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Applied Science, Monday, Period 1

"Welcome back," Tyler greeted his class, once they were all in their seats. Each lab table held a box about the size of a shoebox. "Today we're talking about the thought experiment called Schrodinger's Cat as an introduction to quantum mechanics. You have a handout on it and, since I'm apparently too lazy to read Wikipedia out loud today, we're also going to watch a short video on the whole shebang."

Once the video played, he briefly went over the meaning of the whole thing, pausing at the end for questions.

"Your mission now," he said, when he was done, "is to replicate the experiment. Some of those boxes have Beanie Baby cats in them; some don't. Pick one and try to decide if you have a cat or not, without touching the box."

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//I'm not suggesting that yer can't lift a table, ge-// Grump. //Yamanaka. I'm just saying, we might as well be holding up a car and then trying to figure out if there's an ant crawling on it simply by guessing at the weight difference. Unless you're super-sensitive to that sort of thing. In which case, your princess-and-the-pea abilities will be more useful in this experiment than mine.//

He was pulling out a book, now, yes. All things considered, he somewhat wanted to throw things, now.

"Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "But I doubt I'd be able to tell 'less I picked it up myself. My sis probably could, if she was big and green at the time."

Ino shrugged, finding a book of her own. "Try not to hit another student," she advised, "he gets cranky at that, I'd assume."

Jono raised an eyebrow at 'big and green,' yes. Don't tell him the bloody She-Hulk was running around this island, too?

Just wait until he found out about Tony Stark. He was totally a closet fanboy.

//I've got better aim than that, I'd like to think,// Jono pointed out, winding back with the book he'd pulled out, and then promptly throwing the first pitch. It bumped the box, pushed it close to the edge, even. But it didn't quite knock it off.

He was even in class, right that instant, with She-Hulk AKA sis.

"Nice going," she said, biting back a laugh. "Or maybe it's chivalry to go with your accent?" Whatever it was, she was going to easily lob her book at the box.

And down it went.

//I'm the last bloke on the island anybody should be accusing of being chivalrous, luv,// Jono pointed out, walking over to the box and leaning over to see if it had opened. //Still sealed. By this point I think I would be willing to pick up the table. Then we can just crush the naffin' box with it.//

Which would be so healthy for the cat inside. Honestly, now.

"Or you could step on it," because Ino was totally just going to switch from sitting in a chair, to sitting on their desk and peering over at the box. "Did he glue it shut, I wonder?"

Leave it to Jono to crouch down and get his face up close, trying to see if there was any glue along the seams.

//Good question,// was his grand conclusion, there. //Yer don't suppose stepping on it counts as touching it? Now yer have me wanting to know for sure, but if we break the rules now, it seems like an empty victory, really.//

"You're not touching it, though, right? Your shoe is, and your shoe is technically a separate thing. It's not you."

Ino, that reasoning was very flimsy.

"Or we can drop the desk on it. That'd be worth it, really, just to see the box crumple."

It wasn't a real cat, they could totally abuse it if it was in there.

And with that reasoning, Jono was finding himself not really hating this girl. Go figure.

//I'll take one end of the desk, yer take the other, and we drop it on the count of three?//

Go figure, indeed.

Ino hopped off the desk, and studied her end of the desk. Really, this was not-boring now, so her mood vanished like early morning fog. Or something. "Up-turn it, or angle a table leg so it lands on it?"

A beat.

"Up-turning would look more epic."

//It would, but then we'd be smashing up the furniture, luv.// Jono gave her a wry look at that. //I've already had to endure one bloody tea party detention this month. Better to just knock it about with a leg, instead.//

"A tea party?" she snickered at that. "Least that's better than running for your life from aliens and then having to use a totally unfamiliar weapon against them and hoping for the best."

Because, really, that had been one of Ino's detentions.

"I guess," Ino continued, almost mournfully. "But you've got to admit it'd be cooler looking." What? It would've been. "On three then?"

//I would have taken the aliens,// Jono decided, lifting up his end of the table and positioning one leg over the box. //Ready, then. One. Two. And three.//

And then he was lowering said end of the table, yes.

"Seriously?" she asked, following his count and lowering the table at the same time.

...

Ino glanced at their handywork. "Well," she said dubiously, "the box is looking a bit crumpled, at least?"

He set down the table with a bit of a frustrated grunt somewhere in the back of both of their heads.

//Seriously, luv. Aliens don't ask questions.// And then he was crouching down to look at the box again. //Crumpled box. Still can't tell if there's a bleedin' cat inside of it. But if there is, then I'm beginnin' to feel a touch sorry for the stupid thing right about now.//

"Questions aren't so bad if you know how to answer them." Ino knelt down to look at it as well.

"It's the box that will not give up it's secrets," she commented, resisting the urge to poke at it. "I mean, seriously. What else are we supposed to do to the poor box?"

And possibly poor cat inside of it.

"We could bat it into a wall with a chair?"

Snerk.

//I'd chalk that up to more abuse of the furniture,// Jono noted. //Though I suppose we could throw books at it some more. That was therapeutic, if nothing else.//

"If a chair can't take on a box then there's something wrong with the box," she muttered rebelliously. "But books it is, I guess."

So she was just going to bounce up and grab a book at random. A nice heavy one.

Jono was reaching for the book that he'd thrown the first time, rolling his eyes. Again.

//So, how dead do yer figure our cat is, by now?//

"Annihilated," she said cheerfully, dropping her book on the box. "At least, that's my guess, though according to this whole thing, it could very well still be 'alive'."

Which made no sense, but oh well.

//It still has that half-and-half chance, does it?// Jonothon's own book smacked down heavily on top of Ino's. The only effect this really had on the box was that it was about an inch shorter than it had been a moment before. //If we keep doing this to it, I suppose we'll know one way or the other by how absolutely flat we can get the box.//

"How much do you think stuffed toys can squish?" she wondered, dropping another book. "I guess it'd get wobbly at some point, then."

//If there's a cat in there, there'll have to be some manner of lump,// Jono reasoned. //Perhaps we'll get lucky and the sides of the box will split, first.//

And there went another book, plopping down on the others.

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Applied Science, Monday, Period 1

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