Chapter 9: The Volcanic Simulation Part 2

"So what do the directions say?" Raffina asked, while reading the paper.

"It says, "Step 1: Combine Vinegar, Water, Dish soap and 2 drops of food coloring into the empty soda bottle.

Step 2: Use a spoon to mix the baking soda slurry until it is all a liquid. Step 3: Pour the baking soda slurry into the soda bottle quickly. You will use these Materials to help create your own explosion: 10 milliliters of dish soap, 100 ml of cold water, 400 ml of white vinegar, Food coloring, Baking Soda flurry, which we need to fill a cup with ½ of baking soda, and the rest with water, and an empty 2 liter soda bottle." Huh. I wonder where we are gonna find those."

"Maybe we should ask Ms. Accord…"

"Hey, Teacher? Where are the materials?" Amitie asked, cutting off Raffina.

"Materials are in the cabinet if you need them. There are soda bottles, baking soda and etc." Ms. Accord said.

I made my way towards the cabinet with Raffina to grab the supplies needed to make a soda volcano. I really don't do chemistry much, but I totally feel like this is going to be pretty easy. At least, if it's not too chaotic. Otherwise, my outfit would be a HUGE mess.

"Do not mess up, Amitie." Raffina said, acting very serious.

"Don't worry, Raffina. I won't be much harm." Amitie said.

"We got this, Raffina. Do not worry." Witch said.

I never really had much thought in it, but I never got the chance to ask Amitie why she always messes up every chemistry class. I know she tries a lot, but there is still not much I do not about her.

But I didn't really care as I set up the materials needed.

I put the soda bottle in the middle of the table just in case we need to put stuff in there.

"Alright, Start with the vinegar first." I said to Raffina.

"How much?" She asked.

"400 ml."

"Ok."

…

"Ugh… This smells bad." Raffina whined.

"Stop whining. It's not like you're gonna taste it or anything. Just pour some in there."

"Fine." Raffina said as she poured the white vinegar onto the bottle.

"Ha! Are you scared of White Vinegar, Raffina?" Klug asked.

"No, but I can pour some on your face if you want." Raffina said.

"Come on, Klug. Focus." TaruTaru said.

"Tch! Whatever." Klug said.

"Yeah, thought so." I heard Raffina Whisper.

"*sigh* You two…" I said as I face palmed. "Anyway, now I'm gonna try and pour some cold water."

"Alright, go ahead." Raffina said as I walked to the sink and turned on the cold water. I then turned off the water to check the milliliter cup. It was a little high, almost 500 ml, so I gently poured out a little bit of water and then I looked at the milliliter again, and it was perfect enough. So I was heading back to the table with the cup in my hand.

"You think you can handle it?" Raffina asked.

"Yeah. I got it." I said as I poured the water on the soda bottle. So now we are already making progress.

"So what food coloring should we use?" Raffina asked.

…

…

"Well, which color do you want to mix actually?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe, Orange?"

…

"Ok." I said as I didn't want to hesitate to say anything about it and added one drop of red food coloring and one drop of yellow food coloring. The liquid then changed color.

"Wow." We both said.

"Alright. Final step is soda slurry. I gotta rinse the cup out. Be right back." I said as I grabbed the baking soda and the cup and went to the sink. I rinsed out the whole cup and dried it out. I turned the water down a little bit so that I can make sure I don't mess up. First, I filled ½ of baking soda onto the cup, then I filled the rest of the way with water. I had to be cautious and went back to the table.

"How are you guys doing over there?" Ms. Accord asked everyone.

"We are doing fine." Ringo said.

"We are cool." Maguro said.

"Perfect." Risukuma said.

"We are well." Lidelle said.

"Fine." Sig said.

"We are getting there." Amitie said.

"Nothing bad happening over here. We are well." Witch said.

"We are good over here." I said.

"We are almost done with ours." Raffina said.

"Alright, do you wanna pour the thing?" I asked Raffina.

"Sure. I think this might be the last step though."

Raffina was about to pour the soda slurry when all of the sudden…

"Hey Raffina, take a pause right there pouring the soda slurry." Ms. Accord said.

"What? Why? Isn't we supposed to complete the whole thing?"

"Yes. I'm surprised you girls made it this far, but it's going to be a competition. Once all of the participants including us finish, then we can get started with the soda slurry."

