The field trip

[Winterwings]

Pancho, who was called Pan among his friends, was waiting for the bus, along with the other students. It was cold, and he was wearing a brown coat and a chullo to keep himself warm.
"Stupid bus", me muttered, because it was late. Not much though, just a few minutes, but it was really cold, and everybody wanted to get on the bus as soon as possible. He sighed and looked at the road, it was quiet and you could tell from the untouched snow that there hadn't been any vehicle on it since yesterday.
The bus came, and everybody seemed to exhale out of relief, now they were finally able to get inside. The teacher told them to make lines so that it would be easier to get on the bus, but no one really listened since everybody just wanted to get inside.
Soon, they were on their way. Pancho looked out the window as they drove by the landscape covered in white. It made him think of christmas, that was on its way.

 

[Layne]

Morrie

Morrie sat in the very back of the bus, ignoring most of the other students. Her best - and only - friend was out with the flu today, and there was nobody else that she wanted to talk to. None of them liked her anyway. She wasn't sure if it was because she dyed her hair a bright purple, or because she liked different music than they did. Whatever the reason, she had no desire to be friends with people who had such a problem. So, she sat alone, her neon blue earbuds blaring out rock music that only she could hear. Her Easter-egg colored nails tapped along on the knees of her jeans, and her deep brown eyes gazed out the window as they drove deeper in the city.

When the bus stopped, everybody piled off. She was last, as usual. This may have been a day off from school, but she wasn't exactly thrilled about it. After all, their original trip had been cancelled at the last minute. They were supposed to go to see a play, then go out to a restaurant for lunch before going back to school. However, apparently the lead in the play had broken her arm just that morning. The principal changed their plans literally ten minutes before they boarded the bus. Now they were at some ancient history museum and were going to be eating in the cafeteria.


Boring.


She hopped off the bus and looked around. The two teacher chaperones were busy trying to corral the students into lines, while most of the kids were running around and laughing. Ahead of them, the museum loomed up at least five stories. Even the outside was dark and boring. She sighed and looked up at the heavily overcast sky, just wishing it would snow so that they'd get out of school earlier.

 

[Winterwings]

Soon, they got there. Pancho stepped out of the bus, yawned and looked at everybody running around. The museum was going to be OK as well, but the play would have been so much better, he thought. He had been looking forward to seeing the play ever since they got the news, and so he wasn't at his best mood this day. Actually, he might even be a bit lower than average.
He followed the rest of them into the museum, walking beside his friend who was chatting about something he didn't really care about. The museum looked quite good inside, at least better than the outside, he thought. He looked around. There wasn't many of the students who seemed to think that it was that exciting, the teachers seemed to like it, though. He was pretty sure that no one actually would enjoy being there, but, who knew? Maybe it would be cool, exciting and everything else that he had expected from the play. He didn't really believe in it though.
After a while, his friend had gone talking to somebody else, and Pancho hadn't even noticed that he was gone until he was going to ask him something about one of the paintings. Then, he stopped, and looked at it. He was pretty sure that no one would mind if he stopped for a while, it seemed like the rest of them were in a hurry. The painting was in bright colors, and he couldn't really tell what it was supposed to look like. He cocked his head but it still didn't make any sense.

 

[Layne]

Trailing after the big group, Morrie only half listened to their tour leader as he started rambling on and on about the history of the building. Most of that was probably made up on the spot anyway, since this district had been undeveloped until twenty years ago - and she knew it. She sighed inwardly and glanced at the paintings they were passing. There were a few that she actually enjoyed, but most were boring and seriously needed a good splash of color. One of the students had stopped, she noticed. She paused and glanced at him, then eyed the piece that he was so interested in. It was a good choice. However, the group was moving on. She decided to help out since she didn't recognize him as any of the assholes who had mocked her before.


"Hurry up if you don't want to get left behind. You'll never understand an abstract painting anyway - nobody will, except the artist," she called out to him, giving a bit of a smile before turning and following everybody else. The next section up was sculptures, and those were definitely her favorite.

