The Lost Times: The Book Of Secrets
By
Panda
Chapter 1: The Field Trip
"Okay class; now remember our field trip to the national museum is next Monday. Remember to bring your permission slips back by Friday" said to the class.
It was the last block of the day and the bell was just about to ring. Me and my best friends sat in the back of the class talking to one another. "Man this is going to suck, there is never anything interesting about bones!" said Matt Nerlosky in an almost sleepy voice. He was never one to do something dull, he tried to find adventure in everything.
"True…" said Jaden Song with a mouth full of chips, crumbs falling onto his shirt in a haphazard fashion.
"But, then again I heard that there is this awesome book that's locked up somewhere in the museum, maybe we should try to find it…" he said, trying not to spit out his food. Now Jaden loved chips, you can put any bag of chips in his hand and he will love you for life, so because of that we call him Chip, he was always the jokester of the group and could crack a joke in just about any situation. Then, there's me, James Thompson, the leader of the group, at least that's what they call me. When ADVENTURE is mentioned I am the man that is up for the challenge. And this adventure is gonna be a big one.
I am the biggest nerd when it comes to school work. We all lived in the same neighborhood, we hung out every day and went on some of the most craziest adventures. Yet, next Monday we would find ourselves on the biggest adventure of our lives.
"RRRIIINNNGGG" the bell had rung and everyone hurried out of the classroom, all heading towards the buses and the car loop. Then all of a sudden the bus driver started to beep the horn and she started saying "Hurry up! I don't have all day, I got a life ya' know!" Now that wasn't out of the ordinary for us. You see the bus driver has always been mean to kids, she never liked kids. Especially me and my friends. I distinctly remember this one time last school year the bus driver had enough of us and kicked us off the bus so we had to walk to school, And this particular morning was the worst rain storm that had come in years. After we hopped on it was a short ride to our stop which was just outside of our street. As we got off the bus driver slammed the bus doors and drove off with a puff of smoke from the exhaust pipe. "Man, what a witch she is! I hate her guts" said Matt, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and giving a stink eye to the direction of the bus.
We all started laughing and then Chip said with the biggest smile "I couldn't agree more with you, just imagine riding your car down the street and see her on her broomstick! And with a black cat on the handle to boot!" We laughed for a few minutes as we walked down the street, then went our separate ways and headed home.
A few days had passed and it was Monday Morning, The weekend seemed to have flown by, The day that the gang and I were both hyped and worried about. It was just after six o'clock in the morning when Matt's alarm clock went off with the most annoying sound one could make "BEEP, BEEP, CHIRP, BEEP" his mother finally came into the room and shouted "Matt if you do not get up I will wake you up! And I'm sure to the heavens you don't want that!"
Matt responded with a low grumble, "Ten more minutes mom please!" Just then a splash of ice cold water was thrown onto him, which means on impact made Matt jump out of his bed and hit the ground with a thud. As he looked up he could see his mother standing in the doorway with a grin on her face, bucket in hand; "Well, you forced this upon yourself, Now get dressed the bus will be here soon!"
Five minutes later, Matt walked down the stairs looking like he was about to fall on his face dead, he sat at the breakfast table and made himself a bowl of cereal. When his mother came into the kitchen and asked, "Did you turn in the permission slip to Mrs. Smith?" "Yes Mom" Matt replied, almost falling asleep into his bowl of cheerios. "Good because I'm not going to waste precious gas to drive your butt to the museum," she said with a stern tone. Matt looked up with misty eyes. "Alright mom".
Chip and I were standing at the bus stop when we spotted Matt walking down the street towards us. I looked at him and waved as I shouted "Hey! Are you ready to go to the museum today matt?" He replied with just a haphazard wave and a nod of disgruntled approval. "No, I'm so tired my mom woke me up at six today" he grumbled to the group. "Oh yeah your mom is super strict! I remember the one time I slept over" Chip said, putting his hand to his chin and thinking back. "She woke us both up at what was it, like five thirty in the morning with a blow horn and made us brush our teeth and do push-ups before breakfast!" Chip smiled at his slight over-exaggeration.
Matt looked over to Chip and tried to change the subject. "Anyways. I'm pretty sure the museum will be more boring than when the Math teacher decided to give us that one hundred-twenty question test in geometry!" the look of pure terror in Matt's eyes as he relieved that class. I butted into the conversation "Oh yeah! I almost failed that test because I fell asleep halfway through it!" Just as I finished that thought the bus roars up to the stop and with a halting squeal of the tires the doors fly open and the bus driver looking down with a scorn look plastered to her face "Get in or get lost! I don't have time to put up with you little brats!" We ran into the bus as quickly as possible and picked the open seats just a row back from two of the class nerds talking about the museum.
