Now what, indeed. Blake was trying to get Internet access on his laptop, Tim was flexing, and Chris was videotaping it all. Pat realized that it was up to him. Grabbing his Periodic Table of the Elements, (not that he needed it, he'd memorized it long ago) Pat began to think of a plan. Sure, it would be risky. It might kill hundreds of innocent people. But that had never stopped his hero, Mr. Glodek. Besides, Pat always did like to create explosions.
The plan had a simple premise: Using chemicals purchased from the local apothecary, create a gigantic near-atomic explosion to rip a hole in time and space to get home. The first problem, Pat realized, would be getting the Apothecary to give him the chemicals in the first place, as he had no money or food.
First, Pat used the usual means of getting what he wanted; Chris offered videotapes, Taesup had business proposals, Dan R. kicked him in the shin, Julie yelled at him, and Tim boasted, "Check out these guns." But it was to no avail. Finally, Stephanie proposed, "Why don't we do to him what we did to that guard?" The others (except Pat R., but he never agreed with anything) reluctantly agreed. So Dan did a belly dance to Happy Birthday.
Sadly, the Apothecary was immune to Dan's mind-raping dance because he was nearly blind. Far from despairing, Ramya had Jim fetch a pail of water. Ramya closed her eyes and the water instantly turned to wine. After four buckets of wine, the Apothecary was dead drunk. Pat had the potions he needed.
When the concoction was complete, Pat was about to trigger the explosion when Kyle said, "You know that we're all going to be killed by that blast, don't you? And if we weren't, there is no possible way that we can survive going through a black hole. We'd be ripped into infinitesimal molecules and be lost to a void forever."
Shocked, Pat asked, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
Kyle replied, "I didn't care."
Royal Thoroughfare Sentinel of Dull Mantua #83 came to beat the Apothecary for public drunkenness. When he noticed the students, he said, "Dudes, you will never believe what is going down in Verona right now." The kids checked their numbers and realized that Reece was missing. Jim vocalized what everyone was thinking: "Oh, poo."