"It's me—Calvin Schwa."
"Hey, Schwa—how ya doin?"
"Mr. Bonano, are you (kiss) with us today?"
"Uh ... yeah, I guess." I don't kiss back, on account of I once got dragged to the office for that. Mr. Werthog is sensitive that way.
"As I was saying, (kiss) can anyone give me the hypothesis leading to today's experiment?"
The Schwa's hand is up in an instant, before anyone else's. We're in the third row, right in the middle, but Werthog looks over his hand to Amy van Zandt, in the last row.
"Water at room temperature will boil if left in the sun."
"Abominably incorrect!" He pours a packet of powder into the icy beaker, and stirs it. The water turns cloudly. "Anyone else?"
The Schwa's hand is still up. Werthog calls on LoQuisha Peel.
"Lemonade reacts with ice to quench thirst?" LoQuisha says.
"Even more wrong (kiss, kiss)." He pours in a second packet of powder. The ice in the beaker begins to melt quickly. By now the Schwa is waving his hand back and forth across Werthog's field of vision like a signal flare. Werthog calls on Dennis Fiorello.
"Uh ..." Dennis puts down his hand. "Never mind."
The Schwa turns to me, grumbling beneath his breath. "He never calls on me."
That's when I raise my hand.
"Ah! Mr. Bonano. Do you have the answer?"
"No, but I'll bet the Schwa does."
He looks at me like I'm speaking Latin. "Excuse me?"
"You know: Calvin Schwa."
Werthog turns his head slightly and his eyes refocus. "CalvinI" he says, like he's surprised he's even here. "Can you (kiss) give us the answer?"
"The reaction between reagents A and B is an exothermic reaction."
"Excellent! And is our hypothesis proven, or disproven?"
"Proven. All the ice melted when you added reagent B, so it's exothermic."
Werthog pulls out the thermometer, marks down the temperature on the board, 89°, and continues his lesson.