Goldie Blox and the Best Friend Fail Read online

  Copyright © 2018 GoldieBlox, Inc. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. GoldieBlox and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of GoldieBlox, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: McAnulty, Stacy, author. | Marlin, Lissy, illustrator.

  Title: Goldie Blox and the best friend fail / written by Stacy McAnulty ; illustrated by Lissy Marlin.

  Other titles: Best friend fail

  Description: New York : Random House, [2018] | Series: Goldie Blox and the Gearheads ; 4

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017031178 (print) | LCCN 2017043284 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-1-5247-6805-8 (trade) |

  ISBN 978-1-5247-6806-5 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 978-1-5247-6807-2 (ebook)

  Subjects: | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Media Tie-In. JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories. JUVENILE FICTION / Science & Technology.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.M47825255 (ebook) | LCC PZ7.M47825255 Gms 2018 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  Ebook ISBN 9781524768072

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v5.1

  a

  To Stacey and Jess—my “sisters” and friends

  —S.M.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1. Honey Ham and Jalapeño Waffles

  2. Some Quick Quantum Physics Before School

  3. HackerCon, Here We Come

  4. A Ruby-Shaped Blimp

  5. Meet Me by Block Head

  6. Double-Time It

  7. A GB Original Design

  8. Paw Prints Were Two Seasons Ago

  9. The Weather on Mars

  10. A Cobweb of Art

  11. Tie Them Up

  12. Friend-a-Wear

  About GoldieBlox

  “Attention! Attention!” Goldie Blox banged her hammer on the desk in the front of the classroom. She didn’t have a judge’s gavel, but she always carried her tools.

  “Thank you all for coming,” she said to her eight classmates. “I call the first meeting of the Future Astronauts Club to order.”

  Higgs Bozon Prep (or HiBo, as everyone called it) had hundreds of after-school clubs, but none of them had ever involved space exploration. Until now.

  Goldie’s best friends Li “Gravity” Zhang and Val Voltz sat in the front row. Her other BFF, Ruby Rails, wasn’t there because she was at CCC (Cool Coders Club).

  “The mission of HiBo’s Future Astronauts Club is to land on Mars by spring break,” Goldie announced.

  “That’s not much into the future,” Val mumbled.

  “Can we also go to Venus?” asked a boy in the second row.

  “Absolutely,” answered Goldie.

  “And Jupiter?” asked a girl holding a telescope.

  Goldie nodded. “Adding it to our list. But first, we will send a mini-rocket into orbit and have snacks.”

  The mini-launch was a success. The model rocket—with nine tiny dolls to represent the club members—sailed into the blue sky. Then the kids enjoyed granola bars dipped in chocolate and hot sauce. Before the meeting came to a close, they elected officers for their new club. Goldie became president, Li was voted vice president, and Val took on the role of secretary. The girl with the telescope wanted to be treasurer.

  “Should we have our next meeting Friday or Saturday?” Val asked.

  “Either is fine with me,” Goldie said.

  “Saturday it is.” Val wrote it down.

  Later that afternoon, Goldie rode her skateboard to Bloxtown Park for the annual recycled-materials tower-building event. She loved making inventions with junk other people threw out. Goldie had started the event in Bloxtown three years ago. Not only was it super fun, it also raised money for charity. People donated money to Bloxtown’s Summer Camp for each twenty-foot-tall tower the teams built. The first year, there had only been five. This year, it looked like they’d complete thirty-one towers.

  With her basset hound, Nacho, at her side, Goldie got to work. They made a foundation of old tires. Then they added a layer of wooden pallets and paint cans. Nacho fetched, and Goldie built. She pulled a tape measure from her hair. Her wild and crazy blond curls acted like an extra pocket for all her stuff. Their tower was eleven feet high when it began to rain. They needed nine more feet.

  Everyone ran beneath the picnic shelter.

  “Sorry, folks,” the organizer said. “You’ll have to finish these on Saturday. I hope everyone comes back. Remember, this is for a good cause. You’re sending kids to camp.”

  Goldie waved goodbye and jumped on her skateboard. She didn’t mind the rain. Neither did Nacho. As they raced home, they hit every puddle.

  They were soaked by the time they arrived at the BloxShop. Technically, it was a garage, but Goldie had transformed it into her workshop years earlier.

  “This is the perfect time to try my Quick-Dry Blower,” Goldie said. They stood in front of her invention. “Here goes nothing.” Goldie flicked it on. It was a windstorm of warm air. The windows rattled, and boxes flew across the room. But she and Nacho were dry in seconds.

  Goldie’s parents, Junie and Beau Blox, came running in.

  “What was that?” her mom asked. “Sounded like a tornado.”

  “It kinda was!” Goldie laughed. “The wind from my new invention was strong. I’m surprised it didn’t blow the freckles off my arms.” She looked at her arms. She still had freckles.

  “Goldie, we have some good news,” her dad said.

  Goldie bounced up and down. She loved good news. It was her favorite kind of news.

  “You’ve won the waffle recipe contest!” he said.

  “And the TV station wants to interview you and try your honey ham and jalapeño waffles,” her mom added. “They’ll be here on Saturday.”

