by Christopher Maselli

“The judge is coming! The judge is coming!”

April Showers and her best friend, Susie, jumped aside as their classmate Shane darted by. His arms flailed like he was being attacked by invisible killer bees.

“C'mon!” April said. She pulled Susie behind the table by their science fair experiments.

“I hope I get a ribbon,” April said.

“I'd settle for a good grade,” Susie replied.

April curled her hair behind her ears as the judge, Principal Madison, approached. The sixth-grader picked up two cups beside her experiment.

“This is my raging volcano!” April announced proudly. She had made the volcano from plaster and decorated it with markers and paint, but the real excitement was about to happen.

Hand shaking, April poured the contents of one cup into the top of the volcanic crater.

“I just poured in baking soda,” April explained. “Now watch what happens when I add vinegar.”

The cup felt cold in her hand as April quickly poured the vinegar into the volcano. She jumped back.

“Here comes the lava!”

Principal Madison stood waiting.

“Any second now!” April said.

Nothing happened.

From her spot next to April, Susie topped off her fish tank with a pitcher of water. A small fish swam in the corner of the tank.

“As soon as you're finished,” Susie said, “my goldfish is ready to be flash-frozen.”

April leaned forward and peeked into the volcano. “Um . . . it should have . . .”

Inside, the vinegar pooled around the baking soda.

“That's impossible!” April said. She felt her face turning red.

Principal Madison raised his eyebrows.

“It's impossible,” April repeated. “When vinegar and baking soda combine, they erupt. There's no way they wouldn't. Someone must have sabotaged my experiment!”

“Mmm, hmm,” the principal said, marking his clipboard. April heard a hiss and turned to see Susie's goldfish frozen in an ice cube.

April gulped. There's no way I can compete with that, unless . . .

“I can prove it!” she exclaimed.

The principal looked at his watch. “You're running out of time, Miss Showers.”

“I only need a few minutes,” April said. She looked across the gymnasium. “I think I know just where to start.”

Squashing the Competition

Marching across the room, April fought to keep her cool. She didn't want to erupt in anger, but she was seething.

She walked up to the table of Rick and Nick Slick - identical twins, classmates and troublemakers. She had given up long ago trying to tell them apart.

“Hey, guys.”

“Yo,” Rick said.

“What's up?” Nick said.

April caught a whiff of something familiar. She opened her mouth to speak, but when she saw their experiment, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

Before her stood the largest ant farm she had ever seen. Hundreds of ants scooted around digging and working. A piece of thick yellow tape divided the farm. The left half was crystal clear and labeled “Good Ants.” The right half was smudged with fingerprints and labeled “Evil Ants.”

Both sides had escape holes. Just then an ant crawled out of a hole on the “evil” side. Nick pressed down on it with his thumb. Squish.

“Evil ant!” Nick said.

“Good ants.” Rick motioned to his side of the glass.

“What kind of experiment is this?” April asked.

“You wouldn't understand,” Rick said.

“It's complicated,” Nick added.

April leaned forward. “Try me.”

“We're comparing reinforcement techniques,” Rick said.

“Positive versus negative,” Nick interjected.

Rick continued, “I tell the ants on my side that they're good. I keep their glass clean. I read them classic stories. And I've lovingly named each of them George.”

Nick jumped in, “I tell the ants on my side that they're evil. I let their glass get dirty. I make them watch reality TV, and I smash them if they try to escape.”

Another unfortunate ant popped out the right side. Squish.

“That's disgusting!” April shouted. “What does it prove?”

“Well, for one thing,” Rick said, “the ants never even come out of the hole on my side.”

“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “His ants know they're loved. Mine know they're doomed.”

Squish.

“But what's keeping them separated?” April asked.

“Yellow tape,” Rick said.

“Right down the center,” Nick said.

“But it's outside of the glass!”

Rick and Nick looked at each other blankly.

“Look,” April said, “all I want to know is why you sabotaged my experiment. I need you to tell the principal what you did so I don't get a failing grade.”

Suddenly Shane ran by waving his arms like a huge bird about to take off. “The judge is coming!” he shouted. “The judge is coming!”

