The Class Trip

Sam Grant ’20

It was a winter day up on the coast of Northern Canada, and the seniors of Morristown-Beard were struggling to keep warm in their igloo that was starting to collapse. They were up there for a field trip that was exciting for them, but shivering in the small igloo that wasn’t designed for the forty of them, the seniors started to realize that this trip might not have been their best idea. I looked into the far corner where I saw my friend Morgan doing a strange dance. She looked disappointed, and kept repeating the same steps over and over and over again. After a few minutes of watching her hopping about and waving her finger, I asked her what she was doing. Stress burned in her face, as she looked me dead in the eyes and yelled so loud that the people vacationing in Florida could have heard her, 

“WHAT IS THE LAST STEP OF THE COTTON EYED JOE!” 

This caught everybody’s attention in the igloo, and then panic broke out. The seniors started to run around the igloo yelling, screaming and jumping trying to remember the last step of the dance. From experience, I have never been more scared in my life. Morgan was watching the room with focus, desperate for someone to do the step correctly and jog her memory on the dance. It was chaos. Then one of us shouted over the commotion,

“IT’S THE TWIRL AND CLAP!”

 The igloo fell silent and the only thing that people heard was their hard breath breaking the crisp air in front of them. 

“What? What did you just say?” 

Morgan said with a surprisingly calm demeanor. The voice shaked with desperation as they repeated themselves for everyone to hear,

“The final step, it’s the, the twirl and clap, the final step to the dance.” 

The seniors stood around Morgan with intense patience. Morgan did the dance and added the twirl and clap to the finish and the seniors went wild. Relief decorated the small igloo filled with sweating kids. The dance was finished, and the seniors were no longer cold. 

Sam Grant is a senior at MBS