No one would ever thought that because of an innocent, little prank, red and blue flashing lights of police cars would now be rushing to the hotel.
FLASHBACK:
Charlotte and Samantha stepped onto the charter buses, each carrying a small Jansport backpack. "OMG," Charlotte mumbled. "I can't believe we're not going to be in the same hotel room. Some eighth grade trip this'll be." Samantha noticed Charlotte's troubled face and she got a little confused. "But, don't you like Becky and whoever else it is you'll be rooming with?"
Charlotte looked up at Becky who was seated towards the back of the bus. She was biting her nails ferociously and her hair was tied in a ratty-looking ponytail. "Well, yeah…I guess… She's just not as fun as you." Charlotte smirked up at Samantha and together they sat down in two empty chairs by the front of the bus.
About twenty minutes into the ride, Samantha pulled off her Ipod earphones and turned to Charlotte. She gently nudged her shoulder. When Charlotte opened her eyes, she was looking at a huge grin plastered on Sam's face. "What's up with you?" Charlotte asked grudgingly, and Sam replied with an excited tone. "I think, to kick off our three day trip, we should pull a prank on Becky and Monica."
Charlotte thought for a second and then replied with a nod. A few minutes later, she got a brilliant idea. "You know what we should do, Sam?" Sam looked up from her Seventeen magazine and glanced at her intently. Knowing it was a sign to continue, Charlotte proceeded. "I think we should ransack the room. You know, mess it up a bit, and then pretend I didn't know what happened. This'll give me some acting experience for my school of the arts audition in a couple weeks." She finished with a wink.
Sam suddenly shut her magazine. "Totally!" She practically yelled, and the girls further planned the prank as they made their way down the highway.
Charlotte, Monica, and Becky lugged their suitcases towards room number 147. It was towards the back of the hotel, probably the furthest room from the lobby. Instead of complaining, the girls just thought about the calories they'd burn those couple nights.
When they pulled up to the door, Charlotte took out two room keys that were placed snuggly into an envelope the size of your palm. "Oh darn. There's only two. There, you guys have them, and I'll just stick with you." Monica smiled, and Becky nodded, her bun flopping up and down.
Monica slid her key through the door's lock. The little green light appeared and she tugged gently on the door handle. At once, Charlotte shoved her way through the door, practically pushing the two others out of the way. But it didn't matter because the room they were staying in was wonderful.
The walls of the room were a light brown; similar to a cup of coffee with way too much cream. There were pictures of white sand beaches, and the desk, armoire, and TV case were made of bamboo. The case was open and revealed a rather large flat screen TV. Charlotte gasped, perplexed that the school could have gotten this room for so cheap. It was utterly amazing.
Suddenly, Monica sprinted and jumped on one of the king-size looking beds. She sunk right in and shrieked. "You guys," she said between giggles, "This bed is Tempur-Pedic!" Becky followed her lead and jumped on the other bed, leaving Charlotte standing in the middle of the room. Quietly, she went into the bathroom.
The bathroom was rather large with a marble shower/tub, and a marble sink. The toilet was a dazzling, "too many white-strips" white, and the mirror that hung on the door seemed to be framed with gold leaf. Charlotte just stood where she was at. She had never even stayed in a hotel this nice.
Unexpectedly, the door of the hotel burst open, causing everyone to scream in terror. Samantha came in laughing. "Sorry about that." She said. "But you guys have to come see this! You know how our hotel is seventeen floors?" Monica and Becky nodded, their faces somewhat puzzled, whilst Samantha just smiled. "There's a glass elevator! You guys need to go check out! It is so rad!" Monica and Becky left the room, obviously wanting to see what all the fuss was about.
Samantha and Charlotte were left alone "OMG!" Charlotte whispered. "We should so do the prank." At once, the girls split up to destroy the room. Samantha scurried to the bathroom. She quickly pulled out her black eyeliner, and messily wrote I see you! She then turned the tub faucet to a steady "drip, drip, drip" and shut the shower curtain. After that, she turned the light on in the bathroom, and shut the door behind her. "Perfecto," she murmured, and made her way into the room.
