You'd hardly ever imagine a group of schoolchildren who weren't looking forward to the summer holidays. But then again you probably were not aware of Ms. Frizzle's class and the amazing field trips they took. The field trips that now appeared would come to an end as each day grew longer. It was the final day of school for Walkerville Elementary and there was an unspoken gloominess in the hot air for eight of the school's pupils. Yet, as Ms. Frizzle handed out their last report cards, she seemed happy for them all.
"I do believe your parents will all be glad that you've all gotten such excellent grades this year, especially in science."
However, the kids, all somewhat nervous about their future without Ms. Frizzle, didn't seem to care. Even Carlos seemed too glum to make jokes. His teacher walked to the front of the room and prepared to speak.
"Well everybody, I thought since this was the final day of school, that we could all finish the year with a quick, final field trip."
Everyone's eyes perked up at the idea. The teacher scooped up Liz, the class pet, into her arms and then opened the door to the hallway.
"Come along, to the bus!"
The schoolchildren all loaded onto the bus, ready for one final field trip. It felt like a special, yet somber, occasion to all of them, the true end of a wonderous chapter in their young lives. Even Arnold didn't complain in the least as he took his seat next to Carlos.
"Where are we going today, Ms. Frizzle?" Tim said, always excited to go on another voyage.
"My students, today I'll take you someplace you've never been to. My home."
"Your house?" said Ralphie, "but we've already been there. We learned all about electricity then."
"No Ralphie, we're not going to my house. I'm showing you my home."
The class all seated, Ms. Frizzle pressed a small red button on the dashboard. The bus zoomed upward into the sky, everything streaking past the eyes of the kids in unbelievable speed and color, marvelous smears of purple and cyan painting their vision. Soon they came to a slow halt.
"What's going on, where are we?" asked Arnold after the bus had stopped moving.
"We're in a forest, look!" responded Carlos, gesturing to the windows. Everybody looked out to see that all around them were thousands of large conifer trees. Ms. Frizzle opened the bus's doors and all the children quickly exited to get a better view of the woodlands that now engulfed them.
"What is this place?" said Keesha, taken back by the idyllic beauty of these green woods.
"It's a forest unlike any on Earth. Because it's not on Earth," Ms. Frizzle replied. Looking up into the darkening sky, Dorothy Ann observed two small moons, and beyond that an even tinier turquoise dot. She recognized the nearer celestial bodies as Deimos and Phobos.
"We're on Mars!" she concluded aloud, to the amazement of her classmates.
"But that couldn't possibly be," stated Phoebe, "we've been to Mars in the past and we needed spacesuits to survive."
"Yeah, and the gravity's not the same as it was last time. It's just like on Earth." Wanda observed. She hopped into the air like a rabbit to demonstrate this to the others.
"Well this Mars has an atmosphere and Earth-like gravity," Dorothy Ann said. She continued, pointing to the countless trees that surrounded them, "And liquid water and Earth plants. Something amazing must've happened to make this happen."
"That's right Dorothy Ann," began her teacher, "This Mars was radically altered."
"It was terraformed?" asked Ralphie.
"You're correct, Ralphie!"
"What's terraforming?" questioned Tim.
"It's an idea that one day humans will be able to change what planets are fundamentally like," explained the boy, "make them into planets that people could naturally live and thrive on. It appears a lot of times in science fiction."
"But humans don't currently have the ability to do that. So that can only mean one thing: we're in the future!" exclaimed Wanda.
That incredible statement took everybody by surprise. They'd never been on a field trip to the future before, it felt as though they'd traveled farther than they'd ever been. And for a group who had been upon so many fantastical journeys, that indeed was very far.
"Ms. Frizzle," said Arnold, "how far into the future are we?"
"Approximately 1000 years after you all graduated from my class."
"Extraordinary…" remarked Dorothy Ann, "But, why would you take us here? To this time and place?"
"Because, my beloved pupils, this is my home. This is where I am from, where I was born and raised."
"You're a human from the future and from Mars!" shouted an amazed Carlos. His words and tone held true to the silent reactions and thoughts of his friends. Never in all the time they had adventured with Ms. Frizzle could they have ever dreamed or guessed that this was her origins.
