Later at lunch, Izzy said, “Marie is a genius, isn’t she? We should ask her to help us with the cold school problem.”
“Why bother?” said Charlie, pouring kombucha tea—a green liquid that looked like algae—out of her thermos and into her cup. “It’s not like you to ignore all the evidence, Izzy. And all the evidence indicates that she’ll say no. Asking her will be a flop.”
“Speaking of flops,” said Allie. “It looks—and feels—like our hypothesis about the thermostat is a flop, too.” She turned on her tablet to show Izzy and Charlie her results. “I put a wireless thermometer in my locker and connected it to the Wi-Fi. Then I made up a program—”
“Way to go, Allie!” Izzy interrupted happily. “Looks like all that practice with computer games paid off!”
“Totally,” said Allie. “As I was saying, I made up a program to track the temperature of the school building, and my data show that the problem doesn’t go away when it’s dark, rainy, cloudy, and sunless like it is today. So heat from the sun shining on the thermostat is NOT the cause of the air-conditioning problem.”
“Who needs a computer program?” asked Charlie. “My numb fingers tell me the same thing.” She used her homemade pretzel stick to point first to her eyes and then to her free hand. “I can see that it’s gray and rainy and I can feel that the air-conditioning is on. That means the sun isn’t fooling the thermostat. Something else must be making it all wonky.” She bit off the end of her pretzel and sighed with discouragement as she concluded, “That shoots our hypothesis down.”
“It’s only our first hypothesis,” said Izzy. “I’ll record our results.” She completed the entry:
Make an Observation: The school is too cold.
Form a Question: Why is the air-conditioning/heating system malfunctioning?
Form a Hypothesis: The thermostat registers high temperatures because it is located in direct sunlight.
Conduct an Experiment: Observe what happens when there is no sunlight shining on the thermostat.
Analyze the Data and Draw a Conclusion: Even on a gray, rainy day with no sunshine, the air conditioner is on, so the sun is NOT fooling the thermostat.
Allie looked over her shoulder and heaved a big sigh.
“Never mind,” said Izzy. “Don’t get all bummed out yet. I’ve already thought of another hypothesis.”
Allie and Charlie burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” asked Izzy.
“You are!” said Allie. “Once you get going, you’re like a steam engine or something. You’re unstoppable.”
“Well,” said Izzy, laughing now, too. “I’m just like Newton’s first law: ‘An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion.’ So here’s what I need you to do, Allie. Can you look online for some aerial photos of the school building? Then we can see what section of the roof the air-conditioner condenser and exhaust fans are on.”
It took Allie only a second to find satellite photos of the school on her tablet and zoom in on the condensers and fans on the roof above the auditorium.
“But I don’t get it,” said Charlie. “What good does this photo do us?”
“The air-conditioning units could be broken and the reason for all these problems,” Izzy replied.
“But wouldn’t the repair people have figured that out already?” Charlie asked.
“Well, if they did figure it out, they obviously didn’t fix it because it’s still freezing in this building,” said Allie.
“We can’t get to the AC stuff on the roof!” said Charlie. Izzy tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.
“Oh no,” said Charlie, “you’re not thinking that we’ll somehow climb out onto the roof?”
“You’re the athlete,” said Allie. “Why are you being such a wimp?”
“I’m not,” said Charlie. “I’m just being safe and sensible, like my mom told us to be.”
“Well, don’t worry. We don’t exactly have to climb out onto the roof,” reassured Izzy. “When we had our assembly in the auditorium, I noticed that there was a metal staircase at the back of the stage. I think it leads up to the catwalks. I bet from there we could find stairs up to the roof.”
“Let’s go!” said Allie, leaping to her feet.
“No!” said Charlie, thumping her thermos on the table.
Izzy and Allie both jumped at the noise.
“Charlie is right,” said Izzy. “We’d better wait until we have more time and also wait until the school is empty.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Charlie. “I meant that this is not a good idea! But what’s the use?” She shook her head and said, half-joking, “Izzy Newton’s in motion and there’s no stopping her.”
A businesslike wind had blown the rain and clouds away later that afternoon. After the last late bus had left, Izzy, Allie, and Charlie met at their lockers. They headed to the auditorium and, looking back to make sure they weren’t seen, slipped backstage.
“Follow me,” whispered Izzy. The three girls walked past the dressing rooms and up a dark, winding staircase, their footsteps clanging on the metal. They inched their way, heel-toe-heel-toe, along the catwalks high above the stage, climbed up a steep wooden ladder, and found a small room. There was a skylight, but it was so dirt-encrusted that only a little sun came through, so the room was dark until Charlie flicked the light switch to ON. The girls saw some dusty, old-looking boxes slumped against each other in the corners.
“Look,” said Izzy, pointing. “I bet that door leads out to the roof.”
“Careful! It’ll be slippery out there,” warned Charlie as Izzy groped in the dark for the door handle.
With a whoosh, Izzy pushed the door open and stepped outside.
“Holy moly!” exclaimed Allie, right behind her. “Wow!”
“Isn’t this The Best?” breathed Izzy.
“It sure is,” said Charlie, joining them, “especially on such a gorgeous, windy day.”
The wind whistled through the girls’ clothes, swirled their hair, and made their eyes water. “The wind’s so strong it feels as though it could lift me up into the sky,” said Izzy, enraptured.
“Sweet,” said Charlie.
The girls were so exhilarated to be up high that they explored the roof and looked at the view from every direction, forgetting momentarily to inspect the air-conditioner condenser and fans. The roof was flat, covered in tar paper, and there were puddles clogged with clumps of leaves here and there where the roof had sunk in a bit. Izzy saw some collapsed wooden boxes and what looked like abandoned tools. Altogether, the roof looked rather neglected, as if no one went up there very often.
“You know,” said Izzy eagerly. “I think we’ve discovered something. I think we’ve found a secret hangout for ourselves to go to when we want to get away from the noise and the crowds.”
“Yes!” agreed Allie. “If it’s raining, we could hang out in that little room we came through just now. We could decorate it—or at least bring pillows to sit on, and maybe some lamps.”
“We could keep a supply of snacks there!” said Charlie. “And when the weather is nice, we could meet out here on the roof and have picnics. We could have bird feeders and plant grass out here, and have a little garden to grow carrots, or maybe strawberries.”
“It looks like someone already HAD a garden up here a long time ago,” said Allie, pointing to plant boxes with old, dead stems and leaves in them. “Am I paranoid after the lake, or is that poison ivy? And look! Bees! They’re just lying there, but some of them are still alive.”
“Bees don’t die until their body temperature is forty-one degrees,” said Charlie. “I know, because my moms keep beehives. But bees can’t fly when the air temperature is below fifty-five degrees, and it’s definitely colder than that today. This is such weird weather for September!”
“Okay, okay! Enough bee facts!” said Allie. She shuddered. “Even these zombie bees scare me. What if they wake up mad? Come on. Let’s get to work. Let’s look at the air conditioners and stuff.”
As they walked across the roof, Izzy enthused, “We could have wind turbines, and maybe a telescope for stargazing, and a weather tracking station, and—”
All of a sudden, there was a huge gust of wind.
BAM!
The one door that led back inside slammed shut so hard that it seemed like it would never open again.
