ExperiMENTAL Explosion

     "You add all kinds of stuff you see to this bottle," Five-year-old Sharu had explained the process of preparing her special recipe, 'The Poison' to her cousin. "Mud, glue, Shampoo, detergent, oil. Basically, anything!" She couldn't contain her excitement.
     "Wow! That's cool," Appu, her cousin and partner-in-crime had been starstruck. "Quick, get a bigger bottle. Team Success would love it!" The two kids then proposed their idea to their team members. It was a huge success among all the members of Team Success...well, almost all. Though all the five of those cousins were included in the team, Aki was never a part of it. No matter how many times she had been invited by the rest of the team members, she opted to stay aloof. Why wouldn't she? She had to show her superiority among the five. How would that be possible if she was a part of a team where everyone were considered equal, irrespective of their ages?
     Thus began the tradition of ThePoison in Team Success. Adi, Kriti, Appu and Sharu would run around their grandparent's house, (that was the base for Team Success, which would come together twice a year) searching for the ingredients to add up to the old glass bottle.
     "So the thief is tired from all the stealing he has done," Adi explained, his eyes twinkling brightly with the recollection of all the action-thrillers he loved to watch. "He wants to drink something."
     "...and he sees our Poison kept here in the fridge," Kriti adds. Everyone knew where this was going.
     "He thinks it's orange juice," Appu filled in, pointing at the glass bottle. It was filled with a liquid with an inviting orange colour. "He drinks it quickly because he's really, really, really thirsty from stealing all these things in the dark."
     "He immediately gets a heart attack," Kriti jumped in, unable to hold in her giggle. "From all the expired tablets of grampa."
     "He realizes it's not orange juice and tries to spit it out but he can't," Sharu grinned. "Because we poured in glue too. Lots and lots and lots of glue. So his lips are sealed...for good."
     "He dies right there and all the things he tried to steal from grampa are safe. Team Success, yet again, saves the day." Adi ended the story with a proud look on his face and stretched his right arm forward, calling in the team. Everyone followed suit, slapping their palms over the other's, excitement oozing out.
     "Teeeeeaaaaamm- SUCCESS!" They shouted as they broke off, laughing a loud carefree laugh.
     But that was years ago. Once the people outside Team Success learnt of this, the tradition broke down. It was a dangerous thing, Classified Information. It would be a huge disaster if it ended up in wrong hands. That was the end of The Poison.
     ....Or so Adi and Kriti thought. Appu and Sharu, being the youngest and most persistent of them all, never let go off great traditions easily. Nothing would scare them that easy. Who else could protect Grampa's house other than our ever-faithful Poison? They continued on their own, carefully. No one could even get get a hint of doubt about this persisting art of poison-making.
     "A bit of talc, a bit of shampoo. Okay, maybe a bit more of this. It smells good. A little bit of our spit too and what else?" Sharu asked, trying to remember anything they missed out.
     "Hmmm," Appu thought for a while. Suddenly, he jumped. "Perfumes!" He shouted and sprinted towards their uncle's room. "Hold the bottle. I'll spray everything into it." He said, his eyes wide open from amusement.
     "This is AWESOME!" Sharu couldn't help but get high-pitched. She was shivering with excitement. They were doing something the rest of the team members wouldn't even consider in their dreams. One thing they knew very well was to not mess with their uncle, especially not his cologne  collection. They had nicknamed him "Gorilla", not that they were scared of him. It was just that he was the one who took them all out to have fun. Messing with him and his stuff was like saying goodbye to water parks, beaches, movies, restaurants, everything.
     "Hold still," Appu scolded as the bottle quivered with Sharu's quaky hands. But he knew that that was too much to ask for as his own hands were shaking. The two had wide grins plastered on their faces. Slowly and carefully, they sprayed each of their uncle's precious collection into their precious bottle and tip-toed out of the room before they were caught. They ran into their secret hideout (of course, I won't tell you where it was) and placed the bottle safely in it's nest.
     "This is a new record," Appu smiled proudly looking at the bottle a few days later. It was now half-filled with their glorious poison. "We never got this far without diluting The Poison." He told in "technical terms" to his cousin, who was equally proud of it. "Cool!" She answered, doing all she could to keep it cool, to not squeal out of excitement. "Have we put in all of the ingredients available?"