  Goldie pumped her fist in the air. She’d never won a cooking contest before.

  “That’s awesome!” Goldie cried. Her parents each gave her a high five and a hug. “I can’t wait to tell the Gearheads.” The Gearheads were what Goldie called Ruby, Li, and Val.

  She invited them over to celebrate. Li lived next door and arrived first. Val and Ruby came over a bit later. Goldie made popcorn and smoothies. Celebrating with friends made any victory sweeter.

  “Cheers!” They raised their smoothies. “To Goldie.”

  “Thanks, Gearheads. I couldn’t have done it without you.” They had taste-tested seventeen different waffles before Goldie had finally come up with the winning recipe.

  “I’ve got some news, too,” Ruby said, smiling.

  “What, Rubes?” Goldie asked.

  “I’ve been asked to present at HackerCon,” Ruby said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I started coding. I went to my first convention when I was three.”

  “What’s HackerCon?” Val asked. “Sounds like a place for people that have bad colds.” She made a coughing sound.

  “No, Val. It’s a festival for the best computer coders and hackers. I can’t believe I’ll be talking to hundreds of people about my latest app.” Ruby pulled out her minicomputer to demonstrate. She took a photo of Goldie, then aimed the camera at Nacho. Next, she used her app to mash Goldie’s and Nacho’s pictures together.

  “That’s so cool,” Goldie s
aid.

  “Way to go, Ruby!” Li added.

  “Isn’t hacking illegal?” Val asked.

  Ruby laughed. “The criminal hackers don’t usually go to conventions. We’re all legit.”

  They raised their smoothies again, this time to Ruby.

  “Thanks,” Ruby said. “And, Goldie, I was hoping you’d be my co-presenter. You were the one who inspired me. Well, you and Nacho. I’ll need help demonstrating my app and running the slideshow. I can’t do it alone.”

  “Aww, Rubes. Of course! Nacho and I would be happy to help.” Goldie wrapped an arm around Ruby’s shoulder.

  “Great,” Ruby said. “HackerCon is this Saturday.”

  Goldie crawled across the monkey bars, swung from the ceiling fan, bounced off the trampoline, and thumped down onto her bed.

  “A perfect landing!”

  Nacho curled up next to her. Goldie was exhausted. She closed her eyes and imagined new inventions she would engineer the next day. But she couldn’t fall asleep. Something was tickling her brain.

  Goldie tossed and turned for an hour.

  “What am I forgetting?” she whispered to Nacho. He didn’t have the answer.

  Finally, her eyelids grew heavy, and closed. She was almost asleep, when…

  “SATURDAY!” She shot up in bed. She had agreed to do everything on Saturday. She was happy that she’d remembered but worried that she wouldn’t get to do it all.

  Goldie threw back the covers and jumped out of bed. She slid down the fireman’s pole to the kitchen.

  “What are you doing up so late?” her mom asked.

  “What time is the TV interview on Saturday?” she asked.

  “The reporter will be here to try your waffles and talk about your winning recipe at one p.m.,” her dad said with a smile. He’d taught her everything he knew about cooking.

  Goldie went back upstairs and rode the zip line to Li’s house. She tapped on his window.

  “What’s up, G?” he asked, yawning.

  “When is our Future Astronauts Club meeting?”

  “One o’clock on Saturday,” he answered. “You’ll be there, right? You are the prez. Our members are counting on you.”

  Goldie felt a small knot in her stomach.

  “Yeah. Of course! Bye.” She ran to the BloxShop. On her computer, she looked at the website for the recycled-materials tower-building event.

  Rescheduled for one o’clock on Saturday.

  “Oh no,” Goldie mumbled. The knot in her stomach grew bigger and tighter, like she had swallowed a nest of bungee cords.

  She called Ruby.

  “Hey, Rubes, any chance HackerCon is not at one p.m. on Saturday?” Goldie crossed her fingers.

  “It goes all day, but we present at one-thirty.”

  Phew! Goldie thought.

  “But we need to be there at one to set up. Maybe even earlier. I’d hate to be late,” Ruby said.

  “I’ll try,” Goldie said.

  “You’ll be there, right?” Ruby asked. “I need you, Goldie. I can’t do this alone.”

  “I promise.” Goldie hung up the phone and took a deep breath. She had four things at the exact same time. A challenge for sure, but she loved a challenge. “I can engineer that,” she said to herself.

  The next morning, Goldie invited Li over early to help with a solution. On her whiteboard, she’d drawn out the problem.

  One Goldie.

  One time.

  Four places.

  “Looks like you’ll need to choose, G,” Li said. “What’s most important?”

  “They’re all important. So that’s why we need to invent a time machine.”

  “Awesome,” he said. “I’m in.”

  They dragged in an old washing machine from the scrap pile behind the house. The Gearheads believed that everything could be reused. And it could have a new purpose. Goldie took the motherboard from her computer. Li borrowed parts from a lawn mower.

  “Most physicists don’t think time travel is possible,” Li pointed out as they welded pieces together.

  “I’m not trying to travel to dinosaur times,” Goldie said. “I just need to pause time so I can do all four things at once.”

