Just a Story About Luke

Chapter 8

"Attention class! Today we will be doing an experiment." Ms. Carson, the science teacher, announced to the class.

Around the class was a jittering, excited tone at the news of an experiment. They rarely got to do anything fun in science.

"The experiment we will be doing today involves baking soda and vinegar." Ms. Carson added with a smile.

Luke gave an exasperated look to Carli. He could tell she knew what he was thinking. There were a few kids in this class that probably couldn't handle the power of a chemical reaction such as the one that Ms. Carson was explaining.

Luke looked over to the table at which Abernathy, Night, Dallas, and Andre sat at. He gave a sigh and looked down at his notebook. Although he hung out them, they could get pretty annoying.

Ms. Carson handed out the materials to the tables scattered around the room. The items they were given included, a jar of vinegar, another container full of baking soda, an empty flask, a tablespoon, and a balloon.

Ms. Carson gave them the instruction on what to do. She told them the were to fill the flask with 125 mL of vinegar and then fill the balloon with baking soda. Luke's group did as they were told and waited for further instructions.

Next they had to put the balloon around the top of the flask. Luke and Beatrice were the ones who did this step. Beatrice held the balloon on the flask to keep it from slipping off. Ms. Carson gave the class the okay to dump the baking soda into the flask.

Luke counted down.

"3.....2......2.5..."

"Just do it already!" said an exasperated Rachelle.

Luke laughed as he initiated the reaction.

The contents started to fizz up and the balloon inflated. Luke had to admit, it was kind off cool.

"You may now let go of the balloon" Ms. Carson addressed to the class.

Beatrice let go of the balloon and it stayed attached to the flask.

"Ugh. My hands smell like vinegar." Luke said.

"Mine too." Beatrice added. "But I kinda like the smell of it. It reminds me if salad."

"Um..." Carli said eyeing Beatrice.

"What?" Beatrice laughed.

"Nothing...." Carli answered.

They wrote down the observations in their notebook.

"When you're done writing down your observation, you may take the balloon off of the flask over the trash can, then wash out the flask in the sink.

Beju came over to the trash can with her table's finished experiment. She struggled pulling the balloon off of the flask.

"Do you need some help, Beju?" Luke asked.

"Probably." she answered laughing at herself.

Luke got up from his seat and walked over to the trash can. He grabbed a hold of the balloon and pulled it off the flask. He successfully pulled off the balloon, but ended up spilling the solution all over Beju's jacket.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." Luke chuckled.

Beju had a shocked expression on her face but laughed along with Luke.

"It's fine, the jacket is shedding all over the place anyways." she said brushing fuzz off of her shirt.

The period bell rang, signaling class was over. Luke apologized to Beju once more before gathering his stuff and meeting up with Abernathy. Abernathy told Luke about what his table had done during the last period. Apparently he and Andre had snorted the baking soda as a bet.

"My lungs itch." Abernathy said.

"Well what do you expect to happen when you snort baking soda?." Luke said as he rolled his eyes.

Then all of a sudden, Manuel, one of Luke and Abernathy's friends, picked Abernathy up and carried him into the bathroom yelling, "Gimme some of that white booty!"

Luke walked away as if nothing happened. It was probably best not to further involve himself in this kind off situation.