Chapter 1 — The Wrong Prank

The spitball stung me behind my ear. This one was extra juicy and drool dripped down my neck and soaked into my shirt collar.

Dylan sneered from his seat two rows back, and spun a McDonald’s straw between his beefy fingers. Our class’s presenter kept explaining atomic reorganization, noticing nothing.

I held up my “Discovering Chemistry” textbook to block any more attacks as I wiped away the still-warm spitball. Dylan was such a jerk. I didn’t get how teachers never caught idiots like him, but somehow Dylan, Travis, and the other bullies at the Pacific Academy never even got detention.

I wanted to throw something back at Dylan, but knowing my luck, Miss Libby would look up from her grading the moment I reacted.

Another spitball aimed at me hit my book. Dylan sighed loudly. I risked a look under my defenses, but I only saw the top of his red hair. He must have been working on some new, dumber plan.

I groaned and tried to listen to the presenter. I always liked science and this guy, Dr. Byrd, was an amazing inventor at the biggest tech company in Mountain View. He’d only visited our school since one of his nephews attended the academy too. His salt and pepper hair shaded his bright eyes, and he mumbled when speaking. I still tried to catch every word.

“We’ve trained the model to consume information from every culture, so when it restructures a matter set, it uses the most accurate human context.” Dr. Byrd opened up one of the steel box’s side panels. “Observe.”

He grabbed Miss Libby’s favorite red pen her desk and placed it on a steel tray beside the machine. He typed the word “Apple” on his attached computer and the machine’s “scope” dial to its lowest setting.

The machine’s top panel retracted, and thousands of tiny needles glimmered in neat rows like spears from an advancing army. Two emerged and circled the tiny pen sitting in on the tray, scanning it with cones of light.

In a blur of motion, the needles zipped around the pen, dissolving it into golden light. The whole class gasped. I even heard Dylan scoot forward.

Light circled and formed a sphere with a little line sticking out of the top. Not a line... a stem. The AI or whatever powered Dr. Byrd’s machine crackled with energy before the light dimmed.

An apple the exact shade of red as our teacher’s pen rested on the treatment tray.

No one spoke. Our science teacher Miss Libby didn’t move, her hand hovering over her open mouth.

Dr. Byrd lifted his head. His eyes were open a bit too wide. “I’m not really allowed to demo our technology...” His voice sunk to a whisper, but I could hear it perfectly. “But... it’s magnificent, isn’t it?”

He plucked the newly created apple from the sample tray, and took a loud, crunchy bite.

A hand shot up from one of the students, then another, and then everyone’s hand was in the air.

“How much do those cost?”

“Is that a real apple?”

“Cool!”

“Will a blue pen make a blue apple?”

Dr. Byrd blinked and stepped back, his cheeks grew pink. He mumbled again, “Um... one at a time... how about you?”

He pointed at me. My mind raced, and I started to stutter, “So when it rearranges—”

Dylan interrupted, pretending he thought the doctor had pointed at him. “Can it make a Goblin? Like from the Dungeon Royale game?”

Some of the class laughed and others whispered for Dylan to shut up, but Dr. Byrd’s head tilted in confusion. “Well, it can atomically rearrange anything... its creations can imitate a living, thinking organism, but it cannot create true sentient life.”

Dylan let out a loud awww sound, and everyone laughed some more.

Poor Dr. Byrd just kept talking. “It can alter something that’s already aware, and it can permanently alter that aware being’s physical and even mental properties. It would take far more research to create a novel awareness, and no investor in the valley would fund the depth of experimentation required.”

Miss Libby pointed at Dylan and narrowed her eyes. He quieted down, and Dr. Byrd answered a few more questions before his cell phone buzzed. He lifted a finger and said, “Two moments.”

He walked to the far end of the classroom and whispered into his phone.

Once the doctor’s back was turned, Alex and another kid in the front row jumped up and grabbed the apple from Miss Libby’s desk.

Alex took a bite and shouted. “Wow—it’s like a Golden Delicious on steroids!”

Another kid shoved forward to take a bite, and I even stood up. If we were tasting the magic apple, I wanted a try too.

Miss Libby shooed everyone away and started scolding Alex when Dr. Byrd’s voice cracked sharply across the room. He shouted into his phone. “Of course I took the prototype. What’s the point of changing the world if they world doesn’t realize who changed it?”

The kids still arguing around the apple went quiet, and Miss Libby’s hand covered her mouth again.

That’s when I heard Dylan’s stupid laugh. Everyone watched Dr. Byrd because they didn’t know Dylan like I did.

He crouched next to the Doctor’s computer and typed furiously. The words “Dungeon Royale best gear” flickered across the screen. Was he trying to download a game on the PC? Or buy items? Or what?

I pushed over to him.

“Stop!” I hissed. “You’re being an idiot.”

Dylan smirked, aimed his McDonald’s straw at me, and shot another spitball. I ducked and pushed him away from the machine. I raised my voice to call the teacher. “Miss L—”

Dylan’s thick hands clamped over my mouth.

Jerking backward, I got him off of me. I’d had enough. Face red, I glared at him and pushed him back as hard as I could.

He slammed into the table.

And that’s when everything went wrong.