The Gravity Keeper

by Michael Reisman

  Simon struggled to keep his brain from jumping out and doing a somersault. His father knew Ralfagon! His father was researching activities of the Order of Physics! And his father’s instruments had picked up on Simon and Owen’s fight with Sirabetta!

  Steven continued. “I plan on checking in with Professor Winter to get his opinion on this latest incident.” He checked his watch and frowned. “In fact, I’d better get back to work now. You won’t say anything about our chat, right, pal?”

  “Top secret, Dad. And thanks for your help.”

  Steven smiled. “Glad to see you so caught up in science.”

  Simon coughed as he walked out. “Oh, yeah. Big fan.”

  CHAPTER 27

  CHOSEN SIDES

  On Monday morning, I watched Alysha come to school. As soon as her father dropped her off in front, she walked by the packs of students over to Rachelle at the front steps.

  “Hey, how was your weekend?” Alysha asked.

  Rachelle looked at her and sniffed. “Fine. I was with my real friends.” She made a show of looking at her watch. “Oh, I’ve got to go.” Rachelle turned her back on Alysha and joined the rest of her clique on the other side of the stairway.

  Alysha thought of demanding to know what was going on. Then she noticed Marcus, Barry, and some other guys standing near the girls. All were glaring at her.

  She went up the steps into the school, trying to ignore what had just happened.

  Alysha was startled to find Miss Fanstrom waiting just inside the entrance, her ever-present briefcase in one hand. The principal’s hair didn’t move an inch as she nodded to Alysha. “Well done, Miss Davis. Stiff upper lip, stay strong.”

  “Miss—Miss Fanstrom?” Alysha stammered. “Uh, thanks.”

  “You’re doing fine, dear,” Miss Fanstrom said. She patted her briefcase, making a quiet thunk sound against the notebook computer inside. “You all are.” Then she turned and walked off without waiting for a response. Alysha saw the top of the tower of hair point at her and then swivel to face down the hall. She looked in that direction and saw Simon and Owen walking toward her with big grins.

  Alysha wasn’t sure what to think of Miss Fanstrom’s words or hair, but she didn’t have much spare energy that day. She had slept a lot the night before and had eaten a huge dinner and breakfast, so she didn’t think her weariness was from using her new formula.

  Still, she had to struggle to pay attention; it didn’t help that every class included at least one person from her clique. And none of them were talking to her.

  Lunch was the hardest. She was used to finding at least Rachelle, if not several other girls, too, waiting at her locker to walk with her to the lunchroom. Today, she was on her own. She joined the back of the food line and saw none of her group among the waiting students. Maybe they’d walked over to Nezzo’s and had forgotten to tell her? No, she didn’t believe that.

  She found the truth quickly when she exited the food line and entered the main cafeteria. The cavernous room was filled with its usual din of the laughing, singing (mostly from the younger grades), and chattering of grades one through six, spread across dozens of long, drab-gray Formica tables. She gazed across the bustling room and saw the table the popular kids always sat at, nestled in the back far from the crowded entrance, food line, and garbage pails. The table was full.

  Everyone was there, eating and gabbing and joking and smiling. Everyone was having a great time…without her. Alysha stood staring, holding her cafeteria tray loaded with food, and locked eyes with Rachelle. Rachelle said something that made the whole table turn to stare at her. To frown at her. Why? What had she done? She decided to ask them: maybe it was some dumb misunderstanding.

  She moved quickly past all the other tables and headed to her usual spot on the popular table’s bench. As she neared, though, her friends made a point of spreading out so there wasn’t room for her. “Table’s full,” Barry said.

  Rachelle scowled. “Why don’t you go sit with your loser buddies?”

  “What?”

  “We saw you,” Rachelle said. “We all saw you! On Saturday. Outside Nezzo’s. With them. Marcus saw you holding hands with that puke boy, Simon.”

  “I wasn’t holding hands—wait, what did you call him?” Alysha demanded.

  Rachelle spun around and flicked her hand in the air behind her, as if flinging Alysha away.

