Chapter 17

Five hours later and the whole school had all been abandoned. The only people still inside the school were the janitors and students with extra-curricular activities.

One of those students was Arnaldo, who unlocked his locker and dumped his books inside, rubbing his red sore ear and sighing.

"Well, that one's gonna hurt tomorrow-" he says to himself as he reached inside. He pulled out a large, full bottle of vodka, uncorked it, looked to his right and his left and took a big jug of it.

When he finally pulled the bottle away from his lips more than half of it was empty. The liquid was dripping from his lips in small lines, his lungs were trying to catch as much air as possible, his whole face was warm and his cheeks were as red as poppies.

He closed the bottle and placed it back into his locker, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and made his way to the music room.

Earlier he got a text from Sarah, saying that there will be small meeting after classes. Which didn't bother him too much, in all honesty.

"Not like I have anything better to do. Although I did promise Laura I'd go with her to buy hair dye."

He reached the door to the classroom and before he could open it, he heard someone call out to him.

"Ah, Arnaldo!" he turned to the source of the voice. Walking to him was a young woman with dark brown wavy hair that stretched down her whole back. Her eyes were a healthy shade of dark green, emerald like in the way they shined. She was wearing a white bolero jacket over a black shirt and pencil skirt that fell just above her knees. Her pearl necklace clung to her long and skinny neck perfectly and her white high heels created echoes through the entire hallway, as she walked with a sway of her hips.

"Oh, Miss. Krystal! Late again are we?" asked Arnaldo with a playful, yet smug grin.

"First of all, you know not to call me that. I'm barely a decade older than you. And secondly, I could ask you the same thing," said the woman with an equal grin as she walked up to him.

"Oh I'm just teasing you, Sarah," replied Arnaldo with a chuckle.

"I know. I'm just teasing you back," she winked back as he opened the door and held it open for her.

"Ladies first."

"My, aren't you a charmer."

"No mam. Daddy just raised a gentleman," she smiled at him and walked inside.

The rest of the group was already inside, with Nick and Sven talking in the back, Laura sitting at one of the empty tables and examining her hair and Matt sitting on the window still and drawing in his notebook.

Arnaldo sat down next to Laura as Sarah walked over to her desk and clapped her hands.

"Ok everyone, listen up! This won't take long," she said as everyone turned their attention to her.

"As you might know, spring is already knocking on our door. Now I really shouldn't be doing this, considering what happened last year-" she said as she glared at Nick, who looked away and rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"But I'm taking you all on another field trip," everyone began to cheer, but Sarah raised her hand, signalling them to calm down.

"Please. Try to be civil. The trip will be in two weeks."

"But what about the festival?" asked Nick.

"That is precisely why I chose this date. I think it'd do all of you some good if you were all a little more relaxed before you sing. Nothing too elaborate. Just a little five-day vacation."

"Where are we going?" asked Laura.

"Ragusa."

"Great. I can already feel my wallet losing its weight-" groaned Arnaldo.

Sarah typed something into her phone and the next minute, everyone's phones began to buzz and vibrate.

"I've just sent you the schedule for the trip. Now, this trip will cost all of you-" she stopped to do some counting in her head.

"-About three hundred and fifty euros."

"Oh come on!" complained Arnaldo.

"Now, are there any other questions?" asked Sarah and everyone shook their heads.

"Ok, then you're all dismissed."

Everyone scrambled out of the door. The last person to leave was Arnaldo, who turned around and gave Sarah a quick wink, before closing the door.

Minutes later, Arnaldo and Laura were standing outside the school, with Arnaldo was looking at the schedule on his phone, as well as looking at all the different places to visit in Ragusa. Laura had her eyes focused on Matt, who was sitting alone on a bench. "Look at him, being all sad and lonely like that" she started muttering to herself.

"I should force him to come along with us. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm gonna march on over there and start dragging him to the-ack!"

She was just about the make her way over to the boy in black when Arnaldo started dragging her by the collar of her shirt.

"Come on. Let's get this over with," said Arnaldo through Laura's cries of protest, still not looking away from his phone.