“I see everything around
here kid,” Max replied with a proud, smug grin. “And I happened to
notice Gwen sneaking around, so I investigated. It just took a few hours
to catch her sneaking off and I just followed her.”He stopped in
front of a log, half covered with a tarp. “Followed her right to here.”
He added, and lifted the tarp to reveal a small cluster of cola cases.Angie couldn’t help letting out a little gasp. “Oh, there’s
a lot of them!” She knelt down and reached out to pick up one of the cans. “Oh –
and it’s cool! The surrounding dirt and the log must be acting as a sort of refrigerator,
keeping the sun off and insulating a cool temperature. That’s really nice!”Max grabbed a can for himself and cracked it open. “Yeah,” he agreed, nonchalantly leaning on the log, “but I don’t think that was intentional. Just convenient.” Grinning, he took a gulp of the soda, and seemed to relax immensely doing it.
Angela stood up, still clutching the soda can, and put the
tarp back in place. She wiped off the top with her sleeve before opening it and
taking a drink. She didn’t usually drink cola, but it was better than the juice
that got served to them. She looked at Max with a smile, holding the can to her
with both hands. “Thank you for showing me this,” she told him. “I felt like I was
never going to have soda again.”Max nodded with a grin. “No problem; I know how that is.” He took another big gulp from his soda, wincing as his swig was too big and stung a little on the way down.
“Oh, and by the way, I need the can when you’re done. I’m providing Neil with scrap aluminum for some nerd project he’s working on and he promised not to ask questions on my sources. ”
Angie perked up at that. “Oh yeah?” she asked him. “What
project is it – do you know?” Angie was also there for Science Camp, but with
her experience outside of… the ‘real world’, as her Dad once called it, Neil
was incredibly suspicious of her and wouldn’t let her near his projects.Max shook his head. “Nah, no clue. I don’t understand half of the shit he does to be honest.” He replied, shrugging apathetically. “I’m just his metal dealer, which sounds dope but is actually kinda lame, but hey he’s gonna owe me later. ”
Angela nodded. “Oh, okay,” she said, taking another drink. “Maybe
look in the trash cans around – find the cans Gwen drank as well,” she
suggested, wanting to be helpful. “And we can look in the kitchen too and see
what the Quartermaster threw away while cooking.” Some canned goods were
packaged in aluminum cans, she thought. It’d be fun – doing some recycling. Then maybe Neil wouldn’t be such a butt-head.“I’m not digging in the trash, but if you can find a way to get into the kitchen without getting shanked by the Quartermaster I’m game.” Max grinned and finished of the last of his soda, tucking the can safely away in his hoodie pocket.
Angela looked at him curiously. “I thought Neil was paying
you back for the cans,” she said. “Why not get some from the trash? It’d be
better than a landfill somewhere.” However, the kitchen stumped her. “Maybe… we
could offer to help with dinner? Or with clean-up or something?”
The Perfect Scientist 