Chapter Three:

JADA’S LAW

I pulled Mari into the kitchen.

“I love your hair!” I said.

It was in a braided updo for the wedding.

“Thank you,” she said. “I love your lab!”

She oohed and aahed as she looked at everything I had set out on the island for our activities: laundry detergent, liquid glue, clear nail polish, strips of black construction paper. The kitchen table was covered with a plastic purple tablecloth and ready for action.

“You have the best ideas!” she said. “Tonight is going to be superrific.”

I missed her crazy words. Mari always made me smile. It was so cool that we’d have our science sleepover together after all.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” I said, plopping on a stool. “How’s Arizona?”

“I miss you so much,” she said. “But I‘m making friends and we do day trips on weekends. My favorite so far is Sedona.”

“Is that the postcard you sent me of the red rocks?”

“Yep, they’re everywhere. When the sun sets, it looks like the rocks are glowing. I have pictures on my tablet.”

“Cool! Let’s save those until Simone and Lena get here.”

Jax and Mom came in.

“Mari!”

Jax ran to her.

“Hey, Action Jackson,” she said, rubbing his head.

“Good to have you back, Mari,” Mom said, giving her a hug.

I filled Mari in on our class and science club and showed her a new treasure I added to my rock and mineral collection: agate with patterns of swirls.

“Marvtastic!” Mari said as she admired it.

It felt good having her back.

Right at seven, the doorbell rang again.

“Stay in here,” I told Mari. “Let’s keep the surprise going.”

I ran to the door and peeked through the blinds.

“Lena!”

I swung it open and put her flowered bag next to Mari’s. As Mom talked to her mom, I told Lena to close her eyes. I led her by the hand into the living room.

“Okay, you can look.”

She stared and opened her mouth. Nothing came out. Then, finally she squeaked, “Mari?”

“Hey, Lena,” Mari said, giving her a hug.

“Mari’s here for the weekend. Isn’t that awesome?”

Lena and Mari caught up, talking about school and friends. Now, all we needed was Simone. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang again.

“Why don’t you answer the door this time, Mari?” I said. “That will definitely surprise her.”

Lena and I watched as Mari walked to the entryway with Mom behind her. She peeked through the blinds and saw Simone, then opened the door.

“Wait, what?” I heard Simone say. “Mari? What are you doing here?”

“Surprise!” she said and held out her arms.

Simone looked stunned, like she didn’t know what to do.

“Group hug,” I screamed.

Lena and I raced down the hall to join them.

“Aren’t you going to invite Simone in?” Mom asked.

I laughed.

“Oh yeah, come on in. Let’s get this party started.”

Everyone followed me into the kitchen. I turned and spread my arms wide in a big flourish.

“Welcome to the Best Friends Lab. Can’t believe I have my three BFFs here with me. This will be the best night ever.”

“Wow, Jada,” Simone said, checking out the decorations. “This is a lot of . . . science. Cool lab.”

“Yeah, it looks amazing,” Lena said.

“Why don’t we jump into our first experiment?”

I put the bowl of M&M’s and a pitcher of water on the table.

“Everyone grab a plate and a cup.”

Jax rushed into the room.

“Did you start without me?”

“No, Jax, we’re just setting up. I have your plate and cup right here. He’s going to do one experiment with us. Then, he’s leaving. Right, Jax?”

“Right,” he said, looking down and sounding like he wasn’t so sure.

I showed everyone how to line up the candy around the inside circle of the plate. Then, I poured water into everyone’s cups.

“Just pour into the middle of the plate,” I said. “The water just needs to touch the candy. You don’t need a lot.”

Jax popped an M&M into his mouth.

“Yum,” he said. “One for the plate. One for me. One for the plate. One for me . . .”

“You’re going to eat up your experiment, Jax. You can have some of the extras when we’re done.”

“Sorry.” He finally finished his circle and started to slowly add the water.

“Now what do we do?” Simone said.

“Wait.” Mari and I giggled when we said it together.

“You want something to drink?” I asked. I grabbed punch out of the refrigerator. It was in cups that looked like beakers with crazy straws.

As the candy coating on the M&M’s dissolved, the colors began to streak until they met in the middle.

“It’s so pretty!” Lena said.

“Why is mine taking so long?” Jax said, not realizing that since he finished later it would take longer for the coating to dissolve into rainbow streams. “I think it needs more water.”

“No, Jax!” I said, but I wasn’t fast enough.

He picked up the pitcher and couldn’t handle it. Water gushed everywhere. Everyone jumped away from the table. But our experiments were ruined. The M&M’s in the bowl were soaked. So much for extras.

“Jax!”

“It was an accident!”

“I know,” I said. “It’s okay. Why don’t you go upstairs with Daddy and Mom? I think they have something special for you to do.”

“I want to stay here,” he whined.

I sighed. I knew this was coming.

“I’ll be right back,” I said to my friends. I came back down with Daddy.

Mari, Simone, and Lena were wiping up the mess.

“Thanks so much for cleaning up,” I said.

“That’s what you call keepers,” Daddy said.

Everyone smiled.

“After all that hard work, are you girls ready for pizza?”

“Yes,” we said together.

“Great, I’ll place the order. Come upstairs, Jax. You, Mom, and I will have our own sleepover. We have your Black Panther action figures ready in your room.”

“Wakanda forever!” he screamed. “But it’s still no fair that Jada gets to have all the friend fun.”

Little brothers.

“Who wants to have ice cream before the pizza?” I asked.

“Now you’re talking,” Simone said, raising her hand.

“Grab two plastic bags. One little and one big. I’ll get the ice, salt, and half-and-half.”

Simone frowned. “Where’s the ice cream?”

“We’re going to make it, silly,” Mari said, smiling.

Simone looked at Lena, who gazed at the floor.

“Everything tonight isn’t going to be a science project, is it? Can’t we just eat the ice cream without learning about it?” Simone asked.

I felt that bird-trying-to-escape flutter in my stomach again. Why didn’t Simone give science a chance? I looked at Lena. She didn’t complain, but she wasn’t smiling, either. Mari looked at my face and jumped right in.

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream,” she sang and struck a silly pose. “If you don’t want yours, Simone, that’s more for me.”

Simone laughed.

“How do we do this, Jada?” Lena asked.

“Wait, Lena, we have to get into character,” Simone grabbed goggles from the island and struck a pose.

“Scientist Simone, reporting for duty.”

We laughed and each grabbed a pair. We didn’t need the goggles for the experiment, but I didn’t care. We were finally having fun.

“Okay, you put half-and-half, vanilla extract, and sugar in the small plastic bag,” I said, showing them how as they followed my lead. “You can add chocolate syrup or strawberries if you want, too. Fill the gallon bag halfway with ice. Add the salt. Seal the small bag real tight and put it into the gallon bag. Seal that, too. Okay, now all we have to do is shake.”

I hit the music. Beyoncé’s voice filled the room. It was on after that. Simone and Lena made up a shake-the-bag dance. Simone shook it high. Lena shook it low. Mari shook it side to side. I shook it behind my back. Everyone was having fun until . . .

“Ahhhh!” Lena screamed as half-and-half spewed everywhere. It was on her clothes, on the floor, on the counter. “I’m all wet!”

“Oh no, your bags must not have been closed all the way! I’ll get some paper towels,” I told her.

“I don’t want ice cream anymore,” Lena said.

“Me either,” Simone said.

I couldn’t blame them. I remembered Daddy telling me about something called Murphy’s Law. It says whatever can go wrong will go wrong. I think they should rename it Jada’s Law, because that’s what was happening. My sleepover was turning into a mess.