Cragbridge Hall, Volume 2: The Avatar Battle (35 page)

“Thank you again,” Rafa’s mother said. “You truly are an incredible young man. I’m glad Rafa is friends with you.”

“Thanks,” Derick said. “Are you sure you don’t want to play?” He gestured toward the avatar lab behind him. “I’ve always wanted to compete with you.”

“Not today,” she said. “Maybe after I recover a bit more. I would like to watch, though.”

“So what are we going to do today?” Rafa asked. “As your first official practice as part of the Crash, you get to choose.”

Derick smiled. “You may have played this sport before, but not this way.”

• • •

“Derick said that if he got to pick, they would play baseball,” Abby said, approaching the viewing area of the largest avatar field. Carol had wanted to come watch the avatar club play and Abby thought she could probably use a break from studying and visiting her parents and grandpa in the med unit.

“I never really liked baseball,” Carol said as Rafa’s mom granted them entrance into the lab. They both told her how glad they were that she was safe. “Don’t get me wrong,” Carol continued, “the boys look great in their uniforms, but it’s kind of boring, and long, and boring.”

“You said boring twice,” Abby pointed out.

“It’s twice as boring as a lot of things. Except what’s going on here?” They had arrived at the giant windows that allowed them to see into the avatar practice field.

A gorilla held a ball much larger than a baseball. He reared back and threw it, his long arm thrusting it toward a giraffe. The giraffe waited until just the right moment and then whipped his head around like a bat, smacking the ball. It flew over the gorilla’s head, where another gorilla ran toward it.

“This isn’t normal baseball,” Carol said.

The giraffe didn’t run, but a squirrel monkey that was waiting beside the base did—a substitute runner.

“Whoever that was must have switched avatars,” Abby said. “He hit it with the giraffe and then ran as a monkey.”

An outfielder gorilla that had been totally still suddenly raced toward the bouncing ball. It fielded the ball and threw it to the second baseman. “Wait a second,” Carol said. “There are nine players in the outfield. If they split the avatar club in half, that means only three students on a team, so each club member controls three avatars. They have to wait to see where the player hits the ball and then change to that animal.” She gazed over the defense of gorillas and monkeys. “So amazingly non-boring.”

“This has to be the craziest game of baseball I’ve ever seen,” Abby said, shaking her head.

Carol thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I once played it where you run into a kiddie pool for first base, step on a water balloon for second, run to third base where someone squirts you with a hose, and then dive into home on a wet slip-and-slide. That was pretty crazy.”

“But there weren’t giraffes using their heads for bats, were there?”

“No. You’re right. This wins.”

Abby watched for several more minutes before turning on her rings and stealing some history study time.

“Are you still afraid of getting kicked out for bad grades?” Carol asked.

Abby thought for a moment. “I’m kind of nervous, but I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid. All I can do is try the best I can and then see what happens.”

“Well, so far, when you do your best, you stop crazy madmen and their robot henchmen.”

Abby smiled. “I had a lot of help.” She nudged Carol with her elbow and then pointed to Derick and the Crash. “You all helped,” she said as though they could hear her.

“Too bad the only teachers of yours that you saved are unconscious, or maybe they would give you extra credit for your heroics.”

“Yeah,” Abby agreed. “Too bad. I could really use a grade boost.” The nurse still didn’t know how long they would be unconscious. Thankfully, Muns was also unconscious. They should be safe for a while.

“Well, fantastic,” Carol said. “Now that we don’t have to worry about Señor Evilbritches for a while, that gives me more time to work on my dance moves.” She got up, spun, and shifted back and forth. “The dance
is
in a couple of weeks.”

Abby smiled. Maybe before, she would have even been afraid of the dance, of facing all those boys, of wondering if anyone would dance with her, but not anymore. She was tired of being afraid. She would do her best and just see what happened. She stood up and danced with her friend. There is something about defeating an evil genius that can boost your confidence.

“Oh,” Abby said, pausing her dancing. “I forgot something.” She turned on her rings, wrote a quick message to her former roommate, attached a file, and hit
send
.

Jacqueline,

This file shows you pictures of my virtual creation—my castle. I’m pretty confident it should bring me a decent grade. You’ll notice there is quite an amazing bridge over the moat. I built it. It can stand up to all kinds of dragons. It will never fall. It’s not going anywhere.

And neither am I.

Abby

And then Abby danced some more.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

March 5, 2013. That was the day my first novel,
Cragbridge Hall, Book 1: The Inventor’s Secret
, hit shelves. My dream was finally coming true. But instead of touring, I sat in a hospital room—exactly where I should have been. A few weeks before, my nine-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a tumor the size of two-and-a-half golf balls pressing up against her brain and her optic nerves. On March 5, she was recovering from neurosurgery. And I need to say thanks. My publisher, Shadow Mountain, responded with such understanding. They went to a lot of work to reschedule my tour, sent care packages, and even took pictures of themselves wearing mustaches, because mustaches make my daughter laugh. Thank you.

