The news was all over town: a device designed to be able to write on paper through brainpower had just been developed. The contraption, called an autoessay, worked by transmitting neurons in your brain onto a sheet of paper and converting the neurons into workable kinetic energy.

Everyone in town wanted one of these autoessays, because nobody has time to sit down in front on a piece of paper and write anymore. This is the year 3013 after all. The autoessay allowed a person to multitask; you could “write” an essay for school and play a nice leisurely sport at the same time. The only downside to the autoessay, according to several surveys, was that you had to get a chip installed in your head so that the neurons could convert into energy; however, nowadays, people were getting all kinds of cosmetic chips and pieces put into them. In fact, the 5-minute brain chip transplant was the most common surgery available. You could even get the transplant at the store after checking out.
Other new items on the market were the “potentializer,” which allowed a person to reach their full potential at work, school, etc, the “remembralyzer,” which allowed a person to remember anything they had ever learned as long as they were in a handstand, and the “teleportal,” which created a portal up to 100 feet away. All of these new products required brain chips. But they were worth it…for the most part.

Nia Robinson was left handed. Therefore, she was left brained, and she felt like she didn’t fit into this right hand dominant world. After hearing about the autoessay brain chip, she felt that she might as well try it. Everyone was trying it, after all.

After school, Nia wandered to the local All-Mart store. All-Mart sold everything imaginable; from toys to clothes, food to cars, furniture to pets, home repair tools to diaper rash cream, All-Mart had it all. Nia arrived there just in time to see an angry mass of people crowding the brain chip section. Thinking nothing of it, she grabbed an autoessay chip, paid and got it installed, and left.

Nia couldn’t wait to get home and try out her new gadget. She dashed past the scented billboard, over the antigravity marsh, and into her small brick home. Once in her room, Nia grabbed a piece of paper and placed it in front of her. Now to turn this piece of paper into a masterpiece! My name is Nia. She glanced down at the piece of paper only to find that nothing had happened! She tried thinking something else and…nothing. Maybe this chip has a power button. Nia tapped the tiny metal plate coating a 1-centimeter area of forehead. Still nothing happened. She studied the instructions, but the only thing the manual said was that there are no instructions; if you think something, the autoessay will write it for you. What kind of brain chip has no instructions? Or at least a number to call if you have complaints! Nia grumbled.

Nia grabbed her holographic cell phone and slammed the door behind her, her thin, bony legs racing as fast as they could until she reached All-Mart. The angry mob was still there, and Nia asked a red headed, midget-like person what the mob was for.

“We’re all left-handed, and we want our money back!” he cried, his nerdy voice cracking with nearly every word. Nia realized that he meant that no left-handed person who had bought a brain chip of any kind could get it to function. She felt gypped, so she decided to join the crowd. After all, they were her people. Lefties have to stick together, after all.

Studying the crowd, Nia concluded that she fit right in. There was an enormous diversity of lefties; from tall to short, black haired to blond, young to old, every possible type of person imaginable was part of the mob. Nia was amazed that so many types of people could be linked by one common trait: left-handedness.

“I demand to speak with the scientist who invented brain chips,” Nia heard herself call out. Several mob members cheered, agreeing with the frizzy-haired, olive-skinned girl who had just spoken.

Right after Nia finished speaking, she looked at the door in time to see a short, wimpy looking guy in a lab coat rush inside.

Suddenly, a soft, shaky voice whispered, “here I am.” The wimpy old guy who had just come in was the scientist who had invented brain chips. The scientist had seen the mob on the local news and rushed right over to attempt explaining himself. “When I made the brain chips, the theory that all people use both sides of their brain still existed. So when the chips connected to someone’s right frontal lobe, it was always supposed to work.” He paused, his pale ghost-like face somehow becoming even whiter. “Now that I think about it, all of the test subjects were right-handed…”

The nerdy red-haired kid, who Nia later found out was named Jexter, glared at the scientist. “You mean to say that you were stupid enough to only use right handed test subjects?” The mob cheered in agreement, and Nia smiled at Jexter.

Another mob member, who Nia couldn’t see, called out, “Get the scientist, if we can even call him that!”

“Come on! I can try to develop brain chips for you. It would only take a few months! I just don’t know how left-handed brains work all that well.”

“Too little too late, dumbass!”

Nia glanced around to try to see who had made that last remark. It was Jexter, of course. Although she believed that Jexter was right, he could’ve been a bit nicer. Oh well.

“Oh come on people! I just wanted to improve society…”

“Oh, so lefties aren’t part of the society?” retorted a mob member.

Before the scientist could say anything else, the mob beat the weak, helpless scientist with random All-Mart merchandise; toilet paper, glass dishes, plastic trees, baby dolls, and hammers pounded the scientist into a limp, bloody pulp. By now, hundreds of customers had gathered to watch this brutal beating. Anyone who wasn’t a lefty had the most terrified look plastered on his or her face. Their faces were so disgusted it was almost funny, in a gruesome sort of way.

