Fashion Frenzy (10 page)

O
n Friday, the Abigail Adams seventh-grade class finished their second day of aptitude tests at precisely eleven o’clock. Ms. Rodriguez came back into the classroom with a smile. “All right, boys and girls. We’re off to the Museum of Fine Arts!” Almost before Ms. R uttered her last syllable Dillon was out the door followed by the Trentinis and the Yurtmeister. They chanted “Field Trip! Field Trip!” all the way down the hall.

It was sunny outside under the high blue sky. “Perfect weather for a trip to a museum. Not! We should be going to the park for a class soccer game!” Avery exclaimed. She, Charlotte, and Isabel lined up in front of the bus that was waiting to take them to the museum.

Isabel shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

“What’s wrong, Iz?” Charlotte asked.

Isabel shrugged. “Nothing really. I was just thinking about that test…I don’t know if I did that well on the math part. All the problems with X’s and Y’s really confused
me. I don’t think I got more than half of those!”

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Charlotte reassured her. “Aptitude tests are just to see what you can and can’t do. That way, school teachers know what they need to spend more time working on.”

Avery was jumping to get to the front of the line, eager to obtain a choice seat on the bus. “Come on, can we
not
talk about tests anymore? This is supposed to be fun time!”

Isabel nodded. “I know, but that math…”

“Don’t worry, Iz. I don’t know if I did that great either,” said Charlotte, hoping to reassure her friend.

“Isabel and Charlotte!” Avery interrupted, placing her hands on her hips. “Iz, do you want to be a famous artist or a math teacher?”

Isabel began to grin. “Well, an artist but…”

“And Charlotte,” Avery continued, “you
know
you are good at math and reading. You know more about astronomy than anyone at our school, and everybody loves reading your articles for
The Sentinel
.”

“You’re right,” said Isabel. “I’ll just have to wait to get the results and be surprised…”

“Speaking of surprises…” Avery motioned at a young woman walking toward the bus.

“Omigosh!” Charlotte said. “Look who’s coming on the field trip with us!” She nodded at a young woman talking to Ms. Rodriguez.

“Ms. Weston!” Isabel exclaimed. “You don’t think she’s going to guide us around the museum, do you?”

“If she is, we might not make it home.” Avery giggled. All three girls laughed, remembering their adventures at
Lake Rescue with the directionally challenged student teacher, who couldn’t seem to find her way around a parking lot, let alone the wilderness.

The bus ride to the museum seemed much shorter than it actually was. Everyone had way too much energy after being cooped up all morning taking tests. Now the bus was rocking with noise and laughter. “Hey, a truck! Let’s get him to honk!” Henry Yurt yelled from his seat in the back. Nick and Dillon were ready for action. The three boys pumped their arms up and down as a Mack truck approached from the side. “Honk! Honk! Honk!” chanted the back of the bus. The driver took note of the squad of overexcited students and reached up and pulled down a lever.

“WONK! WONK!” bellowed the truck. It was more like the foghorn of a ship than a car. Some students covered their ears in surprise. The truck driver zoomed past and honked his horn one more time for good measure as he gave his bus of fans a friendly wave. The entire bus cheered loudly and waved back.

“I think I lost my hearing!” Isabel moaned as she clasped her hands over her ears.

Avery giggled and motioned toward Riley, who was sitting in front of them. Riley had headphones on and was bopping along to the tunes in his head, completely oblivious to the earth-shattering truck horn only moments before. “Hey Riley, how are the eardrums holding up?” Avery tapped his shoulder.

Riley, startled, pulled his earphones out and looked up. “What up?” Because he was part of a rock band called
Mustard Monkey, most of the time there was some sort of loud musical noise blaring in his ears. “Are you talking to me?!” he asked in an overly loud voice.

“Never mind…” Avery shook her head. She sat back next to Charlotte and began tapping her feet against the floor. After the morning-long test, Avery was just one of the many kids in Ms. Rodriguez’s class who had a lot of leftover energy. “I wish we got to go on a field trip to a rock-climbing gym.” Avery pretended to climb in place.

“Avery, this museum has mummies in crypts,” Charlotte rubbed her hands to together gleefully.

Avery clapped. “Mummies! Now we’re talking! Remember that scene in
Return of the Mummy
when…”

Isabel shuddered. “I
really
don’t want to see the mummies,” she said, sounding adamant.

