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  He raised his hands. He tried to make his arms look like a triangular roof over his head. Shelter, he thought at her. Come on, Harper. Let’s get building!

  Harper just gave him a blank look. She shook her head and shrugged. She couldn’t understand him.

  Morgan decided he’d just have to do it himself. But he had precious few materials in his inventory. He swam to the seafloor and began digging up dirt, then piling it to make the foundations of a house.

  It was taking forever. Each time he placed a few blocks, he had to return to the bubbles for more air.

  Finally, Ash seemed to realize what he was doing. She shook her head at him and gestured toward a nearby wall of rock. Of course, he thought. Building up against an existing wall would save on materials.

  Ash started placing glass blocks along the underwater cliff. She had enough glass to create a single enclosed room. Actually, it was more like an elevator shaft than a room. It had no ceiling. Instead, it went all the way up to the surface of the water. That was risky, because she had to swim up to where the phantoms could reach her. But it also allowed her to take gulps of air. And she was quick, never staying at the surface for more than a moment.

  In a little while, she was done. She had built the structure around herself, so she was on the inside when it was finished.

  Morgan gestured at her through the glass. Okay, he tried to say. That’s shelter. But it’s still full of water. Ash would run out of air in seconds!

  Instead of kicking to the surface for another breath, Ash pulled out a white material. It was wool. She began filling the interior with blocks of the fluffy white stuff.

  Morgan had no idea why she was doing that.

  Soon the structure was so full of wool that Ash had no room to move.

  Then she held up her flint.

  She struck a spark.

  And the wool went up in flames.

  Ash was in the center of a roaring inferno!

  Morgan tried to scream her name. When he opened his mouth, however, no sound came out. Only a rush of bubbles.

  Harper was in full-on panic mode even before Ash’s avatar caught on fire.

  Despite the column of bubbles all around her, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

  What would happen to Ash if she ran out of health here? Harper hated that she didn’t know the answer to that question. She desperately wanted to understand the science that made this place work.

  She swam toward Ash with a loaf of bread in her hand. It was all she could think of to do.

  But Ash waved her away. She was standing on the other side of the glass wall. The fire had burned away—and so had the water. Ash had created a shelter, a little pocket of air at the bottom of the sea. And she was still standing. She was okay.

  They watched as Ash placed a door in her structure. Once she had finished, Harper was the first one inside.

  “Ash, that was brilliant!” she said. “Clearing out all the water by burning wool. How did you think of that? You should eat something!”

  Ash munched on bread while the others entered the structure. It was cramped but dry.

  “I only wish I had thought of a way to do it without getting caught in the fire,” Ash said. “But I knew I had enough health to handle it.”

  “It was scary to see it happen, though,” said Morgan. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “And this place is awesome!” Jodi said. “It’s like a reverse aquarium.”

  “I suppose the view is nice,” Ash agreed. “More important, there’s room for our beds.”

  “So we can finally disconnect for the day,” Jodi said with relief. She poked Harper playfully. “And get to that homework.”

  “Arr,” Po groaned, sounding like the saddest pirate in the world.

  * * *

  The next morning, Harper woke and immediately started thinking about the previous day’s adventure. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d disappointed her friends when they’d been underwater.

  Morgan had looked to her to figure things out. He’d expected her to have solutions. But she’d just panicked. And because of that, Ash had put herself in harm’s way.

  She decided that would never happen again.

  In quiet moments throughout the day, Harper used her phone to go online. She read everything she could about Minecraft’s aquatic environments. Much of the information was new to her.

  “Kelp is really useful,” she told Morgan at lunch. “Among other things, we can dry it out and eat it. It’s so abundant, we’ll never go hungry!”

  “That’s great,” said Morgan.

  “And there are dolphins. If we feed them fish, they might lead us to treasure.”

  “We already have a treasure map, though,” Ash said.

  “In real-life news, that math homework was rough,” Po said. “Harper, what did you get for the last problem? Please tell me it was a whole number between 422 and 424.”

  “Oh.” Harper felt her cheeks go warm. “I didn’t do the homework yet.”

  “You what?!” Po said. This was totally unexpected news. “Harper, it’s due later today!”

  “I know, I know,” she said.

  She put away her phone and pulled out her homework. “I’ll do it now. I have plenty of time.”

  She saw her friends exchange a look.

  “Harper, were you reading about Minecraft all night?” Morgan asked. “Instead of doing the assignment?”

  “I was actually trying to make this clunky old phone work better,” Harper answered. “But I may have spent some time reading about Minecraft as well.” She bit her lip. “I just want to be prepared next time. That’s all.”

  Ash opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by the sound of a tremendous crash. The kids all looked over to see their homeroom teacher, Ms. Minerva. The teacher was trying to shove a closet door closed. She leaned against it with her full weight. But the closet was too full.

