Some Penguin Problems

by Dr. Kate Biberdorf

  “Yeah, it’s hard to tell, but if you look really closely, you can see the difference. Tentacles have suction cups only at the ends of their limbs, whereas arms have suction cups all over,” I said, looking over at Liam. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t even think about squirting it. You’re not a cephalopod. Plus,” I added, looking around the room, “I don’t see any predators.”

  His eyes shifted over to the money from the atom bank and then back to the screen. “Are you buying one of those stuffed animals?”

  “I might be,” I said, giving him a wink.

  “For someone you know?”

  “There’s a good possibility.”

  “Someone you know super-duper well? So well you might be related?”

  “That’s entirely possible.”

  “And does his name start with an L?”

  “That just so happens to be one of my favorite letters in the alphabet.”

  “Mine too.” Now Liam was jumping up and hugging my legs.

  “I just can’t tell this person who I know super-duper well and whose name starts with an L because it’s a surprise. So don’t say anything.”

  “I won’t,” said Liam. “I promise with eight arms and three hearts. ’Cause I’m an octopus.” He waved around his arms like he was underwater.

  Then he raced away upstairs, singing to himself, “I’m Octopus Boy.” And I knew that I couldn’t wait to “surprise” my little brother with my gift.

  Then my eyes slid back to my computer screen. And I checked the weather. And saw a giant snowflake next to the forecast. Which meant only one thing.

  Snow.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Don’t Let It Snow

  Snow (noun). It starts in the clouds when the temperature is lower than 0°C, and then the water vapor turns into ice by going directly from a gas to a solid. Basically, it skips the whole liquid stage (as in rain). It’s sort of like skipping ahead a grade in school.

  NOT ONLY WAS IT supposed to snow tomorrow, there was supposed to be a lot of it. I spun around the room, thinking of everything I knew about snow.

  First off, it needs to be cold.

  Check.

  It was going to be exactly freezing tomorrow. As in all day. That’s 0°C or 32°F.

  And for snow to form, there has to be dirt. Not here on Earth’s surface, but up there in the sky. I learned about that from Dr. Caroline. Basically, snow happens when ice crystals form around specks of dirt that are floating in the air. When all of these crystal dirt particles collide, they stick together. And then they get bigger and bigger until—bam!—they get so heavy they plop down to Earth.

  And fall on your head.

  As snowflakes.

  And there wasn’t anything that I could do to stop that from happening.

  Not unless I got a giant leaf blower or something and I could blow all of the little specks of dirt out of the sky.

  Then I remembered something else that I had learned from Dr. Caroline. How salt can lower the freezing point of water. So maybe if I sprinkled it on our sidewalk, driveway, and cul-de-sac, the snow would just melt. Mom had gone back to school after dinner, trying to clear out her work, so I raced over to my dad’s workbench, which was in the basement.

  I sprinted down the stairs. “Dad! I’ve got to talk to you. It’s an emergency.”

  Dad told me to stand behind the black tape that marked off the safe zone. He put it down last year after Liam wandered too close to the table saw. Luckily, Dad was paying attention and no one got hurt, but we had to have a big family meeting to talk about safety.

  He handed me a pair of safety goggles and asked me about the emergency. I told him about how it was supposed to snow. And how it might be hard to get the car out of the driveway in order to go to school to meet the bus for the field trip.

  But then I told him about my salt plan.

  We live on a cul-de-sac at the back of our neighborhood, and the plows don’t get there sometimes until later. So even though school could be open, it could be challenging to get out of the neighborhood.

  “I like the way you’re thinking, Kate,” he said. “But first of all, the weather report doesn’t say a hundred percent chance of snow. It’s now only at fifty-five percent, so it could go either way. Second of all, we’d need many bags of rock salt to do the job. And I just have one bag in the garage. Even if we could borrow another bag from Elijah’s family, two bags wouldn’t cut it.” He sighed deeply. “Third of all, the salt may prevent ice from forming, but it’s not going to stop the snow from falling. We’ve got snow tires on our cars, though, so if school isn’t canceled, we should still be able to get there.”

