The Student Exchange

The Representative

The silence between the two girls as Cassie walked up the stairs next to Holly was a little awkward. Cassie gave Holly a little wave, and Holly gave her a small smile back. 
Cassie swung her bag off her shoulder and onto the ground in front of her seat. She glanced at Holly, who was twirling her hair through her brightly painted nails. She had a flash back of when she and Cassie used to paint their nails bright pink on Fridays. Because, why not? Goodness, they looked forward to Fridays.

Just as Cassie was about to dream about the previous years that Holly and her had spent together, a booming voice echoed through the building from the massive black speakers that were towering above the audience. "Hello everybody, and congratulations for getting this far in your courses. As some of you may know, there has been a little bit of difficulty regarding contact with Japan and Germany. I will inform you about the arising conflict and so could those students please stay behind after this brief meeting."

The representative from the agency spoke for about half an hour, about details of the exchange. Presentation after presentation, slide after slide, it explained all the important details that the students needed to know.
Then all the student were gone, but four.
The four of them sat anxiously in their seats, fidgeting with their clothes and jewellery. Holly and Cassie gave each other another small smile as they glanced across the room, awkwardly waiting for the representative to stop filing through his papers and clicking away on his MacBook. Finally, he stopped, and raised his head from the world that was displayed on his computer screen.

"Hello, students. I hope you all had a good day at school?"
The eight excited but confused students nodded, and the representative smiled slightly.
"Good. Now, as you know we have a matter to discuss. Japan and Germany have had an ongoing feud since the end of their war, that happened about 50 years ago. Do you know about this feud?" He asked, as he peered over his round shaped glasses. Cassie thought he must've stolen them from the set of Harry Potter. The students shook their heads, apart from Cassie and Holly. They had done a presentation on a timeline of each and every single war, including the one between Japan and Germany.
"Anyway, the feud has gone on for so long that the two countries were getting sick of talking behind each other's backs. Both countries are planning to open fire three days after you land in the country. It is very unfortunate that we have no information about where the countries are going to open fire first, whether they drop something in the sea, towns, or capital cities. We have advised you do not take your best clothes or new phone, as we don't know whether it will come back again as it normally would..."
Cassie frowned. Oh, she really wanted to wear that new winter coat when she got to Japan. But, it will have to wait here, in her cupboard, until next winter. Damn.
The representative readjusted himself on his seat. Then he leaned back and frowned at the circle, the children's eyes practically bulging with anticipation. Of course he wanted to tell them where it would hit first. When it would hit first. Who would hit first.
But he couldn't bring himself to do it. These poor kids wouldn't want to go on the exchange anymore, and the agency was going broke so they needed the money. He needed the money. And the kids had been working up to the moment when they stepped on the plane for so long! He could never...
Clearing his throat, he sat back up straight again and looked at each individual for a second. "I know this may be hard to hear, but the situation is very dangerous and we are reconsidering doing the trip. But, I can say it is very unlikely that the trip will not continue because we are too late in the process to pull out now. Home stay families have committed and we are going to try our best to find out anything else about the feud that is slowly burning bigger on the other side of the world. I promise you, students, I will try very hard to keep the trip on track, but if you get an unwanted email in the next week or two, you'll know I tried my best. Ok?"

The eight sat in shock. No, the feud couldn't have gotten that bad, could it? A full on war was going to commence while they were there, so did they really still want to do it?

"Please, don't second guess yourselves. The trip is in 6 months. Keep working at the costs, and we should be able to fly. And the feud should hopefully burn out by then."

Little did they know, the fire was growing bigger by the second, and the two countries had already planned their first shot. Tokyo? No. Off the coast. Close enough to make a wave of people shudder. A wave. Watch out Tokyo...
It's time to get drenched.