Tracking Alasdair to his lab is not as easy as we thought it would be, especially since we have no headway. As ridiculous as it sounds, we did have hopes that at least one of us would come up with an idea in their sleep on how we can go about it, but there was none.I fill Mr. Trainor in on what has been going on since the last meeting we had with him and he suggests that we closely monitor Alasdair's movement to know when he would be going to the lab so we can find out where it is. That is what we are going to do, but we don't have time on our hands especially if he doesn't visit the lab soon.We end our conversation when Nathan walks into the lab for our weekly session with Mr. Trainor. He greets us cheerfully and reminds me that I agreed to hang out with him someday. I tell him I haven't forgotten even though I have completely and utterly forgotten I ever made such a commitment. Just as Nathan and I take our seats, Alasdair walks in. My impression of him has totally changed ever si
Today is the day I'm finally going to ask Wyndy out on a date. I have prepared and rehearsed a short poem I'm going to say to her before asking her out so it sounds more romantic. I've delayed this for long enough and since I'm not getting anywhere in finding my invention, I might as well make my move before Alasdair beats me to it. I can't lose on both sides."What are you thinking about friend? Don't overthink this, just do it," Travis tells me when he notices how nervous I am.Nathan walks up to us and greets us cheerfully. Doesn't he get tired of smiling so hard all the time?"So, Avan, wanna hang out after school?" He asks me."Maybe some other time. I have a date today. Sorry Nate.""It's fine, we can hang out some other time like you said." He turns to Travis. "Omg, Travis! I can't believe I get to be this close to you. I'm a huge fan.""Thanks?""Can I get an autograph?""Uh, what's an autograph?" Travis looks to me for an explanation."It's the signature of someone you admire
Just before cheer practice, Austin and Wyndy go into the girls' locker room to interrogate Debbie Cheer and to also return her wallet, if they found out she's not the burglar or not in cohorts with the burglar. They exit the locker room five minutes later and both shake their heads at us in an amusing manner."Just like I predicted, she's still as dumb as ever.""That's a shame, she's so pretty and talented," Wyndy comments."Guess you can't have it all." Austin shrugs."What do we do now?" Travis asks the million dollar question that no one knows the answer to."We go watch the cheerleaders practice while hoping our brains can come up with an answer to that question," I say and we laugh as we make our way to cheer practice.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Caleb wants to join the team," Alasdair announces as he joins us on the bleachers. We stare at him and he adds, "I asked him to join us.""And he agreed? I thought he doesn't want to get involved with people cause he
After school, while we are updating Chris and Alasdair about our encounter with the burglar, Caleb shows up at our school looking all angry. He looks around and marches towards us after spotting us."Dude, why didn't you tell me you were coming here? You can't just show up at my school," Alasdair tells him. "And why aren't you in disguise?""Screw that. Now tell me, why are you working for my sister?" Caleb asks him and the question surprises us, including Alasdair."You have a sister?" He asks, looking completely lost."He has a twin sister named Carly, she's a real sweetheart," Chris supplies."No, she's not," Caleb hisses, glaring at Chris.He faces Alasdair and points at his chest. "And you, you have been selling drugs to her.""This is a sensitive topic, I think we should discuss it in the janitor's closet because walls have ears," Wyndy says and we follow her to the janitor's closet."How could you accuse me of such a thing?" Alasdair feigns hurt which disgusts Caleb even more.
