Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Edgar demanded as he exited the bus, followed by his two lackeys, Pete and Bruce. Michael handed over Edgar's drone and remote. Since Michael kept his end of the deal by bringing Edgar's drone back, Edgar kept up his end by not pounding Michael. "Hey! It's broken!" Edgar complained, attempting to switch it on. "It just needs to be recharged," Michael said quickly before Edgar could reconsider his end of the deal. "By the way," Justin asked, "where did you get it?" "I dunno." Edgar shrugged. "It just showed up. I must have a secret admirer."

Pete thought that was hilarious, which earned him a smack to the back of the head. "Hmm. Okay," Michael replied. He decided not to tell Edgar he also had an admirer. And Edgar decided not to tell Michael that his drone had come with a note that read "Use me to TP Michael Gomez's house!" "Something fishy is going on with all these drones," Justin whispered to Michael as the boys headed down the hallway to class. Michael was about to agree when his attention suddenly turned to a more important topic. "Level 5!" Sadie chirped as she walked past Michael and Justin. "WHAT?!" Michael exclaimed, stopping cold in his tracks. "You got past level 5? No way!"

"Way!" Sadie countered, raising her arms in a touchdown signal. Most kids, especially sleep-deprived ones, would have conceded defeat at this point, but not Michael. "She beat me in Squish Squids 1 and 2. I gotta win 3, Justin!" Michael proclaimed, then yawned. It didn't take long for Ms. McKay to throw a wrench in Michael's resolution. After reading the first chapter of Treasure Island in class, she assigned chapters 2 and 3 for homework. If you've ever read Treasure Island, you'll remember two things: one is that it's a great book about pirates (which Justin especially loved), and the other is that two chapters can take a serious bite out of video game playing time (which Michael especially didn't love).