When In Slovakia aka Chris The Rapunzel

Chapter 3

Sunday, June 18

I end up talking to Judith and Ruth all evening – we're joking about hidden alcohol in our suitcases (ironic, because Ruth's turning 18 in four days and will be allowed to buy and drink whatever she'll want) and playing silly board games.

While stopping to go to the toilet in a gas station, me, Laura, Paula and Dina have a work-out to stretch our tired legs. At another stop Sonora, Judith, Ruth and I sing a Latvian folksong in the middle of Poland. I even manage to get bored during the first four hours.

It's just about midnight when I decide to try to go to sleep.

***

Impossible! It's one o'clock at night, but everybody's still chatting loudly. The chair backs at the back of the bus can't be pushed down, so the four of us have to sleep in upright position, instead of lying down to sleep like normal people. I hate Greta for choosing these seats. My spine hurts, legs are swollen and I have a terrible head ache. Yet somehow I manage to fall asleep at two or three o'clock.

***

- Syllable.

- Strawberry.

- Stripper. – A girl beside me laughing quietly.

I startle and open my eyes. I've turned my head right while sleeping, so the first thing I see is sleeping Greta, then my sight slips through the window where weak and dim sunlight is colouring the tree tops and illuminating the fields of green, yellow and brown outside our bus. Dawn is breaking. How long had I been sleeping?

- School...

- Shut up! Not in summer. – Laughter a bit louder than the previous time. – By the way, both words start with an "S", so don't judge me.

I glance over my left shoulder. Judith, Ruth and Vincent (my classmate, who's sitting in the seat in front of me) are the only ones awake on the bus.

- Hey, guys... - I murmur under my nose and take off the purple blanket I had myself tucked in. I've become hot and sweaty while sleeping. – What's going on? – I gently rub my sore eyes.

- Hey, sleeping beauty! – Ruth responds immediately. It's as if they all were waiting for me to wake up. – We're playing a game. It's called – "Win or strip that down in front of 20, now only 19 sleeping people!". Want to join us?

- Yes, I guess... - The title is too hard to understand and remember for a just-got-out-of-bed, sorry, I mean "seat", Marta with a head ache. – You've been up all night? – I don't remember Judith and Ruth going to sleep.

- Yeah. Not able to sleep here at the back. Or at the front either, I think, though everybody's doing it there. – She points at our group mates. Ruth is a very interesting person, from my point of view – she seems quiet on the outside, but when you get to know her, she starts being chatty and confident. That half metre long and blue hair of Ruth's makes her look like a fairy from Disney movies.

I check my phone. Four o'clock in the morning. Not much sleep for me, too, this night.

Ruth goes on explaining the rules of "Win or... SOMETHING!". – Someone of us chooses a letter from the alphabet and then each one in a certain order says one word starting with the letter. Maximum ten seconds to think of a word and NO REPEATING! If one can't think of a word, he has to strip something down and walk along the isle of seats.

- Even in front of the teachers? – I feel slight panic growing inside me. That's much of a risk.

- Maybe better let's not walk that far... - Judith replies. The teachers are sitting at the very front, so it's easier for us not to be noticed by them if we avoid going there.

After my next question we all start laughing (thank God we're not that loud to wake the whole bus up). – What will we have to strip down?

- It depends on how far we're ready to go. Besides... - A groan-inducing pause. - ...if we are real quiet, nobody will notice quite naked dudes walking around the bus at 4 a.m.

During the first round we agree on taking everything off, except our underwear. The letter "D" is fatal for Vincent after we've been calling many different words for 25 minutes. So we watch him walk along the isle in his boxer shorts and returning back safely without being noticed by anyone.

Then at 4.37 a.m. Vincent decides to take a nap (I wonder if he's afraid to lose again and to strip down everything, even those boxer shorts), but we, three girls, play on. This time "the price" for losing is REALLY high – it's to take off ALL the clothes, except panties.

- It's 4.41, girls. – Ruth warns us. – Better don't lose or pray that nobody's up by five o'clock in the morning.

This is sick and totally, definitely crazy. But we carry on calling words (this time we get letter "R") and by 5.05 a.m. we've found the loser.

You may guess three times who the girl, who has to stand pretty much naked in front of seven sleeping guys and eleven girls (not counting myself, Ruth and Judith), is.

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