Chapter 1: Field Day! 1 Field Day!
Geeger is a robot. A very, very hungry robot.

Geeger was put together by a bunch of scientists, then sent to a town called Amblerville. What does Geeger do in Amblerville?

He EATS!

Geeger eats all the food that the rest of the people of Amblerville don’t want.

Expired beans. Moldy pasta. Mushy, gushy, super-slimy veggies. Those are just a few of the items Geeger chows down on.



Every night, after eating old yogurt and stale cereal and expired vegetables and rotten fruit, Geeger plugs himself into his DIGEST-O-TRON 5000. The machine sucks up all the food in the robot’s stomach and—Bzzt! Bzzt! BzZzZzZzZzZt!—turns it into electricity. And that electricity helps power Amblerville’s lamps, TVs, microwaves, video game systems, and dishwashers.

But Geeger does more than just EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT in Amblerville.

He also goes to school.

Geeger has learned LOTS since he started going to Amblerville Elementary School. For instance, he knows how important it is to have a good breakfast before a long day of learning and playing with his pals. And today it is especially important that Geeger has a good breakfast. Because today is Amblerville Elementary School’s Field Day!

At first, Geeger was confused about what a Field Day could be. Was it a day for celebrating fields? They were nice, the robot supposed… So green and big and open. Or was Field Day a day for celebrating someone named Field? Maybe, Geeger thought, this Field person was the first to put peanut butter on a banana. THAT certainly deserved celebrating. Peanut butter and banana is one of Geeger’s favorite food combinations—and he loves it even more if the peanut butter is expired and the bananas are mushy and brown.



YUM!

Fortunately for Geeger, he wasn’t confused about Field Day for long. His best friend, Tillie, quickly explained it to him.

Field Day is a special day of school when all the students and teachers at Amblerville Elementary School gather outside and participate in a variety of athletic events. There are races and jumps, Hula-Hooping and hopscotching. There are even SNACKS!

Geeger couldn’t be more excited.

There’s one thing, though, that Geeger is MOST excited about.…

The medals.

There are three of them—gold for first place, silver for second, and bronze for third—and they are awarded to the winners of the last event of the day, a footrace across the entire length of the school’s field.

And perhaps most exciting of all: Geeger really, truly believes that HE can win the footrace. He’s pretty sure he’s faster than every other kid at Amblerville Elementary School. He thinks he can outrun them all—even the fifth-graders who are taller than him!—and take home the gold medal.

Just thinking about winning that big, shiny disk fills Geeger up with a buzzy energy. It feels like that one time his DIGEST-O-TRON malfunctioned and, instead of pumping electricity out into Amblerville, the machine sent it roaring back into him. Geeger wants to rush out the door and race to school right this minute.

But he knows he can’t do that.

Not yet.

First, he needs BREAKFAST.