No I wouldn’t be the fourth That honor would belong to Ashley Hawking The world would mourn the loss of the two accomplished adults and my brilliant brother and ingenious sister Me I might be mentioned in the story somewhere but I’m no brainiac I’m average Maybe a little above but not by much and only through effort I have to work hard and read all the time to keep up with the geniuses But anyway Back to that nasty nine-hundred-foot-tall nine-hundred-foot-tall cliff sticking straight up out of the water in front of us Maybe the Millennium Falcon could have made the turn swooping up at the last second but I wasn’t liking our chances Ms Hawking Ashley I told you already Ashley And not because I think of you as an equal Not at all She laughed to herself I simply prefer the sound of my first name Now honestly Hank someone of your intelligence I assumed you’d see Hank was panicking now his head turning from side to side in jerks like a broken sprinkler I don’t when Suddenly my sister leaned forward and pointed at a large orange button in the ceiling covered by a clear plastic 4 Bill Nye and Gregory Mone
case Are you serious she said with excitement Is this the underplane Yes Ashley fake head-butted the dashboard a few times then looked up to the ceiling The child gets the answer Finally Although Ava was relieved I found this news to be more than a little frightening You made a plane out of underwear underwear I asked The moment the words escaped I realized I’d probably misunderstood But no one noticed Or at least no one bothered to make fun of me Not yet anyway Ava and Matt were pretty skilled at remembering my mistakes though This is the underplane Hank asked His eyebrows rose so high they nearly touched the top of his head You actually built it I did But enough talk You’re right Jack she said swiveling around to look me in the eye We are getting awfully close aren’t we I nodded The acknowledgment was nice but I really wanted her to turn back around Are we buckled Good Would you like to do the honors Hank You’ve tested it Of course Once But it worked beautifully Go ahead Press it Do it Now You’ve only tested it once 5 JACK and the GENIUSES
On the dashboard between them a number in the center of the screen was blinking red and decreasing rapidly Yes once and a thousand times in simulation Be confident in your ideas Hank Press the button already She pointed to the flashing red number which just kept dropping Really Now Three hundred meters is pushing things I haven’t felt this much adrenaline since I climbed Everest Matt mumbled something about the cliff Hank hesitated Ashley had Manga eyes I don’t know what Ava was thinking or doing But this was no time to sit and wait I slouched forward in my seat reached up with my right foot flicked open the plastic covering and kicked in the orange button with the heel of my high-top sneaker Ashley let out a long almost disappointed breath Finally she said Hank had his right hand out three fingers extended He counted down from three A moment later the engine stalled The aircraft turned strangely quiet as if we were suddenly suddenly flying in a giant paper plane Now the chute Ava asked Before anyone could respond something exploded behind us Yet nobody but me panicked 6 Bill Nye and Gregory Mone
Ava put her hand on my shoulder A rocket-launched parachute she explained Don’t worry That was supposed to happen Firing a parachute out with a rocket didn’t make sense to me but the plane slowed rattling like an old roller coaster then began circling to the left Away from the cliffs So I exhaled The lonely floating dock came into view ahead of us Out through the window I noticed two wooden boats rounding the corner of the island Matt was staring at his computer screen again mumbling to himself He had a big test coming up and he’d been studying constantly One of the downsides of being a genius is that everyone expected you to ace all your tests I don’t think Hank cared though Matt put more pressure on himself than anyone else did But was this really a good time to prepare for an astronomy exam No So I reached across and closed his laptop He didn’t protest which was pretty much a thank-you Wow it works Ava said I told you I’d tested it Yeah once Ava noted And a thousand times in simulation Hank added The others laughed Apparently this was funny Normally I avoided asking for an explanation when everyone else understood Hank was always saying there’s no such thing as a dumb question but I was pretty sure I 7 JACK and the GENIUSES
