[ if the way I describe things is exactly word for word as it is in my tyler fic, know it's because I'm lazy and copy and pasted and I'm not ashamed of that ]

☆︎

GOTTA SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT.

RIO THOUGHT IT WAS UNNECESSARY to wake them all up by honking the horn of the van. She ended up bumping her head into Addy's, who didn't appreciate the wake up call either.

"Storm's here, guys. Let's go," Kate said excitedly as all the others groaned.

Javi, who was on the ground in a sleeping bag, whined and shut his eyes again. "Nah. No, it can't be. Ugh, I worked way too hard last night."

"Worked, my ass," Rio said, sitting up on her elbows. Then she spotted Addy's glasses and handed them to her. "How much did you drink last night?"

"Enough," Jeb said, laughing as he came up behind Kate.

Javi just mumbled an incoherent response, hiding back underneath his sleeping bag. But Kate wasn't having it.

"Javi, get up. Come on!" Kate ordered while ripping the top of the sleeping bag off him.

"Come on," he groaned, not wanting to move.

"Javi, get up now, and I'll buy you one of those patty melts when we're back on campus," Rio said while pulling her dyed blonde hair up into a ponytail, knowing that greasy food was the way to his heart.

Javi peeked one eye open. "Two patty melts."

Rio just rolled her eyes. "You drive a hard bargain."

Soon, everyone was getting up and getting to work. While Jeb grabbed his video camera to document everything, Rio sat on the hood of the van, documenting the current weather so she could compare it to what was happening inside the nearby storm. Meanwhile, everyone else was doing set up for the experiment.

Well, not everyone. Javi was sitting in a lawn chair with his sunglasses on.

"Jeb, are you sure you're recording?" Kate asked as her boyfriend pointed the camera at her. "I don't see a red light."

"Oh," he said before looking at the lense, catching an image of his upside down and way too close face. "Yeah. Recording."

He then pointed the camera back at her and laughed, and whenever Jeb laughed, so did Kate. Rio thought the couple was perfect for each other, which sucked, because she also knew Javi was so pathetically in love with Kate.

"Don't make me laugh," Kate said, trying to be stern. Then she cleared her throat. "Okay. Today, our science team from the Tornado Tamer Project is out in the field. About to chase a storm southwest of us. Our experient is designed to decrease the moisture inside of a tornado to see if we can make it collapse."

"Tell the folks how you do that, Kate," Jeb requested.

"Well, first we gotta find a tornado to suck up our super absorbent polymers in these barrels—"

"Diapers," Addy suddenly whispered, catching their attention. "Tell them it's the same stuff we use in diapers."

Rather than let Kate do it, Jeb just pointed the camera at a shy Addy. "It's nontoxic." Addy laughed and then passed Kate, giving her a fist bump. She joined Rio, sitting on the hood of the van and kissing her cheek. "Suggested by Rio, our eco-warrior."

"Gotta save the environment," Rio said, winking at the camera.

Praveen then came over with his laptop. "Uh, the Doppler doesn't show a storm until the afternoon."

"Well, data doesn't see what Kate sees, remember?" Addy said.

"How about Kate sees a few miles of sleep? That might work," Javi said, his sunglasses still perched on his face as he remained sitting. Then he glared at Praveen, who sat his laptop down on the giant monstrosity that was Dorothy. "Praveen, what are you doing? Dorothy's not a desk."

"Then get up and do something," Rio shot at him, a fake annoyed look on her face. All Javi really needed to do was analyze the data.

Now, Kate had the camera, and was excited to film everyone.

"C'mon. Get in, get in, get in!" All of them crowded together, and Javi tugged on the ponytail in Rio's hair to mess it up, making her elbow him in the gut. "You know what today is?"

"The day we tame a tornado!" they all shouted before hollering and cheering.

"Alright. But I'm gonna yak first," Javi said, walking away in the grass.

Rio grimaced. "That's what you get, Rivera."

☆︎

Rio was squished between Praveen and Addy in the back seat of the car, not that she minded, as she could lean her head on Addy's shoulder. As they got closer, the storm continued to develop.

"Kate was right," Praveen said, looking at the Doppler. "Southeast winds are picking up."

"They are," she agreed, her eyes glued to the window.

"It's really building up," he noted.

Addy was watching closely as lightning struck in the distance. "One Mississippi. Two Mississippi."

Praveen eyed her like she was crazy. "That's not a thing, by the way."

"Um, I'm pretty sure it's a thing," Rio said, coming to her girlfriend's defense as Kate's phone rang. "And Addy scored higher than you in all your meteorology classes, so she'd know."

"Yeah," Addy smirked. "I'd know."

