20 Something Sweet

CHAPTER TWENTY SOMETHING SWEET Melting point (noun). This is the temperature at which a solid will melt. The melting point of chocolate is between 86°F and 90°F. Which is definitely the sweet spot. Especially when it comes to a chocolate bar melting with the gooey marshmallow on your graham cracker. THIS TIME WHEN I STROLLED along the sidewalk, even though the sky was still pink and looked like maybe it would snow, I didn't mind. Because I'd just made the best mint-flavored astronaut ice cream. And I'd finally been able to reconnect with my BFF. "I'm so glad you're coming," I said. "Me too," she said. "For a little bit, I thought maybe you didn't like me anymore because I was boring. That I didn't know anything about outer space. That maybe art wasn't cool." "Are you kidding? Did you know that the first person to ever do a spacewalk was also an artist? Tala told me about him. His name was Alexei Leonov. After his spacewalk, his pressure suit inflated and he spun uncontrollably, yet Alexei miraculously got back to the airlock safely. Then, when he was hurling back to Earth in a cramped little capsule, he created the first piece of

第二十章甜蜜的熔点（名词）。 这是固体熔化的温度。 巧克力的熔点在华氏86度到华氏90度之间。 这绝对是最佳点。 尤其是当巧克力棒和你的全麦饼干上粘稠的棉花糖融化的时候。 这一次，当我漫步在人行道上时，尽管天空仍然是粉红色的，看起来可能会下雪，但我并不介意。 因为我刚做了最棒的薄荷味宇航员冰淇淋。 我终于和我最好的朋友重新联系上了。 “我很高兴你能来，”我说。 “我也是，”她说。“有那么一点，我以为你不再喜欢我了，因为我很无聊。 我对外太空一无所知。 也许艺术并不酷。” “你在开玩笑吧？”你知道第一个进行太空行走的人也是一位艺术家吗？ 塔拉跟我说过他。他叫阿列克谢·列昂诺夫。 在他的太空行走之后，他的压力服膨胀了，他无法控制地旋转，然而阿列克谢奇迹般地安全回到了气闸。 然后，当他在一个狭窄的小胶囊中返回地球时，他创造了第一块

art in space. He tied colored pencils to a piece of string to prevent them from floating around the capsule and sketched an image of the sunrise. It looked like a rainbow curving over the world." "That's so cool," said Birdie. "Yeah," I said. "Sometimes art and science are the same thing," said Birdie. "Sometimes." I stared at the lovely pink sky. "By the way, thanks for saving me back there. I mean it. You know me so well. Remembering the astronaut ice cream was perfect. I should have thought of it, though." "That's what best friends are for," whispered Birdie. "To remember things." We walked in silence for a few minutes before Birdie exclaimed, "Look!" She pointed upward, and I could see flurries drifting from the sky. "I knew it. The pink sky." And I explained how the light changes before it snows. "Of course you would know that," said Birdie. "Sometimes we know different things," I said. She nodded. "That's a good thing." She nodded some more. When we got to Brewster's, all the kids from the chemistry club and Ms. Daly were there.

太空艺术。他把彩色铅笔系在一根绳子上，防止它们在太空舱周围漂浮，然后画出日出的图像。 它看起来就像一道彩虹在世界上空盘旋。” “太酷了，”小鸟说。 “是的，”我说。“有时候艺术和科学是一回事，”小鸟说。 “有时”。我凝视着可爱的粉色天空。 “对了，谢谢你刚才救了我。 我是认真的。你太了解我了。 记住宇航员冰淇淋是完美的。 不过，我早该想到的。” “这就是最好的朋友，”小鸟低声说。 “为了记住事情。”我们默默地走了几分钟，小鸟叫道：“看！”她向上指了指，我看到天上飘起了小雪。 “我就知道。粉红色的天空。” 我解释了下雪前光线的变化。 “你当然知道，”小鸟说。 “有时候我们知道不同的事情，”我说。 她点了点头。“这是件好事。” 她又点了点头。当我们到布鲁斯特的时候，所有化学俱乐部的孩子和。 我们都在那里。

