My Summer Report

Words: 1032

You could still sense summer in the air, even though autumn was nearing. The typically dull hum which would surround the classroom before every lesson had a slightly more upbeat, chirpier tone to it.

Lita hated it. Not summer itself of course (who could?), but it was a sore reminder that she had been left behind again. Her parents had promised Lita that she would get to go with them on one of their dig sites this summer, a budding 'intern' to two of the most well-known natural history professors in the world.

That promise had twisted and changed since Lita had extracted it from her parents.

At first, there came a qualifier; only-if-you-ace-all-your-tests. This she did promptly. Then the promise had evolved again to oh-gosh-funding-is-tight. Even though she knew they were well-off. The latest and final blow had been we-have-the-rest-of-brood-to-think-about.  Someone had to take care of the younger scoundrels and Lita didn't mind looking out for her brothers and sisters while her parents were away now did she?

Lita did. Nonetheless her protests were in vain and now after a rather tenuous summer holiday, she was back in school with icky kids her age, muddling through another rousing day at school.

At least it was Natural History period next. Lita perked up a little at the thought. However she felt her spirits dip once she remembered that even that pleasure was spoilt somewhat. Out of all the summer reports handed in (including her 50 page opus), Mr Greatwing had selected and asked Eddy to present his report on "Earth History" during class. Knowing Eddy, that title was likely literal and a not so subtle reference to his daddy's trade. Riveting stuff.

She had barely finished that thought when Mr Greatwing entered the room and called the class to order, "Siles Littlehorn!" he boomed.

"Yes sir?", answered Littlehorn timidly.

"Stop thinking of Miss Windly will you? At least not during my period. I can sense your rather excited pheromones in the air and it is most distracting, not to mention disgusting as well as plain inappropriate."

Littlehorn immediately coloured and turned a shade darker. The class tittered a little, but not too much, for fear of drawing Mr Greatwing's attention.

Mr Greatwing settled down near his usual spot, "I believe we have Eddy today. Class, I thought his summer report rather thought-invoking and therefore worthy of sharing, even though I am sure Mr Eddy Chewit had no such intentional goal. Eddy, please start."

Eddy lumbered to the front, patently nervous. He twitched and fidgeted more than the usual teenager would. Timidly, he flipped open a rather tattered file and extracted a dog-eared shaft of paper. Lita was pleasantly surprised. Most reports had been all of one page.

"Earth... um Earth history. Yeah. So that's my title. So basically... um basically the Earth we stand on is much older than we are."

The Class groaned. This was something they taught first-graders. Mr Greatwing silenced the Class with a hard stare and waved for Eddy to continue.

Eddy stumbled, hastily flipping a few pages.

"So... yeah, I'll just skip those. So anyway, the Earth has all these cool things in it that are the rem... rem... remnants! Yep, they are remnants of a very different period of time. Like long before we were standing here today. And so we um. Well my Da, he says these things in the Earth from long ago, we take them now and use them as fuel to make the world we are in now."

Amazingly, as Eddy warmed to his subject, he got more eloquent. "Now most times, people who work the same tradelike my Da, they just extract this fuel from the Earth without further thought. We only worry that it might run out."

"But the big question is, what created the fuel we use today that powers our world? We know that our explorers and academics say that it was all accident, that they never meant to become fuel for us to use."

Eddy waved his hands excitedly, "But well, we should know better now right? There's no proof that our fuel weren't intended to be that way. I mean, what I mean is that we've got proof now that what we find, it just ain't naturally occurring. They meant for us to find it, use it and..."

A spitball hit Eddy squarely in the face. The Class immediately erupted into laughter, Mr Greatwing forgotten for the moment.

His presence was soon recalled as the culprit was hauled to the front by a pair of very strong hands.
Mr Greatwing gave Cordy, still wielding a wad of soggy paper, a solid thump to the head, which produced a rather satisfying cry of remorse.

Mr Greatwing turned his attention back to Eddy. "Mr Chewit. I would ask you to stop using 'they'. One requires a certain level of specificity when dealing with science."

Eddy appeared puzzled for a moment, then coloured. "Oh! Sorry Mr Greatwing, yes by they, I really meant the Primes."

Cordy rubbed his head and protested, "Mr Greatwing! He ain't allowed to say that in Class."

Mr Greatwing huffed, but nodded. "Scientifically specific, Mr Chewit, not religiously." Eddy seemed lost at this.

Lita didn't even realised that she had reached for her pendant around her neck. Tracing the intricate pattern on it, she muttered the answer.

Mr Greatwing had sharp hearing. He swiveled to meet Lita's eyes, his multi-faceted orbs appeared to be trying to communicate something to her. As if to add emphasis, he reared up on his hind legs and stuck all four of his hands into the air.

"The term, Mr Chewit, as Miss Lita Manfray has so helpfully provided, is 'Humans'. Not 'Primes'".

Lita rubbed his mandibles nervously against each other. Until now, she hadn't really considered what her parents' new discovery would have meant for some members of her community, those that still called them 'Primes'. For a moment, she was glad that her parents hadn't brought her along on the trip. Both of them had enough on their mind right now.

Lita fretted. Just once, she needed her parents to stick to their promise and return home safely.