First published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books and in Canada

by Penguin Random House Canada Limited.

First published in Great Britain 2019 by Egmont UK Limited

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MEET THE

MORGAN

ASH

HARPER

PLAYERS!

PO

JODI

MS MINERVA

DOC CULPEPPER

Prologue

HOW TO START A STORY

WITH A CLIFFHANGER!

F

our figures stood huddled around a single torch. It was the only source of light in the underground burrow. And they all knew that monsters could not spawn in the light.

“It’s too crowded in here¸” said one figure.

“We can dig deeper¸” said the second figure, who was holding a pickaxe. “I could make the burrow bigger.”

“No¸ We Can’t Risk it¸” said the third

figure, who had crafted both the pickaxe

and the torch. “I Don’t Have

the materials to make any more

tools. And if we dig too far¸ we might hit a cave or a mineshaft.

That might let the monsters in and . . .”

The speakers went silent. They all heard it. Something out there was moaning. All four of them stood absolutely still.

After what seemed like forever, the moaning moved on. Everyone made eye contact. They nodded

when they agreed it was gone.

“I want to pinch myself to see if I’m

dreaming¸” one of them said, holding up a blocky

hand, “but I don’t have any fingers here.”

Here, meant in Minecraft. As

impossible as it seemed, the four

9

of them were inside their favourite video game.

Really inside it. Living it. Minecraft was real.

That sounded like a good thing, but there was a problem:

They didn’t know how to get back home to the real world.

10

Chapter 1

Introducing Ash Kapoor!

No Enemy Can Defeat

Her! No Walls Can Keep

Her at Bay!

A

sh Kapoor stood in the shadow of the

castle. It was a cursed place, with dark windows and tall, twisting turrets. A flag snapped in the wind. On it was the image of some fearsome beast, the likes of which she’d never seen. A crow cawed in the distance.

Any other kid would be afraid right now, Ash thought. But not me. I eat danger for breakfast!

Ash had in fact eaten oatmeal for breakfast.

And she wasn’t standing in front of a spooky old castle, either. It was just her new school, Woodsword Middle. But if she squinted at the building just right, she could imagine it was a

11

haunted fortress, or a forgotten temple,

or an alien stronghold on some far-off moon.

Any of those places would be better than the truth: Ash was starting at another school as ‘the new kid’ all over again. For the third time in three years, her family had been forced to move because of her mother’s job.

She straightened her sash. It was part of her Wildling Scout uniform, and it displayed dozens of badges. Each badge was a reminder of something Ash had done well or a new skill she had mastered. They were like little trophies that stayed with her no matter how many times she had to start over. She rubbed one for good luck.

“You can’t just stand in the middle of the staircase like that,” said a boy as he stepped around her.

“Yeah, are you lost or something?” added a girl, who edged past Ash on the other side.

“Actually, I could use some directions!” said Ash. “I’m looking for room 247.”

“It’s right next to room 246,” said the girl.

13

“And 248,” said the boy. “You can’t miss it.”

Ash smiled pleasantly. “Thank you!” she said, although their ‘directions’ had been far from helpful.

She tapped her Urban

Exploration badge. This wasn’t

her first time alone in a strange new place or school. She would find room 247, and she would

face down any perils she met along the way.

“Excuse me!” said another impatient voice at her back.

But first, she really had to stop standing in the middle of the staircase.

Ash was late when she reached room 247. She had hoped to slip in unnoticed. Instead, every single one of her classmates slid their eyes over to her as she walked in the door.

“Please take your seat,” said the teacher,

14

shuffling through some papers on her desk.

“Um, I don’t have a seat yet,” said Ash. “I’m new.”

“Oh! You’re the new girl.” The teacher looked up at her now. The woman’s hair was frizzy. Her topknot was held back with knitting needles, as if it were a half-used ball of yarn. “I’m sorry, dear. I’m so scatterbrained before my first pot of coffee.”

