Karen's School Trip Read online

  My class and I waited and waited. We talked a lot about the prizes.

  Bobby hoped we would each win a biting alligator so we could have a biting-alligator contest on the way home.

  “But I already have a biting alligator,” I complained.

  Natalie hoped we would win a new pet for our classroom. She said if she could choose any pet at all it would be a pink flamingo.

  “Daddy, what time is it?” I asked.

  “One forty,” he answered. “Twenty minutes until two o’clock.”

  Hmm. Ms. Colman was ten minutes late. She is not usually late.

  I leaned over the railing around the seal pool. I watched the sea lions. I liked their gentle, dark eyes.

  “Now what time is it?” I asked Daddy.

  He sighed. “It is one forty-five.”

  Five minutes later he said, “Now it is one fifty. Ten minutes until two.”

  “Daddy, Ms. Colman is twenty minutes late!” I cried. “Something has happened!”

  “Oh, Karen,” said Daddy, but I interrupted him.

  “Ms. Colman is missing!” I exclaimed.

  “Maybe she got lost,” Hannie suggested.

  “We know what to do if someone gets lost,” said Ricky proudly.

  “Yeah, exactly what to do,” agreed Natalie. “Go find the lost person. Tell him to wait right where he is. Then say the person’s name over the loudspeaker and ask him to meet you in the cafeteria.”

  Well, for heaven’s sake. “Natalie,” I said, “if you have already found the lost person, then you do not have to call him and tell him where to meet you.”

  “Oh,” said Natalie.

  “But, Daddy, Natalie is sort of right,” I said. “We should ask someone to say Ms. Colman’s name over the loudspeaker. And to tell her to come find us at the seal pool, because we are waiting for her. If one of us was lost, Ms. Colman would say that person’s name over the loudspeaker.”

  “I suppose so,” said Daddy. “But, honey, Ms. Colman is a grown-up. She knows we are waiting for her at the seal pool. And she knows how to find the seal pool. She will ask for directions if she needs to.”

  “Daddy, please.”

  “Karen, I do not think it is necessary.”

  I burst into tears. “Our teacher is lost and you do not even care,” I cried.

  “I do care — ” Daddy began to say.

  At the same time, another voice said, “Goodness, I am late! I’m very sorry. I did not mean to be late. Thank you for waiting so patiently.”

  My teacher was back!

  “Oh, Ms. Colman. I thought you were missing!” I exclaimed. “I thought you were lost. We almost called your name on the loudspeaker. Hey, guess what. All the groups finished their worksheets. If we found the right answers, what prizes do we get?” I hopped from one foot to the other.

  “Calm down, please,” Ms. Colman said gently. “I will tell you about the prizes in a little while. First, I have a surprise.”

  “For me?” I squeaked.

  “Well, for everyone. Please follow me to the visitors center now.”

  The three groups and the three parents followed Ms. Colman through the zoo to the visitors center.

  “A prize and a surprise!” I whispered excitedly to Nancy. “I wonder what they will be. Oh, this is the best, best zoo trip of my life!”

  “We’re Famous!”

  My friends and I waited in the hallway of the visitors center. When everyone had arrived, Ms. Colman said, “Class, I would like you to see the new display here at the zoo. You will be the first class to see it. I think you will be interested in it. And I know you will be surprised.”

  “A new display,” whispered Bobby. He sounded disappointed. “Bor-ing.”

  “Yeah, bor-ing,” echoed Ricky. “I bet it will be a bunch of pictures of the guy who started the zoo or something.”

  “Come on, you guys,” I said. “If Ms. Colman said we will be surprised, then we will be surprised.”

  “We will be surprised at how bored we are,” said Bobby.

  But he was wrong.

  Ms. Colman led my class down a hallway. At the end of the hallway was a fancy room with a high ceiling.

  “This room,” said Ms. Colman, “is where groups gather before they go on guided zoo tours. Lots of people come to the room. While they wait for their tour to begin, they look at the displays.”

  “So?” I heard Bobby whisper to Ricky. (Ricky shrugged his shoulders.)

  Ms. Colman stepped over to a big glass display case. “And this is the display visitors will see this month.”

  My class followed Ms. Colman. I was the first person to reach the case. I read the sign next to the case: Wild Animal Sculptures by Ms. Colman’s Second-Grade Class at Stoney-brook Academy.

  “Hey! Hey!” I cried. (It was hard to be excited and still use my indoor voice, but I managed.) “That’s us! I mean, those are our sculptures! Look! There’s mine!” Sure enough, sitting on a shelf in the case was Prince Charming. In front of him was a label: Capybara, by Karen Brewer. Next to Prince Charming was a fierce-looking cat. The label in front of the cat read: Snow leopard, by Hannie Papadakis.

