5 A Sour Moment

CHAPTER FIVE A Sour Moment Acid (noun). An acid is a substance that can donate a proton to another substance. That means that acids are generous. It's funny to think of lemon juice and vinegar as generous though! A MOON ROCK IS MADE UP OF two teaspoons of water, a cup of baking soda, and a few drops of food coloring. Wearing gloves, you shape it into an alien- looking rock. Then you pour lemon juice onto the rock to watch the reaction. Sounds simple, right? It would be... if your best friend weren't an artist. It would be.... if she weren't obsessed with the Moon Rock becoming the perfect shade of teal blue. "That's awesome, Birdie," I said encouragingly, as she kept on adding a little more food coloring. "It's getting close," she admitted, biting her lip. "But I don't have the blue to yellow ratio right." "But you do," I insisted. "Don't you think so, Phoenix?" I nudged her shoulder.

"Actually," Phoenix answered in her slow way. "It looks really close to me." "Not quite," said Birdie. "It's too dark, almost royal blue." "Good enough for royalty, good enough for me," I quipped. "So while you work on that, I'm going to cut up the lemon, so we can have the—" I stopped speaking. Instead I was staring at Jeremy's group as they squeezed not one but two lemons over their misshapen green moon rock. They were pulling way ahead of us. Their group would be the ones to get to do the Vomiting Pumpkin demo, and not ours. Memito tossed away the squeezed lemon halves while Elijah whooped in delight. "Dude, look! That's alien activity if I ever saw it." "They're communicating with us," said Memito. "They're preparing an invasion." He cowered in mock fear. "Nah. They're telling the mother ship that we're going to win," sang out Jeremy. Memito puffed out his cheeks and made spluttering radio signal sounds. That kid loved to make sound effects. "Earth to mother ship," called out Elijah. "We have conquered!"

"Not so fast!" I chopped my lemon in half super fast and raced to my table. "Okay," I said. "I'm ready with the lemons." But I couldn't squeeze the lemons yet since Birdie was now adding silver glitter. "Don't you think it already looks great?" I said, gritting my teeth. "And now it will look even better," gushed Birdie. Then the rest of what she was saying was drowned out by a squealing Avery. "See! It's a crater," she cried, waving at Skyler and Julia. "We did it. It's foaming!" They all clapped, admiring their perfect fizzy Moon Rock. Oh, no. Suddenly, I wanted a rewind. In chemistry, they call that a reversible reaction. But right now, it seemed like my fate was sealed. It was irreversible. We were losing. "Time for the final challenge!" called out Jeremy, as Elijah read the directions for the Neon Brains. "We're behind," I said with lemon juice dripping down my arm. "So let's go!" Birdie whirled around, holding the little bottles of food coloring. She glanced at the teal color of the rock. "It's really the perfect shade of blue now."

"Uh-huh," I said, squeezing the lemon juice over the Moon Rock. It foamed, making a crackly sound. "It worked! You guys, we can catch up," I said, trying to stay positive. "Let's just get the materials for the Neon Brains. All of them." For the first time, Phoenix read quickly. "One tall cup, one tablespoon of dish soap, one cup of water, one highlighter, one pair of pliers, and a baking sheet." As Birdie and I headed to the supply table, I heard Phoenix ask Ms. Daly if there could be more than one winning team. "What if there's a tie because we're all marvelous?" she asked. "And doing good things?" "I have no problem with that possibility," said Ms. Daly, heading back to her desk. That's when I saw Jeremy shake his head as he made his way to the supply table. "There's only going to be one winning team," he said. Phoenix spread out her arms. "Well, if that's true, you're looking at a member of the winning team." "That's what you think. You're such a teacher's pet," snapped Jeremy. "Don't call her that," I growled, stepping up to Jeremy until we practically bumped noses. He was really getting on my nerves.

"We're all so marvelous," said Jeremy, imitating the way Phoenix overenunciated words. "Uh-oh," said Memito, making explosion sounds with his mouth. "There's about to be fireworks." Elijah threw up his hands. "Don't look at me." "Actually, she's looking at me," said Jeremy. I jabbed my finger in the air. "Well, your team took the plastic bottle, even before we were supposed to start." "Yeah, but we put it back," said Jeremy. "Only because Ms. Daly told you to," hissed Phoenix. "You guys should be disqualified!" I said. "Wrong!" yelled Jeremy, grabbing the pliers from the supply table at the same time as me. "Let go, Kate." "No, it's ours." We tugged on the pliers. Elijah stepped away from us, banging into Phoenix. With a yelp, she dropped a cup of soapy water, which thunked onto the floor and then she stepped back into the potted cactus. Her hand slid right into some needles. "Ouch!" she groaned as she swiped her hand away. The pliers thudded onto the floor.

Ms. Daly rushed to Phoenix. "Are you all right?" Phoenix squinted as if holding back tears. "Yes," she said, balling up her hand. "It's all because of Jeremy!" I said. "Well, and Elijah, too," said Phoenix. "It was an accident!" protested Elijah. "I hope so," said Phoenix, not looking convinced. Then Jeremy called out, "Phoenix is a teacher's pet. And Kate and Birdie!" Birdie folded her arms across her chest. "We are not!" That's when Ms. Daly said in an eerily calm voice, "Everyone needs to stop talking right now." She squinted at the six of us. "I think you all know what this means."