The Travel Journal

2. School Trip (2)

The architecture of the building in front of me really intrigued me. It was pitch black outside but, yet, the lights of the offices of what seemed to be a business company illuminated in the dark. They highlighted the limits of every room and every floor, perfectly shaping the desks and chairs of every single bureau I could lay my eyes on during the night.

I brought the cigarette that was standing between my index and middle finger to my lips and drew smoke from it. It was at this moment that I just wanted to be over and done with school and find a job at a place with aesthetics, weird plans I got but this is how I felt.

"Hey, Amelia, are you with us?", I heard Christina, my best friend, call from behind.

I turned my back to the building and positioned myself comfortably against the hotel room's window and exhaled the smoke.

"Yeah, what is it?", I asked casually.

"Goodness, I'm done with her already", Christina exclaimed slapping her thighs in the process and looking away exasperated.

"We were thinking of exploring the city, you know, after everyone calls it a night and the teachers head to sleep", Frances, my tomboy best friend, cleared my confusion.

"That's great, I'm in", I answered as I inhaled some more smoke from my cigarette.

"Good, she can communicate", Christina gave me a sarcastic smile and got up only to continue, "I'm letting Jesse and Chris know, I'll be back".

And with that she disappeared letting Frances and I continue our deadly habit that she utterly despised.

"As much as I love you, you should check that daydreaming of yours", Frances scowled at me.

"Don't blame me for being stuck in a freaking five-star hotel in the middle of absolutely nowhere", I complained because it was true. We were juniors in high school on a three-day trip in Frankfurt am Main and all we did was visit important landscapes and tourist attractions during the day and then get back to the hotel at 8pm only to be told to sleep tight.

And I was simply not having any of that. The point of traveling is to explore and see, to hear what locals have to say, to interact and share with them, to live and learn about the place, not visit a freaking theatre forced to watch an awful performance and then get locked in the hotel room.

"Don't worry, tonight might be the last day but we're going to have lots of fun, I can guarantee you that", Frances reassured me.

I puffed out some smoke and crushed the cigarette I held in the ashtray, left it beside the open window to make sure that the smoke detector wouldn't go off and went for the door to get ready.

I opened it and before heading to my right I let Frances know that we were meeting up in my room in an hour.

As I was walking down the hallway I bumped into Ethan Gonzalez, a classmate of ours. I didn't know much about him except for the fact that he used to do gymnastics.

If there's one thing people knew about me, it's that I was always in my own little bubble not exactly caring about others. Not that I'm a goth or something but I'm not good at socializing and making small talk. So, I settled at studying, my extracurriculars that I absolutely loved and hanging out with my small group of friends.

"Hey, it's not bad to say 'Hi' once in a while", someone told me from behind.

I turned to see Ethan smiling at me and my being a bit annoyed apologized for ignoring him.

"Where are you off to?", he asked me.

"Curious much? My room", I replied, a smirk playing on my lips. "And you?" I asked as if I cared. I didn't but settled on playing nice.

"Going to get Andrea and then we'll sit with the boys", he said casually. Andrea was his girlfriend. We used to be close friends back in middle school and had lots of fun together but after summer break at some point we simply broke it off. In all honesty, I really liked seeing the two in the school hallways; they made a cute couple. Whereas about the boys, they were all classmates of ours but I didn't really talk to any of them except for the usual.

"That's good, enjoy yourselves, you've got plenty of rooms to choose from in case you need one", I chuckled. "Don't forget protection", I added and walked away not waiting for a response.

When I walked into my room, I quickly undressed myself and hopped into the shower. During that time period I seriously liked sitting under hot water thinking about anything and probably everything.

After I washed myself and wrapped my wet hair and body in two separate towels, I lay down in my bed and grabbed my blue spiral notebook.

Now, this notebook meant a lot to me. I had painted it on the outside with blue paint that gradually grew lighter from the top to the cover's bottom. I had this for about four years now and it was filled with quotes that reflected my being and my state of mind throughout all this time. Even though I would stop writing on it for long periods of time, it felt like a diary to me and I would read the quotes just to bring back memories or to inspire myself to accomplish my goals.

One of my all-time favorite quotes was one by Thomas Henry Huxley. It read "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something" and for some odd reason I associated it with wanderlust, my immense need to just travel the world, see places I didn't even know about and meet people from other backgrounds.

And even though people would call me crazy and a rebel for sneaking out at 3.30 in the morning just to wander around the empty streets of a city I wasn't familiar with, I knew I was doing what I desired, what felt right for me and that I made my trip to Germany worthwhile because, in the three days that we stayed in Frankfurt, we didn't get the chance to really explore the city; we just grabbed the school bus to get to other cities like Heidelberg and Bonn for a little while and see the most touristy of places.

I got up and put the notebook in my suitcase covering it with a couple of folded shirts because I didn't want anyone to find out about it and read it.

I, for once in my life, got dressed pretty quickly and proceeded with drying my hair not fond of the idea of catching a cold. After I was done, I brushed through all of my combs and dialed Christina's phone number on my cell.

"Hey, baby, I'm on my way with everyone", she beamed at me, the excitement evident in her voice.

"Wow okay, be quiet though, see you", I tried to calm her down and tapped on my screen to end the call because there obviously was no 'red button' whatsoever.

Surely enough, Christina got in our room a couple of minutes later with Frances, Jesse and Chris right behind her.

"Hey, guys, long time no see", I teased them, "Are we ready?".

"Girl, I was born ready", Jesse replied with a smirk on his lips while the others simply nodded.

Jesse was my best friend ever since 7th grade along with Christina. We all lived practically in the same neighborhood and used to go out quite often until last year when I took up debate and volleyball, among a variety of extracurriculars that required a lot of time on my behalf.

As for Chris, he was a classmate of mine. He hung out with Frances and other people like Ethan. We wouldn't talk much but it's fair to say he was a cool guy. And definitely not judgmental of people's decisions. Jokes on me, now that I think of it though...

17.06.2018