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and fractions this year. Up until now, math came really easy to me. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division gave me no problems at all. But when you have to divide something like 54.369 by 1.731 or convert decimals into fractions, that’s hard! I really wished I had the homework machine sometimes to help me.
    RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6
    So I took Brenton’s superchip and cleaned it off really good. It still had the wire attached to that little red light, so I had to be careful with it. The chip had a standard input. I opened my computer up and installed the chip into one of the open slots.
    Building my own homework machine wasn’t as hard as I thought it was gonna be. I had to buy a scanner because my printer can’t do that. But once I had them both hooked up, it was easy to train the computer to recognize my handwriting and voice. I programmed the computer to search the Internet for just about anything. With all that in place, it was simple to slip a worksheet into thescanner, tell the computer to read the questions, go online to find the answers, and print them out in my handwriting. Brenton isn’t the only smart kid in the world.
    MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER
    I had been warned about Ronnie. The reports on him said he was a troublemaker. I remember when I walked into the class on the first day of school, all the other kids were sitting very politely, with their hands folded. But Ronnie was leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk. It wasn’t a big deal, but it showed disrespect. He was sending me a signal that he wouldn’t meekly submit to a teacher’s authority.
    I must admit that I was a little surprised in December when his homework grades shot up to As. I didn’t think much of it at the time. It never occurred to me that he might be cheating. I just thought he had turned over a new leaf. I believe all kids are good deep down inside.
    JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6
    Mr. Murphy handed back our homework one day. I only got a 96 because I wrote that JohnGlenn was the first American in space, but actually it was Alan Shepard. A careless mistake, but it was still an A.
    Anyway, Ronnie was sitting next to me. Usually I didn’t pay attention to him because I thought he was just a mean boy who was surely going to end up in jail someday. But I happened to glance to my right just as Mr. Murphy handed Ronnie his paper and I saw that he got 100. My eyes must have bugged out or something, because Ronnie smirked at me and made some remark about getting a higher grade than I did.
    RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6
    Ha! Once I had a homework machine of my own, I didn’t have to waste my nights doing that crap anymore. I could kick back, watch TV, and play Grand Theft Auto all night. It was great.
    But the best part about finding that chip was being able to stick it to the smart kids. Judy and Brenton and some of the others thought they were so great because they like school and the teachers all think they’re so perfect. I wish I had a picture of Judy’s face when she saw that I got a better mark on my homework than she did.
    SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6
    I was suspicious of Ronnie right away. There’s no way a pre–juvenile delinquent like him is gonna go from Ds to As just like that. Brenton and I talked it over. It was Brenton who said that maybe the reason we couldn’t find the chip was because Ronnie got to it first, and he used it to build his own homework machine. I didn’t believe it at the time.
    RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6
    The more I worked with the superchip, the more I could see how powerful it was. I mean, the thing wasn’t just fast , it could think like a person. It had artificial intelligence. If somebody wanted to, they could use it to hack into government databases. They could steal Social Security numbers or credit card numbers. Transfer money without people knowing it. It could bring down the Internet. Not that I would ever do any of that