"SODA BUBBLES"

Beaming with accomplishment, Professor Utonium stood back to admire his work.

He hadnt really set out to do anything spectacular. It was a hot Spring day, and he was getting restless and fidgety over the reams of paperwork he had to complete at his desk. Predictably he had become distracted, and had absently started to doodle the chemical composition of various soft drinks in his notepad. Suddenly a wave of inspiration washed over him. He began scribbling numbers out on his chalkboard, toying around with various sums and chemical equations. Fifteen minutes later, he had come up with what looked to be the formula for permanently fizzy soft drink.
His eyes scanned over the trail of symbols, part of him searching for any previously unnoticed errors, part of him smugly basking in his own ingenuity.

Time for a break, he murmured, ascending the staircase of his laboratory. He decided that a cold root beer would be the perfect toast to his accomplishment, and he began daydreaming about the money that his new patent would bring in for his family.

Bubbles Utonium bounded down the stairs, two at a time, to land with a clumsy and playful thud on the landing in the family room. It was too hot to play outside today and there had been no distress calls from the Mayor, so she had spent the afternoon in her bedroom playing hospital with her stuffed toys.
But that had grown tiresome. As soon as lunch was over, her family had dispersed to separate ends of the house to immerse themselves in solitary activity. She had tried to entertain herself as best she could, but the little girl was not in the mood to be all by her lonesome. She needed stimulation.

Skipping across the room, Bubbles decided she had the best shot with her father. Maybe she could coax him out of his lab for a game or two. Besides, it didnt sound like being stuck down there doing math all day was much fun.

Pushing the door ajar, she peered down the stairs.
Hm, the lab was empty.
She decided to enter anyway, willing to wait for his return.
For a few moments Bubbles stood there listlessly, humming a bouncy, formless tune. Then her eyes rested on Utoniums chalkboard, standing conspicuous and askew by his desk.
And more importantly, she also spied the colourful lengths of chalk lying beneath it.

Pacing out of the kitchen, Utonium took a sip from his can of drink, which was a thankful relief from the heat. He thought with a smirk about how the brand of root beer in his hand would be completely outmoded once he sold his little innovation off. Soon, flat soda would be a thing of the past. Of course, he would still have to test the drink to see if any of the modifications to the original formula had other, unpleasant side effects. But that would be easy to execute. He also pondered about how he could examine ways of making the beverage remain permanently ice cold.

He descended the steps to his lab. No more time for complacency. First and foremost, he would have to preserve the new formula in his notepad

Look what I drew, Daddy!
Bubbles joyful expression met him at the bottom of the stairs, her little face grubby with chalk dust.
Oh, no
Reluctantly, Utoniums gaze met the chalkboard.
The elaborate formula was gone, smudged and obscured by drawings of smiley-faced butterflies, their wings rendered lovingly in white and yellow chalk.
His can fell to the floor, splattering flat root beer all over the tiles.

BUBBLES!

Sandra Keane-Utonium shuffled her way out of the laundry, gingerly balancing a teetering tower of colour-coded tunics in her arms. With a sigh, she wondered how her three daughters managed to get so many dresses dirty in the space of one week.

She set them down on the coffee table in the family room and went to fetch the ironing board. As she passed the door to her husbands lab, she heard an all too familiar, high-pitched whimper emit from within its white cavernous interior.
In turn, this was drowned out by a second voice:
What were you THINKING? I dont come into your room without permission and scribble over your homework!
Oh, boy. What had happened now?

She poked her head inside. John?
As soon as Bubbles spotted her, she zipped up into her arms, desperately clutching her sleeve.
Sandra looked down at the tearful moppet in her arms. Whats going on?
Utoniums face was harsh and steely. Bubbles came in here without permission and destroyed a very important project I was working on, he said in a tone normally reserved for teenage delinquents and army recruits.
I didnt mean to! the girl defiantly wailed. I didnt know it was important!
Regardless, you showed a total disrespect for the property of others.
Utonium paused, crossing his arms.
Youre grounded for two weeks!