"Whoah!" Samantha gasped. The sheets were torn off the bed, and strewn all over the floor and bamboo furniture. The pillows were out of their pillow cases, and several of the suitcases had been unzipped. Charlotte had even emptied out her backpack and had thrown everything all over the room. It looked amazingly destroyed.
The girls smiled at each other and started to make their way out, when something caught Charlotte's eye. The conjoining room door. Rapidly, she unlocked it and yanked it open. But instead of the other door being shut, it was wide open. "OMG!" Charlotte cried, but other than slamming her door shut, she cautiously walked inside the room.
The other family's room was almost identical to theirs. Except for two things; their room wasn't destroyed, and they had no luggage whatsoever. Nobody was staying in that room. As if reading her mind, Samantha came out from behind Charlotte and whispered; "No one's in here. We should leave these doors open and like put our stuff inside this room. It'll be so scary." Charlotte nodded. It would be perfect.
Together, Charlotte and Samantha threw one suitcase and two backpacks into the other room. They even emptied Monica's backpack on the other room's bed. Just the look of everything sent shivers down Charlotte's spine. It looked like they had been robbed.
Monica and Becky giggled while skipping to the door of the hotel. They saw Charlotte there tapping her foot impatiently. "Where have you guys been? You were on that elevator for so long! You left me in the room!" Charlotte complained in her best whiny voice. Monica and Becky looked at their feet. "Sorry," they mumbled. Charlotte appeared exasperated "Well, open the door, why don't you?!?" She snapped, and Becky quickly slid her key through the door. When she opened the door, she cried out in shock.
"Aaahh! OMG! OMG! Someone's robbed us!!" She yelled. And before you knew it, Monica was in the room starting to cry. Monica cautiously stepped around the room and noticed the conjoining door was open. "Oh….My…Gosh!" She shrieked, as she ran to fetch Charlotte and Becky who were still at the entrance gaping at the scene. "Th…th..the door to the r..r..room is open…. Our… st…st….stuff…is everywhere!" She was beginning to sob, and her hands were shaking. And in an instant, she pulled her Nokia phone out of her back pocket and called 911.
Charlotte hadn't seen Monica dial the police. In fact it wasn't for a minute until she heard her sobbing to someone on her phone. "Please! Please! We're on the first floor to the Marriot! We are so scared! Someone has been in our room! We don't where they're at!" In a moment, she started to calm down as if the person on the other line was coaxing her. She then pressed the END button, and spoke to the girls, "The police are on their way."
Charlotte's heart dropped, and she immediately left the room, waving her hand for the girls to follow. No one would ever thought that because of an innocent, little prank, red and blue flashing lights of police cars would now be rushing to the hotel. Why me? She was sobbing, until she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Charlotte, what's wrong? The police are on their way!"
Charlotte thought she was going to faint, but she regained herself when she saw their terrified eyes. "It..it…it….was j….j…just….a….prank," she managed to let out. She closed her eyes feeling so sick she wanted to die. Suddenly, everything was black and she couldn't hear any voices. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, though she heard several voices. She was on something that was rolling. Is this a gurney? She wondered.She had so many questions.
She heard a man's voice. "Well we got a call from this hotel. Some teenage girls saying they had been robbed. We got on the scene to find one girl laying there, and the other two of them crying their heads off. When we asked them what was wrong, they had said the girl laying there had pulled a prank on them, and now she wouldn't wake up. I swear, this is probably the worst one of these pranks we've ever had. I mean, why do these kids do it?"
Charlotte's eyes fluttered open, and she managed to whisper. "Um.. I'm really sorry. I had n…no i..i…idea that it would t….t…turn out like this. I'm so, so, s…s…sorry." She closed her eyes to hear the man's voice, more gentle this time. "You're parents are on their way. They'll be here in about an hour or so. You're from West Palm, right?" Charlotte nodded.
She knew it. She was being kicked off the trip all because of a stupid prank. It was her own fault. Her own fault for scaring two innocent friends into thinking they were robbed, and making them afraid they might be killed. She deserved it.
When Charlotte awoke, she was in her parents car. They were on the highway, and as she saw on one of the signs, they were heading back home. She pretended to be asleep, so she could think of ways to make up to the girls in which she had frightened enough to call the police.
