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from inside the ship. “I plan on winning all the bananas on this one!”
    Olivia and I looked at each other and laughed silently at Amp’s bossiness. “What does ‘winning all the bananas’ even mean?” Olivia giggled.
    I opened up my laptop to start on the paperwork that Miss Martin loved so much. Olivia was at my side the whole time. We even made a label for my project and spelled everything correctly.
    By the time I had to go to baseball tryouts, everything seemed to have worked out perfectly. And my new science project was looking pretty spiffy.
    â€œShould we test it more?” I asked.
    â€œGo, go,” Olivia said, pushing me in the back. “Amp and I will finish up and you’ll be ready for your demonstration tomorrow.”
    I smiled. “This science stuff isn’t so bad after all.”

14
    Magnetized
    A t dinner Monday night, I was puffed up with pride.
    My in-class science project demonstration went off without a hitch. And even better, the three projects presented before mine were big duds. Davey Swope’s volcano didn’t erupt with spaghetti sauce, it just made a bad, burning-meatball smell. Max Myers head-butted his experiment so hard he disconnected the glowing display board and wound up in the nurse’s office. And all of Nino Sasso’s flies had died in their jars. He had to settle for explaining what should have happened if they had lived.
    Then it was my turn.
    As I stood nervously at the front of the class, everyone in front of me had seemed bored by my electromagnet. I hit the first button and a couple of paper clips jumped up and skittered across Miss Martin’s desk. Cool, but not enough to open anyone’s eyes. Then I hit the second button.
    Miss Martin’s coffee cup of paper clips tipped over and about a hundred paper clips flew to the magnet like an angry swarm of bees to a jelly sandwich at a picnic lunch. A lizard-shaped metal paperweight shot across the room. An antique globe on a metal stand nearly broke my wrist as it careened across Miss Martin’s desk.
    All three objects seemed as if they were glued to my experiment. CRACK! SLAP! SLAP!
    The entire class gasped.
    It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
    I slapped the power button off before it could do any serious damage. The metal objects fell to the desk with an audible clunk .
    My classmates were utterly silent for a split second before exploding into applause. Even Max Myers gave me a standing hoot and fist-pump.
    Whoa. A new science star was born.
    After I told my family all the glorious details over beans and weenies—my mom’s embarrassing name for pinto beans and hot dogs—Taylor said he had something to talk about, too.

    â€œLook at these photos one of my robots took in Zack’s room,” he said, pretending to sound concerned. “I was able to save them off my hard drive.”
    â€œWhat?” I croaked.
    â€œNot again, Taylor,” Mom said.
    As Taylor handed two photos to Dad, I snatched the other two from his other hand.
    The photos weren’t very clear, like those blurry pictures of Bigfoot running through the forest. But this Bigfoot was blue. One photo showed a fuzzy picture of Amp’s tiny blue butt. The other was a close up of Amp’s watery eye.
    I did a big, fake, cackling laugh. “Oh, Taylor,” I guffawed, “that’s just one of Olivia’s toys. It’s a little elf doll she calls Amp.” I handed the two photos to my mom, like I wasn’t interested in them anymore.
    I could feel Taylor staring at me.
    â€œSee, Taylor,” Mom said with a tsk-tsk , “it’s one of Olivia’s toys. I think I’ve seen this toy in your room before, Zack.”
    â€œOh, I’m sure you have,” I said as steadily as I could.
    â€œLooks almost real,” Dad mumbled. He took the two photos from Mom and stared at the close-up of Amp’s eye. “Kind of creepy,” he