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho turned around and looked at her just for a second, before she turned around. He hadn't noticed her voice, and that's why he hadn't reacted as fast as he might have if it was one of his friends calling out to him. He wasn't used talking to people he didn't know, or at least, them talking to him. He nodded slightly even though the girl had already turned around, and soon he actually understood what she had said, and began walking towards the rest of the students. When he thought about it, he actually didn't mind getting left behind, even though it would mean not hearing the history if the museum. But honestly, he didn't really care. He followed the group anyways, not wanting to get lost. It would be embarrassing.
He looked at the sculptures as they entered the new section with the sculptures. He glanced at the girl for a second, noticing that she looked lonely. Not in a bad way though, more like it was something she had chosen herself. But of course, he couldn't be sure. But he had chosen it himself though, since all his friends did was chatting about other things that distracted him.
Soon, he didn't listen to the tour leader anyways, he thought of other things as he followed the rest of the students. It was really easy - one foot after the other, keeping an eye on the students and pretending to be listening. Not like anyone would actually notice if he wasn't listening though - looking around, he saw several other students who didn't seem to pay that much attention to it, either.

 

[Layne]

Morrie didn't care that nobody else seemed interested. Of course, they all wanted to get to the really exciting parts of the tour. All of the battle armor and tales of fights. That was interesting too, but she was perfectly content in this room. There were dozens upon dozens of sculptures. Her instant favorite was a landscape sculpture that was only about a foot square. It showed a large portion of the city with tiny skyscrapers and such, but it was all overtaken by trees and ivy and such. The tiny details were simply gorgeous, and she found herself studying the piece and all of the small-as-a-pin flowers that were hidden amongst the more detailed areas.

[Sorry for the short post, still sick @_@]

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho looked around, not that interested. He thought of what he was going to do when he got home. Maybe he could skip school tomorrow. No, that would be wrong. He wanted out though. He yawned, trying not to show it, because he didn't want anyone to think that he wasn't interested. Soon, they came to the battle armor. He smiled a bit as the rest of the pupils seem to just shine like suns, it was quite funny looking at. He tried to pay attention to it, but didn't succeed very well. It just wasn't interesting though. He looked back, and saw a girl, probably that girl from before, still standing at the sculptures. He looked at the rest of the group that seemed to be on their way, it didn't seem like they noticed them at all. He went back to Morrie, looked at her for a few seconds before standing beside her.
"You think this is interesting? Enjoying it? All of this, I mean. This whole museum-thing", he said, also looking at the sculpture. "I'd much rather go to that play that we were going to see", he said, and looked at her.

[It's OK - mine was short as well. Hope you'll get better soon ~]

 

[Layne]

"Hm?" Morrie asked distractedly, looking up from her study of the sculpture to see that the boy who had lagged behind in the room of paintings before had come back to her. She looked around and realized that the other students had all moved on. Oh well. Not that they'd notice two were missing anyway. The chaperones never did their job of keeping track. She turned her gaze back to the boy and smiled, nodding.

"I really wanted to go to the play as well. Everybody was really looking forward to it, I think. I had already seen it, but it was a lovely show. I wouldn't have minded watching it again," she said. "But yeah, I'm enjoying the museum. The art portion, anyway. I'm not really a fan of the rest of it, when they start going on and on about statistics and the old stuffed animals," she added, making a face and laughing a bit as she gestured to the sculpture she had been admiring. "This is more my style."

 

[Winterwings]

So, she had been looking forward to it as well. All of sudden, Pancho felt sad about it. At least, someone was enjoying the museum. When he thought about it, he would much rather be at home. It would have been so much fun, he thought. Or, maybe not. If he was at home he would probably still be in bed. This was better than that, he thought, even though he didn't really enjoy it. Dropping out of school wasn't something that he was going to do, although he had thought about it. After all, it was just a thought. Something he would never do. But, not following the rest of the class wasn't dropping out of school, was it? It was more like, discovering things on your own, without annoying classmates and boring grown ups talking about the history of the place. He wouldn't remember any of it later on, anyways.

"Yeah, that's a nice one", he said, as if he knew what he was talking about. For some reason, he felt like Morrie knew what she was talking about. Maybe she had an eye for these sort of things. Sculptures, paintings, art in general. He wasn't sure if he had the same interested in that particular area. He was more the theater type. Watching others doing things. Performing. It was like getting a peek of another world. He really enjoyed theater. At least he thought it was more interesting than this. He glanced out a window, and saw that the snowflakes were falling quicker and they were also bigger than before. "Looks like we'll have to stay here for the night", he said, and grinned widely. He was joking, of course. "At least if it continues snowing like this", he said, and his face had gotten a bit more serious. He didn't think that the bus was going to make it all the way back of the snow kept falling like this.

