Chapter 2

2 "Uh-oh," said Mr. Eng. He scratched his head with his pencil. "Well, this changes things a bit." He walked over to the light switch on the wall and flicked it up and down a few times. The classroom stayed dark. Voices whispered with a mix of nervousness and excitement. Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr. Eng walked over to the door and opened it. A shadowy figure stood just outside the classroom. It was Mrs. Jenkins, the school principal. She entered with a flashlight in one hand and a box tucked under her other arm.

"Good morning, everyone," she greeted the class. "I'm glad to see that you are all okay. We've lost power, but it should come back in the next ten minutes. It's pretty dark inside, so I'm dropping off flashlights for each classroom." She set the box she was carrying down on a table. "Thank you, Mrs. Jenkins," Mr. Eng said. "Thank you!" the class repeated. "You're most welcome!" Mrs. Jenkins replied as she left the room. Mr. Eng gave a flashlight to each student. "We'll need to wait for the power to come back to start the tornado machine. For now, we can go over this handout on the water cycle."

He grabbed a stack of worksheets and passed them out. Violet shined the flashlight on the handout as the group looked it over.

Weather and the Water Cycle Our atmosphere is full of water. Water moving in and out of the atmosphere is called the water cycle. It has a large impact on weather. Evaporation happens when water heats up and changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor. This is how most water gets into the air. Transpiration happens when water vapor is released from plants. Condensation is when water vapor cools off in the air and forms clouds. Precipitation is when water returns to the earth as a liquid (rain) or solid (hail/ sleet /snow). "Wow, I didn't know plants give off water," said Skylar. "Me either," added Violet. "But now that I think about it, I've seen it before!" Even though it was dark, Violet could see six eyes squinting back at her.

"You've seen water—" began Skylar. "Come out of a plant?" finished Devin. "No way," the twins said together with folded arms. "I promise! My mom picked some basil from our garden. She sealed it in a plastic bag in the fridge. After a couple of hours it was all steamy! I didn't know how it got like that. But it must have been the water coming out!" "Ewww!" Skylar giggled. "Sounds like plant sweat." Devin laughed, too. Just then, the flashlight Violet was holding went out. "Oh no!" Pablo moaned. Violet shook it a few times, and finally the light came back on. "All okay?" called Mr. Eng from across the room. "We're fine!" replied Violet. "Look!" said Skylar suddenly.

The facts on the worksheet had been replaced by a riddle! "It's from Dr. Crisp!" Violet whispered with excitement. The four friends huddled around the flashlight to read it.