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"Passengers please be advised the plane will be landing shortly. If you could please return your seats to the upright position, fasten your seatbelts and turn off all electronic devices, we are about to begin our descent into Barajas International Airport."
Jane, frustrated beyond belief after suffering through a 12 hour flight with no sleep and two very annoying toddlers yelling the whole way, did as she was told and adjusted her seat. She looked down at her watch: 12:13a.m. so it's 7:13 a.m. local time, she said to herself as she adjusted the time on her watch. Great, it's been 20 hours and I've not had any sleep whatsoever and the day is barely starting. Hopefully we won't have too difficult a time today.
The plane landed a few minutes later. Since there was really no rush to get off the plane, she patiently waited her turn. As she began to make her way towards the front, she noticed more and more green backpacks. I wonder how many of us came on this flight, she asked herself. She made the trip through customs and got all her paperwork in order before heading to the conveyor belts to gather her luggage. Aside from the small tote she carried with her one the plane, she had a large army-style green backpack half-full with clothes, shoes and the requested list of items. Not really knowing anyone, she went and sat with the other students who looked just as lost as she did; luckily they didn't have to wait long.
"Good morning everyone! My name is Jóse, and I'm one of the counselors that will be travelling with you on this journey. Let's start off with roll call, make sure we have everyone… Juan Barrios/Mexico… Ana Delgado/Argentina… Jorge Santos/Paraguay…"
Jane sat and listened for her name.
"… Jane Rizzoli/USA"
"That's me," she said as she lifted her hand.
Jóse quickly finished roll call and once everyone was accounted for, led everyone out towards a large bus.
"The other portion of students have already arrived. There is no time to go back to camp today; we are going to make our way directly to Segovia. Once there you will be told which group you'll be joining and who your counselor will be."
Jane threw her backpack along with everyone else's and climbed on the bus. She was still hesitant about talking to people; she wasn't exactly great when it came to first impressions. She turned and saw a guy across the aisle from her. He was frowning and looked like he'd rather be anywhere else than where he currently was.
"You look the way I feel," she said aloud.
He turned to her slowly. "Oh yeah? How's that?" he asked.
"Like you'd rather be anywhere else," she said with a smirk.
"That sounds about right," he said.
"Why are you here? Did someone force you into applying or what?"
"My mother got me to apply, said it looked good for my college apps," he said with a bored tone.
"That sucks. I applied because my Spanish teacher said it would be a free trip to Spain. Sounded good to me at the time. Still does, if only I'd gotten some sleep on the way over here… my name's Jane," Jane stated as she held her hand out.
"I'm Ryan," the boy replied quickly.
"Where are you from Ryan?" Jane asked.
"Texas… Houston… and you?"
"I'm from Boston," Jane replied with a smile. "Part of me misses it already," she said with a laugh.
As it turned out, Ryan wasn't as sulky as he seemed to be. He was actually quite intelligent, and Jane found it wonderful to meet a fellow American. Ryan's Spanish wasn't all that great either, so she rejoiced in the fact that she at least would have someone to talk to in her native tongue. By the end of the two hour drive, it seemed like they'd known each other for a lot longer than a short afternoon.
"So they're going to split us up now, but how about we meet for dinner?" he asked.
"Yeah, that sounds great! It'll be good to have dinner with a friend, we gotta stick together," Jane replied. "Good luck, I hope you get a good tent-mate."
"Thanks, I hope you get a good one too," he said as he walked away.
Jane grabbed her backpack and then went off in search of 'Isabel', who would be her counselor for the duration of the trip. She had a hard time navigating the area. It seemed like there were at least 300 people in front of her. She quickly discovered that counselors were wearing a forest green t-shirt so she narrowed down her search. She found Isabel after a few more minutes.
"You must be Jane," Isabel stated. "I'm Isabel, and I'm going to be your counselor. You were originally supposed to be in group 5, but now you're going to be in 10, with me. Since you're the last one to arrive, you're number 17 for the purposes of roll call. There are three girls to a tent but you're lucky, since there are only two of you left, you get to only split it with one other person. You got here right on time, we're setting up camp. Have you ever put up a tent before?" she asked Jane.
"Yes, my family and I go camping often," Jane replied.
"Good, you'll have no problems then. You're in tent 6, right over there," Isabel pointed to the last tent on the row. Go meet your tent-mate and get set up. Let me know if you have any questions. Welcome to the group," she said with a smile.
"Thanks," Jane smiled back.
Jane walked over to the tent quickly. A younger, shorter girl with honey blonde hair was trying to hammer in a metal stake with a rock.
"Hey there, you need some help?" Jane asked as she put her backpacks down.
The younger girl turned to face her, a small grateful smile spread on her face. "Yes, please. I can't seem to get this to go into the ground," she replied. "I've never set up a tent before," she added.
"Here, let's see what we can do." Jane took the proffered stone and stake. "There are some rocks there, so it'll be a little harder to hammer in, but I think we can handle it. Do you have the other stakes?" she asked.
"I do," the blonde replied as she handed them to Jane. Together they went around and secured the tent. Jane taught her how to assemble the poles and get the tent up; it only took them a few minutes.
"Thank you for your help! I was waiting for my tent-mate; they told me she was coming today but then everyone got started and I felt like I needed to get going too," the blonde stated.
"That would be me," Jane replied with a smile. "I'm Jane Rizzoli, from the USA."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Jane. I'm Maura Isles and I'm from France."
What do you think everyone? Want to read some more? Let me hear it!=)
