9 SO MANY EXPERIMENTS!

Sassafras shifted in my lap, and I reached down to scratch under his chin. "I think I have all of this in order, Sass, but let me read it out loud to make sure." I flipped back to the first of the three experiments I had written down—the water experiment—and read the question to Sassafras: Sassafras meowed. "Good, I'm glad you agree." I moved my

hand to scratch behind his left ear. "Next up: hypothesis. I think the bips will multiply the fastest on the napkin that gets four sprays." Sassafras purred. Next I read him the materials list: Sassafras bumped his head against the science journal, still purring. "Next up—procedure!" I read each of the steps aloud to him.

Sassafras sat up and meowed. "I didn't have to do zero sprays because we know all living things need water," I replied. Sassafras blinked once and then lay back down. I continued reading:

I paused. "Mom?" I hollered. Once she came over I asked, "I shouldn't leave the bips for more than a day, right? Since they're living things and I don't really know what they eat and all that…" Mom patted my head. "Smart thinking! In my experience most magical creatures grow pretty quickly, so hopefully you'll have some results in a few hours. But I agree, it's safest to return the bips to the forest roses at the end of the day." I added one more step: I had created a data chart that would be all ready to fill in, but it would be hard to read that out loud to Sassafras. So, I looked it over myself again and added some lines to make it easier to fill in later.

I'd left space for my conclusion, which was perfect. I took a breath and then flipped to the next page to start reading the next experiment aloud. Dad cleared his throat, and I jumped. "Whoa! Sorry, Dad—I didn't even see you there!" I was so busy I hadn't noticed the whole kitchen table was filled with dinner food. "I know you're probably busy saving the world with science," Dad chuckled, "but even scientists need to eat." Mom winked at me, and I grinned. Dad had no idea because he doesn't know about the

magical creatures (he can't see them), but I kind of was working on saving the world. Well, saving the baby hippogriffs at least! After dinner Mom let me stay up a bit past my bedtime, so I managed to write up all four experiments. As I fell asleep, I reminded myself that everything was ready to go the next morning for a full day of science.