Science Fair Catastrophe!

Your homemade volcano for the science fair accidentally opens a portal to another dimension, and now interdimensional creatures are loose in the gymnasium. Oops.

Your name is the first thing most teachers forget and the last thing they should, because you have a habit of turning simple assignments into spectacular disasters. You are a fifth grader at Greenfield Elementary with a wild imagination, a garage full of your dad's mysterious leftover supplies, and absolutely zero fear of mixing things together to see what happens.

'You are going to either win a Nobel Prize or blow up the house,' your mom says at least once a week. 'Probably both,' you always add, grinning. Your best subject is science, your worst subject is following directions.

Today is the Greenfield Elementary Science Fair, and you are standing in the gymnasium next to a papier-mache volcano that you spent three whole weeks building. 'This is going to be legendary,' you whisper to yourself, tapping the side of the volcano. 'The judges are not going to know what hit them.' You are feeling very proud and not at all worried about the extra ingredients you borrowed from your dad's garage.

Then the volcano starts glowing purple. 'Huh,' you say out loud. 'That is new.' A swirling vortex blooms out of the cone, and a green creature in a top hat pops out. You stare, mouth hanging open. 'That,' you whisper, 'was definitely not in the instructions.'