Knowing that I couldn’t promote my book, a slew of amazing people took up the torch and sent out the message through blogs, tweets, Facebook . . . the works. Maybe that was a little thing to them, but it was huge to me. A lot of them have never met me; they are just great people. Even some best-selling authors like Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Shannon Hale, Christopher Paolini, and Ally Condie spread the word. Other authors like J. Scott Savage and Frank Cole filled in on the school assemblies so a bunch of excited kids weren’t left high and dry. And hundreds more people heard about my daughter through social media, put on all sorts of mustaches, and sent pictures to cheer her up. Thank you.

After we finally brought my daughter home and she was recovering well, she and my wife practically kicked me out of the house to go after my dream. My sister-in-law Kimmie Loose insisted on helping my wife at our house every day so I wouldn’t miss any more school assemblies or signings. And when I finally got out, hundreds of people asked me how my little girl was doing. Kids drew pictures and sent letters. An entire school even wore mustaches when I came to visit.

The world is full of amazing people. Thanks. Sincerely, thank you.

Of course, I missed my deadline for this sequel. It was a bit of a rough time to try to write. But Shadow Mountain was patient and supportive as always, and I think it was worth the wait. Specifically, I owe a lot to Chris Schoebinger and Heidi Taylor for loving the sequel and giving feedback to make it better. Thanks to Derk Koldewyn for his editing awesomeness, and to Karen Zelnick for doing so much to set up my school visits, signings, presentations at ComicCon, etc. Thanks to Richard Erickson and Rachael Ward for the design and typesetting. Plus my agent, Rubin Pfeffer, is supportive, fantastic, and very helpful. And I should say thanks as well to Deborah Warren, also with East/West Literary Agency. Oh, and Brandon Dorman can paint a robot gorilla like nobody else! Seriously, have you ever seen a cooler one? I didn’t think so.

As always, I need to thank my friends and family. So many have rallied and been so supportive. Of course, my wife and kids top the list. My wife is my sounding board, my first reader, and quite possibly the best and hottest woman in the world. She gives great feedback and reassures me when I’m pretty convinced everything I write is boring slop. Plus she runs our crazy household and finds ways of letting me write. And my kids are my main motivation for writing. The thought of making them laugh, gasp, or call out a “That’s awesome!” or “No way!” brings a whole new level to my story. And when I read to them at night, and the story works, it’s a total thrill. I think I’ll always remember the night we read the scene when Rafa reveals his secret. When I finished, my kids were bouncing in their beds. I turned off the lights and asked them to sleep, but they stayed up for another hour and a half talking about my crazy story. They even made up a Cragbridge Hall song. Yeah, I recorded it on my phone. That will probably go down in history as one of the coolest author moments of my life.

I’m also grateful for my group of great beta readers: Dan Reed; Brooklyn and Matthew Hatch; Jessica, Jared, and Lauryn Moon; Mindy Waite; Platte Clark; Sarah Scheerger; Will Mason; and Matthew Crawford. Thanks for all the great feedback. Plus, my mom did a thorough line edit of my galleys and saved me from some pretty embarrassing mistakes.

Thanks to everyone who read
The Inventor’s Secret
. Thanks for giving me a chance. I hope you loved it. And thanks for picking up
The Avatar Battle
. If you liked it, please share it with your friends. It means a lot. And look me up on Facebook or Twitter (@chadcmorris), or send me a message through chadmorrisauthor.com. I’d love to hear from you. And check out cragbridgehall.com to watch the book trailer, check for my tour stops, and jump on the mailing list for updates.

For those of you who still ask about my daughter, she’s doing very well. As of right now, you’d never guess she’s had major surgery. A major point of
The Inventors’ Secret
was that it is in the hard times that heroes are made. Well, I happen to know one; she just turned ten a few weeks ago.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In English class, Abby had an assignment to tell how books have inspired people in real life or how real life has affected books. How have books affected your life? Have you ever been inspired by a book? Which books and how?

2. To get his final key, Derick had to prove that he had the same determination and character as those who fought in the Civil War. Who do you know that shows determination and good character? What can you learn from them?

3. Abby spent a lot of time in this story worried about her grades. Have you ever been worried about your schoolwork or grades? How much do you think you should worry? In what ways are grades important? In what ways are other aspects of your education more important than grades?

4. Derick felt worried because of one of his previous failures. Have you ever failed at something? Did you try again? How did it go? Why do you feel it is important to keep trying after failure?

5. Rafa is Brazilian and speaks Portuguese. Do you know anyone from another country? What traditions or parts of their culture have you learned about? What can you learn from them?

6. Initially Derick thought giraffes were boring, but as he learned more about them, he discovered that they are pretty interesting. Can you think of something that you didn’t like initially but became interested in over time?

7. Socrates taught the importance of really wanting to learn, wanting it more than air. What do you have a strong desire to learn? How might you go about learning it?

8. Abby, Derick, and Carol all had the opportunity to build their own virtual worlds. If you had the chance to build your own virtual world, what would it be like?