December 22nd

Nina's POV

I sat alone in the dining room, staring at my half eaten lunch. Classes had ended last week and everyone was packing for break. Well, everyone

except me. Gran couldn't afford the flight back from England, so I was stuck here for break.

"Nina what are you doing?" Amber, who had just walked into the room (carry at least five suitcases), asked me.

"Uh. Eating breakfast." I said.

"Why aren't you packing?!" Amber demanded.

"I told. I'm staying here for break." I said.

"Didn't you get my note?" Amber asked.

"Uh... no." I said, starting to get a bit confused.

"ALFIE!" Amber screamed.

Now I was completely lost.

Alfie scampered into the room.

"What's up Ambs?" He asked.

"You said you gave Nina the note." Amber yelled at him.

"Oh. Right." Alfie said, then started digging through his pockets before pulling out a crumpled envelope. He started to hand it me when, when

Amber let out a very annoyed sigh.

"I'll just tell her." Amber said to Alfie, obviously very annoyed, then turned to me.

"My dad bought a house in Thailand and he said I could bring some friends for the break. Everyone else is coming. You just have to come." She

said.

"Wait. Thailand? When are we leaving?" I asked.

"In 20 minutes." Amber said.

"But I don't have anything packed." I replied.

"Exactly. Go pack. Now. Or we'll miss the flight." She said.

I got up, leaving my lunch at the table, and went upstairs. I was still not entirely sure what had happened, but I did know I was not spending

Christmas alone.

I ran into my room, flung open my suitcase, and began throwing random clothes into it. I couldn't remember if Thailand was cold or not, so I

decided to pack everything. When I was finished, my suitcase resembled something between a bomb scene and Alfie's clothes hamper. I tried to

close it, but the zipper wouldn't budge.

"You need some help with that?"

I glanced up. Patricia was standing at the door with her bag.

"Uh yeah. Thanks." I said.

Patricia walked over to my bag.

"Ok. We can do this." She said.

After over five minutes of wrestling with the bag, we finally got it closed.

"COME ON EVERYONE! THE CAB IS HERE!" Amber screamed from downstairs.

I lugged my bag off my bed and dragged it downstairs.

The "cab" was more like a bus, which was good, as we still barely all fit. After a lot of cramming of bags figuring out how to fit two people to a seat,

we were off. I couldn't believe just 20 minutes ago my plan was to spend break alone at the House with no one for company except Corbiere.