Chapter One

A Wet Memory

"School bell rings". Oh Boy! Finally lunchtime, cannot stand being in this classroom any longer! i said to myself as i got up from my desk almost knocking over my old friend Arnold in the process who had been sitting next to me. We both had been sitting through a double period of a Science class and the aircondioning was not at its best even through it was not a very hot day and it had been raining since yesterday. "Hey Wanda! Watch it" says Arnold "Oops sorry Arn, its just so stuffy in here! Let's go!" i replied. By that stage i had already packed up my books and stationary and was ready to go. While i was waiting for Arnold to gather up his things i was recapping on todays lesson, the subject was the Watercycle! Our teacher was saying that he had put out a rain gage to measure how much rain we have been having today and everyone had to make their own rain gages at home to measure the rain at their house. Of course there is always a report to do at the end of it "Reports are due to present to the class at the end of next week" he said. That brought back memories when Arnold and i were in Ms Frizzle's class way back in elementry school when studying the Water Cycle. This was going to be a sinch to study i thought to myself however this time it most likely will not be as magical as it was back then. No such things as crazy magical teachers or Magic School Bus's in high school!

Since leaving Ms Frizzle's class or should i say Professor Frizzle's (as now she has become a Professor) i do miss the adventures, she always went a step further then any other teacher "Take chances, make mistakes and get messy" she use to say. She was one of my favourite teachers! When we were learning about the Water Cycle back then we went into it so deep that it was a wet field trip! it was raining back then too and Arnold and i were in the girls bathroom collecting water for our Water Cycle report. Arnold was so worried about getting caught i teased him about getting caught by Tiffany (a girl i liked back then) because i was so bored with the subject that i felt i needed a good laugh. When i left the bathroom to take the bucket of water back to our classroom Tim was saying that it was time for Arnold and i to do our report. Shortly after i heard a scream from behind, it was Tiffany running away from the girls bathroom with Arnold trying to calm her down. I cannot help think that it was a little funny ha ha! I went into the classroom and put the water into our troughs for our report. Arnold appeared shaken after scaring off Tiffany with his bucket of water. He tipped his water in the troughs and began to explain bits about the Water Cycle and the Water Reservoir with the rest of the class being facinated. Then i remember hearing a ramble from the teachers closet, it sounded like thunder. Next thing we know a huge wave of water came bursting out (yeah a wave of water in the classroom crazy ha?) and on it catching the wave was Ms Frizzle! Making an entrance as usual "Good Morning Class" she says as she came to a holt on her surfboard. We all said Good Morning back while have been soaked by the wave before she asked if we were ready to begin our reports on water. Talk about crazy teacher hey? Next thing we knew she was unzipping her wetsuit to reveal a water cycle inspired dress and shoes! We all said yes but i then said not as excited as a trip to Water Land! (A water themed theme park with waterslides and rides etc) Everyone agreed eventually when i really said how exciting it would be even in the rain! Ms Frizzle agreed to take us there while we all cheered while she said those 3 words "To the bus!".

