Man Trip (11 page)

I handed Mom the paper.

“How cute. Who’s your friend?”

“Uh … a girl.”

“Shayla?”

I frowned. “She won’t leave me alone, Mom.”

“She must like you, and I don’t blame her. You’re a sweetheart.”

“Mom!”

Ledward took the drawing from Mom. He looked up and winked at me.

Great.

“D
id you get my note, Calvin?”

It was Monday morning. I’d spent Sunday trying to tell Julio and Willy about my man trip. They shrugged it off, like, okay … so?

They’d missed out on something big, so I guess I could understand why they didn’t get
too excited about it. And maybe I sounded like I was bragging. But I’d tried not to.

Anyway, I was sitting at my desk with Shayla glancing over to catch my eye so she could say something. I didn’t want my friends to see and make fun of it later.

Shayla reached over and poked my arm. “Well?”

“Why’d you come to my house?” I said it low, so Mr. Purdy wouldn’t hear.

“I didn’t. I gave the note to Maya to give to you.”

“Okay, fine, but … 
why?
” I whispered a little too loud.

Ace, who sat behind us, inched closer.

I scooted my desk forward.

Shayla didn’t seem to care about Ace. “So, did you?”

“Did I
what
?”

“Get my note.”

Go away!

Shayla wouldn’t stop. “I still want to know
about the place you got your dog. Can you show me how to get there?”

I wanted to yell, Please, Mr. Purdy, start the class! Give us math, give us geography, give us word problems, just do it
now
!

“Ask your mom to take you,” I mumbled.

“She can’t. She works.”

“Your dad, then.”

Shayla just looked at me, and I remembered Maya once said Shayla didn’t have a dad.

I frowned at my desk.

Shayla sat saying nothing for once.

I thought: Man trip, man trip. Think of fishing. The big marlin came to mind. And the whale with the bills in it. And me in the fighting chair. Ho, yeah! What an awesome day!

“Why are you smiling, Calvin?” Shayla asked.

“Mr. Purdy,” I said, raising my hand. “Aren’t we supposed to start class now?”

Mr. Purdy looked up from the papers he
was sorting. He glanced at the clock. “You’re right, Calvin. I didn’t know you liked boot camp so much.”

“Oh yeah, Mr. Purdy, I want to study stuff.”

Mr. Purdy grinned. “I like that enthusiasm. Keep it up.”

Boot camp was what he called our fourth-grade class, because Mr. Purdy had been in the army. Every third grader in school prayed they would get into Mr. Purdy’s boot camp.

“All right, class, listen up. We have a special assignment today, one that involves teamwork.”

The second he said
teamwork
I glanced over at Willy, Maya, Rubin, and Julio. My team.

“But first,” Mr. Purdy went on, “Calvin is going to tell us about his trip to the Big Island.”

“Uh … what?”

“Remember we talked about that?”

“Oh. Right.”

Mr. Purdy sat on his desk and crossed his arms. “Stand up and face the class, Calvin. So
we can hear you better. And speak up. We don’t want Rubin falling asleep back there.”

Rubin pumped his fist in the air.

I stood. “Yeah, um. On Saturday I went on a plane to the Big Island.”

When I said
plane
the class mumbled things like Awesome; Ho, I like go on one, too.

I decided to make my story more exciting.

“The plane was fast! Like a rocket! And then we were so high I could see the whole island at one time, and I could look down into the ocean and see boats and reefs and stuff swimming around, like sharks and stingrays. And then, when we got to the Big Island … we landed on a lava flow.”

That caused some grins.

I nodded, getting into it. “And then I went fishing on a boat almost as long as this
room
.”

Everyone looked around, nodding.

“And I caught a fish called an ono, which looks like a barracuda, and if you know about fish it’s also called a wahoo.”

“Wa-hooo!” Rubin called.

Everyone laughed, even Mr. Purdy.

“And we caught a marlin, a gigantic one—that’s a big fish with a bill like a spear on its nose. Man, that thing jumped all the way out of the water, and it was as big as a truck! It was so
awesome
! But those fish are dangerous, you know. They stab whales and get their bills stuck in them and die, and if they feel like it they can jump into your boat and kill you, too.”

Some kids whooped and slapped high fives.

“Calvin,” Mr. Purdy said. “Let’s try to keep the fish tales within the range of believability.”

“Huh?”

“So how big was the marlin?” Mr. Purdy asked. “How much did it weigh?”

I scrunched my face. “Well, Baja Bill said it was about eight hundred pounds.”

“Wow!” the whole class said.

“But we let it go. After I tagged it. You know, for research.”

“You tagged it yourself?” Mr. Purdy asked.

“Uh-huh, and I cut the line and saved the lure, too. With a knife.”

Mr. Purdy nodded. “Good! That’s what I’d do, Calvin. I’d let it go.”

“Yeah, why kill it? Unless you make a living as a fisherman. And guess what? I touched it!” For a second, I remembered the marlin’s heat, its power. “It was …”

How could I even describe it?

Mr. Purdy slid off his desk. “It was an amazing day! Thank you, Calvin. That was very interesting. Now,” he said with a clap of his hands. “The special project: Mr. Purdy’s Awareness Walk.”

I sat down.

In my head I was still on the
Kakalina
. There was a lot more I wanted to say, like about the tuna head, and the sharks, and the marlin that got away.

Shayla smiled at me.

“There were birds, too,” I mumbled as I sat back down.

Mr. Purdy went on. “With a partner, you will take a notebook outside and walk around the schoolyard and record all that you see. You can write down things you think about, too. The idea is to be more aware of what surrounds you, and how you respond to it. Often we just go through our lives without even noticing the world around us. I want you to stop and smell the roses.”

Roses? All we had outside was weeds.

“We’ll work in teams of two,” Mr. Purdy said.

The class erupted. Everyone turned to call or wave to a friend. I tried to catch somebody’s eye.

“Sssss,” Mr. Purdy hissed, for silence. “Settle
down, boot campers. I’ve already worked it out. Partner up with the person next to you.”

Next to—

No, Mr. Purdy, no.

“One of you will make the observations and the other will record them. Talk with your partner and decide who will do what. We’ll head outside in two minutes.”

Shayla grabbed her notebook and pencil. “I’ll record and you observe.” She smiled and stood up. “Well?”

W
hat a weird project.

Who creeps around their school looking at stuff? And while I was staring at weeds, guys like Baja Bill were out fishing. Who’s got the better deal?

“Uhh … no-brainer,” I mumbled.

Shayla looked at me. “What?”

“Huh?”

She shrugged, and stuck to me like a shadow. “What should I write down, Calvin? There’s so much.”

“So much?” I glanced around. “There’s nothing.”

“Sure there is,” she said. “We can write down:
buildings, trees, grass, dirt, sky, walkways, the cafeteria
. Lots of stuff.”

“How boring is that? It’s stuff that’s always here. There’s nothing new.”

“Mr. Purdy didn’t say to just write new things.”

“He said to smell the roses. And I don’t see any.”

“Let’s go out by the back fence,” Shayla said. “Maybe we can find something new there.”

I squinted at her.

Shayla smiled.

On the other side of the big fence was a big field. Beyond that was the middle school. “You
could write down:
old fence, big field
, and
middle school
, I guess.”