It's Alive! It's Alive! Read online

  “This is cool, DeAndre,” Coach Teague said. “Tell us what we’re seeing.”

  DeAndre kept his eyes on the bot, but a grin spread over his face. “My bot is constructing its own bot,” he said.

  He spoke in such a low whisper, I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly. But yes, I could see the bigger bot attaching magnetic arms on the sides of the tiny bot.

  We all applauded. “That’s a killer idea,” Gates said, slapping DeAndre on the back.

  “It’s a winner,” Coach Teague agreed. “How did you think of it?”

  DeAndre shrugged. “Couldn’t think of anything else.”

  More laughter.

  This is why I love our Robotics Team. Everyone gets to use their brain in new ways. Building the bots is a real puzzle. But thinking them up is crazy fun.

  Rosa and Sara presented their robot next. It was about the same size as DeAndre’s robot, except it stood up on one end. Its arms were like rods. There were bolts at the elbows.

  Sara carried a box of LEGO bricks to the table and dumped them out in front of the bot.Rosa held the controller in one hand. She pushed a button to activate the bot, and it began to hum.

  “Since we’re doing construction bots,” Rosa said. “Sara and I designed one that can build a tower.”

  She slid a lever on the controller. The robot moved forward and picked up a LEGO piece. She controlled the robot’s actions with two sliding levers and a few buttons. We all watched in silence as the robot began to stack one block on top of another.

  As the tower grew higher, the rods of the bot’s arms grew longer. The robot stacked ten blocks perfectly without a drop or a mistake.

  Everyone applauded, even Gates and me.

  She and Sara bumped knuckles. Rosa had her eyes on me. It was like she was challenging me. Go ahead, Livvy. Let’s see you beat that.

  “Gates and Livvy, you go next,” Coach Teague said. “I can’t wait to see what that giant retro bot can do.”

  A wave of dread tightened my throat.

  Gates and I had completely reprogrammed Francine. Did we get it right this time?

  We carried our bot to the side of the table. I brought out a bowl of eggs we had stashed in the supply closet. And a small skillet. I set the bowl and skillet down in front of Francine.

  “This is Francine,” I announced.

  Coach Teague chuckled. “We might want to rethink that name,” he murmured. Everyone laughed. Rosa laughed the hardest.

  “No. We like that name,” I said.

  Gates rolled his eyes. “Livvy likes the name,” he said.

  Oh, thanks for backing me up, Gates.

  “We kept with the construction theme,” Gates said. “We’ve programmed Francine to crack eggs and construct an omelet.”

  Coach Teague whistled. “Wow,” he said. “Livvy, did your parents help you with the programming?”

  “No way,” I said. “Gates and I designed it ourselves.”

  “We had a few bugs the first time we tried it,” Gates said. “And her parents helped us debug it.”

  “Livvy’s parents are computer programming experts,” Teague told everyone.

  I wished he wouldn’t talk about my parents. Gates and I did this on our own. My mom and dad would have helped. But we wanted to prove we could do it without them.

  “Okay. Let’s see Francine go,” Teague said.

  “Fingers crossed,” I muttered, crossing them.

  Please, Francine—no disasters like we had with Chaz in the kitchen. Please …

  I nodded to Gates. He flipped the switch on Francine’s back.

  Everyone watched in silence. Watched and waited.

  Nothing happened.

  “Is it on a delay?” Coach Teague asked. “Did you check the circuits before you brought her in?”

  “Worked perfectly last night,” I muttered.

  Gates flipped the power switch off, then on again.

  We all watched in silence as Francine didn’t move, didn’t hum to life, didn’t do anything.

  Rosa was the first to laugh. “Guess we don’t get to eat an omelet today.”

  “Stop it, Rosa,” Teague snapped. “You know we’re a team. We support one another, right?”

  “Right,” Rosa said, but you could see the total delight on her face.

  Gates pulled open the control panel on Francine’s back. He lifted out the battery pack. He shook it. “I brought fresh batteries just in case,” he said. “They’re in my locker.” He set down the battery pack and disappeared into the hall.