"At least, only if Amitie can get this." Popoi said.

"We're trying, Popoi. Don't worry." Amitie said.

"Well… ok." Raffina said as she put the soda slurry down and sat back down but then…

*SLIP*

"Woah!" Unexpectedly, the chair then flipped when Raffina sat down, causing her to fall to the floor.

"*giggle* You alright?" I asked while laughing at a fallen Raffina.

"That's not funny. I would've just possibly scooted the chair more." Raffina said as she got back up and sat on the chair normally.

"Pfft…" Klug was managing to hold in his laughter as well.

"What am I going to do with him?" She asked me.

I just shrugged my shoulders as I didn't know what she would do.

"Are you ok, Raffina? What happened?" Ms. Accord asked.

"I slipped on the chair when I was trying to sit down. But I'm fine."

"Ok. Well, Be careful, next time."

"Imagine Kaze being a wooden stick on my chair."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked Raffina insulted by her teasing.

"Revenge is sweet, you know." Raffina said with a smile on her face.

"Meanie." I whispered.

"We're done over here." I can hear Ringo say.

"Yup, this was really easy to do." Maguro said.

"Ok, then please wait until further notice." Ms. Accord said.

"Wait, Weren't you with Klug and TaruTaru?" I asked Ms. Accord.

"Yes, but that's only for if they need assistance."

"You can tell that we are nearly done with this. I bet this will turn as big as expected." Klug said.

"And blow up on your face." I heard Raffina say under her breath.

Raffina…

"Alright. DONE!" Witch shouted outta nowhere.

"Ok. No need to shout it out loudly." Popoi said.

"We're done too." Lidelle said.

"Done." Sig said.

"Now that leaves Klug and TaruTaru." Ms. Accord said.

"Just making final touches… and… there." TaruTaru said.

"Finally. It took 15 minutes." Raffina said.

"It was just shorter than 15 minutes, Raffina." I said to her.

"I know. Shorter enough to be British, Of course."

"Raffina!" I shouted as I stomped her shoe roughly, highly embarrassed at what she just said to me.

"Ow! Ok, I'm sorry for saying that. At least, just take a joke."

"No. That's Disrespectful."

"Alright everyone. Now that everyone is done, let's see how you can perform the best explosion. Remember, the group with the biggest spread, wins." Ms. Accord said.

"Can we start first?!" Amitie asked.

"Yes you may, Amitie."

Amitie started to pour her soda slurry onto the soda bottle until…

"I-It's overfilling! Did I pour too much?!" Amitie shouted.

"That's the point, Amitie. All soda bottles should overfill when you add soda flurry inside the bottle." Ms. Accord said.

"Oh… I thought I made an error."

"There's nothing wrong with it. It's not worse when I decide to make potions and everything goes right." Witch said.

As I looked at the bottle, it looked to me that it was going to spread on the table like it was leaking. But as soon as the liquid stopped spreading…

"Oh… That's it?" Amitie asked as the results were that the liquid spreaded a tiny bit.

"Yup… it wasn't that purretty, but at least you didn't get it on all over us, meow." Popoi said.

"Wow… And I didn't get a test run… fiddlesticks."

"At least you tried. Don't worry about it." Witch said.

"So who wants to go next?" Ms. Accord said.

"Let us go next, please. I really want to test my skill to all of these people." Klug said.

"Ok, Klug. Go ahead." Ms. Accord said.

"Do you think he might do it better than us?" Raffina asked me.

"I'm not sure. In my opinion, it seems like those two cooperate as much." I said.

"Well, they do. The only problem is that they sometimes make errors. So I'm thinking… this one might not be as wide as Amitie and Witch's Project. Yeah, that might be it."

"Now then, TaruTaru? Are you ready?" Klug asked.

"Yes. Let's just get to it." TaruTaru said as he, which I thought Klug was gonna do but unexpectedly didn't, poured the soda slurry onto their soda bottle.

"Oh. Golly, that was quick." TaruTaru said.

"C'mon… Spread. Please spread everywhere." Klug said.

…

…

…

"And it looks bigger than the first explosion." Ms. Accord said.

"HA! Beat that!" Klug said.

"Phooey." Amitie said.

"Looks like we're gonna go next. Ris? You want to do the honors?" Ringo asked.