Several clusters of lefties disappeared almost instantly from the store right as the police arrived. Nia didn’t stay at the crime scene long enough to know what happened next, although she later heard that nobody had been arrested. This was due to there being so many people that were in the mob. There was no way of knowing the main killers, as not every lefty that was there made direct contact with the scientist.

Nia arrived home to her awaiting family. She had four siblings: Jake and Jenny who were 13, Kelso who was nine, and little Aquilly who was five.


“Nia!” her siblings exclaimed. All of them ran outside to hug her.


“Mom’s mad at you,” Jenny announced after they stepped into the house.


“Uh…why?”


“Because you were in the mob earlier beating that poor scientist to death!”


“Oh. You saw that. Well, it was worth it, and besides, I didn’t even hit the guy. Anyway, what’s for dinner?”


Nia sat down in front of the table, and all eyes were on her. Well, all except Aquilly who was too completely occupied with his favorite meal: macaroni and cheese.


“So what was it like, killing a man?” Nia’s mom finally asked, breaking the seemingly unending silence that enveloped the kitchen table.


“I didn’t touch him, mom! I was merely there. That’s it. I caused no harm to that stupid scientist.”

“That’s a very rude thing to say about a man who tried so hard to make the world a better place.”


“Well it’s true,” Nia grumbled.


“That’s it, young lady! After you finish your meal, you go to your room for the rest of the night. You’re grounded, so no phone, no TV, and no friends over!”


“Ugh! That’s so unfair. You’re ruining my life!”


Nia’s dad had stayed quiet the whole meal, watching his wife and eldest daughter bicker. Suddenly, however, he spoke up. “Nia, go to your room! I can’t listen to this all night, and I'm sure no one else wants to listen to this either. See? You’re making little Aquilly over there cry.”


Nia looked over in time to see Aquilly rubbing his tiny tear-filled eyes. She felt bad that she had made her brother cry, but she just slammed her fork down and raced out of the room, saying nothing. She stomped up the stairs and slammed the door, angrier than ever. Why do I always get in trouble for dumb reasons?


Nia stared out her window, feeling depressed, angry, and a bit guilty. She saw a bunch of people walking towards the large science building on the left edge of town. She was super curious about this, because hundreds of people seemed to be walking at the same time towards that building.


Nia quietly opened her window and climbed out. She closed it but made sure to keep it open slightly so that she could get back in later on. She scaled down the huge oak tree, trying to be as quick yet silent as possible. She joined the crowd of people wandering toward the tall science laboratory.

Leonard Sophosage, known to everyone as ‘Leo’, was the only left-handed scientist in the village of Righton. Flocks of lefties ran to Leo’s laboratory located in the lower left side of town; the lefties had hopes of Leo having a solution for this righty “infestation.” Good! They got my message! Leo had sent out a message to several people that he knew were left handed in hopes of getting them to bring all their left-handed friends to his lab too.

The brilliant scientist, a boy who had just recently turned 20, had some ideas, and everyone was all but reluctant to listen. The teenage girls were especially excited to hear what Leo had to say, as he was handsome enough to be a male model or an actor. His well-toned muscles tensed and relaxed as he explained his plan to the lefty citizens of Righton, and his perfectly sculpted cheekbones distracted the girls of the town; they would do anything to get closer to him. “I’m glad you all came here today, as there are important issues we all need to discuss.” He glanced around, glad that he had everyone’s full attention. “These righties are getting on my last nerve, and I know you all can relate with me on that. All of you are left-handed, correct?” He looked at the crowd of people, all of them nodding their hands anxiously, waiting to see what he had to say next.

Nia couldn’t help but notice that Leo’s nose crinkled with delight as the group gave obvious signs of approval. Like every other teenage girl there, the words drifted in one ear and out the other. Nia tried to listen, but Leo had such a dreamy voice that she couldn’t help but swoon and gaze in awe. Leo was only a couple years older than Nia, and he already had a PhD in chemistry and physics. This excited her greatly, and several names ran through her head: Mrs. Nia Sophosage; Mr. and Mrs. Leo Sophosage; Nia Robinson-Sophosage; Nia and Leo Sophosage…

“And that’s how we’re going to overthrow the righties once and for all!” Leo concluded. Nia was sure Leo’s plan was brilliant, but she didn’t hear a single word of it. Once the massive flock of lefties dispersed for the day, Nia wandered over to Leo.

“Excuse me,” Nia squeaked anxiously. “I didn’t hear a lot of what you said back there. Could you possibly repeat the plan for me?” She stared dreamily into Leo’s magnificent bright green eyes, unable to believe she had gotten the courage to speak to this gorgeous boy.