  Coach Teague had his eyes on me. “You tested the omelet-making before?”

  I nodded. “We had problems, but then we fixed them.”

  No way I was going to tell him about Francine crushing eggs on our heads and heaving eggs all over the kitchen. For one thing, Rosa would enjoy the story too much.

  Rosa and Sara walked away from the table and began to talk about their robot and how it was going to kill at the tournament against Swanson Academy. Coach Teague picked up DeAndre’s bot and asked him some questions about the mechanics.

  My head was pounding. Sometimes when I’m tense, I get these headaches. And trust me, I was waaay tense. The other bots were awesome, and I knew Francine could be awesome, too.

  If only …

  Finally, Gates came running back into the Art room. He had big drops of sweat running down his forehead, and he was breathing hard from running to his locker and back.

  He slapped the fresh battery pack into Francine, and I closed her up. “Okay. Ready to try again,” I announced.

  Everyone returned to the table. Rosa and Sara were talking about a boy they both liked who transferred to Springdale last week. Sara said something funny, and they both cracked up laughing.

  “Let’s give Francine some attention,” Coach Teague scolded them. “We can’t win unless we support each other, right?” he said again.

  “We can’t win if their robot doesn’t even power up,” Rosa said.

  “That’s not my idea of support,” Teague told her. “Are we going to have to adjust your attitude module?”

  It was a joke, but no one laughed.

  I reached for Francine’s power switch. “Here goes,” I said. My heart felt like it was leaping into my throat. I threw the switch.

  Everyone watched and waited.

  Nothing happened.

  Francine didn’t move.

  Then a very rude sound came out of her. “Pppffffffftt.”

  Everyone burst into wild laughter—everyone but Gates and me.

  “Pfffffffft.”

  She did it again.

  The laughter rang off the Art room walls. Even Coach Teague was laughing his head off. Rosa and Sara slapped high fives.

  When the laughter finally ended, I flipped the power switch on the robot a few more times. “I don’t understand it,” I murmured. “I really don’t.”

  Rosa’s blue eyes were dancing excitedly in her head. “Maybe you need your parents to help you with this one,” she said, sneering.

  Rosa knew just how to get me. She knew I didn’t want to be compared to my parents. They are computer geniuses. I just want to do the best I can.

  “If you’d like me to help you program it, I’d be happy to pitch in,” Rosa said.

  Gates and I knew she wasn’t sincere. It was so obvious she said it to impress Coach Teague.

  A great day for Rosa. A bad-luck day for Gates and me.

  “It really did work when we tested it last night,” I told the coach.

  He shook his head. “Go back and get it right, Livvy. We can’t enter your robot in the tournament if she doesn’t work perfectly every time.”

  He turned to the others. “Congratulations on your good work. We have two robots that can definitely compete against anything Swanson throws at us. Now we just need one more.” He waved to the door. “Let’s meet again on Tuesday.”

  Sara and DeAndre picked up their bots and started to the door. Rosa flashed Gates and me one last triump
hant smirk. Then she hurried after Sara.

  “I don’t get it,” Gates muttered. “I just don’t get it.”

  I stared at our robot for a long moment. Something is definitely wrong here, I told myself.

  Is Francine doing this to us deliberately?

  My mom picked Gates and me up at the side door to the school. We tossed Francine into the trunk of the car and drove to my house.

  “I don’t have to ask you how it went,” Mom said. “I can see by your faces.”

  “Disaster,” I muttered.

  “Embarrassing disaster,” Gates said, shaking his head.

  “I think we need you to check out the programming again,” I said. “Gates and I did something wrong.”

  “Not a problem,” Mom said. “You may have just switched a few circuits in the memory pack.”

  I left Francine in the garage. Till after dinner. We had salad and then pepperoni pizza, and Mom and Dad carried on about one of their favorite conversations, “Are robots getting too smart?”

  Mom thinks robots could be given enough intelligence to go out on their own and take over the world from humans. Dad thinks that scientists would never let that happen.

  They never get tired of discussing this subject.

