Thank You, Corona

22. Aydan

We reached our hotel, Rodeway Inn at around 8. 30 am. Stiff from sitting in the van, we were glad when we reached Sacramento, the capital of California.

After checking in we went straight up to the rooms we had pre- booked. 1 for the girls, and one for the boys, connected by a door in the middle. It was our unwritten rule that we couldn't go in each other's rooms.

'Roomy,' commented Carmen, satisfied. Dad sure went out of the way on this trip.

'Ok, so settle down, unpack, then come to our room, so we can plan our day,' I called out, dumping my bag on the bed near the window.

'Hear, hear,' the boys called out. As Hasnain was going, I gestured him outside in the lobby.

'So what is it that you-'

'Watcha doing?'

We both screamed. Abeyha.

'When did you come outside?'

She grinned at me.

'Secret,' she whispered.

'I don't know why Jasmine called me here,' said Hasnain. OKAY. He did not just throw me under the bus. Abeyha looked at me quizzically.

'He had something stuck in his teeth; I wanted to tell him privately,' I said, devilishly.

Hasnain glared at me. Abeyha shrugged and went back in the room. A second later she came out, red in the face.

'That's the boys room,' she muttered and went in the right one.

Hasnain looked at me and whispered,

'When we both are perfectly alone okay?'

I sighed and nodded, but I saw him checking in the mirror before I went in. He did have something in his teeth.

***

'All right, so hear me out,' I said.

'Wait!' called out Josh. He got up, went to the door, opened it and said,' there you go. Speak so we can hear you as go out.'

Chase giggled.

'Josh come back here,' said Mark tiredly.

Reading from my travel diary, I said,

'So the first thing we are going to do is eat breakfast and then sleep. We'll get our rest, and go to the State park for a picnic in the afternoon. We'll stay there till the evening, and then hit the pool here. After that we have dinner, and then we'll have a campfire till late night, watch the sunset and leave.'

Abeyha clapped.

'It sounds wonderful,' she said. Mark nodded eagerly.

'Smashing!!' cried Lucy and Josh.

***

I woke up at around 10 am. It was dark in the room, since we had drawn the curtains tightly. Everyone was sleeping. I had a very weird dream, about an elephant trumpeting in my ears. Turns out it was actually Carmen snoring.

After dazedly putting on my glasses, I quietly dug my hand in my bag for my phone.

It was nowhere to be found. Annoyed, I remembered that I had handed it to Chase when I was checking in the hotel.

I wanted it, but that would mean going to the boys' room. Time for an adventure, I thought, tying my hair in a tiny pony.

Treading carefully, I opened the connecting door.

Creeeeeeeeak. Shush, you stupid door. It was equally dark in their room, but no one was snoring.

I spotted the side table next to Chase's bed and a phone lying there. I didn't notice the round framed glasses, though. Grabbing it, I rushed back to my room.