“Don’t you mean your first cup of coffee?” asked Ash.

“I’m Ms Minerva,” she said, changing the subject. “Why don’t you introduce yourself to the class?”

Ash turned towards her new classmates. She took a deep breath, tapping her Public Speaking badge for luck and putting on a bright smile. She had been through this before.

“Hi, everyone!” she said cheerfully. “My name is Ash Kapoor. I just moved here with my family from the West Coast, but I was born in Florida. I like scouting, animals, and video games.”

A boy in the second row perked up. He pointed

15

to his binder, which was decorated with Minecraft stickers.

Ash nodded. “Minecraft especially,” she added. Maybe she wouldn’t have so much trouble making friends this time.

“An animal lover?” said Ms Minerva. “Why, that gives me an idea. How would you like to take care of Baron Sweetcheeks for a while?”

The boy with the Minecraft binder perked up again. He raised his hand.

“Baron . . . Sweetcheeks?” Ash asked, uncertain.

“The class hamster,” Ms Minerva clarified. Then she whispered, “I didn’t name him.”

“Ms Minerva?” the boy said, waving his hand.

17

“Yes, Morgan?”

The boy straightened up in his seat. “Baron Sweetcheeks is actually a lot of work.”

Ms Minerva sighed. “Twenty-four children are a lot of work, Morgan. Baron Sweetcheeks is a hamster.”

“Sure, he looks cute,” Morgan Mercado said. “From a distance! But if you neglect him even a

18

little bit, he freaks out. He needs food, fresh water, exercise, cute hats, intellectual stimulation . . .”

“It sounds like you could use a break from the hamster, Morgan,” said their teacher.

Morgan shook his head. “No, I . . .”

“I don’t mind,” Ash said. “I’m happy to help. I’ll start today.”

“It’s settled, then,” said Ms Minerva. “Ash, there’s a free seat in the back there.”

Ash felt quite happy. The day was off to a good start. And she had so much in common with Morgan! As she walked past him on the way to her seat, she gave him a friendly little wave.

He didn’t wave back.

19

Chapter 2

Hypothesis: Our Science

Teacher Is from

a Post-Apocalyptic

Future

J

odi Mercado looked over her

list of equipment. Binoculars:

check. Sunglasses: check.

Trench coat: too hot and

probably not necessary, so she

had left it at home.

She had done her

research. She knew

all the tools of the

spy trade.

“It’s difficult to use

sunglasses and binoculars

at the same time, though,” she

said, switching back and forth

20

between the two.

“Excuse me,” said a voice at Jodi’s back. She turned

and saw the new girl

standing there. “Is this second-period gym?”

“Yes,” Jodi replied quickly. “Welcome! Here, hold these,

please.” She handed

her sunglasses over. The binoculars

gave a much clearer view. She now saw her science teacher, Doc Culpepper, walking through the school car park with a box full of circuit boards and wires and . . . gadgets of some sort.

“Sorry, one more question,” said the new girl. “Where is the gym teacher?”

“Coach Graham is always three or four minutes late,” Jodi answered. “Which means these are the

21

best three minutes of the day to test my hypothesis.”

“Hypothesis?” echoed the new girl.

“It means an educated guess,” explained Jodi. “You try to prove your guess is right or wrong through experimentation or observation.”

“I know what a hypothesis is,” the girl replied. “We already had our science fair at my last school. I meant, what is your hypothesis?”

“I think our science teacher is from the future,”

Jodi answered. “I think she was fighting

evil robots, but the robots were winning. So

she travelled back to our time to change

the past and prevent them from conquering the world.”

The new girl laughed. But it wasn’t a mean laugh. Jodi knew what a mean laugh sounded like.

Jodi lowered her binoculars and continued. “Culpepper is new this year. She’s brilliant.

She’s a real doctor! I looked her up online, and she has worked on artificial intelligence. So what is she doing at our school?”

“Maybe she enjoys teaching,” said the new girl.

