Aerie InternationaL - Missoula County Public Schools

little sticks clanking together from the front of the room. You know,
those little sticks girls use to knit. I don’t know what they’re called.
How can you expect me to know what those stupid things are called?
Anyway, it was the walk, I swear to God it was. My words can’t even
do it justice. That strong, powerful walk in contrast with all those
flowing dresses and that flowing hair, it was just beautiful. All that
contrast, it got me excited. Shut up, you know what I mean. Maybe you
don’t. Whatever.
Me, I’ve never been savvy like River was, but I wanted to be on that
like a duck on a June bug, so I figured maybe I could trick her into
thinking I was smart just long enough to get that flowy skirt up over her
head. I don’t think she really noticed me, see, it’s easy for me to hug the
wallpaper, and our eyes would never meet even if I stared at her for a
whole class period, even if I sent all kinds of vibes her way. I was always
on the lookout for something interesting I could say that would make me
look smart in her eyes, in those fiery green eyes that she batted when she
did that strut. Hot damn, that strut.
I knew I’d found my chance when I called Time and Weather one
morning. Time and Weather is free, you know, or at least it’s free where
I live, and before they tell you the time and the weather they always
play an advertisement, usually for a chiropractor or Meals on Wheels.
It’s in my interest to know the time and the weather, because I’ve got
to ride my bike to school and back, come hell or high water. But when I
called on this particular morning, the ad was for Bill Maloney’s Custom
Honeybee Removal. Hold on, let me think of what it said. Got bees in your
Apparently, because we
pollute the air, the worker
bees can’t smell right anymore,
and they get lost and die in
the woods or whatever.
trees? That was the first part. And
then: When it’s warm, those bees will
swarm! Call today! Real cutesy,
real stupid, but that was my
chance.
All the honeybees are dying,
see. A third of them are already
dead. We studied them in
biology, after the River-Susan Battle Royale. Apparently, because we
pollute the air, the worker bees can’t smell right anymore, and they get
lost and die in the woods or whatever. And because the worker bees die,
the rest of the hive dies, including the queen. This is some kind of big
deal, because honeybees pollinate our food, and if they go extinct we’ll
have to do it ourselves. Some kind of suck job, huh? With my luck and
my grades, that’s probably what I’ll wind up doing – squirting pollen
onto buds, or however the hell that works.
So I called the guy. I felt like a regular secret agent then, and maybe
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