Matt’s stomach turned—maybe because he was nervous for Nacho, but maybe because of all those chips he’d inhaled earlier. He took another step back and accidentally bumped into his robot, Ralphie, who he’d totally forgotten was even there. The realization made Matt sad—at one point, he and Ralphie were as inseparable as Miguel and Nacho, but ever since they got summer schooled by the Game Master, Ralphie just hadn’t been the same. The Game Master had done something to Ralphie that day, and no matter how hard he tried, Matt hadn’t been able to figure it out or fix it. The robot now had a habit of randomly spewing off nonsensical letters and numbers.

“You wanna bring Ralphie along?” Becca was suddenly standing beside Matt, staring at him as though she knew what he was thinking about. “Maybe he’ll like helping.”

“Sure,” Matt said, frowning. “Or maybe he’ll break down or start acting weird again.”

“Ralphie is still just as cool as the day you put him together,” Frankie added, walking over to kneel down and give the robot a gentle pat on the head. The lights of the robot’s eyes lit up, and Ralphie raised his arms toward Frankie.

“Blee-blop-bloop,” the warped robotic voice whirred, and Matt sighed. “Five, four, three, two, one.”

“Come on, Ralphie,” Matt said, picking the robot up and shuffling toward the treehouse ladder. “Time to try to find Nacho and Elephant.”

They took turns heading down the ladder of Becca’s treehouse, which had been deemed their official clubhouse shortly after the summer school incident.

“If we’re going to be walking all over the place, I’m gonna need to change my shoes,” Frankie said, looking down at their flip-flops and wiggling toes.

“Same,” Kylie said. “Should we meet up at the park in an hour?”

“Perfect,” Danny answered with a nod. “That’ll give me time to go print some flyers.”

“Let’s do it,” Becca said with a gentle clap.

An hour later, Matt arrived at the park on his scooter, Ralphie secured in the harness that he wore on his back. Everybody else was already there, with Danny making the rounds with his video camera, interviewing his friends about Nacho, having everybody talk about their favorite things about the snake. When Matt rolled up, Danny lowered the camera just long enough to pass out thick stacks of the flyers he’d made for Nacho and Elephant.

“Let’s make our way to the edge of the neighborhood and then start spreading out from there,” Becca said, and the group moved along. Matt trailed in front of them on his scooter, deep in thought about the Game Master.

“Whoever is doing all of this is really sick,” he called over his shoulder to his friends. “I still think it could be Vice Principal Pinter. That guy has always hated me.”