A jolt of electricity shot through Max Carter’s body, knocking him back against the wall so hard he almost passed out.

It wasn’t the fact that he was almost turned into fried chicken that was the most irritating part of his morning. Nope, it was the fact that Kyle Benson’s soda caused it. Well, that and the general clumsiness which Kyle, who was Max’s best friend, never seemed to grow out of.

Kyle pretty much dropped anything and everything. All the time!

Max had started the day happy. He definitely didn’t count on being electrified to a crisp. The two boys had been getting ready for their first day of fifth grade when they took a detour into Kyle's basement to check out his dad’s latest invention.

Kyle's dad was Dr. Josh Benson, the famous scientist and head of Benson Enterprises. Dr. Benson was always inventing things and even though it was fun to check out the different inventions, Max didn’t want to be late for the first day of school.

“Come on, let’s just check it out real quick,” Kyle said in between loud gulps as he drank from his extra large soda cup. He’d actually made the soda himself with a soda maker. He liked to call it Kyle's Super Secret Soda recipe. “Dad had to make a special computer processor for his project. Take a look at it and see if we can mine some banano coins with it!”

“Banano is a cryptocurrency coin that’s not ‘mined,’ Max said. “That’s what makes it such a fast eco-friendly digital currency that doesn’t cost anything to send. Basically you create a computer faucet, using computing power with specific services on the NANO network and—”

“Whatever! Don’t care. Just want some for free. Can we use this for getting more banano?”

“Maybe. Depends on the processing power.”

“Let’s see if we can,” Kyle said. “Between the allowance we earned in banano, and the banano we get from this, we’ll totally be able to set up a crypto marketplace in school. Easy money!”

Max shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Let’s take a look,” Kyle said, smiling. “Then we’ll head to school. We won’t be late. I promise no drama!”

Max should have known better. Whenever Kyle promised no drama, there was always drama.

In the corner of Kyle's basement,  there was large metal cylinder, with the words ‘Tipler Cylinder Pod 201902’ stenciled onto the door. It was just big enough for both of the boys to squeeze into.

Dizzying amounts of buttons and dials covered its interior. Wires seemed to stick out from behind every knob, which seemed to be attached to more wires. It reminded Max of the weeds that grow out of the cracks on a sidewalk. Diagrams were written on the walls with black marker. Surrounded by math equations. Some were written in red maker. Others in green.

“Oh wow, check this out,” Kyle said as he set down his cup on a control panel. “What’s the addy of our banano wallet? Because it’d be awesome if—”

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Before he could finish, his elbow knocked over his soda. Thick strands of smoke seeped out. Sparks crackled and popped as the brown liquid gushed out of the cup and into the exposed wires.

“Oh man!” Max yelled out as he rushed to clean up the mess made from the cup. An electric shock ran through his body long before he realized how bad of an idea it had been to try to clean up any type liquid that spills onto electrical wires.

That’s how Kyle Benson’s soda almost turned Max Carter into fried chicken.

Max was thrown back against the wall with a loud thud and then fell to the floor. 

He sat up and straightened his glasses. He ran his hands over his body, making sure nothing was broken. He opened and closed his hand as the tingling feeling faded.

“Dude!” said Kyle. “You ok? Because you don’t look so great, man.”

“I think so,” Max answered. “The smell of burnt peanut butter apple soda sure ain’t making me feel any better though.”

“Hey! Don’t make fun of my soda. It’s my own secret recipe and it tastes amazing. Have you ever had peanut butter apple soda?”

“No.” Max said. “And I don’t plan to. Smells terrible!”

“It only smells bad now because it got all fried and stuff. How was I supposed to know it’d spill all over the place?”

“Why did you even bring it in here?”

“I don’t know” Kyle shrugged. “It just sorta happened.”

“We gotta go tell your dad.”

“Yeah, um, that’s going to be kinda tough.” The freckles on Kyle's face seemed to stand out more than usual. That happened when he got nervous about something. “He already left for work. Probably won’t be back until later tonight. That’s not really the bad news though.”

“What’s the bad news?” asked Max.

“When you jumped backwards after getting shocked,” Kyle said. “The door shut. I tried to open it, but it won’t budge. Looks like we’re stuck in here for a while. ”

“Must be electric release,” Max said. “Your soda probably shorted out everything. Hopefully after things dry out, it’ll start working again.”

“Oh man!” said Kyle as he ran his head through his thick red hair. “I just thought of something else.”

“What?”

“We’re totally gonna miss lunch,” said Kyle. “And I’m already hungry.”

“Really? Really? You’re seriously thinking of food right now?”

“The electric smell in here kinda reminds me of hot dogs,” Kyle shrugged. “Remember that one time I put hot dogs in the toaster and they got stuck? Smells kinda like that. I mean, except for the peanut butter apple-y smell. Hey, you think there’s a market for hot dog flavored soda? Because if you ground them up and soak them --”

“Not now,” Max interrupted. “We can deal with your terrible soda idea later. Right now we have to worry about getting out of here and getting to school. What if they give us homework on the first day? We’re gonna miss it.”

“See?” Kyle said, shrugging and smiling. “Some good news! Things ain’t so bad if you think about it with the right attitude.”

Kyle grabbed the cup of what was left of his soda and leaned up against the door. The door suddenly swung open and he fell out onto the grass. Soda splashed all over to him.

“Oh man, it’s in my hair!” he said. “Not cool. Hey, how’d we end up outside?”

Max walked out the door and stepped over his friend. Kyle was right. Instead of the cluttered basement laboratory that he expected to see, they were definitely outside.

“What’d your dad say this machine was for?” asked Max.

“I don’t know. Something about worms and traveling or something. Maybe it’s a submarine and he wanted to go fishing!”

“No windows on the thing though,” Max frowned and looked around. He pushed his glasses up. His eyes got wide as he had an idea. “Do you mean wormholes?”

“Yeah, wormholes! That’s it. Wormholes. Like the space things. But we’re definitely not in space.”

“I think your dad invented a transporter or something,” Max said. “I remember reading about wormholes in science class. You can get from one place to another,  but you can get there super fast. Like a space shortcut. I think we’ve just transported somewhere!”