“Um yeah,” Leo replied, confused why this girl seemed so nervous to talk to him. Why didn’t she hear me earlier? Do I have something in my teeth? She’s pretty. “So basically I said that I could build a ray gun chip that could install directly into our left hands. Are you listening to me?”

Nia couldn’t stop smiling as she tried to imagine Leo and herself shooting righties together. She was listening, so she nodded.

“Anyway, the ray gun chip would allow us to shoot righties and turn them lefty. It wouldn’t kill them; just stun them while the chemical polarity of their brains changed from right hand dominant to left.” Leo glanced at Nia. “You got it now?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, almost in a trance.

Leo walked away, and Nia was able to move again. She left the laboratory feeling excited. As she reached her home, she laughed to herself. She had never had a crush on anyone before, let alone a sexy left-handed scientist! Nia ascended her window tree. Her window seemed to be slightly more open than before, but she didn’t think anything about it. Nia threw her pajamas on and crawled into bed. That night, she slept better than she ever had before.

It took Leo a few days to design enough ray gun chips for every lefty to have one, but once he finished, he made sure all the lefties knew it. Leo had tested his own chip on his lab rat, which happened to be right handed. Once shot, the rat almost instantly became left-handed, so the gun chip obviously worked. Right?

Nia arrived at Leo’s laboratory around the same time as dozens of other lefties. She waved at Leo, forgetting her nervousness for the moment. He waved back slowly, remembering Nia as the pretty, nervous girl from the other day.

Leo picked up the rat cage, and took it to the bunch of lefties. They all strained to watch as the rat picked up a piece of cheese with its left paw. It took a bite and then realized that it was being watched. Then, it scurried into its wheel as the lefties excitedly continued to watch. They were in awe, and the lefties who already knew Leo could vaguely picture the rat being right handed before. Little did they realize that the rat had a slightly different shape than it had before.

The line of lefties moved rather quickly; however, once Nia got to the front of the line to receive her chip, she remembered how nervous she was. She froze. Don’t be nervous. He’s just another human being. Nia tried to convince herself to calm down and finally managed to take a few steps towards the god-like scientist.

“Hold out your hand so I can install your ray gun chip.”

“Okay,” she giggled.

“Here you go.” As Leo looked up at Nia’s face, he noticed that her eyes were particularly appealing. Her unusually long eyelashes complemented her bluish purple eyes, causing them to sparkle in the dim light of the laboratory. Leo had never seen a person with such extraordinary eyes, so he just stared for a few seconds.

“Leo!” Nia finally said.

Both Leo and Nia felt something that they had never felt before, and Nia stayed at the laboratory, hoping to talk to Leo again after everyone had left. The remaining line of lefties seemed to take forever to receive their chips and leave the building, but when they finally did, the two nervous kids sat beside each other on a random couch that Leo kept in the lab. They talked and talked about what seemed like every possible subject. After an hour or so, Nia received a hologram from her mom that she needed to come home for dinner.

Nia and Leo stood up, disappointed. They were having such a good time getting to know each other that they hated to see this come to an end.
“I…I…I’ll call you,” he stammered when he was about to close the door behind Nia. “You know, to see how your chip is working out?”

Nia left the laboratory feeling excited and accomplished. She had attained the man of her dreams. Nia had almost forgotten why she was at Leo’s lab in the first place, but as soon as she ran into her twin siblings, Jake and Jenny, she remembered.

“Hi Nia,” they called out in unison. Nia greeted her 13-year-old siblings. “What’s going on in the lab?” Nia hesitated, and instead of answering her younger siblings, she raised her left hand.

ZOOM! The bright yellow ray beam grabbed Jake and then Jenny and seemed to squeeze the right-handedness right out of them. Nia saw them both get off the ground and stare at her, but before they could do anything, Nia ran off; she was ecstatic about her new power. She wanted to shoot everyone she knew: her nine-year-old brother Kelso, her five-year-old brother Aquilly, her best friend Bailey, and her parents. As Nia skipped through town, she ray beamed everyone in sight. ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM! Flashes of yellow were everywhere. Nia laughed manically as the adrenaline of beaming people rushed through her. Nia didn’t even stay long enough to notice that while the beam was in fact making everyone left-handed, there was a terrible side effect: the people who had been hit were turning into primitive human beings- Neanderthals who only knew how to sleep, eat, and hunt.

All of a sudden Nia felt a painful weight smash into her skull. “Ow!” she cried. She tried to look around to see who, or what, hit her, but she only saw a dark blur. Then everything went black.

It was quiet in the town of Righton. Too quiet. Nia wandered around the nearly vacant streets feeling completely confused. Where is everyone? Why does my head hurt? All of a sudden, a savage beast popped out of a bush. The creature appeared to resemble a human, but it was hairy and foul smelling at the same time. Nia screamed and rubbed her head, which hurt bad. Then she remembered the brouhaha that had occurred in the past week of her life. Nia grinned and raised her left hand so that her palm faced the beast. The now frightened creature scurried away.