“Why not, Izzy?” asked Charlotte.

“Yeah…they’ve already been dead for about, I don’t know, a thousand years,” Avery said with a mischievous grin. “What do you think they’re going to do, crawl out of their sarcophaguses and change their minds?”

Isabel tried to glare but giggled instead. “Ha ha, you are sooo funny, Avery.” She reached under her seat and produced a straw handbag, which held a sketchbook and a box of colored pencils. “Oh well. I have plenty of stuff to do at the museum that will help me steer clear of mummies AND their sarcophaguses. There’ll be some beautiful Egyptian art I can copy there. I’ve always thought Egyptian urns and murals were really cool. You know, the pictures on them all tell stories. I wouldn’t mind just being by myself and sketching today. Am I the only seventh
grader whose idea of an awesome day is looking at vases at a museum?”

“Umm…” Avery began to drum her fingers together as she made a funny face at Isabel.

“No, no, no,” Charlotte said quickly. “I’m excited too! I have a
Sentinel
assignment to work on today. Jennifer asked me to do a piece about our field trip for the paper.”

“
You’re
doing a piece for the paper?” The BSG turned around. Betsy Fitzgerald sat behind them, and now she was looking at Charlotte unhappily. “I wonder why Jennifer didn’t ask me to write it? I told her that I am a real Egyptophile and I know everything about Egypt already. Remember I was telling you both about that really big essay contest I won in third grade when I wrote about the pyramids?”

Charlotte shifted awkwardly in her seat. “Yes…,” she said, looking uncomfortable.

Betsy tossed her head. “If you want me to coauthor the piece, I’d be happy to help you. We wouldn’t have to do any research because I’ve already got tons of information.”

“Maybe it’s not supposed to be all about facts and research, Betsy,” Avery piped in. “The school paper is supposed to be about what’s happening at school…not just a list of boring facts.”

Charlotte cringed. Avery could be so clueless sometimes.

Betsy shrunk back in her seat and whispered hopefully, “Well, if you change your mind…”

“I’ll definitely ask you if I need help on the historical
parts,” Charlotte offered with a smile. Betsy was one of those people who was so annoying but nice at the same time. Charlotte certainly didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“Hey, Izzy, maybe
The Sentinel
will use your sketches to illustrate Charlotte’s article,” Avery suggested.

“How cool would
that
be, Iz!” Charlotte said excitedly.

Isabel’s rich brown eyes sparkled. “Oh, I’d love to have my drawings next to your article in
The Sentinel
!”

“Maybe,” Avery murmured, “you can even draw a
pyramid
.” She nudged Isabel, and the girls burst out laughing.

“No, maybe I’ll even draw a mummy!” Isabel joked as she reached over and tugged Avery’s hair.

An Egyptian Curse

Once the bus dropped them off at the entrance of Boston’s famous Museum of Fine Arts, the teachers quickly organized students into groups based on who wanted to see what. Avery, Charlotte, and Isabel insisted on being in the same group. “After all,” Avery said, “it doesn’t really matter what we see, as long as we get to hang out together.”

Ms. Rodriguez had split off a number of groups that had already moved off and started touring. “The rest of you will be with Ms. Weston and me,” she said. The BSG turned around. There were four other girls in their group plus Ms. Weston with her happy smile. But the biggest surprise was the last member standing alone with his gigantic backpack. Danny Pellegrino shuffled over to the group
and gave Isabel a wide grin. A museum docent, or tour guide, was waiting to escort them around.

Avery looked quickly at their group. “Figures, Danny’s the only guy in our group,” she said in a low voice to Charlotte and Isabel.

“Why do I think this is not an accident?” Charlotte asked.

“I think
someone
here wishes that our field trip was to the Isabel Martinez Museum instead,” Avery whispered. Danny Pellegrino had been making moon eyes over Isabel for more than a week. He was driving her bonkers.

“Shh!” Isabel giggled.

“I think you’re going to be very excited about our first stop today,” said the guide as she led them down the stately museum hallways adorned with Flemish paintings. “We are headed toward the Mummy Room!” She ushered them around the corner.

“Yessssss!” Avery hissed.

“Ugh,” gulped Isabel. “I was hoping that the mummy room would be at the very end so I could work up to it.”

The entrance to the Mummy Room was designed like a tomb, with two thick columns covered with hieroglyphics. Isabel lingered by the columns while her classmates filtered into the room.