  Alysha ground her teeth and for a moment thought of yelling at Rachelle. Yelling at them all. She felt a surge of energy, as if she’d just downed a full can of soda; then she noticed the lights in the cafeteria were flickering. She gasped, looking from the lights above to the nearest outlet, just a few feet away on the wall. Sparks of electricity were leaping across the distance into her legs. She’d activated her formula without even realizing it, and now she was draining from the school!

  She turned and walked out of the cafeteria, tray in hand, and hurried out to the playground. She stepped carefully around the younger kids and found Simon and Owen seated inside one of those concrete tubes.

  “We weren’t sure what you were going to do for lunch,” Simon said, “so we figured we’d just go to our usual spot.”

  Alysha frowned. “We’ve got trouble. Well, I do, and you two probably will. Marcus saw us in front of Nezzo’s, and it looks like he—no, all of those guys—are pretty angry. You two should watch your step around them: they can get kind of nasty.”

  Owen shook his head. “Maybe he should watch his step around us! We don’t have to take it anymore, do we? I’d like to give him a taste of increased velocity!”

  Alysha raised her eyebrows. “Wow. Bravery and breathing between words.”

  Simon sighed. “Owen, I don’t think slamming the school jerk with your formula is going to help. Flangelo said we should keep a low profile, right?”

  Owen’s words started speeding up. “Yeah-but-thatdoesn’t-mean-we-should-just-sit-around-and-let-Marcusand-Barry-pummel-us!”

  “Why don’t we see if we can just avoid them for now?” Simon said. “They haven’t said a word to me all day.”

  Owen shrugged. “Me neither.”

  “Same here,” Alysha said. “But we’ve got the last class of the day with them.” She nodded as Simon and Owen’s faces tightened. “Gym class.”

  The rest of the day passed smoothly enough. But every class, each stop at the water fountain in the halls, and every trip past a former friend’s locker while heading to her next period brought more dirty looks. This all annoyed Alysha, but she managed to keep her anger under control. As she came out of the girls’ locker room for her last class, she saw the gym teacher sitting in the bleachers. His name was Willoughby Wanderby—the very same Willoughby Wanderby from the Order of Physics (unlike most Union members, he hadn’t changed his name on entering…with a name like that, there was no need).

  Wanderby was preoccupied with a detailed folding map of Lawnville, using fluorescent green Post-it notes to mark certain spots. Then he periodically made a quiet but anxious call on his cell phone. Just as the waiting students were starting to get truly restless, Mr. Wanderby snapped his phone shut and refolded the map. Standing up, he blew a short blast on his whistle. “Okay, lads, lasses…dodgeball!”

  A hush fell across the students in the gymnasium. Dodgeball was the most awful or exhilarating game in gym, depending, of course, on how good you were at it. Many schools had banned it for its brutality.

  Mr. Wanderby looked around and zeroed in on Marcus. For some reason, Marcus was the only student he ever called by name (and always by his last name). “Van Ny, captain. And…” Wanderby searched the faces for the rival captain.

  Alysha watched Wanderby as he tried to make up his mind for the second captain. He squinted at her (she had been chosen twice before), and then his gaze lingered on Owen, who was sitting next to her. That was strange. Wanderby usually only paid attention to Owen when he was hurt (not rare) or making a fuss (quite often).

  Then Wanderby looked at Simon. This was
new. Mr. Wanderby, like most other teachers, generally treated Simon as if he were invisible. But today, Wanderby’s gaze landed on Simon and didn’t leave. In fact, he stared.

  He leaned forward for an even closer look, then shook his head, as if dismissing a crazy thought. He pointed at Simon. “You, lad. You’re captain, too,” he said, ignoring the startled whispers.

  Simon picked Owen and Alysha right away and then randomly chose the rest; he didn’t care who else was with them. When the whistle blew, Marcus and Barry grabbed rubber balls and immediately nailed two students near Simon.

  The boy Barry hit collapsed to one knee and gasped for air as he held his stomach. The boy Marcus hit lay flat for a few moments before he crawled away and curled up into a ball.

  Barry and Marcus quickly scooped up another rubber ball each; Marcus glanced at Wanderby, who was studying the map again and was clearly too absorbed to pay attention to the game. Then Marcus pointed at Simon, Owen, and Alysha from across the gym and drew his free hand across his throat. “Who wants to die first?” he bellowed.