A few seconds later, Nia saw a darkish figure racing towards her. She squinted, trying to make out who it was. She really hoped it wasn’t another frightening creature, because although she had the power to scare the beast off, she didn’t really feel like doing so.


“Nia!” the figure called.


Good. It’s not a monster. Nia breathed a great sigh of relief, and as the figure got closer to her, she recognized it as being Leo. “Leo!” she cried.


“Nia, are you okay?” he questioned.


“Uh yeah. Why?”


“Because I just saw you rubbing your head. Did you get hurt or something?”


“Yeah. I was smacked by something and passed out. I don’t know how long I was out though. Anyway, where is everyone? And what was that apelike creature that almost attacked me?”


“Um about that,” Leo started, “anyone who was shot with a ray gun turned into a Neanderthal.”


“What! How?”


“Come on. Let’s go to my lab. I’ll explain as we walk.” And explain he did. Apparently, the rays in the gun caused the brains of right-handed victims to become primitive; therefore, anyone who was hit currently looks and acts like a caveman.

This seemed rather odd to Nia, because she had read that even cavemen were right hand dominant. In fact, Nia thought it was amazing that lefties still exist considering how rare they are.


“What about your rat? Is it a primitive rat now?”


“Actually yes. After running some tests on Galileo- that’s what I named my rat- I found that he actually changed into a rat from thousands of years ago. Rats just didn’t evolve as much as humans, as it turns out.”


Nia and Leo arrived at the laboratory and stepped inside.


“I have two questions. First, how come the ray gun turned people into Neanderthals if Neanderthals were also mostly right-handed? Second, do you have a plan or anything to fix the people of Righton?” Nia asked, feeling quite worried. What if he doesn’t have a plan? Is it my fault half the town was shot? What was I thinking!


“The Neanderthal thing was probably just a glitch in the design, but now that I know that, I know not to mess with people’s brains anymore. I should’ve done more research before letting brain chips go out to the public. As to your second question, when I was in the shower earlier, I was trying to figure out a way to re-modernize everyone.”


“You mean without making them right-handed again?” Nia inquired.


“Exactly!” Leo grinned. “Would you want to help me think of something?”


Stunned, Nia nodded. She couldn’t believe this brilliant, adorable scientist was willing to have her join him! If it weren’t for all this Neanderthal chaos, this would be the moment that Nia had always dreamt of. Nia stepped slightly close to Leo so that they were within a foot of each other.


“I was thinking of the possible effects of shooting the Neanderthals again, and I came up with several outcomes. Worst case scenario, being shot again kills them.”


“What about the best case scenario?”


“Best case scenario, shooting the Neanderthals causes them to be modern and left handed.”


“Are there any in between outcomes that you think may happen?”


“Yes. I believe that the Neanderthals may further revert so that they become full monkeys. Or nothing will happen. There’s really no way of knowing.”


“Why don’t you test it out on Galileo?”


“Not Galileo! He’s my baby!”


Wimp! You had no problem shooting him in the first place. Nia groaned, but she didn’t say aloud what she was thinking. “Fine,” she announced finally.


Just then, there was a loud thump on the laboratory door. Nia ceased being annoyed at Leo and grabbed his hand. He didn’t resist, and the two walked slowly towards the door. Great, now it’s like I'm in a horror movie, and I'm walking towards the evil monster. What if it’s all the Neanderthals at the door? Nia stopped, her anxiety taking hold of her. The banging on the door seemed to get louder and louder, and Leo finally let go of Nia and yanked the door open.


The mob rushed into the lab and slammed the door behind it. Nia exhaled, relieved. She didn’t realize she had been holding her breath, and now that she was breathing again, she became annoyed at how stuffy the room was with so many people crammed into it.


“You’re just like that other scientist!” Jexter exclaimed, his pasty, freckled face beginning to match the color of his ginger curls.


Nia peered at Jexter. Is this kid always leading angry mobs? She examined the rest of the mob. All the members of the All-Mart mob from a week ago were there and then some. Anyone in town who wasn’t a Neanderthal seemed to be crammed into that room. Nia guessed that the maximum capacity of Leo’s lab was around 100 people, yet there were well over 300 people there! Nia stood close to Leo, wondering how he would react to this massive crowd.


Leo began to speak. “I suppose I am the same, but if you kill me, you’ll have nobody to help you with this problem.”


Groans from the crowd filled the room as everyone realized that Leo was their only hope. Leo was terrified, but his face relaxed a little when he realized that these furious people couldn’t do anything to him.


Jexter called out again, “so what’s your plan, genius?”


Nia wanted to punch Jexter in the face. This short, annoying red head was getting on her last nerve. Plus you’re a girl, Nia. He can’t hit back if you hit him. Nia raised her arm, preparing to punch the kid. No! You’re better than that. Besides, he has a reason to be mad right now. She slowly put her arm back on her side; every inch she lowered it, she felt more and more anger building up inside her.


