The summer we turned thirteen (Published)

Unreleased scene three: The field trip

James

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It had been the autumn of our sixth-grade year, and Harlee and I were going on a field trip to the Winnington Science museum with our third-period science class.

Harlee had been excitedly awaiting this trip for months.

But due to an issue she and her family were having with their house, she hadn't gotten much sleep in over a week, so she was restless.

"Uh, are you okay, Harlee?" Evan asked her as he walked up to us at our lockers.

She and I had just returned from the cafeteria, and we were all about to head to homeroom.

We'd both had ice cream for breakfast to try and give her a sugar rush.

But it hadn't worked.

She was still struggling to keep her eyes open.

"No," she replied, leaning backward against her locker,

"I got like no sleep last night 'cause we still haven't found that cricket in our house."

"You guys still haven't found that thing?" he asked incredulously.

Harlee shook her head.

"Come on, Harlee, you can't keep doing this to yourself and your parents. You just have to let them call an exterminator," he told her.

"No, Evan. We're not killing it," she immediately argued back.

"Look, we all know how much you love animals, but it's not even really an animal. It's just a bug," he pointed out.

"Dude, there's no use," I warned him.

I'd had this conversation with Harlee countless times already, telling her that she just needed to let her parents call pest control.

She refused to listen.

If I couldn't convince her, there was no way Evan would be able to.

"It's a living creature, Evan. No matter how small it is," she stated firmly then closed her eyes.

"Alright, fine," he said.

"But lack of sleep can stunt your growth, and you're always complaining about how you want to be taller."

At that, Harlee's eyes popped open and burned into Evan's.

Well done, Evan, I thought to myself sarcastically.

Bringing up a touchy subject on a morning where she's already highly irritable.

Great job.

"I'll...see you guys in homeroom," he said sheepishly, finally realizing he should shut up.

He hurried toward our homeroom classroom without waiting for either of us to reply.

Harlee sighed.

"How am I gonna get through this day without losing it?" she asked me, voice disappointed and fatigued. "Especially since Jasper and Mike are in Mr. Athen's science class?"

"We'll sit as far away from them as possible," I assured her.
"And if they start anything today, you should just ignore them like I try to do."

"Okay."

"Come on, let's go to homeroom, maybe you can sleep for a few minutes in there," I told her.

We started toward Mrs. Rose's homeroom class, and I crossed my fingers that Harlee would not only be able to somehow get some rest before the field trip but that she'd also start feeling better too.