SWNOVELS Chapter 16 Pit Stop
When we arrived at our first destination, we met our tour guide that would be accompanying us for the next few days, Chloe. She had brown wavy hair, a red cardigan with a local tour guide company logo, light blue jeans, gray running shoes, and a red jacket with her ID clipped to it. She seemed like she was fresh out of college or just starting an internship, judging by her bubbly personality and how she said it would be fun to guide us around the monuments and museums. She didn’t skip a beat when we walked up to the monument and asked, “Before we get inside, can anyone tell me who it’s named after?”
I was somehow picked out of the dozen kids who raised their hands, because the tour guide said, “The kid in the Giants jacket.” I looked around for him, then realized it was me, since no one else was wearing a Giants jacket. I raised my hand and said, “Uhh—George Washington!” once the other kids stopped talking.
“That’s right.” She remarked, looking pleased with my response.
“And speaking of Washington, did you know that this monument was actually supposed to be more than what you see here and it was going to look more like a pathogen in Ancient Greece, but due to lack of funding, project delays and a civil war breaking out, it got stopped altogether.”
She said with a rehearsed smile.
Wow, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I just learned something today that was not a refresher. During the tour, Josh whispered in my ear asking if I “brought the note”, I whispered back saying,
“I did. I have it hidden in my backpack on the bus. I’ll show you when we get back to our hotel room.” He nodded. After that, we got bored to death of learning the fascinating history of the Washington Monument. I don’t know if it was all the walking we did or I got used to the middle school schedule as I was starting to get pretty hungry. Luckily it was right on time as we were going to go to everyone’s favorite fast food joint… MCDONALDS. The inside of the place looked exactly as I remembered when I was a little kid. It was bizarre. Then again, my earliest memories that I have of McDonald’s was me going down the slides of the play place when I was only 4 or 5 years old. Which technically speaking was only four or five years from now. So it’s nice to know that it hasn’t changed until later in the far distant future aka our present.
Anyway, as our group C formed a huge line to order, one look at the menu and my wallet, I realized that my funds were uhh… kinda low. I didn’t even think about buying anything this entire trip so far. Seems like I have gotten used to Ben’s mom doing all that for me. The money that I currently have is only enough for food to last me a couple or so days I’ll be here and a few lousy and somewhat cheap souvenirs like a cool $25 shirt at most. Gotta love being put on a budget by your parents and not being old enough for a job is a lovely reminder of how young I am. After Me, Josh and Allison all ordered our food, Josh, who was right behind me in line, tapped my shoulder with such importance that I turned around and rudely asked,
“What?”
He then whispered in my ear,
“Dude, you’re not going to believe this. I just spotted an N64 Kiosk here. We gotta check it out for… old times sake.”
Hitting my shoulder. Intrigued by this, I followed him after we ordered our food of course and were off to the side waiting. Now as we were trying to sneak past Al, she must’ve suspected something was up with us as we were getting awfully quiet where she spotted us a couple feet behind her and asked,
“Okay, you two boys are being awfully quiet. Where are you planning on going?” she began to pout, “Our food will be ready in just a few minutes.”
“Uhh nowhere, right… Ben?”
Josh shriveled while elbowing me. I just nodded. Al with an unamused look turned to me and batted her eyelashes and sweetly asked, “Heyyy Ben, can you please tell me where Josh is planning on taking you cause he won’t tell me?”
One look at Josh and he shook his head no.
I said it once and I´ll keep on saying it again. I am a sucker for the batting of eyelashes and puppy dog eyes. I caved to her demands rather quickly where I sheepishly admitted, “He was just planning on taking me to see the N64 Kiosk they have here. It will only be a minute.” I answered pointing to the kiosk that some random teen boys were now playing on. I looked back at her and she had this expression like she was so done with us by asking,
“A minute, huh?” one of her eyebrows now raised, looking at Josh who just awkwardly laughed and looked while whistling away in the opposite direction of Allison. She then loudly groaned, “Of course you two are. Why am I not surprised?”
“Care to join us, Al? Smash Bros could use a third player?” I asked, hoping for her to say yes. To my disappointment she answered,
“Thanks, but no thanks, Ben, I’m good. I would rather have a bite to eat before I decide to whoop your butt again at Smash Bros like I did the last time. But you boys go ahead, have your fun. I’ll be here.” she answered with a forced smile.
I was then dragged by the arm by Josh to go “have our fun”. But we had to wait as these teen boys were hogging the kiosk and didn’t let me and Josh have a turn or even watched. They just told us to “get out of here, rugrats” as one of them in a black hoodie blocked our view with his body while the other was desperately trying to shoo us away. I had no problem seeing over them as I practically towered over their heads.
