Chapter 2

2 "Glad to see you all having fun," said Mr. Eng. The trio looked up. Their teacher stood above them with a smile on his face and a pencil behind his ear. He was holding a stack of black papers. "I wish the sun would hurry up and set," said Pablo. Mr. Eng laughed. "Don't worry. Just a few more moments and we should be able to see the meteor shower."

"What are those, Mr. Eng?" Violet pointed to the papers he was holding. "These are worksheets about the different objects that exist in our solar system," he replied. "Like planets!" said Deepak. "And comets!" added Pablo. "Exactly," replied Mr. Eng. "But we won't be able to read those in the dark!" said Violet. Mr. Eng smiled again and took the stack of papers from under his arm. Green letters glimmered on each sheet. "Whoa!" said Pablo, Violet, and Deepak. "I wish all my homework glowed in the dark!" said Pablo, holding the paper up close to his face. "I'm going to hand the rest of them out to the other students and families." Mr. Eng turned and walked toward a group of parents. Pablo, Violet, and Deepak read aloud together:

A Space Case: Name That Object Our solar system is made up of the sun and everything that travels around it. But what exactly is in our solar system? The sun is in the center. It's the biggest object you'll find! Planets are the next largest object in our solar system. They usually have at least one moon. Asteroids are small chunks of metal and rock. A comet is a chunk of dust and ice. There are billions of comets in our solar system. A meteoroid is a small piece of comet or asteroid. We call it a meteor when it gets close enough to Earth to burn up. If a meteor lands on Earth, it's called a meteorite. Violet bit her lip. "Dust and ice…" She re-read the sentence. "That sounds like a dirty snowball." Pablo and Deepak laughed. "I didn't know meteors came from asteroids," said Pablo.

"Really?" asked Deepak. He tugged his ear. "I knew that." Pablo scratched his cheek. "Well, I mean…," he began. His face turned a little pink. He had been reading about meteors all week. How did I forget that? he wondered. Out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew through the meadow. The trio gripped their worksheets. As the wind settled, they could see a stray black sheet of paper flipping through the air. It landed in the grass.

"I better go get that," said Pablo, standing up. He hurried over toward the piece of paper. But it wasn't a worksheet. Pablo held the black paper with glowing green words. "It's a riddle!" Violet and Deepak ran over. "Does this mean we get to go back to the Maker Maze?" Deepak said, staring at the shimmering sheet. "Oh yeah," said Violet with a wide smile. The light from the riddle made her kinky hair glow like a crown in the dark. The Maker Maze was a magical laboratory that Pablo, Violet, and Deepak discovered earlier in the school year. It had everything from robots and lasers to microscopes and zero gravity chambers. And to get there, they needed to solve a riddle like this one. The trio wiggled with excitement as they read carefully:

M M ONE, TWO, TWO AND A HALF, THREE! HOW MANY SPACE OBUECTS CAN YOU SEE? LOOK, OVER THERE! SEE THAT TRAIL OF ICE AND DUST? THAT MEANS A JUST PASSED BY; OH YES, IT DOES! AND LOOK AT THAT ROUND RED WITH ITS TINY LITTLE MOONS. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF ASTRONAUTS LAND ON IT SOON. OH JEEZ! WATCH OUT! HURRY AND DUCK! OTHERWISE, YOU'LL BE IN FOR A SHOCK. A HUGE- IS COMING, AND IT'S MADE OF METAL AND ROCK! SOLVE THIS RIDDLE TO ENTER THE MAKER MAZE. "The first one has to be comet," said Violet. "And the next one is definitely planet. It's probably Mars!" added Deepak. "Which means the last one is meteoroid!" shouted Pablo.