The beige walls of the hotel pool room seemed to dance as the light reflected wildly from the surface of the active swimming area. A large group of kids played and wrestled in the pool. A group of girls talked and laughed at a table to the side, some wet and wrapped in towels, some dry, having not gotten into the pool. Another group sat in the hot tub, relaxing before the long day they all had planned ahead.
"You're kidding, right?" An average sized boy with slightly darker skin and red trunks said to the person that sat across from him in the hot tub. His arm was around a shorter, girl with dirty-blonde hair in a pink tankini. Near the end of the pool, a girl with thick brown hair named Jen ran up to the edge and jumped in.
"Cannonball!" She screamed as she lept up into the air, curling her legs close to her body.
"Dude, Dave, think about it," a boy across from him said. His light hair was curly, and he was a bit stockier than the first boy. "You don't think it's a little strange we won this vacation thing?"
"Oh, John, you're just being paranoid." the dirty-blonde said.
"Maybe you're right, Caitlin…" John sighed and slunk a bit lower into the hot tub.
"Heads up!" Someone from the pool yelled. A foam football came flying from that direction, hitting David in the back of the head. The ball was heavy with water and knocked David face first into the hot tub. He jumped up quickly, brushing the hot water from his face.
"Who the hell threw that?!" David menaced, pulling himself out of the hot tub, shivering slightly at the sudden change in temperature. John and Caitlin laughed at his antics from their positions in the hot tub.
"It was Alan!" a small Pilipino girl named Pat called, pointing at the boy.
"Way to give me away!" Alan said frantically, looking over at David with fearful eyes. The older boy sighed and clenched his fist around the ball. "It was an accident David! Charles hit my arm when I was in the middle of throwing it!"
"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" Charles said, looking over at Alan.
"Hey, Mindy!" David yelled to another dirty-blonde who was roughly his age, swimming in the deep end with an English boy, Craig, who was only about a year younger than her.
"What?" she asked, breaking away from Craig and swimming towards the edge of the pool. She crossed her arms and nestled them on the tile outside of the swimming area.
"What do you think I should do with Alan? You see what happened?" he asked, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.
"Yeah, I saw you get owned." Mindy chuckled, then smiled widely. "I say you dunk him in the hot tub."
"Oh, come on, Mindy!" Alan said, walking toward the other side of the pool. "I didn't do it on purpose, David, I swear! You don't need to do anything!"
"Nah, I think I like Mindy's plan more." David smiled as he took off for the pool and jumped into it, going after Alan as he emerged from beneath the water. Some of the people around the pool started laughing, while others just sighed and turned back to their conversations. Alan yelped and jumped out of the pool, retreating behind a table where four girls sat. Amanda, Meg, Kari, and Karina stared at the boys who had interrupted their conversation.
"Make him stop!" Alan whined, hiding behind Karina.
"David, leave the poor kid alone." Amanda crossed her arms, trying to hold back a smile but failing.
"Like I was actually going to do anything," David grumbled, pulling himself free from the water. "You need to learn to take a joke, Alan."
"Shut up!" Alan stuck his tongue out at David from behind Karina. David shrugged and turned around, heading back toward the hot tub to rejoin Caitlin and John.
"You going to cower behind me all day?" Karina glared at Alan. Alan jumped backwards, and ran back towards the pool, jumping into the water. He swam back over towards where Pat, Jun, and Charles still stood in the shallow end. The four girls laughed and resumed their conversation.
The door to the pool opened, and a man in a suit walked in, heading towards the first group of people he could find. Cassie, Ben, and Jolee sat on the long chairs, talking about a story Jolee had recently written while she and Cassie dried themselves out.
"Excuse me sir and madams, are you with the forum group?" the man asked, waiting for someone to respond.
"Yeah, but if you want to know something, go ask David. He's the one in charge." Ben muttered, not even turning to look at the man. The man bowed and started to head off. Pausing he turned back to Ben.
"And who might this David be?" Ben sighed and looked around. Spotting him in the hot tub, he pointed in that direction.
"Over there. He's the one with the brown hair in the hot tub." the man bowed again, then began to walk towards the hot tub. "Ok, where was I?" Ben asked, turning back to Cassie and Jolee.
Mindy hopped out of the pool and walked over towards the hot tub, sliding in slowly as her body adjusted to the sudden heat.
"Hey, Mindy." Caitlin smiled and waved at the newcomer.
"Hey guys." She said, smiling at each of them. "I was getting tired of dodging around the little kids, and Craig said he was going to head up to his room for a bit." Mindy pointed towards Craig who was drying himself off as he started to gather his stuff up. David was about to respond as the man in the suit got close and interrupted the conversation before it could continue.
"Excuse me, David?" he said, his hands behind his back.
"Yeah?" David said, letting go of Caitlin and turning around to face the man.
"Is your group about ready to head out? I just received a call from your travel agency saying your bus would be arriving in half an hour, and to inform you they were going to be here early. When I contacted your room, someone named Mike told me you and some of your group had come here."
"The bus is going to be here in a half hour?!?" David hopped up onto his seat and looked at the man. "I'll let everyone know. We'll be ready." David said, stepping out of the hot tub.
"Alright, I'll leave it up to you then." the man bowed after he spoke.
"Thanks, I'll get everyone out there, you can count on it." David nodded his head. The man nodded back, turning around to leave the pool area. "Everbody!" David yelled, getting everyone's attention.
"What?" Amanda yelled back, looking annoyed.
"The bus is going to be here in half an hour! They bumped our time up! I want everyone to head upstairs, grab all of your things, and meet back up in the lobby." David looked around at everyone as he spoke. "And make sure everyone who isn't in here knows about this too! I know Mike and Zach are still upstairs, and I think Ally, Ryan, Nick, and Anora are getting something to eat. I'm not sure where my brother is, maybe he's talking to someone somewhere. I don't have any clue where Lanna, Haley, Hannuh, or Clarence are either. Jen, have you seen Chase?"
"I think he's still sleeping, the bum." Jen grumbled as much to herself as David.
"Well, anyways, make sure everyone knows and is downstairs when the bus gets here in a half-hour. Alright, get to it everybody!" David clapped his hands together as he finished. Everyone began to file out of the pool, grabbing their things as they headed towards the door.
"Nothing like being in a hurry!" Mindy laughed as she tried to dry off. Caitlin shoved David as she got out of the hot tub.
"You need to get moving too!" she said, smiling at him.
"Yeah, yeah, just wanted to make sure everyone got going." he said, kissing her on the cheek. John brushed by them, waving. They all followed him on their way out, Caitlin and David the last two out of the pool.
The lights in the room, reflected on the walls, slowed and began to look more placid as the thirty different members scurried about their rooms, grabbing everything they had brought with them, wanting to make sure that nothing was left behind.
Little did they know it, but there would be no coming back.