The Trip by Patricia J. Birtwistle

Chapter 1
Kim couldn’t help it. She had made a pact with the kids. She felt badly that she had let them down. They had not asked her why she went to the junk yard that day. They did not tell on her when she got into trouble. The rest of the kids had just helped her. She wanted to make it up to them, but she could not think of a way to do that. “Maybe one day I can help them. Why do I want so badly to get rich?” she asked herself.
“I have hurt the kids and would have hurt my folks too, if the kids had told them. I will just have to cool it from now on and stay out of trouble. That’s it! No more wanting to be rich!”
The rest of the kids did not tell Kim’s folks because they had big plans for the days to come. There was a bus trip. They had told their folks and they wanted to go. But they had been in so much trouble that they did not think that their folks would let them go.
“Can I help you with that, Mom?” Nick was asking. “You could have a rest and I’ll do that for you.”
Bob was helping out too, as were the rest of the kids. They wanted so badly to go on that trip to the farm. They wanted to go horseback riding.
Soon, the day came when they had to pay for the trip. Would their folks let them go?
“No!” said Beth’s mom.
“No!” all the dads said.
“But it is just a day trip. We could not get into trouble on a farm. We will just go riding. How can we get into trouble? We have kept out of trouble for some time now.” The folks did not find out that Kim had been in big trouble at the junk yard. “Can we go? Can we? All the kids are going,” the kids begged.
The kids kept asking. They kept pushing their folks. At last they won. The kids had made a pact. If their folks let them go, they would stay out of trouble. But that was not to be. Again, trouble would find them.
They took their food for the day and as the bus left the block, Bob’s mom asked, “Do you think that they will be O.K.? Those kids do seem to find trouble. These days I get upset when they go out.”
As they were waving goodbye to the kids, Nick’s mom said, “They are good kids. They just seem to get into things by not thinking. But, I think they should be O.K. this time.”
The folks were more than a little upset by all the things that went on with their kids that summer. Summer was coming to an end, and they wanted the kids to have some fun.
*****
When they got to the farm, the kids said that they would have a good day with no trouble. They wanted to ride all day, but the farmer just had a few horses, and there were a lot of kids. So some of the kids had to find something to  do for some time. They went into the barn to have a look.
“Let’s go up the steps to the top of the barn and see what is up there,” said Dan. Some of the kids liked that.
As they were going up the steps, one kid fell. He fell with a thud. Beth and the rest of the kids ran over to see if he was hurt. The boy lay still. At last, he sat up with some help. He was badly winded but not hurt.
Beth went over to Dan and asked, “What were you thinking? You led the kids up there. What are you going to do, get us into more trouble? Dan, I’m so mad at you!” she said as she left the barn to tell the rest of the kids.
Now Dan was mad. He was just trying to have some fun. Dan was thinking, “Why did Beth have to get so upset? It was not as if we are little kids or something. Beth just wants things her way all the time. She did not have to tell the rest of the kids. She put me down. I’ll get back at her for that!”