Besides that his dad said I’d feel better knowing you’d keep an eye on these two We don’t need a babysitter Rodrigo declared I know you don’t Rigo Dad said But it’ll be good to have Marco there just in case Besides Dad needs a night off Marco knew what his dad meant Ever since their mom died a few years back he’d been a single dad taking care of Marco and his little brothers Though his dad never complained Marco knew he was exhausted Okay Dad Marco said I’ll go and keep these two out of trouble It’ll be fine I don’t get into trouble Rodrigo insisted Felipe does 8
As the two youngest brothers argued Dad smiled at Marco and put his hand over his heart Thank you he mouthed On Halloween afternoon hours before the lock-in that Friday night Marco was hard at work on his micro-bot He hoped to spend as much time as possible during their time in the coding club to retrofit his creation with treads The legs he’d attached to the robot’s body were far too small The top-heavy head made it prone to tip over 9
You ever going to give that little guy a name Grady Hopkins asked temporarily occupying the chair that Ava Rhodes usually sat in Marco hadn’t considered that He’d gotten so used to calling it micro-bot that a name didn’t seem necessary A name Marco said Do you think he needs one Grady shrugged I don’t know Maybe You don’t think micro-bot is good enough No man that’s terrible Grady said It’s like calling a new puppy Dog Well it’s not like he’ll come if I call his name or anything Marco joked Maybe I’ll just call him Mike You know short for micro-bot 10
Yeah I get it Grady said nodding Mike Sure that works Marco noticed Grady fumble with something at Ava’s workstation a bit but he didn’t pay too close attention He really wanted to get back to his work He had one more bug to fix to get the micro-bot’s or Mike’s treads to work All right Grady said standing up Back to it then Did you need help with something Marco asked Grady was new to the Codeheads the name they’d given their coding group No no he said quickly I’m good Just wanted to see how Mike was doing Marco nodded as Grady went back to his seat near Travis Jacobson A moment later Ava 11
