He was going to let Spike go scuttling across the set toward where Caveman and Zombie Cheerleader were fighting, and since Spike was as big as they were, he’d look like Godzilla Cockroach. So Godzilla Cockroach would chase Caveman and Zombie Cheerleader, and they would run away.
So in TJ’s story, everyone lived (if you count being a zombie as living) to fight another day. “And,” TJ said, “then I can make a sequel!”
He was so excited that as soon as we got to school, he ran off to find his friends and tell them.
But when I reached the edge of the school playground, my stomach started feeling fluttery. Because it was one thing to decide you weren’t a loser after all but another thing for everyone else to decide it, too.
Across the blacktop, Megan and Aisha and Jasmine were at the bars, balancing and spinning around backward.
I stopped and held my breath.
Megan looked my way . . . and gave me a huge smile.
She started running toward me.
I ran up to meet her. “How was your recital?”
“It was OK,” she said. “But that’s not the exciting thing. The really exciting thing is that after the recital, I told my mom I didn’t want to take piano anymore, and she said fine. She said she always thought I was the one who wanted to take it!” Megan laughed. “So now I can start coming over to your house every week to help you with Baxter!”
“He’ll love that!” I said. “And I will, too!”
We hurried together toward the bars. Aisha and Jasmine both hopped down and grabbed their backpacks.
I thought, Oh no, are they leaving?
But instead, Aisha unzipped the zipper on the front pocket and pulled out her notebook. “Jordie! Look what I made!”
It was a sketch of me . . . with my arm around Baxter!
“I based Baxter on that drawing I did, right after you got him.” She smiled. “Remember when you were telling me his ears were longer and his eyebrows were crazier?”
“Yeah!” I said as she tore it out of her notebook and handed it over. “It looks just like us!”
“I thought of another thing I could do at the vet/beauty parlor/day care,” Aisha said. “I can make portraits of the kids with their dogs!”
“And I can raise the money for the art supplies,” Jasmine added. “Because look what me and my mom made!” She unzipped the top of her backpack and pulled out a plastic bag, only instead of scones or breakfast bars, there were these little dog bone–shaped cookies. “I made dog biscuits! We can sell them at the vet part!” She handed the bag to me. “These are peanut butter, but I found a bunch of recipes online. Tell Baxter I can make other flavors, too!”
I thought, Yay! No one thinks I’m a loser! They didn’t forget all about the vet/beauty parlor/day care the minute they got home—they’d been thinking about it all weekend!
Soon we were blabbing so much that we decided to do a big slumber party together and invite Baxter, too, so it would be a Baxter Slumber Party. “We have a family room in the basement,” Jasmine said. “And my mom loves dogs.”
“I’m pretty sure Professor Reese will let her half of Baxter spend the night,” I said. “And I know mine can!”
So the day started great, and when morning recess came around, it stayed that way. Me and Tyler (going to say good-bye) and Danica and Robert (going to say hello) went up one hallway and down the other. As we walked, Tyler gave Robert advice (like how to do bounce-pass keep-away) and shared helpful insider tips (like how Mrs. Wilson didn’t like fart jokes, but you could probably get away with a butt joke or two). Me and Danica just rolled our eyes.
When we got to Room Six, I gave Maya and Katie each a big hug. “I’ll come play with you whenever I see you on the school playground.”
They were so excited they bounced up and down. And even though I wasn’t their Study Buddy anymore, I was still their buddy, so I bounced, too.
“Here!” Katie handed me a big card.
“We made it for you!” Maya bounced again.
They’d drawn a picture of all three of us on the front. When I opened it up, it said, “Thank you, Jordie! We LOVE you!!!” and they had written LOVE so big that they had to run the you down the side of the card, but I didn’t care because it was perfect.
“I’ll put this up in my room at home and look at it every day,” I told them.
And when Mrs. Wilson told me what an awesome Study Buddy I’d been, I believed her. Because I had.
So the day stayed great, because after school there were two cherry Popsicles left in the box (for once in my life, I swear).
And when me and TJ went over to Professor Reese’s house, she had a little sparkle in her eyes, like she’d thought up a new experiment and would be needing the help of her lab assistants. And who knew what we’d get to do?
“We’re ready for anything,” I told her as I scritched Baxter’s shaggy gray neck and added some pets and pats. “Right, Baxter?”
I nodded three times, up and down.
And Baxter nodded back.
Author’s Note
When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was Star Trek—where Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew beamed down to different planets by stepping into the Transporter.
In Following Baxter, Professor Reese invents a teleporter after she discovers T-waves.
But can scientists teleport things in real life? It turns out they can—sort of.
Scientists can pair up two atoms (let’s call them A and B), measure the properties of A (such as its energy and motion), and send that information to B, turning it into an exact copy of A.
During the process of measuring, the
