Before we got to the big field trip pretty much all the Global teachers were hinting at, we had to go through one more small one. It was the National Aerodynamics museum trip that Mr. Marvin and Mr. Gandalf had told us about quite a while ago. The most exciting part was that it was our first indoor field trip.

    I packed my bag as usual, but this time, I didn't need to pack a rain jacket or sunscreen. Only money so that I could buy something at the museum.

    When we reached the museum, Mr. Marvin gave us an assignment to find one artifact from each "theater" and draw it, and find another three to write about. Since it was the closest, Clary and I targeted the Pacific Theater first.

    I looked around the museum, surprised to see artifacts so old and pertaining to the time period so directly. There were flying jackets, life preservers, marine corps helmets, camouflage outfits, and even medical kids for all biomes! I was especially surprised by the jungle medical kit... I mean who needed a medical kit specifically for jungles? I wrote down all four of the items and began sketching the jacket. Beside me, Clary was working on the helmet. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty good for someone who didn't draw much.

    "Nice helmet!" I told her. She laughed.

    "I wish. Your drawing is amazing," she complimented. "I wish I could draw like you. Like, remember the drawing you did that kind of looked like Mr. Rickman?"

    Oh I remembered. I remembered that day clearly, whether I wanted to or not. I missed Mr. Rickman so much, but I was glad he was recovering. I pushed the sad thoughts out of my mind. "Oh come on," I protested. "I only draw well because I practice. It's also the same reason I'm no good at drawing landscapes. I don't practice them."

    She gave me an "are-you-serious" look, obviously referring to my landscape drawings from the previous field trip and pointed to a sign a few feet away from us. "Come on! There's the European theater, I think."

    It wasn't the European theater. It was actually just a continuation of the Pacific theater. Luckily, we met some of our classmates and found out from them where the European theater was. Honestly, if this trip wasn't a school field trip, I would be hopelessly lost.

    We drew and described the interesting artifacts from the European theater. I was surprised to find a baseball that actually had a hidden compartment. My journal entry was rather humorous in reaction to that.

    Just a regular dirty baseball... or is it? This "baseball" contains a hidden gold compartment with care packages for US prisoners or US soldiers captured by other countries!

    Clary glanced at my description and laughed, "You know, you'd make a pretty good writer some day."

    I shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile, "Eh... I don't think so. I mean, I've tried but I've never actually made it past 20,000 words."

    "You'll do it!" she encouraged. "I know you can!"

    I laughed. "Yeah let's hope so. Now, onto the Home Front?"

    The Home Front was pretty interesting. Technology was emphasized, so it was pretty crazy to see technology from so long ago. Instead of the "iPod Touch," there were records and the radio. It baffled me to see how long ago it was, not too long ago, and how much we had progressed. By this rate, we would be making clones by 2050!

    Helping the war effort was also pretty emphasized. There were Red Cross posters everywhere and people were encouraged to make victory gardens. I could almost visualize myself during the time period... growing my own food and listening to records to help the war effort. I scoffed at the idea. I hated growing gardens.

    There was a small monitor with a game show on it. A girl from my class, Hailey, was playing the game show, but she had nobody to compete with. She turned around and politely asked me to play. I agreed.

    Now, it was a well known fact that I was awful at History, but I had absorbed a bit of information from the class. While I didn't beat Hailey, I didn't absolutely fail either. I actually got a few questions right.

    Afterwards, Clary and I just wandered around the museum for a bit. My newfound independence was pretty appalling considering how much I had been restrained as a child. I mean, it wasn't like I wasn't allowed to have sleepovers or anything, but I wasn't allowed to go to the mall on my own either. Going to this museum was a pretty big step.

    Finally, we stumbled across the food court. My stomach rumbled as I thought of all the delicious food in there. I hadn't eaten a heavy breakfast, but my mom had let me borrow twenty dollars and I wasn't about to let that go to waste. I looked at the sign saying "Food Court," but I had missed out on one crucial detail.

    "It opens at 12 o'clock," Clary observed. By now a few other people had gathered outside the food court, evidently as hungry as I was. A lady walked out of the cafeteria and was knocked a step back by the number of students waiting outside.

    "Five more minutes," she told us, pointing to the sign and walking back inside. But I couldn't wait for five more minutes. My stomach rumbled and it felt like an empty pit of darkness. After a few minutes, I began to feel nauseous and leaned against the brick wall.

    I always dealt badly with hunger. As a child, I had many stomach problems and the one thing my doctor told my mom was: "Always keep her eating." It sort of explained my thinness and reluctance to eat. But when I was hungry, I was hungry.

    Finally, the doors opened, presenting us with a realm of yummy foods that I could wait to eat. I fingered the twenty dollars in my pocket, no pun intended, and scanned the food.

    A hearty slice of black forest cake caught my eye, along with a plate of pasta and some salad. I hungrily grabbed a tray and filled my plate with everything that looked good. Somehow though, I still managed to keep it under twenty dollars.

    "Nineteen fifty," the lady at the register told me. I handed her my twenty dollar bill, which she exchanged for two quarters.

    I grabbed my plate and found an empty table by a large window. Going back to the condiments stand, I picked up a few napkins, two steel forks, and a spoon. When I went back to the table, Clary and a few other friends were already sitting there.

    My stomach rumbled at the sight of all the good food. Twisting some pasta with my fork and spoon, I shoveled the rich sauce into my mouth. The plate was finished in only a few minutes, followed by the cheesy Caesar salad. Finally, I was getting ready to eat the cake. I took the second steel fork and bit into a piece of the sweet delight.

    "Mmmmm," I gasped. "This is like heaven on earth."

    My friends nodded, and I gave a piece to each of them. The cake was made of rich dark chocolate and sweet cream, along with a fluffy inside. It was amazing.

    Finally, we finished lunch and gathered in the museum foyer to talk about the jets. On the way, we saw an advertisement for a live Cosmos talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

    "Look!" Clary said, pointing to the sign. "Anasika, you would totally love that."

    I grinned. "Yeah. I wish we could go, but I don't think we have the time. Maybe some other time."

    We walked to the large model of the Blackbird, a plane that could travel three times the speed of sound. There, I saw Sam explaining something about it.

    "It's pretty interesting why it can travel so fast," he was saying. I walked up to the group and joined them, listening closer at this interesting piece of information.

    He pointed to the wings of the plane. "The plane actually has holes in it," he explained.

    Clary smacked her forehead. "Oh! So that's why it doesn't explode!"

    "What do you mean by it exploding?" I asked, genuinely curious.

    "Well you see," Sam answered. "When the plane travels at a certain speed, the metal begins to expand. In the Blackbird, the metal expands to fill the holes, so it would be a really sucky plane if it traveled slowly. But other planes don't have the holes, so the metal just expands. The plane doesn't necessarily explode, but it gets pretty close to doing so."

    I nodded. "That's pretty cool. But the holes have to be small enough so they don't inhibit the plane from flying, right?"

    "Exactly."

    We continued to look at the planes, surprised by the simple concepts they were based off of. The one that really caught my eye was the V-2 rocket, or the vengeance weapon 2. I copied down the information into my journal.

    The Vengeance Weapon 2 or V-2 Rocket was the first ballistic missile ever developed to strike distant targets. It gave the Germans a huge advantage and was extremely powerful.

    Only moments after I wrote down the last word, Mr. Marvin called us to come and board the bus. As I looked at the passing buildings and other museums, I smiled.

    This field trip had been pretty awesome.