The Virtual Vandal Page 3

  “I’m dialing up the PSI,” I said as I turned a thumbscrew on the back of the launcher.

  Noah placed the next package into the tube and stepped back. “I’ll wait over here,” he said. “Just in case that’s too much pressure.”

  “Thanks for your support,” I said bracingly.

  Noah shrugged. “Hey, next time I’ll bring a poncho and stand as close as you like.”

  I aimed the launcher at the tree and pulled the trigger.

  FOOMP!

  That water balloon didn’t break as it exited the barrel either. It soared over the field and struck one of the trees dead center.

  SPLAT!

  The balloon exploded on impact.

  “Hey!” a voice shouted. There was a scuffle, and then we saw Amy peek out from behind the tree.

  “Whoa, sorry!” I shouted. “We didn’t know anyone was there.”

  Noah and I grabbed our gear and ran up to the small grove. As we neared, I saw that Amy wasn’t alone.

  “What are you two doing here?” Noah asked.

  “Trying to find a secluded place for our field test,” Sam replied. “Somewhere we won’t get splattered by water balloons.”

  “How were we supposed to know you were hiding over here?” Noah asked defensively.

  “We’re not hiding,” Amy said. She gave a slight cringe. “Okay, we’re hiding a little.”

  “So, now that we uncovered your secret testing site, are you going to finally tell us about your project?” I asked.

  Sam and Amy glanced at each other.

  “Come on,” Noah urged. “The field trip’s tomorrow. That’s only a day to keep the secret.”

  The four of us collaborated on inventions all the time, but Sam and Amy had been tight-lipped about their project for weeks. They had both weighed in on our cloud-seeding rockets and even our water balloon launcher. But all the while, they didn’t give us a hint as to what their invention was about. It was very strange and a little unfair.

  The girls glanced back at each other. Sam shrugged. “All right.” She held up a finger. “But no jokes, jabs, or ribbing.” She aimed her finger at Noah. “I’m looking at you, Noah Newton.”

  Noah raised his hands. “Hey. It’s me.”

  Sam nodded. “Don’t I know it.”

  Amy rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She waved us forward as she disappeared into the grove.

  Noah and I set our gear down and followed Amy in. Sam brought up the rear. My eyes darted around the area, anxious for the first glimpse of the mystery project.

  They led us to a weird contraption. Two white pipes jutted straight out of a small hole in the ground, rotating around each other as one spewed out a thin trail of soil. The pipes had a ring of soil around them, so it looked as if it had been doing this for a while. Two thin wires led away from the device.

  I leaned out of the grove, visually tracing the wires. They ran to a set of solar panels on the ground.

  “Your invention digs a water well,” I said. “And it’s solar-powered. Very cool.”

  “Fully automated,” Sam said proudly. “It’s slow, but you could theoretically have several going at once.”

  “How are you going to fit a bucket down there?” Noah asked.

  Sam gave Noah a shove on the arm. “It’s not that kind of well. When it reaches the water table, you add a small pipe and pump the water out.”

  Noah shook his head. “Wait, hold up, hold up… I don’t get it. I thought you didn’t want people to call you Water Girl.”

  Sam had that nickname tied around her neck when she had first started at the academy. She had received a full scholarship after creating a big water-sourcing project. It was so big that it remained top secret since it was optioned by a corporation that wanted to test it across the globe.

  How do a bunch of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds react to that? They nickname her Water Girl.

  “Noah,” Sam warned.

  Noah raised his hands in defense. “I’m just asking.”

  “Well, it kinda just came to me,” Sam explained. “And it would mesh perfectly with my other invention.”

  “Which you still can’t tell us about,” I added.

  “Right,” Sam agreed. “And Amy had some great ideas for increasing the efficiency and reducing real-world production costs.”

  Amy looked away, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “Not really.”

  Noah shook his head. “And we still can’t call you Water Girl, huh?”

