By: CNJ
PG-13
12: Class Trip Trouble
Mary Anne:
That Tuesday after we got
back from Thanksgiving, all the ninth-grade physical science classes went
on the field trip to the Planetarium that Ms. Quebec had been talking about
for over a month. Most of the BSC sat together on the bus. Logan and I
had apologized that Monday after Thanksgiving for our tiff last week. We
both acted like idiots; he shouldn't have gotten so jealous and rude and
I shouldn't have told him to go to hell. Logan told me that he, his dad
and his brother, Hunter had gotten into a fight the Wednesday before Thanksgiving
on the way down to Kentucky.
"Kind of like us," I said.
"You got into a fight?"
Logan asked.
"More like my dad and grandmother..."
I told him a little about the argument between Dad and Grandma and how
I'd gotten so upset that I'd started to cry and told them both to grow
up. "...and so they did."
Logan:
I told Mary Anne a little bit about our family fight, but didn't tell her about the really embarrassing part...Hunter and I were arguing in the car on the drive down to Kentucky mainly because Hunter was being a pain in the butt as usual and throwing gum wrappers in my direction. I kept telling him to cut it out and Hunter whined that it was an "accident" with the wind blowing and anyway, he didn't have enough room on his side and I told him to just grow up and hold his junk on his lap. Hunter retorted some smart comment at me and I got mad enough to tell Hunter to shut up. I guess that got Dad annoyed enough to pull over to the curb. Oh, this is so humiliating...Dad had gotten out of the car, yanking my brother and me out of the car, grabbing each of us by one arm and then had swatted both of us on our rear ends like we were little kids! I'm almost fifteen, not five! I'd spent the rest of that Thanksgiving weekend fuming at Dad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kristy:
Our class trip to the Planetarium
was interesting...in several ways. The ninth grade got a big tour by one
of the guides, then we were allowed to separate and explore around as long
as we met back by the mural of Saturn by two. At first the BSC wandered
around together, then we sort of branched out but stayed in proximity.
Stacey especially was fascinated by the darkroom with realistic-looking
planets hanging from the ceiling.
"You can tell the planets
from regular sights because they don't glitter," Stacey told us. "Stars
have that heat."
"Isn't it intriguing how
that heat can make something so pretty?" Mary Anne added. "There're all
in different stages, like humans."
"Maybe when I get my own
place, I'd love to paint that on my ceiling with day-glo paint," Claudia
put in. We stood quietly for a long minute. Then I looked at my watch.
"It's just about time to
head downstairs," I announced. Reluctantly, we edged out of the room, all
of us wishing we could stay there all afternoon. As we headed down the
hallway, there was a huge commotion near the bathrooms and Alan Gray was
shoved out the door and he plopped on the floor, screaming, "SHIIIIIIT!"
at the top of his lungs. A bunch of kids were yelling, cursing, and shoving
as if they were at the New York stock market on a bad day. To make matters
worse, ketchup and mustard was dangling all over the railways and doorframes.
There was even some splatted on the wall.
"We'd better stay away,"
Mary Anne whispered, her brows taut with worry.
"Good idea," I nodded. "Wherever
there's Alan Gray, there's trouble."
"And Cokie Mason," Abby
added as we rushed past them and down the escalator. I looked back and
sure enough, Cokie was there hanging on to the door of the men's room by
her arm and squirting Randy Greenhold with mustard from a bottle. Once
we got to the mural on the lower floor, we and the other kids who were
there watched from the bottom as security guard finally saw them and stormed
up.
"Alllll right, kids, WHAT'S
GOING ON HERE!" one yelled. Just then, ketchup squirted the ceiling.
"Oooops..." Randy Greenhold
muttered as one of the guards glared at him.
"Oops is right!"
she barked. "Just where are your parents...teachers?" The kids there went
completely quiet.
"I hate trouble," Mary Anne
whispered. She was trembling a little and had a worried, nervous frown
on her face. "I hope they don't end up in juvenile hall."
"It would serve those assholes
right if they did," I whispered back. It seems as if most of the "popular"
clique were in on this mess. By "popular," I don't mean well-liked, but
it's where the snobby kids try to butter them up. Cokie Mason seems to
be a wanna-be in that crowd, but they keep her on the fringes. I just hope
they doesn't wreck things for all of us freshmen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a good thing we did
stay away. We got back to school and word got back to Ms. Silverbein, our
principal. The day after the trip, Alan, Cokie and the rest of the gang
were called into Ms. Silverbein's office. I was sooo glad they didn't get
our whole class in trouble. I've seen too many deals like that...a few
kids cause trouble and the whole class is punished. Ms. Silverbein knows
better; she just weeded out the troublemakers. No, they didn't get sent
to juvenile hall, as Mary Anne had so feared, but from what I heard, their
parents were called and they had detention for a week. And also, Ms. Silverbein
personally contacted the planetarium, apologizing for their actions and
sent them to clean up the mess that they'd made on Saturday morning. I
suspected Ms. Silverbein was really embarrassed. I doubted the firm lecture
they'd gotten would have fried on Alan or Cokie's minds, but it was good
that they'd paid somehow. Alan scowled the rest of that week and muttered
about that fat bag while Cokie stayed slumped down on her desk.
"Heeeey, Grace!" Cokie called
as she sat by her locker that Thursday afternoon between classes. Grace
just walked by her. I was getting some books out too, across the hall from
Cokie, so I could see and hear what went on. "C'mon, I know you hear me,
so don't play deaf, you idiot!" Cokie screamed after Grace.
"You're the idiot..." Grace
muttered, glancing coolly at her. "You're the one who wrecked that stupid
field trip for all of us."
"Yeah, thanks for the reminder,"
Cokie snarled sarcastically, standing up and slamming her locker. "That
was Alan and Randy's fault...they shoved me into the mens' room and Alan
stole that junk from the cafeteria. But does Silverbein hear my side? NOOOO!
She blames me too! She probably can hardly see around her nose which is
the size of the Statue of Liberty..."Grace turned and continued down the
hall, shutting her out. Good for her, I thought, closing my locker. Cokie
then saw me and glared. Then she muttered, "...listening in on other people's
conversations; that annoys me..." and stormed down the hall. I headed to
my own class, getting there just as the bell rang. I got the feeling it
was the beginning of the end of Cokie and Grace's friendship. Good, maybe
Grace was wising up. I just hoped the clique didn't cause more trouble.
