9: The Trip

"M O M,  F O R  T H E  one hundredth time, my stuff is okay!" cried out Natasha while dragging her wheeled bag out of her room.

"OK, just making sure you don't forget anything, honey."

Natasha then noticed the long look her mother was giving her.

"You know I'm only going for three days, Mom."

Jenna moved over to the door before grabbing her daughter's bag.

She put the bag in the trunk of her grey Prius as Natasha got in the car.

"Alright, students. Listen up, please," began the fairly tall man in a broken suit and short brown hair.

It was Mr. Gilbert-the History teacher.

He was addressing his class.

"I guess everyone knows where we're going today.The Museum of Natural History in New York..."

A student raised his hand.

"Yes, Lucy!"

"Do they have reception over there?"

"What?"

The Asian girl repeated her question.

"I wanna make sure I post the picture immediately of me standing in the Smithsonian to my annoying little sister who says I won't amount to anything!"

"Wow, and you can't even see it yourself," added Bianca in an audible whisper and one of her girls giggled.

"Well, it's New York," was all Mr. Gilbert could say. "Anyway..."

Another student's hand was up as Natasha and Carmen turned back to discover that it was Henry's.

"Yes, Mr. Roderick," the History teacher said with a hint of impatience in his voice.

"Most of the collections in the Museum of Natural History have been at the place for such a long duration and perhaps their appearance might be changed and the information twisted over the years, meaning our so-called-trip to New York might as well be a complete waste of time."

A few boos and jeers followed as Henry ignored them, maintaining eye contact with the teacher.

"Okay, anymore questions?" Mr. Gilbert asked, hoping Henry and no other kid would put his hand up.

Luckily for him, nobody else did.

Natasha turned to notice Lucas sketching something on a small piece of paper. She could not make out exactly what the sketch was.

"Hey," Cassie said to her desk mate, "if you think that this is a waste of time, then why are you even going with us?"

Henry, who had reverted to a book about Cosmology, slowly turned his head to Cassie.

"Well, I have to confirm my point and prove you and your simple minds wrong," came his nonchalant reply.

Cassie rolled her eyeballs and got back to listening Mr. Gilbert chatter on on facts about the origin of the Museum of Natural History.

Around nine in the morning, Natasha's class was standing next to a white forty-two seater coach that was to be taking them to New York.

Bianca was busy yelling obscenities at her 'bitches' who were dragging her bags towards the bus.

"We're just going away for less than three days, Miss Sinclair," said the History teacher.

Bianca gave him a dead-eyed look.

"Um... exactly!" she snapped.

"Completely mental that one, I tell you!" Henry scoffed while standing next to Cassie and Natasha.

Mr. Gilbert was doing a roll check when he noticed someone was absent.

"Where's Daniel?"

A few laughs came from one side, drawing the teacher's attention to Ben.

"What?"

"What did you do this time?"

"Nothing. Am I his babysitter, now?"

Mr. Gilbert passed a hand through his hair when Lucas checked his own bag and realized he had forgotten something.

Rushing back to class, Lucas found his black notebook resting on top of his seat and was heading out of class with it when he thought he heard something.

It sounded like the noise electricity makes when exposed from its circuit in a wire. He looked back but did not find anything, at least not until he saw the sparks of light that suddenly shot off from Natasha's desk before vanishing into thin air almost as fast as they had materialized.

"What the..."

Lucas moved closer to the desk and crouched next to it.

Well, there were no loose wires under there.

He got back up and put his notebook back in his bag and stepped out of the classroom where he found a desperate Daniel locked up in his own locker after which he helped him out and both of them headed back to the rest of the students.

Natasha sat next to the window with Cassie in the middle and Carmen next to Cassie in the three-seat columns.

"Hey, that's my spot!" cried Lucy.

Bianca and her girls had taken over the spot.

"And not a single fuck was given!" came Queen B's response.

Lucy cussed inaudibly and went to sit with Carmen's twin brother, Marcus.

The bus's engine started as it headed out of the school and onto the highway.

Carmen took out a book titled Isle of Dogs and began reading from where she had left off while Cassie began pointing out her last visit to New York on her eleventh birthday and she had climbed up the Statue of Liberty.

Natasha knew that to be true as she even had a picture of herself standing at the torch the that the sculpture of the woman is seen holding in her right hand.

"Must have been fun, I guess," Natasha said.

"Wow, I still can't believe you've never been out of Atlanta."

"I was born in Hawaii, remember?" added Natasha comically.

"Well, do you have any memory of Hawaii?"

Natasha turned to face her best friend.

