Quentin

Over the past weeks, every time I saw Homer, he was doing something about rockets. I see him watching launching sessions, reading rocket books, and I saw him writing a letter to Dr. von Braun, a scientist. He wanted to talk to Quentin because he seemed to know everything about rockets. We were at lunch, trying to talk Homer out of it.

"You can't sit with him, Homer. He's a weirdo. You go ahead but you can kiss your social life good-bye." Roy Lee said.

Home gets up from his seat and walks over to Quentin. We stare after him, seeing what he would do. They start talking but then Homer looks around the cafeteria before sitting down in the seat across from Quentin, making everybody talk. I groan, knowing we will now be hanging out with a geek who will be nothing but a smart ass and a pain in the butt.

I push my food away from me, shaking my head. "I ain't hungry no more. That just ruined my lunch."

The next day after school, all five of us were in Roy Lee's car. Homer and Quentin were in the backseat while O'Dell, Roy Lee, and I were in the front seat. The two in the back were looking at some rocketry book. "Potassium chlorate and sulphur."

"Well, what'd you use?" Asks the nerd.

"Uh, something like that." Homer answers, lying through his teeth. "Hey, Quentin, this is great. This is exactly—we have everything we need in here. Roy Lee, drive me to my house. We can use my basement."

"At least nobody'll see us down there." Roy Lee comments. He turns the key but the engine sputters, making him sigh.

"You got a lose choke cable." Quentin says. "You hear that? The butterfly valve isn't closing all the way. Uh, I build an internal combustion engine and entered it in the science fair."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't happen to have it on you, would ya?" Roy Lee snaps, glaring at him. He opens his door and so does O'Dell, me following them to help them with the engine.

That entire day, we stayed down in the basement, working on building the rocket. I was trying to made the fins and when I heard a clang, I looked up to see Roy Lee raising his arms, looking like he won something and saw he finally cut a body for the rocket, out of metal.

I then started to come up with a little nickname for our rocket that we were building while the guys were making everything with the power tools. I looked over and saw Quentin reading a newspaper, O'Dell making the top, and Roy Lee and Homer doing something with the metal.

I kept my gaze on Roy Lee for just a second longer, smiling. He looked cute when he was trying to concentrate real hard. "OW!" I heard. I quickly turn to see Homer burnt something on Roy Lee's hand and now he was glaring at my cousin.

I tried my best not to laugh at him but I accidently ended up letting out a small snort. I automatically shut up after that, embarrassed. "You missed a spot." I heard Quentin point out to O'Dell.

O'Dell stops what he's doing to turns to glare at Quentin, not liking the smart ass. We put the fins on and the top of the rocket onto the metal body of it and we all step away, proud at what we accomplished. "This thing's starting to look like a rocket."

"Yeah, well, listen to this. 'Weld the washer to the base of the rocket body, creating a combustion chamber and nozzle.'" Homer says.

"We don't know how to weld." Roy Lee stated the obvious.

"Weld. Homer, you're brothers in metal shop. Maybe he could, uh-" O'Dell starts but trails off.

"Do we really need this nozzle thing?" I ask.

"For crying out loud!" Quentin almost screamed. "The nozzle's the most important part! It directs the flow of the hot gases!"

"Hey, cool it, Quentin!" Roy Lee shouts. "Man, talking about your hot gases!"

I laugh out loud, making the others to laugh except Quentin who didn't understand the joke. Later that night, Quentin and O'Dell went home, Homer went in his room and I was walking Roy Lee out to his car. He got in the driver's seat and shut the door but opened his window. He leans out a bit and I lean down, so we were eye level.

"You're pretty protective, aren't ya?" I joke.

"What do you mean?"

"When you blew up on Quentin like that."

"Well, when someone starts yelling at my girl, you're damn right I'm gonna get protective!" He shouts with a smile.

We both chuckle but stop when I hear my Aunt's voice. "Cora, hun, you gotta come inside now. It's almost eleven and you got school in the morning. Time for bed."

"Alright, I'll be right there, Aunt Elsie."

I turn back to Roy Lee and see him staring at me with an intense look. "What? Is something wrong?"

He gently smiles at me, shaking his head. "No, nothing's wrong. Just thinkin is all. I'll see you tomorrow, ok? Love you, baby."

He leans slightly out of his car and gives me a kiss. "Love you, too." I say as he starts up his car. He gives me a big smile before pulling out of the driveway and heading back home. I go back inside and hop on the couch, ready for sleep finally after a hard day of working on a rocket.

I woke up the next morning and got ready for the day. Today, Homer and I were walking to school. "Hey, Cora, I gotta show you something." He takes off his backpack and opens it. He pulls out our rocket that we built yesterday. He understands my confusion and explains, "Mr. Bykovsky weld us a washer last night. I went to see him and he said he would help us out. Now we got ourselves a rocket!"

