Running Over Water

[3 - Cheerleaders]

Percy

We had a cab drop us off at this science event Annabeth had wanted to go to, but since the traffic was absolutely awful, we had him drop us off a block away. Even though it was located near the edge of the city, the traffic reached the next city over.

I looked at Annabeth who seemed like she was about to pass out from exhilaration as soon as we walked in. Her gray eyes were bright and enlivened. She was wearing a similar outfit from yesterday, except she had a jacket tied around her waist. Smart, I thought. It was a lot colder in here than outside, I just wore my favorite blue shirt.

It was a free event, so no tickets were required. We just strolled right in.

We walked into the loud crowd, where people of all ages appeared. There were kids holding their parents' hands. There were teenagers eager to look at a booth. There were even adults taking pictures of random things, what of, I couldn't say.

A massive screen was displayed overhead, reading, "Central City Annual Science Fair! Check out all of our booths and shows!" Well, I think that's what it said.

Annabeth immediately pulled me over to a booth where the people who were organizing it were wearing astronaut outfits. They showed a presentation to a small group of people. A small diorama stood on a table of a rocket on the moon.

We shuffled over to the next one, where college students, or people who looked that age were explaining to a child how they can help create a sustainable future using some device that they created. The kid nodded but didn't understand a thing they were saying.

After looking at some other booths and presentations, Annabeth was immediately intrigued and went to explore more. I, on the other hand, didn't find much interest in some, although there were some interesting ones about saving marine life. And there was a small presentation this woman was showing in the corner on how to boost health and cognition when you sleep. People actually sleeping? Couldn't be me.

Annabeth got lost in the crowd but I knew she was most likely asking some of the people lots of questions they didn't know the answers to, so I wasn't worried.

I wandered around, glancing at a few booths, looking at some of the funny shirts and hats people wore, even though I could barely read any of them. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people wearing costumes. It reminded me of Comic Con, except it's about science. So, like Science Con. If that's a thing.

While dawdling around, I spotted a booth that caught my attention. They were giving people water from two brands and asking them which one they preferred. I walked up to it, not having anything better to do, and one of the people there quickly greeted me. They explained to me their experiment and handed me a cup from one water brand. And after I drank it, they handed me the cup from the other brand.

It tasted the exact same. And I'm an expert at water tasting. Maybe they gave me the wrong cup of water?

I looked at mother and daughter next to me, and they had just finished drinking their cups of water. They pointed at the second brand, confident in their answer. The lady who greeted me waited for my answer but I just gave her a look. "They're the same."

"You have to pick one," she chided.

"How am I supposed to pick one if they're the same?" I questioned, a little bit offended. But then lady looks at her colleague and back at me. "Good job! You're surprisingly the first person who didn't fall for our experiment."

"Huh?"

"We lied to you about our experiment. We were really experimenting on the the Placebo effect. It's basically where the perception of something is based on what you want to believe. People believed the two waters were from a different brand, so they perceived different tastes. The water is, in fact, purely just tap water that we labeled differently."