Chapter 12

Chapter 12 ASIDE FROM THE STRANDS OF TWISTED CODE AND AN OMINOUS WARNING OF IMPENDING DOOM, THIS IS A TOTALLY HAPPY ENDING! With Doc's permission, Theo RETURNED TO STONESWORD LIBRARY DURING HIS LUNCH PERIOD the next day. He had promised to uninstall his mods—at least until the team had a chance to vote on which ones would be helpful. That part was easy. But when Theo saw Doc's code, he gasped.

Lines of code were missing. Files had been deleted. The mod code that made their Minecraft game so special…was no longer complete. Theo didn't know enough about programming to know exactly what this meant. But he knew enough to realize that it would be trouble. Clearly, it wasn't just the Evoker King who had changed. THE GAME ITSELF HAD CHANGED. On his way out of the library, Theo saw Ms. Minerva, Doc, and Mr. Malory taking a lunch break together. They were sitting by the Stonesword statue. They were all smiling and laughing.

Mr. Malory spotted him first. "Hey, Theo," he said. "Did you solve that problem you were having with your friends?" "I think so," Theo said. "I took your advice to be myself, and I took my friend Ash's advice to be honest, and I sort of mashed both pieces of advice together." He shrugged. "I want my friends to see and accept the real me. I think it's going to be fine." Ms. Minerva nodded. "Wise words, Theo," she said. "Just remember—friendship takes work. And that work is never really done." "Some friendships take more work than others," Doc said, and she cackled when Ms. Minerva gave her a look. "I don't get it," Theo said. "I mean…I don't want to be rude…but two days ago, I thought you two hated each other." Doc clucked her tongue. "We could never hate each other. We've been friends too long for that." "Sometimes friends disagree," added Ms. Minerva. "Sometimes they disagree strongly. And that's okay. As long as you respect each other and can agree on the big things." "The big things?" Theo echoed.

"Sure," said the teacher. "For instance, Doc and

I both believe in the importance of education. We agree that there's real joy to be found as a teacher. And we think you kids deserve the very best." "And we agree that the butterfly sanctuary is a wonderful addition to the school," Doc added. "Especially if it gives me the chance to update some of our systems. Woodsword is going to be truly cutting-edge before I'm done!" Ms. Minerva threw up her hands in surrender. "Sometimes a little chaos is all right, I suppose." "Oh!" said Mr. Malory. "That reminds me." He plucked the VR headset from Theo's hands. "We can't have these things floating around. We need to get them checked into the system." "But…," said Theo. "But we've been taking those home at night. To keep them safe."

"They're perfectly safe here, Theo," said Mr. Malory. "What could go wrong in a media center?" Mr. Malory smiled, but that didn't make Theo feel any better. And it was clear that Theo would have to leave the goggles behind…where just about anybody could use them. Maybe moving the computer lab to Stonesword wasn't going to be such a good thing after all. Another problem for later, Theo thought. Those seemed to be stacking up lately. Like a tower of blocks that was bound to come crashing down. Theo crossed the crosswalk, stepping back onto school grounds…and right into a very welcome surprise. A very welcome, very green surprise. "We're still not calling ourselves the Blockheadz," said Morgan. "But I admit the shirts are kind of fun." Morgan, Harper, Po, and Jodi were all in a row, wearing their T-shirts with pride. And Harper was holding a pizza box. "We figured we owed you a pizza," she said. "We even got pineapple."