Green Algae and Bubble Gum Wars (19 page)

“Cool project, man,” Dillon exclaimed as he passed by Reggie's booth.

“Yeah!” Henry Yurt added. “For once I wish I was shorter so I could, like, ride on this stuff!” He gave Reggie an enthusiastic high-five.

Katani folded her arms and prepared for her moment of sweet revenge. She was going to point out Reggie's flaming error in front of two of his fans. He would be so humiliated! She smiled and began, “I was reading your calculations, Reggie—”

“Oh, yeah!” Reggie jumped up from the floor with a huge smile on his face. Katani's heart thumped. He looked so happy…and kind of cute. “Um, uh, I was reading your calculations too, actually.” Katani tilted her head. Was it just her imagination, or was Reggie actually
nervous
?

“Your work with water power is so fascinating…I mean, uh…really sick, man,” Reggie corrected himself quickly.

Katani frowned. “Sick?” Was he for real? When would Reggie quit with this whole ridiculous rap star persona?

“Yeah, you know. Sick—like awesome. Off the hook! Sick is better than sweet. Your project rocks the house, Katani.”

Whoa. The way he said it was total goofball (really, as if Kgirl didn't know what “sick” meant!), but his compliment was actually…nice. She felt so rattled all of a sudden that she didn't know quite what to say except a soft, “Thank you.”

“I wish your booth was farther away, actually,” Reggie went on. “It kind of makes me look bad. You have this like, important idea that could actually help people, and I just have a model toy set.”

At that moment Katani didn't want to humiliate Reggie at all. “Yours is sick too, Reggie. You did, uh…a great job,” she told him, feeling the white lie stick a little in her throat. Now Katani didn't know what to do. Should she tell him about the mistake in his calculations? Maybe it would be better just to let it go. Most people would never even notice the error when they looked at his project…

“I hope so,” he confided. “Ms. R wants me to do a live demonstration at the Science Fair tomorrow night.”

“That's gonna rock, dude!” Dillon said enthusiastically, high-fiving Reggie.

Katani gulped as she realized what was going to happen. When he demonstrated his project in front of the entire school, he was going to be humiliated for sure! Everyone would watch his perfect little go-carts run out of battery power and stop right in the middle of the demonstration. Katani opened her mouth to say something, but when she looked at Dillon and Yurt's excited faces, she closed it again. Warning Reggie now, in front of his admirers, was just as bad. She swallowed, feeling absolutely terrible for Math Boy, and said in a voice she hoped sounded optimistic, “Good luck!” And to herself she added,
he's gonna need it.

E
eeeeleeeenaaaaa,” Isabel yelled, “I'm running mega late for the science fair!” She pushed her way into their bedroom and gaped in horror. “And so are you!” She pointed at Elena Maria, who was wrapped up in her fuzzy purple terry cloth bathrobe. “Will you get dressed? You can't go to the science fair in your PJs.”

Elena Maria crawled back under her comforter. “I'm not going to the science fair, okay?”

Isabel threw back her head. She and Avery had been plotting this forever—the final step in their matchmaking plot. “Are you kidding me? You're going to ruin everything!”

Elena Maria sat up with a start. “
I'm
going to ruin everything? What are you talking about? This is your science fair, Iz.”

“I, um, I know that,” stammered Isabel. “I just mean that if you don't go you will ruin the family support vibe. And that vibe is, um, very,
very
important to me. I mean Mom is going to a play this evening, I don't want her to have to cancel her plans.”

“Oh, for pete's sake,” groaned Elena Maria. “As much as I want to help your…whadya call it…family vibe, going to anything tonight is seriously the last thing I want to do.”

Isabel sat down on the edge of her sister's bed. “How come? Tell your dear sister all about it.”

“Don't tease me tonight—I'm not in the mood.” Elena Maria blinked and Isabel noticed that her sister's eyes were pink and swollen. “At lunch today Jimmy asked a girl to the spring dance…right before my very eyes!”

Isabel puckered her lower lip in sympathy. “Oh, Elena. That's horrible. I'm so sorry.”

“It gets worse.” Elena Maria sniffled. “The girl he asked out was Cammy Dooley, my supposed best friend!” She blew her nose into a tissue.

“Cammy Dooley!” Isabel squeaked. “You've got to be kidding!”

“Now my
ex
-best friend,” Elena Maria huffed. “Well, you know what? She can have dweebish Jimmy, and his dweebish friends, and I hope she has a lot of dweebish fun making dweebish food for the dweebish indoor lacrosse team!” She got out of bed and began furiously brushing her long, silky hair. “I might as well just get used to the fact that I'm going to end up an old maid living with a million cats.”

Isabel rolled her eyes. “You hate cats, Elena…and you don't even like Jimmy anymore, anyway. You said so.”

“That's totally not the point. The point is…” Elena Maria looked tragically at her reflection in the mirror. “The point is I am a failure at romance. I'm going to be alone forever. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go downstairs. If you need me I'll be in the kitchen, baking away my pain.”

