The Trouble with Fun Read online

  “DON’T BE SUCH BLANCHIES!”

  My friends and I followed Teena down the space station’s hall. Then she turned toward Sector 7, and we stopped in our tracks.

  “We’re not allowed to go down there, Teena!” I called after her.

  Sector 7 held the exit deck for spacewalking. I had always wanted to spacewalk. But the rules were very strict. My friends and I were not old enough.

  “Come on!” shouted Teena. “Don’t be such Blanchies!”

  We all looked at each other a long moment. Then we bolted after her!

  What we were about to do was scorchy. But, Ceedus-Lupeedus, it was going to be fun!

  Zenon’s stories are stellar!

  Look who says so …

  “Literate and funny.”

  —Denver Post

  “A fun read [with] an energetic heroine.”

  —School Library Journal

  “Zenon has a good chance of becoming the next hot, or as they say on Space Station 9, ‘thermo,’ thing!”

  —Booklist

  Don’t miss these other Zenon stories!

  Now available:

  Book #1: Bobo Crazy

  Book #2: Zenon Kar: Spaceball Star

  And blasting off to stores in 2002:

  Book #4: Stuck on Earth

  Text copyright © 2001 by Marilyn Sadler

  Illustrations copyright © 2001 by Roger Bollen

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sadler, Marilyn. The trouble with fun / by Marilyn Sadler; illustrated by Roger Bollen.

  p. cm.

  “Zenon, girl of the 21st century, book #3.”

  “A stepping stone book.”

  SUMMARY: A twenty-first-century girl living on a space station agrees to entertain

  the daughter of an important Earth scientist, but the visitor’s idea of fun

  could mean big trouble for Zenon.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-80026-8

  [1. Behavior—Fiction. 2. Hospitality—Fiction. 3. Space stations—Fiction.

  4. Science fiction.]

  I. Bollen, Roger, ill. II. Title. PZ7.S1239 Tr 2001 [Fic]—dc21 2001041760

  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks and

  A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  v3.1

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1. Visitors from Earth

  2. The Necklace

  3. Stellar Beyond Belief

  4. Joyride

  5. Starry, Starry Night

  6. The Tangled Tether

  7. Hit-and-Run

  8. Crime and Punishment

  9. A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

  10. The Trouble with Teena

  11. Zenon’s Guide to Space Station Slang

  About the Creators

  1

  VISITORS FROM EARTH

  “Hurry up, Zenon! The shuttle from Earth will be landing in forty-six minutes!” shouted my dad.

  I rolled out of bed and stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. I looked like a Blotozoid Zombie.

  “I’m coming, Dad!” I shouted back, splashing cold water on my face.

  Sometimes my dad fully shivered me out. He had been going lunar over his Fuddle-Frisson project for as long as I could remember. It was one of the reasons we had moved to Space Station 9 almost ten years earlier.

  “The future is in Fuddle-Frisson, honey,” he used to tell me.

  I didn’t see what was so thermo about Fuddle-Frisson myself. Something was always going wrong. If it wasn’t flystrom trouble, it was problems with the tutons.

  At least now, after all these years, help was on the way. It was arriving in forty-six minutes on a space shuttle from Earth.

  “Morning glorious!” I said, sliding into my seat at the kitchen table. “What’s for breakfast?”

  Mom kissed me on top of my head. Then she turned toward Woma.

  Woma was our robotic maid. Without her, there would be no breakfast.

  “Pandorian toast with sliced whambamas,” she said, smiling down at me.

  Woma made the best Pandorian toast in the galaxy.

  “Stellar!” I said as she placed my breakfast in front of me.

  I was chewing my last bite of Pandorian toast when my dad’s data-pad alarm went off.

  “Time to blast off!” he shouted, jumping up from the table. “The shuttle will be landing in eighteen minutes!”

  The next thing I knew, Dad was moving us out the door and down the hallway. We reached the Wait Platform just as the Z-Train pulled up.

  “Space shuttle port, please!” Dad announced as we boarded.

  “Very good, sir,” answered Drovo, the train’s robotic driver.

  I sat down behind my parents. We traveled down the tunnel, and I looked out the window. When we stopped at the next Wait Platform, more people stepped on board. One of them was my best friend, Nebula.

  “Ceedus-Lupeedus!” I shouted. “Where are you going, Neb?”

  Nebula sat down in the seat next to me. She had the wild-eyed look of a Lootar. I knew at once where she was going—shopping.

  “I need a new Nan Kloddy jacket,” she said.

  Then she noticed my parents.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, looking at me curiously.

  “We’re going to the space shuttle port to pick up a famous scientist from Earth,” I said. “He’s going to help my dad with his Fuddle-Frisson project.”

  I could always tell what Neb was thinking. I guess that’s why she’s my best friend. Right then, she was wondering why I was going to the shuttle port. After all, the scientist from Earth was coming to see my dad, not me.

  “The scientist is bringing his daughter,” I explained. “She’s staying with me for as long as he’s here.”

  A look of horror spread across Neb’s face.

  “How inky!” she said. “An alien!”

  Neb had a way of going supernova over nothing.

