Science Fair Flop Read online

  “Why does she have them on the windowsill?” I asked.

  “Because she says they need lots of sunlight to grow.”

  “I got it!” said Robbie. “Why don’t you put some jalapeño plants in the sun, and put some other ones in your closet in the dark, and then see which ones grow better? That way you can prove whether or not they really need a lot of sun to grow.”

  “That’s a great idea! Thanks, Robbie,” said Jessie. “I’m going to try that experiment.”

  “What about me?” Chloe whined.

  “What about her?” I whispered to Robbie.

  “Does anyone want to hear what I’m going to do for the science fair?”

  “Do we have a choice?” Jessie whispered to me.

  “I’m going to do an experiment with nail polish.”

  “Nail polish?” said Max. “That sounds really dumb.”

  “You aren’t allowed to say that word, Max,” said Chloe.

  Max stuck his tongue out at her.

  Chloe turned back to us.

  “What’s your experiment?” asked Robbie.

  “My friend Sabrina uses one kind of nail polish, and I use a different kind. She always says that hers is better, and I always say that mine is better.”

  “Who’s Sabrina?” Jessie whispered.

  I shrugged. “Maybe it’s her imaginary friend.”

  Jessie giggled.

  Chloe continued, “I’m going to paint the nails on one of my hands with Sabrina’s kind of nail polish and the nails on my other hand with my kind of nail polish. Then I’m going to see which one chips off first.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Robbie.

  “Thank you,” Chloe said, smiling.

  “My experiment is going to be way better than that!” said Max.

  “Really?” asked Jessie. “What’s your experiment?”

  “It’s a worm experiment,” said Max.

  “Worms? Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww,” said Chloe.

  “Worms are not eeeeewwwwww,” said Max. “They’re slimy and cool.”

  “Why do you always have to talk about such disgusting things?” Chloe asked. “You’re making me sick.” She grabbed her stomach and stuck out her tongue.

  “If you think I’m so gross, then why don’t you do us all a favor and go sit somewhere else?” asked Max.

  “I think I will,” said Chloe. She picked up her lunch box and went to sit at another table.

  “So, what is your experiment?” Robbie asked Max.

  “People say that if a worm gets cut in half, it grows back the other half it lost.”

  “Really?” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Max. “Cool, huh?”

  I had never heard that before. It was kind of cool.

  “So to prove that, I’m going to get a bunch of worms, cut them in half, and see if they grow back into whole worms again.”

  “Only you would think of an experiment like that,” said Jessie, shaking her head.

  “I know. It’s awesome,” said Max.

  Jessie turned to me and said, “So, Freddy, what about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “What experiment are you going to do?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” Robbie asked.

  Was I not speaking English? “I mean I have no idea what I’m going to do for the science fair.”

  And that was the truth. All the other kids knew exactly what they were going to do, but I had no idea. My mind was completely blank!

  CHAPTER 4

  Nothing!

  That night, at dinner, Suzie had to bring up the science fair. “Guess what?” she asked.

  “What?” said my mother.

  “The science fair is coming up soon.”

  “Oh my goodness! I forgot all about the science fair,” said my mom. “When is it? Do you still have time to do an experiment?”

  “Don’t worry, Mom,” Suzie said. “The fair isn’t for another three weeks. Our teachers just gave us the forms to fill out today.”

  “So what are you going to do this year?” my dad asked.

  “I’m trying to decide. I have a few different ideas,” Suzie said.

  “Of course you do,” I mumbled.

  “What did you say, Freddy?” my mom asked.

  “Nothing,” I said, stuffing a forkful of broccoli into my mouth.

  “Freddy, please take smaller bites. You’re trying to shove a lot of food into a little mouth.”

  Suzie snickered. “A little mouth. I don’t think Freddy has a little mouth.”

  “You don’t?” asked my mom.

  “No. He has a big mouth. A really big mouth.”

  “I do not!” I yelled at her, with my mouth full of broccoli.

  “Freddy, do not talk with your mouth full,” said my mom. “It isn’t polite.”

  “But I don’t have a big mouth. She does,” I said, pointing to Suzie.

  As I spoke, a small piece of broccoli flew out of my mouth and landed on Suzie’s shirt.

  Suzie jumped up from the table and started dancing around. “Eeewwwww! Eeewwwww! He spit on me! He spit on me!”

  “Calm down, Suzie,” said my mom. “I’ll get a sponge and wipe it off. Follow me to the sink.”

  “Freddy,” said my dad, “you stay here and finish chewing your food.”

  “Hurry up, Mom! It’s so gross,” said Suzie, shaking her hands in the air. “I want it off!”

  My mom grabbed a sponge and wiped the little bit of broccoli off Suzie’s shirt. “There. All better,” she said. “Now come back to the table and sit down.”

  “Are you kidding?” said Suzie. “I can’t come back to the table until I change my shirt. I can’t sit in a shirt that he spit on!”

  “But I wiped it off,” said my mom.

  “It still has his saliva and cooties all over it,” said Suzie.