“Okay.” Isabel shrugged. “Hey, speaking of baking…Avery said Scott baked a huge cake designed to look like a gumball.”

Elena Maria froze at her door. “He did?”

Isabel smiled. “Yup. He's bringing it to the fair tonight.”

Elena Maria turned her head slowly. “He is?”

“Yup. He mentioned that he hoped you'd be there—he wants another cook's professional opinion.”

A smug smile popped on Elena Maria's face. “He does? That's so sweet. Well, I'd hate to let him down. You know, as one professional to another.” Elena Maria untied her robe to reveal an adorable khaki pleated skirt and a crisp, white blouse. “Yikes, would you look at the time! Isabel, clap clap, let's
go
!”

Isabel was so stunned by her sister's caterpillar to butterfly transformation that she was utterly speechless.
If time heals all wounds, then my sister should be in
The Guinness Book of World Records! she thought. “Okay, let's go!”

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

“Step right up, ladies and gentle-dudes,” Avery cried. “Step right up! See the amazing gum-chewing super boy. The one and only, the great…
Scottdini
!”

“Ave—this will require major compensation later, of the chore-doing kind,” Scott whispered in his sister's ear as he squeezed her elbow. He was totally mortified by Avery's carnival-style presentation.

“I'll tell you why he rules the kingdom of gum,” Avery continued to shout. “Because…he's
Scottdini
. Emperor of stickiness. Sultan of spearmint. King of the environment.”

Scott stepped off the footstool. “That's it, I'm leaving.”

Avery sighed. She'd tried every trick in the book to find Elena Maria. She'd sent Scott over to Isabel's booth to ask for tape, but he said that Isabel wasn't there. Then there was her last idea—making Scott into a circus sideshow in hopes that Elena Maria would see him. Twenty minutes later, the only people who had found Scott were two giggly sixth graders who wanted their pictures taken with “the great Scottdini.”

“Aw, c'mon, bro. Don't leave…,” Avery begged.

Scott glared at Avery. “How do I put this? Okay, remember when I hurt my leg skiing last winter? And I had to spend the entire ski weekend in a hospital with that crazy nurse who practiced opera singing in my room?”

Avery nodded nervously.

“Tonight is making me miss that nurse.” Scott glumly took a seat on the stool. “Are you sure Elena Maria said she wanted my chocolate dipped granola banana recipe? I feel like she's not even coming.”

Avery shrugged. “That's what Isabel told me. I mean, uh…you know how Elena likes her bananas.”
Bananas.
Avery shuddered.
I'm the one who's bananas.
She felt a little guilty about making that last part up, but Avery was tired of seeing her brother mope around the house like a love-sick puppy. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and the desperate one in this situation was Avery!

She cleared her throat and gave one last hearty, “Come and see the great Scottdini!”

“Since when is your brother a magician?” asked Charlotte with a coy smile. She was sort of an amateur magician herself
and had become quite good at performing tricks in public.

“They're not called magicians, they're
illusionists
,” corrected Isabel, who also seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“He's not a magician, he's a gum artist,” Avery clarified. “And,
ahem
, where in the name of Scottdini have you been, Isabel?” She lowered her voice and added, “I
thought
you were bringing company.”

“I did, but it wasn't easy,” Isabel whispered back. “She went into the bathroom fifteen minutes ago to check on her lip gloss and I haven't seen her s—”

“
Yo, Elena Maria! Over here!
” Avery interrupted. She started jumping up and down and waving her hands furiously in the air. Elena Maria, standing at the far end of the gym, looked positively terrified as she crept over to Avery's booth.

“That was slick, Sis,” Scott growled. His face was pinker than Maeve's bedroom.

“Hi,” Elena Maria greeted them softly, as she reached the booth. She looked around at Avery's display. “So…where's the cake?”

Scott, Avery, and Charlotte looked bewildered. “What cake?” Avery asked. “You want some gum or something?”

Elena Maria blinked. “Scott's cake. That's why you wanted me here, right?”

Scott scratched his head. “I thought you came over here for my chocolate dipped bananas recipe.”

Elena Maria made a gagging noise. “Ew, no! I hate bananas.”

Scott shook his head and started to say, “But Avery told
me…” just as Elena Maria was explaining, “But Isabel told me…”

“Uh-oh!” Charlotte felt a giggle escape from her mouth. “I mean, uh, you guys…want to see my project?”

Avery and Isabel glanced at each other, nodded, and took a giant step back. They didn't walk over to Charlotte's booth—they
ran
, leaving Scott and Elena alone to untangle Avery and Isabel's little white lies.

“You two are officially the world's worst matchmakers,” Charlotte declared.

Isabel and Avery looked at each other and burst out laughing. “That's it. I'm retiring from matchmaking forever,” Avery vowed.

“Me, too,” agreed Isabel. “Although…” She tilted her head towards Avery's booth, where Scott and Elena Maria were sitting side by side on the pair of stools and merrily chatting away. “Somehow I think we just might have pulled it off.”

