The Losers at the Center of the Galaxy by Mary Winn Heider

Author:Mary Winn Heider [WINN HEIDER, MARY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Louise left Winston sitting in the kitchen, changed her clothes, and then headed off for early morning Science Club. It had been one whole day without lab, and she missed it. She was still buzzing from the trip to the stadium, and as she took the teacher’s entrance and climbed up the stairs, she thought to herself that maybe this was the day she’d have a breakthrough on the G.L.O.P.

But then she walked into the lab and her brain snapped into focus.

Her notebook was already out on the table.

It wasn’t the only thing; there were a few random items scattered across each of the tables, and Dr. O was putting them away.

“What’s going on?” Louise asked, hearing the edge in her voice.

Dr. O turned. “Oh, good! After Science Club yesterday, some other teachers needed to hot-glue a few… things late yesterday, and they made a real mess searching for glue sticks and left everything out. So irritating. But, Louise, I opened your notebook to see whose it was so I could put it away—”

Louise still hadn’t moved away from the doorway.

“—and you’re doing some very interesting work. There’s a real market for it.”

“There… is?”

Dr. O nodded, swung by her table, and picked up the notebook. She brought it close and flipped it open, pulling over a stool.

Louise joined her.

“All of this…” She pointed to the notes about the chemical compounds, page after page of them, detailing all of her progress with G.L.O.P. “It’s clear that you’re perfecting your recipe and detailing the evolution of the mix, which is what all the big houses want.”

That didn’t sound right. “The big houses?”

“The big makeup houses. The special effects people.” Dr. O looked over her readers again. “That’s what you’re doing, right? Making glow-in-the-dark body paint?”

Louise’s stomach twisted. “That’s… that’s not what I’m doing,” she said quietly.

“Oh? What did I miss?” Dr. O looked closer at the notes.

“I’m…” Maybe she could tell Dr. O some of the truth. “I’m trying to affect cellular respiration. And the glowing, that’s just how I know it’s working.”

“Hmmm…” The teacher frowned and gestured to the notebook. “Do you mind?”

It’s sort of too late now, Louise thought. “Go ahead.”

Dr. O flipped to the beginning and read the notebook thoroughly, so focused Louise almost thought she’d forgotten about her. When Dr. O got to the end of the notes, she closed the notebook and sighed. She took off her readers and swiveled her own stool to face Louise’s.

“I can see, more or less, what you were trying to do, Louise. And it’s a good try. But scientists have to ask the hard questions. And I think the hard question that you have to ask is, could this ever work?”

Louise felt a pricking in her throat. “I thought so,” she managed. “It was supposed to.”

“The problem is that cells don’t breathe like that. They can’t absorb oxygen that way, externally.”

It was like being in an earthquake, she imagined. Everything falling down, and no steady ground to stand on.

“You did good work,” Dr.

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