2 Waiting for a Reaction

CHAPTER TWO WAITING FOR A REACTION Chemical Reaction (noun). A process where one thing changes into a completely different thing, irreversibly. Like how we convert chocolate and flour into a cake, but we can't turn a cake into chocolate and flour! ELIJAH LIFTED THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER over his short afro, grunting as if it were heavy, which it wasn't. He could be such a drama king. "I'm on it," he said. "Just call me the Firefighter." Birdie whipped out her phone. Well, not her phone. Her older sister Meela's. Birdie had dropped hers in the pond by my house. Mostly because she had been a little shocked when I told her I was going to breathe fire after school today. I wasn't sure why she was surprised. It's not like I hadn't been planning this demo since last spring. Ms. Daly said that if I wrote an essay on

等待反应化学反应（名词）。 一种东西变成另一种完全不同的东西的过程，是不可逆的。 就像我们可以把巧克力和面粉变成蛋糕，但我们不能把蛋糕变成巧克力和面粉！以利亚把灭火器举过他的短爆炸头，咕哝了一声，好像很重，其实并不重。 他可能是一个戏剧之王。 “我正在处理，”他说。“叫我消防员就行了。” 伯迪拿出手机。 不是她的手机。她姐姐米拉的。 小鸟把她的丢在我家旁边的池塘里了。 主要是因为当我告诉她我今天放学后要喷火时，她有点震惊。 我不知道她为什么这么惊讶。 我从去年春天就开始计划这个演示了。 戴利老师说如果我写一篇关于

combustion (the science word for fire) and showed her I was ready, I could breathe fire when I got to fifth grade. So I had written about my need to understand fire, starting with why toasted marshmallows taste better (the heat from the fire breaks a whole bunch of bonds within the molecules creating yummy marshmallow goo). Ms. Daly loved it. And now, guess what? It was October 2, and I had been a fifth grader for thirty days. And don't say not that anyone was counting. Because I was. I love math. Ms. Daly handed me a pale blue fire-resistant lab coat. "More safety precautions," she said firmly. My hair was already pulled back into a ponytail. And the bowl of water sat on a nearby counter. I rolled up the sleeves of the lab coat. Even though I was tall for ten, the long coat brushed the tips of my cowboy boots. The coat would help keep me safe because it was made from a fabric that was not supposed to melt and would protect me from heat. It was okay that it smelled bad and made me look like I was wearing ugly pajamas that my grandma Dort wouldn't wear, even if you paid her.

并向她展示我已经准备好了，当我上五年级的时候，我可以喷火了。 所以我写了我需要了解火，从为什么烤棉花糖味道更好开始（火的热量打破了分子内的一大堆键，产生了美味的棉花糖粘稠物）。 戴利很喜欢。现在，你猜怎么着？ 那天是10月2日，我上五年级已经30天了。 不要说没有人在数。 因为我是。我喜欢数学。 戴利女士递给我一件淡蓝色的防火实验服。 “更多的安全预防措施，”她坚定地说。 我的头发已经扎成了马尾。 那碗水放在旁边的柜台上。 我卷起实验服的袖子。 尽管我十岁的时候就已经很高了，但那件长大衣还是擦到了我的牛仔靴尖。 这件外套可以保护我的安全，因为它是由一种不会融化的织物制成的，可以保护我不受热。 闻起来很难闻，让我看起来就像穿着我奶奶多特即使付了钱也不会穿的丑睡衣，这也没关系。

I crossed my fingers and toes that everything would go exactly as I had practiced.

我祈祷一切都能像我练习的那样顺利进行。