"Single file line," Mrs. Gleir shouted for the hundredth time. The buzz of gossip was deafening as we all piled into the school bus. The school bully-ironically named Karen- loudly said "hey if we see Polaris in the sky will Polaris disappear?" "How ironic," I said glaring at her. Karen was my mortal enemy. She was the bane of my existence. And her parents had sadly given her permission for this field trip. We were going to an observatory to 'map stars' as Mrs. Gleir had said. The other teacher chaperon was Mr. West, they both had the same personality. Grumpy and didn't like kids. Which was ironic because they were both teachers at Livingstone Middle school.
One hour later and a lot of verbal abuse from Karen we had arrived at the observatory. "Alright everyone. Listen up! You need a buddy. Yes, you will say it is 'so elementary' but it is necessary. Buddy up!" Mr. West called over the group of eighth graders. I sighed, I hated when teachers told us to, 'buddy up'. I ended up with the dorky kid Kevin. We walked into the observatory. "Find a seat students. Prepare for a very long lecture. Well. Until it gets dark enough to map the stars." Mrs. Gleir told us. We sat down and pulled out our notebooks, as she started talking about origins of stars and myths of how the stars came about. I started doodling, and halfway through her lecture I had drawn Mrs. Gleir as a cartoon character who was half zombie. I finished the drawing and drew all of us students asleep. Kevin glanced over at my drawing and stifled a laugh. He grabbed my notebook and passed it to Sarah, who passed it to Mason, who passed it around the entire room. Everyone was laughing and Mrs. Gleir was glowering down at us all.
"What is so funny?" She asked stiffly.
And right then I knew I was getting detention. My notebook had landed in Karen's hands and she stood up.
"Ma'am, Polaris was drawing you." She said in her sweet 'innocent' voice. Karen held the notebook out for Mrs. Gleir to see and Mrs. Gleir pursed her lips.
"Completely unacceptable. This is mine now, thank you." Mrs. Gleir told me, tearing out the page and folding it before placing it on her desk.
She stalked up to me and placed my closed notebook on the table in front of me. Mrs. Gleir leaned down and whispered, "If I ever catch you drawing anything in my class again. I will have you expelled."
I nodded and her heels clicked back into the front of the room. I took my pencil out and started taking notes.
~~~
The sky had finally gone dark and Mrs. Gleir had finally gone quiet. For the past hour we had been looking at the stars through telescopes and drawing a map of them on black Styrofoam balls the size of a globe. Mine was almost done and all I had left was Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. I used a gold marker for the stars and a white colored pencil for the lines connecting the stars into constellations. I gazed through my telescope and saw the north star. It shone brighter than I had ever see it shine before.
Once we had finished mapping the stars Mrs. Gleir started talking again. "Now, class we did not tell you as to keep it as a surprise but this is the first year when the blood moon will occur two years in a row. This is the first year and next year it is predicted to occur again. We are going to get dinner and then we will come back to see the blood moon."
The room erupted with talk about the blood moon and Mr. West tapped a ruler on the nearest table to silence everyone.
"Single file line. We are just going down to the cafeteria." He told us.
We walked to the cafeteria, ate food that was a little better than the school lunches.and then went back to the Observatory. Mrs. Gleir waited outside.
She explained that we were going to see the blood moon and then we were going to head off to the motel. Then she opened the door and led us in to the dark Observatory.
The only light was vibing through the ceilings domed roof. The stars shone brightly and the blood moon stood out like a black marker on a clean white paper.
As I looked on something clicked and the ground rumbled.
Everyone except for me scrambled under tables as the earth quake hit. I stood glued to the spot, my eyes reflecting the red light.
I felt my body tingle all over and the earth quake stopped just a suddenly as it had started. "WHY IN THE FREAKING WORLD DID YOU NOT GET UNDER A TABLE!? I COULD LOSE MY JOB OVER YOU, YOU KNOW!" Mrs. Gleir shrieked.
I stood still with a blank expression on my face. My hands felt warm and I bit my tongue to stop from saying something that would get me expelled.
Once her back was turned I went to the bathroom and did my business. Then as I was washing my hands Karen came in.
"Aw, did little miss star get told off in front of the whole class? What a shame. Bet your parents won't be happy about that. I guess they did know from the beginning that you were a loser." Karen shrugged walking out of the bathroom.
My blood boiled and Infelt my palms warm faster. I glanced down and do saw my hands on fire. Karen leapt back and shrieked.
"Oh, you big baby. Want a high five?" I asked teasingly. Don't get me wrong, I was terrified as well. But my coping mechanism is jokes. So I reached out to high five Karen, she ran out of the restroom and down the hallway shrieking, "Polaris is on fire! Polaris is on fire!"
Mrs. Gleir came running into the restroom and quickly turned the water on, shoving my hands underneath the water. It did nothing. If anything, it made it worse. My palms flared brighter than the blood moon and caught the tips of Mrs. Gleirs' hair on fire. She shrieked and ran out of the bathroom.
I just stood, staring at my reflection and wondering what to do. The flames weren't hurting me. They just made me feel warm and cozy. Mrs. Gleir ran back in with a fire extinguisher and pointed it at my face spraying it.
As soon as the stuff in the fire extinguisher hit my flames the bathroom exploded. Mrs. Gleir was thrown back and knocked unconscious, while I stood firm. I ran over to her but couldn't help her because my palms were still on fire. Scratch that. Now my entire body was encased in flames.
Sirens wailed and I couldn't do a thing. I ran back into the observatory and yelled for someone to help Mrs. Gleir. As much as I hated her, I didn't want her to die.
No one made a move towards the bathroom. Instead they ran in the opposite direction, away from me. I groaned and tried to shut my flames off. It was no use. I tried everything I could think of then finally looked up in despair at the blood moon. Something clicked and I was suddenly fire-free. The building, however was still burning.
I ran out of the room, in the direction the other students had went and ran into them outside with the firefighters. "How is she alive?!" I heard one firefighter shout.
Another firefighter waved the other off and called a medic over to check me. The medic looked me over and declared me 'healthier than ever.'
YOU ARE READING
The Run To Polaris - discontinued
Dla nastolatkówPolaris Einar was a biology experiment. Some stupid teacher thought it was a good idea to have high schoolers experiment on an embryo. The embryo was supposed to be thrown away but instead was born. She is now a 8th grader struggling in math. Polari...