  “I can tell you one thing,” I interrupted when most of the pizza was gone. “Francine is not smart enough to take over for humans. She isn’t smart enough to take over for a mosquito!”

  Dad swallowed his last pepperoni. He started to stand up. “Go get her, Livvy. We’ll take her down to the basement and check her programming again.”

  I hurried to the garage and dragged Francine inside through the kitchen door. Mrs. Bernard had started on the dinner dishes. She spun around as I shoved Francine through the door.

  “Oh my, oh my,” she said, wiping her hands quickly on a dish towel. “Do you have to bring that machine in the house?”

  “It isn’t on, Mrs. B,” I told her. “It can’t do any harm.”

  She motioned to the kitchen walls. “Look at them, Livvy. Look. They’re all stained. We couldn’t get the yellow streaks off.”

  “I know,” I replied softly. “But my parents—”

  “That machine doesn’t belong in the house. I’m not superstitious, but that thing is evil. I’m sure of it.”

  “My parents need to see it,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’ll keep it out of the kitchen. I’ll be careful with it, Mrs. B. I promise.”

  She shook her dish towel at me, as if trying to wave me away. I couldn’t hear what she was muttering under her breath as I dragged Francine through the kitchen and over to the basement door.

  Mom and Dad carried the robot down to their basement lab. I told you, it’s a Forbidden Zone. I’m not allowed in there unless they invite me and bring me down.

  I went up to my room and tried to concentrate on my reading assignment. But I felt tense and totally distracted. So far, Francine was an embarrassing failure. And I needed to know why.

  Mom and Dad knocked on my door less than an hour later. They walked into my room shaking their heads. They pushed Francine against the wall. Then they both dropped down on the edge of my bed.

  I turned in my desk chair to face them. “So? What did you find?”

  “Nothing,” Dad said, scratching the back of his head.

  My mouth dropped open. “Nothing? What do you mean nothing?”

  “We didn’t find any programming at all,” Mom said. “The memory bank … it seemed to have been drained.”

  I suddenly had a rock in the pit of my stomach. I gripped the top of my desk. “You mean—”

  “There was no programming,” Dad said. “No code. Nothing.”

  Mom squinted at me. “Do you think you and Gates could have accidentally deleted it?”

  I gasped. “Huh? No way! How would we have done that?”

  Dad shrugged. Mom bit her bottom lip. “It’s mysterious,” she murmured.

  I jumped to my feet. “Mysterious? It’s impossible!” I shouted. “Do you know how many hours Gates and I spent programming the robot? Then testing the program? Then programming some more?”

  “Don’t shout at us,” Mom said. “We’re just telling you what we found. The memory unit was empty.”

  “I—I—I—” I stammered. “I have to call Gates. Maybe he has an idea.” I shook my head. “No, he won’t. He’ll be more horrified than me!”

  Mom and Dad climbed to their feet. “You saved the program, right?” Dad asked. “You saved it on your laptop?”

  I nodded.

  “So it won’t be too hard to put the program in again,” he said.

  “I guess,” I muttered.

  “Well, take it back out to the garage,” Mom said, heading to the door. “It’s freaking out Mrs. Bernard.”

  “And if you want your mom and me to help you reprogram it …” Dad started.

  “No. Thanks. That would be cheating,” I said. “Gates and I will handle it.” I sighed, and added, “I guess.”

  I listened to my parents walk down the stairs. Then I crossed the room to Francine. I put a hand on her shoulder. “Did you do it?” I asked. “Did you erase your memory circuits?”

  Of course, the robot didn’t move in any way. I suddenly felt stupid. Am I going nutso? Why am I standing here asking questions to a mechanical robot?

  I slid my arm around the robot’s waist and lifted her with one hand. I carried her out of my bedroom and down the hall to the stairs.

  My brain was spinning. How did Francine’s memory just vanish?

  I suddenly had this wild idea. What if Rosa sneaked up to the Art room before the Robotics Club meeting and deleted Francine’s program?

  Possible?

  No. No way.