Leo began, “well my assistant and I are working on solving this problem, so if you’d all calm down…”


Jexter grunted and opened his mouth to say more snotty remarks, but before he could, Nia raised her hand again and shot him with her ray gun. The mob gasped, and everyone began to shout at once.



Nia couldn’t believe she had done that either, and she stared at the unconscious boy lying on the ground.


“Shut up!” yelled Leo. “Let’s see what happens when he wakes up. This may be an answer to our Neanderthal problem.”


The crowd refused to listen, and a few people tried to grab and attack Nia. Leo jumped in front of her , and the people tried to push him out of the way.


“Don’t hurt him,” someone finally said. “We need this boy to save us, so whether we like it or not, we can’t do any attacking. Got it people? We need this town to be back to normal!”


Nia peered out from behind Leo to try to see who had said that. All she could see was a mess of brunette hair bobbing up and down in the center of the crowd. The crowd quieted down, and the woman continued.


“We were mad at right handed people for technology not going our way, and now a similar thing is happening to us.”


The crowd muttered in an irritated agreement.


“We lefties are going to have to stick together if we want to successfully make it through this crisis. Who’s with me?”


The group let out a forced cheer. Everyone wanted to try making this world right- well, in their case, left- again, but they had a very hard time trusting anyone. Within five minutes, all but three people were left standing in the laboratory, not including Jexter who was still lying unconscious on the ground. Leo checked to make sure the kid still had a heartbeat. He did.



Leo looked up to see whom the third person standing in the room was. The brunette woman had convinced the crowd to give Leo a chance. The woman looked like she is in her mid to late forties and she had glistening green eyes, just like Leo. Leo stared at her for a second before he opened his mouth to say something.

“Mom?”


The woman nodded and ran over to attempt to hug Leo. “Yes, it’s me.”


“Why haven’t you called? Or texted? Or hologrammed? Or anything?” He looked at his mother, and she stared back, looking as if she might burst into tears. She had a distant look in her eyes, and Leo didn’t like it at all. “And where’s dad? Isn’t he left-handed too?” He looked again at his mother, who had started sobbing loudly.


“Your f-f-father,” she stuttered, “he’s d-d-de…” She couldn’t finish her sentence without her trembling body taking over her speech.


“He’s d-d-dead? How? When?” Leo stammered. He had also begun to cry, as he had never seen his mom cry before, and knowing his dad was now dead really shook him.


Nia put her arm around Leo to try to comfort him, although she felt a bit awkward doing so. She had never seen a boy cry. Especially a 20-year-old boy. She listened as Leo’s mom managed to explain how Leo’s dad died.


“H-h-he was attacked a week ago and d-d-died instantly. He’s probably in a better place now,” she managed to choke out. “I don’t really know how it happened, because I wasn’t home for it. The police came to the house to tell me about his death. They said that if I had been home at the time of the attack, I would have been a goner also, so I guess I'm pretty lucky, huh?” A waterfall of tears flowed down her once flawless, wrinkle-free face as she finished her thoughts. “After the left-handed mob killed the old scientist, some righties got revenge by attacking various lefties. Obviously, your father was a victim of the ‘revenge attack.’”


By this time, Leo and his mother- Julie was her name- were both hugging and crying. Leo had been close with his father, and with a lot of stress on him lately, Leo’s father’s death was as helpful as a hole in the head. Leo, suddenly becoming angrier than ever at right-handed people, decided that he didn’t care what effect reshooting them would have; he decided that shooting the Neanderthals with the ray beam again was the only option, and he didn’t care if doing so might kill them.



Nia felt her eyes begin to well up with tears too because of all the emotion floating through the room. She hugged the puffy eyed, red-faced scientist again, and at this moment Nia felt that Leo resembled a little kid; he was crying and shaking uncontrollably while wanting his “daddy” to come back. Nia knew she would probably act the same way if she lost a parent, but at the moment, she couldn’t imagine exactly how Leo was feeling. All she could do was hug him and tell him that everything’s going to be okay.

“Whoa. Where am I?” a voice called out. Everyone looked across the room in time to see Jexter pick himself up from off the floor. “What did you do to me!” he cried.


“Evidently nothing,” Nia replied wiping the last few tears from her eyes. The last thing Nia wanted was for Jexter to see her crying. “You look the same as before.” She looked at his hands and then the rest of his body. Nothing unusual.


“Try writing something,” suggested Julie, who had also stopped crying. “Leo, do you have something for Jexter to write with?”


Leo nodded, rubbing his eyes, and threw a pencil and a sheet of paper at him.


“OW!” exclaimed Jexter. “You know, you have these things called legs for a reason.” He pointed at his own legs.


