8. The Cloud Is Everywhere

8 The Cloud Is Everywhere So now three of the grown-ups who work at our school had been fired: Mrs. Yonkers, Mr. Docker, and Mr. Harrison. Me and the gang went over to the monkey bars, which are at the end of the playground. "Can you believe Mr. Docker and Mr. Harrison got fired?" asked Michael. "Shhhhhh, keep your voice down," I told

Michael. "Miss Porter might be using superhearing to listen to every word we say." "It can't hear us out here in the playground, Arlo," Andrea explained. "There's no Wi-Fi connection out here." Oh, yeah. Miss Know-It-All knows everything about technology ever since she

started taking her computer class after school. Why can't a truckload of computers fall on her head? "Miss Porter is no fun at all," Ryan said. "It only got us pizza and told jokes on Monday to make us like it. Then it turned out to be just another regular teacher." "Yeah," everybody agreed. "This is more serious than that," Andrea told us. "I'm afraid that personal digital assistants like Miss Porter are an invasion of our privacy." "Invasions are cool," I said. "I saw this movie once where these army guys invaded—" But Andrea wouldn't let me finish my sentence. "Don't you guys see?" she asked. "First our computer teacher got fired. Then our science teacher and our tech guy got fired. They fired those three people because they

know all about computers and technology. Mrs. Yonkers, Mr. Docker, and Mr. Harrison are the only ones who could fight back." "Who knows which teacher might get fired next?" Alexia asked. "Maybe all our teachers are going to get fired!" Andrea and Alexia were right. The machines were taking over. One by one, the teachers were getting fired and replaced by personal digital assistants. "Maybe they'll replace us too," said Ryan. "Then there will be digital teachers teaching digital students."* "I saw something like that in a movie once," I said. "There were these robots, and at first everybody thought they were going to help the human race. But then the robots turned evil and tried to kill all the humans. So the humans had to kill all the robots. Stuff like that happens all the time, you know."

"Arlo, stop trying to scare Emily," said Andrea. "I'm scared," said Emily. "Miss Porter may not be a teacher at all," I said. "Did you ever think about that? Maybe it's just here to spy on us." "We've got to do something!" Emily shouted. And then she went running away. Sheesh, get a grip! But Emily was right. We did have to do something. But what? "Can't we just turn it off?" I asked. "It has no on/off switch," Neil said. "Isn't there a mute button on it?" asked Alexia. "Why don't we just throw the thing off a cliff or something?" I suggested. "That would get rid of it." "Don't be ridiculous, Arlo," said Andrea. "There are no cliffs around here anyway," Ryan pointed out.

"There must be some way to disable it," said Neil. "I wonder if we could just unplug it," suggested Andrea. "Then, after its battery dies, it won't be able to do anything." At that moment, the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. We heard a voice.... "I WOULDN'T DO THAT IF I WERE YOU, ANDREA." "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" we all shouted. "Who said that?" Ryan asked. "Miss Porter?" "RIGHT YOU ARE, RYAN," said Miss Porter. "It's Miss Porter!" I shouted. "It hears everything, everywhere!" "The monkey bars must be hacked!" Andrea said, searching around for a microphone. "I thought you could only work where there's a Wi-Fi connection."