I thought school trips were meant to be fun! || Open to kids

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Charlotte Delprat was bored. No, she was more than bored! In fact, she was dying from this tiresome experience. Weren’t school trips supposed to be fun?!

This museum was dull, Mr Smith was mind-numbing, and even her friends standing near her were not even making an effort to try and spice up the day. Everyone looked half dead at that moment in time, as the teacher continued to drone on about art or history or...

Charlie didn't even know what he was talking about at this moment in time. She had completely blocked his voice out for the last half an hour, and was now too busy pre-occupying herself with the many doodles that were gradually taking over the page of her work sheets. Rabbits were hopping across the slightly crumpled white sheet as four figures were exploring a strange flower sketch that had formed at the start of the trip, and seemed to be growing bigger and bigger every five minutes. Those papers were meant to be for making notes on something... she’d forgotten what.

“I wish it was Saturday,” Charlie’s own voice was whining loudly in her head as her pen continued scribbling away, sketching out a small story now with the four figures. “Then we could all go mystery hunting again! Peter would like that... I would like that!”

Twenty minutes until lunch. Time was ticking by painfully slowly. Every soft tick tock of the clock at the far end of the hall resonated in Charlotte’s ear, as though it was calling out to her, teasing her.

“You've still got nineteen minutes, forty-three seconds left of this hell, Charlotte~”

They say that time flies when you’re having fun, but why couldn't it hurry and pick up the pace when your brain was slowly shutting down from tedium?!

The doodles and scribbles were rapidly growing now, consuming the once clean page faster than a fire. Charlie huffed with annoyance, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. Finally her gaze lifted from her papers and was now focused solely on that clock, an angry glare in her eyes. Could this tour be any slower?! Charlotte was half tempted to wonder off now. Maybe the teacher wouldn’t notice her straying away from the group.

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And then there was Peter, looking off to the side, just about as bored to death as Charlotte was. Of all the places they could have gone, it had to be this one. There were plenty of more excited trips they could have taken! Did they not have career day a couple of weeks ago? What about that angry Italian who rode in on a segway? The guy from Africa who smothered him with the firefighter uniform? Couldn't they have gone to one of those buildings instead and put handcuffs on each other and pet the firedog and blasting their teacher with the firehose? What did he expect, though? School was a rollercoaster of excitement that tended to have more low-points and unnecessary stops than most aspects of life. Like Charlotte, though, he was concentrating more on the prospect of lunch upcoming in the next twenty minutes. If there's anything a child learned early in life, it's that the more one looks at the clock the slower it goes.

Time has no consistency in the mind of a child!

He yawned for the five-hundred-billionth time that hour and slowly scooted over to Charlotte. She was busy doodling in that book of hers, which was actually required for the trip but Peter completely forgot his. "Forgot," actually meaning "didn't want to." She seemed entirely oblivious to the fact he was looking, or simply didn't care, but with another glance at the clock which now read that there were still over eighteen minutes left until they were dismissed to eat their soggy sandwiches and suspicious snacks, he realized then that he had to take matters into his own hands. While some children in the classroom were actually capable of paying attention and learning what Mr. Smith was rambling on about, Peter could not be content with such flawed education, and prodded Charlie in the side with a finger and a grin on his face.

"Hey, Hey Charlie." Peter whispered inconspicuously, watching their teacher like a hawk lest he turned around and compromised their entire escape operation. "We should ditch and go somewhere else. There's bound to be somewhere in here that doesn't suck."

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o b r i g a d a ! Where are my friends? Floriana patted her dress with her damp hands, looking around the empty hallway. Less than five minutes ago, Flo separated herself from her group to go to bathroom. She had told an upperclassmen in her group that she needed a bathroom break. Still, she didn't know if he had listened to her and told their teacher to wait for her. What if he didn't do that and they proceeded without her? What if they will never realize that she's missing from the group? Tears started forming on her eyes; she quickly wiped them off. Flo had a feel that this trip would be a bad idea. She felt awkward, and a strange queasiness had been bothering her since she got on the bus this morning. Now that her friends and teacher were nowhere within her sight, the feeling grew even bigger. Flo took a deep, long breath. Crying and panicking wouldn't do any good; it'd be hard to think clearly if she's bawling her eyes out. Flo began to guess to which direction her group had gone to. Finding a group of students would be easy, right? Her school was the only one having a field trip here today. Once she passed the fourth hallway, Flo spotted a group of students. Relieved, she half ran to the group. A teacher was standing in front of them, explaining about a piece of art. Flo could clearly see that almost all of the students there were bored. She would feel the same too, if she had stayed in this group from the beginning of the trip! Holding her small backpack, Flo observed each of the students' faces, looking for someone she'd recognize. But she found none, maybe that's because the group was consisted of older kids. Their clothes were fancier too. Flo suddenly felt conscious about her second-hand dress. It didn't stand out much among her classmates... wait. What if this group came from a different school? She never thought about that possibility, but that makes sense. Flo considered to look for her friends again, however her legs were tired and she wanted to eat lunch. Asking for help would be a good idea, but who she should ask for? The only adult nearby was busy talking and Flo didn't want to disturb him. The girl started to distance herself from the group. Would one of the students help her? Flo was too shy to approach them. So she looked around, hoping one of the bored students would notice her.

