LITMIR.BIZ

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teachers all said she had ‘creative problem-solving skills’. That seemed to be a polite way to say that she was smart but impulsive – both traits shared by all the members of the Mercado family. But where her brother usually tried to control

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      himself and look cool in front of their classmates (she didn’t think he was all that successful), Jodi liked to follow her artistic whims, no matter what anyone thought.

      Her ‘creative problem-solving’ made her seem a little odd, but there was no denying that

      she was smart. She had been allowed to skip a grade. That was why she was in the same classes as her older brother, Morgan.

      In most cases, being younger than her classmates wasn’t a big deal. But she always felt the difference in gym. She was just a little bit shorter than

      everyone else. It put her at a disadvantage for most sports.

      So she’d made a deal with Morgan. They called it their pact. When it was his turn to choose teams, he would always choose her first. And when it was Jodi’s turn, she would choose Morgan first. That way, they were always on the same team.

      Morgan was a good big brother. So good that she was reluctant to do what she was about to do: she was going to break their pact. She only hoped Morgan would understand.

      It was Jodi’s turn to choose. And Ash looked so hopeful, standing on her tiptoes and waving. Jodi realised that she was probably one of the only people Ash knew in the entire school.

      “Go ahead, Jodi,” said Coach Graham. “Make your first pick.”

      Morgan took a step forwards.

      “I choose Ash,” Jodi said quickly, before she could change her mind.

      Ash looked so happy. She rushed to Jodi’s side. “Thanks,” she whispered.

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      Jodi felt warmth in her chest. She was sure she’d done the right thing. And she was sure Morgan would understand.

      She glanced across the asphalt at her brother.

      Uh-oh. Maybe he wouldn’t.

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      Chapter 3

      Science! Without It¸

      There Would Be No Candy

      S

      everal days later, Harper Houston stepped back to admire her team’s creation. She smiled.

      There was just something beautiful about a perfectly constructed volcano.

      “I hope this works,” said Po Chen. He was one of her partners for the science fair.

      “It will work,” Harper promised. “That’s the beauty of science. If you follow the instructions, you get the same result every time.” She turned to Morgan, the third member of their group. “Right, Morgan?”

      Morgan didn’t say anything.

      “Right, Morgan?” she repeated.

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      But Morgan wasn’t paying attention to her. He was looking towards the doors of the auditorium. Harper turned to look, too. She saw Morgan’s sister, Jodi, with the new girl, Ash. They were arriving with their own project. It was tall and covered with a white sheet, like a Halloween costume of a ghost.

      “What is that?” Harper asked him. “Did your sister make a volcano, too?”

      “I don’t know,” Morgan answered. “They’ve been working on it in secret for days.”

      “Well, don’t let it distract you,” Harper said. “This isn’t a competition.”

      He raised an eyebrow at her. “They hand out trophies for the best projects. I’m pretty sure that makes it a competition.”

      Harper sighed. She just didn’t worry about things like that. She loved learning for the sake of learning – especially science. And she didn’t need a trophy to know that her team had done a good job.

      There were other volcanoes made of paper-mache, clay, and other craft materials in the

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      auditorium. But none of them was quite like theirs. They had constructed it out of one hundred identically sized cubes of modelling clay. It was brown and green and blocky. And it looked like something right out of Minecraft.

      Harper, Morgan, and Po were very different. But they all liked Minecraft. That had been all the inspiration they needed.

      Po pulled the finishing touches from his backpack: a bottle of vinegar and a packet of bicarbonate of soda. A small amount of each would make their volcano erupt. That would prove to the teachers that they understood chemical reactions. And a dash of red food colouring would give it some flair!

      “What do you think their project is?” Morgan asked. Jodi and Ash were setting up their station nearby. Morgan couldn’t take his eyes off them.

      “Focus, Morgan,” Harper said in a singsong voice. “Do you have the food colouring?”

      “Yeah,” Morgan grumbled. He began rooting around in his backpack.

      Just then, Ash and Jodi pulled their sheet

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      away with a flourish. Their project wasn’t a volcano. They had constructed a piñata. It

      looked just like a Minecraft creeper¸ with a green body and black eyes. It was as tall as Jodi.

      Kids oohed and aahed. Harper couldn’t blame them. The creeper looked amazing.

      Morgan went pale. “But . . . but . . . ” he said. “Minecraft is my thing.”

      Ash saw him looking. She smiled and waved.

      Morgan didn’t wave back.

      “You don’t own Minecraft,” Po reminded him.

      “But they copied our idea!” Morgan said.

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      “It’s probably a coincidence,” Harper said.

      Ms Minerva and Doc Culpepper looked the piñata over. They smiled and nodded and wrote notes on their clipboards. Then Ash directed the teachers and students to step back to a safe distance.

      Ash put on a pair of safety goggles. She attached a hose to the back of the piñata, and then she joined the other students.

      At the other end of the hose, Jodi stood beside

      a canister of gas. It was labelled CO₂. Harper

      recognised that as the chemical formula for carbon dioxide. I wonder what they’re up to? she thought, her mind racing with possibilities.

      At a signal from Ash, Jodi turned a handle on the CO₂ tank. The hose went taut as gas moved from the tank to the piñata.

      Harper held her breath, excited to see what would happen next.

      The creeper exploded! It was just like in Minecraft. Except when this creeper exploded, it sent candy flying across the floor.

      “Amazing,” Harper said. “They made a piñata that breaks itself.”

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      All the other children cheered and laughed as they ran forwards to grab fistfuls

      of candy. Doc Culpepper

      cheered, and Ms Minerva gave Jodi and Ash a

      thumbs-up.

      “That does it,” Morgan said.

      “We need to go bigger.”

      “Bigger?” Po asked.

      “Our volcano is measly

      compared

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