Maybe, Just Maybe.

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

“He’s a boy. It’s their nature to get jealous. Don’t worry about it Soph.” Mel reassured me the next morning. I’d pretty much gone straight to bed the night before, feeling really uncomfortable about what had happened with Al.

“You’re right. I mean, I’d be jealous if I knew Nicki liked Al.” I replied.

“She does Soph.”

“I know, but still, I think I know how Al feels. I think.”

“I understand. Y’know I’m so excited for today. It’s ‘gonna be really fun.” she said, smiling.

“What are we doing?”

“Not sure, but we’re going to the castle.”

“Cool. I can’t wait to use my camera.” I said, looking forward to taking some pictures.

We got dressed, and went down to breakfast. It was a ‘help yourself’ set up, and you made your way along tables full of toast, cereal, juice, yoghurts, and all the usual breakfast foods. I had toast and marmite, with apple juice. It was good.

We joined Al and his friends once again, which at first was a little awkward, but once we got into conversation, it was fine. In fact, about half-way through breakfast, Al had actually apologised for the night before,

“I’m sorry for last night Soph. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I’m sorry, really I am.”

“Don’t worry about it, honestly.” I had replied.

“Seriously, I will change. Can I walk with you to the castle? Y’know this morning?” he asked.

“Yeh, ok. That sounds cool.” I had tried to reply casually.

So I talked to Mel, y’know to make sure she was ok with me walking with Al, and she said it was fine. She decided to walk with Liam in the end. I was so happy for her. I really hoped he wasn’t just ‘another one of her boyfriends’, who didn’t really care about her.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.” Mr.Mochs called over the racket in the dining room. He had a piece of paper in his hands that he read off, “Today we are going to be doing a few things. First, we will walk to the castle. Then, we shall stay for two hours, take photos, do group activities, and such like, and then we will walk back to the hotel, in time for eleven o’clock. We will stay here until twelve o’clock, when we will have lunch. At one o’clock, after lunch, we will have a historian coming to talk to you about her life.”

Everyone looked confused. Historian?

“The historian is coming all the way from Bristol. Her presentation will lead us to three o’clock. Then, we will go into the town centre, but we will talk about that closer to the time. You now need to go back to your rooms, get a coat, a bag, your camera, go to the toilet, and make sure you are ready to go to the castle. It is now ten past eight. We will meet back in reception, at eight thirty, where you will be registered, and then we will leave for the castle. It’s about a ten minute walk away. Now please be as quick as you can.”

Everyone went up to their room, a little confused about the historian visit. I was dreading it. I mean, history? I hated history, and couldn’t wait until GCSE, so that I could give it up, and now, I had to sit through two hours of it on an Art trip. Great.

Mel and I were really excited about the castle though. Especially that we got to walk there with Al and Liam. I sat down on the bottom of my bunk, and opened one of my five rucksacks, the one with my camera in it. I turned it on and off, just to make it sure it was ok. I cleaned the screen and lens, with my little cloth, and assembled the lens suited for landscapes. I took all of the lenses that I had, because I didn’t know what we’d actually be taking pictures of.