But the same can’t be said about my poor friend Josh. Who was a bit annoyed by their attitude towards us. Where I had to see Josh standing on his tippy toes just trying to have a look at what game they were playing. While I for one noticed that they were playing Smash Bros on some map with a tree that had a funny face. I couldn’t tell which one of them was Donkey Kong or Luigi. But whoever was Luigi clearly needed to get better at the game. Just found out who Luigi was, as it was the same kid in the hoodie who called us rugrats a minute or two ago, leaving the restaurant in a huff while his buddy tried to catch up to him.
Ha Ha. That’s what you get, buddy, Karma sucks, doesn’t it! Internally laughing at them. But as I was silently laughing at their misfortune, I saw Ben’s diamond shaped face in the kiosk screen as the game was booting up with the Giant’s hat on my head that made me stop dead in my tracks as it reminded me that according to everyone here, I was just another annoying middle schooler. Once we got Smash Bros started, I chose Pikachu while Josh chose Mario where for this time… this one time I truly felt like a kid again. Josh barely won a quick game of three stocks. Just as he was gloating… Al hollered at us that she’s got our food. We exited out of the game and headed towards her who was now sitting at some booth by the window.
As soon as we sat down, she said with a big smile, “Here’s one cheeseburger without onions, fries, and Dr. Pepper for Benji.” “Thanks,” I replied. She nodded and turned to Josh. “One Filet-O-Fish, fries, and Sprite for Joshie,” she said. He thanked her, and she smiled. “And for me, a double cheeseburger with ketchup, lettuce, onions, and pickles, and a Diet Coke…for me,” she said, flashing her pearly whites. We started eating, and I was amazed to see that Allison and Josh were suddenly acting like best friends instead of bickering enemies.
It was pretty heartwarming to see Josh, who’s always the first to complain about something, hold his tongue as Al took a fry or two from his bag. She told him to “cool it” as it was just the ”Friendship Tax" as she ate a french fry right in front of him. She did the same to me too, by claiming it was ”Only fair" as she leaned over to my side of the table and grabbed some of my fries too. But I noticed she took a couple more, thinking I wouldn’t notice. I did, but I didn’t mind losing a few fries. There’s something about seeing Allison and Joshua being happy and laughing like the friends they were meant to be that just made me… smile. Al took notice and curiously asked,
“What are you smiling about?”
“Oh no reason, just remembering old times.”
I blurted. She chuckled at my remark and commented “Just like old times, huh.” then asked, “Why are you losers always like this? It’s so embarrassing.”
“Uhh, we do it because you love us. That an–n-n-n d-d-d you’re pretty fun to mess with.” I nonchalantly answered,
“You know it!” Josh exclaimed. “Give me some.”
As we high fived and laughed together, Ally who had her hand over her head shaking asked,
“You two are something else, you know that, right?”
“Oh, we know.”
I answered with a big sleazy smile.
“And for the record: We are not losers, we are nerds.”
Josh proudly announced.
“There’s a difference.”
I replied, agreeing with Josh.
“Whatever.” Al groaned “You two “nerds” get my point.”
I may have not convinced them to be friends this minute, but I can tell I am really close and maybe just maybe it can resolve itself. Until that hope got shattered into millions of little pieces... when Brittney came along and ruined it. What I mean by that is that she walked up to our table and reminded Allison that she was supposed to be mad at Josh by inquiring,
“Hey, I’m so glad Josh apologized for what he said to you on Friday. It’s so nice to see you two be together again.”
“Oh… he hasn’t yet. I am still mad at him for it but just because I’m mad at him doesn’t mean I can’t talk to him.” with a surprising bit of attitude.
“Oh, you still are? Whoops, my bad.”
She replied, faking her surprise like the Drama Queen she was.
I HATE HER with every fiber in my body.
Once she left, Josh grabbed Al by the arm and whispered, but just loud enough for me to hear,
“Hey, thanks for defending me back there, Ally... I really mean it.”
“I didn’t do it just for you, Josh.” She coldly stated, deepening her voice, “I did it for me. You’re not the only one who’s bothered by her.” as she then got up from our spot to dump the trash out in the can and stomped her way outside.
Just as Josh and I were watching her, Mrs. Andrews told us to “Finish up eating, you two. We don’t want you to get left behind.” Kinda wish they did, cause after that interaction Josh and Al were like back to square one again but this time at least they acknowledged each other’s existence.
AT THAT MOMENT I JUST WANTED
TO WALK AWAY
FROM ALL OF IT
IN
SHAME
BUT I AM SO GLAD I DIDN’T.