The Girl Scientist Club: Year Two

Emily Shimako walked down the aisles of Walmart, placing various school supplies in her cart. It was just a couple of days before school.

Emily gazed at the notebooks disconsolately. No covers with scuba divers on them, or whales or dolphins or sharks or anything. Yeah, there were ones that had Captain America on them, or the Hulk or Spiderman...oh...there was one with Wonder Woman...

As she added each item to her cart, Emily ticked it off on the list that she carried. When she was done, she looked at her watch. Her mom and grandmother were in the store, too, going through the grocery aisles. She was to meet them at the very first checkout counter.

Emily stationed herself there, and then leaned on the cart and lost herself in thought.

It had been a fun summer. She, Trelane and Amber had spent a lot of time together. Their parents had taken them to the aquarium in Denver a couple of times, to the observatory, and to several dinosaur museums.

Then Amber had gone off for a week to a dinosaur camp, and Trelane had spent the same week at an oceanographer's camp.

There was an astronaut camp that she could have gone to, but her parents couldn't afford to send her. They'd had to sell their car to buy a van with a wheelchair lift, since her grandmother was now confined to a wheel chair.

Emily looked idly at her school supplies. If she was going to go to college, she'd definitely have to get a scholarship, she thought. Which meant she'd have to continue to get straight As.

Of course, she could always go into the Air Force, like her dad. If she spent four years in the service, she would be able to get the GI bill, which would help her pay for college. (She knew this because her parents had talked about it. She had already approached them about going to college, and they had made it clear that they'd help her all they could - they did have some money put by for her college fund - but with her grandmother's illness, money was going to be a bit tight for a while.)

Well, she'd be able to get a job when she was sixteen, and start saving. And as long as her grades remained good...which they would!...she should be able to get a scholarship. And if she did join the Air Force...heck...she could be a pilot....

Emily nodded to herself. Maybe joining the Air Force would be the way to go!