literature

Field Trips

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See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled, anyway. And before that, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that… Well, you get the idea. -pg. 2 The Lightning Thief

I plodded along with my class as we took in the view of the Saratoga battlefield. Actually, there wasn't much to look at; it was just a grassy field all the way around. The only thing stood out was a cannon and our ugly yellow school bus in the distance which signified that it was almost time to leave. I was bursting with excitement—if I could even make it there.

I lingered in the back, knowing that I might cause trouble. And hey, it wasn't all my fault. They were accidents! …most of the time.

Seeing the cannon didn't help. I could only wonder what I could do with it. Shoot it at Mr. Aldin? At the kids? Maybe even blow it up into pieces—not that I wanted to, of course.

"Now everyone," Mr. Aldin said. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

"A Revolutionary War cannon," someone said, probably someone who was so psyched up for this field trip that they actually researched this thing. Me? I was one of the ones who just happened to get dragged along on the field trip.

"Yes," he said. "I've spoken with the managers of this place, and they said that the cannon is in working condition. You can all have a chance to shoot it once, then go line up at the school bus."

Everyone cheered and rushed to line up at the cannon. As expected, there were a lot of pushing and shoving and yelling about who cutting who.

"And Percy," Mr. Aldin said next to me. "Don't cause any more trouble. I decided to trust you this one time and let you participate."

"Yes, sir," I mumbled.

I already caused a lot of trouble that wasn't even entirely my fault. Like at the restroom, the pipes exploded, and of course, that happened right when I was there. So I was claimed responsible.

"Hey, you, go to the back!" a kid said.

"His name's Percy," another kid said.

"The troublemaker," one added.

"Thanks," I grumbled. "That was unneeded."

I kept my head down, my hair covering my eyes, and walked to the back of the line. From the front, I heard things like, "It's my turn! Stop cutting!"

"I'm not cutting! Hey, you got out of line, go to the back!"

"What do you mean, go to the back? There's already someone there!"

"Cookies are awesome!"

I don't know what the last part was about, but I silently agreed with that. I love my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies. I haven't had them since Christmas vacation, since I was at a boarding school.

After a long 30 minutes, it was finally my turn.

"Hurry up, Percy!" Mr. Aldin yelled. "The bus is about to leave!"

"What?" I said, not hearing him properly.

The cannon shot a cannonball in their direction, and it hit the bus behind them. The bus exploded, along with a bunch of backpacks that were loaded in boxes. All the students screamed and ran.

I winced. I didn't mean to do that. I ran over to them where Mr. Aldin was glaring at me murderously.

"Perseus Jackson," I flinched, "Have I not told you not to cause any more trouble?"

"But I wasn't—" I protested, but he cut me off.

"No buts," he said like every single teacher I've met. "You should just be glad that luckily, no one was in the bus."

"Nothing but a few backpacks," I said under my breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"This'll have to go to the principal. In the meantime, it's time to be getting back," he grunted.

"How?" I asked warily. "Call a taxi for all of us?"

"No. We're walking," he said.

When we got back to the school, I was immediately sent to the principal's office. Well, scratch that. The next day. We arrived at school after curfew.

"So what did you do this time, Perseus Jackson?" the principal asked resisting to sigh.

I had a feeling that the principal was getting tired of seeing me at least twice a month. Truthfully, I was getting tired of that too. "We were at the Saratoga battlefield and I accidentally shot the cannon at the school bus."

"There's no 'accidentally' to it," the principal said finally letting out the sigh. "You'll have to be expelled."

"For the hundredth time," I mumbled.



"And these are tiger sharks," the tour guide, Paula, said motioning to a shark.

She kept on talking and I started spacing out. I looked at the shark tank and the sharks were all… staring at me. I just hoped that they weren't thinking of me as their meal.

We were at a field trip at the Marine World shark pool. I didn't mind it so much. It was better than going to a museum or something.

Our teacher suddenly stopped us. "You'll be writing a report on this when we get back to school, so listen up.

We all sighed in unison and nodded. I looked at the tank. The sharks were still staring at me. That wasn't good.

"So any questions?" Paula asked, and one girl raised her hand.

"When will we go behind-the-scenes?" she asked.

The tour guide chuckled. "Right now," she chuckled. "Follow me."

I took one more look at the sharks, shuddered, and followed the group.

Paula led us up to the catwalk, where the shark tank was still next to us with the sharks still staring as me as they swam around. Oh, goody.

Paula started explaining about what lever does what and a bunch more things I couldn't care less about. Instead, I let my mind wander on when I'll be able to go home and see my mom and Smelly Gabe again. I could still remember his stench even though I wasn't anywhere near him. Yuck.

Most kids were listening eagerly to the conversation. Others were joking around. Some girls were playing hand gamed that I would never understand.

"Can anyone explain what we have learned so far?" our teacher asked.

None of us raised our hands.

"If you don't answer, you'll have to swim with a bunch of sharks," he said in a joking tone.

Still, none of us raise our hand.

He sighed. "I guess you'll have an easy time writing your reports then!"

We continued the tour. I kept my eyes on the shark tank and one mako shark stared back. I looked away and chided myself for looking at it. No one wants to stare at a tank filled with half a dozen sharks that want to eat you for lunch.

Instead, I tried to concentrate on the tour guide, but my mind wouldn't let me. My ADHD made my eyes wander around, usually ending up at the shark tank.

"Stop looking at the sharks," I told myself out loud.

Some of the students gave me weird looks but quickly returned interest to whatever they were doing.

Stop looking at the sharks, stop looking at the sharks, my brain told me. But my eyes refused and kept looking at the sharks… until one of them butted its head against the glass looking straight at me.

I jumped and backed up—a little too much. I backed up into one of the levers and there was a sudden loud sound. Paula stopped talking, and the next thing I knew, I was submerged in water.

I shut my eyes tight and held my breath. I felt something brush against my legs. I swam up to the surface easily and let out a huge breath. I started coughing and saw what touched me.

I let out a squeak (I hope nobody heard) as I saw half the sharks swimming around me.

Go away! I thought panicking, and the sharks did go away.

I sighed, not believing my luck, but something told me that it wasn't luck (I have very bad luck)—they were just following my orders. But that was impossible, I decided. One cannot control sharks' minds.

The other kids were screaming, just by the fact that they were around sharks while Paula was telling them to calm down. I think some might have peed their pants. Hopefully that wouldn't kill the sharks.

"Who pressed the lever?" our teacher demanded once we were all gathered up.

There were a bunch of "Not me!"'s and pointing, until someone said, "It was Percy!"

That blabbermouth. The teacher gave me a look that said We'll talk later.

Well, two things were right: I do have very bad luck and we all swam with the sharks, just like the teacher said.
Just something I wrote up like two weeks ago. It's already up on FanFiction with another story. :)
© 2013 - 2024 PegasusHydra
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kurino-sama-alpha's avatar
now we know what happened on those field trips. poor Percy, they really were accidents..kinda...he's so cute. :D