by Tracey West
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
GROSSET & DUNLAP
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Plink, plink, plink, plink.
You drop your mancala pebbles in holes around the game board. One of the pebbles lands in an empty hole opposite your opponent’s side of the board.
“Capture!” you cry happily. The three pebbles in that hole drop into your mancala.
You tap your flipper to the beat of the funky music piped into the top floor of the Coffee Shop. Your opponent is a good friend of yours. She always beats you at mancala. But this time, you’re going to win . . .
“Capture!” your friend shouts. You see five of your pebbles drop into her mancala. The game is over!
“Good game,” you say as you collect your coins. “Want to play again?”
“Sure,” your friend replies. But before you can sit back down at the game table, you get a postcard.
“Hold on,” you say. “I’ve got a message.”
You look at the postcard and see a picture of none other than Gary the Gadget Guy. Your heart beats faster as you read the card.
“Check this out!” you say. You read the message out loud.
“Congratulations! You are the winner of the Club Penguin Invention Contest! Your prize is a twenty-four-hour apprenticeship with me, Gary. We will begin at exactly 10:00 PST. Directions to my workshop will be sent in a separate postcard.”
“Wow!” your friend says. “You get to meet Gary in person?”
“I can’t believe it!” you say. You feel like jumping up and down with excitement.
You were so excited when you read about the Invention Contest. Gary announced it in the newspaper. He asked penguins to design an invention that would amp up one of the games on Club Penguin to make it more extreme. The only thing you like better than inventing is eating pizza, so you decided to enter.
You mailed Gary your plans for a freeze ray. You love playing ice hockey. With a freeze ray, you could turn patches of the sled-racing hill into ice so you could sled faster!
You never thought you’d win. You never win at anything—until now!
You glance at your watch. “Yikes! It’s almost ten,” you say. “I’d better go. I want to stop at my igloo and get the freeze ray I made.”
“Meet me when your apprenticeship is over,” your friend says. “I want to hear every detail!”
“You got it!” you promise.
You race to your igloo. It’s a cold day, and you’re glad you’re wearing your favorite turtleneck and fuzzy snow boots. Inside your igloo, you quickly feed your yellow puffle, Einstein. Then you stuff the freeze ray into your messenger bag. Before you leave, you receive another postcard.
You’ll find my workshop at the bottom of a hill, in a place where sports fans can get their fill.
It’s the riddle from Gary! You study the first line. The hill must be the Ski Hill. There are two buildings at the bottom—the Ski Lodge and the Winter Sport Shop. You know where Gary’s workshop is!
Snow crunches under your boots as you waddle up to the Sport Shop—the place where sports fans can get their fill. You are climbing up the stairs when you hear a voice behind the door.
“I see you’ve found my workshop! Good work, apprentice!”
You turn and find yourself face-to-face with Gary!
He looks exactly like his picture: blue, wearing a white lab coat. His round eyeglasses are so thick, you can’t see the eyes behind them.
“Gary, I can’t believe it’s you! I am your biggest fan! I am so happy I won the contest! I worked really hard on my invention. So, does my apprenticeship start now? What do I do? Do I get to make inventions with you? Do I—”
Gary smiles and holds up a flipper to stop you. “I can see that you are excited. Enthusiasm and passion are trademarks of any good inventor. It’s exactly what I’m looking for,” he says. “Follow me.”
Gary leads you inside the Sport Shop.
“There’s no shortage of work to be done or contraptions to invent,” he tells you. “I mentioned this to Aunt Arctic and she suggested I get an apprentice—someone to help me with my many inventions. It was such a good idea, I wish I had thought of it myself.”
“I am ready to do whatever you want, Gary,” you say.
“Perhaps we should begin with a tour of my workshop,” Gary suggests. “Then I can show you some of the inventions I’ve been working on.”
That sounds great to you. Then you remember the freeze ray in your bag. You can’t wait to show it to Gary! But you’re worried that might not be polite. You wonder if you should wait until Gary gives you his tour first.
If you decide to wait to show Gary your freeze ray, click here.
If you interrupt Gary and show him your freeze ray, click here.
“It certainly is,” Gary answers. “I have always been fascinated with the science behind surfing. I’ve been experimenting with rocket power to see if I can give Catchin’ Waves a bit of a boost.”