"Take a seat at a table," said Ms. Daly. "With our club treasury, I ordered everyone hot chocolates. Oh, and there's s'mores to be made." "Awesome," I said. "I'm sorry you missed the rocket launch," she said. "It was a great success." "That's okay." Then I explained how I had launched double balloon rockets at home as part of my brother's party. That's when Elijah, Memito, and Jeremy waved to us. I thought about sitting with them. But instead we slid in with Phoenix, Avery, and Tala. I wanted Tala and Birdie to have some time together. Soon enough, a waitress brought over hot chocolate. And there were already all the fixings for s'mores—graham crackers, chocolates, and marshmallows. In the middle of the stone table sat a mini firepit/Bunsen burner thing that was powered by propane. Another example of chemistry in action! As I toasted my marshmallow on a little metal stick over the flame, I nudged Tala. "Hey, I told Birdie about the Alexei guy. You know, the first person ever to do a spacewalk. And how he was an artist." "That sounds so awesome," said Birdie. "I could totally see that as a graphic novel."

“请坐。” 戴利。“在我们俱乐部的金库里，我给每个人都点了热巧克力。 哦，还有很多要做的。” “太棒了，”我说。“很遗憾你错过了火箭发射，”她说。 “这是一次巨大的成功。”“没关系。” 然后我解释了我是如何在家里发射了双气球火箭，作为我哥哥聚会的一部分。 这时，以利亚、梅托和杰里米向我们挥手。 我想和他们坐在一起。 但我们和菲尼克斯、艾弗里和塔拉一起溜了进去。 我想让塔拉和伯蒂在一起。 很快，一个女服务员端来了热巧克力。 而且已经准备好了所有要做的配料——全麦饼干、巧克力和棉花糖。 在石头桌子的中间放着一个小型的火坑/本生灯，它是由丙烷驱动的。 另一个化学作用的例子！当我在火焰上用一根小金属棒烤棉花糖时，我轻轻地推了推塔拉。 “嘿，我跟伯迪说了那个叫阿列克谢的家伙。 你知道，第一个进行太空行走的人。 以及他如何成为一名艺术家。” “听起来太棒了，”小鸟说。 “我完全可以把它看作一本漫画小说。”

"What? Same here," said Tala. "I love graphic novels." "I do, too," said Birdie, and soon they were wrapped up in a conversation about their favorites. I couldn't help smiling. Seeing them chatting like that was the best. Plus, I was about to make the perfect s'more. It was a scientific fact. Once my marshmallow got toasty brown but not burned, the crisp outer shell combined with the soft inside made the best combination on the planet. I smushed my gooey marshmallow onto the graham cracker and gave it a second to melt the chocolate, before popping it into my mouth. "Mmmm," I said. "So good." Elijah came over. "I like your birthday shirt." "What?" I looked down and saw that it said LIAM'S SPACE CREW. "Oh no! I somehow forgot to change out of it." I had been so focused on brushing some ice cream out of my hair that I'd completely forgotten about my shirt. "It's cool," said Elijah. Honestly, I breathed a sigh of relief that it was the only thing that actually ended up going wrong today. Well, that and the fact that we still had to pick up Liam's cake later on this evening. I thought about how today got a little bit mixed up and how it wasn't so bad. Life is a lot like chemistry. When you mix things up, everything changes.

“什么?我也是。”塔拉说。 “我喜欢漫画小说。”“我也喜欢，”小鸟说，很快他们就开始谈论他们最喜欢的东西了。 我忍不住笑了。看到他们那样聊天真是太棒了。 而且，我马上就要做出完美的s'more了。 这是一个科学事实。一旦我的棉花糖变成烤棕色但没有烧焦，脆的外壳和柔软的内部结合在一起，这是世界上最好的组合。 我把粘稠的棉花糖涂在全麦饼干上，让它融化巧克力，然后把它塞进嘴里。 “嗯，”我说。“很好。” 以利亚过来了。“我喜欢你的生日衬衫。” “什么?”我低头一看，上面写着利亚姆的宇航员。 “哦,不!我不知怎么忘了把它换掉。” 我太专注于刷掉头发上的冰淇淋，完全忘记了我的衬衫。 “很酷，”以利亚说。老实说，我松了一口气，因为这是今天唯一出问题的东西。 而且我们今晚还得去取利亚姆的蛋糕。 我在想今天是怎么搞混的，又怎么没那么糟。 生活很像化学反应。 当你把东西混在一起，一切都变了。

Sometimes—like with astronaut ice cream—mixing things together makes it taste even sweeter.

有时，就像宇航员的冰淇淋一样，把东西混合在一起会让它尝起来更甜。