Author's Notes: Howdy do? Here's part two of the Quebec trip! Trust me, it gets better, I know bus rides aren't exactly fun.
Quebec: Day One
Part Two: Ruined Romance
Tai's POV:
I opened the door to my hotel room and looked around. A bathroom complete with a shower and a bath to the left, two double beds for sleeping, a closet, and a television! But wait, we were in Quebec, wouldn't all the channels be in French?
"Move out of the way, Tai!" ordered Matt, pushing past me into the room. "Anyone gonna use the bathroom? No? Good."
He set down his bag, pulled out some gel, and locked himself in the bathroom. I rolled my eyes. What was he getting all prepped up for? We were only going to a pizza parlour.
"Hey Matt, what's the occasion?" I called through the door.
"We're going out for dinner!" he shouted back. "I gotta look good for my girl! Besides, I just spent several hours on a tourbus, I need to regell my hair."
"His girl?" Joe said, raising his eyebrows. "Who could he possibly be talking about?"
I laughed, sitting down on the bed closest to the door. His girl? He didn't mean Melissa did he? The one who didn't want to sit next to him? Ha! But then again, she had fallen asleep, resting on his shoulder... but the two of them? Nah! Matt was wasting his time. Now Sora... there's a fine girl...
"Okay, who's gonna sleep where?" asked Izzy, surveying the beds.
An idea came to me. While Matt was prepping himself in the bathroom, we could quickly decide the sleeping arrangements. "Okay Izzy, you and Joe can share the far bed. I'll take this one."
"Okay, so Joe and I will get this bed," Izzy said, "and Tai and Matt will take the other one closest to the door."
"No, no, no!" I said. "You've got it all wrong! Matt can have the floor for all I care! This bed is all mine!" A thought then floated across my mind. "Unless Sora wanted to share it... yeah..."
"Tai..." Joe said, waving his hand in front of my face. "Earth the Taichi Kamiya..." I snapped out of my wonderful daydream to look at Joe. "You're sharing the bed with Matt. It's not fair that you get an entire double bed to yourself."
"Whatever..." I said, dissmissing Joe with a wave of my hand. I glanced over at the clock. We had ten minutes until dinner. "What are we doing tonight?"
Izzy pulled out his letter with the schedule of what we were doing. "Well before hand, we take a walk past the Carnival. The we head over to the pizza parlour for dinner. Afterwards we go tobogganing and come back here to the hotel for the night."
"Okay," I said, going through my suitcase. "Let's see... I'll need my snowpants... gloves... disposable camera..." I began to get dressed, pulling on my winter stuff. I had my headband with my goggles to keep my ears warm. Izzy and Joe began gathering up their stuff. Matt finally came out of the bathroom. I decided to tell him the sleeping arrangements later.
* * *
My POV:
"We're going tobogganing, right?" I asked my room mates. They nodded. "Okay, I'm bringing my ski goggles. They could come in handy going down the hill."
I glanced at the clock. It was time to head down to the lobby. I headed downstairs, accompanied by my room mates. We stopped off at the other group of girl's room. They were waiting for Jacqueline. Marry had stolen her scarf and wouldn't give it back. Finally, we managed to return Jacquie her scarf and headed downstairs. Some of the guys were already there.
"I want to get a chance to practise my french," Mimi whined. "Everyone we've met so far speaks English!"
"Hey maybe while we're walking to the restaurant we'll get our chance," suggested Marry. "We can talk to someone on the way there."
"Like say 'bonjour' and stuff," agreed Joanna. "Yeah, we'll get our chance."
Our tour guide then came and we began our walk into and through downtown Quebec. It was fairly cold outside, but luckily I was dressed appropriately for the weather. The snow was so deep! It was exhausting work trying to walk through the knee deep snow. We took a turn down a street and began to climb a steep hill. The snow was packed down but covered in a sheet of ice. I slipped and fell backwards. Luckliy, Matt was behind me. He caught me in his arms but slipped on the ice too and we tumbled back into the deep snow. Tai walked by with Sora, laughing. Matt's face went red, partially from anger, partially from embarassment. He stood up, grabbing a handfull of snow in his gloved hand. He launched it at Tai, hitting him in the back of the head. Tai turned around to face Matt who was laughing. Sora giggled. Tai reached down to pick up some snow too, but Mr. Prugo was there.