  I thought about that. “True, and we could even walk to the school bus if we had to,” I said. That’s because there’s a bus stop on Maple Avenue, which always gets plowed, about five blocks away.

  “The only problem is that the morning school bus can only take kids as passengers.”

  “Essh.” That meant Elijah’s mom, our much-needed chaperone, and my mom technically couldn’t get on board. And even if my mom could pull some strings as principal, Elijah’s mom couldn’t, and we needed every single chaperone.

  “Well, there’s no point in salting the street until after the plow has come through. But we can certainly shovel the sidewalk and the driveway, and then salt the ground to keep it from icing over. We have enough salt for that.”

  That’s when Liam raced down the stairs, into the basement. “Shoveling? Who’s shoveling? I want to shovel!”

  “You can, Liam,” said Dad.

  “Well,” I said, looking outside at the fat milky-white clouds, “you’ll have to wait until it snows first.”

  “And since there’s only a fifty-five percent chance,” Dad added, “it might not.”

  Liam looked at me. “I want to shovel. And I want it to snow. But I also want you to be able to go to the aquarium, Kate.”

  “And don’t forget Dad’s conference,” I said.

  “Yeah, that too.”

  I looked outside once again, and at the forecast. “Looks like we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  There was just one little problem. Waiting is my least favorite activity.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Plowing Through

  Freezing Point (noun). This is the temperature where a liquid becomes a solid. For water, the freezing point is 0°C or 32°F. But for gasoline it has to be a lot colder. At least -40°C. That’s why it’s possible to drive around in cold climates and not have the fuel tank in your car turn into an ice cube. Although an ice cube derby sounds like a lot of fun!

  THURSDAY NIGHT WAS the longest night ever. I barely got any sleep because I kept jolting awake thinking it was time for the field trip.

  At 2:00 a.m. it was definitely not time.

  Or at 3:00 a.m. when I was woken up by snowplows roaring in the distance.

  But at 4:30 a.m. it was time. Still early, but more “morning” than “middle of the night” at least.

  I jumped out of bed and looked out the window. It was dark outside, but I could still see. That’s because there was snow on the ground. A lot of it.

  But I could tell by looking at the streetlight that it had stopped coming down. Well, except for one or two stray snowflakes. That was a good sign. After getting dressed, I put on all my snow gear—snow pants, winter coat, scarf, hat, boots, two layers of gloves, and my face mask for really cold weather. Turning on the lights, I could see that my parents had left their cars in our driveway. Mom had the SUV, and Dad had his sedan. The SUV wouldn’t have a problem backing out. But today, Dad was taking the SUV to Detroit and Mom was driving the sedan to school.

  There was no way she could back out without getting stuck. The snow was too deep. Unless we shoveled the entire driveway. And not o
nly the driveway. The street.

  The snowplow would get to our part of the neighborhood eventually, but who knew when that would happen?

  We couldn’t wait.

  Even if Mom could get out of our driveway, it would be hard for her to drive to Maple Avenue, which would be all nice and plowed.

  Normally, we could get a ride with Elijah’s mom. Only we couldn’t this morning. Their car was in the shop. And they were planning on getting a ride with us.

  So I got to work. After I had cleared the walkway leading up to the house, Mom and Dad trundled outside with Liam. “Great job shoveling the path,” said Dad. “That’s my girl.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  Then I asked Mom the question I didn’t want to ask. “Do you think school is canceled?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “Well, actually, funny you should ask.”

  “Good funny?”

  “Funny in that I just got a message. And school is on.”

  “Yeah!” I shouted.

  Liam did too. “That means I’ll be getting my octo—”

  “Shhh,” I said. “That part’s a surprise.” I looked at our long driveway and tried not to panic. How were we going to get rid of all this snow?