Ah. Good old Jexter. Nia watched the pencil glide smoothly across the sheet of paper. Suddenly, Nia realized that Jexter’s hands weren’t touching the pencil. In fact, nobody was holding the pencil. She was so confused. Jexter was just staring at the pencil, and it was writing. “Uh Jexter,” Nia started, “how are you doing that?”


“You know, I think my brain chip works now!” He looked down. “But wait. Does that mean I'm,” he gasped, “right handed?”


“Test it out dummy!” Nia heard herself say, annoyed that the boy didn’t try to figure this out for himself.


Jexter snarled at Nia and then he picked up the pencil. He wrote with his left hand. And then he wrote with his right hand. Both hands had exactly the same handwriting.


“Looks like you’re ambidextrous,” Leo announced, finally done sobbing. “I need to run some tests on you to see something.”


“What kind of tests?” asked Jexter nervously. “Better not be any blood tests. I hate needles.”


“Don’t worry,” Leo replied. “They’re just…tests. You’ll see.”


Nia looked and Leo and then Jexter, trying to see what each of them was thinking. Julie did the same but focused more attention on her son. She felt so proud of him.


“Okay, let’s go into my test room,” declared Leo. The two boys headed into the test room, Nia and Julie following right behind them. “Take off your shirt, Jexter.”


“Not with them still in here.” Jexter pointed towards the girls.


Nia and Julie got the hint and went back into the main laboratory. For a few minutes, the two just sat there awkwardly. They just stared at the cold, metal floor.


Finally, Nia began to speak. “So why did you and Leo lose contact?”


Julie, startled that Nia brought that up, hesitated and then began to speak. “When Leo told his father and I that he was going to get his PhD, we told him to wait a few years. I mean, he was only a teenager at the time. He didn’t need to go to college at the age of 14. Oh you don’t truly want to hear this, do you?” She looked at Nia, who was fascinated with Leo’s past.


“Continue,” she insisted.


“Fine. So Leo’s father and I decided we wouldn’t fund Leo in college before he turned 16, even though we knew he was smart enough. We just felt that Leo needed to develop social relationships like a normal teenager. Obviously if he went to college, he would stick out like a sore thumb.”


“So if you didn’t fund his college, who did?”


“Let me continue. Leo went to ABC news and told them about his problem, and I don’t even know why they listened to him, but they did. They gave him a scholarship to get into college and agreed to pay fully for his education if he could keep a 4.0 GPA. He did, of course, being my little genius.” Julie smiled.



“You didn’t try to keep in touch with him after he went to college?”



“We were to mad that he defied us. I mean, he went behind our backs to get the money for college. But I forgive Leo now, and I know that if Jack was still alive, he would forgive Leo too.”



“Jack?”



“That was Leo’s father.”



“Oh, okay,” Nia said. She went and hugged Leo’s mom, because she felt bad that she made her remember all this information about the past. Nia had never been one to hug people she didn’t really know, but the people in Leo’s family were apparently an exception.


“We’re back!” Leo announced, walking into the room. Jexter followed.



Leo seemed to have cheered up a lot since before. Jexter still seemed rude and annoyed. Also, Jexter was shaking.



“What did you do to Jexter?” Nia and Julie both asked.



“He’s just cold,” claimed Leo. “I had to put stickers on his head and chest to test his bodily functions. They were in fact working perfectly fine, if not better than the average human.”



“Is Jexter ambidextrous now?” Nia asked.

“Yes. In fact, he uses nearly 90 percent of his entire brain now. That’s more than I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” Leo looked at everyone. “I’ve discovered that being hit with the ray gun activates the unused region of the brain, causing someone to be ambidextrous. I wonder if it works on the lefty Neanderthals…”



“You should probably test it out on your rat first,” Julie suggested.



Nia, Jexter, and Leo all agreed that this was a great idea. They knew that Leo would never want the people of Righton to become even angrier.


Everyone walked over to Galileo’s cage and watched eagerly as Leo shot the rat with his own ray gun. The golden yellow beam glistened for a few seconds as it made its way into the cage. Within a few seconds, the rat’s appearance changed slightly and it took turns picking up food; first, he ate with his left paw and then with his right one.


“It worked!” Nia smiled. She ran over and hugged Leo, forgetting that Jexter and Julie were watching.


“Okay, now that we’ve tested it on Galileo, I think we’re ready to test the ray beam on the Neanderthals. Let’s go outside.”


The small group raced to the door and opened it, revealing the outside world. Even though it was nighttime, Neanderthals wandered aimlessly through the streets.


Soon, Nia saw her parents. Her mom was clutching what looked like a chicken leg, probably stolen from the grocery store, in her hand. Her father wasn’t carrying anything, but he wandered around on all fours, his arms and legs dragging lazily across the ground. He looked like a gorilla. Even though Nia knew why her parents were like this, it still freaked her out that they were behaving like this. Remembering that her mom was a vegetarian as a human, Nia shuddered.