“What is it about science fairs that makes people get together?” Charlotte wondered out loud.

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked.

Charlotte pointed to Katani's booth. “Call me crazy, but those two ‘sworn enemies' are looking awfully friendly…”

The girls looked over and saw Reggie, who had shed his over-sized hoodie to reveal khakis and a sweater vest, standing at Katani's booth. “What happened to those ridiculous baggy pants he's been wearing for the past month?” Charlotte asked.

Isabel giggled and shook her head. “I don't know, but I'm glad they're gone!” Then the girls watched, open-mouthed, as
the newly clean-cut Reggie presented Katani with a yellow long-stemmed rose. Avery threw her arms in the air. “I swear I had
nothing
to do with that!”

Katani, standing stiffly behind her booth, was even more shocked than Avery. “What's this supposed to be?” she demanded.

Reggie looked serious. “Um, it's…you know…a rose.” For once he had stopped using that stupid fake voice and just sounded like regular old Reggie DeWitt.

“I know it's a rose…,” Katani replied, sounding slightly irritated. “But what does it mean?” Maeve might have been okay with wildly romantic gestures, but they made Katani downright uncomfortable.

Reggie quickly assured her, “Yellow roses are symbolic for friendship. I read it in this horticulture book I have,” he added shyly, then went on, “and after what you did today, I figured I could call you a friend.”

“What did I do?” Katani asked innocently.

Reggie reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of lined paper. “I got an anonymous tip today. Apparently my go-cart equations were off. Whoever wrote this
totally
saved my life…or at least my reputation. And there's only one person at this school who knows math like I do.”

“Who's that?” Katani squeaked.

Reggie looked her straight in the eye. “Well, that's you, Katani.” He placed the flower on her table. “And now I feel like a total idiot. I spent all this time wearing these stupid pants that were constantly about to fall down and talking funny and spending time with your dad to impress you, when I should have just been focused on the math. I mean,
let's face it, I'm not cool. I'm just Math Boy. Anyway, I hope you don't hate me,” he mumbled, and started walking away.

Katani stared at the back of his head for a second, too shocked to speak. He had been wearing all that crazy hip-hop gear and hanging out with her dad…to
impress
her? What did that mean? Finally she found her voice and called out, “Hey, Reggie!”

He turned around slowly. “Yeah?”

“Um…thanks for the rose.” She picked it up and smiled. “Actually, I like Math Boy a lot better than Rap Boy.”

Reggie just grinned at her and walked away, leaving Katani's heart beating a mile a minute. She tried to focus on the lovely friendship rose, and not that other pesky, annoying thought…the one about what a more-than-friendship rose might be like.

Katani, feeling very unlike her normal self, wandered over to the one person who could possibly bring her back to earth.

“I saw that!” Maeve squealed as Katani approached. “I know what you're going to say—yellow rose means friendship and blah blah blah, but come
on
, Katani! It's soooo obvious that Reggie DeWitt is totally into you.”

“I've landed.” Katani sighed. “Maeve, you know, there is such a thing as a guy and a girl being just friends. Besides, Reggie DeWitt is totally not my type. He's way too into schoolwork, he thinks he's the smartest person in the world, and he always has to be the best.”

Maeve smirked. “Hmmm, who does that sound like?…You!”

Katani opened her mouth to protest and then began to
laugh. “Okay, okay, fine. But how about this? If Reggie and I are the same, then there's no way he could like me. Isn't it true that opposites attract?”

“I used to think that…,” Maeve glanced dreamily at Matt and Bailey, who were checking out the displays like kids in a candy store. It was hard to tell who was more excited about the AAJH Science Fair. “But now I think that a lot of times, people get together because they like to do the same things.”

Matt and Bailey waltzed over to Maeve's booth with their arms intertwined. “Wow, Maeve! Thanks for inviting us. These experiments are wonderful. Of course, I think yours takes the cake,” Bailey said with a wink.

“I couldn't agree more,” said a voice behind her. Maeve turned around to see Mr. Moore. She was completely surprised. Did she just get a compliment on her work from a teacher…a
science
teacher? “Your display is well-presented, Maeve, and your research appears very solid. I'm pleased that you added to your excellent research by reaching out to an expert.” He nodded at Bailey. “I can tell you put a lot of effort into this, Maeve.”

“She did, sir,” Matt jumped in. He gave Maeve a little secret thumbs-up as Mr. Moore looked over at the plants again. Maeve felt a grin cover her face from ear to ear. She had never felt so proud of a school project in her whole life.

“Keep up the good work,” Mr. Moore told her, smiling and moving onto the next booth.

“Congrats, Mix-Master-Curl!” Matt cried, giving Maeve a high five. “Sounds like you just got an A.”

Bailey put an arm around Matt's waist. “You deserve it, Maeve,” she agreed.

Seeing Matt and Bailey so happy together put Maeve's whole dream-crush situation in perspective. Maeve knew that someday she'd meet a guy who'd turn her perfect dream-crush into reality. And you just couldn't rush that kind of perfect.