Excavation Site: 1:12 pm:

"Hey, Tim! Look look look!"

"What is it, Wanda?" asked Tim in a monotone. He didn't turn around in his seat to look at her. His gaze remained steadily fixed on the fragments of the pot he was trying piece together on the counter in front of him.

"Look what Dr. Sanchez gave me."

Tim sighed and turned around. Wanda gestured at what looked like a jade necklace hanging around her neck alongside her crystal pendant.

"Uh, Wanda, why would Dr. Sanchez just give you a rare piece of historical jewelry?"

Wanda held it up with one hand and so he could see it clearly. "It's not. It's just junk. She showed me two of them. One was an actual relic and the other was one of the knock offs they sell to tourists. Since I was so clever in pinpointing the fake she let me keep it."

"That's nice of her."

"Isn't it?"

With a crash the door to the foyer opened and Ms. Frizzle walked in, followed by some of their classmates. They were all soaking wet, thus, they removed their coats and boots before coming all the way into the lab.

"Ah hello, Tim, Wanda," said Ms. Frizzle, sailing into the main room and nodding at each of them in turn. "I trust you've been productive?"

"Sort of," Tim replied, staring gloomily at the shards. "I think I'm still missing one piece. Not to mention there are all kinds of little fragments which are probably gone for good."

"I've be telling them to just give up but they're still trying," Wanda said. She glanced at the others as they came in, taking note of their disheveled appearance. "What about you guys," she asked, swinging the necklace around rapidly on her wrist. "You look like you've all be productive?"

"Arnold fell down a well and Carlos was infected by a rabid bat," said Keesha. "So I suppose so."

The outside door swung open again and Ralphie walked in, took of his rain coat and boots, opened the second door, and came in behind Arnold and Phoebe.

Tim turned around, "Found anything?" he asked hopefully.

Ralphie shook his head. "Just more rocks."

"God, we've must've searched for three hours between us!" griped Wanda. "We didn't find a damn thing! What a waste! I should've gone with you guys."

"What kind of rocks did you find, Ralphie?" Arnold asked.

"Now, class, don't be discouraged," said Ms. Frizzle, holding up her hands. "You have learned vast amounts since you arrived here. You have learned how archaeologists conduct their work in the field as well a few things about the culture and mythology of the native people. You may not have found all the pieces, but you have gained something even more valuable. You have gained knowledge."

"That's right," said Dorothy Ann, perking up. "Knowledge is a commodity like no other."

"That it is. Now, class, I think it's time for us to get our things together. We're running a bit behind schedule. I'm off to have a word with Dr. Fritz. Please pack your bags," Ms. Frizzle shouldered her rain coat and stepped back outside.

"Wow!" said Ralphie. "I'm glad I got here in time to hear that. That was just . . . inspirational. And I for one am deeply moved."

"Shut up and start packing," said Dorothy Ann.

1:41 pm:

"Thanks a lot for having us," said Tim. The group had re-gathered in the laboratory to say their farewells to Dr. Fritz's research team and to thank them for their generosity in allowing them to stay at the excavation site.

"It was a pleasure to have you here," Dr. Fritz added, shaking Tim's hand. "You've all shown such a lot of academic promise.

Dorothy Ann beamed. Several of the others smiled and Carlos said something inaudible. Wanda stomped on his foot.

"I trust we'll see each other again before too long, Andre," said Ms. Frizzle, shaking his hand.

The students exchanged goodbyes with Dr. Fritz, Mr. Castellanos, and Dr. Sanchez--- who seemed rather relieved to see them go. Unknown to them, she'd spent the entire time dreading the moment when she'd receive the news that they'd broken something or disturbed an artifact in its resting place and destroyed valuable contextual information.

Amazingly, she thought, everything had remained intact. Of course, they'd only been there for little more than a day.

"This weather sure looks bleak," said Dorothy Ann as the group marched back outside. The downpour had decreased to a dreary drizzle that continued to come steadily down. The sky above was pearly gray.

"We're gonna be soaked by the time we make it back," sighed Tim.

They followed Ms. Frizzle along the trail and departed the site. The undergrowth, which was very damp pressed in closely on both sides of the trail. Dense branches hung down on either side with droplets trickling from the ends. It was impossible to avoid brushing against then. Wanda pushed one that hung down over the middle of the path aside and accidentally whacked Arnold with the backlash. A minute later Tim slipped on the muddy trail and crashed into Dorothy Ann, sending them both to the ground.

"Oh, Tim! Do you have to be so . . .so . . .clumsy!" Dorothy Ann cried, spitting mud out of her mouth.

"I'm uh, sorry about this," said Tim.

"What if we had machetes?" said Wanda, automatically extending a hand to help Tim up. "Then we could just cut back all this foliage the way do in those really old films."

Arnold's face still hurt where the branch had smacked him. Inwardly, he cringed at the thought of Wanda armed with a machete. Noticing that he was the closest to Dorothy Ann now that Wanda had helped Tim, he hurried to grasp both her hands and pull her up. She smiled distractedly before trying to brush the mud off her face and clothes. In the case of latter it was hopeless. She gave up after a minute.