  “She’s from Earth, Neb! Not the outer rim of the Fenebula!” I said.

  Before Neb had a chance to go into global meltdown, the train came to a stop at the Big Wheel Shopping Mall. Nebula jumped out of her seat and disappeared down the aisle.

  To tell you the truth, I was happy to see Neb go. Just thinking about the girl from Earth gave me geezle bumps.

  What if I didn’t like her? I worried.

  I didn’t need Neb to shiver me out more.

  When we arrived at the space shuttle port, it was crowded with people. We found some seats and sat down.

  “The shuttle is due to arrive in two minutes,” said my dad, smiling.

  It was thermo to see Dad so happy. He hadn’t been this excited since the Quantum Comets beat the Earth Astros in the spaceball championship.

  Exactly two minutes later, just like my dad said, the shuttle from Earth landed. Then the door of the shuttle opened and the famous Earth scientist stepped out. He was carrying a Laser Frissonometer.

  “There he is, Zenon,” said my dad. “The famous Harold Wiggins—in the flesh!”

  My dad and mom hurried over to greet him.

  Me, I stood frozen in place.

  In the shuttle doorway stood Harold Wiggins’s daughter.

  Her hair was the color of a Pandorian sunrise. Her clothes sparkled like a solar mist. And she was as skinny as a Blotozoid Freefron.

  2

  THE NECKL
ACE

  Harold Wiggins’s daughter raced down the shuttle stairway and over to me. She was grinning from ear to ear.

  “I’m Teena Wiggins!” she cried, shaking my hand. “You must be Zenon Kar!”

  I was surprised to learn that Teena knew all about me.

  She knew my best friend’s name was Nebula. She knew my favorite music group was Microbe. She even knew I played spaceball.

  “I looked you up on my data pad!” she said. “You’re stellar, Zenon Kar!”

  It was going to be hard not to like Teena Wiggins.

  Dad showed Teena and her father to the train. Teena talked to my parents all the way home. She asked my mom about life on the space station. Then she called my dad the “Father of Fuddle-Frisson.”

  By the time we got home, my parents liked Teena, too.

  When we walked in the door, Bobo, my robotic dog, floated up to greet us.

  Teena dropped her suitcase and gathered Bobo up in her arms. She had never seen a robotic dog before.

  “What a cute puppy!” she cried, hugging him.

  Needless to say, Bobo also liked Teena. After that, he stuck to her like a tuton to a kryzon.

  That night, Woma fixed beet loaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. Teena and her father could not stop talking about how delicious it was. When Woma served the Whambama Splits for dessert, they went quasar.

  After dinner, my parents and Mr. Wiggins sat down in the living room to talk. Teena and I went to my room. I showed her where to put her things. Then I helped her unpack.

  Teena had clothes I had never seen before. They were made from materials that sparkled and glowed. Sometimes they even changed colors.

  “These are so stellar!” I said, hanging them up in my closet.

  I didn’t know anything about Earth. I was born there. But I was a baby when we left to live on the space station. Everything about it was alien to me.

  “What kind of music do you listen to down there?” I asked.

  Teena dug through her suitcase and pulled out a 3D-CD.

  “This is my favorite group!” she said. “It’s an all-girl band called Earth Angels!”

  Teena played her 3D-CD for me and we danced. She showed me how everyone was dancing on Earth.

  I’ll have to show these new moves to Nebula, I thought as I spun around my room.

  After a while, I couldn’t dance any longer. I stretched out on my bed to cool my boosters.

  Teena didn’t seem tired at all. She just kept dancing.

  For the first time, I noticed the necklace swinging from Teena’s neck. Like everything else of hers, it was stellar.

  “I love your necklace!” I told her.

  “Oh, it isn’t really a necklace,” said Teena, bobbing up and down to the music. “It’s an Alfred Geezle-designed Mini Motion-Picture Camera.”

  Teena stopped dancing for a minute and took off her necklace. Then she leaned over and fastened it around my neck.

  “I film my classes in school so that I don’t have to pay attention,” she explained.

  I looked down at Teena’s necklace. Up close, I could see that it was a camera. But, Ceedus-Lupeedus, I couldn’t wear it to school!

  “Mr. Peres would go lunar!” I cried.

  “That’s the stellar thing about Alfred Geezle’s design!” said Teena. “Mr. Peres will never know!”

  That night, I fell asleep with Teena’s Mini Motion-Picture Camera around my neck.

  It was true that everything about Teena was alien. But like I would tell my best friend, Neb, it was a good kind of alien.

  3

  STELLAR BEYOND BELIEF

  The next morning, Teena and I could not get out of bed. I guess we shouldn’t have stayed up so late. But we were having so much fun!

  Mom, Dad, and Woma all took turns trying to wake us.

  “You’re going to be late for school!” they said.

  Finally, with my mind in a Martian mist, I rolled out of bed.

  “Morning glorious, Teena,” I whispered, shaking her.

  Teena and I got dressed and ate our breakfasts in a hurry. We dashed out the door and down the hallway. When we reached the Wait Platform, the Q-Train was just pulling away.

  “Ceedus-Lupeedus!” I cried. “Now we’re really going to be late!”

