Chapter Nine: Geoglyphs
Curiously, my random encounter with Stella on her doorstep seemed to make her not try to avoid me anymore. She even gave me a little smile and waved at me when I saw her in the hallway a few days after the twins had messed things up by being their typically annoying selves. I was totally bummed we weren’t in the same class, but Olly and my teacher were really cool.
I kept the story of going to Stella’s to myself for a couple days, but finally on Friday morning, I decided to tell Olly and Liam on the bus to school. Liam and Olly had a laugh about the muffins and Liam told me he’d buy one from me for $15 if I stole his teacher’s big rolling chair and put it on the roof. I told him I would as long as he’d climb up first to help me with it. Olly, Liam, and I kept talking about stealing the chair once the bus arrived at school and we ended up standing in the front of the classroom, playing with and talking quietly about Mr. Sanchez’s interesting rolly-chair until Liam’s teacher came into the room and told Olly and me we should be in the other class.
History class that day was really interesting. We learned about more ancient cultures and about geoglyphs. Geoglyphs are drawings made in the earth by rearranging things in nature.
I wrote down the cool ones so I wouldn’t forget.
Nazca lines in Peru - Place where giant drawings were made in the ground 2000 years ago by scraping away the top part of the desert.
Llamas in Tilivichi – cool picture Mr. Lombard showed us
The drawings are still there because desert is dry so the lines don’t disappear over time
Outside of history, the day was kinda boring. We had a math test, and spelling was normal and didn’t involve us sitting on the desks or doing anything unusual.
I did catch Stella on her own at recess, but didn’t work up the nerve to go over and say hi.
Olly saw me looking and told me that it made sense I’d given her a chocolate muffin. “Chocolate is a girl’s best friend,” he said. I told him a girl’s best friend is actually a dog.
“… Just not your uncle’s dog,” I amended.
“Haha. You should come over to the lake sometime.”
“It exists?”
Olly raised his eyebrows. “Since when have I ever given you bad information?”
“Since about a minute ago?”
After school, Olly came to my house and we tossed a ball around outside. We also decided to make our own geoglyphs. Basically a geoglyph is like making art with nature, so after we thought a bit, we picked a particular small square of the front yard.
The cool ones in Peru carved out bits of the earth in the desert to literally look like a herd of wild animals when viewed from afar. We didn’t quite know how we’d do that, but ended up tearing up hunks of grass to carefully expose the dirt underneath. We piled up some extra grass to create bushy eyebrows, and then used the dirt beneath to create dark, brown eyes.
I used my heel to make a large “U” for a mouth and then we spent the next 15 minutes changing small details.
“There.” I said, tossing a final clump of grass onto the face. “It’s you, Olly.”
Olly made a face. “No, that’s you.”
“Is not. You definitely have more bushy eyebrows than I do. And your eyes are brown, right? Totally you.”
I had a little drone with a camera I’d gotten for my birthday, so after we both agreed the bizarre face was neither one of us, Olly and I decided to get into the air and use its camera to look down at our masterpiece.
“It’s called…. The Lawn-a Lisa.”
A smiley face was about the best we could muster, but I smiled at the thought of an airplane pilot looking down and seeing our little smiley face. Or maybe someone years later on Google Earth.
It was a little windy but the drone did alright. Olly and I were both crowding around my phone, which was used as the screen of the drone’s plastic-handled controller. I stuck my hands up trying to block the glare of the sun so we could see what the heck we were doing.
“What’s that?" Olly pointed, and I squinted to make it out on the screen that was showing the video from the little camera on the drone. It was difficult to see with the reflections, but I thought I could make out our crude smiley face geoglyph. Cool.
I looked for what Olly was pointing to.
“I think it’s us." I could see Olly and me both standing there, our two heads and a little bit of our shoulders all that the drone could see overhead.
“No, not us…” Olly moved his finger closer and pointed to a specific spot.
And then I saw it too, moving toward us in the video… another head bobbing down the road.
It was bizarre to see us in the remote control camera. I wondered if I’d be filming my own attack. Maybe if the twins decided it was the right time to throw a pie at us, I could get video and earn a thousand dollars on YouTube.
Or show their mom. Boom. Trump card. Busted.