Carlos had started to move towards her and that art guy person when they fell but he pulled back when he realized Arnold was going to get there first. Whatever, he thought. He tried to look unconcerned and glanced casually over at some insects swarming over a piece of fruit.

"You know . . .I think those are poisonous, Carlos . . .," Keesha started to say.

He sprang backwards abruptly and nearly crashed into her.

Everyone stared at him.

"Hey, that's right," said Ralphie. "You're afraid of those, aren't you?"

"You look kind of flustered," said Keesha.

"No," said Carlos. "I - -I meant to do that. I've just been infected and poisoned enough for one day, you know."

"Alright, class, can anyone tell me about these insects?"

Carlos rolled his eyes as the others launched into a discussion about the poisonous insects. Big deal, he thought. Are we going to stop and do this with everything we see?

They finished with the insects and resumed walking. The trail stretched ahead, always looking basically the same. For a long time they could still see the tip of the pyramid stretching up over the tree tops behind them. Dorothy Ann kept looking back at it over her shoulder until it finally faded from sight.

The forest looked beautiful and mysterious in the rain and mist that was rising up. The trail was mostly downhill. It was much easier hiking back than it had been coming up. However, everyone was growing more and more tired from the past two days and soon they were shivering from the cold and damp. They didn't speak much more as they walked.

They were all relieved when they made it back to the village lot where the bus was stashed.

An associate's of Dr. Fritz's had already been along to collect the jeep, and so they spotted the bus parked by itself far away from the other vehicles on the other side of the lot. The rain had turned the dirt lot into a sea of mud.

When they came to the front of the cafe/rest stop, Ms. Frizzle handed Ralphie the keys and told him and Carlos to start the bus up while she went to pay the owner for the use of the lot. The two of them set off across the parking lot. The others, eager to get inside, hurried up the steps and towards the doors.

"God, I'm freezing! Open the -------- door!" Wanda snapped. She had arms wrapped around herself and her teeth were chattering.

Used to her verbal abuse, Arnold hurriedly moved to pull the handle before she got angrier. He hastily stepped aside as some patrons rushed out. Then the group went inside.

Inside the lights were dim and people were seated at various tables. Ms. Frizzle went over to the bar counter to talk to the owner.

Wanda's stomach rumbled. It felt like a long time since her group had eaten. She tried not to concentrate too hard on the smells that were coming from the kitchen behind the bar. It was interesting how food which she'd found foreign and less appealing began to appear more and more appetizing the hungrier she got. She glanced thoughtfully at Ms. Frizzle before nudging Keesha.

"Yes, Wanda?"

"Keesha, how many languages do you think Ms. Frizzle speaks?"

"English and Spanish. And whatever they spoke in the village . . ."

"Local dialect, Keesha," said Dorothy Ann, joining the conversation. "A lot of people here still speak the indigenous languages."

"Well, that makes three then," said Keesha. "One of which is obscure."

"Ms. Frizzle really is something, isn't she?" Wanda chirped. "I wonder how she stores all that information in her head?"

"Some people are better at that sort of thing than others. There are plenty of people who just have sort of a knack for learning---"

"Not just the languages. How does she do everything she does?" Wanda demanded.

No one had any answers. They hadn't had any answers back then and now, older and wiser, they still didn't have any answers. Dorothy Ann thoughts turned to the bus and she wondered if she'd ever get to see it in action again. Keesha also grew thoughtful.

So, she thought. Does this all add up? Ms. Frizzle used the bus to do all kinds of things. One time she even transported us inside an old film and we interacted with the characters inside it. But how is that possible? Those were images. They can't be interacted with. It doesn't even make sense.

And before that when we were studying weather we were turned into clouds. And we were actually made of cloud particles. But that doesn't make sense either. How could we function or think since we didn't have brains or nervous systems or anything at all? We learned about the human body before that . . .

Excavation Site: 4:34 pm:

"It's great to see the things Valerie does for her students," Dr. Fritz remarked. He pulled some alcoholic beverages out of the lab refrigerator and passed them around to the assembled research team. "I certainly never got to anything out of the ordinary routine when I was in high school. It almost restores my faith in the U.S. educational system."

"Speak for yourself," said Dr. Sanchez. She held out her glass for him to pour. "I will grant you that they were a lot less trouble then I thought they'd be." She raised the glass to her lips and suddenly set it down upon the table. Her eyes locked on one of the glass storage cases. A concerned expression crossed her face and she hurried over to retrieve the key.

"What is it?" asked Dr. Fritz. "What's the matter?"

Dr. Sanchez fiddled with the lock, jostled the doors open, and withdrew the jade necklace of Ixtab. She ran the links through her hands for a moment.

"Why, Rita," said one of the other researchers, coming over to take a look. "It's . . . plastic. Is this some kind of joke?"

