Nick Eliopulos - Minecraft - Into the Game (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #1)

Future

J

odi Mercado looked over her

list of equipment. Binoculars:

check. Sunglasses: check.

Trench coat: too hot and

probably not necessary, so she

had left it at home.

She had done her

research. She knew

all the tools of the

spy trade.

“It’s difficult to use

sunglasses and binoculars

at the same time, though,” she

said, switching back and forth

20

between the two.

“Excuse me,” said a voice at Jodi’s back. She turned

and saw the new girl

standing there. “Is this second-period gym?”

“Yes,” Jodi replied quickly. “Welcome! Here, hold these,

please.” She handed

her sunglasses over. The binoculars

gave a much clearer view. She now saw her science teacher, Doc Culpepper, walking through the school car park with a box full of circuit boards and wires and . . . gadgets of some sort.

“Sorry, one more question,” said the new girl. “Where is the gym teacher?”

“Coach Graham is always three or four minutes late,” Jodi answered. “Which means these are the

21

best three minutes of the day to test my hypothesis.”

“Hypothesis?” echoed the new girl.

“It means an educated guess,” explained Jodi. “You try to prove your guess is right or wrong through experimentation or observation.”

“I know what a hypothesis is,” the girl replied. “We already had our science fair at my last school. I meant, what is your hypothesis?”

“I think our science teacher is from the future,”

Jodi answered. “I think she was fighting

evil robots, but the robots were winning. So

she travelled back to our time to change

the past and prevent them from conquering the world.”

The new girl laughed. But it wasn’t a mean laugh. Jodi knew what a mean laugh sounded like.

Jodi lowered her binoculars and continued. “Culpepper is new this year. She’s brilliant.

She’s a real doctor! I looked her up online, and she has worked on artificial intelligence. So what is she doing at our school?”

“Maybe she enjoys teaching,” said the new girl.

“That’s an interesting hypothesis,” said Jodi.

22

“But I like mine better.”

“Well, I have bad news,” said the girl. “I think your science project has got away.”

Jodi spun around and looked

through the binoculars. “How did she do that?” she asked.

“Did she step through a time portal?”

“She stepped into . . .

a minivan!” the new girl

answered dramatically.

“Hmmm . . . ” said Jodi, disappointed. “That’s

so normal, it’s almost suspicious . . .”

The new girl giggled. “I’m Ash, by the way.”

Jodi put the binoculars away. “I’m Jodi. I saw you this morning. We’re both in Ms Minerva’s class.” She pointed to Ash’s sash. “So you’re a Wildling Scout? You have so many badges!”

Ash nodded. “Unfortunately, there’s no Spycraft badge. But maybe I can help you anyway. I do have a badge for bird-watching. And camouflage. And drone building.“

“Oh, I love the drone idea,” Jodi said. “I could

23

paint it to look like a ghast!” She scratched her chin. “But what if Doc takes control of it remotely with advanced technology from the twenty-third century?”

“You’re right,” said Ash. “A drone is too risky.”

Jodi sighed. “I need a real science

24

project, anyway.” She perked up. “Wait. Did you say you’ve already done one this year?”

“Yes,” Ash said. She pointed to a badge with the image of a test tube on it. “I made an exploding piñata. It uses carbon dioxide.”

“A piñata you don’t even have to hit?” Jodi said. “It’s the invention of the century!”

“The science is easy,” said Ash. “But it takes an artist to make it look like a real piñata.”

Jodi grinned from ear to ear. “You want to be partners? You bring the science, I’ll bring the art.”

Ash smiled back. “Sure.”

A shrill whistle cut through the air.

“Our three minutes are up,” Jodi said. “Follow me!”

Jodi was a year younger than the other kids. The teachers all said she had ‘creative problem-solving skills’. That seemed to be a polite way to say that she was smart but impulsive – both traits shared by all the members of the Mercado family. But where her brother usually tried to control

25

himself and look cool in front of their classmates (she didn’t think he was all that successful), Jodi liked to follow her artistic whims, no matter what anyone thought.

Her ‘creative problem-solving’ made her seem a little odd, but there was no denying that

she was smart. She had been allowed to skip a grade. That was why she was in the same classes as her older brother, Morgan.

In most cases, being younger than her classmates wasn’t a big deal. But she always felt the difference in gym. She was just a little bit shorter than

everyone else. It put her at a disadvantage for most sports.

So she’d made a deal with Morgan. They called it their pact. When it was his turn to choose teams, he would always choose her first. And when it was Jodi’s turn, she would choose Morgan first. That way, they were always on the same team.

Morgan was a good big brother. So good that she was reluctant to do what she was about to do: she was going to break their pact. She only hoped Morgan would understand.

It was Jodi’s turn to choose. And Ash looked so hopeful, standing on her tiptoes and waving. Jodi realised that she was probably one of the only people Ash knew in the entire school.

“Go ahead, Jodi,” said Coach Graham. “Make your first pick.”

Morgan took a step forwards.

“I choose Ash,” Jodi said quickly, before she could change her mind.

Ash looked so happy. She rushed to Jodi’s side. “Thanks,” she whispered.

28

Jodi felt warmth in her chest. She was sure she’d done the right thing. And she was sure Morgan would understand.

She glanced across the asphalt at her brother.

Uh-oh. Maybe he wouldn’t.

29

Chapter 3

Science! Without It¸

There Would Be No Candy

S

everal days later, Harper Houston stepped back to admire her team’s creation. She smiled.

There was just something beautiful about a perfectly constructed volcano.

“I hope this works,” said Po Chen. He was one of her partners for the science fair.

“It will work,” Harper promised. “That’s the beauty of science. If you follow the instructions, you get the same result every time.” She turned to Morgan, the third member of their group. “Right, Morgan?”

Morgan didn’t say anything.

“Right, Morgan?” she repeated.

30

But Morgan wasn’t paying attention to her. He was looking towards the doors of the auditorium. Harper turned to look, too. She saw Morgan’s sister, Jodi, with the new girl, Ash. They were arriving with their own project. It was tall and covered with a white sheet, like a Halloween costume of a ghost.

“What is that?” Harper asked him. “Did your sister make a volcano, too?”

“I don’t know,” Morgan answered. “They’ve been working on it in secret for days.”

“Well, don’t let it distract you,” Harper said. “This isn’t a competition.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “They hand out trophies for the best projects. I’m pretty sure that makes it a competition.”

Harper sighed. She just didn’t worry about things like that. She loved learning for the sake of learning – especially science. And she didn’t need a trophy to know that her team had done a good job.

There were other volcanoes made of paper-mache, clay, and other craft materials in the