A strange journey to space

"Woosh!” In the vast ocean, Lucas, a quirky boy with a stocky build, luscious brown hair, and a short blunt cut, was thrilled to be at the Great Barrier Reef for his first day of school in year five. Everything was going smoothly as he learned about the amazing sea creatures when something caught his eye: a girl floating in the water with blonde, wavy hair draping down to her shoulders. To his right, he spotted a shark. Without hesitation, he jumped in and yelled for his teacher to come.

Lucas knew he had to act quickly. He told his teacher to pull the girl out of the water. Once she was safely on dry land, Lucas stared at her silky brown hair as she slowly regained consciousness. When she awoke, she introduced herself as Summer and explained that she had fallen out of her excursion boat, was swept away, and couldn’t find her way back. Eventually, she lost consciousness. “If you hadn't found me, I would’ve been dead,” Summer said gratefully. Soon, they reached Summer’s mom by phone, and a few minutes later, Summer was on her way back to Noosa. "You went a long way, and your fingers are all wrinkled. Let’s get you home," her mother said. Summer thought she would never see Lucas again.

Twenty years later, Summer was teaching at Cairns State School and was known as Miss Miller. All was good until she saw something she could never forget—Lucas! After all this time, what was going to happen today, she wondered.

Ring! There goes the school bell! “Good morning, Miss Miller!”

“Good morning, class. Today we have a new teacher for tennis! I hope everyone welcomes him and shows him around.”

Later on, the class headed to tennis, and then I immediately realised the tennis coach was Lucas! As Lucas started to walk over to me, he introduced himself and explained that he would take me and my class on a school excursion to the Great Barrier Reef after the tennis lesson because he was the head of sports and wanted to teach everyone how to dive correctly. I agreed, and soon after, he told the class about the upcoming excursion to the Great Barrier Reef. They were all so excited and thanked us both! A couple of hours later, we all went out on a boat, exploring all the beautiful creatures in the Great Barrier Reef. We had fish and chips for lunch and slowly started getting ready to dive into the ocean.

Lucas and I got out of the water to take a break and discuss our next steps, but then Lucas noticed a box jellyfish in the water and quickly alerted the kids. Afterward, the kids, Lucas, and I headed back to school, and on the way, we spotted a few humpback dolphins and took pictures to share with everyone. Lucas then asked if I wanted to go diving with him, and I said yes—I was so excited! We arrived at the school, and I said goodbye to Lucas. "I will see you on the weekend," I told him.

The day before the weekend dive, I decided to teach the class about Venus and how to survive it. I explained that Venus has a small amount of water in its clouds and is made of a central iron core and a rocky mantle. The next day, I was driving to meet Lucas just outside the boat hire, and we were getting ready to go on the boat. A few minutes later, we set off and began preparing our gear for diving.

“Splash,” went the water as I hit the surface. “This is amazing, right Lucas?” I said as I floated above the water.

“Definitely,” Lucas replied.

I climbed back on the boat and slipped on my diving gear. "Come on, Lucas, you’re a sports coach—haven’t you done enough sit-ups to pull yourself up?" I teased as I helped him onto the boat and handed him his diving gear. We sat side by side for a while, watching the sun rise and the dazzling, clear, beautiful water bob up and down, and then we dove into the water.

My eyes were filled with joy—it was like a city of magical creatures swimming past us. This was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. Soon after, Lucas dove in and followed me. We both gazed at the stunning sea life and the sea turtles riding the current. One look between me and Lucas, and we were swimming after the turtles. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain and stopped swimming. Lucas immediately noticed and swam back toward me. I looked down, and my legs were fading away, all the way up to my upper body. A current started swirling around me, and with a "whoosh," I was gone.

I opened my eyes and looked around. Where am I? This was all so strange. I looked around again and soon remembered the lesson I had just taught about Venus. I was on Venus! I couldn’t believe it! Three hours later, I was done. I had no clue how to get out of here—I was stuck forever. I might as well just sit here and fade away. No, I thought, there must be a way. I can’t believe it; after hours of thinking, I had just gotten more lost. "Come on, Summer," I thought to myself. "You're an adult now, you can do this." I kept walking and found a strange plant poking out of the ground. "What's that?" I wondered. I reached out to touch the funny-looking plant when it suddenly bit my hand. "Ouch!" I yelped. I yanked my hand out of its mouth and stared at my big, swollen hand, screaming in pain. "That is it, now I am really done for," I said as I crouched into a ball and started to weep.

Back at the Great Barrier Reef, Lucas suddenly had a brilliant idea. "If Summer teleported from a spider, I can too." So, he gathered the spider before it could get away. He put it in a special cage and stuck his soggy, wet hand inside, waiting for a bite. It took nearly an hour, but eventually, the spider bit his hand. He recognized where he was straight away—Venus. Then he saw Summer, nearly five kilometres away, so he trusted his instincts and chased after her, though he moved incredibly slowly because he was in space. After long, hard days of trying to catch up, Summer still didn't realise he was behind her. Finally, after two days, he made his way to her. He explained to her, "You teleported right after you got bitten, which means that glitchy redback spider teleported you here. So, I made it bite me, and that’s how I got here. I also brought the spider so we can go back home." "Yes!" Summer screamed with joy. "I didn’t think I would make it out of here! Thank you, Lucas—you have saved me!"

Many people now know the story of Lucas and Summer going missing on Venus, but they don’t let it affect their lives. On the weekends, they dive, and during the week, they teach together. The class even got a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, where they learned so much. "This is great!" said one of the students.

 "It is," Summer thought to herself. They ended up keeping the glitchy spider, now named Glitch Back, as a class pet. Miss Miller used him to teach all the kids about space and soon got promoted to head principal. Lucas also got a promotion to head coach of sports. They now see each other every day, and if Lucas had never saved Summer from the shark, they wouldn’t be best friends.