“Awesome,” you agree. You examine the surfboard. There are two small rockets on the back of the board. They’re attached to some kind of fuel tank with a small switch on top.
“I need you to test this out for me,” Gary says, and you can’t believe your luck.
“Will do! I’ll come back with a full report,” you promise.
“Excellent,” Gary says. “I have arranged for you to test this out at the Cove. Please change into a wet suit and report back to me.”
You quickly don the wet suit in a changing room. When you come out, you see a blue penguin wearing a red bathing suit, red sunglasses—and a jet pack. He’s stan
ding by the open shop door, ready to fly you to the Cove.
“Hey, Gary,” he says. “All ready?”
“Absolutely,” Gary replies. He hands you the surfboard. “This invention is top secret. Test it out, but don’t let anyone see you.”
The blue penguin grabs you, and the two of you fly off. You start to panic.
“Gary, how do I work this thing?” you call down to Gary, who is watching you from the ground. But he can’t hear you.
You fly over the Town Center, over the Snow Forts, over the Forest—and then the Cove is in sight below. You grip the board as the penguin flies you over the waves.
“Surf’s up!” he cries.
Then you drop. But you’re confused. You reach back to try to turn on the rockets. You don’t see it coming, but a big wave is headed your way!
Wipe out! The wave pushes you back to shore. You jump up. Luckily, you’re still holding the surfboard.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
It’s your friend. You try to hide the surfboard behind your back, but it’s too big, of course. Your friend’s eyes get wide.
“Is that one of Gary’s new inventions?” she asks excitedly.
You start to tell her about the surfboard, then stop. Gary said it was top secret. You’re not sure what to do. She is your best friend, after all.
If you tell your friend, click here.
If you don’t tell your friend, click here.
Luckily, you land safely in an empty coffee cup. Not so luckily, the penguin holding the cup spots you.
“There’s something weird in my cup!” he screams.
Panicked, he tosses the cup in the air. You go flying. You land safely again—this time, in the blond pigtails of an orange penguin. Unlike the last penguin, she doesn’t seem to notice you. You grip one of her pigtails and hope you won’t fall off.
The orange penguin leaves the Coffee Shop. She walks next door to the Night Club.
Once you’re inside, the pounding music is so loud you have to hold your flippers over your ears. The colorful light-up dance floor is crowded with penguins. A bunch of them are doing a synchronized dance. The orange penguin gets on the floor and begins to dance along with them.
“Whoaaa!” You start to tumble around in her pigtails. You roll to the edge and grab on to a hair, but it’s slippery. You lose your grip and fall to the dance floor.
You manage to land on both feet. But you have another problem. You are surrounded by stomping, tapping, dancing feet. Can you get out of the Night Club without getting squished?
click here
You press the triangle-shaped button. Nothing happens.
Maybe this first row of buttons isn’t powered up, you guess. You see that right above the square- and triangle-shaped buttons are a round button and a star-shaped button—and they’re both blinking. The only trouble is, you still can’t reach them.
You climb down from the shoe box and start searching around for something to give you a boost. Luckily, Gary is not the neatest penguin on the island. There are a bunch of items on the floor that could be useful. You almost pick up a coiled spring, but it looks like it could be dangerous. You settle on a spoon, a spool of thread, and a marble. The spoon is taller than you, and the marble is the size of your head.
You drag them all to the shoe box. You toss up the marble. You climb up and pull up the spoon. Then you climb down and try to lift up the spool of thread. It’s so heavy! It’s really exhausting being tiny.
Finally, you arrange the spoon and spool to make a sort of seesaw. You stand on the handle of the spoon. Then you pick up the marble. You throw it onto the bowl of the spoon.
Whoosh! Your plan works, and you go shooting up into the air. The round- and star-shaped buttons are within reach. But which one should you push?
If you press the round button, click here.
If you press the star-shaped button, click here.
You decide to show Gary your freeze ray later. You’re anxious to see his workshop, anyway.
“Lead the way, Gary,” you say.
You follow Gary past the exercise machine to the back wall of the Sport Shop. It’s pretty messy. Blueprints of Gary’s inventions are crookedly tacked to the wall. You spot the plans for the jet pack, the jackhammer, and others. Your flippers start to tingle with excitement.
