“You don’t. I take it as a challenge. I will make you like me Sadie Alexander. If it’s the last thing I do.”
With that he was off, taking his daughter with him and all Sadie could do was stare.
*****
“Just give me a second,” mumbled Mike, his mouth full of nails. Michaela had been bouncing around all morning, and he just needed to put this one last piece together and he would be done.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” said Michaela, and pressed something into Mike’s hand.
Mike looks back at him for a moment, and then the world leapt, juddered, and fell back into alignment. Michaela seemed to have moved more than she should have, and Mike’s internal clock felt as if it’s gone wrong.
“What did you do?” asked Mike, carefully setting Michaela’s toy to one side. It seemed to be broken now, anyway.
“Gave you a second. Three, actually. It’s one use only, unfortunately, but I can make more. I think I’ll even be able to extend the jump to a full minute.”
“That’s amazing,” said Mike, but he’s smirking rather than smiling. “But I think you actually took a few seconds away.”
“What? Give me that.” Michaela snatched the expired device away. “Oh, the wiring’s completely reversed. This is ridiculous.” She strode away, already tinkering with the toy, leaving Mike to continue building her project in peace.
The science fair was scheduled to begin soon and he was bound and determined to have the best exhibit there…For Michaela to have the best exhibit rather. He needed to show Sadie that she deserved to be at her school.
*****
“Michaela-Michaela-Michaela!”
Michaela froze where she lay on her bed, rereading Le Petit Prince. From her bedroom window, an insistent tapping started.
“Michaela! Please be in there!”
She sat up and half-ran over to her window, staring dumbly at Jaden’s beaming face pressed to the glass.
“Jaden? Did you…my room is on the second floor!”
“I know, I’m slipping, can you open the window please?”
Michaela fumbled with the latch and popped it open before reaching out and hurriedly pulling Jaden inside. The boy pulled in his backpack behind him, a worn-out and slightly stained old bag which clunked loudly as it bumped against the windowsill. Michaela closed the window behind her while Jaden brushed himself off.
“Why didn’t you come through the front door? You know June would have let you in right?”
“I know. But I’ve wanted to see if I could climb that tree in your backyard for ages, I can see it from my grandma’s house you know; so. You’re not busy or anything, are you?” Jaden asked, shuffling a bit awkwardly and holding his bag tightly.
Michaela smiled, smoothing out a small wrinkle in her sundress. “No, just reading. What is so important that you had to climb into my room?”
“I totally forgot!” Jaden plunged his hand into his bag, a few things rattling and falling into each other before pulling out a rumpled sheet of paper. He dropped his bag and sat cross-legged on the floor, smoothing it out as best he could. Michaela padded over and sat next to him, leaning over to look at the flyer.
“I was at school ‘cuz I forgot my math textbook, and I saw this,” Jaden explained, once the paper was laying semi-flat. RUTLEDGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL, the flyer read in big, bright letters. ANNUAL SCIENCE FAIR! “This is an emergency.”
“Emergency?” Michaela asked, confused. “But why? My dad’s making me something like a time machine. Isn’t your mom making you something?”
“Of course not, I make my own project. You should too. In fact we should work together.”
“Why?”
“Cuz Gordon was really determined to win last year, an’ he’s extra-determined this year. I heard he’s already started working, and he’s got a partner. Becky Smith.”
“Are partners allowed?”
“Technically, but nobody uses ‘em. Except he really wants to win this year.”
“Are you going to let him?”
“Heck no,” Jaden said, sitting up straighter with a determined glint in his eye. “I’m gonna be the first student at Rutledge Prep to win the science fair three years in a row. I just…I might need a little help this time,” he admitted, a little sheepishly.
“What are you going to do?”
“Um…” Jaden fidgeted, smoothing out the flyer again and again. “D’youwannabemypartner?”
“Quoi?”
“Wanna be my partner? For the science fair?”
“Oh, I…” Michaela fussed with one of her curls, glancing at the floor. “But I’ve never done a science fair before.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jaden said readily. “You’ve got the best science grades in the whole class!”
“How did you know that?” Michaela asked, a spot of pink appearing high on her cheeks. “Mrs. Maxwell doesn’t share grades with the class.”
“I guessed,” Jaden admitted with a shrug. “But I also kinda knew it. You’re super smart,” he explained at Michaela’s blank look. “And you answer almost as many questions in class as I do. So…will you? Be my partner?”
“Okay,” Michaela said, her small pleased smile matching Jaden’s wide grin in emotion, if not in size. “I’ll do it.”
“Yes!” Jaden said, punching the air. “I thought I was gonna have to ask Becky or someone like that.”
“Becky Smith? But I thought she was working with Gordon.”
“Becky Houston,” Jaden explained, “The tough girl who wears leather a lot, she’s always in the back row?”
“Her twin sister is Fiona, yes? The…” Michaela motioned around her head, imitating a large mound of frizzy hair.
“Yeah, that’s them.”
“They’re…” Michaela fumbled for words for a moment. “A little scary, don’t you think?”
“Becky and Fiona? Nah,” Jaden said, shaking his head. “If they like you, they’re great. And really not that scary if you get to know them.”
Michaela hmm’d, not totally convinced, but willing to let it drop. “What were you thinking for the experiment?”
“Okay,” Jaden said, practically bursting with excitement again. He reached deep into his bag before pulling out a stuffed notebook and flipping through the pages. “So I had a couple ideas, and I talked to my mom a bit, except she just said to do whatever I was most excited about and that so long as I was excited it would turn out great. Which wasn’t really helpful, because I’m really excited about everything, so I was thinking we could look at the list together an’ see if there’s anything we both think is super cool.”
“Okay,” Michaela said eagerly, scooting across the floor to sit next to Jaden. Their shoulders brushed, and Jaden stiffened for a moment before coughing and giving the notebook perhaps a bit more attention than was totally warranted. “See anything interesting?”
“What is this solar oven one?” Michaela asked, pointing at one of the notes written in Jaden’s messy scrawl. “Cooking with the sun?”
“Yeah, basically you make an oven with lots of reflective surfaces and focus the sunlight on the food, and cook it. You can make ‘em with tinfoil and a cardboard box, I think.”