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Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon

Page 13

by Ben Mezrich


  “Come on, Kentaro. You’ve got to say something.”

  Charlie thought back to the awards ceremony that had taken place last night. It had been one of the happiest nights of his life. The organizers from Aerospace Infinity had lined all of his team members up on the stage of the Moretti Grand Ballroom in the hotel. Along with the huge trophy they had won, they were each awarded a gold medal engraved with their winning design, beneath the words “Nagassack Middle School.” Charlie wasn’t sure how the organizers had gotten the medals engraved so quickly, but Aerospace Infinity seemed to have ample funds to accomplish such feats.

  Then the organizers had asked them to say a few words, and Charlie had immediately handed the mike to Kentaro—and Kentaro had simply clammed up.

  “Just give me one word,” Charlie said. “And I’ll leave it be.”

  “One word?” Kentaro raised his hands, palms up. “Providence.”

  “That’s not an explanation,” Jeremy fumed. “That’s a train station, right before Boston. Kentaro—”

  He was interrupted by voices from the other side of the platform, more passengers coming down for the train. Charlie looked across and spotted the Worth Hooks backpacks. It only took a second more to find Kelly, standing next to Ryan by a bench overlooking the train tracks.

  Charlie didn’t need to tell the rest of the Whiz Kids where he was going as he headed across the platform. He could hear Crystal groaning behind him, but he ignored her. He didn’t stop moving until he was right in front of Kelly and Ryan. Before either of them could say anything, Charlie reached into his backpack and withdrew an envelope.

  He handed the envelope to Kelly.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  Ryan was looking at him suspiciously but didn’t say a word. Since Charlie had bested him in the competition, Ryan had seemed to have shrunk a few sizes.

  “The prize money. We talked it over, and we want you guys to have it. The organizers said it’s fine for us to make the transfer.”

  “No way,” Ryan said. “We’re not charity cases.”

  “No, you’re the rightful recipients. See, we weren’t supposed to be in the contest at all. Our applications weren’t filled out correctly, and we should have been disqualified. This cash prize is rightfully yours.”

  Kelly stared at him, trying to digest what he was saying.

  “If you guys weren’t supposed to be there, shouldn’t Richard get the prize?”

  “Richard has enough money; heck, his father owns the sponsoring company. And who knows? If you guys had been in the finals as you should have been, you might have taken him down.”

  Kelly and Ryan looked at each other, and then Ryan took the envelope from her and placed it in his pocket.

  “Fair enough,” the bigger kid said, rising up to his full height. “But next year you’re going to lose to us fair and square.”

  “You’re not going to call me a runt?” Charlie said, feeling bolder than usual. It was a good feeling, doing the right thing. He knew his parents would be proud if he told them the whole story. He still hadn’t decided how much he’d reveal when he got home.

  “I think you’ve graduated to shrimp,” Ryan said. “Maybe by next year you’ll be a full-size eel.”

  He stepped away. Charlie caught the sound of the oncoming train in the distance and turned back toward Kelly. She was smiling at him but seemed at a loss for words. Charlie wanted to tell her what he was thinking, but he wasn’t sure what to say, either.

  He wanted to know what the future was going to hold. Would Kelly be part of his world going forward, or were they just two paper airplanes passing in the night?

  Numbers, Charlie was good at. Words, those were much harder.

  Charlie only knew one thing for sure. He had an entire train ride ahead of him to find the right ones. . . .

  About the Author and Illustrator

  BEN MEZRICH graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. Since then he has published sixteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network, and Bringing Down the House, which has sold more than two million copies in fifteen languages and became the basis for the Kevin Spacey movie 21. He has also published the national bestsellers Ugly Americans, Rigged, Busting Vegas, and Once Upon a Time in Russia. He travels the world, speaking to audiences of all ages about writing books and the adventures he has experienced from each of his stories. Visit him at benmezrich.com.

  When TONYA MEZRICH was little, she preferred art to reading. But then she learned that reading could be just as cool, and so could writing books. She attended Tufts University, where she studied French literature and art history. She later developed a jewelry line and clothing line and launched and cohosted the TV show Style Boston. She is a resident fashion expert at NBC Boston and NECN, and writes a blog about style and fashion at tonyamezrich.com. She and Ben live in Boston with their two kids and a pug.

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  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.

  Text copyright © 2017 by Ben Mezrich and Tonya Mezrich

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2017 by Rayner Alencar

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  Jacket design by Krista Vossen

  Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

  The text for this book was set in Life LT Std.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Mezrich, Ben, 1969– author. | Mezrich, Tonya, author.

  Title: Charlie Numbers and the man in the moon / Ben & Tonya Mezrich.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2017] | Summary: When sixth-grade mathematical genius Charlie Lewis is recruited to recover moon rocks taken from NASA’s vaults, the Whiz Kids enter a paper airplane contest hosted by the suspect’s company.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016056388| ISBN 9781481448475 (hardback) |

  ISBN 9781481448499 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Mathematics—Fiction. | Genius—Fiction. | Moon rocks—Fiction. | Paper airplanes—Fiction. | Contests—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Peer Pressure. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship. | JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.M5753 Ch 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056388

 

 

 
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