  While I helped my mom start to shovel the driveway, Liam raced away and came back a few minutes later with a saltshaker.

  “Thanks, Liam,” I said. “But remember how Dad said that we need to wait until the plow goes through before spreading the salt?”

  “Besides, I don’t think you have enough,” said Mom.

  “Oh, man,” said Liam. “What are you going to do?”

  I glanced at the spot where our outdoor water spigot was buried in snow. And I suddenly came up with a plan.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” Liam called after me as I glided away on the ice.

  “You’ll see,” I said. First thing I did was grab a coiled-up garden hose from our shed. Then I carried it into the garage and plopped in front of the utility sink. Then I turned on the faucet until the water got nice and hot. When you have warm water, the molecules zip around super quick. I wanted to get the water molecules on our driveway moving as fast as possible so that the snow would melt into liquid water.

  I turned off the water for a minute while I attached the hose to the spigot and stretched the hose out the side door. Then I pushed down on the spray nozzle and aimed the stream of water onto the driveway.

  Yes, those molecules must really have been zipping along, because the snow got lumpier and lumpier until it melted. My family watched in wonder.

  “That’s so cool!” shouted Liam.

  “I wish I had thought of it years ago,” said Mom.

  “And we’re lucky it’s not too cold out,” added Dad.

  My hand hurt from squeezing so hard, but I was grinning. You could see most of the asphalt. And Dad was right about it not being that cold. Because if the ground was still frozen, then the hot water would soon become cold water and just freeze up. Luckily, the temperature was hovering just above freezing, so hopefully we would be okay. I crossed my fingers just in case.

  “I could always drop you guys off in the SUV,” said Dad as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

  Mom shook her head. “You need to leave now, honey, if you want to make it to Detroit in time. And we still have stuff to get ready for the field trip.”

  Dad looked reluctant as he backed his way out the driveway. The SUV slowly made its way down our street onto the wider avenue.

  Once Dad was out of sight, we turned our attention back to the driveway. There were still a few patches of thick ice, so I found a bag of leftover sand from Liam’s old sandbox and spread that around. The sand would add traction. Plus, it also prevents ice from forming. That’s because the movement of the grains of sand messes with the ability of water molecules to cling together and make ice. And we definitely did not need any more ice.

  After thirty minutes of carrying sand back and forth from the garage, we had finally created a path for Mom’s car to get out of the long driveway.

  But there was just one problem. What about navigating the unplowed street? The sedan didn’t have the traction of the SUV, and we were completely out of sand. Back inside the house, I got ready for school, and then out the window the most amazing thing happened—I could see a snowplow clearing the street. We would be able to get to school!

  Making sure to tuck my money into the safest pocket of my backpack, I did Tala’s happy dance. We were going to the aquarium, and I was going to meet sea lions and rockhopper penguins. This was going to be the best field trip ever!

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  A Wonderland

  Sodium (noun). This is a chemical element that is a silvery-white metal. When combined with the element chlorine, it can form a crystal known as sodium chloride, otherwise known as salt. Next time you want more salt on your fries, ask for sodium chloride, and you’ll sound like a hungry scientist.

  “IT’S BEAUTIFUL, ISN’T IT?” asked Birdie. We stood in line in the pickup circle in front of the school. The whole world was covered in fresh snow. The white on the boughs of the pine trees made them look even greener somehow. And the sun shone through a patch of clouds, making everything sparkle.

  “It is!” I clapped my mittens together, staring at the bus. “Look at it. Just waiting for us. All shiny and yellow.”

  Birdie whipped around. “I meant that snow.” She giggled.

  “I meant the bus,” I said, “because it’s taking us to the aquarium.”

  “I know,” said Birdie. She pulled out her bag of ginger chews. “See, I’m prepared. And wearing this.” She unzipped her coat to show me her long-sleeve jellyfish shirt. I knew that Tala had her sea star shirt on, just like Memito had his shark shirt. Avery had on her octopus shirt, and Elijah was wearing his beluga shirt. Soon enough, I’d get my penguin shirt at the aquarium. I smiled at the thought.

