Ms. Frizzle's personality and character are amazing. She is eccentric and she always has things under control. She genuinely loves her job including her students. Even under dangerous circumstances she is calm, cool, and collected, making sure the kids she teaches are safe. She lets them figure things out on their own but is always there when needed.
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As she walked through the mall, she got the same reactions as she did any other time. Stares and laughs, difficultly concealed grins and looks of confusion were all directed to her… nothing new. She wore a lime green dress with various different shoes printed on it and her hair was as frizzy as ever. In her arm was a purse that resembled a sneaker but held a green lizard named Liz inside of it. Her earrings shaped like flip-flops dangled as she stepped confidently through the food court ignoring the many eyes watching her.
She was on her way to the bus after a Saturday afternoon of shoe shopping and already new where she was going to take her students on the coming Monday. There was a sale on the reptile food and the store had sandals in her favorite color as well. Everything was going as planned and it was a fine day. That is, until it happened.
A ringtone sounded from the inside of the her purse as Liz struggled to find a foot-shaped cell phone in all the clutter. "Ah, there it is!" Ms. Frizzle exclaimed and thanked her pet. She opened her phone to hear a grave-sounding voice from the other end. It was Walkerville Elementary School's principal Mr. Ruhle.
"I hate to bother you on a Saturday, Ms. Frizzle, but this is rather important."
"What is it Mr. Ruhle?" she asked in a tone which showed no signs that the call bothered here. The principal continued.
"I have received some bad news from your father. Apparently something has happened to Murph at the recycling plant. I advise you rush home and find out what is going on."
"I will," she replied. There was a note of sadness and seriousness in her voice, something most people had never known to even exist in the quirky teacher. The day before, Murph and Valerie had had a nice conversation as they talked about life and jobs and such. Murph had mentioned how they were trying a new machine at the plant she worked at and was very excited about it. Val, as her friends and family called the teacher, hadn't thought anything of it except that her friend would be pleased. She never suspected anything to go wrong.
Handing the cell phone back to Liz, she began to walk more briskly in the direction of the revolving doors. Ms. Frizzle, being the person she is, did not panic, but her face became more serious with each step. In her mind she calmly went over the scenarios of what could be going on and tried to keep fears from coming into her thoughts. This was a hard task to accomplish, however, and she began to walk even faster. She pushed through the door when she came to it and then crossed the parking lot to her bus.