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.

酸（名词）。 酸是一种能向另一种物质提供质子的物质。 这意味着酸是慷慨的。 把柠檬汁和醋想象成慷慨是很有趣的！一块月球岩石是由两茶匙水、一杯小苏打和几滴食用色素组成的。 戴着手套，你把它塑造成一个看起来像外星人的岩石。 然后把柠檬汁倒在石头上观察反应。 听起来很简单，对吧？它会是…… 如果你最好的朋友不是艺术家。 应该是....如果她不是痴迷于月岩变成完美的蓝绿色 “太棒了，伯迪，”我鼓励她说，因为她一直在添加更多的食用色素。 “越来越近了，”她咬着嘴唇承认。 “但我没有把蓝色和黄色的比例算对。” “但你知道，”我坚持说。“你不这样认为吗，菲尼克斯？”我轻轻地碰了碰她的肩膀。

"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!"

“事实上。”菲尼克斯慢吞吞地回答。 “它看起来离我很近。” “不完全是，”小鸟说。“太暗了，几乎是宝蓝色。” “对皇室来说足够好，对我来说也足够好，”我打趣道。 “那么，在你做这件事的时候，我要把柠檬切碎，这样我们就可以吃——”我停止了说话。 相反，我盯着杰里米的团队，看着他们在畸形的绿色月球岩石上挤着不是一个而是两个柠檬。 他们在我们前面开得很远。 他们的小组会做呕吐南瓜的小样，而不是我们的。 梅托扔掉了挤成两半的柠檬汁，以利亚高兴得大叫起来。 “老兄,看!如果我看到过的话，那是外星人的活动。” “他们在和我们沟通，”梅托说。 “他们在准备入侵。” 他假装害怕地畏缩着。“不。 他们在告诉母船我们会赢，”杰里米大声说。 梅托鼓起脸颊，发出噼里啪啦的无线电信号。 那孩子喜欢做音效。 “地球呼叫母船。”以利亚喊道。 “我们胜利了！”

"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."

“别着急!”我飞快地把柠檬切成两半，跑到我的桌子上。 “好吧，”我说。“我准备好柠檬了。” 但我还挤不动柠檬，因为伯迪正在往柠檬里加银光。 “你不觉得它看起来已经很棒了吗？”我咬紧牙关说。 “现在它看起来更好了，”小鸟滔滔不绝地说。 接着她剩下的话被埃弗里的尖叫声淹没了。 “看!这是一个火山口，"她喊道，向斯凯勒和茱莉亚挥手。 “我们做到了。是发泡!”他们都鼓掌，欣赏他们完美的气泡月亮岩。 哦,不。突然，我想倒带一次。 在化学中，他们称之为可逆反应。 但现在，我的命运似乎已经注定了。 这是不可逆的。我们输了。 “最后的挑战到了！”杰里米喊道，以利亚正在读霓虹大脑的说明。 “我们落后了，”我说，柠檬汁顺着我的胳膊滴下来。 “那我们走吧！”伯蒂拿着小瓶食用色素，转着圈。 她瞥了一眼那块蓝绿色的岩石。 “现在它真的是完美的蓝色。”

"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.

“嗯哼，”我说，把柠檬汁挤在月球岩上。 它冒着泡沫，发出噼里啪啦的声音。 “这工作!伙计们，我们可以叙旧的。”我说，努力保持积极的态度。 “让我们去找制作Neon Brains的材料吧。 所有人。”凤凰号第一次读得很快。 “一个高脚杯，一汤匙洗洁精，一杯水，一支荧光笔，一把钳子和一张烤盘。” 当我和伯蒂走向供应桌时，我听到菲尼克斯问她。 如果获胜的队伍不止一个的话。 “如果因为我们都很棒而打成平手呢？”她问道。 “那做好事呢？”“我对这种可能性没有问题，”她说。 戴丽说着，走回她的办公桌。 就在那时，我看到杰里米摇了摇头，朝供应桌走去。 “只会有一支球队获胜，”他说。 菲尼克斯张开双臂。 “好吧，如果这是真的，你现在看到的是获胜队的一员。” “那是你的想法。你真是老师的宠儿，”杰里米厉声说。 “别那么叫她，”我咆哮着，走到杰里米跟前，我们几乎撞到了一起。 他真让我心烦。

"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.

“我们都太了不起了。”杰里米模仿着菲尼克斯的发音，说道。 “哦哦，”梅托说，用嘴发出爆炸的声音。 “马上就要有烟火了。” 以利亚举起双手。 “别看我。”“事实上，她在看着我，”杰里米说。 我在空中戳了戳手指。 “嗯，你的团队拿走了塑料瓶，甚至在我们应该开始之前。” “是的，但是我们把它放回去了，”杰里米说。 “那是因为戴利女士让你这么做的。”菲尼克斯嘶嘶地说。 “你们应该被取消资格！”我说。 “错了！”杰里米喊道，和我同时从供应桌上抓起钳子。 “放手吧，凯特。”“不，是我们的。” 我们拉着钳子。以利亚从我们身边走开，撞向凤凰城。 她大叫一声，把一杯肥皂水掉在地上，砰的一声掉在地上，然后她又回到盆栽仙人掌中。 她的手滑进了一些针里。 “哎哟！”她呻吟着把手抽了回去。 钳子重重地落在地板上。

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."

戴利急忙赶到凤凰城。 “你没事吧？”凤凰眯起眼睛，好像在强忍眼泪。 “是的，”她说着，把手揉成一团。 “都是因为杰里米！”我说。 “嗯，还有以利亚。”菲尼克斯说。 “那是个意外！”以利亚说。 “我希望如此。”菲尼克斯说，看上去并不服气。 然后杰里米喊道：“凤凰是老师的宠物。 还有凯特和小鸟！”伯蒂双臂交叉在胸前。 “我们不是！”就在那时。 戴利用一种出奇平静的声音说：“大家现在都不要说话了。” 她眯着眼睛看着我们六个人。 “我想你们都知道这意味着什么。”