“We may have caused trouble in the past,” Rick said, “but we didn't mess up your experiment.”

“If you're looking for someone causing trouble today, there's your guy,” Nick said, pointing at Shane.

“Shane tried to smudge my side of the glass earlier with his sticky fingerprints,” Rick said.

“That would have totally messed up our experiment,” Nick said.

“Thrown it completely off balance,” Rick added.

Nick nodded. “Anut Armageddon.”

April watched Shane spin around the room like a helicopter. She looked back at Rick and Nick. “I hope, for your sake, you're right.”

Sugar Rush

“Shane!” April called, running across the room. Trying to catch him was like trying to catch a fly. “Shane, stop!”

Shane finally landed behind his display.

April read the sign: THE EFFECTS OF SUGAR ON THE HUMAN BODY.

“Well, that explains a lot,” April muttered. “Shane, can I talk to you?”

Shane stuffed an entire powdered doughnut into his mouth. “Umm humm.”

“Someone sabotaged my science experiment,” she began. “I heard you tried to mess up Rick and Nick's project. Tell me the truth: Did you fool with my experiment?”

Shane held up a lone, sugar-powdered finger as he chewed.

April waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally Shane swallowed. “April, you know I would never do anything like that, not even when I have so much sugar in my body that I'm totally nutty and feel completely out of control and I don't even know what your project is but I bet it's good because you're so smart, and I think you'll pass anyway because . . .”

As Shane sputtered a run-on sentence that would make an English teacher's eyes cross, April focused her eyes on his fingertips. They danced in the air with every word, covered in white, powdery sugar that looked just like . . .

Switched

April spun around and sprinted across the room. On the way, she grabbed a spoon from someone's experiment involving Jell-O and hot peppers. She jumped behind her display.

“Excuse me!” she said to Principal Madison, who was still talking with Susie.

In one swift motion, she dipped the spoon inside her volcano and scooped up a huge heap of the white powder. She shoved the spoon toward the principal's mouth.

“Taste,” April said. “It's not baking soda at all.”

The principal took a mouthful, and immediately coughed and gagged. White powder puffed out like smoke.

“It's powdered sugar!” April shouted.

“No, it's baking soda!” the principal replied. “Yuck!”

April's mouth went dry. She quickly filled one of her empty cups with cold water from Susie's pitcher.

“Quick! Drink!”

He jumped back when she shoved it at him. “Is that fish water?”

April pulled the cup back. “Wait a second,” she said. “That was baking soda you ate.”

“I know,” the principal said, smacking his lips. “You better have a good explanation for this.”

“I know who sabotaged my experiment,” April said. “I can prove it.”

Do you know who messed with April's experiment? How did she solve the mystery? Read the conclusion to see if you're right!

The Answer

“Who did it?” Principal Madison asked.

“Follow me,” April said.

“My first suspicions were correct,” she said, approaching the ant farm. “It was Rick and Nick Slick.”

“What?” Rick said.

“We said we didn't mess up your experiment!” Nick said.

“But you did,” April said. “The baking soda wasn't replaced; it was the vinegar. You guys took my vinegar and used it to wash the left side of your ant farm - probably to wipe off Shane's sugary fingerprints.”

“You don't have evidence,” Rick protested.

“None at all!” Nick declared, squashing another ant as it zipped out his side of the farm.

“Just ask the ants,” April said. “Ants hate vinegar. They avoid it. That's why the ants on the left side won't come out. You washed the left side of the glass with vinegar and they can't stand the smell.

“Then you replaced my vinegar with water from Susie's pitcher, which explains why the cup felt so cold in my hand when I poured it in the volcano.”

“And why, when you poured it in, nothing happened!” Susie finished.

Rick and Nick looked at each other.

“We didn't realize it was vinegar, when we took it,” Nick confessed.

“Looks like you boys are going to have some make-up assignments to do,” Principal Madison said.

“Give us what we deserve,” Rick said.

“Just don't make us watch reality TV!” Nick added.

	Q: What did one lightbulb say to the other one? A: “Watt are you doing?” Charles R., 10, Georgia Clubhouse Jr. Click here to subscribe