  I instantly felt bad even thinking that Rosa would do that.

  For one thing, she wouldn’t know which circuits to mess with. Also, that would be too dirty a trick for anyone to play, even Rosa.

  I should be ashamed for thinking that.

  Holding tightly onto Francine, I started down the stairs. I couldn’t wait to call Gates. Would he have any clue at all about what happened?

  I was on the fourth step down when Francine suddenly moved. She kicked out one of her steel legs.

  “Hey—!”

  I let out a startled cry as I stumbled over her foot.

  I couldn’t stop myself. I toppled forward, tangled up with her leg, and went bouncing headfirst down the wooden stairs.

  “Owwwwwww!”

  I screamed all the way down. Each step sent an explosion of pain down my body. The robot bounced on top of me, clanging at every impact.

  I hit the bottom and sprawled there on my stomach with my arms outstretched. The robot bounced over me and rolled into the hall.

  Stunned. I really did see stars. Red and yellow stars flashing and floating in front of me. I shut my eyes and waited for the pain to fade. But my whole body hurt so much, I had to force myself to breathe.

  I heard running footsteps, and Mom appeared above me. “Oh no! Livvy—what happened? Are you okay?”

  I groaned. “I don’t know.” I pulled myself up onto my knees.

  Mom knelt beside me. She took me by the shoulders and helped pull me to my feet. “Is anything broken?”

  I tested my arms and legs. I took a step. “No. I’m okay.”

  “Livvy—you fell all the way down?”

  A burst of anger helped wash away my pain. “No!” I cried. I pointed a finger at Francine, on her side on the hallway floor. “No. No, Mom. She tripped me!”

  Mom gasped. She still had hold of my shoulders. She turned me to face her. “Stop it, Livvy. You have to calm down. You’re too wrapped up in this crazy idea that Francine can act on her own.”

  “She tripped me, Mom,” I insisted. “I saw her. She stuck out her leg. Seriously. The leg shot out, and I fell over it.”

  Mom let go of me and took a step back. “You sure you’re okay? Do we need to call Dr. Gurwin?”

  “I’m okay,” I said. �
��But do you believe me? Do you?”

  “No,” Mom said. “No, I don’t believe the robot could trip you. For one thing, she has no memory, no programming at all. Now pick it up. I’ll help you carry it to the garage.”

  All the pain was nearly gone, but I was steaming. Isn’t it a parent’s job to believe her daughter?

  Okay, Mom, I thought. Maybe you don’t believe me now. But I know this robot is thinking on its own—and I’m going to prove it!

  Well, too bad, kids. Livvy and Gates aren’t having much luck with Francine. Maybe they should melt her down and make a can opener! Hahahaha.

  But I don’t see the big fuss.

  When Francine comes to life, she makes trouble for Livvy and Gates.

  When I come to life, I make trouble for EVERYONE!

  Well … if you think that you’ve seen big bot trouble, just wait. In a few chapters, you’ll be screaming, “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!” Hahahaha.

  Bright sunlight poured into the garage and made Francine glow as if she were on fire. Gates and I had her hooked up to my laptop, and we were feeding the memory program back into its module.

  The robot’s memory loss was still a mystery to both of us. Gates wasn’t ready to believe that Francine had done it to herself. Of course, I had told him about how she tripped me and made me fall down the stairs.

  He wasn’t ready to believe that, either.

  “Once we feed the code back into her, we can test her,” Gates said. “You know. Get a bowl of eggs. Let her crack them.”

  Gates had his fingers crossed. “I have a good feeling about this,” he said. “I’m not sure why. But I think this time, everything is going to work.”

  And that’s when Rosa appeared in the open garage doorway. She had her silky black hair tied back in a single ponytail. She wore a white polo shirt and shorts. “Hey, guys.” She greeted us as if we were the best of friends.

  “Rosa? What’s up?” Gates asked.

  She stepped into the garage and crossed to Francine. “I thought maybe I could help,” she said. She glanced at the laptop screen as the programming code was fed into the robot.

  “You really want to help us?” I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice.