The Field Trip
"Are we there yet?" shouted Zack, from the back of the stuffy, crowded bus.
"Yeah, I'm hungry!" Joe Sloan mumbled, running his hand through his light brown hair.
I slowly turned my head towards the boys sitting in back, sighing and looking at them exasperatingly. "You guys, shut-up! Ms. Howard's in a bad mood today! You don't want her to lock you up in the closet like she did to Erik, do you?"
They all quieted at my mention of Erik. He was considered lucky; he had gotten away, although nobody knew what happened to him. We figured he got locked up, like all the rest.
I turned back to my seat and glanced at Lindsey, already writing a letter to her boyfriend back at home. Sitting on the other side was Summer, who was reading a book and silently lip-singing to her Jewel CD. The only person not preoccupied was my best friend, Emily, sitting in the seat in front of me. She was staring out the window, probably counting roadkill or something morbid like that. She turned to me.
"Something weird is gonna happen today, Amy, I just know it." Her eyes searched my mind, as if trying to figure out if I could feel it too. Suddenly, the bus came to a screeching halt, and took off again, but slower. I looked towards the front, just in time to see Claire Danes, a movie actress, pry open the door and come inside the bus. We all knew why she was there. She was mad at Lindsey, because Leonardo, Lindsey's boyfriend, had dumped Claire for Lindsey. Lindsey screamed, and we all rushed to protect her, when there was a bright flash of light. Claire flew up, crashing through the roof and leaving a large, infinite hole to the twilight sky. She flew out, out, and away. She was never spoken of again.
I glanced out the window to see what had happened. We had obviously jumped to another dimension, because on one side of the bus, there were rows and rows of cornfield, and on the other, the dark blue ocean. We were creeping along very slowly, because Ms. Howard was yelling at the bus driver to be more careful. (Besides, the bus driver had accidentally said "can I" instead of "may I", and she was, after all, an English teacher).
Summer, Lindsey, and I were all watching the ocean side of the bus, when James, Summer's boyfriend, caught sight of something, as it loomed closer, I realized what it was. It was the Titanic! And low and behold, standing on the stern was Leonardo! He had come to see Lindsey. He jumped into the water and swam to the bus. Ms. Howard screamed, she didn't want him getting the bus wet. But he tore open the door, picked up Ms. Howard, and threw her onto Titanic, where she fell in love with Billy Zane and was never spoken of again.
Lindsey and Leo were reunited, and everyone was happy. But then the action started on the other side of the bus, and we were thankful to the busdriver for going so slow. As we watched the cornfield, we caught sight of someone we knew. Zack opened the window, ecstatic, and shouted:
"Hey, Erik! It's us!"
Could it be? It really was Erik! He ran over to our slow-moving bus and came inside. He looked up at the large hole in the roof, where Claire had gone flying through.
"Nice bus," he said matter-of-factly. And he smiled.
Erik was short, a boy of 15 or so, with large, eerie green eyes. I had missed him. The bus had stopped now, the bus driver stood up, and I realized she wasn't human. She was a penguin named Alicia.
"I'm going to look for a Seven-Eleven," Alicia said, "You kids be good."
"We thought Ms. Howard locked you up!" Emily cried, and Erik smiled.
"Nah, I came here to Gatlin, Nebraska..."
We were in Nebraska? I wondered...
"Anyway, I got this great gig leading a corn cult with a bunch of kids. We're the Children of the Corn," he explained, handing out free ears of corn to us. Joe Sloan immediately grabbed all our free samples and began eating them. Erik saw what Joe doing and screamed, falling to the floor of the bus. "You're not supposed to eat it!" Erik shrieked, "You're supposed to worship it!"
Erik pointed at Joe and mumbled some words. Joe went flying out over the cornfield, where the corn children tied him to a pole. He was to be a scarecrow for life. He was never spoken of again.
Alicia came back from the Seven-Eleven with cappuccinos for all of us. Erik went back to the corn. We were ready to leave this strange land, and thankfully, another flash of light brought us back. The bus traveling at a Good speed again, after our little stop.
"Almost there!" Zack yelled, stretching his legs out on the seat, with plenty of room now that Joe was gone. As I looked around at everyone on the bus, I realized I missed MY boyfriend, Matt Damon. He was probably off shooting some movie somewhere, I thought. I sighed and leaned my head against the window. Just then, I saw a flicker of movement near the side of the bus. My heart leapt. It was Matt! He was driving a clunky, beat-up piece of junk car, but it was him. I pushed the window down.
"Matt!" I cried.
"Amy!" Matt cried.
"Matt!" I cried.
"Amy!" Matt cried.
"Where are you going?" I shouted at him.
"To San Fransisco! My friends gave me this car for my birthday!" He gave me one of his dashing smiles, and I glanced at everyone the bus.
"Go with him!" They all shouted.
"I'm going with you!" I yelled at him, then grabbed my backpack, gave Emily, Summer, Leo, James, Lindsey, Zack, and Alicia quick hugs.
"Bye everyone! See you at school tomorrow!" I jumped out the window, and into Matt's car, as we rode of into the sunset, the bus leading us to San Fransisco. It was the best field trip ever.