  Alysha flinched as someone else on her team went down from a viciously thrown ball. So much for the day ending smoothly.

  CHAPTER 28

  A SWEET YET BITTER VICTORY

  The gymnasium was filled with dodgeball chaos. Rubber balls flew back and forth, causing groans and, occasionally, screams with every boing of impact.

  Simon looked around at his team. It was a massacre. Marcus and Barry were the undisputed champs of dodgeball, after all. He saw the fear in Owen’s eyes as Marcus threw a ball that whizzed right past his face. His face! If that had hit Owen, it could have broken his nose!

  “Marcus, what is your problem?” Alysha screamed.

  Marcus sneered. “Ask your new boyfriends, the loser twins!” He grabbed another ball and hurled it. Alysha ducked. Barely. Marcus was out for blood. “This stops here. Now,” Simon said.

  Owen looked over at Simon. “What-did-you-say-what-are-you-doing-grab-that-ball-oh-no-they’re-going to-kill-us-they’re-going to-kill-me!”

  Owen dove out of the way of the latest throw. As Owen rose shakily to his feet, Simon made a decision.

  There were only a couple of kids still standing on their team besides Owen, Alysha, and him. Marcus and Barry had probably told their teammates to save the three friends for last. A quiet, chubby girl was one of the other two remaining teammates. She ran screaming near Simon as she narrowly dodged a ball. The next throw, hurled by Barry, streaked toward her head. But Simon got there first.

  He grabbed a rubber ball from the floor and quickly threw it at the incoming one. He whispered his gravity formula so his ball was drawn to Barry’s, as if Barry’s ball was the ground and Simon’s ball was falling sideways toward it. Then Simon increased the gravitational pull many times; the ball flew as if he’d thrown it extremely fast.

  Simon’s ball knocked into Barry’s a foot away from the terrified girl’s face, saving her from a painful hit. Simon canceled the gravity attraction just as they collided (otherwise the balls would have stuck together). A gasp went up from everyone in class, and Barry snarled. He looked at Marcus, who nodded. Barry grabbed another loose ball and hurled it at Simon’s head with intent to pummel.

  Simon again used his gravity control, reducing the weight of Barry’s ball so the ball drifted higher than aimed. He also lessened the friction on his own feet. The other kids probably thought Simon was the luckiest kid in the world when he dodged the throw. Owen and Alysha knew the truth, though, and their jaws dropped.

  In that moment, the girl Simon had saved and the other remaining player, a tall, skinny boy, were eliminated. That left Simon, Alysha, and Owen against Marcus, Barry, and six others. Eight against three: tough dodgeball odds anywhere, but with Marcus and Barry against them, it should have been impossible.

  Simon locked eyes with Alysha and Owen. He nodded slowly and with meaning. They returned the gesture…they were ready.

  Alysha and Simon both grabbed loose balls. Owen whispered his formula and nodded to Alysha. She had good aim and, with Owen’s velocity boost, her ball whizzed across the gym and nailed one of the boys. Simon used his friction to help her slip under a throw from Marcus. Then Simon shifted gravity so the next ball he threw zoomed and hit another boy’s leg.

  A girl on Marcus’s team threw her ball at Simon, but Simon curved it, using gravity, and grabbed it, using friction (it literally stuck to his hands). Several students gasped at this, but it was Owen who caused the most stir.

  Barry threw a ball with bone-cracking speed; it should have smashed Owen in the ribs. Instead, Owen canceled its velocity so the ball stopped just as Owen wrapped his arms around it. As far as anyone in the class knew, Owen had just caught a ball thrown by Barry. Barry was out!

  Everyone gasped. Then those on Simon’s team got over their shock and cheered.

  The noise alerted Mr. Wanderby, who looked up from his research. Simon saw the shocked expression on the teacher’s face and smiled. Mr. Wanderby would never forget this day: the day Marcus and Barry fell.

  Alysha, Simon, and Owen got the last three members of Marcus’s team out. That left Simon, Owen, and Alysha against Marcus.

  Marcus grabbed a ball. “I’m going to pound all three of you!” he snarled.

  Owen, having grabbed a new ball, cocked back his arm. “Hey, Marcus, how does it feel to be losing to losers?”

