This model bridge was going to need more strength than Viola could achieve with Elmer's glue, so her parents had bought her some superglue.
Superglue. She'd heard of this stuff. Knew not to touch it with her fingers or her fingers would get glued together. She'd heard of people getting their hands stuck to their eyelids, or their finger stuck in their nose. So she'd have to approach this cautiously.
Viola really didn't know how much superglue it took to hold things together, or whether it was important to wait awhile, or whether to put force on the bind while it cured. So she'd experiment. She got some styrofoam cups and a board. She carefully squeezed out drops of superglue onto the board of various sizes, quickly put cups on top of each, and weighted down some of the cups. She took notes of which bind was done which way.
And waited. Watched an episode of Gilligan's Island with her brother, then the Andy Griffith show. That should be long enough.
Viola took off the weights, then checked how well the cups were bound to the board. They were not bound at all. They all just fell off. Superglue? What's super about it?
But, looking closer, the cups with a big dab of superglue now had a hole in the bottom. The smaller ones had a cavity where the drop had touched them. The wood didn't seem to be damaged though.
Huh. Apparently styrofoam cups weren't a good idea here. Next round of experiments she'd try wood on wood ...
This was first on reddit.com r/WritingPrompts, in response to my own prompt: "a styrofoam cup apparently wasn't a good idea here."