Disclaimer: The Magic School Bus and all related characters and indicia are the products of noted children's author the late Joanna Cole and are trademarks of Scholastic Inc. and Nelvana Productions, which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. as the Warner Bros. studio produced the television show.

I own nothing except the plot of this story. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

In Ms. Frizzle's class, an exciting new field trip can be seen around the corner. And on these trips, anything can happen with each topic. On a Monday morning, Ms. Frizzle's students headed to school with high expectations for a great educational experience. The class was on their animals and animal habitats unit, and the students were working in pairs on a specific animal group to study. That day, Carlos and Dorothy Ann were showing Ralphie their project: a scale model of a gecko, since their topic was reptiles.

"Whoa. That is one cool lizard model," Ralphie mused. Then he went over to Phoebe, who was his partner for the mammals section of the project. He said excitedly, "Say, Phoebe. Did you get down the notes we worked on together while doing our sketch?"

Phoebe gave her friend her usual warm smile and said, "You know I'd never let you down on any assignment, Ralphie." And with that, she dug out the notes from her backpack and set them on her desk. Then she said, "Did you finalize our scale drawing of a monkey?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Ralphie replied with a grin. He reached into his backpack and unfurled a composite sketch of a monkey compared to a great ape. "See? The monkey, plus a big ol' gorilla for size comparison."

Phoebe giggled and said, "At my old school, we never went ape."

Tim arrived at the class next with Wanda and he said, "I brought all the notes we need for our project topic on fish. Do you have the photos, Wanda?"

"Sure do," she replied. After a little rummaging through her backpack, Wanda dug out a few photos of her pet goby fish. "Ta-da! I brought over my best photos of the best fish for our project. Since she's my pet, I named her Francine the Fish, or just Fran for short."

Then Keesha arrived with Arnold, and this time, the two looked ready to give their presentation. Since their project topic was amphibians, Arnold handled the writing while working with Keesha on making a scale model of a dart frog. The rest of the class came to greet their friends with a smile, and Carlos said, "How's your project coming along, Keesha?"

"Beautifully well," replied Keesha with a grin. "I was working on a frog model for our project while Arnold handled the notes. But he did lend a hand in constructing this model after we briefly debated on how we were going to carry out the project. Right, Arnold?"

Arnold nodded and said, "I prefer to do the notes when it comes to partner homework. I only hope Ms. Frizzle will give our projects a good look over before we go on our next field trip."

Arnold had done it. He said the magic words. Ms. Frizzle, the weirdest yet smartest teacher in Walker Elementary, appeared at the door with a long scroll of paper tucked under her right arm and Liz the lizard perched on her shoulder. Today, she was wearing a red dress that was covered in animals of all kinds: lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, eagles, crocodiles, fish, and more. Her earrings were shaped like monkeys and on her shoes were a pair of parrots.

Ms. Frizzle stepped to the front of the room and said in her ever-cheerful way, "Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Ms. Frizzle," the kids chorused.

"Today is our day to study the basic groups of animals found in the wild," the Friz began the lesson. Who would like to share their projects first?"

She scanned the faces of each of her students and then said, "Ah, Ralphie and Phoebe. Would you care to share your animal covered in hair?"

Phoebe held up the notes that she had written while Ralphie unfurled the sketch for the whole class to see. Then the two friends began to explain their project.

Phoebe said, "Well, as we all know, monkeys are primates; a group of animals that have special adaptations including opposable thumbs, keen eyesight, and high levels of intelligence. Like all mammals, monkeys have hair on their bodies and feed their young with milk."

"And what other primate do you have depicted in this sketch, Ralphie?" inquired Ms. Frizzle with a keen wink.

"That would be a gorilla," replied Ralphie as he pointed out the ape he had drawn, and Ms. Frizzle nodded with approval.

"Excellent, Ralphie. I'd say you and Phoebe aren't monkeying around on your teamwork," she said with a chuckle.

She would have gone on with the presentations when a loud beep from outside caught the class's attention. They all knew what that meant. It was field trip time.

"Okay, class. To the bus!" chortled Ms. Frizzle. And with that, she led her students from the classroom to the Magic School Bus, which had just parked at the school entrance. The kids sat down together in their partner groups, all excited about what wonderful field trip Ms. Frizzle had in store for them today.

Ms. Frizzle turned the key into the ignition and drove the bus a short distance from the school. Then she said to Liz, "Go on, Liz. Let's take flight."

The green chameleon used her tail to select a button on the bus dashboard, and then Ms. Frizzle pulled the transformation lever, saying, "Hold on tight, class. Here we go!"

"Again?" moaned Arnold.

The Magic School Bus began to stretch one way and bounce another, and then it spun around like a merry-go-round that was out of control. A split second later, the bus had turned into a Magic School Jet Plane and was rocketing out of Walkerville at high speed. Now the Friz was dressed like a pilot and was saying into the intercom, "This is Ms. Frizzle, your teacher, speaking. On behalf of the faculty of Walker Elementary, I would like to thank each of my brilliant students for flying the Magic School Bus. Please keep all hands, arms, legs, feet, and backpacks inside the bus until the end of the flight. Thank you."

With that, she steered the bus eastward and in only a few moments, the Magic School Jet Plane was flying in fair weather over the Atlantic Ocean. The kids got a wonderful view of the Atlantic as the bus-plane soared through the cloudless sky.

A/N: Hi, folks! While I'm working on my Wonder Woman origin fanfiction, I'm bringing a new Magic School Bus story to the table, and this time, the kids are gonna have a field trip that puts the "life" in "Circle of Life"! Hope you all enjoy, 'cause Chapter 2 is already on its way!