     "Let's see," Appu replied, quickly going through all the 'ingredients' they had added to The Poison. "I think we have covered everything downstairs, including three types of mud and the sand from outside the gate."
     "All the rooms upstairs is a check," Sharu added. "But not the bathroom." Grinning, she snatched the glass bottle from his hand and bolted towards the bathroom. Appu was right behind her. She quickly scanned the cabins, looking for anything they might have missed out in the bathroom downstairs.
     "The toilet cleaner," Appu pointed at a container in the corner of the cabin. He reached out for it and quickly unscrewed the top. Sharu clenched the bottle tightly with both her hands as her brother poured in the toilet cleaner into it, both of them beaming with joy and pride for the 'advancement' in their experiment. Little did they know that this project of theirs would soon come to an end.
     "Enough?" Appu asked.
     "Just a little more," Sharu replied, her eyes on the liquid. "We need to get the proportions right." Appu tipped the container again to drop in a little more of the blue liquid into their Poison. It now had a blue hue, a shade neither if them could describe.
     "Yup. I guess, that's enough." Sharu said and Appu kept the cleaner back in the cabin.
     "Hey! Check this out." Sharu called out, holding the glass bottle forward. Appu took it in his hands. His eyes widened immediately. "It's warm," His voice was filled with great surprise.
     "Yeah. I noticed it th-"
     "Whoa!" Both screamed at once. The Poison had now begun to bubble up.
     "It's getting hotter," Appu said, as he ran towards the sink. Slowly, he kept it in the sink and both watched as The Poison began to sizzle and soon, it bubbled out of the bottle and into the sink. Some of it even splashed to the floor below. The white sink was now completely blue.
     "Should I run some water over this?" Sharu asked, not knowing what else to do.
     "No," Appu answered calmly for he knew what the best thing to do was. "It might get worse for all I know. Let's get out before anyone can pin this mess on us."
     The duo ran out through the backdoor and up the hill behind the house. The top of this hill was their base where all important meetings took place. It was also where they ran to when they were labelled "fugitives".
      "Damn!" Sharu panted as she sat down on a rock by the bushes. "They're gonna have our hides for this."
     "Hell, yeah!" Appu replied and both laughed loudly.
     "That was awesome! Did you see how The Poison came out?" Sharu asked, her eyes twinkling.
     "Yeah!" His eyes matched her hers. "It erupted. Like a blue volcano!" He made a gesture with his hands and mimicked an explosion. They broke into a fit of giggles.
     The sun was now right above them. "We need to stay low till evening." Appu stated. And they sat there, talking about that crazy "chemical reaction" their "experiment" ended in. They were giving out the best possible explanation they could come up with for what might have triggered that reaction. When the sun was just above the horizon, they stopped their discussions and reluctantly, started on their way back home. They knew very well what awaited them there. The first one they faced was Adi. He warned them about the worse things to come. "What in the world were you guys thinking?" He finally asked, for which he only received two wide grins as an answer.
     Next was Aki and Kriti. They were very furious as they were the ones who had to clean up the entire mess.
     "Where did you guys run off to?" Kriti shouted. "You commit the crime and I have to serve the time? That's not fair."
     "It's-not-unfair," Both of them sang out, teasing Kriti. In a fit of anger, she had once shouted so and that tiny mistake stuck on to her. It really ticked her off. But before she could say anymore, the two of them ran away from them and into the house, where the elders had been waiting for them since afternoon. After about an hour of droning, Appu and Sharu finally surrender.
     "Fine, fine," Sharu cut in. "We understand."
     "We won't do it again," Appu added. They then pouted, looking expectedly at the elders. Their faces finally softened. How could they not forgive the 'innocent' mistake of the young ones? Appu slowly stole a glance at his sister. Her fingers were crossed behind her back, just like his.
     "We promise," they said in unison and ran before the members of the jury could come up with any punishment of sorts.
     "Until next time?" Appu asked, his fingers now free.
     "Until next time," Sharu agreed.