogied a bald spot into his scalp and then didn’t speak to him for an entire week. But he knew she meant what she’d said. Sam wasn’t the kind of person to say something just because it sounded nice or because she knew she should.

  He could do this.

  TJ nodded and the two of them walked into school. It was bustling with kids excited to show off their projects. That’s when TJ realized Sam didn’t have one with her. “Hey, where’s your project?”

  “My dad is dropping it off on his way to work.”

  “What’d you do for yours?”

  Sam turned away so TJ couldn’t see her face as she muttered something.

  TJ tried to pivot around so he could hear what she was saying. “What?”

  Suddenly, she threw her arms up like she had been caught red-handed. “A volcano, alright? I made a volcano. Happy now, Sherlock? You’ve discovered my deep, dark secret.”

  TJ did the best he could to stifle his laughter, and then he remembered what she had said about his project from last year and stopped trying so hard. “Seriously? A volcano? That’s so uninspired. So… last year.” A shockwave of pain shot from his shoulder all the way down to his wrist as Sam punched him with the full force of her semi-embarrassed rage. He scrambled to steady his grip on Rex’s box before he dropped it, which would almost certainly incite a middle school version of Jurassic Park. “Come on,” he pleaded. “Dinosaur in a box, here.”

  “The volcano was uninspired—for you! You love science. I don’t. Now tell me to do a project on sports, and I’ll kick a football into outer space.” TJ knew that she probably would, too.

  They reached an intersection in the hallway and stopped for a final run-through of the plan. “Second period,” Sam said. “They take attendance, you and Rex wow the pants off everyone, and then we’re outta here.”

  TJ nodded conspiratorially.

  Sam put her hand out and TJ laid his on top like a two person football huddle. “Break,” they both said, then went their separate ways, hopefully to meet again in forty-three minutes to celebrate their success.

  TJ walked to his first period science class, wishing that he had instead created a shrink ray for his science project. That way he could have walked to class without all those people staring holes into his box. He could have shrunken Rex and stuck him in his pocket. Better yet, he could have shrunken himself and hung out in Sam’s pocket with Rex. Then he wouldn’t have had to worry about any of this. But the thought of being in Sam’s pocket suddenly made him feel strange. He quickly used a mental shrink ray to shrink that idea down to almost nothing and tucked it away somewhere.

  Mrs. Baker’s eyes locked on TJ like heat-seeking missiles the moment he stepped into the classroom. She took the science fair as seriously as his mother took the Dr. Who marathon. Do anything to disrupt it, look out! The consequences would be swift and severe. Her missile eyes lightened when they zeroed in on the box in TJ’s hands, registering it as his science project. She smiled and nodded, and TJ breathed his first sigh of relief.

  So far, so good.

  Looking around the room, part of TJ wished he could openly share his miniature T-rex with the class because Rex would devour all their projects, digest them, and then re-present them to Mrs. Baker in about two hours as something far more interesting than what they originally had been. Granted, they’d smell a little—okay, a lot—worse, but that was a minor thing. Everyone would get over it when they saw how awesome Rex was.

  TJ had never seen such a waste of construction paper and papier-mâché. Even his volcano from last year was way better than most of that stuff. A diorama? Really? Did TJ wake up in the second grade? Please. This was almost embarrassing. What a shame that Rex had to be hidden under aluminum foil and scotch tape. He would have become a science fair legend.

  Mrs. Baker called the class to order, tapping her yardstick on her desk and inexplicably clearing her throat loud enough for all to hear over the roar of voices. Equally as inexplicable was how she managed to wear a sweater every day of the school year, on the outskirts of a swamp, in the Deep South, and never showed a single bead of sweat.

  “I know you are all excited,” she said from behind her desk, “but we have a lot of projects to present today, so if everyone will please take your seats, I’ll take attendance and then we’ll get started.”

  The class scrambled to squeeze in the last seconds of conversation before the school day formally began. Then they stashed their projects and found their seats. TJ didn’t dare stray too far from Rex. He lowered his face to the box and whispered some reassuring words, slipped Rex a slice of deli meat that he had in his pocket, and set the box on the floor beside his desk. Rex snorted his approval and shuffled around, trying to get comfortable in his robot disguise.

  Mrs. Baker ran through the attendance the same as she did every day, but today felt far tenser. There were only a few names ahead of TJ’s on the roll call, but each one was like a single tick on a ticking time bomb. “Teddy Allen,” she called.

  He needed to sound natural. After all, it was just one word. One! A word he’s said a million times before. He had never thought so hard about—

  Wait, Mrs. Baker had just said something. Was it his name? Did she just call TJ Beaumont? His heart pounded against his ribcage. His blood pressure spiked. He felt like he was going to have a stroke. On science fair day, no less.

  “Sarah Bennett.”

  Oh, thank God.

  “TJ Beaumont.”

  “Here!” TJ shouted, catching himself and the entire class off guard. “Present and accounted for, ma’am. Me and my science project. We’re here. Oh yes we are. Here. Here. Here. Never been more here about anything in my whole entire life. No siree.”

  “Uh, thank you for that, TJ,” said Mrs. Baker, flashing him a concerned half-smile. TJ sank into his seat, his cheeks flushing at the snickers from his classmates.

  Well, that could have gone better, but at least it’s over with. Part one of the master plan: check. My brain almost exploded, but check. Now comes the insane part.

  Mrs. Baker beamed from the front of the classroom. “Excellent. Not a single student missing. I knew you would all be excited for the science fair this year. As always, projects will be presented here in class first and then brought to the gymnasium for display. Do I have any volunteers to go first?”

  A few reluctant hands went up. No one ever wanted to go first, but once the present
ations got started, they rolled along smoothly. TJ couldn’t focus on them. He fidgeted in his seat, slipping scraps of deli meat into Rex’s box when he thought no one was looking. The last thing he needed was for Rex to be hungry when he went on. He’d probably rip through Tara Yamata’s vegetable garden project as if it were a chef’s salad.

  The remaining pool of presenters got smaller and smaller. TJ’s blood pressure rose higher and higher. Only four more to go. Only three more to go. Ricardo Dominguez’s project on alternate universes was cool, even if it wasn’t so much based on science as it was on comic books.

  “So, anyway, Miles Morales is Spider-Man in the Ultimate universe, which is different than the main universe, where Peter Parker is Spider-Man. There are many ways to travel between universes. Some of them include magic, wormholes, mutant abilities, disruptions in the space/time continuum—”

  “Thank you, Ricardo,” Mrs. Baker interrupted. “For that…thoughtful presentation. But we are running out of time and still have a couple projects to see.” She scanned the room for the remaining holdouts. TJ sank as far down in his seat as he possibly could. “Julie Snyder,” she called. “How about you go next?”

  Julie carried her diorama with pride, bouncing on her heels as she always seemed to. Ernest Morrison followed her project with skeptical, hungry eyes, like a wolf watching a sheep. He was just dying for the question and answer part. There was nothing he liked better than pointing out how much smarter he was than everyone else. Julie seemed to be totally aware of Ernest’s eagerness, and was not bothered by it in the slightest.

  Julie cleared her throat and began. “There are nine planets in the Milky Way solar system.”

  Ernest’s hand shot up so fast his shoulder almost dislocated. He didn’t even wait for Mrs. Baker to call on him. “Wrong. That is a false assertion. Because of Pluto.”

  Julie fired back, and then she and Ernest became embroiled in a heated scientific debate.

  Ernest was foaming at the mouth and nearly out of his chair. “According to the International Astronomical Union—”