#6

“So how was school today?” My mother began her inquiries before I even entered through the door.

“Same old.”

“Did you learn anything new?”

“Yeah.”

“Well? What did you learn?”

“My Very Exhausted Mother Just Served Us Nothing.”

“What?”

“It’s a mnemonic we learned in school. It’s supposed to help us remember the planets in our Solar System.”

“Oh. Haha. Back when I was in school there used to be nine planets. Pluto used to be considered a planet, but recently they decided to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet.”

“Yeah, we learned that too. Oh, which reminds me, you need to sign this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a permission slip. We’re going to the museum next week. Gonna learn more about the solar system and all that junk.”

“The solar system isn’t junk. It’s part of God’s creation and once you learn more about the planets, you’ll realize just how beautiful they are. Hmm . . . You haven’t been to the museum since you were in third grade. You better behave this time; you almost got us kicked out last time.”

“Hey! It wasn’t my fault. They need bigger ‘Do not touch’ sign boards. They shouldn’t make scaled models that accessible.”

“I’m just saying, just behave during the field trip. Miss Grothoff is a great teacher and I think you’re old enough to not be babysat anymore. Now go upstairs and wash up – we’re having dinner soon.”

My mother should know better – if you’ve been classmates with the same people for six years, you shouldn’t expect anything less than a riot on a field trip. Anyway, we’ve already decided what we’d do. Dan visited the museum two weeks ago. He claimed he spent the whole day there and knew the place inside out. He claimed to have spent hours reading descriptions about the universe with his father. We had our inside man. We just had to get the materials before next Wednesday.