Lawndale
Sun-Herald
Tuesday,
January 5th, 2000
There
are still no Y2K related issues in Lawndale
Quinn
was excited to be back at school. The holidays weren’t exactly, happy times,
with her father no longer around. She knew that Stacy, Tiffany and Tori had had
it better. She had remembered that she was going to do a field trip with the
three misfits. She also hadn’t encountered Anna as SpiderGirl over the
Holidays.
“Quinn
Morgendorffer, please report to the Principal’s Office,” came an
announcement straight after Homeroom.
“Right
on que,” Quinn said.
“Good
luck,” Stacy said.
“Thanks.”
“I
have decided to approve your field trip idea,” Ms. Li said.
“That’s
great!” Quinn said.
“I’m
going to call in the other three now.”
“Go
ahead.”
“Anna
Coultard, Ben Harrod and Gerald Brown, please report to the Principal’s
Office.”
Anna
had remembered and she had reminded Ben the night before, so she wasn’t
surprised. She got a hall pass from DeMartino and headed towards the
Principal’s office.
Ben
entered last.
“I
have approved the field trip idea, for sometime this week,” the Principal said.
“One of the junior science teachers will accompany you to one of the forests
where they will assist you in a survey of plants and animals.”
“A
junior science teacher?” Anna asked.
“Yes.
Sending Barch with two male students by herself would be a bad idea,” Li
answered.
Both
Ben and Gerald nodded. That was an understatement.
“Either
tomorrow or Thursday would be great,” Quinn said. “Best to strike while the
iron is hot, or whatever.”
“Tomorrow.
I can send out the permission slips today,” the Principal decided.
“That’s
fine,” Anna said.
“Yeah,
fine,” Gerald said, in a subdued tone.
“Sure,”
Ben said, although he wasn’t sure.
As
they left the Principal’s office, Quinn saw that Ben wasn’t enthusiastic.
“Ben!”
“Yes,
Quinn?”
“I’ll
make sure that we do have a first aid kit.”
“Thanks,
but that’s not what I’m concerned about,” Ben said.
“Which
will have disinfectant and insect repellent,” Quinn added.
“That
will do, I suppose.”
Upon
school letting out, SpiderGirl headed to the west, to the forests where the
group would be having their field trip. She arrived there less than 10 minutes
later.
‘It
looks alright to me,’ she thought. But there was then a flashback to when she
and her parents had eaten strange berries on a camping trip back in the Spring.
Or was it the previous Winter? ‘No one will be picking strange berries this
time,’ she thought as she reflected on the usual grief that came when she
remembered her father. ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.’
She
looked around some more before she heard a cry in the distance. She quickly
swung in that direction.
She
found that a young woman had fallen down a small ravine. “SpiderGirl! Help!”
she called.
“Coming!”
she said. She swung down into the ravine.
“I
think my leg is broken,” the young woman said.
“I
can’t tell,” SpiderGirl said. “But I will get you out of the ravine and then
call an ambulance.”
“OK.”
It
wasn’t that difficult, except SpiderGirl had to use a branch as a splint before
slowly bringing the woman out of the ravine.
She
left her in a clearing not far from the ravine before heading to the nearest
phone booth and calling 911.
Having
called the ambulance, she returned to the woman. “They’re on their way,” she
said.
“Thanks.
I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to climb down that ravine.”
“You’re
lucky I came along. I didn’t know I was coming out this way.”
“You’re
right, SpiderGirl. I can call you that right?”
“Of
course.”
“You
can call me Bella.”
“Bella.
That’s pretty.”
Bella
chuckled. “I was going to say that I could have been stuck down there for
days.”
“Probably
not that long. I would have joined in the search.”
“I
guess so.”
It
wasn’t long before the ambulance arrived. The paramedics thanked SpiderGirl for
what she did. “We would have needed to call in a helicopter otherwise.”
“You’re
welcome,” SpiderGirl said, although she recognised that that particular
paramedic had been there when her father had passed. ‘Not his fault. He tried
his best,’ she thought, yet again.
As
the ambulance left she went back to the area she was looking at. ‘I know to
avoid that ravine now.’
Lawndale
Sun-Herald
Wednesday
January 6, 2000
Why
has Norman Osborne moved to Lawndale?
The
Tycoon has been tight lipped about his move from New York
SpiderGirl
put down the paper. She felt, uneasy for some reason. ‘All I know is that I
have some foreboding.’ She thought. She shook her head and swung away. She
still needed some sleep before school started.
It
was still early in the morning when the phone rang at the Coultard residence.
“Anna,
it’s your friend,” her mother said. “Please tell him he’s not sick!”
Anna
got out of bed and went to the phone. “You’re not sick.”
“Yes,
I am,” Ben said.
“No,
you’re not.”
“Really.
I am.”
“We
have to sleep,” Anna said with a yawn.
“I
can’t go on this field trip.”
“Yes,
you can.”
“No,
I can’t,” Ben objected.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Bye!”
Anna said before hanging up.
Ben
was still sure that he was unwell when he got to school. He headed straight to
the nurse’s office straight after Homeroom.
“See,”
he said.
“It’s
nothing,” Nurse Chase said.
“It’s
a fever,” Ben said..
“Your
temperature is only a quarter of a degree above normal.”
“That’s
right.”
“It
is easily prompted by emotional stress,” Chase said.
“Or
an influenza virus.”
“You
don’t have a flu. I’m not giving you a medical excuse. Not this time. You
shouldn’t have that thermometer! I’m sure it’s school property. You are going
on that field trip. You won’t have time to be worried about getting sick.”
The
school day went as usual. The field trip started at the beginning of the last
period. Anna, Ben and Gerald met Quinn and the young science teacher at the bus
stop behind the school’s football stadium.
“Are
we ready to go?” Quinn asked.
“Yes,”
Anna said.
“As
I’ll ever be,” Gerald said.
“I
still don’t like it,” Ben answered.
“Let’s
go,” the teacher, Ms. Olivia Sanderson, said.
Ms.
Sanderson had prepared as much as she could for the field trip after Ms. Li had
informed her that she would be taking the students early in the day. She went
over the checklist again before sitting in the drivers seat. She did have a bus
licence, but she didn’t know why Ms. Li wanted her to drive rather than one of
the staff hired to drive the school’s buses.
“We’re
almost there,” Sanderson said.
“Cool,”
Quinn said.
The
bus pulled up at a bus stop on the edge of the forest.
“We
shall take everything,” Sanderson said as they disembarked.
“Of
course,” Quinn said.
“Should
we start now?” Anna asked.
“We
don’t want to miss anything,” Sanderson said.
Suddenly
there flock of birds flew away in an agitated flurry nearby and Quinn felt
something through her spider sense. “What just happened?” she asked.
“Nothing,”
Gerald said.
“Something,”
Anna said.
“I
agree with Anna,” Ben said.
“We
may not be alone,” Sanderson said. “Keep an eye out.”
“I
agree,” Quinn said as she looked around.
Sanderson
and Quinn lead the way deeper into the forest. With Gerald following and Anna
and Ben bringing up the rear.
Ben
took out a protein bar. “Want one?” he asked Anna.
“Sure,”
she responded.
Quinn
dropped back to Gerald. “Apparently you aren’t from Lawndale either.”
“No.
But I’m not good at small talk. Like what’s the point.”
“I
used to be good at it, before what happened.”
“Look!
I’m sorry for running off that time,” Gerald said.
“Apology
accepted.”
“But
I’m not up for talking about my home town.”
“Usually,
I wouldn’t talk of that town in Texas, either,” Quinn said.
“Usually?”
“Like,
I’m worried Lawndale will become like it, or worse.”
“How
bad was it?” Gerald asked.
Quinn
began to tell of Highland, including of the two weirdos Daria sometimes hung
out with.
Suddenly
part of a tree a tree fell nearby.
“What
was that?” Gerald asked.
“It
was just a weakened branch,” Sanderson said. “But we can start here.”
Sanderson
handed out pages on how to identify various plants and animals. “So, we’ll work
carefully along the trail, back to the bus and look out for each species. Don’t
go too far.”
The
next half hour was spent looking at various plants and animals in the area. But
then something happened.
Quinn
and Sanderson turned as the heard Ben cry out. They ran to him. “What was it?”
Sanderson asked.
“It
was a snake!” Anna exclaimed.
“Did
you see it?” Sanderson asked.
“It
was a Copperhead,” Anna said.
“Right,”
Sanderson said. “Where’s the bite?”
“On
his ancle,” Anna said.
“Help!”
Ben called out.
Sanderson
whipped out the first aid kit. “Take off your shoe first. Then I can wrap the
bandage around your leg.”
“This
is one reason why I didn’t want to come,” Gerald said to Quinn.
“Being
at home isn’t exactly safe,” Quinn responded.
“There
haven’t been break and enters when the people are at home in the news.”
“No,
but, stuff can still happen,” Quinn said.
Sanderson
then came up. “I can’t leave him, as I have the duty of care. Someone has to go
and call an ambulance,” she said.
“You
don’t have a cell phone?” Quinn asked.
“I
do,” Sanderson said. “But there’s no signal.”
“I
can do it,” Quinn responded.
“You
shouldn’t go alone though,” Sanderson said.
‘If
I did go it would be quicker though,’ Quinn thought. But she didn’t want to
just dash off, because she wanted to stay in Ms. Li’s good books and to
continue mentoring the three. “OK.”
“Gerald
will go with you,” Sanderson said. “Anna wants to stay with him.”
“Of
course,” Quinn said.
