I and Leo woke up at 7 am the next morning and got all the last-minute stuff done. We all had our breakfast and got ready as quickly as possible... except for Cleo who took an extra hour to finish her make-up. We were out of the house and on our way to the airport by 9 am. Dad likes to get to the airport as early as possible to avoid the long queue. He hates it when the queue is too big and takes a long time.
The airport is close to our house and it only took us 10 minutes to get there. We went through the customs and got to the check-in quickly but Cleo just had to keep checking herself out every five minutes.
"For god's sake Cleo, you look fine." I told as dad was handing the password to the lady near the gate. She just stared at me for a brief moment and turned back to her hand-held mirror. I rolled my eyes at her. She wouldn't argue or fight with us in public or in front of our parents. She gotta keep her perfect image.
The flight ride was quite pleasant as me and Leo were sitting together in the side seats while Cleo and our parents were in the middle seat. We continued our discussion about Atlantica throughout the two-hour flight.
We arrived in Atlantica by 12 pm and we both were buzzing with energy. We go to places often but it's never a family trip because our parents are always busy with their work and wouldn't have time to explore with us. And whenever they get their holidays, they just wanna relax at home and take a break. Can't blame them, their work is stressful and they need their break. Atlantica was cold just as we expected but since it's summer season, the temperature is not that low. It's probably somewhere between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius.
I and Leo raced each other to the cab. There was a man standing with our parents' names on a signboard in bold letters, "BROOKE and AMELIA". A thought crossed my mind for a second, why does this seem like their company has sent someone to pick us up? But then I shook off the thought and assumed that maybe my parents booked the cab beforehand and that must be why there was a guy waiting for us.
As promised mom bought us a tourist map on our way to our hotel. Mom and Dad had booked three rooms at the hotel, one for them, one for me and Leo, and one for Cleo. She always insists that she needs her own room. Well, we don't complain. The last thing we need is for Cleo to have a close range on us both during the day and night. She could turn our relaxing trip into a catastrophe.
We unpacked our stuff and put them in the wardrobe, we will be staying here for two weeks, might as well get things a bit organized. We lay on the bed for five minutes due to exhaustion. After that, I went over to my parent's room to ask them when will we be leaving to explore.
"Mom? Dad?" I called as I peeked in through the door. They looked up from their laptops. "You are still working? Let's go exploring. It's not every day that we go on family trips." I said while jumping onto their bed and sitting between them. I looked at them with a wide grin. But they looked at each other with a worried faces.
"Lera, we never told you that this is a family trip." Mom spoke.
"Huh?!" My mouth hung open and I felt tears pooling up in the corner of my eyes.
"Sweetie, we are here for work purposes. You three go on ahead and enjoy your vacation." Dad said while patting me on the head.
"But I thought... that... we were finally going to enjoy our vacation together." I felt like tearing up. I bit my lower lip trying to suppress my tears.
"Oh, sweetheart. We are sorry we gave you false hope, but we have work to do. Tell you what, we have rented bikes for the three of you. And you and Leo get to explore on your own without Cleo. Cleo said she wanted to be on her own at least on this trip. But don't let your brother out of your site. We believe that you are old enough to take care of yourself and Leo. Don't let us down." Mom explained. I felt a bit better when I heard Cleo isn't gonna come with us. She's always in charge of us when we go on trips like this and she always drags us to stuff that we don't wanna do.
"There will be your name tags on the bike, and here are the keys to the padlock." Dad said while handing me the keys. "Now off you go. Enjoy your vacation." Mom smiled at me.
I sighed, "Bye Mom, bye Dad." I said in a not-so-energetic way.
I went over to Cleo's room and barged in. She was on a video call with one of her friends. "Think fast!" I said as I quickly tossed her the keys with her name on its tag. She caught it with one hand and gave me an evil grin. I just squinted at her and went to Leo to tell him the news. He was very upset when I told him that we were not on a family trip.
YOU ARE READING
The Whispering Caves
Short Story6 paths and which one will lead outside? Lera and Leo go exploring around Atlantica on their own because their parents were busy at work on their vacation. They lose their way and in hopes of finding people that could point them the right way, they...
