This Place is a Zoo

This Place is a Zoo — page 3 — CHAPTER ONE The Best Field Trip Ever Paisley Atoms fed her pet Indian gray mongoose his favorite food a pile of worms Newton gobbled them up She’d been awake since before sunrise Paisley was always excited to go to school at Roarington Elementary but today she was even more excited Today was Mrs Beaker’s annual science class field trip to the Naricorn Zoo It was the best day of fifth grade Paisley couldn’t wait She couldn’t wait so badly she’d been dancing around her bedroom all morning 6

This Place is a Zoo — page 4 — like she had ants in her pants Of course if anyone had ants in their pants it would be her best friend neighbor and partner in science Ben Striker Ben loved ants so much he kept shelves full of ant colonies and worm farms in his closet instead of clothes She glanced at the clock Ben would be over to walk her to school in less than ten minutes She ran her fingers through her mass of wavy hair and yanked it up into her favorite messy bun She pulled on her comfy jeans rolled at the ankle Converse sneakers and a soft green T-shirt with I make Horrible Science Puns But Only Periodically typed on it beneath a drawing of the periodic table It cracked her up every time she wore it Paisley packed her knapsack with the needed supplies her favorite Endangered Species of the World book binoculars her lunchbox a pencil a clipboard duct tape you never know and of course a pile of fruit snacks pretzels and string cheese for Ben who was always hungry He usually had dinner twice once with Paisley and her Dad after they’d tinkered in Paisley’s basement laboratory all afternoon and second supper 7

This Place is a Zoo — page 5 — with his own parents after they finished with work Newton stuck his head in the knapsack There’s no mealworms in there for you Paisley said I’ll see you when I get home She pressed a new Band-Aid over the cut on her forearm Yesterday she and Ben invented a self-driving mower They even amped up the horsepower so it could get the job done faster When they tested it on Paisley’s overgrown front yard it worked great at first Until the mower’s sensors got overloaded and it took off into the Pendlebury’s grass zooming through Mrs Pendlebury’s perfectly manicured bushes and shredding her petunia garden When they’d finally caught the mower the Pendlebury’s yard looked like a giant crop circle And not the cool kind Paisley’s ears were still ringing from Mrs Pendlebury’s shrieks of outrage A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new Paisley said to Newton quoting her favorite physicist Albert Einstein Newton wrinkled his black nose and chirped at her 8

This Place is a Zoo — page 6 — His chirp sounded like a baby bird Paisley’s mom rescued Newton on one of her research trips to India Mom was a botanist She was currently in Mexico researching chocolate cosmos a beautiful burgundy flower that smelled like chocolate thought to be extinct in the wild Thinking of chocolate made Paisley’s stomach growl She grabbed her knapsack and slung it over her shoulders She held out her arm for Newton to shimmy up to his favorite perch on her shoulder and followed the scent of Dad’s cooking straight into the kitchen Dad was a biologist and part-time professor at the state university thirty minutes outside of Roarington aka Boring Town USA He was also a fantastic chef though a very very messy one Good morning Dad said He flipped a fried egg on the skillet I made breakfast chilaquiles When Mom was gone they both missed her so much that Dad cooked authentic Mexican food almost every meal Thanks Dad Paisley gobbled up breakfast nearly as fast as Newton had inhaled his worms Delicious 9

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