  “Why do you think we’ve been keeping everything top secret?” Sam asked with a frown. “So I wouldn’t get lip from people like you.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said with a shrug.

  “I thought you were hiding from the vandal,” Noah said.

  “What do you mean?” asked Amy.

  Noah and I recapped our conversation about all the sabotaged projects.

  “Planting mold?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow. “Really? I’m all for a good conspiracy theory, but this one seems out there.”

  I folded my arms and nodded toward Sam. “I don’t know, Noah. You think she’s trying to throw us off the scent?”

  “What do you mean?” Noah asked.

  “Sam is definitely the vandal,” I said. “She doesn’t want anyone to take away her inventor cred.”

  Sam shook her head while Amy covered her mouth and giggled quietly.

  Noah’s eyes widened and a devious grin stretched across his face. He pointed to the bandage on one of Sam’s fingers. “See, she even cut herself when she sawed through Evan’s project!”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Like half the students don’t have bandages on their fingers.” She grinned up at me. “You’ll have to do better than that, Swift.”

  “What about the grease on her shirt?” I asked. “That could be the same grease that messed up Simone’s laser transmitter.”

  Noah rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Excellent deduction, Holmes.”

  Sam sighed. “Yeah, no one has grease on his or her shirt around here either.” She held out her wrists as if she were about to be handcuffed. “All right. You got me,” she said sarcastically. “I’ve been going around and messing up everyone’s projects.”

  Amy laughed harder.

  “You have?” asked a voice behind me. I spun around to see Jenna Davis standing there.

  “What? No,” I said. “We were just joking.”

  “Oh,” Jenna said. Then she leaned past me to look at Sam and Amy’s well digger. “Is this your project?” she asked.

  As Amy and Sam discussed their project with Jenna (and Sam doesn’t stop once she gets going), Noah and I had the same idea—slowly back out of there and return to our testing. I caught Sam’s eye before we left. Her lips tightened and she shook her head ever so slightly. She didn’t have to say it out loud. Her look translated what she wanted to say loud and clear.

  “Thanks a lot, Swift.”

  5 The Coloration Recommendation

  “IT’LL BE GOOD TO GET you outdoors for a weekend,” my dad said. “And not be locked in your room with a VR headset on.” He nodded at Noah. “I’m assuming the same for you?”

  “Yes, sir,” Noah replied. “And whatever screen time Tom does, double it for me.”

  “Triple it,” I corrected.

  Noah had come home with me for dinner and to help finish up our projects for the big field trip. We still had more fins to glue and more balloon launchers to make, so after dinner, we worked atop the large worktable in our garage. My dad kept us company as he finished his coffee, which he drank from his favorite mug. It was one of my first inventions—a mug with a built-in thermometer. It told the temperature of the liquid inside, in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

  We had to put in some late hours because I had expanded our project somewhat. See, since we were launching twelve rockets for our cloud-seeding project, I wondered why we couldn’t do the same for the water balloons. By the time school dismissed, I had sketched out a design for a manifold that
would direct the air to one of twelve different PVC barrels. That way we could launch one balloon right after another.

  My dad sipped his cup of coffee as he watched me work. “So, let me get this straight. You haven’t completed your main project for school, yet you’re working on your water balloon launcher?”

  Noah and I glanced at each other. “Sounds right,” I said.

  “That about sums it up,” Noah added.

  “Besides, we’re practically finished with our rockets,” I said. “Well, Noah is.”

  My dad took another sip of coffee. “What color are you going to paint your rockets?”

  “We don’t have time to paint them,” I said. “Besides, their color won’t affect their function.”

  “I see,” my dad replied.

  I knew that tone. His “I see” really meant: I see what you missed there.

  I sighed. “Okay, what is it?” I asked. “What did we forget?”

  My father took another sip and shrugged. “Well, I can think of two reasons why you should paint your rockets.”

  Noah put aside the fuselage he had been working on. “I want to hear this,” he said.

