A Strange Feild Trip

“Class, we’re going on a field trip next week, Monday,” Miss Handler announced on Thursday, handing out permission slips. “Please, have your parents sign these permission slips and bring along a water bottle and a lunch bag.”

I glanced down at the little piece of white paper that landed on my desk. The Aquarium? Does she think we’re babies or something? I thought. 

“Hey, what’s with the sour face? It could be fun!” That was Camilla.

“I guess,” I said, though I completely doubted it. But on the other hand, with Camilla, you never know.

Fast forward 4 days. It’s Monday. The day of the trip. I arrived in school with a small bag, containing my water bottle and lunch bag. Shortly after I walked into the classroom, I heard the sound of rolling wheels. Camilla entered the classroom, with a bulging backpack on her back and as if that wasn’t enough she was pulling two ginormous suitcases behind her. 

“Camilla! What on Earth…” l left the rest of the thought unverbalized.

She grinned. “Well, there were a few things that I couldn’t fit into my schoolbag, so I needed a little more space.” She said as if that explained everything.

“What kind of things are you talking about?” Micheal wondered.

“Well, PJs, books, pencil sharpener, flashlight, sleeping bags, snacks, alarm clo-”

“Why do you need all those things? We’re going to the aquarium for 3 hours! Not 3 days!” Miss Handler told her.

“How do you know that? You know what I always say: Better safe than sorry.” 

“Since when do you say that?” I asked.

“Since right now!”

“I think we can leave your suitcase here, don’t you think so?” Miss Handler said, moving the suitcase to the side.

“No!” Camilla grabbed her suitcase and refused to let go.

Miss Handler taught us a quick short lesson on fractions, but no one was listening. We were all thinking about Camilla and her suitcase. At 12:00, we quickly loaded onto the bus. I shared a seat with Camilla and her suitcases. 

We arrived at the aquarium 20 minutes later. Miss Handler introduced us to our guide, Brian.

I didn’t like how he looked. He reminded me of some sort of mafia leader. We wandered through the aquarium, with Brian and Sheina giving - unwanted - commentary on every single thing we passed, including the type of floor we were walking on, and why the aquarium chose it. Why would we care? Towards the end, Brian said that he needed to go out for a second and that he’d be right back. The heavy door closed behind him. The lights suddenly went off. 

“Aaaah! What happened?” That was Anna. She’s terrified of the dark. 

“Don’t worry, class. The lights are on the outside of the building. I’ll just go out and turn them on.” Miss Handler walked to the nearest exit and tried the knob. It was locked. The girls - including me - started screaming. 

“Don’t panic! I’m sure that the other door isn’t locked.” 

“Bet you not!” One of the boys shouted.

We heard the sound of a door handle turning, then a kick at the door. “Yup, locked,”  Aaron confirmed.

“You jinxed it!” Sarah yelled.

“Guys! Calm down!” Camilla screamed. “I have my suitcases here, ‘member?” 

A light went on. Her flashlight. I could see her now. She was standing on a chair, fumbling around in her one of her suitcases. Then, things started flying. One of them hit me on my head. It was soft. 

“I brought enough for all of you.” She told us.

“Yeah, but it’s so hard and bumpy on the ground. Camilla, you have anything to make it more comfortable? Like a magic potion, you could spread on the floor to make it soft?” Anna asked.

“Kind of. Not a potion. But I do have a bouncy castle.” She said as if that was completely normal.

“How’d you fit that in there?” Sam wondered.

“Oh, I didn’t say it was blown up. I could blow it up though. I brought my brother’s bicycle pump.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Henry asked.

“Nope! Watch.” And right then and there she started to pump it up. We all thought she would give up after 5 minutes, but she kept working on it. Soon, we all got caught up in the excitement and we began to take shifts. After 6 hours of working, it was all blown up and ready to be used. We were all sweating enough to fill the Atlantic, but we were ecstatic. We all hauled our sleeping bags into the bouncy house and got comfortable. I thought that soon someone would come to let us out, but no such luck. I was sandwiched between Camilla and Aaron. At my feet sat Sheina, and behind me was the wall of the bouncy house. 

It was 8:00 PM and we were getting ready to spend the night there. At 8:30, Camilla passed out pasta and sauce, which she had kept warm in a huge thermos. 