Praveen rolled her eyes. "Unfair. You know nothing about physics. You're just taking her side because you're gonna get kisses from it."

"Well, yeah. That too," Rio said, smiling sheepishly.

"Good enough reason for me," Addy said, kissing Rio gently, making her smile.

Jeb then leaned back and informed them who Kate was on the phone with. "Mrs. Carter."

"Hey!"

"Mrs. Carter!"

"Hey, Kathy!"

Kate smiled at her friends and finished up the call. "Okay, I'll tell them. Love you," she said before hanging up. "Uh, she says there's barbecue at the house when we're done."

"Ugh," Rio said, pulling a face. It just made everyone laugh, all knowing she wasn't a fan of barbecue.

"Re, she's putting a hamburger on the grill for you."

"Oh, bless her," Rio said, putting her hands together.

Kate smiled at her before looking back out the window, watching the world pass by. "Man, I love Oklahoma."

"Definitely better than Miami most days," Rio said. She loved the vast fields and the sheer amount of pure nature that was around every corner, not destroyed by big concrete jungles. "Too chaotic there."

Then Javi came over the radio in the car. "Alright, how we getting this thing? I need a southwest position to read my sensors."

"Yeah, pulling right up," Jeb told him.

More lightning struck, and Addy began counting. "One Mississippi—" Only for thunder to cut her off, the sound booming all around them. She laughed hard along with Rio, both getting excited by how close the storm was.

"Oh, and the wind shear is strong," Javi added.

"That's some serious energy building in there. Whoo!" Addy cheered. Then she rolled down her window and stuck her head out, beginning to film on her phone. Which of course, stressed Praveen out.

He reached across Rio and grabbed onto Addy's belt. "Hey, buckle up. Don't lean out the window!"

She just cheered carefreely, making Rio smile. She loved this side of Addy. Addy was everything that Rio wasn't — like a missing half. One was cautious and the other was rebellious. One loved adventure while the other had a sensible head on her shoulders.

"C'mon. Come back in. Addy, that's — please?" he begged.

With a huff, Addy did as asked. "Ever since you got struck by lightning, you're no fun."

"Yeah, well, that's what happens," he grumbled.

"Hey, we should get the mixture ready," Kate suddenly said.

Jed looked at her confused. "Well, don't you wanna wait for the rain to hit first?" As if on cue, the first drops hit the windshield. Kate just smiled knowingly. "Okay, we should, um, we should get the mixture ready."

"Yes, we should."

"Never doubt Katy," Rio said, shrugging. "She knows all."

Jeb just shook his head and laughed before pulling over on the side of the dirt road, Javi stopping a few seconds later.

While Jeb and Kate worked on mixing the barrels together, Addy focused on Dorothy while Praveen triple-checked on how the car was holding up. Rio was pulling up the stats on the Doppler, monitoring them closely.

"There she is!" Javi said while jumping out of the van with his computer in hand, looking at the sky.

"Okay, quick, quick, quick!" Kate said, getting more excited.

Addy was getting fed up, pressing the ON button on Dorothy over and over again. Which just provoked Javi. "Hey, hey! Gentle. Gentle! You might break it." Then he hit it hard on the side, making Rio snicker. "Now try it."

"What happened to gentle?" Rio asked sarcastically.

Addy tried again and again, only to look at him in annoyance. This was their one chance, and his precious Dorothy wasn't working.

"Usually, it works," he shrugged.

"This thing is so old."

"Look, I mean, it's old, but it's field tested. You know, unlike Kate's science project over here," Javi joked.

"It's our science project," Praveen reminded him.

"No time, Javi," Kate said, running around the barrels. "If Dorothy's not working, then forget the date. Okay, we'll worry about it later."

Rio peered at Kate, knowing they couldn't just forget the data, not when they were trying to win a grant to continue this research. They couldn't afford to keep going for much longer without a grant.

"Forget the data? Wha—"

"This storm's not gonna wait for us, Javi," Jeb said as if he didn't know that.

"There's death ridge setting in," Kate added. "Probably our last chase of the season. No matter what, we've gotta get these in the air and see if they can make a tornado vanish. It's more important."

"No, h - how about it's equally as important we do both," he argued.

"He's right," Rio said. "Not to agree with Javi, but if we don't have the data, no one will believe us when this works."

But thankfully, Addy came to the rescue. "Oh, got it!" she exclaimed as Dorothy let out a crackling sound, opening up to reveal the numerous little sensors that would be picked up in the storm.

Kate came over with a smile and picked one up. "Fine. Get us the numbers. Whatever we need to win a big fat grant."

"Yeah, I'm all about my cash money right there," Javi said, chuckling as he did his little handshake with Kate.

Rio snorted. "That's because you don't have cash money."