The next morning Alex got ready, ate breakfast, and headed to the lab early. As he opened the door he was surprised to be the first one there. Man, I thought everyone would be excited to get started, he thought to himself. He walked over to the press and inspected it. I just don't know if this is going to work, he thought. Maybe we should have done the laser. He chuckled at the thought of Siddiq’s excitement if he heard that. Fifteen minutes went by before he heard the door open.

  “Whoa, I thought I would be the first one,” said Siddiq.

  “Nope, I have been here for almost twenty minutes already.” Alex grinned. “Where is everyone?”

  “Honestly I'm surprised they are not here already,” he replied. “I don't remember seeing any of them at the food court either.”

  “I mean it’s only 7:10, I guess, but last time I was late at 8,” he laughed.

  “Well, we can start stuff. I mean we are scientists on the project,” he said, raising his eyebrows and smiling at Alex.

  “Sounds good to me. I’ll grab the material, you set the pressure scale.” Alex said as he headed to the back side of the lab. Alex carefully placed the matter on the press table and walked over to Siddiq who had finished setting the scale.

  “Grab a board, we need to notate everything we are doing as experiment #1,” Alex said to him.

  “Right, I get too into it sometimes,” Siddiq said, grabbing a board.

  “Alright, let's do this. Test one,” Alex said. Siddiq pulled the lever and the press came down, pressuring the materials under it. After a few moments the press lifted.

  “Damn,” Siddiq said disappointed.

  “I mean it's the first test, we aren't going to get it right away,” Alex said.

  “I know, but it would have been cool,” Siddiq smiled.

  Alex laughed as he gathered the material and took it off the table. “Set up experiment #2,” he said as he walked to get fresh material. He set it up and went to stand by Siddiq again. “Okay, let's do this,” he said. Come on work, he thought as the press came down. Do something please, he balled his fists willing something to happen. After a few moments the press lifted.

  “NO WAY!” Siddiq yelled as he walked towards the table.

  “What?” Alex said as he un-balled his fists and walked over.

  “It worked! It's solid.” he said, picking it up and banging it on the table.

  “We do it again.” Alex said. They ran the experiment again.

  “I don't get it.” Siddiq said, scratching his head. “We did the exact same thing. Why did it not work this time?”

  Just then, the door of the lab opened and Reshma, Evalyn, and Zayd walked in.

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  “Hello gentlemen,” Reshma greeted them. “I see you have started without us.”

  “We just finished experiment #3. We have everything documented so far.” Alex replied.

  “Wait, Experiment #2 worked?” Evalyn asked as she looked over the boards.

  “It did,” Siddiq said, handing her the hardened material, “but we ran the exact same thing again and it didn't work.”

  They all huddled and went over the numbers and checked that nothing was wrong with the machine. They made a few tweaks and adjustments and stood back.

  “Interesting. Let's try to run it again,” Reshma said. Alex grabbed the materials and placed them on the table then joined the others by the control panel. Evalyn pulled the lever and they all watched as the press came down.

  Come on work, Alex thought, balling his fists, a faint glow emitting from them. After a few moments again the press released and there was an audible gasp.

  “It did it!” Evalyn exclaimed, clapping her hands. They walked towards the table.

  “I can't believe it,” Zayd said in wonder as he picked up the solid material.

  “Again,” Reshma stated.

  “I am going to start putting these results in the system,”Alex said. “We can't have 500 boards in here.”

  “Good idea. Siddiq, get the materials set up. Evalyn look over the machine again,” Reshma said.

  Alex walked to the computers and brought the board over with the first three test calculations and results. As he was typing it all in, he heard the team sigh in disappointment.

  “What happened? Why did it not work this time?” Reshma asked.

  “This is like last time with experiment #2 and #3,” Siddiq said with a frown.

  They gathered around the press and started to tinker with it. Alex continued to input the data. When he finished he went to look at the materials to take pictures and measurements to add them into the system. As he picked up the solid matter from Experiment #2, he swore his hand glowed. What the heck, he thought to himself as he looked at his hand. When he picked up the solid matter from experiment #4, a charge zapped his hand and a glow happened again.

  “Was that a static charge?” Zayd asked as he walked over towards Alex.

  “Did you see that?” Alex asked.

  “Yes I did, but that is odd,” he answered as he picked up the material and frowned.

  “My thoughts too,” Alex said, looking at his hands.

  The others continued experimenting the rest of the day and Alex continued to document everything. Nothing they did worked as they were unable to replicate the results from experiment #2 and #4.

  “I just don't get why those two worked and nothing else has,” Siddiq said.

  “If I hadn't seen the results for experiment #4 myself, I would have thought you two were trying to prank us,” Evalyn said.

  “Alex, I appreciate you documenting everything today. Tomorrow let’s have you run some of the tests and get your input,” Reshma said as he clasped him on the shoulder.

  “Hey, I volunteered to do it. Now that it's set up, as long as we do measurements we can just add everything live,” Alex replied.

  “Yes, good work, someone has to keep us organized,” Zayd laughed.

  “Alright, let's get out of here and start fresh tomorrow,” Reshma said looking at his watch.

  They all nodded and gathered their things to head out. Alex looked back at the machine before heading out the door, a frown etched on his face. They all walked in silence to the crossroad. Saying goodnight, Alex hopped on his scooter and headed to his apartment. As he entered, he placed his scooter against the door and went to change. He sat on the edge of his bed and thought back to the experiments as he stared at his hands. I swear my hands glowed, he thought, maybe I am just losing it. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked at the wall and noticed a small crack. Weird.