I freeze and slowly turn to face the owner of the voice. I'm glad to find out that it's just Raven, Chris' friend. At least I can just come up with a lie to dismiss her. She has such a masculine voice, I almost thought it was Nathan."I was just looking for something in my locker," I say, turning back to the locker and hoping she would leave so I can continue my search."That's not your locker, your locker is close to the stairs," she points out, eyeing me suspiciously."You're right. A friend of mine asked me to help her get something from her locker," I continue to lie, feeling stupid already.Raven walks closer to me and I wonder what she wants now. "I haven't been seeing you around ever since Chris' party," she says.I can never forget the moment she asked Chris to make out with Wyndy all because of a stupid dare. Such a bully."Well, I haven't been seeing you around either, thought you transferred schools."She laughs and traces her fingers on my arm flirtatiously. "You're so fun
"I've told you so many times not to call me that," Caleb warns Carly sternly.Carly is still grinning from ear to ear. "You are my twin brother and it's a reality you can't escape no matter how hard you try.""I'm only your brother because I didn't have a choice," Caleb spits."I see you brought company." Carly finally acknowledges us. "Well, the more destruction the merrier.""Leave them out of this. Let Alasdair go and give them back their inventions, this is between us."Carly cackles, making us grimace. "I know you hired Alasdair to build an invention for you so don't act like the invention doesn't belong to you.""You already have everything you want so why are you doing this?""Simple. I want to ruin you. When I found out that you wanted to participate in the contest to prove yourself to dad, I knew that I just couldn't let you win, or even stand a chance.""You are a fucking psycho! Gosh, I wish dad and everyone else could realize this.""Tsk, when will you learn to mind your l
Things have been pretty quiet since the failed plan at Caleb's house and we have been going about our lives as usual. Austin has been invested in her preparations for her upcoming pagaent while Travis and I have taken the time to bond even more as I took him on mini tours round the city and tutored him on the subjects he wasn't familiar with.Austin and Travis had encouraged me to use any one of my other cool inventions to compete in the contest and Austin even suggested using the closet I built her as it would serve as a huge innovation for the fashion industry. I refused to take their advice because I'm not going to give up looking for my invention until the day of the contest, then maybe I can take their advice. But for now, I have to keep searching, and making my move on a certain ginger haired beauty whom I have in sight."Wyndy," I call gently, approaching her as she brushed her luscious hair while looking into the mirror she attached to her locker. She glances at me and offers
During lunch, we bug Chris for answers to whether Caleb was able to successfully put the tracker on Carly. He tries to continue eating his food and ignore us after giving us a not so satisfactory response but we bug him so much that he stops eating and groans loudly, earning weird looks from the people sitting close to us."Would you guys quit badgering me?""We would, if you will just answer us!" Wyndy replies matter-of-factly."I already told you guys, Caleb hasn't told me anything. He just said we should meet him at the parking lot after school.""What are we meeting him for? If he's done it, he should just let us know," Alasdair says."I bet it's because he wasn't successful in putting the tracker on Carly, if he was, he would've told us by now," Austin reasons."I knew all that overconfidence wasn't going to take him anywhere," I mutter."I say we should just hear him out and see what he has to say to us," Travis says."Whatever. He better have good news," Austin says.After scho
"Avan! Come down for breakfast, your dad's leaving in fifteen minutes!" I hear mom call out."Coming!" I yell back as I hurriedly pack my things into my backpack, taking a quick glance in the mirror. My name is Avan Allen and I'm an ordinary fifteen-year-old girl who wants to become extraordinary one day. I love acting and I want to be a big shot actor— to be fair, every aspiring actor wants to be a big shot actor. I believe I have the looks and the talent to become one. I can say that I am determined, enthusiastic and resolute with a you-can-do-it and never-give-up spirit. I've never really been in a real movie before but I've acted in quite a number of plays in my school and at shows so I'm kinda like a household name in my neighborhood. This school play is my chance of getting my first lead role ever and I know I'm going to get it because I've literally rehearsed my butt off for the auditions. I hear Austin, my younger sister, snicker and say, "I bet she's still rehearsing for th
"Hi, Caleb, this is Avan. Remember, we met last night at the—""Avan! It's nice to hear from you.""Yeah, thanks. I actually called to ask you for more details about the casting call and the movie I'm auditioning for.""Text me your email so I can send it to you.""All right, thanks.""Of course.""And thank you so much for this opportunity, it means a lot to me.""You're the one with the talent here, as well as that Basil guy. I'll have him in mind when next I'm working on a project and there's a vacant male role.""Thanks, it'll mean a lot to him.""Yeah..." He muses."I didn't mean to take much of your time, I know you must be really busy so I should hang up now. I'll mail my portfolio and headshots to you tomorrow.""All right.""Bye," I say as I end the call."You know, you shouldn't thank him so much for everything he says or does, it'll make you sound desperate," Travis says from the door before walking into my room. What now?"It's courtesy to thank people especially when they
"You're saying that you met one Caleb Daniels and he personally invited you to an acting call for his movie?" Mom questions me as we enter the house."Yes," I drawl exasperatedly. How many more times do I have to repeat myself?"That's great honey, but how do you know this is not a scam or something?" Dad asks. He's got his overprotective dad mode on. That can't be good."He is a well-known actor, director and producer so the chances of this being a scam are very minimal," I say. Dad is making a point and a tiny part of me is still kinda skeptical about this whole thing, but a large part of me wants more than ever for this to be genuine because if I get cast in the movie, it could be a huge turning point for my career. "When is the casting?" He asks again."Next two weeks.""All right honey, you can go. We won't try to stop you because of our doubts but you won't go alone; you'll go with either one of us," dad states, gesturing to himself and mom."Works for me," I accept."Can I com