"You'll get your chance to kill each other later," he said. "But not now, come on. You don't want to get left behind."
"Yeah, you two!" I luaghed, running ahead to catch up with my friends. "Don't want to get left behind!"
I caught up to Marry who was muttering to herself. Mimi was nodding fervently, her arms folded across her chest.
"What's up with them?" I asked Tanya.
"Some guy threw snow at them," she answered.
"He was so rude!" puffed Mimi. "It's not like we said anything mean!"
"What did you say?" I asked.
"We simply said 'bonjour!'" Marry said. "And the guys picked up the snow and threw it in our faces!"
"Well maybe some pizza will cheer you up," Joe said, "because here we are!"
We all crowded into the pizza parlour. Our school had reserved the whole lower level of the pizzaria. The tour guides sat people down at the tables. I sat at a table for four along with Jacqueline. We were shortly joined by Arthur and Tai. At the table behind me sat Jeff, along with Dave, Matt, and Izzy. To my left sat Amahl, Jason, Alex(aka Horky) and Mike. I pulled out my camera.
"You know, I bet I can get some good pictures for the school yearbook," I said, looking around. "I just wonder if we're allowed to take any in here."
"I don't think so," Jeff said, leaning over in his chair by Jacqueline.
"I'm hungry," Arthur grumbled.
"Same here," Amahl nodded.
"You two are always hungry!" laughed Jacqueline. "No surprise there."
A waiter came around and gave us all cokes. I took a sip and sat back, looking at my silverware. I began to fiddle around with my fork. Arthur picked up his fork and knife and began banging them on the table, chanting "forks and knives, forks and knives..." Tai soon joined in.
"You two are truely demented," sighed Izzy.
"Ack!" cried out Jason. I looked. Amahl had grabbed his knife and was holding it menacingly at Jason who was inching away from him. Arthur laughed and held up his knife, cutting off Jason's escape route. "They're trying to stab me!"
"They're butter knives," Mike said, "they can't cut through anything."
"Settle down over there!" called Mr. Furtado. We immediately shut up, waiting for our pizza.
It soon arrived. Half our plates were pizza, salad on the other half. Arthur picked up his pizza and took a bite.
"Tastes okay," he said.
Tai and Arthur picked up the pizza and shoved it into their mouths. Seeing my oppurtunity, I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture.(I still have that photo!) The flash went off. Tai and Arthur sat there, blinking blankly at me from being caught off guard.
"Jeff, put the camera away," ordered Mr. Prugo. "This isn't the place to take pictures."
"But I-" Jeff began.
"Now!" ordered Mr. Furtado.
We began to laugh at Jeff. I stuffed the camera into my pocket. Jeff looked at me then turned back to Mr. Prugo. Jeff opened his mouth to say something but Matt clamped his hand over Jeff's mouth.
"Don't you dare say a word!" he hissed. "I mean it! Or else I'll-"
"Yeah, Jeff," I added. "Don't open your mouth!"
Jeff went back to eating his dinner. I put the camera away for the rest of dinner. Nothing much happened until after dinner, when our brownie dessert had arrived. Horky started laughing at Amahl.
"Watch what he can do with his glass!" he laughed. "Show them, Amahl!"
We watched as Amahl picked up his empty glass and stuffed it into his mouth. We were silent for a minute, shocked that he could fit such a large glass into his mouth. Then we began to laugh hysterically. It was too funny! We were quickly silenced as the tour guides called for attention.
"Due to the amount of snow outside and the current weather forecast, they've closed the toboggan run," they announced. "Now they should have it open for tomorrow, so we're going to bump up our plans. We're going on a tour of Old Quebec now instead of tomorrow evening. Hopefully the runs will be open tomorrow and we can go then."
Tobogganing was cancelled? Aw man! That really sucked, but the tour was an amazing one! We put on our coats and left the pizza parlour, heading towards the old half of Quebec City by the Chateau Frontenac. We walked down a narrow street, our tour guide giving us historical information on the different sights. I wasn't paying any attention as to what she was saying, we weren't being tested on this so who cared? Besides, I was much more interested in all the lovely sights.