  “Fine. Go change,” said my dad, “and then come back and tell us your ideas for the science fair. I can’t wait to hear them.”

  “Can’t wait,” I thought.

  Suzie ran upstairs and my parents turned to me. “Freddy, how many times have we told you not to talk with your mouth full of food?” said my mom.

  “A lot,” I whispered.

  “When Suzie comes back down, you need to tell her you’re sorry,” said my dad.

  I nodded.

  Just then Suzie raced into the kitchen wearing her raincoat.

  “Why do you have your raincoat on?” my mom asked.

  “Just in case some more food comes flying at me. I’ll be protected.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about that anymore,” my mom said. “Right, Freddy?”

  I nodded.

  “Freddy has something to say to you,” said my dad.

  “Sorry,” I whispered.

  “What was that? I didn’t hear you,” said Suzie.

  “Sorry!” I said a little more loudly.

  “Now why don’t you tell us all about your ideas for the science fair?” my mom said.

  “Well, you know I like cooking, right?”

  “Right,” said my mom.

  “So I was thinking I could do an experiment that had to do with cooking,” said Suzie.

  “That’s a good idea,” said my dad.

  “I had two ideas about cooking,” said Suzie.

  “What’s the first one?” my mom asked.

  “Well, you know how I like making Popsicles with fruit juice? I thought I could make Popsicles with different kinds of fruit juice, like apple juice, orange juice, and grape juice.”

  “That’s not an experiment,” I said.

  “I would keep track of what order the juice froze in. For my experiment, I would be asking the question, which fruit juice freezes the quickest?”

  “I like that idea,” said my dad. “What is the other one?”

  “I love baking cookies, but I always wondered what the baking soda was for. I thought that I could make on
e batch of cookies with baking soda and one without baking soda. Then I could compare the two batches. My question would be, why is baking soda so important when making cookies?”

  “That’s another great idea,” said my mom.

  “Thanks,” Suzie said, smiling.

  “Which one are you going to do?” asked my dad.

  “I don’t know. It’s so hard to choose.”

  I put my head in my hands and let out a big sigh. Suzie had two great ideas, and I had nothing.

  “What about you, Freddy?” asked my mom.

  At first I didn’t even look up.

  “Freddy, your mother is talking to you,” my dad said.

  I slowly lifted my head out of my hands and looked around the table at my family. Then I jumped out of my chair and yelled, “I have nothing! Everyone has ideas for the science fair except me! I don’t have one single idea. I have a big, fat nothing! Zip … zilch … zero!”

  CHAPTER 5

  Fuzzy Green Stuff

  The next day I went over to Robbie’s house to help him set up the maze for his experiment with Cheesy. He said that while we were working on his experiment, maybe he could help me think of something to do.

  “I got this big cardboard box,” said Robbie. “I was thinking I could build the maze in this.”

  “How are you going to do that?” I asked.

  “Well, I was going to use some of my wooden blocks to make the walls of the maze. What do you think?”

  “I think that’s a great idea!” I said. “You always have such good ideas.”

  “Here, hold Cheesy,” Robbie said, handing me his mouse. “I want to try something.”

  I took Cheesy and held him tightly in my hands so he couldn’t escape.

  “I could put this block here … and this block here …,” Robbie said as he began to build the maze.

  I held Cheesy up to my face. “What do you say, little guy? Do you have any good ideas for my experiment?”

  “Squeak … squeak …”

  “Sorry, I don’t speak mouse language. Do you speak mouse language, Robbie?”

  “Very funny,” said Robbie as he continued putting the blocks into place.

  “Hey, it was worth a try!” I said, laughing.

  “Follow me,” Robbie said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Downstairs.”

  “But I thought you said you were going to help me think of an experiment.”

  “Don’t worry, Freddy. I will. Right now I want to go get some food that I think Cheesy will like, so that we can do a test run.”

  Robbie grabbed Cheesy from me, and we ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.

  Robbie opened the refrigerator. “Let’s see…. What looks good to you, little guy?” he said to Cheesy.

  “Squeak … squeak.”

  “Cheese. That’s a good idea,” said Robbie. “What else?”

  “Squeak … squeak.”

  “Oh, bread. Okay.”

  “Hey, wait a minute. I thought you said you didn’t speak mouse language,” I said.

  Robbie laughed. “I’m joking. I just happen to know what Cheesy likes to eat.”

  “Everyone knows that mice like cheese,” I said.

  “But Cheesy likes this bread even better than cheese,” Robbie said as he reached for a package of bread in the back of the refrigerator.

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said. “I remember Mrs. Wushy read us that story about a mouse who comes out at night looking for the crumbs the people dropped all around the house.”

  “Freddy, do me a favor,” said Robbie. “Open the bag. I don’t want Cheesy to escape.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  I opened the bag and pulled out a piece of bread. “Eeeeewwwww,” I said, dropping the slice of bread onto the counter.

  “What?” Robbie asked.

  “Look at it! It’s got fuzzy green stuff all over it!” I said.

  “So?”

  “So that’s disgusting!”