“Camilla. How’d you know we’d be stuck like this?” Mark asked.

“I didn’t. If you remember this, you’ll never be caught unprepared: Always expect the worst. So I imagined that we got locked in the aquarium for a week, so I packed enough stuff to last us 6 days.”

Wow, she really was prepared.

We sat around for hours, with Camilla’s two flashlights and one lantern for light, telling ghost stories. It was like a sleepover with the whole class, and before long I completely forgot about the circumstances that had forced us into this unusual sleepover. 

“I think it’s time to go to bed now.” Miss Handler announced. Grudgingly, we all complied.

“Thanks, Camilla,” I whispered before dropping off into a peaceful sleep. One that was restful, dreamful… and didn’t last long. 

I awoke at 1:30, to the sound of footsteps and evil laughter. I nudged Camilla, “Wake up! There’s someone in the aquarium!” She sat up immediately. 

“I think it’s that evil dude who locked us in here. Who knows what he up to.” 

We sat silently, wondering what would happen. We heard feet coming up the step to the bouncy castle. I hugged Camilla tight. Beside me, Aaron stirred. He woke up, puzzled. 

“What’s happening here?” He whispered.

“Someone’s coming into the-” Camilla was cut off by the awareness that we were not alone. The guy had come into our bedroom. We all pressed close to the wall behind us, praying he wouldn’t see us. Camilla was silently fishing around in her suitcase. 

“Got it!” She said, almost inaudibly. She held up a water gun. She loaded it with water from her water bottle. But she was putting her hand back in the suitcase.

“Make it fast. He’s coming closer.” I said in an undertone. 

She pulled out a bottle of… paint! She was holding another bottle, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Vinegar,” she explained in a whisper. She quickly poured some of the contents of each bottle into the barrel and shooke it.

“Perfect,” she mouthed. 

The man was nearly upon us. “Woah, woah, woah, what do we have here? Go back to sleep or else.” He was reaching into his back pocket. 

Camilla took action. She aimed the gun at his eyes and pressed the trigger. Water, mixed with vinegar and paint squirted into his eyes. He dropped the gun he was holding and Aaron quickly snatched it.

“I’m sure the police will be glad to find this.” He commented. He searched the man until he found his identification card. 

“It’s Brian,” he mouthed to us.

“I knew it!” I muttered to Camilla.

“Camilla, you got a piece of string?” he asked.

She did and she handed it to him. He tied the man’s hands behind his back and gave him a bang on the head with the hammer Camilla gave him, to knock him out. I helped him carry Brian out of the castle and ran back into our temporary home to grab my phone from Miss Handler’s bag. I quickly punched in the 3 numbers I was instructed to call if I needed help. 

“911, what’s your emergency?” the voice asked.

“Um, I’m locked in an aquarium. We got locked in here 11 hours ago, and we really need help! Come quick please!” I begged.

“Sweetie, stay calm. There’ll be a car over in a few minutes. What the address?”

I gave it to her. Then I hung up. 

“She said they’re on their way,” I told him.

True to the operator’s word 10 minutes later, after much effort to get us free, the door was opened.

“Who’s that, on the floor?” An officer asked.

“Our guide. He locked us in here.” Aaron said.

The police officer bent over Brain’s unconscious form and gasped.

“John! Come over here! Look who I found!”

The other officer came running over. “Woah! Is it really him? Bob Smith?” Turning to us, he said, “Bob Smith is wanted in several countries and 35 states.”

Wow! We had caught a criminal. We woke everybody up and the policemen brought us back to our homes. I silently entered mine, to find both my parents waiting for me at the kitchen table.

“Rachelle! We didn’t know where you were! What happened?” Dad asked while Mom bustled around the kitchen, arriving back at the table with a cup of steaming cocoa and cookies. I told them. Everything, though they didn’t believe me that we actually blew up a bouncy castle with a bicycle pump. Pretty soon after, they sent me straight up to bed. The next day we didn’t have class, after what had gone through the day before. On the following Tuesday, we came back to school, to find the whole school and the police there to welcome us back. Officer Mark gave us a plaque to hang on the wall of our classroom, in recognition of our help to find and capture Bob Smith. It was signed by the President and Governor of each country and state that he was wanted in. So even though I had thought that a trip to the aquarium would be boring, it turned out to be one of the most memorable times of my life.