 

[Layne]

"Do you like it? It's new - or, at least, it wasn't here when I visited a couple weeks ago. The artist is one of my favorites, but I've never seen him put such detail into his work before! I mean, the hours that it must have taken to put all of those tiny flowers in the crevices.. It's just insane," Morrie said, then paused as she realized she was babbling and that he probably didn't care in the least. She blushed a little bit and laughed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I get kind of carried away when it comes to sculptures, I guess.." she explained, then watched him as he looked out a window.


"I think our chaperones might die if they had to deal with a batch of seniors for the night," she said with a grin, looking out at the snow. It'd probably stop by the time they got to lunch anyway. She didn't remember even hearing a forecast for snow today, but oh well. As long as they didn't get too much, none of their teachers would care. She walked over to the window and looked down, surprised to see that the sidewalk was already covered and cars were leaving tracks on the road. "Hmm.."

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho smiled a bit. He liked the fact that she was into art. Not like he was that interested in it himself, but he found it quite interesting that a girl was. Most girls he knew was all about the current fashion and whatever... for some reason Morrie seemed different from the other students. He looked at her as he saw her looking at the window. He smiled a bit as she grinned, and carefully leaned against the wall - just in case he might break something. Not like he usually did break things, but he was a bit more careful being at a museum than being at home.

"Maybe we'll stay here till it's over", he said, as he walked over to the window after her. He didn't think that the whole class was going to go back in this weather - they were probably going to wait for it to be less snow falling from the sky. He didn't mind, now that he was with Morrie it wasn't as boring as he thought it would be. He glanced at the other side of the room to see if anyone was there, but it was just the two of them. He guessed that the rest of the class had gone somewhere else. "Shall we move on or do you want to admire all of this a bit more?" he asked, and looked at the painting that she had been looking at before. Yes, she was right, it must have taken a long time to get all of the flowers there. "I'm fine either way", he said, and glanced at her.

 

[Layne]

Morrie smiled at the thought, looking back at him.


"Oh yeah, I can just see it now. We'd all sleep down in the cafeteria or something, maybe make some sleeping bags from the stuffed mammoths upstairs," she said, giggling a bit. "I don't think the chaperones would appreciate that one. Maybe we can make them sleep in a different room so we can all have a pillow fight," she added with a grin. She glanced around when he suggested moving on, only then realizing that the class had moved on out of sight. Now she couldn't even hear them. Oops.


"Ooh.. yeah.. we should get a move on. Might as well catch up before they decide we've gone off and died somewhere," she said, walking out of the sculpture room with a smile.

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho smiled a bit and followed her out of the room. She really had a sense of humour, and a good one, too. Not many girls had that kind of humour that she had, at least he didn't think so. Actually, he didn't know enough girls to tell what their humour was like. But what he knew for sure was that he liked Morrie's kind of humour.
"Yeah, sure", he said, while he was looking for the others. And all of sudden, he thought of what would happen if they got left behind. He smiled at the thought because of how absurd it all seemed, the teacher just leaving without checking that everybody was with them. He shook his head slightly. The worst thing that could happen was probably that they had to stay over the night, and that wasn't much of a disaster. Not for Pancho, at least. It had been quite some time since he had spent a night with his class, or someone from it, at all.

"Maybe they're playing hide and seek", he said and glanced at Morrie with a bit of a smile on his face. Soon, they had been walking for quite a while, in the museum, and Pancho had actually started to wonder where they were, when he saw one of the students. He looked at Morrie in a kind of relief as he saw that the rest of the group also were there. He wondered how long they were going to be there. He sighed slightly but tried to pay attention to what was being said. Even though it wasn't something that he would remember the following day, he thought, and then looked out the window. What a waste of time, really.

 

[Layne]

"Hide and seek, huh? Well they must be champs at playing, to get so many people out of sight. We should return the favor and start hiding instead of seeking them out," Morrie suggested with a laugh. She wouldn't really mind if they never found the class. It just meant rejoining the boring tour. By now it was probably getting close to the point where they'd stop for lunch, which meant a bunch of pointless chatter and the clear definition of cliques coming back into play. Oh, the joys of high school. At least it was almost over. Just a few more months and they'd be free to get real jobs or go on to college - which, from what she had heard, was just as bad as high school. Maybe it wouldn't be so annoying to deal with if she had her own place. One could hope.


