Misfit Theater Company 2

13. Keep Swimming

Moth and I wear safety goggles in preparation for an experiment on reactions today. Truly, no one should allow the two of us to work with anything that could be explosive, but here we are about to cause a reaction Mr. Mac calls "elephant's toothpaste."

"Hydrogen peroxide naturally and gradually breaks down into oxygen and hydrogen, but when we add the potassium iodine, the process is sped up," Mr. Mac explains from the front of the chemistry lab. It's a different room than our normal classroom, with storage for all the glass instruments around the perimeter, fire extinguishers aplenty, and sinks at each table top. "The potassium iodine works as a catalyst to force the hydrogen peroxide to break down, and as a result," he stops mid-sentence to add in the catalyst to the hydrogen peroxide, water, and dish soap mixture in a glass up front. As soon as the droplets hit his mixture, it begins to foam and quickly, startlingly, the foam bursts up from the container and falls into the tray Mr. Mac has placed beneath his experiment. He continues speaking as though he didn't trail off a minute ago. "The mixture transforms into what looks like elephant's toothpaste."

One of the kids who acts like an idiot for fun raises his hand, and Mr. Mac reluctantly calls on him.

"Does your wife use that to brush her teeth?"

"Office," Mr. Mac orders.

"Yep," the kid says before picking his backpack off the floor and saluting us all goodbye.

Jerk.

"As I was about to say," Mr. Mac continues after taking a moment to collect himself, "all of you have the ingredients for the experiment at your tables. Make sure to measure correctly in order to achieve the same sort of reaction you saw up here. If any of the variables are off, the entire experiment will look different. You may also notice I've included food coloring in your ingredient lists. This is purely for aesthetic purposes as long as you only add a small amount. Get to work, I will be around to help you if needed."

Moth turns to me, rubbing his palms together like some diabolical planner. "Ready?"

I laugh. "Um... as long as we don't accidentally blow up the entire lab."

His eyes go wide. "There'd be toothpaste everywhere."

I laugh again. Moth has a way of making everything lighthearted. "Anyways, time to read the directions."

We stop our joking only until we have added the final ingredient to the mixture in our beaker: two drops of red food coloring, so that, as Moth said, it might look like lava coming out of a volcano.

"Hey, so, you know how this is Patti's last week here?" Moth asks, putting the cap on the red food coloring. It looks like a little gnome's cap, and I smile at the memory of Grant O'Reilly's "gNOme SMOKING" sign and how proud he was of that.

"Duh."

"Okay, wise guy, well... Sean and I were talking after class today, and I think we should throw her a surprise going away party this Friday night. It can be at my house this time. My parents will be home, so it won't be like Sean's party--"

Thank goodness.

"--but they are having their friends over for their own party, so it'll be like one big happy family party time celebration."

"We should put that on the invitations: Come to Moth's big happy family party time celebration." He smirks. "Why are your parents celebrating? Like, what's the occasion?" I ask, hovering the potassium iodine dropper over the beaker.

"Like they need a reason to party. C'mon Janie, have you met me?"

"Are you ready for this to explode?" I ask.