  “The first reason is a simple sense of pride,” my father explained. “It shows that your project is complete. Someone may think, ‘If they didn’t have time to paint their work, where else did they cut corners?’ ”

  Noah pointed at me. “That’s what I told him.”

  “You’re right,” I said, and nodded. “And that’s great and everything. But we don’t have time to paint all the rockets and finish the water balloon launcher.”

  My dad raised an eyebrow.

  “And…,” I added before he could get a word in. “Even though the water balloon battle isn’t an official competition, what about the pride in coming up with inventive new ways to soak people?”

  “That’s right,” Noah agreed. “Swift Academy has to represent.”

  My dad chuckled. “I’ll give you that. But you didn’t ask about the other reason for painting your rockets.”

  I winced a bit. This was going to hurt.

  “And that is?” I asked.

  “Well, how hard is it going to be to locate and recover twelve cardboard rockets in a wooded area?” he asked.

  I groaned.

  Model rockets weren’t like fireworks; they didn’t just explode after you shot them into the air. After they ejected the chemicals into the clouds, the rockets would fall back to the earth with tiny parachutes.

  “Twenty-four,” Noah corrected. “These are two-stage rockets, so there would be twenty-four pieces to recover. The twelve rockets plus each of their booster sections.”

  I groaned louder.

  The boosters were smaller sections at the base of the rockets that contained their very own engines. It would be the first engine to ignite and lift the rocket only so far. After burning through all its fuel, it would then ignite the engine just above it, in the main section of the rocket, after which the booster and spent engine would fall away. The booster was so small and light that it wouldn’t need its own parachute.

  It didn’t really matter which parts needed parachutes and which didn’t. They would all fall back to Earth and we’d have to locate all twenty-four of them—not only are they reusable, but to not pick them up would be littering.

  I lowered my wrench. “All right. I guess the multiple balloon launcher is out.”

  “Now hang on,” my dad said. He put his mug down and opened a nearby cabinet. “I think I have some quick-drying stuff in here.” He rummaged around until he pulled out two cans of spray paint. “Here are two colors that aren’t found in nature. Which will it be? Neon green or hot pink?”

  Noah and I glanced at each other. “Neon green,” we said in unison.

  Noah shrugged. “Although pink would be easier to spot in the woods.”

  “And Sam got a new nickname just for coming up with a water invention,” I countered. “What kind of nickname do you think we’d get?”

  Noah’s brow furrowed. “Oh.”

  “Neon green it is,” my dad said as he put back the pink can. The remaining can clacked loudly as he shook it. “Now, before giving up on the launcher, let me ask you this.… Is there a rule against having an assistant help you finish your project?”

  Noah and I glanced at each other again. “No,” we said in unison, both of us smiling.

  “Okay then,” my dad said as he pressed the garage door button. The large door slowly rumbled open. Still shaking the can, he snatched up two of the completed rockets and took them toward the driveway. “Make sure the Swift Academy students are the driest ones this weekend,” he said. “After your rain project, of course.”

  6 The Transportation Speculation

  THE BUS HIT A BUMP on the gravel road and my finger slid across my tablet. Now my new go-cart design looked as if it had a long antenna extending from the middle of the front seat. I shut off my tablet and tucked it into my backpack. I stared out the bus window, watching the thick woods go by.

  I guess I could’ve just as easily used pen and paper to draw my design. Sam had warned me about bringing too many electronics. But hey, it wasn’t as if we were headed out to the wilderness. I watched more of the dark forest go by. Okay, so maybe we were kind of headed out into the wilderness. But the summer camp had nice cabins with electricity and even Wi-Fi. Besides, we weren’t going there for the whole summer-camp experience. This was just for the weekend.

  Noah plopped back into the seat beside me. We weren’t supposed to be out of our seats while the bus was moving, but some of the students got away with it.

  “Okay, we’re in big trouble,” he said in a low voice. “And by we I mean you.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I just talked to Chris Hibbard and he told me about this rumor going around,” Noah replied.