  “Got it.” Li smiled. “We’re using quantum physics, then.”

  “Well, technically, we’re using a washing machine.” They finished their invention and had just enough time to try it out before school.

  “Hurry! We’re going to be late,” Li said.

  “Not if our invention works.” Goldie entered the data into the computer. She dropped an old action figure into the washing machine.

  “It should spin fast enough that the doll will be in the BloxShop at the same time as she’s outside in the front yard.”

  “Right,” Li said. “To us it’ll look like the exact same time, but to the doll it’ll be one minute in the yard and one minute in the shop. Time is relative.”

  Goldie smiled. “I’m glad you’re a physics genius. Let’s fire this up!” She pressed the ON button and started the motor. The machine whirled and whined. A bit of smoke drifted from beneath it.

  “It’s working!” Li shouted as the machine spun. And spun. All the forces lifted it an inch off the ground. Li and Goldie backed up. Nacho whimpered and ran inside the house.

  “We’re going to put a hole in time!” Goldie yelled over the noise.

  Suddenly, the washing machine shot across the room. It slammed through the wall, then fell on its side and finally went silent.

  “Maybe not a hole in time, but we did put one in the wall,” Li said.

  Goldie’s parents rushed into the BloxShop. Goldie explained their experiment and what had gone wrong.

  “Maybe you should do more research before playing with quantum physics,” her dad said.

  Goldie nodded reluctantly. “You’re right.”

  “Come on, kids. I’ll give you a ride to school,” her mom said. She taught biology at HiBo and knew lots about plants but little about time travel.

  All day during class, Goldie brainstormed other ways to be at her four activities at the same time. She finally figured out that the solution would require jetpacks and holograms. And maybe being a little late.

  After the last bell rang, Ruby stopped Goldie in the hall. “Look!” She pulled out two matching jackets. CREATIVE BRAINS STUNNING APPS was sewn onto the back. “They’re waterproof, have a tracking device, and will never stain. Plus, gray and aqua are this season’s colors.”

  “These are so cool,” Goldie said.

  “We can wear them to HackerCon,” Ruby explained. “I think we’ll make a bigger impact if we match. Okay?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Thanks, Goldie. You’re the best.” Ruby gave her a hug.

  I hope I’m the best, Goldie thought. She’d need to be if she was going to pull this off.

  On Saturday, Goldie got up early and went to work. She had borrowed a hologram machine from the labs at HiBo. She needed it to project herself as a 3-D image for the Future Astronauts Club meeting. Goldie had to promise eighteen times not to rewire or make adjustments to the machine, and she kept her word. But she did make adjustments to her skateboard.

  “Until I can teleport,” she said to Nacho, “a jetpack on my skateboard will have to do.” She added a sidecar for Nacho, with an airbag and a parachute for safety.

  Goldie had a plan that didn’t involve time travel, but it allowed her to do everything she wanted. She would handle the waffle interview and the Future Astronauts Club at the same time using the hologram machine. She figured that would only take five minutes. She could talk fast. Then she’d blast off to the recycled-materials tower-building event. With Nacho’s help, she’d only need two or three minutes to finish. Then she’d go to HackerCon. She estimated she would get to Ruby about one-fifteen. Maybe one-twenty. That didn’t leave a lot of time to set up, but she would be there to present.

  The final bit of preparation was calling Ruby to warn her that she would be a little late.
“Hey, Rubes. I just wanted to let you know—”

  “Hi, Goldie,” Ruby interrupted. “I’m so excited about our presentation. I think it went really well when we practiced yesterday.”

  “It was great. But you should know, I might not be there exactly at one p.m.”

  “What?”

  “I might be fifteen—um, five or, um…a few minutes late.”

  “Goldie, I need you there.” Ruby’s voice shook.

  “I’ll be there, Rubes,” Goldie promised. This was all going to work. She just knew it.

  At twelve-thirty, Goldie sat ready and waiting in the kitchen. She had the hologram recorder focused on herself. And Li had set up the projector at the meeting.

  “Is it working?” Goldie asked. She danced around.

  “We see you and your awesome moves,” Li said through a microphone in the machine. Goldie could not see him or any of the other young astronauts, but she could hear them.

  Goldie stopped dancing and whipped up a batch of her award-winning waffles. She had two dozen stacked on a plate when the doorbell rang.

  The clock said five minutes before one p.m. She was already ahead of schedule!

  Her dad brought the reporter to the kitchen. Goldie recognized her from TV. The woman was tall with white hair. A cameraman followed behind her.

  “Nice to meet you, Angela Rodgers from Channel Four Eyewitness News,” Goldie said, shaking the reporter’s hand.

  “And nice to meet you, Goldie Blox,” Angela Rodgers said with a smile.

  Goldie rushed Angela Rodgers to the kitchen table. She pulled out her chair. She placed a huge stack of waffles in front of her.

  “Here are my award-winning waffles,” Goldie said. “They’re made with honey ham and jalapeño. I’m very proud to have won this contest. It’s an honor. I want to thank all my fans. And a special thanks to my mom and dad.”

  Goldie looked into the camera and smiled and waved. Then she turned back to Angela Rodgers. “Are we good? Is that a wrap?”