This is where it all starts, you think.
The desk where Gary works is covered with papers and coffee stains. Metal springs, bolts, and other spare invention pieces are scattered on the floor. Papers spill out of a bulging file cabinet. Crumpled papers surround a blue recycling bin, but none of them have hit their target. Gary grabs a steaming cup of coffee from the desk and takes a sip.
Next to the desk is a hulking object covered by a blue tarp.
“Is that a new invention you’re working on?” you ask, pointing.
“Oops! I should have put that somewhere safe,” Gary replies. He rushes over to it and makes sure the tarp is secure. “You are one observant penguin. It will serve you well in this line of work. An inventor’s work can’t always be shared until it is ready. I’m afraid this project is still top secret.”
You feel disappointed. You would love a peek at one of Gary’s top secret projects.
“Let’s see, where should we start?” Gary says. “Ah, yes, my desk. This is where all my ideas start. It usually takes several weeks for me to plan an invention.”
You nod. “Yeah, it took me a long time to design my freeze ray,” you agree.
“And these are my blueprints,” Gary says, pointing to the wall, but something else catches your eye.
You hadn’t noticed it before, somehow. But there’s a door on the wall marked “Gary’s Room.” You are curious.
“Can we go in there?” you ask.
Gary adjusts his eyeglasses nervously. “Oh, I’m sorry, but that is not possible. The inventions behind that door are top secret.”
Top secret. You like the sound of that. If only Gary would let you in!
The Sport Shop phone rings. Gary waddles over to answer it. He listens, nodding.
“That is not ideal,” he says. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there.”
Gary hangs up the phone. “There is trouble with the Pizzatron 3000. This might be an excellent opportunity for you to learn machine repair. I must get to the Pizza Parlor right away. Would you like to come with me?”
You are about to say yes when you stop yourself. If you can convince Gary to let you stay in the Sport Shop, you might be able to peek at what’s under that tarp. Or even try to open the top secret door.
You quickly shake the thought from your head. You couldn’t do that—could you?
If you stay behind so you can check out Gary’s secrets, click here.
If you go with Gary to the Pizza Parlor, click here.
You decide you’d like to fix things before Gary finds out. One of those buttons must be able to turn you back to the right size. Science is all about experimentation, isn’t it? You owe it to science to test it out for yourself.
First you have to reach the buttons. You spot a shoe box on the floor nearby. You go over and give it a push. Luckily, it’s empty. But it’s still a lot of work for a miniature penguin. Puffing and panting, you push the box across the floor and stop underneath the machine. Then you climb on top of it.
There are two buttons right in front of you: a square one and a triangle-shaped one. Which one should you push first?
If you push the square button, click here.
If you push the triangle-shaped button, click here.
You press the star-shaped button.
Zap! A blue beam shoots from the laser. You dive off the shoe box to make sure the laser hits you.
Your body starts to tingle. You look down. You’re starting to grow!
“That’s a relief,” you say. But then you notice something else.
Your color is starting to change. A pattern of red, white, and green plaid is popping up all over your body. You
stop growing when you hit your normal size, but you are now plaid. You waddle to the Sport Shop mirror to get a good look at yourself.
“Ah, you have discovered the Size-a-Tron 3000.”
You turn to see that Gary is back in the Sport Shop.
“I’m so sorry,” you say. “I was just so curious.”
Gary nodded. “I understand. Curiosity is a healthy trait for any inventor. Now let’s get back to your apprenticeship.”
“But I’m plaid,” you say. “Can you change me back?”
Gary shakes his head. “Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to reverse the plaid ray,” he says. “You should be back to normal in a few weeks or so.”
“A few weeks?” You suddenly feel the urge to put on every item of clothing you own. “I’ll be right back.”
You rush off to your igloo, hoping no one will notice you. But of course that’s impossible. Penguins start to crowd around you.
“Cool pattern!”
“Is that in the new Penguin Style catalog?”
“Hey, you look like a couch!”
Okay, so not everyone loves your new look. But you like the attention. You turn around and take your plaid self back to the Sport Shop. You have an apprenticeship to finish!
THE END
Back to Beginning
You bring the surfboard back to Gary.
“The rockets worked great in the beginning,” you tell him. “But then the rockets went out. I think splashing water put them out.”