Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea? (7 page)

“This is a science project!” yelled Ivy.

Katy paid no attention to them. One thing about Katy hadn't changed. She had always been a tough cookie. “March!” she bellowed, and pulled on her end of the rope.

“No!” said Ivy.

“March or I'll cook you alive!” shrieked Katy. She yanked on the rope again, and Ivy and Bean almost fell over.

Across the street, Sophie W. came out on her porch and saw Ivy and Bean's tied hands. “Whatcha doing?” she called.

“These are my orphan prisoners!” hollered Katy. “Come on! You can be the other cruel matron.”

“You're stopping scientific progress!” Ivy yelled.

“Right!” yelled Bean. “This is about global warming!”

“Wrong!” yelled Katy. “This is about orphans!”

Sophie W. ran around Pancake Court, and joined Katy dragging them along the sidewalk. Ivy and Bean twisted and turned their hands, but they couldn't undo the knots in the rope.

“Now let's dump them in the orphanage basement,” Sophie said. She pointed at Katy's front yard. “That's the orphanage basement.”

“And then let's give them the rack,” suggested Katy.

“HEY!” yelled Ivy and Bean together.

“Oh, don't worry,” said Sophie. “We won't hurt you for real.”

Katy cackled. She might hurt them for real.

She tied them tightly to her porch railing. “Let's get another rope,” she said. “So we can stretch them.”

“Yeah!” said Sophie W.

Together, they ran off, laughing.

“Boy,” said Bean. “That Katy is a wacko. Let's get out of here.”

They wiggled their hands, trying to loosen the ropes. It was too bad that Ivy's mom tied knots so well.

“You know,” said Ivy. “This is exactly what Dottsy must feel like.”

Bean looked at the rope that connected them to the railing. “Isn't this what we were trying for? We're weak and we can't do anything.”

Ivy nodded.

“I don't think this is making the animals stronger,” Bean said.

“No. I guess it's not,” said Ivy.

Bean shook her head. “Bummer. I thought we were on to something.”

“Me too,” said Ivy. “It might work if all the people in the whole world tied their hands together.”

“Especially Katy,” said Bean. “But I guess making people weaker won't make animals stronger, unless the animals know it.”

“Now we have to think of another idea,” sighed Ivy.

They heard the slap-slap of Katy's sandals as she zoomed along the sidewalk. “We have
two
ropes and we're going to string you up!” she yelled. “Prepare to meet your maker!”

MacAdam had made a battery out of a lime, a penny, and a paper clip. He showed it to the class and then he showed a picture of a car with a zillion limes attached to it. The limes made the car go.

“So MacAdam's idea is to use limes instead of gasoline to fuel cars. Is that it, MacAdam?” said Ms. Aruba-Tate.

MacAdam nodded.

“Very good idea, MacAdam,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “Limes are a clean kind of energy, aren't they? Clean energy means energy that doesn't make pollution. Scientists all over the world are trying to find clean energy to use instead of gasoline. Can anyone think of another kind of clean energy?”

Bean and Ivy exchanged looks. How come they hadn't thought of limes? How come MacAdam had? “Must be something in the dirt,” whispered Bean. MacAdam liked to eat dirt.

“Yes, Bean? Can you think of another kind of clean energy?” Ms. Aruba-Tate said eagerly.

What? Clean energy? She should know this! Bean panicked. “Rice!” she yelled.

“Rice?” Ms. Aruba-Tate looked surprised and interested. “Wow! Is that what your science fair project is about?”

Bean didn't know what to say. “Yes!” she yelled. “Rice energy! It's clean!” She couldn't stop yelling. Ivy was looking at her like she'd lost her mind. “Ivy and I have discovered rice energy!”

“That's great, girls,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “I'll be excited to see that.”

“Me too,” muttered Ivy.

That afternoon at Bean's house, Ivy was the lookout. That meant she stood outside the kitchen door, watching for Bean's mom. If Bean's mom came along, Ivy was supposed to fall on the floor and screech.

Inside the kitchen, Bean was standing on the counter. She was looking through the cupboards, trying to find rice. No luck. She wished she had said she was going to make chocolate chip energy. She knew where the chocolate chips were.

Crackers, more crackers, walnuts, ugly dried lumps she had never seen before, oatmeal . . . rice! Bean grabbed a handful and stuffed the package back on the shelf. “Got it!” she whisper-shouted to Ivy.

Ivy zipped into the kitchen. Bean jumped to the floor and held out her hand. There it was.
A bunch of rice. There was no way they were going to get a Certificate of Scientific Achievement for rice. If only she had kept her mouth shut. “What the heck are we going to do with this?” she said.

Ivy looked at the grains, and her eyes got narrow. “There was this lady,” she began.

“Who?” Bean interrupted.

“Lisa Something,” said Ivy. “She was a scientist. I read about her in my
Famous Women of Science
book. She said you could get energy by breaking stuff into bits.”

“Cool!” said Bean. “Why don't we just break some glasses, then?”

Ivy frowned. “Not those kind of bits. Tiny bits. In the book, she said atoms, which are really tiny bits, but I bet it would work with rice, too. She said there was lots of energy inside tiny things, once you broke them.”

It was a weird idea. When Bean broke stuff, it just lay there, broken. It didn't start jumping around energetically.

Bean looked at the rice in her hand. It didn't seem like there could be anything inside rice except more rice, but it was worth a try. “I'll go get some hammers.”