“Oooh, look at these!” Avery cried, rushing over to the wall where three or four mummy cases leaned. Each mummy had a card in front of it that explained who the person was inside.

Charlotte followed Avery, occasionally scribbling a thought down in her notebook. She was surprised to
find that the information on the mummies was really interesting. Almost all of them were royalty or soldiers. Charlotte pointed to a smoothed stone statue with a face and headdress. It was huge—at least a foot taller than she was. A card explained that it was the lid of the sarcophagus of General Kheper-Re dating back between 570-526 B.C. The card also described the treasures that were buried with the mummies. The ancient Egyptians believed the spirits of the dead would use these treasures in their afterlife.

“Do you think the kids at Abigail Adams would be interested to know that ancient Egyptians totally believed in life after death?” Charlotte asked Avery.

“Maybe.” Avery shrugged. “But personally, I think you should write about how creepy these sarcophagus heads are. Check out this dude’s eyes…no eyeballs!”

Charlotte giggled and whispered, “And look at all the little hieroglyphics on it! There are worms, and people shooting bows and arrows. Oh, and look at all the tiny birds. Izzy would love these.”

“Where is she anyway?” asked Avery as she turned around. Isabel had disappeared.

Anxious to avoid the mummies, Isabel had spotted a small, elegant portrait, just outside the Mummy Room.
Phew! I’m safe
, she thought to herself.

There was something so familiar about the tiny painting. With the little brush strokes, pearly pink mouth, and soulful brown eyes, it looked like something Isabel could have painted herself. The woman wore two necklaces: a string of emeralds, and a linked-gold chain. Isabel realized
that she had seen jewelry like that in stores just the other day. She glanced at the card to see when this was painted. The card read “About A.D. 100.”
This look certainly has made a comeback
, Isabel thought with a smile. Above the date the card also read “Fragmentary mummy portrait of a woman.” This gave Isabel the shivers, but she dutifully took out her sketchbook and box of colored pencils and flipped open to a blank page.
Well, as long as I’m not near the mummies I’ll be just fine!
And with a black pencil, she gracefully etched out the outlines of the woman’s tiny ringlets and dainty cleft chin.

“Did you know that ancient Egyptians
worshipped
cats,” said a voice from behind her. “Did you know they even had cat mummies?”

Isabel, startled, dropped her pencil and just managed to catch her sketchbook before it fell to the ground. “Uugh…I didn’t see you there,” she muttered.

“Allow me,” offered Danny Pellegrino, retrieving her pencil with a dramatic bow. “
Me lady
.” He presented the ordinary black pencil resting on his two hands as if it were the Hope Diamond.

“Um, thanks,” was all Isabel could say.

“So where was I? Oh yeah! Cats. Did you see all the cats in their murals and the paintings of their houses? And did you know they had ceremonies when they mummified their dead cats?”

“No, I did not know this.” Isabel was trying to be polite but she craved time alone with her pencil and paper. She looked around for Betsy Fitzgerald. Maybe Betsy could channel Danny’s Egyptian energies away from her.

Danny put one hand on his hip and the other on the glass case in a casual side-lean.

“Hands OFF the glass, please!” ordered a guard who was watching him carefully. Danny turned beet red, mumbled an apology, and stuffed both hands in his pockets.

This guy is a disaster! Isabel rolled her eyes. “Danny, you’re going to get us
both
in trouble.”

Danny barely skipped a beat as he moved quickly on with his lesson. “Did you know that ancient Egyptians were buried with their cat mummies?”

Breathing deeply, Isabel clutched the sides of her notebook. This was going to be a trying day. “Well, actually, I’m not a big fan of mummies. Not even cat mummies,” she muttered.

“I don’t think this museum has cat mummies,” Danny said. “Lemme check with the guide. You’ll be here for a while? You’re still working on your drawing, right?”

“Yeah,” Isabel said. He could check on anything he wanted, as long as he’d just leave her alone!

“Phew! Okay, I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” Danny scurried off like a man on a mission. The minute he walked away, Isabel hurried to another part of the room. If she couldn’t sketch the portrait in peace, maybe she could copy this pretty painting of a pair of servants respectfully serving dinner to their master and mistress. The lines were graceful and elegant. Isabel thought this might even turn out better than the woman with the beautiful jewelry.