29 Stories of You and Me

14-A Well-Earned "Vacation"

Luckily, there was a trip in April to spare us a small break from all this hell that was going on around us. Hell = tests, AP tests, grades.

Lin and I were in a competitive club thing known as the TSA (Technology Student Association). There were tons of events to compete in so it was free for everyone to join. Lin was on the video game design team with Jerry and Simon (I gave up on the names) and the Children's Story bookmaking with me and our friend Emily, who was a grade younger than us.

We were supposed to take off for state on Easter Sunday, sometime in the afternoon. I was very excited. I had convinced Lin to bring swimwear so he could swim and minimal studying books so he could have fun to the max!

Angela and I were some of the first people there. Jenny got there soon as well, and people started coming in one by one. Jenny showed me her children's story about bacteria and told us about her plan to make the book a braille book by poking holes into it with a needle (the theme was to make a book for a child with disabilities).

The bus arrived 20-30minutes later, and all of us realized there was a person missing...

Where was Jerry?

"I'll text him," I offered. I texted Jerry, asking him where he was and if he was on the way.

No response.

Lin called him too, but no one picked up.

Just as we were getting worried about the possibility of us taking off without Jerry, he pulled up behind the bus with a giant black bag. He could be a drug dealer with such a large black duffle.

All of us boarded the bus together. I took a seat next to Lin and started listening to music, giving him an earbud to join in on the music listening adventure.

He started dozing off, so I decided to be creative. Without moving my shoulder, I held my phone camera in front of his face and snapped a picture. I started laughing as soon as the picture was taken and sent the picture to Alex. Lin realized what I had done, but he wasn't too upset about it.

This happened another 2 times.

We got to the hotel (2hrs away I believe?) and fully took in the fact we'd be missing 3 days of school and spending our days in this grand hotel, hanging out with each other and doing fun competitive events.

I was going to share a room with Angela, Jenny, and Michael. Lin, who was across the hallway, was sharing a room with Jerry and Simon. As soon as I briefly unpacked my belongings and complained about there not being a fridge or microwave with Jenny and Angela, I went to check out Lin's room.

When I entered the room, Jerry was on his laptop, running through his video game once more to check if everything was done and ready. I sat down and played a bit, telling him as I did before, "Jerry, it's great. You guys are definitely going to win." He brushed my compliment aside and continued working on his game.

Mr. H and Mrs. B, the two teacher sponsors for TSA called us over to Mr. H's room for a quick meeting. We received our badges and t-shirts, as well as our entire competition schedule for the next 2 days (day 3 was a breakfast awards ceremony).

For dinner, a few of us walked to a nearby McDonald's and got food. Fun fact: half of the pictures we took from the state competition was also from McDonald's.

We walked back to the hotel and started socializing when Erin came into our room and announced that Emily was feeling sick and went to the restroom downstairs for a solid ten minutes by now.

Lin and I were worried about her, so we went with Erin to find her in the toilet downstairs. Lin was reluctant to go in but Erin and I promised him it would be ok since no one actually used the public bathrooms in a hotel. He finally went in and the three of us asked Emily if she was alright. She said she felt okay, but her stomach was hurting. I told her I had some stomach medicine (probiotics) and that she could take some.