"Indeed, Liz and the Bus come from here as well," Ms. Frizzle explained as she started to walk up a small hill nearby. The rest of the class followed her in silence, it was an awful lot to take in so unexpectedly. Before they knew it, they were at the summit. In the distance was the stark outline of a metropolis, a futuristic Martian city in brilliant yellows and blues.
"That's my hometown…"
"Why'd you leave it?" asked Keesha, "why go back in time to live on Earth?"
"Well, when I was born, Earth was a changed place from when you lived on it. And it hadn't changed for the better. I was told stories as a child of the forbidden lost planet that was our grandmother and our neighbor. I feel in love with an Earth that I could never visit, or so I thought. Then I found the Bus, or rather it found me. All my childhood fantasies could come true as, with Liz, the three of us saw such wonderful things in times and places that seemed to come out of my dreamiest dreams."
"But, why become a teacher?" wondered Phoebe to her strange mentor.
"I wanted to influence others and show people the wonders of this tiny corner of the universe. You're all quite lucky to have been born at such an important time in history, and I had just had to use the Bus's abilities to bring forth a wonder in children, a wonder that previously only existed in my girlhood's head. You aren't the first class I've taught and you won't be the last. Perhaps next time I'll teach students in 2200 AD."
Arnold sat down upon the ground, thinking hard of everything he'd learned in the past few minutes. Numerous questions echoed in his head, and in the heads of all his friends as well. Questions that were hard to say. Finally, Carlos broke the silence.
"So, what will happen to you now?"
"Well, I'll keep doing what I've always done. Stumbling upon classes to teach, finding great students like all of you to guide through science and life. I don't know how it'll end for me, the Bus, or Liz… but we're all so glad that we ended up meeting you along the way."
Some of the children were silent, yet Dorothy Ann had the beginnings of tears in her young blue eyes. Thinking of everything that had occurred to her over the past year, she ran up to Ms. Frizzle and embraced her.
"T-thank you… I'll never forget you…" she began to cry into her teacher's green dress. Soon the others gathered around for a group hug, all of them wearing their emotions plainly. Ms. Frizzle said nothing in response, only soothingly wrapping her arms around the kids. After a few minutes the hug dissolved.
"Come now, children…" said Ms. Frizzle calmly, Liz still preached upon her shoulder, "it's time we return to the Bus." The class followed her back downhill, having faced humanity's future and the true nature of their odd guardian head on, yet still with some doubts on what the first day of summer tomorrow would bring. Back in their familiar school bus, they sat down and looked out of the clear glass windows that they had seen seemingly the entire universe through. They saw the majestic greenery of the Martian taiga blur into a psychedelic smear, the last time they would ever venture through the marvels of outer space. Back in the school parking lot, none of them seemed to want to be the first to leave the bus, as if they were thinking that if they stayed on that they could avoid the reality of normalcy that would come next.
Keesha was the first of the eight to sit up. Walking up to the opened bus doors, she turned to her teacher in the driver's seat. As if telling what her student was thinking of, Ms. Frizzle responded.
"You'll do great things. You'll be alright. You all will. Just remember, of all the things you learned this year, this one thing. I am so very proud of all of you."
With that, Keesha stepped off the bus onto the black warm asphalt ground below. One by one, her friends followed her, until they were all out of the bus. Ms. Frizzle slowly stepped after them.
An automobile horn beeped. Everybody looked over to see Ralphie's mother signaling to him from her car. It was time to the kids to be picked up by their parents.
"Just a minute, Mom," he began, "Ms. Frizzle, we just want to say…". The children all turned their heads back, but to their surprise the Bus and their beloved teacher were no longer there.
Valerie Frizzle was in London, 2200 AD, in a classroom that was both familiar yet new to her. She held up the photograph of herself and the eight smiling American children, reading the back once more:
"Walkerville, USA. 700 years B.E. (Before Exodus). Arnold, Carlos, Dorothy Ann, Keesha, Phoebe, Ralphie, Tim, and Wanda. One of the most extraordinary groups of children I've had the privilege to befriend."
The doors to the room opened and a set of new pupils entered, prepared for the year ahead and the opportunity to learn. Their frizzled-hair teacher smiled at them as they took their seats.
"Hello, everyone. Allow me to introduce myself." She said as she began to write upon the whiteboard, "I'm Ms. Frizzle and I don't think you'll ever have a classroom quite like mine…"