For very young readers: Arjun wants to make a rocket, but his mother has banned experiments at home

After lunch, the science lab was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. Miss Mango was going to test everyone’s models before approving them for the final presentation. Arjun’s stomach was doing somersaults. He had not tested his model yet. There were just too many trees and not enough clear space for him to try blasting off the rocket at home. Besides it also meant letting his little secret out to his mother.

The open ground of the school was the perfect place to try it out. He was happy Miss Mango was doing a test run of all the experiments. What if there was a problem? He would need to fix it before the final presentation in front of the jury.

One by one, all the children began showing how their experiments worked.

When it was Arjun’s turn, he took his rocket to the grounds outside and prepared to blast it off. He poured some water into the rocket, added some Eno into the tube at the bottom and attached it to his rocket. He held it in his hands and shook it vigorously. He said a silent prayer in his mind and let go of the rocket, hoping for it to shoot high up. His heart did somersaults. His stomach churned. His legs and hands felt shaky. “10…9...8…3...2...1.” All the kids of 5A chorused while waiting for the rocket to blast. But instead of shooting upwards, the rocket dipped downwards and went shooting past on the ground, full speed through the scrambling legs of the students and crashed into the Arjuna tree. The rocket was now bits and pieces.

It took a few seconds for Arjun to process the outcome. Instead of blasting off vertically into the sky, the rocket shot horizontally on the ground. Some of the foul-smelling Eno water had leaked from the bottom of the rocket and drenched his entire T-shirt. His model had shattered his hopes into a million tiny pieces as well. Arjun couldn’t believe his eyes. Was this a bad dream? Someone…wake me up… After doing all that research and making such a beautiful rocket, his model decided to blast on the ground like a bullet train. He just couldn’t understand what went wrong. He should have tested it at home. He should have made a backup model. The competition was the next day. What was he going to do now?

All his batchmates were having a good laugh.

“Rocket to the moon or train to the tree?” smirked Raghav.

Everyone headed towards the Arjuna tree to inspect the broken rocket. “No model, no entry,” said Miss Mango after feeling quite sorry for Arjun. “The jury wants to meet tomorrow first thing to see all the models on display. And I’m afraid we can’t have a model which is not checked and tested. I’m sorry, Arjun. Good try! Better luck next time.”

All his hopes of winning the science competition had fizzled out like his failed rocket.

What was Arjun going to do now? The D-day was tomorrow! And his rocket was lying in broken bits all over the school playground. There had to be a way out of this mess. He had to somehow convince Miss Mango to give him a second chance.

Excerpted with permission from Rocket Champs, Niyatee Sharma, Scholastic India.