Water WarsBy: Nicole C and Rachel K

In a land that is part of the human world, tiny things live. They have families and little towns. Hydrogen Jr. is one of these little things, otherwise known as a

molecule. Molecules surround the human world, yet live in their own community with their own characteristics and habits.

The atmosphere is divided into layers according to the rank of the individual molecule. Very few molecules live in the uppermost layer, otherwise

known as the Ionosphere. Only the King,the sun, and the highest ranking molecules live in this part of the atmosphere.

The majority of the molecules live in the second highest layer, the Mesosphere. Right below the Mesosphere is the Stratosphere. Hydrogen Jr.

and his family live there, in the uppermost part known as the Ozone layer. This part contains the water families. Only the lowest molecules live in the lower

Stratosphere and the Troposphere.

Earth is unknown to most of the molecules in the city, except for the Soldiers forced to fight. Earth is where the molecules battle their opponent. The

molecules of the Atmosphere are at war with the “Rocks”. This is where our story begins.

One day, Hydrogen jr. was coming home from school, when, all of a sudden, the air around him began to heat up. He ran home, frightened. At

home, his parents were sitting on the couch, whispering. As they heard him enter the room, his mother, Oxygen, looked up. She had a worried look on her

face.

“Your father has been forced to join the droplet army.” She said.“What! Is this why the air is so hot?” Hydrogen Jr. exclaimed.“Yes, when the King, the Sun, wishes to talk with a molecule, he sends

down energy and causes the air to heat up so we turn into a gas and rise up to meet the sun.” Oxygen replied.

Hydrogen Jr.’s father, silent,then he finally added, “When I enter the army, your mother and you will come with me to Earth. The process is called the water cycle and will begin after I have met with the King. Once we finish

heating, we will cool in a process called condensation. Once enough soldiers and their families have condensed, we will fall to the Earth in a process called precipitation, in the form of either rain, snow, sleet, or hail, depending on the

temperature. We will meet in a lake or ocean and wait for orders from the king.”

At the end of his sentence, the room began to get very hot. Hydrogen Jr. felt his body getting larger and rising. “Ahh!” He screamed.

“It’s alright. The King has called us.” Hydrogen Sr. said.

The family of water rose into the air, up, through the layers of the atmosphere. Through the Mesosphere and into the top of the Ionosphere.

There was a large castle at the top, where the King, the Sun lives. The King is the ruler for the whole kingdom. His energy and light powers all of the towns.

They flowed through the great, golden doors and into the main room. There the were given special sun glasses so they could look at the bright King.

“Welcome” said the Sun,”You have been called into my army.”“It is a great honor.” Hydrogen Sr. said.“Yes. Have you packed your things?” the King questioned.“Yes.” said Oxygen.“ Then you are ready to begin the process of condensation.” The King said.

“What type of cloud would you prefer for your journey?”

“Cloud?” Questioned the family of water.“Yes. What type of cloud would you prefer to be deployed into? Cumulus,

stratus, or cirrus?“What is the difference?” the father questioned.“Cumulus are fluffy and white with flat bottoms, stratus float lower and are

on the front lines; forming layers and making fog, cirrus are bright white, wispy, and made of ice.”

“Cirrus.” Replied Hydrogen Sr.“Good, when you reach the dew point, you shall begin to condense and

eventually freeze.”

At these word the family of water began to sink, with every few feet Hydrogen Jr. felt himself grow colder and colder. His body was not growing larger now,

but shrinking. He began to grow hard and shiny.

All around him he saw other water families, each shivering from the cold. All the families were rising and falling. They would heat and rise, then cool and fall. Hydrogen Jr. asked Oxygen what this was and his mother said it was called convection currents.He knew this was going to be a bad week, and it continued

to get worse.It became so crowded that he could barely move. At this point, they separated the soldiers from their families. Hydrogen jr. waved goodbye to his father as the army began to fall as snow. Right before they left, Hydrogen

Jr. had talked with his father.

"I’m to be a spy.” Hydrogen Sr. said. “I will go into the ground as groundwater and try to sneak past “Rock” by soaking into the ground.”“How long will your assignment last?” Hydrogen Jr. asked.

“Groundwater assignments can last for millions of years.” He replied. “Your mother and you will be safe in a lake or pool. After I absorb into the ground, you will roll down the slope in a process called runoff until you reach a body of water. When my assignment ends, the king will heat the pool and we will evaporate back to the city.”

“But how long will it take?” Hydrogen Jr. asked again, a tiny whimper coming from his mouth.

“I don’t know.” His father answered.

At this point, the air began to cool. Hydrogen and his father were separated and had to go to their assigned places. Hydrogen Jr. was walking back to his

mother, but he did not move fast enough. He began to sink,and got stuck in a cloud of Stratus soldiers headed to war.

As he sank, he heard a loud voice commanding, “We are currently located near the poles, Polar easterly winds flow here. Our destination is near the equator. You must follow my directions precisely or you will end up on the

wrong wind current. Drift along with this polar easterly, it will be very cold. Float high as you can, but not so high that you will freeze.”

Without any further instructions, Hydrogen Jr. followed the crowd of soldiers. He did not know what to do. Would his mom notice that he was gone? The loud voice was right, it was very cold. He felt his body begin to harden and freeze again, this caused him to float even lower. Hydrogen Jr. traveled along with the soldiers for many miles. There were too many soldiers below him for

him to see the surface, but if he had, he would have seen a vast ocean.

