The Greatest Little Genius

They were all like turtles, carrying their heavy backpacks. Camilla’s shoulders ached carrying her 20-pound backpack full of textbooks and notebooks. She walked over to her dad’s car and dropped her bag in the trunk, making a loud bang. The girl hated carrying so much weight in that bag-- it was the third backpack she got this year after the first two broke because of all the books she had in there. She thought of a way to make it less painful for her, perhaps, a device that would make it seem lighter.

Her father said to just leave some of the books she didn’t need at home, but the problem was that she needed all of them each day. And getting a roller bag in high school would be even more problematic, causing everyone around her to trip over her bag on wheels. The twelve-year-old was in high school, after taking a test to skip the rest of middle school, mainly because everyone hated her for having a roller bag back then. It wasn’t her fault that they weren’t looking where they were going.

In high school, there were stairs-- lots of stairs. So a roller bag definitely would not work. The poor girl was also very small in a high school, so she would be shoved and pushed when many people were trying to use the stairs to get to their next class within five minutes. One student even fell while going down the stairs, because one guy was in a hurry and pushed him from behind. The boy didn’t fall that far, but he wasn’t able to get up, because like I said that they were like turtles, he was on his back, and the bag was too heavy for him to stand up. Two of his friends had to pull him up by his arms.

-Timeskip-

She finally finished her invention after many hours. The lack of sleep was worth it. Camilla designed her backpack to hover, so she wouldn’t have to carry it with her. She would attach a tracker, so the hover bag will follow her around. The girl went to bed, excited to share her invention with her classmates.

But the excitement didn’t last long. The hover bag lasted for a bit until the bell rang, and the hallways flooded with students. The bag kept up with her until it began to be shoved around by the people. It began to swerve left and right until it crashed into the teacher-- who happened to be the teacher of Camilla’s next class. The device attached to the bottom of the bag broke, and the pieces ended up getting scattered across the floor. The teacher looked down at her bag in confusion.

“Who threw this bag at me? If you tell me, perhaps your punishment won’t be as severe.” she looked around, pointing at the black and pink bag. Everyone in the hallway stopped talking.

“I-I didn’t throw it! It was my invention!” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“So your invention is to launch backpacks at teachers as some form of rebellion? You better see me after class, Camilla.”

The girl had to stay after school for detention. She was upset that she didn’t get to show off how she could save everyone’s backs from carrying the 20-25 pounds of books every day. But Camilla didn’t give up. As soon as she went home, she quickly finished her homework so she could work on a better, safer invention. She thought of those conveyor belts in airports, transporting luggage. If she were to get one of those installed in the school, they wouldn’t have to carry their bags anymore. 

But that wasn’t the only invention she came up with. She made a small robot that could carry heavy textbooks to lighten the weight they had to carry-- since getting a conveyor belt in the school didn’t seem very likely. Camilla also came up with hovering books, so you wouldn’t need a backpack at all. 

She removed a stray strand of her brown curly hair, as she wiped her forehead covered in sweat. This time, the girl made sure that she had a backup invention if something were to go wrong. When she went to school, her inventions were very popular, and people were willing to buy them from her. Over the next few months, she had made so many inventions to improve the school, that she had become very popular.

One day, Camilla was walking down the hall after finishing her lunch, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. A girl who looked very similar to her but older put her hands on her hips.

“You have to stop making these inventions, Camilla.” she frowned.

“Why? I’m making schools a better place. People don’t have to hurt themselves carrying their stuff anymore.” Camilla explained.

“People are becoming lazy, waaay too lazy in the future.” 

“Aren’t they already lazy right now? Seems like old news to me.”

The older girl grabbed her hand, and suddenly they were transported to the same place. Everyone she could see was using her technology to bring their books to their classes. The one thing that was different was that they all looked very unhealthy. The one boy from her class who played basketball really well was short of breath when he only walked from one and of the hallway to the other. It was sad to watch. Camilla looked at the girl who brought her here.

“So how can I fix all of this?” she asked.

“We’re gonna have to go back in time and make sure none of your inventions end up successful. That’s what I tried to do earlier with your hover bag, it seems like you didn’t give up.”

“Oh, uh sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Perhaps save the inventions for personal use rather than for school-- so we don’t all end up like those people in the Wall-E movie.”

“Alrighty then.”

They went back in time together and tampered with all of the inventions, making sure that none of them will work. In the end, they were successful. The future Camilla returned the present-day one to her timeline and made her promise to keep their meeting a secret. But in her mind, she will always know that she was the greatest little genius who tried making the school a better place.

-Timeskip-

“Greatest little genius? All of your inventions end up hurting a teacher!” one of Camilla’s friends chuckled.

“Well, at least her inventions do something. You’re the one trying to convince everyone you have mind control powers by asking someone to do something for you.” another friend explained.

“But I do have mind control powers! Look-- Camilla, throw this piece of paper in the recycling bin for me.”

“No, you do it yourself.” Camilla crossed her arms.