I had already brought in my robot and stowed it in the storeroom. I grabbed it and placed it on one of the large worktables. Turning it on its side, I worked at taking apart the base. I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning out dried pancake batter from the treads and gears down there.
I was almost finished when Noah finally breezed into class. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone; one of the camera crews was right behind him. A short brown-haired woman held the camera, and a tall balding man held the boom mic. They broke off from Noah and began recording some of the other students working on their projects. I saw Jamal Watts stiffen a little when they showed an interest in his work. As instructed, he didn’t look at the camera and did his best to ignore his new audience.
“Long time no see,” I said to Noah as he dropped his backpack onto our worktable.
Noah grinned. “Yeah, I took Lori and Pete around the school, showing them all the hidden loot in my app.” He held up his phone. “There’s a lot of stuff left today, though. I don’t think as many people are playing as before.”
I nodded toward the camera crew. “I guess everyone is distracted by the filming.”
Noah shook his head. “If this keeps up, we’ll never collect enough loot to feed the beast.” He ran a hand over his head. “Maybe I should get Davenport to make an announcement, like he did for Ames.”
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed as I cleaned out the last bit of debris from my robot’s gears. I grabbed a screwdriver and began to reassemble the base.
Noah pulled a stool close to mine and sat down. “So how’s the lens filter coming? I had to hold my phone up in front of the camera today. You could see the loot, but the image wasn’t that great.”
“Oh yeah.” I dropped the screwdriver onto the table and pulled my notebook from my backpack, opened it, and thumbed through the pages. “I have the lens all figured out.” Once I found the correct page, I pointed at my design.
Noah leaned over my sketch. “This is all you’ve got?” he asked. “You haven’t even started building it yet?”
“Uh, there’s this little thing you might’ve noticed called school.”
Noah pointed to my robot. “You have time to work on your project, though.”
I felt my face flush with anger. “One, you know this is a school assignment. And two, why should your project be more important than anyone else’s?”
“Because it is,” Noah said stretching his arms wide. “You know they’re going to feature it on the show.”
“Oh yeah,” I said with an eye-roll. “I forgot all about the Noah Newton Show.”
Noah put a hand to his ear. “Is that jealousy I hear? For once, everything isn’t about Tom Swift?”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Of all people, Noah knew that I didn’t like special treatment. Heck, he was usually the one making fun of me for wanting out of the spotlight.
My lips pressed together as I pushed the notebook toward him. “Why don’t you build it yourself, then?”
“Because you said you’d do it.” Noah pushed the notebook back to me.
“Fine. If it’ll shut you up.” I shoved away from the worktable and got to my feet.
I’d planned to go to the storage room to get the parts I needed for the lens brackets. Instead, I froze in my tracks. Everyone in the class was staring at us. Worse, the camera crew was a couple of feet away.
And they had recorded our entire argument.
6
The Dissension Impression
I DIDN’T SPEAK TO NOAH for the rest of the day. Or for the entire next day, for that matter. It felt weird being so angry with my best friend, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said. He was always razzing me about not wanting to be the center of attention, but this time was definitely over the line.
I wondered if he knew that the camera had been on us. That would explain why he went there during our argument, but it certainly didn’t excuse it. Honestly, the thought of that possibly being Noah’s motivation made me even angrier.
Sam had tried to smooth things over between us before algebra. Of course, it was in her Sam-like way. “Look at you two,” she’d said. “Did you suddenly get sent back to third grade and no one told us?”
Yeah, that hadn’t worked at all.
Amy, on the other hand, had just sat there looking uncomfortable. She really hated any kind of conflict.
So Noah and I continued to give each other the silent treatment.
As for the camera crews, true to Joey’s promise, everyone seemed to forget they were there. As I went about my day, I would see them following groups of students or simply planted in a hallway, catching students as they walked by. Out of the corner of my eye I even caught a camera recording me. Luckily, they didn’t linger. I guess I wasn’t doing anything interesting enough.
As the day went on, I noticed that Noah and I weren’t the only ones on the outs. As I was walking to chemistry, I caught the tail end of an argument between Toby Nguyen and Ronny Jenkins.
“You totally stole my idea,” Toby accused as they marched down the corridor.
“That’s not true,” Ronny replied. “My invention is completely different. Besides, you said you were done with drones.”
They moved out of earshot, so I couldn’t make out what Toby said next, but I wondered if either of them had noticed that one of the camera crews was trailing along behind them.
They weren’t the only people I saw bickering. Terry Stephenson and Evan Wittman were in a heated discussion in the back of the biology classroom. Even Barry Jacobs and Kaylee Jackson weren’t speaking for some reason.
It was weird seeing so many