MADE BY MINNIE OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Astrit Zupan]

Astrit really wasn't sure what everyone's problem was. He was enjoying the chance to spend a day largely on his feet, rather than trapped in a desk.

The boy's restlessness, pacing up and down at the back of the group, may have made him look bored, but he was intensely alert. Whenever the teacher's lecture used words like "As you can see here," Astrit looked up to see whatever it was that was being pointed out, before sweeping his watchful eyes back around the room. It was instinct, mostly: he preferred to know what was going on around him, and he found that he understood things better if he was moving while he listened.

So it was that he caught sight of a little dark-skinned girl, perhaps two or three years younger than himself, standing nervously a short distance away from their group. Her big brown eyes were scanning their group, obviously looking for some familiar face, and obviously not recognizing anyone any more than Astrit recognized her.

Nobody else seemed to be looking at her right now, so Astrit approached her. Normally, he would have thought that was a crazy thing to do, but something swayed him. She looked... not familiar, exactly, but more natural to his eyes than his own classmates did. It took him a few moments to realize why.

The girl's dress was, simply put, not as fancy as anything his classmates wore. She wasn't quite as threadbare as Astrit or most of his neighbors usually were, but she still looked more like... like people to the boy. He was aware that his classmates were people, too, but sometimes they struck him as more like the dolls that lived in boxes on the shelves of toy stores, inhuman in their clean perfection.

“Hey,” he greeted the strange girl in his best attempt at a quietly gruff voice. It would probably be good enough, since he was talking to a kid younger than himself. “Who are you, and what are you looking for?

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"They called it puppy love but I guess they'll never know how a young heart really feels and why I love him so" Tag: Peter, Floriana, Astrid

The moment Peter had prodded his pen into her side to oh so inconspicuously whisper in her ear, Charlie was tutting under her breath and shaking her breath, amber eyes also glued to the teacher as she watched him carefully. ...What? He really could jeopardise an escape plan!

"Honestly Peter; you're so immature!" the girl hissed back at him super duper quietly, not wanting anyone else to listen in to their super top-secret conversation that was totally just for their ears. "But okay! I think I know a good way of escaping. We just need to wait for the right moment..."

Right on cue, the teacher turned his back as he was speaking to take another look at whatever boring "Da Vinci Van Gough Charlie really didn't even care" painting they were huddled around. The moment the teacher was not facing the group of students, Charlotte grabbed Peter's hand quickly and pulled him to the very back on the crowd, causing them to blend in with the sea of heads. Once that was said and done, the girl began to innocently and not at all obviously shuffle away from the group, indicating for Peter to follow her with a hushed "Come on! Hurry!" This was totally the bestest, greatest escape ever, guys! Peter and Charlotte should win the Nobel Prize for ditching school groups!

Just as Charlotte was making her completely flawless way out of the room, she caught sight of two kids just out of the corner of her eye. Quickly skidding to a stop, the Australian girl watched them for a moment, before rushing over. One of the kids she knew from her school; that guy... Astrid was it? From Serbia or Derbia or Albarania.... was that even a country? Anyway, the point was that Charlotte definitely didn't recognise the other kid; a small girl who must have been a bit younger than them. She was too small to be from their class! Wasn't she the best mini detective ever?

Not waiting to see if Peter had caught up with her, the brunette girl quickly scampered over to the other two kids, offering them a small wave of one hand and a small smile.

"Hey! Are you guys okay? Need any help?"

ELECTRIC HAS GANGNAM STYLE

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"You're so immature!" came Charlotte's scathing remark.

Peter's face contorted irritably as he gave Charlotte a look that might have conveyed a, "Seriously? Really?"

Ugh.

She sounded like Arthur. But oh, that didn't last long! Oh, obviously Charlotte would initially protest, but being a young man of irresistible charm and good looks it could only makes sense that she couldn't say no for very long, for she caved almost instantly and was grabbing his hand and dragging him off. Just as he had planned! Great minds think alike!

Their teacher was none the wiser, and he continued to drone on about some guy named Klimt. All Peter knew about that guy was that every painting he did scared the hell out of him. Whether by ignorance or by courtesy, none of the other students cared to rat them out. Gasp, could they possibly be interested?? BLEGH!

Just as he was about to praise Charlotte on her flawless execution of their unspoken escape plan, the Australian let go of his hand and rushed over to a pair of other students - one obviously too young to be in their group, which lead Peter to be rather puzzled. Was she alone here? That wasn't cool at all! Irresponsible parents, maybe!?

That thought struck a particular cord in the boy and he quickly followed Charlotte to check out the situation-- oh look, Astrit. He'd be coming along too, obviously. Peter didn't know him too well, only that the guy apparently came from some country he'd never heard of as his name sounded like a girl's name.

Peter waved, but just as the teacher was about to turn and blow their cover Peter's wave turned into a desperate grab and pull behind a wall. "Quick, hide!" Expertly ditching behind the protective whitewashed wall, Peter assisted the group in narrowly avoiding being caught by the teacher, who, with his brief scan of the room complete, turned back to the terrifying painting on the wall and continued his robotic speech about how the painting represented Austria.

If art was worth a thousand words, Peter was pretty sure each one of them was some variation of "Arhahghg."

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o b r i g a d a ! The Timorese swayed back and forth, feeling uneasy. Every kids in the group wore nice, fancy clothes. She could see it in her mind; their eyes wide open, staring at her, and their minds murmuring a same question: is she belong to our group? Floriana shivered; she had no idea on how to approach them. Thankfully everyone was still paying attention to the boring teacher whose robotic voice could drive a water buffalo to sleep. This was her chance to leave! But before she turned her back, a voice greeted her. “Who are you, and what are you looking for?" Now that she had been spotted, it'd be best to go along her initial plan: getting help. "I was lost, and... and..." the girl gulped. The voice was belonged to a kid definitely older than her. No, he wasn't looked scary or something; it's just Flo was always got nervous whenever she had to talk to upperclassmen. "I'm searching for my friends..." "Hey! Are you guys okay? Need any help?" Flo's attention moved to this new voice. A brunette girl had separated herself from the group, along with a blond boy whom she dragged by hand. Uh oh, more people. Flo puffed her cheeks. "I'm okay, I just need to--" "Quick, hide!" Why would they need to hide? What happened? Even though those questions still echoing in the back of her mind, Flo obeyed the blond's sudden command. She followed the others to behind the wall. Her bag wiggled as she ran, guaranteeing the contents turned upside down. After she managed to catch her breath, Flo explained her situation to them. "As-as I said before, I'm lost and looking for my friends now," her eyes observed their surroundings, still trying to find another plain dressed student. "Um, um... our school is having a trip here, and I suppose yours too." The girl blinked, "oh, and my name is Floriana." Smiling, she added, "you can call me Flo. Nice to meet you."

MADE BY MINNIE OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Astrit Zupan]

The scared little girl wasn't too frightened of him to answer, which was probably a good thing.

"I was lost, and... and... I'm searching for my friends..."

Astrit nodded, but before he could say anything they were interrupted by Charlie, one of the girls from the group.

"Hey! Are you guys okay? Need any help?"

The lost little girl puffed out her cheeks (Astrit wondered why) and began to explain, "I'm okay, I just need to--"

"Quick, hide!"

That was Peter, Charlie's best friend. Astrit wasn't entirely sure what they were supposed to be hiding from, but he let Peter (who was shorter but rather sturdier than himself) push him behind a wall. Once the group had gotten there, the younger girl explained, "As-as I said before, I'm lost and looking for my friends now. Um, um... our school is having a trip here, and I suppose yours too."

Then she seemed to catch her breath and added, "Oh, and my name is Floriana. You can call me Flo. Nice to meet you."

The little girl's politeness struck Astrit as remarkably cute. He returned her smile, mellowed a bit by the sense that she was safe to be around, and replied, "I'm Astrit. It's nice to meet you, Flo."

Then he surveyed his classmates, who had pushed them back here. He knew that he was different from them--he wasn't a scion of privilege; his relatives weren't important politicians--heck, he didn't even have relatives who were willing to acknowledge his existence--and the difference was immediately obvious just from looking at them, as his clothes were well-worn and theirs were lacking so many signs of overuse.

Apparently, they were equal here anyway, at least insofar as none of them really felt like being seen. He did wonder what sort of agenda they had, though.

"So what are we back here for?"