  “It’s just mold,” Robbie said. “If food sits around for too long, bacteria start to grow on it. That’s what mold is—bacteria.”

  “Thanks for the explanation, Einstein. Now I think it’s even more disgusting.”

  “Oh, don’t be such a wimp, Freddy. I think mold is kind of cool.”

  “Of course you do,” I said.

  “No, really. It is. Did you know that it comes in different colors?”

  “Like what?”

  “Green, brown, white,” Robbie said.

  Cheesy squeaked.

  “Yes, I know. White, just like you,” Robbie said to Cheesy.

  Then Robbie turned to me. “Hey! I just got a great idea!” he said.

  “Yeah? What?”

  “Why don’t you grow mold for your experiment for the science fair?”

  “That’s funny … really funny.”

  “No. I’m serious. You could put a few different foods in plastic bags, and see how long it takes for mold to start growing on each one. You could also see if different kinds of mold grow on different foods.”

  I stared at Robbie for a minute. “Are you joking?”

  “No! I’m totally serious! I think it would be a great experiment,” said Robbie.

  “There’s only one problem,” I said.

  “What’s that?” asked Robbie.

  “Well, you know my mom is such a neat freak. She would never let me have mold in the house.”

  “She doesn’t have to know until you’re done with the experiment.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You could put the food in bags here at my house and sneak it back into your house in your backpack. Then, when you’re upstairs in your room, just hide the bags in your closet behind some toys. You can check on them every day for a few weeks. Your mom will never know they are there.”

  “I think I’m beginning to like this idea,” I said.

  “Kids will think it’s really cool,” said Robbie. “And who knows? Maybe you’ll win first prize!”

  “There’s only one other problem.”

  “What now?” Robbie sighed.

  “My mom will want to know what my experiment is going to be.”

  “Just tell her that you’re doing something with me,” Robbie said. “You already told her that I was going to help you.”

  “You’re so smart! And a great friend,” I said to Robbie.

  “Hey, what are friends for?” Robbie said with a smile.

  “Squeak! Squeak!” Cheesy squeaked.

  CHAPTER 6

  Shhhhhh … Don’t Tell!

  As soon as I got home from Robbie’s house, I went straight to my room to hide the bags of food.

  “Freddy is that you?” my mom called from the kitchen.

  “Yeah, Mom.”

  “I had some laundry I wanted you to carry up to your room.”

  “I’ll be right down to get it. I just have to go to the bathroom.”

  I didn’t have a lot of time. I had to hide the stuff quickly, before anyone came upstairs. I threw open my closet door and pushed aside my blow-up shark from the carnival and boxes of baseball cards. My suitcase was standing in the back of my closet.

  “Perfect,” I whispered to myself. We weren’t going on a trip anytime soon, so my mom won’t be touching that. I could hide the bags of food behind the suitcase, and she’d never see them.

  I was so busy hiding the bags that I didn’t hear Suzie come in. She bent down beside me and whispered in my ear, “What are you doing?”

  I was so startled that I jumped about three feet into the air. “AAAAHHHHHH!”

  “You told Mom that you were going to the bathroom. This doesn’t look like the bathroom to me.”

  “Get out! Get out!” I yelled. “This is my room. No one invited you in here!”

  “Well, actually Mom did,” Suzie said. “She told me to bring these clothes to you.”

  “Just put them on my bed and get out!”

  “Not until
you tell me what you’re doing,” Suzie said. “You’re trying to hide something, and I want to know what it is.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m looking for a baseball card.”

  “Liar! Your baseball card box isn’t even open.”

  “It’s none of your beeswax!” I yelled. “Now leave.”

  “Tell me what you just hid behind your suitcase.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “When I walked in, you were hiding something behind your suitcase.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “Come on,” said Suzie. “You’re up to something. Now just tell me what it is.”

  I was not going to win this one. She was not going to leave my room until I told her. “Promise you won’t tell Mom and Dad.”

  “What’s it worth to you?” she asked, holding up her pinkie for a pinkie swear.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I get to choose dessert for a week,” Suzie said.

  “A week? You’re kidding, right?”

  “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

  We get to take turns picking dessert each night. I usually choose ice cream, but Suzie usually picks cookies. I didn’t know if I could go a whole week without ice cream.

  “How about three days?” I said.

  “It’s a week or nothing. I don’t have all day, Freddy. Do we have a deal or not?” Suzie asked, shoving her pinkie into my face.

  I really didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t take the deal, then she would tell my mom, and I wouldn’t get to do my cool experiment. “Fine. Deal,” I said as we locked pinkies.

  “Now, tell me what you’re hiding behind your suitcase.”

  “Bags of food,” I said.

  “Bags of food? You’re not allowed to have food in your room,” Suzie said.

  “Duh! Don’t you think I know that?”

  “If you’re that hungry, why don’t you just ask Mom for something to eat? Or is it for a midnight snack?”

  “I’m not going to eat the food,” I said.

  “You’re not? Isn’t that what most people do with food—eat it?” Suzie asked.

  “I’m using it for my experiment for the science fair.”