by Mark Young
Newton Warp looked down at the square of gray meat on his plate. He picked up his fork and attempted to stab the loaf, but it shimmered and disappeared because it could.
“Rats!” Newton cried.
Next to him Higgy, his roommate, burped loudly. “I ate mine before it could escape to another dimension,” he said.
“How do you know it won’t still escape?” Newton asked.
“What do you mean?” Higgy asked.
“Well, you might have absorbed it into your—your goo,” Newton began. (He’d been going to say “stomach,” but Higgy Vollington was made of green protoplasm, and Newton wasn’t entirely sure his friend had a stomach.) “But it could still move to another dimension once it’s inside you, right?”
“You may be right,” Higgy agreed. “Then I’ll just be hungry again! Better get something else to eat.” He slid off the bench and made his way back to the lunch line, making a pffft pffft pffft sound as he moved.
Across the table Newton’s friend Shelly Ravenholt pushed her plate toward him. “Want to share my salad?”
“That’s okay,” Newton replied. “I’m not that hungry anyway. Those protein pancakes at breakfast filled me up.”
At the end of the table, a brain in a jar trained its eyeballs on Newton.
“I don’t know why everybody makes such a fuss about eating,” said Odifin Pinkwad. “It seems like such a bother. And you have to do it three times a day.”
“Five,” corrected Rotwang Conkell, a tall, skinny boy next to Odifin. His plate was piled with a mountain of nuggets.
The robot student sitting next to Shelly frowned. “Well, I don’t eat either, but I’m glad we get a break three times a day,” said Theremin Rozika. “Otherwise we’d just have three more classes.”
“Didn’t I hear that your dad was working on artificial taste buds, Theremin?” Shelly asked. “That would be cool. Then you could see what you’re missing. You too, Odifin.”
“I can assure you, I’m not missing anything,” Odifin said.
Higgy came back and slapped a tray of purple gelatin onto the table. “It helps to be nice to the lunch ladies,” Higgy said. “They gave me extra helpings!”
“They prefer to be called ‘dining engineers,’ ” Shelly reminded him.
A feeling of happy calm came over Newton as he looked at all his friends.
Just a few months ago, Shelly and Theremin found me in the library Brain Bank, with no memory of who I was or where I’d come from, Newton thought. I thought I’d never fit in or find out what my story was. But now…
But now Newton was closer than ever to learning the truth. First he and his friends had discovered that Newton had special abilities. He could instantly grow gills if he jumped into water. He could camouflage himself if he was in danger. He could change his appearance to mimic others. His sticky hands and feet allowed him to climb up walls and stick to ceilings. And he was discovering new things all the time.
Newton had done his best to keep those special abilities a secret. At the same time, he had tried to find out the truth about his past. Headmistress Mumtaz seemed nice, but whenever he questioned her, she’d say she couldn’t tell Newton anything, which was strange. Then a mysterious green-haired man had started following him around. The man had turned out to be Professor Flubitus, who said he’d come from the future to protect Newton, because Newton was somehow—in a way he did not yet understand—very important to the future of the school.
This was interesting, but Newton didn’t necessarily want to know about his future—he wanted to know about his past. Finally Flubitus had revealed that Newton had a relative at Franken-Sci High. After an intense search, and some DNA testing, Newton had discovered who that relative was: Odifin the brain in a jar, was his half brother!
Newton gazed over at Odifin, who was talking to Rotwang. Odifin thought about what he wanted to say, and then his words came out of a speaker attached to his jar.
“I hear they’re showing a movie called The Thing with Two Heads in the gym tonight,” Odifin said to Rotwang. “We should go!” Then Odifin looked at Newton. “Want to come, Bro?”
“Thanks, Odifin, but I need to check my schedule,” Newton replied. “I think I have a homework assignment to do.”
Theremin’s eyes flashed red. “ ‘Bro’? Aren’t you guys half brothers? Or is it more like quarter brothers?”
Newton heard an edge in his robot friend’s voice, and suspected that Theremin was a little bit jealous about the fact that Newton and Odifin were brothers of any kind. Newton understood where Theremin was coming from. Until recently Odifin had been a rude, mean kid who wasn’t particularly nice to Newton and his friends. Newton and Odifin had only become friendly right before the big news.
On the other hand, even though Newton and Theremin’s friendship had gotten off to a rocky start, they’d already formed a stronger bond than Newton and Odifin. Newton guessed that Theremin’s jealous side was showing through, and maybe this time it was for a good reason….
Continue Reading…
The Creature in Room #YTH-125
Mark Young
About the Author
In the “real” world Mark Young makes a living as a multiple Emmy winner who has written and produced the animated TV shows for Netflix, Disney, Nick Jr., ABC, CBS, and NBC. However, in his “inner” world, Mark believes that Franken-Sci High isn’t actually his creation but a real school where budding mad scientists learn how to create synthetic eyeballs, travel to different dimensions, try gravity gum, and design inflatable pets. Mark lives in Southern California with his wife. Between them, they have four amazing kids. More about Mark at MarkYoung.co.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Mark-Young
Simon Spotlight
Simon & Schuster, New York
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN 978-1-4814-9140-2 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-9139-6 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-9141-9 (eBook)