text: "BRRRRRRRRRRRING!" I rushed out with everyone else as soon as that bell rang out. To all of us, that was our freedom call in the afternoon. The bell told us to spend the final 45 minutes of our school day outside on the playground. The playground had been many things for all of us; it had been a castle to fend of the field dwellers which surrounded us, it had been a spaceship that we all managed to gather otherworldly materials to save the earth, and it had even been the massive bank which one group protected & others tried to rob. This particular afternoon, however, the playground became a beautiful place which would last much longer than any of the previous locations we had imagined. It all started with Ms. Lopez teaching our class about the ecosystem, and all about the animals. My friends and I were beyond excited to learn about all the animals, and how it all worked. The constant singing of "Circle Of Life" somehow had not driven Ms. Lopez crazy either, but she did say we had to use "inside singing voices" which made no sense to me; every singing voice should be outside. Oh well, rules are rules. The day eventually came when we had to move onto the ecosystem, and move into learning about the water cycle. Unfortunately, the adventures of a water molecule weren't as interesting to us. No one in the third grade could get the idea of being an animal out of our head. We all wanted to be animals, but due to our human nature, this was not a possibility. We talked about pretending to be animals but growling & chirping at one another didn't fair easily as none of us could understand the other. We sat around our lunch table, brainstorming the best we could on how to keep our love of animals going, when someone, sadly I don't remember who, came up with the idea of being humans with animal powers. From there, it truly was a brainstorm of ideas. After a few days of intense lunch table discussions, several playground tests, and laying the groundwork for our ecosystem, we delivered the rules to our whole grade with anyone who wished to participate: Only one animal per human Each animal has its pros & cons. Respect them all or you won't be allowed to play. Stick to the diet of snacks the teachers provide for all of us during recess. Sure it was only three rules, but they were rules everyone respected. We then began crafting our animals pros and cons, and the day finally arrived where we would choose the animal powers we would take. The sunny weather with a nice cool breeze felt amazing in the Texas climate. No one was too hot or too cold, no one complained about how long it might take. We did have 45 minutes after all, we could take our time. It was time to pick our AP or Animal Power. My friend Madison went up first. She announced she was picking the Horse AP. She then galloped around the playground, showing her fast running abilities & her high jump ability. Next, James went up, choosing the Cheetah AP, which made sense since he was the fastest runner in the 3rd grade & he wanted to keep that up. This did mean he was restricted to the only jerky diet at Recess. After a few more people, it was finally my turn. I thought long & hard about which AP I wanted, but in my heart, I knew what I always wanted. I stood up and proudly proclaimed I would be the Parrot AP. With that, I felt myself getting lighter and I found myself the ability to fly! I couldn't believe it, it was actually happening. I flew on top of our massive monkey bars, now becoming large tree trunks. The wind guided me to the correct path, and I circled my friends, now antsy about getting their APs as well. I flew over to the red section of the now jungle monkey bars, where we agreed the birds would stay. As the parrot, I was more inclined to talk than the others, but could also have better communication with the human APs (who were particularly boring if you ask me.) A few more bird friends came to join me, while some bats & monkeys joined in but we asked them kindly to not invade our territory unless we invited them. They had their own areas anyway. It wasn't long before the teachers set out the snacks for us, and every bird flew to the sunflower seeds & fruit. We wanted the gummy snacks shaped like bugs, but the monkeys got their first. I communicated with Madison as she ate her Frosted Flakes. "How is it out in the horse field?" I asked her. "It's going very well," she said "In fact, they named me the horse leader!" This surprised me. The bird group hadn't discussed leadership yet since flight was much more prevalent on our minds. Apparently the horses have much more pressing matters that required much faster choices for leadership. "How is it for the bird's section of the trees?" she asked me. "Well, just lots of flying. We have to be careful of the bats though, they prefer to be upside down and we could accidentally step on them. They don't like that." "I know what you mean." She replied. "The turtles may be slow, but they sure know how to get in the way." One of our bunny friends came on over & told us the lion group were on their way. We quickly flew back to our section with some of our snacks. The lions were particularly mean to us, and they just loved causing trouble. I sat the rest of the time, talking with the rest of the bird group, loving the wind & the sun on my face. I didn't want this day to end. "BRRRRRRRRRRRING!" The bell rang, signaling the end of the day for us all. I flew away from the playground, but felt my flight leaving me behind with it. I told my friends goodbye for the day, but something in us all knew one thing; what we had created had not been a one-day thing; this would go on for awhile & it would last us a lifetime.