  I nudged Hannie. “Our animals are together!” I exclaimed softly.

  Suddenly all of my classmates were crowding around the display. They were asking Ms. Colman questions like, “How did our statues get here?”

  “While I was arranging the trip,” said my teacher, “I told the woman who runs the visitors center about your sculptures. She wanted to display them. So yesterday afternoon, I brought them to the zoo.”

  “You know,” I said to Nancy and Hannie, “I do not remember seeing our animals in school this morning. But I was too excited to care.”

  “They were here at the zoo,” murmured Nancy.

  “Yeah, where everyone will see them,” I added. “We’re famous!”

  We looked and looked at the display. We counted the animals. We read our names. After awhile Ms. Colman said, “Class, I have looked over your worksheets.”

  Already? I thought. Oh, boy!

  “I can tell you worked very hard. And I am happy to say that every answer on each worksheet is correct. So I have prizes for all of you.”

  “Yea,” I whispered to Nancy, remembering my indoor voice.

  Ms. Colman handed each of us a patch. The patch was decorated with a picture of a tiger, and the words Bedford Zoo.

  “You may sew your patch onto your jeans or your jacket or a book bag,” said Ms. Colman. “Then you will think of our trip every time you see the patch.”

  I raised my hand. “Ms. Colman?” I said. “Thank you.”

  The Best Trip Ever

  When we left the visitors center it was time to go home. It was time to go back to Stoneybrook.

  My friends and I and Ms. Colman and the room parents climbed onto our bus again. The first thing I did was call out, “Hey, Ms. Colman! Where are our souvenirs? I need my alligator.”

  “Be patient, Karen,” said my teacher. “When everyone is sitting down, I will give back the souvenirs.”

  And she did. Soon the bus was pulling out of the parking lot. I turned to Nancy and smiled. We were sitting in the backseat again. But Hannie and Natalie were sitting all the way up in the front of the bus, near Daddy. Hannie said she did not want to take a chance on Natalie barfing, since Natalie had eaten three desserts in the cafeteria. But Hannie should not have bothered worrying. Why? Because Natalie fell asleep and slept all the way home. She slept with her mouth open. She snored a little bit.

  “Let’s sing,” said Ricky suddenly. And he sang, “The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all about the town…. Natalie Springer goes snore, snore, snore” (only he did not say “snore”; he just made a snoring sound effect), “snore, snore, snore, snore, snore, snore. Natalie Springer goes snore, snore, snore, all about the town.”

  The song woke Natalie. “I DO NOT SNORE!” she yelled.

&n
bsp; “Indoor voice, Natalie,” said Ms. Colman.

  All right! I thought. Finally, Ms. Colman had told someone to use her indoor voice — and it was not me.

  My classmates and I settled down again. Natalie went back to sleep. I began to feel sort of sleepy myself. For awhile, nobody talked. Ms. Colman walked up and down the aisle, checking on us.

  “Ms. Colman, did you buy a souvenir?” I whispered. Ms. Colman nodded. “You did? What did you buy?” I asked.

  Ms. Colman opened her purse. She pulled out a booklet. She handed it to me. It was a collection of postcards. Each one showed an animal at the zoo.

  “The postcards are for Jannie,” said Ms. Colman. “Because she missed the trip.”

  “That’s nice,” I said. And I meant it, even though I do not like Jannie very much. I felt bad that she had not been able to come to the Bedford Zoo.

  Ms. Colman went back to her seat. I played with my alligator. I made it bite Nancy’s coat. But Nancy was asleep, so that was no fun. Then I looked at my prize, the zoo patch. I decided I would ask Mommy or Seth to sew it to the cuff of my jean jacket.

  After awhile, I fell asleep myself. When I woke up, we were riding through downtown Stoneybrook. We were almost back at school. Everyone else was waking up, too. Our trip was nearly over.

  “Today was gigundoly fun,” I said to Nancy.

  “Gigundoly,” she agreed.

  “I will always remember it.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Hey, can you come over and play tomorrow? It will be a little-house weekend. We could play zoo. You could be a zookeeper, and I could be every single animal.”

  “Okay,” replied Nancy.

  The bus pulled up in front of Stoneybrook Academy. My friends and I walked slowly off the bus.

  “Good-bye, Ms. Colman,” I said. “See you on Monday. And thank you for the best school trip ever. I will always remember our day at the zoo.”

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1992 by Ann M. Martin

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1992

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-05607-5