First 5 Pages January Workshop - Smith-Allen

Name:  Rebecca Smith-Allen

Genre: Upper Middle Grade Mystery

Title:    All Out

Chapter 1: Designing Apps  (Jared)

You wouldn't actually call me gifted unless awesome video game skill counted.  According to Mom, it doesn't.  But I was on a bus headed to a camp for math and science nerds. 

The camp was run by Hartland Mountain Science Academy, a private school for smart kids.  I didn't go to school here.  Neither did the smarty-pants of my family, my little sister, Maxine, who once threw a fit 'cause she'd only gotten a 92 on a test (I would've been thanking my lucky stars).  Going to school here cost money, as opposed to Thompson Middle School, which was free.  But anyone could sign up for camp. 

Boy Scout Camp was my idea of the perfect summer camp.  Building campfires, toasting s'mores, and shooting BB guns.  Searching under rocks for newts and lizards.  Boy Scout camp should last all summer, not just a week.  And Max couldn't go, obviously.  So she'd gotten it in her head to do this camp's Geocaching program, "treasure hunting" through the forest with a hand-held GPS.  Only my nutty sister could think that sounded fun. 

Aaron, my best friend and gaming bud, had looked over her shoulder at the camp catalog and found a program on Designing Apps.  Designing apps sounded good, even if lizards and fires weren't involved.  Even if I had to hang out with "gifted and talented" kids to take it.  Everyone else here might be a math or science geek, but I could hold my own in gaming. 

I stomped off the bus following Max and Aaron.  My head was ready to explode from the twenty minute ride up the windy mountain road during which I had to share my best friend with my little sister. 

Max got off first and headed toward a friend who'd signed up for camp with her.  I headed the opposite direction toward a couple guys my age.  I didn't know them, but getting away from Max was all the incentive I needed to make new friends. 

My eyes darted to the right.  Aaron had followed me, not my sister. 

Good.

I was about to get my first experience meeting geniuses.  What do geniuses talk about?  Do they watch Phineas and Ferb?  Or only Discovery Channel shows?  Do they play Minecraft?  Or just chess?  Do they have major problems in their lives, like their little sister dating their best friend?  Or would a genius find some colorless, odorless, tasteless poison to take out his sister?

"Hey," I said to a chunky, red-headed guy wearing a camouflage T-shirt and rust-colored pants. 

"Hi, I'm Conlan," he said with a smile. 

I was tempted to tell him his loud pants kinda defeated the purpose of the camo shirt.  Maybe he liked his clothes to match his equally bright hair. Weird.  But I decided that fashion advice wasn't the best way to introduce myself.

"Jared," I said.  "This is Aaron."

"This is Tariq." Conlan gestured at the short, skinny, dark-haired, dark-skinned guy next to him.

"Hey," Tariq said.

 I dragged my eyes off Conlan's odd clothes to look at his friend.  His T-shirt read, "Come to the nerd side.  We've got π."  What was that about? Hanging out with nerds for a week was gonna be harder than I thought.  I considered retreat.

"Have you guys been to this camp before?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah," Conlan answered.  "We go to school here too." 

Ok, so I'd stumbled into guys who weren't just willing to get categorized as nerds for one week.  They were actual, legitimate, full-time geniuses. Wow. 

I considered retreat more seriously.

"Which program-" I started to ask.

"Designing Apps," Conlan answered before I even got the question out.  "You?"

"Same," I said.

"Cool." Conlan smiled again.  He had a huge, cheery smile that took up half of his face.  "So did you hear Brent Kagon is in our program?  That's why I signed up."

"No way." My jaw dropped.  My eyes bugged out.  He couldn't be serious, could he?  

"Way!"

It didn't seem possible, but Conlan's smile grew broader.  Tariq smiled and nodded as well.  They weren't joking.

Who hadn't heard of Brent Kagon?  He was the local golden child.  He'd created this game app that like a zillion people downloaded and played. 

Ok.  I'd played it for a week.  It wasn't that good.  But it'd been designed by a kid - a kid who'd made enough money to take his parents to Disney World.  I'd read all about it.  Brent Kagon was my idol, the reason I was at this camp.  I figured if he could do it, I could do it.  I know as much about gaming as anybody and more than like 99.9 percent of the population. 

I wanted to be Brent Kagon.  I had a great idea for an app too.  And I had visions of myself with a zillion dollars, buying every game system known to man, getting the Lego Death Star, paying someone to do my science homework.  I'd take my parents to Disney for vacation.  Aaron would come too, of course.  Max could stay home. 

How could Brent Kagon be taking a class like this?  Didn't he already know everything?

"I took Designing Apps last summer," Conlan said, "but when Mom complained about paying for the program a second time I said, 'Kagon's taking it.' And she was like, 'Really?  Then there must be more to learn.  Ask him for pointers.'"

Our discussion stopped when a sleek black car with tinted windows rolled up next to us.  It was the only car that pulled into camp 'cause the rest of us had taken a bus to the top of the mountain.

The black car stopped and a man in a black suit and cap got out of the drivers' seat and opened the back door.  Was there a movie star signed up for camp too, on top of a famous app designer?  A guy got out, one just a couple years older than me.  He was no movie star.  He had messy black hair sticking out in every direction.  He wore faded black jeans even though it was hot and everyone else wore shorts. His face was set in a scowl.  And he had the thinnest, most beautiful MacBook I'd ever seen tucked protectively under his arm. 

Conlan elbowed me.  I grimaced but he didn't notice 'cause he hadn't taken his eyes off the guy. 

"That's him," he whispered.  "Brent Kagon."

Campers gathered to see who was getting out of the fancy car so I had to balance on tiptoes and crane my neck to see him.  I felt like a groupie, staring, but I couldn't help it.  There was something about him.  I wanted his autograph.  I wanted to peek into his brain and find out how he came up with such a great idea for an app.  I wanted to know his programming secrets. 

But there was something annoying about him as well.  It was the first day of camp, a bright, sunny summer day.  Why was he scowling?  His black T-shirt read "Watch and Learn," in gray, 3D letters.  A little full of yourself?  And he knew we were here, that he was surrounded by people staring at him.  Even Max squeezed through the crowd and whispered something in Aaron's ear.  But Brent ignored us all.  He pulled a pair of dark sunglasses from the collar of his T-shirt, put them on, nodded to his driver, and walked past us and into the building.