  A couple minutes later, Mrs. Eberlin said we had to get organized into our field trip groups. She held a clipboard and started to call out names of the kids who would go with chaperones. “Some of you will go with chaperones from Mrs. Que’s class and some from mine. Just listen up as we call your name, and you’ll hear who your chaperone is going to be.” Elijah’s mom got Mia Wong, Skyler, and three kids from Mrs. Que’s class, two with nut allergies and one with epilepsy. Since she’s a pediatrician, she would know what to do in case of an emergency.

  Memito went to stand by his grandma and then cheered when Elijah, Jeremy, and Rory joined them.

  Mrs. Eberlin handed Mom her list of kids. Then Mom read out the names. “I’ve got Kate, Birdie, Tala, and Julia.”

  Julia looked hesitant as she strolled over to us. Smiling, I tried to make her feel welcome, but I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. She kept on peering over at Mia and Skyler.

  “Looks like we’ve broken up a friend group,” Mom whispered. “Sometimes it just can’t be helped.”

  I nodded. It made sense, since not all friends were in groups of four or five. Avery went with her dad, along with Phoenix and two kids from the other class.

  “Would it be okay if I stand with Mia and Skyler until we board the bus?” Julia asked my mom.

  “Of course,” said Mom. “We’ll reconvene when we get to the aquarium. After that, we’ll be stuck together like superglue.”

  “Okay, thank you so much!” said Julia, as if my mom had just given her a present. She darted over to be with Mia and Skyler , and then Mom ran into the school office to do a few last-minute tasks. Meanwhile I zipped open my backpack and pointed at the containers of chocolate-covered pretzels. “We have these!”

  After waiting for Tala to join us, we started handing out two pretzel rods to all of the kids. Of course, Memito and Jeremy were first, and they held their pretzels out like swords as they wanted to duel it out.

  Nex
t was Julia. “Have a couple of pretzels,” offered Birdie.

  Julia waved her hand. “Sorry. I shouldn’t. It’s against the rules to eat on the bus.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. Actually, that was a dumb question. Julia knew her rules.

  “You could eat them now,” Tala told her. “Or just save them for later.

  “Thanks,” said Julia. “That’s really nice.” She lowered her voice. “I just don’t want to get us in trouble.”

  That’s when Mrs. Eberlin stepped up to us. She gazed at the pretzels. She looked over at me, Birdie, and Tala. “They smell delicious,” said Mrs. Eberlin. “Thank you, girls, for making them. However,” she switched into her teacher voice and announced, “there’s no eating on the bus. So either eat your pretzels now, before you get on the bus, or put them away until it’s lunchtime at the aquarium.”

  “I forgot about the no-eating rule,” I said to Birdie as we climbed onto the bus to look for an empty seat.

  “Me too,” said Birdie, as she shrugged her shoulders.

  Mom was the last person onto the bus. “I’m really ready for this trip now,” she said to me as she stood in the aisle for a moment. “Everything’s settled with the office. No more snow in the forecast.” She glanced at her watch. “Let’s go!” she yelled, throwing her fist in the air before sitting down toward the back of the bus with Elijah’s mom.

  “Yes!” we cried. With a tug on her lever, the bus driver closed the door.

  I glanced back over at Mom to see if she would start telling everyone a bunch of bus rules. But honestly, she was just chatting with Elijah’s mom. She was kind of acting like a regular mom.

  She looked like one too in her jeans and bright blue sweater. I wondered how many fifth graders had ever seen her in anything other than her typical principal outfits.

  Nobody was even whispering that the principal was on board. Instead Mrs. Eberlin was the one to remind of us of the general plan, which was to get to the aquarium at 10:30, see the 11:00 aquatic show, then split off into groups with our chaperones. We were then to meet back all together to have lunch in a special room set up for us.