When Nia told Leo, Julie, and Jexter that these Neanderthals were her parents, they all agreed that Nia could shoot them herself.


ZOOM! Nia aimed at her parents and missed. She tried again, but she couldn’t hit them. I should’ve paid more attention in gym class. No wonder I got that D.


The group walked a few feet closer to Nia’s parents so Nia could have an easier time aiming. She raised her left hand to shoot her parents, and nothing came out. How could I be out of shots? “Hey Leo, what do I do? I’m out of shots.” Nia was terrified, and she didn’t know she had a limited number of shots.


“Lucky for you,” Leo replied, seeing that Nia looked anxious and confused, “I brought ray gun chargers. Portable ones.” Leo watched as Nia’s face slowly relaxed. He pulled a charger out of his pocket and stuck it to her metal hand chip, which was apparently magnetic. Leo pressed a button on his end of the charger and told everyone that it would take about five minutes for Nia to have enough power to shoot both of her parents.


“Why don’t you guys just shoot my parents for me?” Nia finally asked.


“Because,” said Jexter in a very matter-of-factly way, “they’re your parents. Don’t you want to shoot them?” He glared at Nia and continued. “I’d be happy to shoot them if you don’t w…”


“NO! I get it okay?” Once again, Jexter was getting on Nia’s nerves. I wonder what would happen if I shot him again? Nia raised her left hand and tried to shoot Jexter. Lucky for him, the chip wasn’t quite charged yet, so all he received was a tiny static shock.

“Haha! You couldn’t shoot me,” he laughed mockingly.


Nia yanked her arm back up, and this time, instead of holding it in place, whammed her fist right into Jexter’s pale, freckle splattered face.


“Ow!” he whined.


Leo and Julie stared at Nia and then Jexter, shocked. Then again, Jexter was being pretty rude to Nia.


“Stop it, you two!” yelled Julie. “Let’s just work on getting the town back to normal. Understand?”


Both Nia and Jexter groaned but eventually agreed to just ignore each other, as talking was getting them nowhere.


Soon, Nia’s chip was fully charged, and somehow, Nia’s parents were still wandering around the same general area as before. That was lucky for Nia, Leo, Jexter, and Julie. Nia lifted her hand and aimed. ZOOM! ZOOM! First, her mother fell on the ground and then her father. She watched them glow brightly as their body structures transformed rapidly, and shortly after, they were humans again. Nia’s mom looked down at the half-eaten chicken leg she was still grasping and screamed. She threw it across the street.


“Mom! Dad!” Nia cried. She ran over to her parents and hugged them. They hugged back and asked their daughter what happened. As Nia explained, they listened closely, angered by their daughter’s mischief.


“You are so grounded, young lady,” scolded Nia's father.

“Yeah yeah I understand,” groaned Nia. Then, Nia grabbed a pencil and paper from Leo and got her parents to try writing. They, of course, were now ambidextrous too.


“What happens if you get shot three times?” Nia's father asked.


“We actually don’t know. Good question.” They both shrugged.


The group continued to walk through town, shooting all the Neanderthals they could find. Soon, Nia spotted all her siblings: Jake, Jenny, and little Aquilly all were eating trash out of a garbage can.


Nia pointed out her siblings to the group. Her parents looked at their Neanderthal children, disgusted by what they were doing.


“Nia, shoot them already! I can’t stand to see my babies eat garbage!” cried Nia’s mom.


“Alright, mom. I’m working on it!” groaned Nia, who was trying to charge her ray gun again.


“Here, I’ll shoot them,” announced Jexter.


Nia was too caught up with charging her own ray gun that she didn’t hear Jexter.



ZOOM! The beam hit Aquilly, Jake, Jenny, and Kelso.



Nia looked up. “Jexter! How could you shoot my siblings! What are you doing?” She shoved him, and another flash of yellow shot towards the startled kids who had just thrown the half-eaten trash back into the can.


“Oh no!” Leo cried. “What have you done, Nia?”


Nia peered at her siblings, expecting to see them be Neanderthals again, or worse…dead. Neither of those outlooks came true, luckily. Nia sighed. Her siblings were all just hugging one another. Aw, that’s so adorable. They never hug like this!


“They’re just hugging. What’s the big deal?” asked Nia’s parents.


“Do your children usually do that?” Leo asked, pointing to the kids who continued to hug each other.


“They love each other. They’re siblings,” replied Nia’s dad.


“Dad, I’ve never seen them act like this,” Nia said, looking at her father.


“I’m going to run a scan on their brains to see what’s causing this attraction, although maybe it’s not a bad thing.” Leo pulled out a weird looking device and literally scanned the kids’ heads. It was as if they had bar codes engrained on their heads or something. Leo looked up at everyone, frowning.


“What is it?,” grunted Jexter, feeling slightly ashamed that he had caused this new problem.


“I don’t see anything wrong,” claimed Nia. She had taken one semester of neurology in high school, so she was somewhat able to read brain scanners.


