One horribly sunny day I woke up and to my excitement, I realised the day had come for my visit to Butterfly Land. I got dressed and merrily skipped to school where I met my primary 5 teacher, Miss McGuire, who was beckoning for the kids to get in a line so they could be counted for going on the bus. Everybody was getting partnered off and I sat next to James the insect geek. He was telling me lots of cool stuff about their wings and how he had been many times before and loved it.
When everybody was onboard and the bus was in motion all I could hear were bursts of laughter and the sound of old nursery rhymes in the background.
When we got off the bus, we reassembled with our partners and a man led us inside. It was very warm, bright and the sound of wings fluttering was like buzzing in my ears. There was small ones and big ones the size of your hand. There were also gigantic moths. The butterflies were so beautiful and that was the irony of it. The man who was guiding us round the place was trying to frighten us by saying that the butterflies were attracted to red (Which I was wearing) the funny thing is it worked. I was frightened.
I felt that the butterflies were getting closer and closer. They kept landing on my clothes and on my hair. They kept closing in until the butterflies were eclipsing the light. I tried to get away but I didn’t know where to go. I kept brushing against bushes with spider webs. It was awful. I could hear the laughter of my fellow classmates getting louder and louder until it was like screaming in my ears. That was when Miss McGuire decided that it was finally time for lunch.
The teachers kept a large supply of Irn-Bru and rainbow drops, tiny sugary sweets, for the kids with no lunch but everybody ended up with them. I spent my lunch time picking the webs off my clothes, dodging the odd butterfly that flew past and watching my class mates taking turns to climb the chute. James eventually got his turn. He climbed up the wrong way and fell off, and all I heard was him smacking his head off the ground.  The sound echoed in my head making me feel sick. The teachers ran towards him, shouting for the children to move out of the way. One member of staff called an ambulance and another stayed with James until the ambulance had arrived. The rest of the staff, including Miss McGuire who was in charge, rounded us all up near the entrance to the park. I still kept my eyes glued on James although I did what I was told.
We could see the paramedics with their bright yellow jackets, jog out of their ambulance to James’ side. One of them muttered something to the other and then they nodded at each other simultaneously, slid the stretcher under him and carried him carefully to the ambulance. They then put him in, closed the doors and rushed away with him we were told to the hospital. My stomach was turning at the thought that he might not wake up. The cleaners came along with their cleaning materials a few seconds later, trying to mop up what was left of James’ blood and that just made me feel worse.
Miss McGuire decided that it was best to head home, so we all got in the back of the bus and off we went.
I think the driver was a bit uneasy –from what he had seen or maybe it was the road- because the bus seemed to be swaying a little. I started to hear this awful sound, the kind that wants you to get up and run. People had started to throw up, “must have been the rainbow drops” I thought to myself because the vomit was multi-coloured. One person threw up, then another, then another. Soon the sweet aroma had filled the bus. It couldn’t get worse.
Luckily we arrived back at the school before I had the chance to be sick. I got off the bus but right at that moment a massive butterfly flew into my face and I just turned and ran back onto the bus.
Even now I find it difficult to believe that a butterfly made me run back onto that gruesome, smelly bus.
It was definitely the most memorable school trip I’ve ever had.