Chapter 57: Moonquest

That day in school A tall red haired kid came up to him.

He introduced himself to Jeffrey, "My name's Simon. My little brother Lewis wants one of your glow-in-the-dark Oobleck jars. However is it possible to make it white?"

Jeffrey looked at him quizzically, "Why white?"

Simon said, "He's a big science nerd and he really likes the moon. Asteroids, meteors, and lunar vehicles, he got one of the lego technic sets for it. Aside from the power miners, lego city, aqua raiders, bionics, lego kingdom, alpha team, agents, pirates and some other flash games"

After listing off all his brother's lego sets, he paused for a moment.

Simon remarked, "Wow he's such a nerd. He's been obsessed with this Lego mindStorms Mars mission. He keeps bothering everyone about it and I hoped that if I got him one of your science project things it'd blow his mind."

Jeffrey liked Simon because he took care of his little brother. Although he didn't know how their relationship was, he could tell Simon paid a lot of attention to him. What type of brother could so easily list off all the toys and interests like that.

Jeffrey didn't keep track off all his sister's stuffed animal names and lego sets.

Saoirse and Raine definitely didn't share his interest in board games apart from one's like Sorry and Monopoly. He always wanted to play Settlers of Catan, Stratego or chess, but they'd play Candyland or Trouble instead. His sisters liked operation and Snakes and ladders, but Jeffrey felt it was too boring.

The one game they all enjoyed was Clue and Cranium, plus a few card games like gin rummy and ERS. Speaking of which, he should start spreading the game.

His cousin David and Jonathan would play hours on end, even David's sister Crystal would join in.

A few card games like Solitare, spider, hearts, and speed came to mind. Card games like bridge and poker were too confusing to him.

Just as he was thinking about winsoft 98, mista and exp games like inkball, pinball and minesweeper.

Simon waited for him to respond.

Jeffrey was about to approach his Sid Meyer's and Starcraft folders in his mind. Games like Rome Total War, City Skylines and OpenTTD--

*ahem*

Simon coughed.

"Sorry I was thinking about what I'd need to make it", Jeffrey produced an excuse.

"So can you do it?", Simon asked.

"Sure I can, I'll get you a jar of white glow-in-the-dark Oobleck by tomorrow', Jeffrey responded.

"Great, I'll bring some money then as well", Simon walked off.

"The moon, huh?", Jeffrey had another idea.

"Maybe we should release some science projects and Oobleck. Vinegar volcanos, bottle rockets, dinosaur shoebox dioramas, underwater creature Oobleck", Jeffrey started to imagine the various jar designs and recipes.

"For a volcano I'll need some brown and red food coloring, maybe add some powdered snow for dirt", Jeffrey thought about it some more.

"The model rockets are too expensive. However buying a few plastic dinosaurs and sea monkeys could be interesting", Jeffrey continued walking.

Jeffrey remembered a kid who enjoyed making moss. A real green thumb, people stayed far away from his desk of mold and plants. Even the teacher was scared to check, but he'd often make these jars, fish tanks, and rocks with lichen and grass growing on it.

One time he brought a mossy rock water fountain to show and tell. There was a heat lamp, some frogs, a few pond fish and a tiny turtle. He also raised a few Venus fly traps and bell flowers.

His backpack was always full of dirt that he collected with a garden trowel and placed in lunch boxes. His parents got really mad at him because he kept bring all sorts of different dirt home.

Red clay, black sand, fertilizer, even cow poop.

"Where did you even get that?", Jeffrey recalled hearing the kid's parents asking.

"I found it", the moss kid replied.

Jeffrey thought maybe his expertise could help make their Oobleck even better. But for now, Jeffrey had a social studies test to pass. The medieval dark ages was not a particularly easy test to study for. All the castles, kings, and royal families got confusing.

"The black prince, Plantagenets, Louis the Sun King...", Jeffrey was just going to wing it as he headed to Mr. Co's classroom.

"Uh Jeffrey that's next unit", he heard Samantha say next to him.

"It's the medieval era. Churches, Reformation, Martin Luther, and illuminated manuscript. Remember when we watched the movie the Book of Kells and that other documentary in class?", Samantha prompted him.

"Oh yeah, thanks Samantha", Jeffrey was now nervous he wasn't even going to recognize the questions.

"You need any help?", Samantha asked.

"Hey uh, do you think you could remind me really quickly what we covered in class?", Jeffrey answered.

Samantha had given him a binder ring of index cards, "These are my notes from class, it's a small quizlet on this unit"

Preston walked out from the next room, spotting Jeffrey nervously studying before the test. He made eye contact with Jeffrey.

Preston slid his finger across his throat and make a faking death gesture.

Jeffrey got the message, "You're dead, it's a hard test"

Jeffrey felt faint, but he didn't want to show it in front of Samantha.

While Jeffrey wasn't looking, Samantha and Preston shared a silent conversation.

With a thumbs up and exchanging a few glances, it was quite reassuring for Samantha.

Preston nodding his head and miming writing on the test, he asked.

"Did you study for this test?"

Samantha gestured back flicking her hair and pretending to turn on a light switch said to him.

"Yep, pretty much all night. I think I got this though, it's pretty easy"

Preston turned his back with a fist pump in the air, which basically meant.

"Nice, well you got this. I have confidence that you'll do well. LET'S GOOO"

Preston walked to his next class without looking back.

Samantha was prepared to crush this test, meanwhile Jeffrey was busy trying to memorize everything on the index cards.