Free Finally My Forever by Brooke St. James Page A

poised to drop the candies into the first bottle.
    "You'll notice that I emptied out some of the liquid already," I said, pointing with my free hand to the two-liter. "I emptied the same amount out of each one, so they'll all have an even chance at winning the contest."
    "What's the contest," Thomas blurted out, swaying front and back with excitement.
    "Well, once we're done we'll see which one has the least liquid. If it has less liquid at the end, that means more of it came out during the experiment." I used my hand to demonstrate a gushing motion, which made them all laugh and clap. "All right, so I want you to get it in your head which one you think will be the winner. You don't have to say it out loud, but I want you to think about which one will have the highest geyser."
    "What's a geyser?" one of them said, raising her hand.
    "It's the shape the soda takes when it spews out of the top of the bottle. It looks like water coming out of a hose. So think about which one you think will have the biggest geyser—that'll be the winner. You can write it down on your paper if you want."
    I watched as they made their decisions and some of them wrote something on their paper. I gave them about 30 seconds to finish up.
    "Okay, are we ready?" I asked. I couldn't help but smile at all of their reactions. Some of them stared at me with untrusting expressions, and others couldn't stand still from all the excitement.
    I did the Coke first. I dropped the candy into the bottle and stepped back as the geyser erupted from the top. The students watched in awe as soda shot into the air, and then seconds later settled down. They clapped, and cheered, and nudged each other before recording the results on their paper.
    I knew Coke had a middle-of-the-road reaction. That's why I did that one first. Next came root beer, which was always a bit of a disappointment. The geyser only went a few inches above the bottle and not very much soda was lost. I heard one of the parents commenting that root beer was their pick and they were surprised it performed so poorly.
    One by one, I went down the line, adding candy to the bottles and watching the reaction of the soda. I always had fun watching students observe this experiment, and tonight was even better than usual. Thomas and his friends were all so expressive and sweet. It was an absolute pleasure to be there, and I smiled the entire time.
    Coke, Pepsi, and Sprite all had average reactions. Root beer and orange soda were both fairly disappointing, but I saved the best for last with Coke Zero. I did this experiment when I was student teaching, and one of the students said, "Coke Zero's the hero." It was a true statement that stuck with me. It always went the highest.
    I saved Coke Zero for the grand finale. I dropped the candy into the bottle and we all watched in amazement as the Coke spewed what must have been ten feet into the air. It went so high that everyone gasped and took a step back even though they were standing far enough away to be out of danger. The reaction only lasted a few seconds, and once it settled down, everyone whooped and cheered.
    I just stood there and watched their reactions for the next few seconds before calling them up to inspect the bottles so we could talk about how much liquid was left in each one. They gathered around and we talked for a while about our observations and scientific experiments in general. I gave them very basic information about making scientific observations, developing a hypothesis, and carrying out experiments. I was done about thirty minutes after I started, and afterward, the students and their caregivers all thanked me before making their way back into the house or to their cars.
    I thanked them all for having me and told them what a pleasure it had been. Claire and Thomas volunteered to help me clean up, but I told them I would make quick work of it and they should go say goodbye to their guests.
    It took me about 10 minutes to hose everything down and