  I shook my head. “What rumor?”

  Noah lowered his voice even more. “The rumor that Sam has been vandalizing everyone’s projects.”

  “What?” I glanced ahead. Sam and Amy sat in the seat directly in front of us. “Who started that rumor?” I asked in a whisper.

  “I’m guessing you did,” Noah replied. “Remember? Yesterday, outside the school?”

  “That was a joke,” I said. I tapped him on the chest. “A joke you helped with, by the way.”

  “I know,” Noah said. “And that’s what I told Chris. But I don’t know how many other people have heard it.”

  My lips tightened as I shook my head. “Jenna must’ve said something to someone.”

  “We told her it was a joke too,” Noah added and then raised his eyebrows. “Man, Sam is going to kill you.”

  “Me?!” I said. “We were all joking about it!”

  “Yeah, but you started it, remember?” Noah asked.

  I stood and scanned the rest of the bus passengers. “I have to find Jenna and tell her to cool it with all the rumors.” I looked behind me, but I didn’t spot her anywhere. Up ahead, I just saw the backs of everyone’s heads.

  I slid out from our seat and moved up the aisle. Hopefully, I could at least get to Jenna before Sam found out about the rumors. She was one of my best friends in the whole world but honestly, Sam could be scary sometimes.

  “Remain seated while the bus is moving,” the bus driver announced. I locked eyes with him in the long rearview mirror above the windshield. He shook his head slightly.

  I immediately backtracked to my seat.

  Noah laughed. “Busted.”

  “I don’t see her anywhere,” I reported. “Do you think she might’ve skipped?”

  Noah shook his head. “No way. I saw her helping load the truck before we left.”

  Since so much equipment had to be transported, there was a large panel truck following our bus. It was full of everyone’s components, tools, and even luggage for the weekend.

  “Nice one, Swift,” Sam said from the seat in front of us. “I see you haven’t perfected your stealth
y ninja skills yet.”

  “Not yet,” I agreed.

  Good. The news hadn’t made its way to Sam yet. I could enjoy a little more time being her friend before she disowned me.

  I settled back into my seat and tried to enjoy the rest of the trip. I watched the trees go by and did my best not to worry about the rumor spreading like a zombie outbreak.

  Before long, we turned a tight corner and the main entrance came into view. Two large poles flanked the road, with a sign between them that read WELCOME TO CAMP NORTHWOOD. The bus trundled under the sign as we drove into the camp.

  I leaned over the seatback in front of me. “Pretty cool, huh?”

  “I don’t know,” Sam said. “All I see are a bunch of trees.”

  I nodded. “Yeah?”

  “My well dig—” She stopped herself and glanced around. “My invention doesn’t do well with tree roots or rocky soil.”

  “Oh.” I looked out the window. “I’m sure there’ll be plenty of clearings to choose from.”

  “That’s what I told her,” Amy agreed. She was busy putting on sunblock.

  “We’re going to need one too,” I added. “Model rockets and trees don’t mix.”

  Then I noticed that Amy spread sunscreen all over her watch. “Uh, you got some on your watch, Amy.” The square device actually looked like a smart watch with a blank screen.

  “I know,” Amy said as she continued to apply lotion. “And it’s not a watch. That is my UV detector.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “You know the film badges that change color if a person is accidentally exposed to too much radiation?” she asked.

  “Dosimeters?” I asked. “The kind of badges people wear at nuclear power plants?”

  “Exactly,” Amy replied. “Well, this works on the same principle, but it’s set up to detect too much UV radiation.” She held up the tube of sunblock. “That’s why I have to give it the same protection I’m getting, so I can get an accurate reaction.”

  “Very cool invention, Ames,” Noah chimed in as he leaned forward to get a better look. “Is that an extra-credit sort of thing?”

  Amy shook her head. “No, it’s a not-getting-skin-cancer sort of thing.”