The Secret On The Constitution

Franki, Grade 5
Seven Oaks Elementary School

“Ok! Everybody line up and get in pairs!” Miss Arnold said.

I knew who I would be partners with, my best friend Megan. No! She already had a partner. I needed a partner, fast!

The only person left without a partner was James… ugh.

“Wanna be partners?” James asked.

“I guess,” I answered.

Oh! Sorry… my name’s Natalie, by the way. I love puzzles and maps, and, of course, history!! I figured James liked history too, since he always got A’s.

The bus ride was short and as soon as we got off, we got into a single file line and walked into the Smithsonian Museum. I gaped. I was sooooooooooo excited!! The last time I came here was when I was six. The whole time I was there, I was deciding if I wanted to be Amelia Earhart for Halloween or one of the Wright Brothers.

I was going to use my time wisely. I got out my itinerary and scanned for what I had written down to see first…

“Hey!” “Ahhhhhh! Oh. It’s you,” I said.

“Ya, sorry about that… let’s go check out the dinosaur exhibit!” James replied.

“No way, Jose! We are sticking to my itinerary. I’m not letting dinosaurs ruin my field trip!”

He argued but then agreed and we headed to the Ancient Egypt exhibit. Then, we studied and read the Constitution.

“Wait! Look at the beginning letter of every word. It looks like a clue for something. Get a pencil and paper. Quick! Before anyone sees what we’re doing!” James said.

“Okay, okay,” I mumbled. I can’t believe he was telling me what to do. Whatever, maybe he was right.

Once I’d gotten the pencil and paper, James said, “It spells, T-r-e-a-s-u-r-e-m-a-p-l-o-o-k-f-o-r-c-l-u-e-s-o-n-b-I-g-b-e-n. Who’s Big Ben?”

“I have no idea!”

After looking it up, it was a very large clock tower in London, England.  After having lunch with the class, James and I discussed how we were going to get to England or if we were going to England.

“This is crazy!” I said. “How are we going to get to England if I only have fifty bucks in my backpack and, remember, we are in 8th grade! I also don’t have my passport!”

“It’s easy!” James replied. “After the field trip we’ll go home, get our passports, snag some money, call an Uber, and get to the airport. When we get there, we tell the check-in lady that our mom had an unexpected business trip and had to leave really early in the morning. She left us some money so we could follow her to England.”

The plan worked, and before I knew it, we were halfway to England! I plugged in some earbuds and took a nap. When I woke up, James was tapping me and saying we had arrived. It was still dark when we got to the hotel, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was so happy! I knocked on James’s hotel room door and told him I’d scheduled a private tour of Big Ben!

When we got to the tour bus it was really cramped, but I found a seat and so did James. When we got to Big Ben, I was in awe! It was HUGE! It would be hard to find a clue in there. But, eventually, we did! There was a missing brick and behind it, it said, “Find Treasure at Futbol Tournament.”

“What?!” I said.

“It’s a soccer tournament. It is in London. Look! There it is!”

We got to the soccer field and dug under a goal post and found the treasure!!! Wow!!! It was full of precious jewels and gems and gold coins! “Wow! That must be like a billion dollars!” James said.

Turns out it was, and we lived happily ever after in our newly bought Smithsonian Museum.