Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea? (9 page)

“Whew.” The kids blew out their held-up breaths. Their faces were red.

“Are you guys doing yours soon?” Vanessa called to Ivy.

Ivy made a shh-face and turned to her mom. “Come on, Mom. I want to show you MacAdam's lime car.”

MacAdam was hiding under the table, but he had a real lime with a paper clip and a penny in it and his drawing on the top of the table. It smelled good. Next door was fifteen minutes a day, the world would be a lot cooler.” She looked at her clock again. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Eric's project. He hadn't had time to build the garbage robot, so he had used one of his toy robots to show his idea. A little plastic man had just tossed a clump of paper on the ground. He was smiling. He had no idea that behind him, a robot was glaring, waiting to whack him on the head. Eric had also made a poster. It read, “Clean Up or Else!”

Next to Eric's robot was a vacuum cleaner. Dusit's idea was to vacuum up all the heat, put it in a giant bag, and send it into outer space. In real life, it would have to be a special vacuum cleaner, but he had brought in a regular one as an example. “So that's where it went,” his mom said.

Marga-Lee had made a picture of Earth with mirrors sticking up all over it. She said that the mirrors would reflect the sun's rays back out into space.

“Wow,” said Bean's dad, looking at her picture. “Pretty good idea.”

Bean almost said “Wait ‘til you see ours,” but she didn't. She looked at Ivy and made a mouth-zipping sign. Ivy nodded.

Drew had made a baking soda and vinegar volcano. It didn't have much to do with global warming, but it was fun to watch the foam spurt out of the top. He had put green food coloring in the vinegar.

Emma and Zuzu had taken about two hundred pictures of themselves digging holes and planting trees. There was also a picture of Rose the Yard Duty yelling at them for digging holes in the school lawn. Underneath, Emma had written “Doesn't care about global warming.”

“But Ivy,” said Ivy's mom, “where's your project?”

Ivy gave Bean a help-me look, but then, just in the nick of time, Ms. Aruba-Tate interrupted. “Excuse me, may I borrow your daughters?” she asked. “It's almost time,” she said to Ivy and Bean.

“We have to go do our project,” explained Bean to her parents.

“But what
is
it?” asked her mom.

“It's a secret,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “You're going to find out in a few minutes. Right, girls?”

“Right,” they agreed.

Grown-ups don't usually do what kids tell them to do, so Bean and Ivy had asked Ms. Aruba-Tate to give the orders.

Ms. Aruba-Tate spoke into a microphone.

“All available parents, please come to the back of the cafeteria. Come to the back of the cafeteria.” She had to say it twelve times before the parents obeyed.

“And they get mad at us if they have to say things twice,” whispered Bean to Ivy.

Finally, a group of grown-ups was clustered at the back of the cafeteria.

“Okay,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “This is Bean.” She pointed to Bean. “And this is Ivy.”
She pointed to Ivy. “Follow them. The other teachers and I will stay with the kids.”

“Is this your project?” asked Bean's dad. “Yes,” said Bean. “Come on. Follow us.”

“Where are we going?” asked someone's mom.

“Just outside,” said Ivy. “Not far. Come on.”

“How long is this going to take?” asked another mom.

“Not long. Don't worry,” said Bean.

With grown-ups crowded behind them, they walked across the cafeteria and out the door into the cool night air. The grown-ups were mumbling things like “What's going on?” and “It's late” and “Sorry!” when they bumped into each other. But since a teacher had told them to, they all followed Ivy and Bean across the playground to the lawn. The light from the cafeteria was very dim. You could just barely see that the lawn was covered with rugs and blankets.

Ivy and Bean stopped and the grown-ups bunched up around them. “Here's what's going to happen,” said Bean. “There's a blanket or rug or yoga mat for each of you. We'll take you out with our flashlights and show you a good spot. Then you just lie down.”

“And then what?” asked Ivy's mom. She sounded worried.

“And then you rest,” said Ivy. “Don't be nervous,” she added to her mom. “I'll be right here.”

“What does this have to do with global warming?” asked Dusit's mom.

Ivy smiled mysteriously, but no one could see her in the dark. “Just try it,” she said.

Ivy and Bean showed all the grown-ups where to lie down. It was lucky that Ms. Aruba-Tate had brought extra towels, because there were more grown-ups than they had planned for. Even the Principal wanted to lie down. Bean gave her an entire blanket all to herself.

Soon there were grown-ups scattered all across the grass. In the dark, they looked like laundry.

“Now,” said Bean in a loud voice. “Look up into the sky. Smell how nice the grass is. Listen to the trees. And just rest. Don't talk. Don't do anything. And don't worry. You're totally safe.”

A few grown-ups muttered. Bean heard someone say something about bedtime. One dad sat up, but he flopped down again when he saw Bean coming toward him.

In a minute or two, the grown-ups got quiet. Ivy and Bean heard some gentle sighs. Ivy poked Bean in the ribs. “See,” she whispered. “They're getting happy.”

Bean was getting happy, too. She couldn't lie down, because she was taking care of the grown-ups, but she could feel the cool night air and she could listen to the leaves move. She could smell the damp dirt under the grass.

She and Ivy stood side by side, making sure that nothing surprising happened. “I think they're liking nature,” whispered Ivy.

“I think so, too,” whispered Bean. For just a moment, she felt like the grown-ups were the little ants and she was the giant who understood how big the world really was.

A grown-up began to snore softly. Way out on the lawn, the Principal curled up on her side. Ivy checked Ms. Aruba-Tate's glow-in-the-dark watch. “Two more minutes,” she whispered.

Ivy and Bean watched the grownups resting. The two minutes passed.

“All right, grown-ups,” said Ivy gently. “It's time to get up now.”

Some of the grown-ups moaned a tiny bit. They didn't want to get up. Eventually, they struggled to their feet. Except for three who had fallen asleep. Bean woke them up nicely. It would have been fun to pour water on their faces, but that wouldn't have made them happy.

When all of them were on their feet, Bean said, “Okay. That was our science project. You can go now.”