"Sure. This will be very easy for a scientist like me. And now, everyone… I will feature the biggest explosion you will ever see."

"Please don't get this on my uniform. I just washed this last week, and I don't want to have a huge mess on me. For goodness sake." Raffina said under her breath.

"And now… for the final result." Risukuma said as he was ready to pour their soda slurry onto the soda bottle.

…

…

"Oh my…" Ms. Accord was shocked.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Klug shouted.

"It's spreading really fast! Can we get a paper towel or something?!" Raffina shouted also.

"That's just how Ris is. Whenever it comes to these types of stuff, it's just explosions." Ringo said.

"But seriously, though! There's liquid on the floor! Can we get a paper towel?!"

"Calm down, Raffina. We can take care of this mess on the floor after this. Right now, that's the biggest spread ever. I don't think either Lidelle and Sig or Kaze and Raffina will beat that amount of liquid." Ms. Accord said.

"I'll let you guys go." I said.

"Kaze! I thought we were gonna go next." Raffina said.

"It was still embarrassing how you insulted me earlier."

"I told you it was just a tease… never mind."

"Thank you, Kaze. Alright, Sig. Are you ready?" Lidelle asked as she grabbed the soda slurry.

"Yeah." Sig said.

Lidelle then poured the soda onto the bottle and then…

…

…

…

It resulted in the same as Amitie and Witch's.

"Oh… Same result as yours." Lidelle said to Amitie and Witch.

"Yeah, I can tell." Witch said.

"There's always still room for improvement, next time." Sig said.

"Yeah… I guess so." Lidelle said.

"Alright! Now for our part!" Raffina said.

"Ok… let's see how this goes." I said as I grabbed the soda slurry and poured it onto the bottle…

…

"Oh my…" I shouted as the bottle, in an instant, overfilled, making a huge spread surpassing Klug and TaruTaru's spread and Witch and Amitie's spread. It got bigger and bigger…

"I can't believe it, meow!" Popoi shouted.

The liquid was still trying to spread onto the table, and it looked to me that it was gonna also surpass Ringo, Maguro, and Risukuma's amount.

"Kaze… How did you manage to do such a thing?" Amitie asked.

"I don't know. All I ever did was pour onto the bottle… and this was the result, unexpectedly. Was it because I pour too much?"

"No… It's just you had strong efforts to pour as fast as me so it might be just that." Risukuma explained.

"Pour… as fast?" I asked with a confused look.

"Well… judging from your spreadness of liquid, I believe Kaze and Raffina had the most spread due to Kaze's speed which caused their table to spread as quickly as possible." Ms. Accord said.

"Wait, so that means we won?!" Raffina asked.

"That's right! You both get a free no homework pass for today! Congratulations, you two."

"YES! I knew I can rely on a new girl like you! That means we don't have to do any homework!" Raffina shouted as she wrapped my arm around me.

"Um… Yeah. That's… nice." I said while blushing.

"W-What?! How?! I knew I should've just took Kaze away from that idiotic newbie!" Klug shouted.

"Aww… are you gonna cry? Because I got something that will help cheer you up." Raffina said as rolled up her sleeve.

"Raffina…" Popoi said.

…

"Fine." Raffina said as she fixed her sleeve.

"Wow! Kaze, You must be really good at this!" Witch said.

"You are really like at Risukuma's level." Ringo said.

…

…

…

…

…

"Kaze?"

…

"Kaze? You okay?" Raffina asked.

I didn't say anything because I forgot to tell you that I'm really poor at taking praise from other students… I'm not sure why. Like how I got from Raffina? It all started when I was 12 years of age. I'm not sure where all of this came from. I really hope I can recover from it though. In this, I shedded a tear in my eye, knowing how hard it is to say "thank you."

"What's wrong, Kaze?" Amitie said in a worried tone.

…

…

"C-Can I… t-take a walk? Alone?" I spoke up to Ms. Accord.

"Sure. You can take a minute to have your time to yourself if you're feeling upset." Ms. Accord said as I was walking out of the lab.

"I'm *sniff* sorry everyone." I said as I closed the door on everyone in what could've been a shocking sequence.

A praise… from my friends? I… I don't know what to say. Is it too much for me?

A/N: This took me a lot of time to think about this Volcano Simulation as I don't know much about chemistry… but I'll soon get there.