Free The Great Interactive Dream Machine by Richard Peck

knowledge,” he muttered back.
    Aaron got us through History, and we hadn’t been missed in Math yesterday. Coach Renwick hadn’t minded us cutting soccer. Then we came to the end of the day, and it was time to report back to you-know-who.
    â€œLook, how bad can it be?” Aaron was still saying as we slumped down to the headmaster’s outer office.
    The secretary was at her desk. Two other ladies were sitting along the wall. My head was hanging, but I looked up.
    â€œ Mom ,” I said.
    â€œMom,” Aaron said.
    Our moms were there, and they had the look of parents who’d already seen the headmaster.
    â€œJosh,” Mom said, “I’ve had to take time off from work.”
    â€œAaron,” Mrs. Zimmer said, “this was my court time at the tennis club.”
    We both smacked our foreheads. We were being released in the custody of our moms.
    And another thing. We got our quizzes back on Time and Again from Headbloom that day. I got a B. Aaron got a B plus.

9
    The Threshold of a New Frontier
    Older guys beginning to hang around Heather and the house?
    Me turning into a troubled kid pulling pranks at school?
    Dad still out in Chicago?
    With all this, Mom had a lot on her mind. She and Dad speed dialed all weekend. Then on Sunday night he gave me a jingle. Usually I wait for his call. That night I wasn’t so eager.
    â€œJosh, what’s this prank you pulled at school all about?”
    â€œDad, I’m thinking puberty.”
    He sighed all the way from Chicago. “You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking you’re acting out because I’m not there.”
    â€œThat’s a good thought, Dad. Come on home.”
    But he said he couldn’t do that. He was working around the clock on the Lucky Mutt account.
    The whole situation was left up to Mom. She said I was grounded until I could come up with a complete explanation for swapping senior dress code for my own—full disclosure.
    If you ask me, a sixth grader is grounded most of the time anyway. In my case it meant cutting down to an hour of TV every night, so I was in my room a lot. I may be the only kid at Huckley without TV in his room.
    I didn’t see that much of Aaron, but we probably needed to take a breather from each other. At school he was in the Black Hole. Then he’d tear home to his technopolis. He basically grounded himself, but he’d call me up from his room in the evening.
    â€œPicture it. When I foolproof this formula, look what we’ve got.”
    â€œWhat? Free trips to the Hamptons and the headmaster’s office?”
    â€œThink bigger, Josh. We’re standing on the threshold of a new frontier, and I’ll be a shoo-in for a Westinghouse science scholarship. Most of the great discoveries in science are accidental. What I’ve stumbled onto here is essentially a new formula. Once I’ve got it vaccinated for viruses, we can dial ourselves into the cosmic Internet and go with our every need. Past, future, even lateral moves. This could rank right up there with the discovery of radium and call waiting. Josh, what we may have here is the Great Interactive Dream Machine.”
    Aaron was so pleased with himself and his new discovery, it was too late to confess I’d helped. “What about your old formula? The one that does schematics of dinosaurs to send you to computer camp?”
    â€œI’ve got that on the back burner.” Aaron sounded vague. “I’ll get back to that.”
    I let him rave on about his dream machine. What choice did I have?
    I was leading a pretty quiet life, but Heather dropped in one night. Being grounded didn’t mean I could keep her out of my room. I was in bed reading when she barged in and flopped down. Her eyes were bright and beady, but worried.
    â€œTwo words,” she said. “Hulk Hotchkiss.”
    The R. L. Stine jumped in my hand. I marked my place in it.
    Heather moped.