  Teena wasn’t flared-up at all. She was as cool as a Milky Way Float. So I began to relax too.

  The next train pulled up ten minutes later, and we were on our way.

  I pointed out all the places I thought Teena might like: the Big Wheel Shopping Mall, the Laser Beam Arcade, the Mercury Music Store, and the Mars Malt. Teena wanted to go to all of them.

  Then the train finally stopped in front of my school.

  “This is Quantum Elementary!” I said proudly.

  Mr. Peres was in the middle of a Fuddlenomics lesson when we walked into my classroom.

  I was just about to introduce him to Teena when Teena beat me to it.

  “Morning glorious, Mr. Peres!” she cried, shaking his hand. “My name is Teena Wiggins! It is so thermo to meet you!”

  Mr. Peres studied Teena’s hair and clothes while he shook her hand. I could tell that he didn’t know whether to go quasar or lunar.

  “I am a guest of Zenon’s,” Teena said. “I just arrived this morning from Earth … which is why Zenon and I are late.”

  For a moment, I thought I didn’t hear Teena correctly. Did she say she arrived this morning? I asked myself. I could not imagine that Teena would lie. But then I saw Mr. Peres’s reaction.

  “Oh, well, that’s fine!” he said. “We always enjoy having visitors from Earth on Space Station 9!” Then he smiled at Teena and told her, “Please, take this seat in the front row.”

  It did not take Teena long to join in the Fuddlenomics lesson. Every time Mr. Peres asked a question, Teena’s hand shot up. Teena knew more about Fuddlenomics than I did—and my dad was the “Father of Fuddle-Frisson.”

  When the bell finally rang for lunch, I was ready to blast out of there.

  “I can’t wait to meet your friends!” said Teena as we headed toward the cafeteria.

  This was the moment I had been worried about. My friends could be pretty inky. If they didn’t like you, they could really shiver you out.

  When we got to the cafeteria, my friends were waiting for us.

  Tad and Var had unhappy looks on their faces. Nebula looked downright scorchy.

  I should have known better than to worry, though.

  “You must be Nebula!” I heard Teena shout from behind me.

  Teena ran up to Neb and threw her arms around her.

  “I feel like I know you,” she said. “Zenon has told me so much about you!”

  Then Teena spotted Var.

  “What a stellar outfit!” she cried, clasping her hands together. “It must be Nan Kloddy!”

  And lastly, Teena turned to Tad.

  “I read all about your Science Award!” she exclaimed. “Everyone on Earth is talking about you!”

  I looked at my friends. They were grinning like Plutar Blanchies.

  This isn’t going to be so scorchy after all, I thought with relief.

  I followed Teena and my friends into the cafeteria. We picked up our food trays and sat down. Then I ate my beetburger while they talked and talked.

  On the way back to class, Neb leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Teena is stellar beyond belief, Zee!”

  4

  JOYRIDE

  All in all, it had been a pretty thermo day. Mr. Peres thought Teena was a fine student, and my friends thought she was the most stellar girl in the universe.

  I could finally relax and cool my boosters.

  When the last bell rang, I was ready to blast off.

  “Thank you, Mr. Peres!” I heard Teena say as we left the classroom. “Your class was super!”

  When Teena and I got home from school, Woma greeted us with a plate of cookies.

  “Have a Jupiter Snap!” I said to Teena.

 
Teena and I settled down to eat our cookies and talk about school. But before we could get started, the door buzzer sounded.

  “Your friends are here!” said Woma, stepping aside to make way for Tad, Neb, and Var.

  I was surprised to see them so soon. We’d only just left school.

  “What’s blasting?” I asked, passing them the plate of cookies.

  “We thought we’d see what you two were doing,” said Tad, sitting down next to Teena.

  Neb and Var helped themselves to some cookies. Then they sat down, too.

  “What do you do for fun on Earth, Teena?” asked Tad, biting into a Jupiter Snap.

  Tad was born on the space station and had never spent much time on Earth.

  “I hang out with my friends at a kids’ club called Ground Zero,” said Teena. “We like to drink sodas and eat hot dogs.”

  “Ceedus-Lupeedus!” said Var. “I’ve never had a hot dog! We don’t eat meat on the space station.”

  My friends and I were quiet for a minute. We were all thinking about eating meat. Then Nebula had a thermo idea.

  “Let’s take Teena to the Mars Malt!” she said. “She can see where we hang out!”

  Teena jumped out of her seat.

  “That’s a stellar idea!” she shouted.

  My friends and I jumped up, too. We went to the Mars Malt every day. But Teena made it seem like the most thermo thing to do in the universe.

  On our way out the door, Teena spotted my hoverboard.

  “Oh, Zee!” she cried. “Let’s ride double to the Mars Malt!”

  There were many things we weren’t allowed to do with hoverboards on the space station. Riding double was one of them.

  I was just about to explain the rules to Teena when she grabbed my hand. She pulled me onto my hoverboard. Then she took off down the hall like a comet on fire.

  My friends were left behind as Teena shifted into hyperspeed.

  Ceedus-Lupeedus! I thought. We are really flying! I didn’t know my Hyperspeed 100 could fly this fast!