Who/Where: On the bus – Amanda in the back right and me in the back left on the half seat; Maggie was in front of Amanda and Lea was 2 seats in front of me.
When: Somewhere around 6:50 AM Thursday.
What: Ricky Splat
Why: Because.
How: By way of falling.
Quick back story that comes in later: Maggie decided that I am in desperate need of a boyfriend.
Keep in mind those sentences weren’t meant to be understood by all, I just had no better way to start my latest story.
Story:
We were on the bus waiting to pick up more kids when all of the sudden Amanda goes, “What the heck is that??!” This annoyed me greatly because I had just been drifting back to sleep but she rudely awoke me with her screeching. Thanks, Amanda. So anyway she’s sitting there repeating “what the heck is that” over and over until I finally opened my eyes and saw what looked like a leaf had fallen from the foam pad that is above the emergency exit door. Turns out it wasn’t a leaf, but a bug. Amanda hates bugs. With a passion. So after we both realized it was indeed a funny looking bug Amanda starts yelling, “Rebecca, SQUISH IT!” But I wouldn’t because it looked harmless, didn’t look like it could fly, and wasn’t bothering us, so I told her I would not squish the funny bug. Then she turned to Maggie who also would not squish the bug because she too was scared of it. Amanda then called up to Lea and asked her to squish the “creepy” bug. Lea, like myself, would not squish the bug just because it looked weird.
Amanda was very upset (and loud) by this point. Also by this point we had picked up the other kids and were on our way to school. So, on the way to school I got sick of Amanda freaking so I got the bug onto a piece of paper (without touching it of course – I wasn’t sure if it could bite) and attempted to put it out the window. While the bus was moving. Not the brightest idea ever, I’ll admit, but oh well, I wasn’t thinking.
The bug blew off the paper right into me. Wow, that was scary. I mean, an unknown, possibly bite-y bug just flew into me, and then I lost sight of it. Not the most calming experience ever, I think you all will agree! Not to mention my backpack was open…At that point I moved into the seat with Amanda where we proceeded to search for the funny bug, and, to our delight, we found him under my seat and not in my book bag, thank the Lord. After that I decided we had had enough torment from the unknown creature and I asked my friends if they had some container we could put it into so that we could take it to my possibly-crack-smoking science teacher, Mrs A. (I say crack-smoking because while I do love the lady she is so scatterbrained…) So eventually Amanda gave me a plastic bag she had and I coaxed the bug into it, once again without getting bitten.
By this point we were at school and we all agreed upon the name Ricky Splat for our funny bug friend.
I then went to class while Maggie took Ricky Splat to Mrs A.
Later that afternoon on the bus:
So, on the bus Maggie announced that Mrs A had thought that the bug was an assassin bug. Lovely and comforting name, hm? No. Not at all. I mean, I almost touched that thing! That would have been very bad because apparently assassin bugs bite very hard. Maggie also said that while Mrs A only thought that it was an assassin bug Maggie at least knew it bit because all 3 teachers that she saw on her way to Mrs A that saw the bug said, “Careful, that bites hard,” or something like that.
Next morning on the bus (and later in science class):
Amanda told me and Maggie the next morning that she had looked up assassin bugs and that none of them looked like Ricky and also that assassin bugs were native to South America, so Ricky probably wasn’t an assassin bug. This made me feel much better, and it made me braver because in science I actually took Ricky Splat out of the terrarium he was staying in and put him in a little dish with another one on top so he couldn’t escape. Ricky was actually kind of cute – for a bug that is. So then, because he looked unhappy, I took the lid off of the dish. Ricky climbed up the side of the jar and ran around the edge a little before stopping and staring at me. It was quite fascinating. Now, Amanda actually sits next to me in science so she was far from thrilled by this, but I made her deal. Then, just to freak her out (and to please Maggie in a joking sort of way) I said Ricky Splat was my new boyfriend. So there!!!
While we were in science Amanda and I figured we would try to figure out what Ricky was ourselves. We finally found out the he was a squash bug, which was quite amusing because we had named him Ricky Splat. I also had to do some vocab cards for English class – I had to write a sentence using the word and also draw a picture to help me remember what the word meant – and because I had been so fascinated by Ricky I decided to make all of my cards to do with squash bugs. I then began to draw Ricky. While I was drawing Ricky was still staring at me from the edge of the glass and all of the sudden he put his front 2 legs together and began to clap!! He liked my drawing! (That’s how I interpreted it at least.) It was so cute. Then it turns out he was just cleaning his antenna because he stopped clapping, lowered an antenna, and began to clap on it to clean it, but I still think he liked my drawing of him, too.
I love Ricky – he’s awesome.
So, there you have it. That is the true story of Ricky Splat the squash bug. He is still in our science classroom living in the terrarium but Amanda and I will release him on Tuesday when we go outside in science class so that he can go live with all of the other wild squash bugs that don’t live on buses!
P.S Squash bugs eat the juices of cultivated cucumbers, melons, squash, and other produce, so he could have never bit me!
P.P.S. Squash bugs are brownish and actually have wings and can fly, but we got lucky because Ricky loved us so much he didn’t fly away! He did, however, spread his wings at one point (probably to show off) and they were very pretty!
=]
