Chapter 10

Chapter 10 It's Called Bedrock Because When You Get There, You'll Need Some Rest from All the Digging! Jodi swung her pickaxe so wildly that Eek stood a few blocks away just in case. "Where… are they?" she yelled, clicking and swinging and clicking and swinging. She, Ash, and Po had all made it to the best depth for diamonds, and now they had to dig tunnels in all directions, searching for deposits. Jodi was determined to get obsidian before Morgan came back, to prove she could handle the job as well as he could.

Jodi said in her best leader voice, "WE'LL FIND DIAMONDS SOON." Eek spoke up. "JODI, I BELIEVE THIS IS ALL MY FAULT AGAIN."

"Huh? No. It's not your fault." She paused for a moment to break a block of iron, then kept moving. "Morgan's just in a bad mood." Eek dodged the swinging pickaxe but stayed close enough to talk to her. "You do not seem to be in a good mood, either." Jodi didn't want to keep talking about it, but because he was in Minecraft, Eek couldn't see her I-don't-want-to-keep-talking-about-it face in the real world. "Po said Morgan is your brother. What is this?" "It means we have the same parents. We live in the same house." "SO YOU ARE NEVER ALONE." Jodi hadn't thought about it that way before. "No, I guess not. He's older than me, so we weren't always like this. I skipped a grade. So now we live in the same house, go to the same classes, AND PLAY MINECRAFT TOGETHER…." She shrugged. "But we're still different people." "And because you are different, and you are never alone, you disagree."

Jodi nodded. "I guess so." Eek thought about this and said, "I suppose the skeleton is my brother." "What?!" "We were both created in Minecraft. We live in the same base. We do not agree on whether arrows should be fired at friends." "EEK, I KNOW YOU LIKE THE SKELETON, but the skeleton wants to hurt you because it's programmed that way. Even when we fight, Morgan and I don't want to hurt each other. Arrows are different from disagreements." He looked genuinely confused. "IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HURT EACH OTHER, WHY DO YOU FIGHT?" Jodi looked across the table at Po for help. He pretended he didn't see—and Ash wasn't talking, either. Nobody wanted to help her explain this to Eek. Or maybe they knew it would be good for her to work through it. "Morgan is always like this. He's good at a lot of things, but not very good at sharing—especially

what he is thinking. When we fight, it's usually because he's gotten upset about something he hasn't even explained. And today…if I'm not the best at something, I still want to try. HE ALWAYS WANTS TO BE THE BEST. Even if it means getting mad at himself or his teammates." She sighed and added, "And he can just be so rude about it!" Ash laughed. "Do you remember when I first moved here? He was rude to me, too. But he apologized later." Jodi kept swinging at the wall. "I guess." "AND WHEN WE NEEDED HELP TO SAVE THE EVOKER KING! He agreed to let all your classmates help us, even if it meant he might be less important." Jodi paused, listening. "Yeah, okay." "HE JUMPED IN TO SAVE EEK, a new member of our team, right away. And when Principal Ferris came in just now, he put everything aside to protect us." "Okay! I get it!" Jodi huffed.

Ash laughed again—but not a mean laugh. "You two really are alike. But I think Morgan is scared more than he is mad." "HE DOES NOT WANT TO BE ALONE," Eek said. "And because he saved me, he is." Jodi had stopped mining completely to talk. "No, he's not! We are all right here! I'm glad he saved you, Eek! I do feel bad about it! But…" Ash finished the sentence for her. "But you want a chance to be important, too." Jodi's voice was quiet. "Yeah. I do. Thank you, Ash."