  The whole class fell silent: a nobody like Owen had dared to taunt Marcus.

  Marcus threw first, but Owen used velocity, and his rubber ball rocketed across the room. It struck at the perfect angle, sending Marcus’s own rubber ball streaking back into his face. He was out! Marcus’s team had lost, and his nose was bleeding all over his gleaming white gym T-shirt.

  Simon’s team erupted in applause and cheers. They had just witnessed the impossible. Even some members of Marcus’s team clapped; in the past they, too, had suffered welts and bruises from playing against Marcus and Barry.

  Mr. Wanderby did not look excited. In fact, he glared at Owen, Alysha, and Simon. For a long moment, the students watched him and waited for some reaction. After all, the game had just ended.

  Finally, Mr. Wanderby walked over to Marcus and checked the boy’s nose. “Van Ny, do you want to go to the nurse?”

  Marcus stared evilly at Owen, Simon, and Alysha. “No. I want to play again.”

  Wanderby shifted his angry stare over to Simon and his friends. “Well done. Play again,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Only this time, Mr. Wanderby never looked down at his map. As Simon, Alysha, and Owen used their formulas to lead the team to a crushing victory over Marcus’s (with Barry and Marcus both receiving painful hits this time), Mr. Wanderby watched every move. He glowered the whole time.

  I WAS WORRIED THIS WOULD HAPPEN

  I was pleased to see how well Simon, Owen, and Alysha did; I’m no fan of bullies. Simon’s team won so easily that there was time for four games total. By the end of the second game, every student seemed to realize that Simon, Owen, and Alysha were unstoppable.

  By the end of the third game, Barry had developed a limp and Marcus had one eye swollen shut. By the end of the fourth, they were bloody and badly bruised. Wanderby didn’t look at them; he only had eyes for Simon, Owen, and Alysha.

  When the bell rang, Wanderby dismissed the class. “Except for you three. Our heroes. Why don’t you get changed, get your books and such, and meet me back in the gym?”

  Alysha, Owen, and Simon nodded; why not? They’d just caused the greatest upset in Martin Van Buren Elementary’s dodgeball history!

  Marcus and Barry hobbled off to the locker room. Barry swore off playing ever again; for days after, he was heard whispering that he could still hear the balls bouncing.

  As for Marcus, he was convinced that Simon, Alysha, and Owen were working some terrible magic on him. He shambled to the nurse’s office to have his many injuries looked at; he’d have his father pick him up later.

  In t
he boys’ locker room, Owen and Simon received congratulations from everyone else. For the first time in their lives, Simon and Owen knew what it felt like to be embraced by their classmates. Alysha also welcomed the cheers the girls gave her in the locker room. After a day of being snubbed by her old friends, she was glad to have other classmates be nice to her.

  After getting changed, Simon, Alysha, and Owen went to their lockers and walked back to the gym together. Simon and Owen were feeling weary again, but they weren’t worried. In just a few minutes, they would leave the school, find Eldonna, and explain the Book situation. As far as they knew, their problems were nearly solved.

  Mr. Wanderby came out of his office. “Good, you’re here.” His voice was especially harsh. “I won’t mince words. I know one of you has the Book, so let’s have it back before things get worse.”

  Simon, Alysha, and Owen stared blankly. Could Mr. Wanderby possibly mean the Teacher’s Edition? Could he know about the Knowledge Union?

  Wanderby sneered. “Playing dumb, are you?” He spoke a formula and gestured to a garbage can in the corner of the gym. They watched in bewilderment as it spun faster and faster, rotating in place until the lid went flying and trash spewed all over the polished floor.

  Wanderby glared. “That was a warning. Next time, it’ll be your heads.”

  CHAPTER 29

  THINGS GET REALLY HAIRY

  Owen stared at the wrecked garbage can. “But we won at dodgeball!” he sputtered.

  “Owen, he must be in the Order,” Alysha said. “Mr. Wanderby, let us explain!”

  “Oh, I’m sure I know enough. Give me the Teacher’s Edition.”

  “Let’s skate out of here,” Simon said. “We’ll talk to Eldonna, and she’ll clear things up with him later.” He spoke the words for friction, and the three friends slid for the exit.