The Water Droplet

By: Zach S. and Jason D.

Once upon a time, there once was a young water droplet named Shani-aqua-neesha. She lived happily in the Cloudy Kingdom near a local Wal-Mart. Yet she did know this kingdom was about to fall?

One day she was just chillin’, having some “Purple Drank” and suddenly the cloudy ground beneath her feet started to shake. The whole kingdom broke into a panic.

The ground turned dark gray, and then the ground became thick. There was a loud sonic

All of a sudden, everyone in the kingdom started falling through the floor!

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! LAWD JESUS SAVE US ALL!” Shani-aqua-neesha screamed as she fell towards the ground. Luckily, she fell in a nearby pond.

She was surrounded by other deserted raindrops. “Where am I?” she asked confused and dazed. “You are in Sherwood Lake, the lake where all the other deserted raindrops come and start a new life.” said a passing water droplet. He introduced himself as the mayor of Sherwood Lake, Walter Water.

“A new life? What you talkin’ bout’ Walter?” Shani-aqua-neesha questioned. “You’ll know what I mean soon,” said Walter, smirking.

“We all stay here waiting for our transformations to begin,” Walter said. “What is you talkin’ about?” said Shani- aqua-neesha. “Hush young one. You have much to learn.” said Walter. “Let me show you around.”

Walter and Shani-aqua-neesha explored the large lake. “This is where we hang out,” Walter said. “I see. I guess you guys are always bonding.” Shani-aqua-neesha said.

“Correct. We water molecules like to bond to each other, something called cohesion.

And you see those rocks over there?” Walter asked.“Dem rocks ova there?” Shani-aqua-neesha asked. “Yeah,” said Walter.

“We are also considered adhesive because we like to stick to everything else; we really are friendly. We like to get in large groups.

And when we get in large groups, we get heavy. Remember how you fell through the sky?”“Yeah.” said Shani-aqua-neesha. “Well, the reason you started falling because too many of you were in the sky at the same time. Because of that, you became too heavy for the air to support and fell,” Walter said.

“In case you’re wondering why we like to bond so much, it’s because of our polarity. Our negatively charged oxygen atoms are attracted to positively charged hydrogen atoms; that type of bond is called a hydrogen bond.”

“Well, in case ya didn’t know, I really think you should shut yo mouff and keep it movin’.” Shani-aqua-neesha said. Walter grudgingly agreed and they kept going through the lake.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Suddenly the lake started heating up. “OHP! Looks like you won’t be staying long here after all. Farewell Shani-aqua-neesha!” Walter said. Walter started to fade away until you could only see his face and hat and slowly started to float up in the air. “WALTER! You betta get down here before I smack you with a chicken bone!” Shani-aqua-neesha said meanly.

Then all of a sudden the same thing happened to Shani-aqua-neesha!

“What forces of nature is this!? I demand to know!” Shani-aqua-neesha yelled.

“We’re going through one of the last parts of the water cycle: evaporation. We got heated up so much that we turned into water vapor, which rises in air.

Once we all gather together again, we cool down and become part of another cloudy kingdom. Then we go through the same thing again!” Walter said enthusiastically.

“AGAIN?!” Shani-aqua-neesha exclaimed. “I can’t go through this madness again!” “Well, you don’t have a choice. We are interesting by nature.

We condense into droplets because of our surface tension. It gives us the least surface area with the most volume. Cohesion pulls us together and keeps up together, like a tight little family.

While we are easy to break, you can also walk on us if you are light enough and quick enough.

“Surface tension also means we can rise in small, tube-like places. Our surface tension and adhesion allows us to do so. That is called capillary action,” Walter said.

“You talk too much; you really should shut yo mouff. You is driving meh CRA-ZY,” Shani-aqua-neesha said, obviously annoyed.Walter just grinned and kept talking.

“This stuff is pretty important. It allows our planet to function. You see, it’s hard to warm us up or cool us down, so it helps keep the planet’s climate from going absolutely crazy and allows living things to regulate their body temperature much better than if we weren’t so difficult to heat up or cool.

Speaking of living things, we are also considered the universal solvent because we can dissolve so many things. This allows us to carry nutrients throughout something’s body.

And our density properties are a bit strange. We freeze from the top down, which is very important for life because if we didn’t, life wouldn’t exist right now.”

“Mah lawd… I wish I had my chicken bone with me right now. I could shove it right down yo throat and shut you up,” Shani-aqua-neesha said angrily.

Then she noticed that Walter was starting to take some form again, as well as some other droplets around him. Shani-aqua-neesha was finally starting to get back into the kingdom again!

She started to feel solid ground, and she started to take form. She was solid again!

“Well,” Walter said, smirking, “That chicken you wanted to hit me with is made up of 75% water, so it really wouldn’t hurt me that much.”Shani-aqua-neesha just glared at Walter, so he decided to keep on talking.

“Something else you may not have known: we’re everywhere! Tomatoes are 95% water, while other fruits, such as apples, can reach up to 80%. Most people also use a lot, too. Up to 88 gallons PER DAY! Isn’t that amazing?!” Walter asked.

Shani-aqua-neesha just kept glaring at Walter.Walter just shifted uncomfortably and kept going with his trivia knowledge. “Well, remember how we are also the universal solvent? Well, we also carry germs; Hippocrates was the first person to tell people to boil water to make it safe.”

Shani-aqua-neesha pulled out a Purple Drank and popped it open. “Wha-what are you doing?” Walter asked.

Shani-aqua-neesha grinned evilly and started to tip it towards Walter. “NOOOOO!!!” Walter screamed as the purple liquid started flowing over him.

His words were drowned out as they came out through the liquid.

Once it all cleared, Walter said, “OK, I’ll shut up now…”