chapter 1 ready set septemberfest Fabian Starr lounges on a battered sofa in the garage His friend Zee sits beside him lightly tapping some drumsticks against a cooler Zee wears his usual black hoodie and red leather gloves He also sports a pair of dark sunglasses even though the last of the evening light has already faded from the sky 4
Musical instruments are scattered around the garage Fab holds a red guitar in his lap absently strumming chords They watch Emilio who is demonstrating his latest invention You flip this tiny switch on the side right Emilio pushes his curls out of his eyes and holds up what looks like an ordinary football And then this dial lets you decide how powerful you want the shock to be Before Fab can protest Emilio lobs the ball to him Fab instinctively reaches up to catch it 5
Ouch He yelps as a tiny electric shock runs through his hands He hurls the ball back at Emilio who also lets out a yip of pain as he catches the ball Cool right Emilio beams Cool Now tell me again why I’d want a football that hurts me 6
Fab smiles Emilio’s love of bizarre inventions never fails to amuse him To make the game more exciting obviously Emilio says Because being tackled to the ground isn’t exciting enough Fab says That was the lowest setting That wasn’t even a big shock Check this out Emilio turns the dial all the way up and tosses the ball to Zee The ball almost hits Zee squarely in the face but at the last second Zee reaches up and grabs it Fab actually 7