“Exactly,” replied Leo. It appears that there’s nothing wrong.


That’s good, right? “Isn’t that a good thing?” Nia questioned Leo.


“Yes, I suppose it is,” Leo answered.



Just then, Nia saw a flickering light on the scanner. She recognized it. Doesn’t that light mean that brain function is polar? They should be ambidextrous though! A polar brain means only one side functions. Nia looked over at Leo, concerned. “Are their brains attracted to each other?” she asked.


“That’s what it looks like.”


Nia’s mom piped in, “is there anything you can do? You know, not involving shooting them again?”


“I’ll have to think about it.”


“Wait!” exclaimed Nia suddenly. “I have an idea.” Nia watched everyone suddenly look at her, and she continued. “I read that there is a new type of pill that balances brain function. It should work, right?”


“Why didn’t I think of that?” smiled Leo. “That’s brilliant! In addition, I just so happen to own some of those pills myself.”


Excitedly, everyone –except for the four kids who were attached at the head- raced up to Leo’s laboratory and ran inside. Leo found the pills right away and grabbed them. He also grabbed a glass of water, so the kids could swallow the pills.


When everyone got back outside, Nia walked up to her siblings. “It’s okay guys. I’m going to get you back to normal in no time. Jake. Jenny. Swallow these pills.”


Jake and Jenny reluctantly took the pills. They didn’t know if they could trust their older sister after all that had happened this week. Instantly, as if a giant weight had been removed off their heads, Jake and Jenny stood up. “Thanks sis,” they both mumbled, still annoyed that they had been through so much thanks to Nia. They both ran over and hugged their parents but got scared after two seconds and let go.


Nia then got her nine year old brother to take the pill. He had some trouble but eventually managed to get it down. He didn’t bother thanking Nia and was also too scared to hug his parents.


“Aquilly,” Nia said softly, “do you think you can be a big boy and take this pill for me?”


“No!” he whined. “I don’t wanna!”


Nia glanced at Leo with fear in her eyes. How was Aquilly going to be fixed if he refused to take a pill. Right as Leo shrugged, a blast from his ray gun jumped into Aquilly.



“My head doesn’t feel wobbly anymore,” Aquilly announced happily. He was not a kid to hold a grudge at all.


“We need to destroy all the ray beam chips!” Nia complained. “They’re doing nothing but bad.”


Everyone agreed with Nia, and that same day, the big group traveled the town taking back the chips. Unsurprisingly, nobody in town refused. All of Righton agreed that these ray beam chips caused nothing but destruction and devastation to the town.


Leo made sure that anyone who had a brain imbalance received treatment as soon as possible and any other Neanderthals were turned back into humans.


“There’s just one matter of unfinished business,” Leo told Nia when the town was returned to normal. “Will you go out with me?”


Nia didn’t answer. She just leaned in, closer, closer, closer until she was within an inch of Leo’s face. She gave him a peck on the lips, hoping he wouldn’t pull away. He didn’t.

Nia’s parents looked at the two kids and thought it was sweet. Nia’s siblings pretended to gag. Nia just smiled and kissed Leo again.

A month later, Nia and Leo were sitting on Nia’s couch watching ancient Disney films. First, they chose Finding Nemo and then they wanted to see The Lion King.
“Society has come so far since the 1900’s and 2000’s,” Nia laughed.
Leo had to agree. “Yeah it has. I bet people didn’t even think holographic televisions were possible 1000 years ago!”
Nia and Leo turned back towards the television right when Nemo was reunited with his father. Nia loved a happy ending, and she pecked Leo on the cheek to show her happiness.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. Nia and Leo looked over.

“I wonder who that is,” Nia wondered aloud.

“Let’s go see.”

Nia and Leo got up slowly and walked over to the door. Nia looked at the security camera screen and saw a white, freckled face. She opened the door.

“Hey guys,” Jexter said, grinning.

“Uh hey. What’s up?” Nia and Leo both asked.

“I have this petition to ban brain chip and ray gun technology. Can you guys sign it for me?”

Nia grabbed the clipboard from Jexter. “Gimme a pen!” she demanded.

Slightly annoyed, Jexter reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pen. “Here,” he said shoving it into her open hand.

Nia signed the petition and then handed it to Leo. “Here you go,” Nia said joyfully. She kissed him again on the cheek and watched him sign the petition.

Leo handed the clipboard back to Jexter, who took it appreciatively.

“Thanks guys,” Jexter said, grinning again.

Nia had never seen this kid smile so much before. He’s really excited about this!

Nia and Leo shut the door and returned to their movies. Nia was very grateful that Jexter was creating that petition. “Now technology will never turn on us again,” Nia stated. She paused and smiled at Leo. “Let’s get some ice cream after this movie is over. I heard that they got a new machine that’s supposed to work twice as fast.”