Clone Catastrophe

When science-loving Zara accidentally clones herself at her mom's biotech lab, she must outwit her clone before anyone discovers there are two of her.

Zara Chen, age eleven, had read every science book in the Maple Grove Public Library — twice. She could name all the bones in the human body, explain how black holes worked, and build a working volcano out of kitchen supplies.

'Two hundred and six,' she'd told her teacher last week when asked how many bones were in the body. 'Two hundred and seventy if you're a baby, because some of them fuse together. Cool, right?'

Today was the best day of the year: Take Your Kid to Work Day at Genova BioLabs, where her mom was the lead geneticist. Zara practically bounced through the gleaming glass doors, her lab notebook clutched to her chest.

'This is going to be amazing,' she whispered. 'Real lab equipment. Real experiments. Real science.'