One sunny morning, Scarlet and her best friend, Selena walked to the school bus. 

They were both so excited for their summer break to begin but they knew they had to get through their last day of the 3rd grade!

Today they had science class, which was their favorite subject because they got to partner up and do super fun experiments.

As the girls began their experiment, they heard a small, teeny tiny voice. Selena gasped. Her jaw dropped all the way to the floor! 

"A tiny talking bubble, I have never seen such a thing!" they exclaimed. 

Psstttt! Over here!

"SH! Keep it down, I am Gio a new cell!" he explained.

Scarlet and Selena were too stunned to speak, they just glared at him in awe.

Let me take you two along with me I am just starting my journey!

Gio began to explain his first phase of his new journey, he was in Growth 1.

"Look I am growing in size! My organelles are increasing and so is my protein supply." he said.

"Now I feel as big as a elephant!"

Scarlet and Selena were so excited to learn about this mysterious cell, they had never learned about this before!

"Now that I am bigger, I am ready to move on to the next phase of my journey," Gio said.

Gio is now moving into his next phase which is called the S phase, because this is where synthesis happens. His DNA is ready to be replicated.

Now Gio has two copies of chromatids! These came from his mom & dad. 

"My 46 chromosomes were duplicated? Does that mean I'm rich? Now I have 92 chromatids."

"What happens next Gio?" Scarlet asked.

"Well now we can move onto my new phase! That must mean I am moving onto Growth 2."

In Growth 2, Gio is double checking on his duplicated chromatids to make sure there are no errors in the duplicates. He is also getting ready for Mitosis.

"Sister chromatin are you ready to move onto Mitosis?"

"Yes Gio!"

"What's the matter Gio?" asked Selena.

Now that Gio has gone through the three phases (G1,S, & G2) he has completed Interphase. 

"I am sad because G2 was the last part of Interphase."

Interphase is the first part of the cell cycle and has three phases. Now that we have spent most of our time in Interphase we are ready to begin Mitosis.

The girls were confused, "What is Interphase?" they asked.

As Gio started Mitosis, Scarlet & Selena were worried. Their teeth chattered in fear of what may happen to Gio.

"Don't worry! I will be okay. Mitosis turns me into a triplet. There will be three of me."

Now Gio's chromatid are getting fat! That means they are turning into chromosomes. This happened as a result of Prophase, the first of the four phases of Mitosis.

Metaphase is next up for Gio. It appears that Gio now has spindle fibers and his chromosomes are lined up in the middle of the cell.

"It looks like the chromosomes are marching!" exclaimed Selena.

Moving to Anaphase! This is the third phase of the four in Mitosis, in this phase Gio's chromosomes are running away from the middle of the cell. They are scared of the middle.

"My chromosomes aren't marching in the middle anymore, they were saved by the spindle fibers from the monster in the middle!"