  “Oh, it’s hopeless,” Ms. Minerva said. She let the door swing open, and dozens of colorful plastic cafeteria trays clattered out onto the floor.

  “Is everything okay, Ms. Minerva?” Ash asked.

  Ms. Minerva blew a frizzy strand of hair out of her face. “Everything’s fine,” she said. “I just need to find a place to stash all these old trays. The PTA bought the school new ones.”

  “Why not just throw them away?” asked Po.

  “They’re not recyclable,” Ms. Minerva said. “So they’d end up in a landfill somewhere. I’m determined to find a use for them. But first I need to get them out of the way.”

  “I can help,” offered Harper.

  “The rest of us can help,” Ash said. “You should finish your assignment.”

  Harper almost argued, but she knew Ash was right. She nodded. “Thanks, Ash.”

  * * *

  Harper spent the rest of her lunch period finishing her homework. She lost track of time and arrived a few minutes late to science class.

  “Ah, Harper!” Doc said as Harper stepped into the basement lab. “Good. Now we have an even number.”

  Harper scanned the room. The whole class had paired off. Morgan was with Ash. Jodi was with Po.

  “You’ll be Theo’s lab partner,” said Doc.

  Harper nodded mutely. She was disappointed not to be with one of her friends. But it was her own fault for being late. She didn’t know Theo well, but she gave him a polite smile as she sat at his table.

  “Today is the big day,” said Doc. “Welcome to Project Coral Restoration.”

  Harper felt a little thrill at that.

  Doc circulated among the class. She gave each student a petri dish containing a long piece of coral.

  “All around the world, coral populations are in grave danger,” Doc explained. “Due to global warming, oceans are getting warmer. And that causes big problems for sea life. Especially for coral, which is very fragile. Entire reefs are dying.”

  Harper chewed on her pencil. She often worried about the impact humans had on the environment. Every time she learned about another endangered species, her heart hurt.

  “But there’s good news,” Doc continued. “Experiments have shown that coral reefs can be restored. This is done in a variety of ways. The most common way is to grow new coral in laboratories like this one. When the coral is strong enough, it’s transported to the ocean.”

  Harper gazed down at her petri dish. Her piece of coral shimmered with droplets of salt water.

  “I’d like us to perform an experiment,” said Doc. “Each of you has an identical piece of coral. I’d like you to place your coral in your aquarium and measure its growth. Everyone’s water will be slightly different. Yours might be warmer, saltier, or more acidic than your neighbor’s. In this way, we’ll determine the best conditions for growing this particular type of coral. So let’s get started!”

  “Awesome,” Theo said, grinning at Harper. “This should be fun.”

  “I don’t know about fun,” Harper said. “It sounds very serious to me.”

  Theo dropped his smile. “Sure, the problem is serious,” he agreed. “But maybe we’ll be the ones to help fix it.”

  Harper liked the sound of that. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be negative.”

  Harper tried to stay optimistic. She knew science often held the answers to some of the world’s biggest and scariest problems. That’s why she loved science to begin with.

  Some days, though, it felt like the problems kept piling up.

  “I can’t believe Po is
missing this,” said Jodi. “And for basketball practice!”

  “He likes basketball practice,” said Morgan.

  “Yeah,” said Jodi. “But is anything better than this?”

  Jodi pointed past the glass wall of their base under the sea. There was a whole world to explore out there. And she wouldn’t miss out on that for anything.

  Since Po wasn’t with them, they’d all agreed not to travel too far. They needed to return to their base at the end of the day. That way, they would all still spawn in the same place when Po rejoined them.

  Ash insisted they needed to stock up on supplies, anyway. Between their recent battles and the long boat ride, they’d gone through a lot of their stuff.

  And Morgan liked the idea of scouting the area. They could check for any problems or dangers nearby. Then they would know what to expect when they started to follow the map again.

  “I think the map is leading us somewhere underwater,” said Morgan. “We can probably swim the rest of the way.”

  “Soon,” Ash said. “For today, let’s just see what there is to see.”

  As it turned out, there was a lot to see.

  Now that she wasn’t fleeing from phantoms, Jodi was able to take in the beauty of her surroundings. She was surprised at how alive the ocean was. There was movement everywhere, from darting schools of fish to swaying sea grass.

  Her heart leapt for joy when a dolphin approached them. It seemed as curious about them as she was about it. Jodi noticed that she swam a little faster when the dolphin was nearby. She tried to keep up with it, but after a while it darted away.

  Po would be sorry he missed that.

  They’d each drunk a potion of water breathing. As a backup, Harper brought along a block of magma. If they needed air, she could place the magma on the ground and produce another column of bubbles.

  But there was plenty of magma already in the area. It was easy to spot, softly glimmering orange in the distance. And the magma wasn’t the only source of underwater light. Every now and then, they found small, glowing green cylinders.