"Oh, there they are," she said as they rounded a corner and caught sight of the group. She looked at Pancho and smiled, walking over to the others. None of the adults who were supposed to be supervising even noticed that they came back. Obviously they hadn't been missed. The tour guide was droning on about something astonishingly boring, and Morrie edged over next to Pancho again. "Is it time to go home yet?" she whispered, smiling.

 

[Winterwings]

Miles looked at her and smiled a bit. Yes, at least he wished it was. Time to go home. But it probably wasn't. He looked a bit at the tour guide but didn't find anything of what he said interesting, and so he didn't listen. A while later, it seemed like it was time for lunch. Miles had totally forgotten about it, that they were going to eat as well. And then he remembered - lunch in the cafeteria, probably. Not what he had hoped for, but it was the best that they could get. At least, they would get food. That was good enough for him.

He followed the rest of the group to the cafeteria, sat down at one of the tables and sighed. He was really hungry. As everyone else got their food, he thought of what it might be. Pasta, soup? Soon he discovered that it was tomato soup. He didn't mind, although he didn't like it that much. What had he expected? It wasn't like this tour was planned, or anything. He put his spoon in the soup and tasted it. It was OK, he thought, and glanced at Morrie, smiling.
"Do you like the soup, at least?" he asked.

 

[Layne]

"Hmm.." Morrie mused with a distasteful expression as she found out that there wouldn't be a choice for lunch. Soup and crackers. Thankfully she had decided this morning not to risk relying on the museum for something ultra tasty and had put a bag lunch in her bag. She got the soup and took a seat, then pulled out a sandwich and some grapes, along with a little bag of almonds. As Pancho turned to her, she gave him a small grin and shrugged a bit.

"It's not bad. Homemade is a lot better. Want some almonds?" she offered, sliding the bag over to him as she took a bite of her sandwich and looked around at the other students all chattering.

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho looked at her as if he had never seen such a thing, as she got her own food out of her bag. Seriously, did she bring her own, homemade food to the museum? Why hadn't he thought of that himself? He felt so stupid that he hadn't thought about bringing his own food - of course they weren't going to serve some delicious food at a museum! But he didn't really mind though, homemade food wasn't such a difference from the tomato soup. Of course, his mother made delicious sushi, but he knew he couldn't ask her to make that for him.

He nodded as she asked him if he wanted some. Of course he did, it looked delicious. "Thanks", he said, as he took a handful of almonds and then slid the bag back to her. He put them in his mouth and thought of what they were going to do next. Probably some more sight seeing, although he didn't like it. He glanced at Morrie. "What do you think we'll do next, after this?" he asked.

 

[Layne]

"Hopefully something interesting. I'm not really looking forward to another two hours of this if we're just going to be looking at things we can see anywhere," Morrie said, shrugging a bit. She finished off her sandwich and her soup, looking around at the others.


A few of the jocks had started picking on one of the theater boys, and it was coming to shouted insults and threats. Suddenly it was an actual fight, with punches flying around and teachers shouting for order. They were separated, of course, and the jock who started it all was escorted down the hall to go sick on the bus with a teacher for the rest of the time that they were at the museum. A few minutes later, they came back.


"The doors won't open! There's too much snow!" the shocked teacher exclaimed, and the other chaperones just stared at her.

 

[Winterwings]

Pancho watched it happen: the fight, the shouting and everybody's wide, shocked eyes as they watched it without doing anything. And then the teachers finally did something. A barely visible grin showed on Pancho's face, now something finally happened. This wasn't just some boring field trip anymore - there was actually some drama in it! Not like Pancho liked the fact that people was fighting, and he felt sorry for the theater boy who had gotten picked on, but what could he do? He had just watched it happen, just like everybody else.

Soon, he was out of his thinking about that. He looked at the teacher, repeated the words inside his head several times. The doors won't open. There's too much snow. What doors? The doors to the museum or the ones to the bus? Pancho was confused. Was this for real? Was the weather really that bad? He looked at Morrie to see if she could confirm it - was it really as bad as the teacher made it sound?
"What doors are they talking about? What do they mean?" he asked, even though he knew it was probably a silly question. He looked around and he could see that the rest of the students seemed just as shocked as the teacher who had announced it all.
"This is what you wanted, right? Now there will be no more walking around looking at things we can see anywhere", he said to Morrie, not sure if he was serious or if he was trying to make her smile.