We all left the classroom while not relasing that we had left out Liz our pet lizard in the bathroom & went outside to the old school bus. It had stopped raining and DA (Dorothy-Ann) & Tim checked the rain gage. They said it had been a new school record with the amount of rain there had been. They placed it back on the stool and we all got on to the bus. I remember Ms Frizzle asking me for the key Arnold and I had borrowed and i realised that we had left the key in the girls bathroom while looking at Arnold. Luckliy Ms Frizzle had a spare. Phew! I thought and this is where it started to get wet. I heard Arnold saying that he had a sneaky feeling about this as that feels that this is a field trip about to happen. Ms Frizzle turns the key and in no time all the key and bus began to change even us! It happened in a flash of light, suddently i felt like i had been shunk and had become wet and loose. The next thing we know it felt like we were being tipped into something. I remember opening my eyes to see that i was looking up to the sky. I was floating in something along with the rest of the class, Ms Frizzle and the Bus. We had magically become water and were now in the rain gage. "What are we going to do, What are we going to do" i said as this was not the way to Water Land Ms Frizzle had other ideas. It wasn't long until the water we were in got warm and we started to evaporate. We were rising high into the sky while it wasn't long until was started to vaporize as Ms Frizzle explained that happens when water starts condensing. We began to change again and become clouds, being blown around by the wind was fun! We didnt realise that we were able to then shortly become rain drops as the cloud that we had come started to rain. I remember landing in a river in a rain forest somewhere in the world. Its amazing how far water and clouds go! Before we knew it was landed up in an ocean as the water from the river had been streaming so quickly and that every river will always lead to a ocean. Wondering on how we are to get out of situation, it wasn't long until we could feel the sun on us again and began to evaporate again. The class and i then realised that we had gone in circle. Does water ever stop? The question is no! Ms Frizzle then said that is whats could the Water Cycle as water always end up going in the circle everywhere around the world. It wasn't long until we found ourselves in London after becoming a cloud and raining again. We were so desprate to get back as a nearby clock said 3:00 (now i realise that the clock we saw was Big Ben!) and Ralphie stated he had baseball practise and Keesha had a dance lesson. Ms Frizzle tried to calm us down appearing in as raindrop dressed in an english soldier costume (told you she was crazy and to this day i have know idea how she got that costume) speaking in an english accent "Oh don't kids, its only 3:00 in London". "LONDON" we all said shorltly before we landed in a puddle in a London Street. How did we get home and turn back to normal? Arnold realised that there was no chance as he left the main key in the girls bathroom way back at school! Arnold apologized and admitted that he had left the tap running in one of the basins! it wasn't long until Ms Frizzle had all so confessed that the spare key she used was also made of water! "The school was be flooded by now" he said! Before we almost got run over by an english tax cab, we evaporated again into the sky. i was getting dizzy, i was enjoying the experience as it was way more fun then Water Land but i really wanted to turn back to normal and not be stuck in the Water Cycle forever.

The class and i discussed that we need to find the water reservoir in order to return back to school. Again we rose up to the sky, condensed and form a cloud. The bus that had been with us the whole time while be coming a cloud somehow magically become a bellows or a puffer like thing? To blow the class cloud away (hopefully to the water reservoir near our school which it did successfully. After raining into the reservoir and going through the cleaning process we somehow (while still water) went through all these pipes to hopefully end up in one of the fausets at the school. Still don't know how the class, Ms Frizzle and I found the correct one as we found oursleves swimming towards a blocked pipe with a large green, scaley thing blocking our way. It wasn't long until we discovered it was Liz, who had stuck her tail in there to stop the water from flowing. She had been having trouble turning the tap off so what do you do when you are a Liz after trying everything? Is to stick your tail up the tap! She was a very intelligent lizard! As we got closer to her, i had no chance but to bite her as there was no way else of getting out. It worked but i did feel sorry for her. We all flowed out of the fauset into the flooded bathroom noticing that water was everywhere. I was amazed that during this time that no one had come in to require to use the restroom. This would have been a shock! Flood in the school! Mr Rhule would have not been inpressed if he had caught us but luckily he didnt!

We grabbed the key (that wasn't made from water) from Liz and then the bathroom door began to open. We could see that someone had opened it and all the water that was in the bathroom started to flow out through the school and luckily outside. It wasn't long until there was a flash of light and the next thing we knew we were oursleves again. The bus was back to normal too sitting in the street like nothing had happened. The student who had opened the door had got caught up in the flow of water we found was Tiffany (poor girl to shocks in one day). I remember Arnold racing towards her to see if she was ok. She was in shock but thank god she didn't really see what happened but just seeing as drenched in water like she was.

After that day, i will never forget what depth we went into the study the Water Cycle. It was so much more fun then visiting Water Land which now i have and the Water Cycle beats it by far. It was like with every field trip that Ms Frizzle took us on, we really got a front row seat on learning and experience. If only every teacher was like that when teaching a particular topic. Our current high school teacher is nothing like Ms Frizzle or even like her sister Ms Fiona Frizzle (who came and took over teaching us when Ms Frizzle became a professor). Its likely we will never get that same magical experience like we did back then. Sadly its time to be normal and we are high school kids now. Luckily we will always still have the fun and memories.