Our group walked down what was called "Artist's Lane" or something along those lines. It was a very romantic area. A little narrow alley where apparently during the day you can purchase several paintings from artists, who go there to sell their work. We then came to the Chateau Frontenac, the pride of Quebec City and one of the most expenisive hotels in the world. It towered over the St. Lawrence River, keeping watch over Old Quebec City. I took a few pictures of the castle and then moved on to look at the river. I could see the lights of the city across the river glowing in the darkness. Snow fell lightly over everything, adding to the scene.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Matt, standing beside me and gazing out at the river.
"Yeah," I nodded, watching Marry wink at me and walk away. "Sure, I guess..."
Matt looked at me. "I need to tell you something really important. I'm-" He was cut off as a snowball hit him in the face. He turned to face Tai who was laughing and holding a ball of snow.
"Gotcha back!" laughed Tai, running off. Growling, Matt gave chase and dissappeared in the crowd of students that were heading back towards the hotel. Sighing deeply and shaking my head, I joined up with Lilian and the others, wondering what Matt had wanted to tell me.
We trudged through the deep snow past the Carnival again. We glanced at the large ice sculptures and the beautifully lighted ice castle. Our tour guide and teachers led us to a giant snowy field. We were told we were standing on the Plains of Abraham, the sight of the battle for Quebec(Izzy's Note: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was fought between the French and the English for control over Quebec. The English launched a sneak attack against the French and were better prepared for the battle by cutting off France's shipping to Quebec so the French were unable to seek reinforcements and ammunition. It was a short battle and Quebec quickly fell to the British.). I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I saw Amahl tackle Jeff into the deep snow. Mrs. Gal picked up a handful of snow and threw it at Mr. Furtado. A snowball fight! We were actually allowed to have a snowball fight! I caught sight of Tai throwing another snowball at Matt who chased him threw the deep snow. I looked at Marry and Jacqueline who suddenly jumped me, knocking my down into the snow.
"You asked for it!" I cried, getting to my feet and making a snowball. I threw it, missing the two girls but hitting Jeff in the head. "Oops!"
He rushed at me, trying to knock me into the snow. We grappled for a minute until Amahl barreled into the two of us, knocking us both down. Tai and Matt came running by. Matt lunged at Tai, tackling him into the snow. Matt stood up and put a foot on Tai's back, raising his arms in triumph. I climbed up onto a snowbank and jumped down, landing on Matt who landed sprawled out on his stomach. Jeff took my idea and was prepared to attack Amahl from above. That's when Arthur came up behind him and checked Jeff. Jeff tumbled and rolled down the hill, landing dazed at the bottom. Amahl saw Jeff and grabbing a handful of snow, shoved it in Jeff's face. A little ways away from the carnage and chaos, Marry and a few of the others were burying Mimi in the snow. I laughed. Even the teachers were taking down the students! That's when Ms. Falcicchio pushed me, causing me to trip over Matt. I landed hard on my back, laughing.
Later the teachers managed to calm us down and restore order. We then organized a giant game of Red Rover. It didn't exactly work. Joe was called. He ran but the snow was so deep, he tripped and landed face first on the ground. The same went for everyone else who was called, except Mr. Furtado. He ran full force through my team but didn't make it through. The result? The whole team was pulled down by his attempt!
* * *
Matt's POV:
We finally returned to the hotel. We ran upstairs and into our rooms. There were still two hours before lights out, so we were allowed to walk around and visit each other. I decided to pay Melissa a visit. I still needed to tell her something. As I headed towards her room, I saw the teachers sitting in a circle in the hallway. They were gambling, using food as the money!
"I thought gambling wasn't allowed," I said to Mrs. Gal.
"We're not gambling," she replied. "We're just having a friendly game of cards!"
*Sure you are,* I thought to myself. *Of course...* I walked down the hallway and found Melissa's room. The door was wide open so I walked inside. Sora was sitting on one of the beds, watching TV.
"Hey, Sora, is Melissa here?" I asked her.
"No, Matt, sorry," she answered, shaking her head. "I think her and Lilian went over to visit the other girls."
"Okay, thanks," I sighed and left. I walked back down the hall and found Marry's room. The door was open a little ways. I opened it up. "Anyone home?"
Joanna quickly shut the door in my face. "Go away, Matt!"
"What did I do?" I asked.
"You can't come in right now," Joanna replied through the door. "Unless you're a perv!"
"Fine, I'll stay out!" I called through the door. "Could you just tell me where Melissa is?"
Joanna opened the door just enough so I could see her but the room was not visible. "She's gone to get ice with Jeff. The two of them went...ALONE...teehee..."