  Harper had told her about them earlier in the day. They were called sea pickles, and Jodi thought they were wondrous.

  But by far, Jodi’s favorite thing was the coral. These weren’t the small, fragile pebbles she’d seen in Doc’s class. They looked like great tree branches, and they came in every color of the rainbow. She took every piece she found. She was sure she’d find a use for them, even if they were only good for decoration.

  After a while, Morgan signaled that they should turn around.

  As they swam back, Jodi made a mental list of everything she needed to tell Po about. When their undersea base came into view, she was surprised to see a figure standing inside of it. It had to be Po! Maybe he’d gotten out of basketball practice early?

  But when they swam up to the base, nobody was there.

  “That’s really strange,” Jodi said once they were safely inside the structure. “I could have sworn I saw somebody through the glass.”

  Morgan shrugged. “Maybe it was a trick of the light.”

  “No, I think Jodi is right,” Ash said as she lifted the lid of the group’s treasure chest. “Someone was here.”

  “What makes you say that?” Harper asked.

  “I stashed a few things in this chest before we left. I wanted to free up room in my inventory.”

  Morgan hopped in place. “Did somebody steal from us again?”

  Ash shook her head. “The opposite. Somebody put stuff in here. There are more potions of water breathing. And scute.”

  Morgan’s jaw dropped.

  “What is scute?” Jodi asked.

  Ash held up a small green orb. “It’s a material dropped by baby turtles when they grow up. It can be used to make a special helmet.”

  “A helmet that helps you hold your breath while underwater,” added Morgan.

  “Maybe this is all just a glitch?” Jodi suggested.

  “Or maybe whoever is in here with us wants to help,” said Harper.

  “But if that’s true, why be sneaky about it?” Morgan said. He shook his head. “Sorry, but I still think we’re being led into a trap.”

  “No offense,” said Jodi, “but for once, I hope you’re wrong.”

  Morgan gazed out through the glass. “Me too,” he said.

  By Monday, Harper and Theo’s coral had already started to grow.

  “It’s incredible!” Harper said. She double-checked their log. “If it keeps growing at this rate, our coral will be ready for ocean transport in a few weeks.”

  Although they had started with a single piece of coral, Doc had asked them to break the coral into smaller pieces. She had explained that breaking the coral would cause it to grow faster.

  Some of the pieces had only grown a couple of millimeters. Some had grown by centimeters. But they were all growing.

  Theo looked around at his classmates’ aquariums. “Our samples are definitely doing the best.” He grinned shyly. “Not that it’s a competition.”

  “Right,” said Harper. Then she grinned back. “But that is pretty cool.”

  Harper snuck a peek at a neighboring aquarium. Theo was right. Not everyone was having the same success. She made sure to write down the exact temperature of their water. They also recorded the pH level and the salinity. If their coral continued to do well, those numbers would be important to scientists all over the world.

  “Hey,” Theo said. “Are you playing Minecraft after school today?”

  Harper froze. “Uh, why?” she asked.

  Theo shrugged. “Isn’t that what you and your friends do in the computer lab after school? I saw you go in there every day last week. My locker’s right there.”

  “Oh,” Harper said. “Yeah. We play Minecraft and stuff.”

  “I’m a gamer, too,” he said. “I’ve put some of my builds online. You should check them out.”

  “Yeah,” Harper said. “I definitely will. Definitely!”

  An awkward silence followed. Harper had a feeling Theo was waiting for an invitation. But she couldn’t bring someone new into the group, could she? For one thing, they didn’t have an extra headset. For another, there was real danger in that virtual world. She’d felt it when that creeper had exploded. How could she put someone else in harm’s way?

  “Oh!” Harper said. “I totally forgot. I was supposed to refill Baron Sweetcheeks’s water today.”

  It wasn’t technically true. But Harper felt more and more awkward the longer the silence lasted. And the class hamster could always use fresh water.

  She took her time with the task. She was still at the hamster cage when the bell rang and students started filing out of the classroom.

  When she walked back to her table, Theo was already gone. She felt guilty. She didn’t like keeping secrets from anyone. But the idea of inviting someone new into their special group would have to be discussed by everyone.

  As she put her books into her backpack, she noticed something strange. It looked like a piece of coral was missing from their aquarium.

  That can’t be, she thought. But Theo had their logbook, so she couldn’t double-check.

  She’d have to look into it tomorrow.

  Basketball was taking more and more of Po’s time.

  Po played on a mixed ability team. That meant every player on his team used a wheelchair during practice and games, even though some of his teammates didn’t use wheelchairs otherwise. Woodsword was one of several schools in the state with a mixed ability team, so Po got to travel to nearby cities for weekend games.

  Po liked being on a team. In fact, he was the star player. But it didn’t leave much time for trying other things. He worried that he would let his teammates down if he took time away from basketball to be in the school play, or run for class president, or—