September 30, 2012 – YA Chit Chat

Today I’m offering up a sampling from a middle grade short story I wrote called Mrs. Billing’s Long Vacation. I hope you enjoy.

***

It had snowed the night before and all morning — not too heavy, but enough to make driving hazardous and the kids cantankerous, at least that’s what mom said as we loaded up in the old station wagon. When I arrived at school, the heaters were moaning and groaning, the classrooms were about as warm as glaciers, and the sun decided to take the day off. By the time I got to my third period Science class, I felt like a popsicle stuck to the inside of a down coat.

Mr. Windem canceled his normal class lecture and shuffled us all to the pocket of warmth in the rear of the classroom, where he gave us slides of bugs to look at under magnifying glasses and microscopes. My slide consisted of an unusual bug, a fire beetle, which I soon learned was the brightest, bioluminescent insect in the world. It was also the source of my expulsion from Meadowlark Elementary.