"Oh sure, me as a baby knows every corner of that place!"

"Alright, I'll let you take the win!"

The two of them giggled, making Lucas steal a quick glance over as his seat was directly opposite to theirs on the left column next to the window.

"Thanks for getting me out of my own locker," came Daniel who was seated next to Lucas.

"Why do you let them make fun of you like that?" Lucas asked, turning to Daniel.

"If you're asking me to stand up to them, then clearly your vision's impaired," Daniel responded, referring to his very short stature.

"Bullies like Ben tend to pick up on people like you in order to enhance their frail egos and level out their stupidity," Henry spoke this time as he was seated next to Daniel from the right, thus Daniel was in the middle seat.

"Huh, I never thought of it that way before," Daniel added, "thanks."

Henry raised his head from his phone where he was skimming through an article about historical records.

"For what?"

"You know..."

Henry slightly shook his head, clearly missing the point of what he had just said-as if he had any intention of making Daniel feel better.

"Did you know that a normal bus would take twenty-two hours and twenty minutes to get to New York? But this one that we're in, thanks to Carter•Labs and their invention of the life cell, we will reach there six hours earlier," added Henry, completely ignoring what Daniel was saying, "now that's what I call excellent thinking!"

"Never mind," Daniel resorted, sighing.

It was already past noon when Mr. Gilbert notified everybody that they would be making a stop at Washington DC after almost seven hours of travel.

Natasha and Cassie alighted from the bus just as porters stepped out of the magnificent Ritz-Carlton hotel which overlooked the Georgetown waterfront park that was set a with ten-acre greenspace and paths running through it.

"Wow," began an exhilarated Marcus after stepping out of the bus, "No need to tell me twice. I already know where my summer vacation will be!"

He turned to his sister, grinning wildly.

"Gosh, you just don't know when to keep it to yourself, do you?" asked Carmen.

"What?" Marcus comically shot back, "a guy's gotta dream!"

Once everybody was off the bus, Mr. Gilbert assembled everyone and began to give the schedule of the day, including where everybody was going to stay.

"Okay," he began, "so we're only here for one night and tomorrow, super early in the morning, the journey continues!"

The way he ended that statement with so much zeal and energy one would have thought that they were going to the Promised Land or even the hidden city of Shangri-La !

Towards the evening, after an entirety of eating in the classy halls of the Ritz-Carlton, Lucas found himself ascending the stairs before stopping at a balcony somewhere near the top-most floor of the hotel. There was nobody around and all he could hear were the sounds of some elated kids towards the other end of the hotel, probably enjoying the cool luminescent pool.

From where he stood, Lucas caught a view of the large round white dome of the White House, towering over the city lights opposite the Lincoln Memorial. He had his sketchbook with him and was just opening it when someone brushed beside him, making him turn slightly to find Natasha sanding next to the railing of the balcony.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Natasha started softly and Lucas couldn't help but admire how her golden hair stuck out in contrast to to the night sky and the lights that cast a bright glow over the outline of her hair.

"So," responded Lucas, "why are you not skinny dipping with the rest?"

"I could ask you the same thing but this is one hell of a view!"

"Yeah, you noticed that too," added Lucas, setting down his sketchbook.

Natasha had seen the book's contents for a while now and she hadn't noticed how Lucas was always calm and at ease with letting her have a look at his artistic works.

"You know I've always wanted to travel," came Lucas again, still looking at the White House.

"Well, I guess you and Cassie are on the same boat on that one!" responded Natasha, making herself chuckle at the pun in her response. "So, any specific locale?"

"Miami, Santa Cruz, Casablanca..."

"Uuuh...somebody has a thing for beaches!" blurted Natasha as she sat at the base of the railing, facing the hotel while Lucas was resting his elbows against the railing.

"Yeah, it's just so relaxing and the view-the view is just awesome!"

"Well, I was born in Hawaii, so, I think I get what you're saying..."

"Yeah, even Hawaii's pretty schway!" Lucas added excitedly.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll-you...you will be in a beach sooner than you think!" Natasha chimed, feeling her cheeks suddenly flush for some unknown reason.

Lucas finally turned his gaze from the White House and was almost looking at Natasha's eyes when Cassie came running to the balcony.

She was gasping like she had run short of breath.

"You okay?" asked Natasha, getting up from the railing.

"You guys will not believe who just showed up at Ritz-Carlton!"

*

They were up early the following day as Mr. Gilbert did another roll check and everybody was present this time round.

Natasha was adjusting her seat when she looked up and watched Lucas walk up to his seat. She smiled a little and Lucas almost sat in the wrong seat.