They traveled for many hours, until the loud voice spoke again,”On the way to the equator, you will meet many forms of winds. Avoid the prevailing

westerlies, they will take you back to the poles. We are trying to find the trade winds, also known as horse latitudes. They travel toward the equator. Doldrums

must be avoided at all costs. They travel around the equator and are very weak. If the regime is caught in one, you will be dropped into the ocean. This

would be an emergency.

In the event you get stuck in the ocean, the King will heat you and you will evaporate. This might take some time, so if you get stuck in the ocean, remember, the ocean has currents too. You will mainly be affected by surface currents that can be several hundred meters deep. These are caused by wind, so they will follow a similar pattern to what I have described to you so far.You will not be affected by the Gulf Stream, located near North America, or by density currents, caused by denser water sinking beneath less dense water, because density currents are found deep in the ocean. Stay alert for issues.”

Hydrogen Jr. was frightened by the load of information presented to him. He could not remember any of it. What was that awful wind? A doldrum was it called? How could he remember all that? He decided to just follow the crowd, they were adults so they must know what to do. Right? Hydrogen drifted along. It was very warm. He heard the other molecules talking, they were getting close to the equator. It would only be a short time until they reached the camp. The loud voice came on again,”The camp is around 10 miles south from here, please begin condensing further.”

Hydrogen wondered what the voice meant by condensing further, he was already solid. But as he looked around, he saw adults holding onto each other,

as more grabbed on, they began to fall.

Hydrogen quickly grabbed the nearest molecule, who loudly exclaimed “Hey!” He began to sink too. They drifted slowly at first, but then they began to fall faster and faster until they hit the ground with a SPLAT, right in the middle of the camp.

All the adults began to get up and walk to a large tent in the middle of the camp. Hydrogen heard them talking about a General who would give them

orders. Apparently he was very high ranking. Maybe he could help him? Hydrogen wiggled through the adults, luckily he was very small and could

squeeze between them.

He got to the front of the crowd and stood outside of the General’s tent. It was army green and made of canvas. Hydrogen was nervous, what if the General could not help him? Ignoring his worries, Hydrogen pushed through the flap.

The conversation inside the tent halted. The four molecules in the tent were nicely dressed, three in the same army green as the tent and one in a dark Navy blue. Surprisingly, the one in the blue, who must of been the general, was a young woman. She was very pretty, but had a sharp glint in her eye that showed her intelligence. The woman spoke, “Hello. I am the leader of this camp,who might you be?”

“My name is Hydrogen Jr.” Hydrogen said softly.“How did you get here? Are you lost?” The General spoke kindly.“Yes.” Hydrogen replied.“Do you need to be evaporated?” She asked“I don’t know. My dad is in the cirrus army and my mom is supposed to be

in a lake or pond.” Hydrogen replied sadly.

“I can get you back to the Atmosphere, back to your home. And then one of your parents can be contacted. I’m sure your mom is looking for you. Come and sit down" She asked one of the other Generals," If you could, please contact the King and fill out a request form for evaporation for Hydrogen Jr.”

“Yes General.” The other woman in the tent replied.

“Hydrogen, why don’t you sit over here and relax.” The head general said.At this, Hydrogen moved to sit in the hard wooden seat the General was

pointing at. On the table by the seat there was a series of maps.There were various symbols on them, little dots, lines, and stars with big letters of H and L. “What are these?” Hydrogen Jr. asked.

“Battle plans.” She said. “They are weather maps showing our forces and the rocks forces.

“What about these little lines with humps and triangles?” He asked.“Those are the battle lines, the fronts of the war. There are four different kinds; cold, warm, occluded, and stationary. Cold fronts, shown by the blue triangles, are when our forces ram into the warmer forces of the “rocks” and we force them upward where they will die. This is the type of battle that is our victory.

Warm fronts, shown by the red humps, are when a slower moving force of “rocks” meets our forces. They go overtop of us, our loss. Stationary fronts, shown by the up humps and down triangles, are when our two forces clash head on, but there is no victor. Occluded fronts, shown by the alternating humps and triangles, are when we force the “rocks” to retreat, but then we overtake them and win the battle.

Each major battle is marked by a little spiral called a tornado if it is on land, and by a larger spiral if it is in the sea, called a hurricane. These happen when there is a spot of low pressure, meaning that there are few forces in the area. All of the forces, from both the “rocks” and us, flock to the area in a large spiral, trying to fill in the low pressure area and equalize it with the other high pressure areas that have a great concentration of our forces.

The wind picks up and a storm is created. Smaller battles only produce a little precipitation, either rain, snow, hail, or sleet. Those are the dots, stars, and triangles you see on the map.” She said in a lengthy reply.“What about those lines?” He questioned even more.

“Which? The isotherms or the isobars?” She replied.“What is the difference?”“Well, isotherms are those lines you see there, with the little numbers with

a dot beside them. They show temperature changes, which allows me to predict where the next high or low pressure area will be. This is where a battle might take place. Those other line are isobars, they show the pressure.”She said.

“How did you get all of these?” He asked, a curious look on his face.“Satellites give us images of the Earth which we use to see where

precipitation takes place, and how we find the numbers, because I know you are going to ask, is by other machines. Thermometers tell the temperature, barometers tell the pressure, and other devices tell other types of data.” She stated.

“That’s cool.” Hydrogen Jr. said.

At his last comment, the other general came back into the room and handed a sheet of paper to the main General. It was the evaporation request.”Looks like you are good to go.Your mom has been located and notified. You will be evaporated and sent to Lake Erie, where she currently is.” At that last word Hydrogen Jr. felt his body begin to heat up and rise into the air. He slowly turned to a gas as a large grin spread across his face.

The End.

T-Chart

Nicole● Writing● Map

Rachel● Pictures● Layout● Editing● Title