I pulled out my money clip and showed him. I kept my larger bills on the outside and the smaller ones in the middle. Mr. Dutton took my cash, extracted a hundred-dollar bill, and handed the rest back.
“Thanks, I need this for demonstration purposes,” he explained and then turned to the class as he held up the bill. “Today, we are going to be doing an experiment. When enough heat is applied, this will burn. Who can tell me what happens, chemically?”
I had an uneasy suspicion that Mr. Dutton might actually set my money on fire. The rest of the class seemed to suspect that as well, but didn’t appear as concerned as I was. He pointed at me to answer.
“Burning is a chemical process by which two atoms or molecules combine with each other. This combining releases energy in the form of heat. One of the two molecules is usually oxygen or something chemically similar called an oxidizer,” I answered, quoting from our textbook.
Learning my lines for movies had taught me that I could also memorize textbook sections if I applied myself.
“Very good. Money is composed of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. If I put a flame to it, we would expect that it would catch fire. What if I got it wet? Do you think it would burn, then?” Mr. Dutton asked.
The class seemed divided. We watched as he dunked my hundred-dollar bill into a bowl of liquid and then pulled it out wet. I rose halfway out of my chair when Mr. Dutton pulled a lighter out of his pocket and put the flame under my money. When the bill literally burst into flames, the class erupted. I couldn’t believe that he’d torched a hundred dollars. Had I known what he would do, I would have given him a one.
Then, as if by magic, the flames vanished, and my money appeared unscathed. We all looked on in stunned silence.
“I want you all to take the next fifteen minutes to try to figure out what just happened. Write it down, and we will count this as a quiz.”
We all sat there in shock, and slowly our brains tried to wrap themselves around what we’d witnessed. I glanced over at Dare, and he’d already written his answer down. The little shit covered it up as if I would steal it from him.
Once Mr. Dutton had collected the papers, he read a few aloud. Half the class claimed to be convinced he was some kind of magician or warlock and just outed himself. The other half guessed he’d used some type of accelerant that didn’t burn hot enough to catch the money on fire. Mr. Dutton clued us in that he’d soaked the bill in ethanol. I loved it when teachers got creative. It made learning fun.
◊◊◊
At football practice, I split time with Trent at quarterback. Coach Mason was happy with how I threw the ball, so he sent me in early. He planned to start Trent and only use me as an emergency backup. His goal today was simply to confirm that yesterday wasn’t a fluke and that I could still make the plays.
The plan for after-school fun was to go to the airport again. Tomorrow, I had my Japanese tutoring. Brook came along because she needed more flight time. It wasn’t a shock when Dare met us in the parking lot.
“I called my mom, and she said I could go with you tonight.”
“I bet she did,” I said under my breath so that only Brook heard as we walked up to the SUV.
Cassidy came out of the Lincoln Field House freshly showered. She’d run the football team through an abbreviated version of
“Where were you?” she asked.
“The training staff wanted to check me over.”
She mumbled something about me being a wimp and then smiled at Brook.
“Glad to see you two back together.”
“He couldn’t live without me,” Brook shared.
I got into the back row of the SUV and frowned when Dare joined me. Brook and Cassidy found that amusing. I instructed Chuck to swing by my restaurant. Mary Dole had made a to-go food order for us to take to class. It took both Chuck and Cassidy to haul it all out. As soon as they put it in the back, my mouth watered from the smell of the fried chicken.
Mary had made enough for a small army, so I had Roy invite his whole staff to eat. I figured it was a partial payment for him allowing Dare to fly his drones. They’d invited some people out who were interested in the drone class so they could get an opportunity to fly a drone before they signed up. More than anything, I expect it was a marketing strategy to sell them a drone. I imagined Roy expected I would end up buying one, so I didn’t feel too bad about letting Dare loose on his staff.