I tried to remember how to start recording with the camera. I hadn’t used the feature very much.
And it was too late.
“Hey, Stella,” Olly said.
I kept the story of going to Stella’s to myself for a couple days, but finally on Friday morning, I decided to tell Olly and Liam on the bus to school. Liam and Olly had a laugh about the muffins and Liam told me he’d buy one from me for $15 if I stole his teacher’s big rolling chair and put it on the roof. I told him I would as long as he’d climb up first to help me with it. Olly, Liam, and I kept talking about stealing the chair once the bus arrived at school and we ended up standing in the front of the classroom, playing with and talking quietly about Mr. Sanchez’s interesting rolly-chair until Liam’s teacher came into the room and told Olly and me we should be in the other class.
History class that day was really interesting. We learned about more ancient cultures and about geoglyphs. Geoglyphs are drawings made in the earth by rearranging things in nature.
I wrote down the cool ones so I wouldn’t forget.
Nazca lines in Peru - Place where giant drawings were made in the ground 2000 years ago by scraping away the top part of the desert.
Llamas in Tilivichi – cool picture Mr. Lombard showed us
The drawings are still there because desert is dry so the lines don’t disappear over time
Outside of history, the day was kinda boring. We had a math test, and spelling was normal and didn’t involve us sitting on the desks or doing anything unusual.
I did catch Stella on her own at recess, but didn’t work up the nerve to go over and say hi.
Olly saw me looking and told me that it made sense I’d given her a chocolate muffin. “Chocolate is a girl’s best friend,” he said. I told him a girl’s best friend is actually a dog.
“… Just not your uncle’s dog,” I amended.
“Haha. You should come over to the lake sometime.”
“It exists?”
Olly raised his eyebrows. “Since when have I ever given you bad information?”
“Since about a minute ago?”
After school, Olly came to my house and we tossed a ball around outside. We also decided to make our own geoglyphs. Basically a geoglyph is like making art with nature, so after we thought a bit, we picked a particular small square of the front yard.
The cool ones in Peru carved out bits of the earth in the desert to literally look like a herd of wild animals when viewed from afar. We didn’t quite know how we’d do that, but ended up tearing up hunks of grass to carefully expose the dirt underneath. We piled up some extra grass to create bushy eyebrows, and then used the dirt beneath to create dark, brown eyes.
I used my heel to make a large “U” for a mouth and then we spent the next 15 minutes changing small details.
“There.” I said, tossing a final clump of grass onto the face. “It’s you, Olly.”
Olly made a face. “No, that’s you.”
“Is not. You definitely have more bushy eyebrows than I do. And your eyes are brown, right? Totally you.”
I had a little drone with a camera I’d gotten for my birthday, so after we both agreed the bizarre face was neither one of us, Olly and I decided to get into the air and use its camera to look down at our masterpiece.
“It’s called…. The Lawn-a Lisa.”
A smiley face was about the best we could muster, but I smiled at the thought of an airplane pilot looking down and seeing our little smiley face. Or maybe someone years later on Google Earth.
It was a little windy but the drone did alright. Olly and I were both crowding around my phone, which was used as the screen of the drone’s plastic-handled controller. I stuck my hands up trying to block the glare of the sun so we could see what the heck we were doing.
“What’s that?" Olly pointed, and I squinted to make it out on the screen that was showing the video from the little camera on the drone. It was difficult to see with the reflections, but I thought I could make out our crude smiley face geoglyph. Cool.
I looked for what Olly was pointing to.
“I think it’s us." I could see Olly and me both standing there, our two heads and a little bit of our shoulders all that the drone could see overhead.
“No, not us…” Olly moved his finger closer and pointed to a specific spot.
And then I saw it too, moving toward us in the video… another head bobbing down the road.
It was bizarre to see us in the remote control camera. I wondered if I’d be filming my own attack. Maybe if the twins decided it was the right time to throw a pie at us, I could get video and earn a thousand dollars on YouTube.
Or show their mom. Boom. Trump card. Busted.
I tried to remember how to start recording with the camera. I hadn’t used the feature very much.
And it was too late.
“Hey, Stella,” Olly said.
Next: Chapter Ten
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