The Calm Before the Storm: A Night in Sleepy Hollow
You’re suggesting I lie Carter said I’m shocked Sure you are she said But this isn’t a lie I can help you with your homework The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the books in Uncle Dan’s program Once you’ve lived the book you’ll breeze through reading it A smile spread across Carter’s face He could imagine the big A inked across a pop quiz and putting an end to his grounding Then the smile slipped Are you sure you got all the mutant killer rabbits and crazy weather references out of the books he asked Wonderland was a little too intense for me last time we played with Uncle Dan’s invention You worry too much Isabelle said When Carter didn’t answer she fi nally added Yes I ran a diagnostic three times The books are clean Now do you want a good grade or not Carter sighed Killer rabbits or not he wanted a good grade I’ll see you in the morning 8
The next morning Carter rode his bike to his uncle’s house He looked for the spare key but Izzy hadn’t put it back Grumbling he hiked his backpack higher on his shoulder and pressed his uncle’s doorbell He held his fi nger against the button until his cousin opened the door That’s obnoxious she shouted over the door chimes ringing behind her She shoved his hand off the button So is not putting the key back Isabelle shrugged and backed up so Carter could pass I guess your parents thought studying together was a good idea Yeah yeah they love you he said Though that is the last time I voluntarily bring up your name and homework in the same conversation You know it would take less energy to just do your homework than it does to avoid it Carter glared at Izzy Thanks for the advice Mom Now didn’t you mention discovering something cool He seriously doubted anything Izzy found was really interesting but it had to 9
be better than more nagging Izzy’s face lit up Right come on She barreled down the stairs and called out the password to open their uncle’s lab door Carter followed her through the door and looked around His uncle’s usual casual mayhem was gone Clearly Isabelle had done more than work on their uncle’s program The room was almost blindingly clean All of the monitors tables and keyboards were lined up with military precision on their tables What did you do to this place Carter asked Uncle Dan is going to throw a fi t Isabelle waved her hand as she slipped into Uncle Dan’s computer chair I couldn’t work in so much chaos He’ll love it Carter couldn’t imagine his paranoid uncle loving quite so much change in his sacred computer room But he knew better than to try to argue with Izzy So what is the cool thing he asked instead Look She pointed at the code on the 10
screen Let’s assume I don’t want to read all that and just tell me Isabelle snorted It shows two different modes for experiencing the book program We can enter the books as observers like you did with The Three Musketeers and Alice in Wonderland last time But you can also choose to enter as a character that all the other characters will recognize You did that last time Carter said You played Alice She shook her head I overwrote Alice That’s different and it freaked the program out This is different We won’t be an existing character We’ll be written in as new characters Carter frowned He didn’t see the big deal It’ll be fun Trust me As long as it helps me pass the test on Monday he said It will Isabelle assured him Just remember 11