Calak Village, same time:

"Alright, class, shall we go?" Ms. Frizzle rejoined them over by the entrance.

She led them back outside into the rain. Keesha was still trying to come up with a logical explanation for what had happened. She knew there had to be one. However, she was unsatisfied with the only one that was making sense to her right now, which was mass hallucination.

The rain had started to come down harder again and bus's headlights were on. Ralphie waved at them from behind the windshield.

"Oh, good," said Dorothy Ann. "They didn't lock the keys in the bus this time."

"Alright," said Ms. Frizzle after they were all jammed inside once again. "We just need to take a brief swing by the emergency room in Valladolid before we head home."

Several hours later:

After the trip to the emergency room where Carlos was jabbed by a needle and given orders to receive three more shots at Capt. Walker's Memorial Hospital, they had taken off for home.

Most of them fell asleep on the way back. Dorothy Ann placed her bag stuffed with clothes behind her head like a pillow. The others leaned against the windowpanes or slumped in their seats. Tim hooked up his laptop to an outlet in back of the bus and began organizing the notes he'd written for his paper. The glow from the laptop lit up the back half of the bus. Carlos, who had always been a night person no matter how tired he was, stayed awake and watched the ocean below every time the dark clouds rolled away.

"I can't say I'm totally looking forward to returning to school," said Dorothy Ann suddenly.

Carlos hadn't realized she was awake. He turned around to look at her. She was sitting upright, idly playing with the strap of her bag. Wanda was curled up fast asleep on the seat next to her.

"Why not?" Carlos asked, leaning on the back of the bus seat. "I though you liked---"

"Oh, I do," said Dorothy Ann. "But I'm sorry to be leaving the here so soon. There's so much more to see."

"Yeah, there is," Carlos admitted. "But this is probably the last of these little trips."

"You're right," sighed Dorothy Ann. "I don't think she can really take us out of school anymore."

They were quiet after that. The only noise was the sound of the engine and faint noise of Tim's fingers tapping the keys.

Dorothy Ann leaned the side of her head on one hand and gazed out the window. They were traveling through a clear patch of sky and the moon was shining through. Carlos raised his eyes and watched it play across her features before quickly looking away.

She had probably been the first girl he'd developed a crush on, way back in the third grade. Of course, at that age the boys in the class, with the exception of Arnold, who was a sap anyway, never showed that kind of interest in girls. So Carlos had expressed his feelings by throwing her books in the mud on the first day of school and teasing her for the rest of the year. True, he teased everyone, but her especially.

It was funny how things changed. He used to start pointless arguments just to get a chance to talk to her, although he'd hadn't quite realized why he was doing it at the time. These last few years, they'd barely spoken.

The bus was enveloped by clouds for the next part of its journey. When they finally emerged they had reached the eastern coast of the united States and were flying over a bay area. Within a few more minutes they were flying over land.

Ralphie rubbed his eyes and glanced out the window. They were still pretty high up but he could see city lights below them. It was unlikely that anyone on the ground could see them. But what if the bus was picked up by radar?

Before they knew it, they had passed over the city and the bus touched down on some out of the way country road. From there on it was a three mile drive to the Walkerville town limits.

"Alright then," Ms. Frizzle said, as they drove. "Paper topics?"

"Mayan sports," said Wanda groggily.

"Astronomy and timekeeping," said Dorothy Ann.

"How art and sculpture reflected cultural beliefs," said Tim.

"Agriculture," said Arnold.

"Mayan hieroglyphics," said Keesha.

"I'm doing Mythology," said Carlos.

"Um, well, hmmm. I can't think of anything," said Ralphie. "Everything's taken."

Phoebe nodded; she'd been thinking the same thing. Everyone else had already grabbed all the topics she could think off.

"How about the archaeological process that's itself?" Ms. Frizzle suggested. "You should all know plenty about that by now. One of you could write about how archaeologists recover and restore artifacts and the other discuss grave robbing and its implications."

It sounded like a good idea so they agreed. Next, they pulled into the high school parking lot. It was strange to be back. It felt like everyday, ordinary life was suddenly colliding with their out of the ordinary, bizarre experiences.

Ms. Frizzle kept talking. "Now, I've be thinking that perhaps I've been pushing you a little too hard. I'm going to extend the deadline to three weeks and have it due in class that Monday so you won't be rushed. However, this does mean that I will expect your best work."

Everyone groaned.

"Thirty pages!" Wanda griped. "Thirty ------ pages! Are we writing novels here? Even college students don't have to do that much," she slumped down in the seat next to Dorothy Ann, her necklace jangling.

Dorothy Ann noticed it. "Wanda . . .that's a really nice looking necklace. Where did you get it?"

"Dr. Sanchez gave it to me as a souvenir. It was modeled using the real thing. You can look at it if you want." She handed it to Dorothy Ann.

Dorothy Ann turned the necklace over in her hands. This looks remarkably real for a souvenir, she thought. I know I can't tell the difference!

They finally pulled back into the parking lot. Their fieldtrip was over.