“That’s an interesting hypothesis,” said Jodi.

22

“But I like mine better.”

“Well, I have bad news,” said the girl. “I think your science project has got away.”

Jodi spun around and looked

through the binoculars. “How did she do that?” she asked.

“Did she step through a time portal?”

“She stepped into . . .

a minivan!” the new girl

answered dramatically.

“Hmmm . . . ” said Jodi, disappointed. “That’s

so normal, it’s almost suspicious . . .”

The new girl giggled. “I’m Ash, by the way.”

Jodi put the binoculars away. “I’m Jodi. I saw you this morning. We’re both in Ms Minerva’s class.” She pointed to Ash’s sash. “So you’re a Wildling Scout? You have so many badges!”

Ash nodded. “Unfortunately, there’s no Spycraft badge. But maybe I can help you anyway. I do have a badge for bird-watching. And camouflage. And drone building.“

“Oh, I love the drone idea,” Jodi said. “I could

23

paint it to look like a ghast!” She scratched her chin. “But what if Doc takes control of it remotely with advanced technology from the twenty-third century?”

“You’re right,” said Ash. “A drone is too risky.”

Jodi sighed. “I need a real science

24

project, anyway.” She perked up. “Wait. Did you say you’ve already done one this year?”

“Yes,” Ash said. She pointed to a badge with the image of a test tube on it. “I made an exploding piñata. It uses carbon dioxide.”

“A piñata you don’t even have to hit?” Jodi said. “It’s the invention of the century!”

“The science is easy,” said Ash. “But it takes an artist to make it look like a real piñata.”

Jodi grinned from ear to ear. “You want to be partners? You bring the science, I’ll bring the art.”

Ash smiled back. “Sure.”

A shrill whistle cut through the air.

“Our three minutes are up,” Jodi said. “Follow me!”

Jodi was a year younger than the other kids. The teachers all said she had ‘creative problem-solving skills’. That seemed to be a polite way to say that she was smart but impulsive – both traits shared by all the members of the Mercado family. But where her brother usually tried to control

25

himself and look cool in front of their classmates (she didn’t think he was all that successful), Jodi liked to follow her artistic whims, no matter what anyone thought.

Her ‘creative problem-solving’ made her seem a little odd, but there was no denying that

she was smart. She had been allowed to skip a grade. That was why she was in the same classes as her older brother, Morgan.

In most cases, being younger than her classmates wasn’t a big deal. But she always felt the difference in gym. She was just a little bit shorter than

everyone else. It put her at a disadvantage for most sports.

So she’d made a deal with Morgan. They called it their pact. When it was his turn to choose teams, he would always choose her first. And when it was Jodi’s turn, she would choose Morgan first. That way, they were always on the same team.

Morgan was a good big brother. So good that she was reluctant to do what she was about to do: she was going to break their pact. She only hoped Morgan would understand.

It was Jodi’s turn to choose. And Ash looked so hopeful, standing on her tiptoes and waving. Jodi realised that she was probably one of the only people Ash knew in the entire school.

“Go ahead, Jodi,” said Coach Graham. “Make your first pick.”

Morgan took a step forwards.

“I choose Ash,” Jodi said quickly, before she could change her mind.

Ash looked so happy. She rushed to Jodi’s side. “Thanks,” she whispered.

28

Jodi felt warmth in her chest. She was sure she’d done the right thing. And she was sure Morgan would understand.

She glanced across the asphalt at her brother.

Uh-oh. Maybe he wouldn’t.

29

Chapter 3

Science! Without It¸

There Would Be No Candy

S

everal days later, Harper Houston stepped back to admire her team’s creation. She smiled.

There was just something beautiful about a perfectly constructed volcano.

“I hope this works,” said Po Chen. He was one of her partners for the science fair.

“It will work,” Harper promised. “That’s the beauty of science. If you follow the instructions, you get the same result every time.” She turned to Morgan, the third member of their group. “Right, Morgan?”