"Dude! I can't wait to get to the museum!" the first of the two nerds spoke up. "It will be super interesting to see the bradypus tridactylus exhibit! Or more commonly known as the Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth!" The other nerd looked over in pure delightment as he held up a special event poster. "I really want to see the prehistoric Sciurus Carolinensis, The Eastern Gray Squirrel!" said the second one.
We finally got to school and as we were getting off the bus Matt tripped over his own two feet and fell down the bus stairs, nearly toppling over the administrator that was walking by. "Watch out sir!" we all screamed out to the administrator. He nearly avoided the falling child and looked at us in pure shock. "Sorry Sir, I didn't mean to run into you" Matt stammered. "It's alright son, it was an accident" the administrator replied as he helped Matt up off the grass. "If you are alright please head to class" He added.
With that, me and Chip both held Matt's shoulders as we all walked to class. We walked into 's classroom and took our seats. Mrs. Smith was always late to class, because she drove a car that was possibly the slowest land vehicle known to man. And she only lived ten miles from the school itself. As the door swung open and Mrs. Smith walked in wearing a bright blue dress with depictions of dinosaur bones on then and her hair in a disheveled mess she hurriedly sets her books down on the desk and looks up "Sorry I'm late class; my car got a flat, and rand out of gas coming to school" her face reddened. As she caught her breath and composed herself she speaks up "Now then, Let's grab all our belongings and head to the bus we got a lot to see and not a lot of time to see it all"
We all grabbed our stuff and started out the door. Chip, of course, decided now was the opportune time to stop by the lunchroom and grab a bag of chips for the road. As we got to the bus loop we noticed that the bus came speeding around the corner and halted a few feet from us, As the doors flung open the witch of a bus driver stepped out and quickly turned to our group. Giving every kid the evil hard looking stare. One that just makes your blood run cold. In a very loud and authoritative tone she spoke out. "OKAY BRATS! Listen up" She marches up and down like a drill sergeant in those military movies we'd used to watch. "I'm only here to take you brats to and from this museum, I'm nobody's mother so I expect the best from you, any fighting, any food or drinks dropped or spilled on my bus, I will pull over and I will kick whoever did it out and they can walk!" She eyes Chip as he gulps down his last bite, then back to the class "One other thing, I expect you to get on and sit orderly. There is no standing or rolling down the windows, and there will not be any horse play whatsoever!" She barked. After she finished making us feel we were loading up to a high end prison we all got onto the we all sat down the bus jutted off and started to leave the school. I can tell this is gonna be a long trip.
We ended up talking for a good two hours about how we will sneak off and try to find this mysterious book that Chip had talked about the other day. As we stepped off the bus and the museum loomed overhead I looked at the others with a determined smile. "Well after two hours of sitting I think i got feeling back in my legs, glad we're finally here". Suddenly the bus doors slammed behind us as the last kid got off and drove off like she was never going to come back. We stared at the puff of smoke from the exhaust disappearing into the distance and laughed slightly.
After gathering up our backpacks and heading to the front entrance where the kiosk was, we were handed our maps along with our tickets. "Okay Class, We are going to take the tour of the museum then afterwards you all can go your separate ways and explore!" Mrs. Smith addressed the class as the tour guides all lined up beside her.
One of the tour guides started to speak. "Hello everyone, My name is Professor Feeble. I am the head director here at the museum…" As he was talking three museum professors walked up and one of them whispered into his ear. He looked fresh out of a movie with big boots and a funky French mustache.
"Sir, we think we found it," one of the professors chirped. Professor Feeble looked around at the tour guides and picked one "It seems something has come up that I must urgently attend to. Professor Garate here will lead you through the tour" he walked off with the others.
The new tour guide stepped up and looked around "Now then, why don't we begin in the front of the museum with the exhibits of some famous people named Lewis and Clark?" He smiled as we led the tour. "This is the early human, the Neanderthal! Little is known about them except that most were found in Africa and have been the only life to have buried their dead before they evolved" Professor Garate said with some excitement to his voice. He looked at his watch to check the time, the time on the watch read 12:30. With that he looked back at us and said "Well kids it looks like it's time for lunch, we will finish the tour later" With that he directed us to the food court and he went off towards the back of the museum.