We take our seats together, as usual; Travis and I sitting together in the middle of the class with Austin and Wyndy behind us, while we wait for our teacher. But before the teacher arrives, let me briefly introduce you to my best friends.In every group of friends there is always the mean one whom everyone is scared of. That's Austin Allen. She is tough, feisty, bold and fearless. She acts like she doesn't care about us or what happens to us but we all know that she does care, big time. She's also super strong because she's an MMA fighter and knocks out most of her opponents. Sometimes people find it hard to believe that she's just fifteen. To be fair, people aren't scared of her because of her meanness, they're scared of her because of her fists. Who wouldn't be? Then there's always the super smart one of the group who gets straight As, has a perfect attendance record and helps her friends with difficult homework and essays. That's Avan Allen. She's the smartest person I've ever me
Winning the Global Young Inventors Contest is a dream come true and I still can't believe it. I had been celebrated on the global stage and had several interviews. I had to even reschedule some of them cause it was getting dark and we had to go home.Over the past few days, my phone has been blowing up with calls, messages and emails from friends, schoolmates, teachers, extended family, and even from people I do not know. Several companies have reached out to me for work and projects and it was getting difficult to keep up, thanks to Travis who helped me keep tabs. Many of our neighbors even came to my house to congratulate me. It's been a busy week."Travis! What a pleasant surprise!" Ariel screams as she enters our house, holding a colorful card and a pizza box."What are you doing here, Ariel?" I ask her, then mouth a 'why did you let her in?' to Austin who mouths back a 'she just barged in after I opened the door'."I came here to congratulate you on winning that huge contest you'
Carly and Nathan turn around slowly, dread written all over their once smug faces. "D–da–dad," Carly stutters.The rest of us give way as Mr. Daniels walks towards her. I wonder if he heard all that she said, and I really hope he did. I see mom, dad, Mr. Trainor and Principal Foreman come up from the stairs. They were not here which gave Carly the chance to get close to my invention."What are you doing here?" Mr. Daniels asks her and she is taken aback but quickly regains her composure.She holds Nathan's arm and smiles sweetly. "I'm here to support my boyfriend, Nathan, and of course, watch the contest live."Mr. Daniels cocks a brow. "You're here to support your boyfriend..." He trails off and looks at Caleb. Carly follows his eyes and chuckles."Well, Nathan's parents couldn't make it today so I have to support him, but Caleb has his friends on his side so I'm sure he doesn't need me.""Is that why you tried to sabotage your brother and his friend?"The question shocks everyone bu
It is the day of the contest and we are on our way to the International Association of Inventors' headquarters while mom utters some words of encouragement to me– something she's been doing for the past fifteen minutes. It's quite a long drive, and I pray it comes to an end soon so I don't have to hear the same statements over and over."Avan, are you there?" Mom asks when she notices that I am aloof. I hum a response and she continues. I sigh. Austin and Travis snigger.We finally arrive at the headquarters and I heave a sigh of relief as I am the first to alight the car. The HQ is a large splendid building with intricate architecture and a large underground parking lot. It looks a lot like those spy agency buildings in movies– without the spies, of course.Two men and a woman dressed in black uniform approach us and after welcoming us, help me take my invention out of dad's car. They ask for my name and school and fix a tag on the invention then guide us to the elevator. I don't hav
"What are you doing here?" I ask Ariel when I don't see any pizza boxes in her hand. She is definitely not who I was expecting.She tells me that she's here to see Travis and that she has been unlucky because ever since the first day she saw him, she has been coming frequently but he's not always around. No one ever mentioned Ariel coming by the house."I'm sorry to disappoint you once again, but Travis is not here at the moment," I say."What? Where is he?""He's in Mexico.""He's back to Mexico, already?" Ariel pouts."Yeah, but he might return though."Her face lits up and she hands me the flowers. "Really! Keep these for him and look after them so they don't wither alright. Whenever he returns to the US, give them to him for me and inform me so I can come and see him.""Okay?""Thanks. I can't believe he's gone, I would have really loved to see him one last time before he left. And please tell your sister to work on her attitude," she says and leaves.I take the flowers inside and
Wyndy and I arrive at the lab and find the others waiting for us."What are you guys waiting for?" I ask them."The lock has been changed so I can't even open it," Alasdair replies."Good thing Avan asked me to bring his laptop," Travis says as he gets my laptop from the backseat of Chris' car.I quickly hack into the security system and the light on the lock turns from red to green, allowing us access into the lab. We hurry inside and switch on the lights, and mine and Alasdair's inventions are just sitting there. Carly was really smart to bring these inventions here, we wouldn't have thought they were here.Travis and I carry my invention and put it in the trunk of dad's car, while Chris and Alasdair put his invention in the trunk of Chris' car. Austin joins us in dad's car as we lock up the lab and head home."So this is the end of our date," Wyndy says as I drop her off at home."I'm sorry it had to end this way," I say.She chuckles. "You don't have to be sorry, it was fun, and w