I was almost ready to go throw myself into a vat of day-old spaghetti sauce in the cafeteria’s kitchen, when something caught my eye.
It was the most awesome volcano I’d ever seen. And maybe it wasn’t a real volcano, but it sure looked like it could be real, if volcanoes were only ever two feet tall.
I’d seen that volcano before; in fact, I’d seen it every day for the last week. But somehow it looked different at the science fair.
For the first time I saw how other people would see it.
It was a genius volcano.
“Do you think the ankylosaurus is in the right place?” Ben asked when he saw me. “Or is it too close to the volcano? It might gross people out if the ankylosaurus bites the big one when the volcano explodes.”
“Erupts,” I told him for the zillionth time. “Volcanoes don’t explode, they erupt.”
“Whatever,” Ben said, adjusting the dinosaur’s position. “I just don’t want to get personally blamed for the extinction of the dinosaur.”
There are two parts to the science fair. The first part is where people walk around and look at all the projects. The second part is when the judges walk around. When the judges walk around, both people on the team have to be seated at their table to tell the judges about their project.
This year’s judges were the school principal, Mrs. Patino; the sixth-grade science teacher, Mr. Marks; and the school nurse, Mr. Martinez.
Me and Ben were waiting until the judges got to our table to erupt our volcano. We felt this would give our project a little extra oomph. When the judges were three tables away, I reached under the table for our eruption supplies—baking soda, vinegar, and dishwashing liquid for extra eruption action.
It was all there. Except for the vinegar.
“Where’s the vinegar?” I asked Ben. I stuck my head under the table for a second look.
“It’s down there,” Ben said. He sounded a little unsure, though.
“Did you check it off the checklist?”
“Of course I checked it off the checklist. Why wouldn’t I check it off the checklist?”
This time he sounded very unsure.
I sat back up. “Because you forgot to check the checklist?”
“I guess that could be one reason,” Ben agreed. “But boy, doesn’t this volcano look great?”
That’s when Aretha leaned over from the spy lab. “Is there a problem over here, boys?”
She sounded sort of happy about the idea, if you want to know the truth.
“We’re fine,” I told her.
“I forgot the vinegar,” Ben told her. “I meant to check the checklist, but I sort of slept late this morning. It was pretty crazy just getting everything over here on time.”
“No vinegar, no eruption, am I right?” Aretha asked. I thought I saw a smile behind her serious expression. This was probably the best thing that had happened to her all day.
“You’re right,” I said glumly.
The judges were one table away. We were doomed.
Aretha turned to Roland. “Hand me some lemon juice.”
Roland handed her a big green bottle of lemon juice. Aretha handed it to me.
“I don’t know if it will work as well as vinegar, but it should have some reaction with the baking soda. Just use a ton.”
“Do you have enough?” I asked her.
“I was the one in charge of bringing our supplies,” she told me.
That meant they had enough.
“Okay, guys, tell us what you’ve got here,” Mrs. Patino said, standing in front of our table.
So we told her. We told her about volcanoes, and we told her about the time period when dinosaurs and volcanoes coexisted, and we told her about the Ring of Fire.
Well, mostly I told her. Ben mostly moved the dinosaurs around to make it seem like a live-action science project.
And then, when we were done telling the judges all the many interesting facts about volcanoes, I dumped half a box of baking soda and half a bottle of dishwashing liquid into the volcano. Some of the stuff didn’t actually make it all the way into the volcano, but I pretended like I’d done that on purpose.
Then I poured on the lemon juice.
And waited.
I poured some more
And waited.
Okay, so our science project was a bust. I looked down at my feet.
My scientific career at Woodbrook Elementary School was over.
Our volcano erupted.
All around us people started clapping and whistling. Including the judges.
Including Aretha Timmons.