Morgan didn’t say anything.

“Right, Morgan?” she repeated.

30

But Morgan wasn’t paying attention to her. He was looking towards the doors of the auditorium. Harper turned to look, too. She saw Morgan’s sister, Jodi, with the new girl, Ash. They were arriving with their own project. It was tall and covered with a white sheet, like a Halloween costume of a ghost.

“What is that?” Harper asked him. “Did your sister make a volcano, too?”

“I don’t know,” Morgan answered. “They’ve been working on it in secret for days.”

“Well, don’t let it distract you,” Harper said. “This isn’t a competition.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “They hand out trophies for the best projects. I’m pretty sure that makes it a competition.”

Harper sighed. She just didn’t worry about things like that. She loved learning for the sake of learning – especially science. And she didn’t need a trophy to know that her team had done a good job.

There were other volcanoes made of paper-mache, clay, and other craft materials in the

31

auditorium. But none of them was quite like theirs. They had constructed it out of one hundred identically sized cubes of modelling clay. It was brown and green and blocky. And it looked like something right out of Minecraft.

Harper, Morgan, and Po were very different. But they all liked Minecraft. That had been all the inspiration they needed.

Po pulled the finishing touches from his backpack: a bottle of vinegar and a packet of bicarbonate of soda. A small amount of each would make their volcano erupt. That would prove to the teachers that they understood chemical reactions. And a dash of red food colouring would give it some flair!

“What do you think their project is?” Morgan asked. Jodi and Ash were setting up their station nearby. Morgan couldn’t take his eyes off them.

“Focus, Morgan,” Harper said in a singsong voice. “Do you have the food colouring?”

“Yeah,” Morgan grumbled. He began rooting around in his backpack.

Just then, Ash and Jodi pulled their sheet

32

away with a flourish. Their project wasn’t a volcano. They had constructed a piñata. It

looked just like a Minecraft creeper¸ with a green body and black eyes. It was as tall as Jodi.

Kids oohed and aahed. Harper couldn’t blame them. The creeper looked amazing.

Morgan went pale. “But . . . but . . . ” he said. “Minecraft is my thing.”

Ash saw him looking. She smiled and waved.

Morgan didn’t wave back.

“You don’t own Minecraft,” Po reminded him.

“But they copied our idea!” Morgan said.

33

“It’s probably a coincidence,” Harper said.

Ms Minerva and Doc Culpepper looked the piñata over. They smiled and nodded and wrote notes on their clipboards. Then Ash directed the teachers and students to step back to a safe distance.

Ash put on a pair of safety goggles. She attached a hose to the back of the piñata, and then she joined the other students.

At the other end of the hose, Jodi stood beside

a canister of gas. It was labelled CO₂. Harper

recognised that as the chemical formula for carbon dioxide. I wonder what they’re up to? she thought, her mind racing with possibilities.

At a signal from Ash, Jodi turned a handle on the CO₂ tank. The hose went taut as gas moved from the tank to the piñata.

Harper held her breath, excited to see what would happen next.

The creeper exploded! It was just like in Minecraft. Except when this creeper exploded, it sent candy flying across the floor.

“Amazing,” Harper said. “They made a piñata that breaks itself.”

34

All the other children cheered and laughed as they ran forwards to grab fistfuls

of candy. Doc Culpepper

cheered, and Ms Minerva gave Jodi and Ash a

thumbs-up.

“That does it,” Morgan said.

“We need to go bigger.”

“Bigger?” Po asked.

“Our volcano is measly

compared to that. We

need a much bigger

eruption!”

Harper shook her

head. “That’s a terrible

idea, Morgan. Our volcano will work just fine if we stick to the plan.” She picked up her measuring spoons and poured out a tablespoon of vinegar.

But Morgan took the bottle from her and the packet of bicarbonate of soda from Po. He held everything out over the mouth of the volcano.

“Morgan, wait!” Po said.

Harper added, “We don’t know what will happen if you . . .”

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