Chapter 1
Miss Murphy
SWOOSH!
The door to the tour bus opened. Jack Stalwart stepped out and onto the ground. Behind him were his older brother, Max, and four other students. They and their teacher chaperones had just arrived for a three-day field trip to Dublin, Ireland.
“Gather up,” said Miss Murphy.
Miss Catriona Murphy was Jack and Max’s art history teacher. She was twenty-five years old with short black hair and bright green eyes. Although she was new to the boys’ school, she’d already become everyone’s favorite teacher.
Beyond being interesting, Miss Murphy was cool. In her spare time, she did rock climbing and competed in endurance races. In fact, Miss Murphy had just finished one of the toughest triathlons in the world. Her academic interest was Irish art, which is why they were in Dublin in the first place. She wanted to share the sights and sounds of the city with her students.
Miss Murphy did a quick head count. There was Jack and Max, Daniel Smith, Julie Egham, Edward Brown, and Beth Williams. All of the kids were between 9 and 12 years old.
“Let’s take a group photo,” said Miss Murphy, motioning for everyone to get together.
Jack and Max stood at the back and hammed it up for the camera. After the photo, Miss Murphy thumbed to the large, gray rectangular building over her shoulder. A sign out front read:
“That’s where the Book of Kells is kept,” she said with a wink.
Jack knew all about the famous Book of Kells. Miss Murphy had been talking about it for weeks. The book contained “illuminated” drawings about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
It was “illuminated” because many of the drawings were painted in real gold. Since Jack was a bit of an artist himself, he could appreciate how special it was. The Book of Kells was created by monks in the ninth century, which meant it was more than 1,100 years old. It was known as “Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure.”
“We’ve already had a long day of traveling,” said Miss Murphy. “What do you say we check into the hotel?”
Miss Murphy pointed to the green-painted hotel across the road. It was called the “Lucky Leprechaun.” Next to its name was an image of a friendly leprechaun, or sprite.
In addition to Miss Murphy, there was another chaperone on the trip—
Ms. Humphries.
Ms. Humphries was a grumpy old woman who wore a big gold ring on one of her fingers. Whenever a student misbehaved, she would whack her ring on the top of their head. Jack had never felt it, but other students were frequent recipients. Daniel Smith, in particular, was familiar with the “sting of the ring.”
“Yow!” squealed Daniel.
Jack turned around to see Daniel rubbing the top of his head.
“Look both ways before you cross the street!” barked Ms. Humphries.
“Yes, Ms. Humphries,” said Daniel as he safely scurried across the road. While Miss Murphy was everyone’s favorite teacher, Ms. Humphries was the least.
After checking into their rooms, everyone met downstairs for dinner in the hotel café. Jack ordered “colcannon,” a dish made with mashed potatoes and cabbage. Max tried the “Irish stew.” For dessert, the students shared a bite of “moss pudding,” a fluffy sweet made from red seaweed.
“Yummy,” said Jack as he dug in. Jack and Max’s favorite part of any meal was dessert.
After dinner, Miss Murphy and Ms. Humphries escorted the students to their rooms.
“Let’s meet in the lobby first thing tomorrow,” said Miss Murphy.
“Eight a.m. sharp!” said Ms. Humphries.
After saying “good night,” Jack and Max made their way to their room. They stayed up late talking about the latest soccer scores and by 10 p.m., they were fast asleep.