"Homer, what if your dad found out?! Do you realize how much trouble we'll both be in? And Mr. Bykovsky will lose his job if we get caught." I say.

"Yeah, but we won't get caught. Don't worry about it. Everything will be fine. Now come, we gotta hurry. I told Miss Riley that I would bring in the rocket before school."

We ran the rest of the way to school and before I knew it, it was lunch time and Homer just got done explaining to the boys what he already explained to me. Roy Lee was holding the rocket in his hand, looking closely at it. "Mr. Bykovsky did a dang good job on this."

"Yeah, well, he used a washer for the weld." Homer says. "Man, it looks just like it did in the picture."

"Prodigenous." Quentin says, confusing us all with his new word.

"Give me that." Our principle, Mr. Turner, comes up and snatches our rocket away from Roy Lee, making Homer stand up. "What is this, a weapon of some kind?"

"No, sir. It's our rocket that we built." I say, standing up too.

"I don't allow dangerous devices on school grounds."

"Mr. Turner, I asked Cora and Homer to bring that to school. To show it in class. You know, these kids are thinkin about entering that county science fair." Miss. Riley comes up, saving us but confusing us since we never thought about the science fair.

"Be careful, gentlemen…and young lady. I'm gonna have my eye on you." Our principle says, giving me back the rocket.

"Thank you, Mr. Turner." Miss. Riley says.

"That science fair is rigged. Al the judges are from Welch so only the kids from Welch ever win." Quentin states.

"And besides, science fairs are for geeks." Roy Lee adds. After a second, he says, "No offense, Quentin."

I see the nerd nod his head in approval after he hears that and I couldn't help but laugh. "Well, it's too bad you feel that way." Miss. Riley interrupts. "You know, the winners go on to the National Science Fair in Indianapolis and colleges from all over the country hand out scholarships. It's great. Have a good lunch, kids."

She then walks away, with Homer following her. The four of us stay behind, finishing our lunch. I was about to get up but then I stopped and turned to the nerd of the group. "By the way, Quentin. I got a name for the rocket. I looked it up in one of the rocketry books and thought it would be a good name; Auk 1. I thought it would fit."

He thinks about it, nodding his head. "That seems to work. I like it, it fits. That's really good thinking, Cora."

"Thanks."

Soon after school, we all meet up on top of a hill and set up the rocket. I got to paint 'Auk 1' on the side of it, in red paint. We were all standing around it, looking at it. "Auk 1. Stroke of genius, Homer."

"It won't fly unless somebody lights the fuse." Homer states, getting out a match.

I was next to Roy Lee and O'Dell and I heard my boyfriend whisper, "What the hell is auk?"

"A bird that don't fly." I answer.

"What, kinda like a parakeet?"

"Ready?" Homer asks. He lights the fuse as we all hop over a big metal wall that should protect us.

All five of us started counting down, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two…"

The rocket blew off into the air but it went in a certain direction. We stood up and watched it head for town. "Holy shit, it's headed for the mine." Roy Lee says before he and O'Dell take off running.

I started running down the hill, chasing after the rocket, not wanting anybody to get hurt. I overheard Quentin yell, "I told you we didn't know what we were doing! I told you!"

I looked back and saw Homer coming after me so I slowed down a bit and we both started running to the mine at the same pace. I looked around a bit and saw everybody staring our way. I look up ahead and see Uncle John holding our rocket, glaring at us. I saw Homer still looking around but then I nudged him with my elbow. "What?" I gesture to where I was looking and then he sighed. "Oh, no."

We walk up to Uncle John, looking sheepish. He continues to glare at us, looking down at the rocket a few times. "So, this is what you two've been up to in the basement, huh?"

"Yes, sir." I say quietly, at the same time Homer says it loudly.

"Damn, you two. You could've killed somebody with this idiot thing."

I stay silent, not knowing what to say. Homer thankfully spoke up. "I know, sir. I'm sorry. I was—"

Some company men walk out of Uncle John's office, seeing what the commotion was about. "Well, Homer and Cora here want to be rocket scientists. Is that right, John?"

"They have no idea what they want to be. But I know what they are. They're both a menace, and a couple of damn thieves."

"Dad." Homer tried to reason.

"And so is whoever helped them. Ike Bykovsky did this, didn't he?" Uncle John asked, gesturing to the rocket. "Don't you ever let me catch you with these fool things on company property again, you understand me?"

"Yes, sir." I nearly squeak.

"Yes, sir." Homer says, sounding like he wants to snap.

"Then go home." He orders.