Free Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman Page A

Wesley says amazing things in his sleep!
7. He solves math problems.

Chapter 13
THE BRAIN BUSTER
    Dear Eric,
    Did you really grow half an inch? That is a pretty good amount!
    I can’t believe camp is already half over! Color War didn’t break yet. According to our algorithm, it won’t break until almost the end of camp. But I don’t know about that, because it seems like that wouldn’t be a surprise. But the last four years it broke at a surprising time, so maybe this year the surprise is that it will break at a not-surprising time.
    Get this: Last night, Wesley solved his homework problems IN HIS SLEEP! I was up, and I heard it and wrote down the answers. Maybe tonight he’ll say when Color War will break!!
    Did I tell you about the brain busters? Every Monday, my counselor, David, gives us a brain buster and we have until Friday to solve it. You are only supposed to get one guess, but we figured out that you can usually get another guess if you bribe David with a Kit Kat. He really likes Kit Kats. This week’s brain buster is SO SO SO hard. No one can solve it!! If you get this before Friday and you can solve it, you should call the camp and leave a message for me with the answer. Okay I’ll put a copy of it here. Get ready for your brain to bust ha ha! Here it is:
    You are being held prisoner in a castle. The king says he’ll give you a 50-50 chance to live or die. He takes you onto a field that is covered with black and white pebbles. He says, “I am going to pick up two pebbles. In one hand I’ll have a black pebble, and in one hand I’ll have a white pebble. You get to pick a hand. If you choose
the hand with the white pebble, you get to go free. But if you choose the hand with the black pebble, you die.” You agree to the rules. He reaches down and picks up a pebble in each hand. But you see that he secretly picked up two black pebbles! You know that if you accuse him of cheating, he will kill you instantly. What do you do?
    Wesley didn’t solve the mystery of life in his sleep that night, but he did say something that helped solve the weekly brain buster.
    â€œOkay,” said Wesley during lunch. “What did I say again?”
    â€œFirst you said, ‘Oh, duh,’” said Nikhil, who had heard Wesley talk when he’d woken up to go to the bathroom. “Then you said, ‘Use the pebbles on the ground.’ And then, when I came back from the bathroom, you said, ‘Opposites.’”
    â€œIt has to relate to the brain buster,” said Gabe as he chewed on a grilled cheese sandwich. “Why else would you be talking about pebbles?”
    â€œUnless in your dream you were in Pebbleland,” joked Nikhil.
    Wesley lowered his forehead onto his tray and moaned,“I don’t remember. I could have been dreaming about Pebbleland. Once I dreamed that I was in Candyland. I was eating a really big marshmallow, and when I woke up, my pillow was gone.”
    Gabe and Nikhil burst out laughing. “Well,” said Gabe, pushing aside his grilled cheese and the possibility of Wesley eating a pillow in his sleep, “last night you said, ‘Use the pebbles on the ground,’ and now we can use that to solve the weekly brain buster.” He took out the copy of the brain buster that he’d been carrying in his pocket all week and put it on the table, above their trays.
    â€œUse the pebbles on the ground …,” Wesley said. “How can you use the pebbles on the ground? …”
    â€œWhat about ‘opposites’?” said Gabe. “You also said ‘opposites.’”
    â€œThat was after I went to the bathroom,” Nikhil reminded him. “Wesley could have been in a totally different dream by then. Who knows?”
    â€œYou can’t accuse him of cheating,” Wesley read again.
    â€œYou could ask to see the two pebbles before you start. Just to be safe,” said Nikhil.