The Ways of Patching Up | ✓

Tenth

For some reason, the classes today went faster than usual, too fast for Elliot's liking. As usual, he tried paying attention to all the lessons brought by the teachers, jotting all of the necessary topics on his notes. Nevertheless, Dad's condition managed to occupy most of his thoughts no matter how many distractions he had. Fresh memories of his father acting weird last night still lingered inside his mind like a vengeful ghost.

It's now so hard to focus on school when Dad has been like that... Elliot shook his head. Well... at least for now, I must try to focus with my science fair project...

Now, everyone was planning their projects and experiments for the upcoming event, to which Elliot was really pumped up about. He quietly watched and listened as his classmates began discussing interesting things like making volcanoes, producing electricity from potatoes and a whole lot more. Last year, there were lots of model volcanoes, so gotta stay away from that.

The child promptly settled his partnership with Shanice and Andrew like usual. Although the trio didn't win on their previous showcase, Elliot could see that Shanice was really eyeing for the first place, as she had been so serious throughout the discussion. She started talking about space, particularly stars and constellations, while Elliot and Andrew silently listened to her explanations.

"Okay, so I was thinking that we should make a constellation jar. We can talk about how many constellations are there and then discuss a few examples of them," Shanice suggested, her lips widening into a cheeky grin, "I've heard that a group did this in some other school and they won! It sounds so cool, don't you think Drew, Elliot?"

Elliot furiously nodded in agreement, fascinated by the space that was far beyond his reach. If the night was crystal clear, the child would always stare at the twinkling stars before he went to bed, although he had not thought much about constellations. He remembered Dad used to tell him about them, but it wasn't in detail... or the obvious fact that the child didn't understand.

"You'll understand when you're big, Elliot," it was a pretty faint memory, but the child remembered his father saying that. That's a long time ago... I wish Dad would tell me now since I'm already big enough to know...

"That's awesome! I don't think the others are thinking about that so it's creative," Andrew beamed, but his happiness instantly died down once he noticed one problem, "but constellation jar... hmm, it sounds like it's hard to make though."

"Don't worry, there are actually ways to make it easier for the three of us!" Shanice exclaimed, "I found the easy steps to make the jar. We just need some materials and posters then we're all done!"

"Okay sure, but what do you know about constellations, Shan?" Andrew asked as he scratched his cheek, "I know a few, but the only one I remembered the most is Orion."

"Hmm... wait, I know one! Big Dipper, that is!" She answered as she smacked her fist against her hand, "you know, the one that looks like a spoon."

"Isn't Big Dipper a part of this... Major thing?" Andrew lifted one of his thin eyebrows as he struggled recalling the name, "okay I forget the name, but it's like this huge bear."

"Elliot?" Both heads turned towards the blondie at the same time.

"Haha, I'm the same as you guys," Elliot forced out a giggle, "I don't really know anything except Big Dipper and Orion..."

Oh I wish I had known more...

"Hmm... we should really read something about constellations and stuff," suddenly, an idea flashed in Shanice's mind like a lightbulb. She immediately snapped her head towards Elliot, who recoiled at her sudden action. Her chocolate eyes twinkled as she ogled hopefully at him, "oh yeah Elliot, your dad's a scientist right?"