I rolled my eyes and went down the hall towards the ice machine. I saw Lilian in her pyjamas at the pop machine getting a coke. She told me Melissa and Jeff were at the ice machine. She giggled shyly and headed off to her room. I came to the ice machine. Jeff was standing there holding a bucket of ice, talking to Melissa who was filling hers up.
"Hi, Melis," I greeted, walking up to the two of them. "Hi Jeff. Anyways, I've been looking for you."
"Well you found me," she replied, not looking up. "Did you want something?"
"Yeah, um...I uh...I didn't get to finish telling you what I wanted to at the Chateau Frontenac..."
"Yeah, well I'm listening," she said. "You can tell me on the way back to my room. I have to bring back the ice and then phone my parents." She began walking back to the rooms. I followed.
"Well, uh...gee...how do I say this? I um...er...uh...I uh..."
"Tongue tied?" she smiled, handing Mimi the bucket of ice. She then went through her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone card. I'm sure it can't be that hard to voice."
"I just wanted to tell you I'm-"
"Gambling?" Melissa had stopped in front of the teacher's card game. "Ms. Falcicchio, I never would have guessed."
"Melissa, will you listen to me?" I cried, grabbing her wrist as she walked down the hall towards the phones. "This is important!"
"What?" she sighed, yanking her hand out of my grasp. "What is so important that you can't just tell me? Spit it out already!" She tapped her foot impatiently.
"You know what? Forget it!" I cried. "Forget I had to tell you anything, okay? I'm going back to my room!"
"Fine!" she said, and turned her back on me, walking to the phones.
I fished a quarter out of my pocket and stared at it. I guess I should call my dad too. But wait! He'd probably be over at my mom's for the family get together that I missing because of the trip. I guess I'd call my mom's house then. I walked over and picked up the phone next to Melissa. She looked at me and turned her back to me, clearly ignoring my presence. I put in the quarter and dialed my mom's number. TK answered the phone.
"Takaishi residence, can I help you?"
"Hi TK! It's me--Matt!" I greeted.
"Hi Matt! You at the hotel?"
"Yup! I just got back from dinner. We had pizza and then a snowball fight!"
"Sounds like fun," he said. He sounded dissappointed. "I wish I could be there..."
"Hey, cheer up, little bro! I mean it's not all that great. We have to share beds."
"With other guys or with girls?"
"Other boys of course!" I laughed. "Tell you what. I'll take lots of pictures to show you and I'll even bring you back a souvenier."
"Wow! Thanks, Matt!" TK exclaimed. "I'll tell Mom and Dad you called, okay?"
"Sure thing."
"Okay, bye Matt!"
"Goodnight, TK."
I hung up the phone and headed back to my room. I walked inside and flopped down onto the bed. Mr. Furtado came by telling us it was lights out. I pulled out my pyjamas and went into the bathroom to change. When I came out, Joe and Izzy were back. Tai came in shortly afterwards.
"So now we decide the sleeping arrangements," I said. "Anyone have any preferences?"
"Uh Matt, didn't Tai tell you?" Izzy asked. "We already decided where everyone was sleeping when we got here. You and Tai are sleeping in the bed by the door."
"Oh this isn't fair!" I protested. "I don't want to sleep with Tai!"
Tai began to laugh and crawled into bed. "Oh Yamato! There's room for one more!"
I crawled under the blankets, giving Tai a piercing death glare. He immediately stopped laughing. "You're soooooooo NOT funny."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I personally don't like this part. Of course the first day in Quebec wasn't that eventful. In the next part we go skiing and that's just... different. Hope you like!
Quebec: Day One
Part Two: Ruined Romance
Tai's POV:
I opened the door to my hotel room and looked around. A bathroom complete with a shower and a bath to the left, two double beds for sleeping, a closet, and a television! But wait, we were in Quebec, wouldn't all the channels be in French?
"Move out of the way, Tai!" ordered Matt, pushing past me into the room. "Anyone gonna use the bathroom? No? Good."
He set down his bag, pulled out some gel, and locked himself in the bathroom. I rolled my eyes. What was he getting all prepped up for? We were only going to a pizza parlour.
"Hey Matt, what's the occasion?" I called through the door.
"We're going out for dinner!" he shouted back. "I gotta look good for my girl! Besides, I just spent several hours on a tourbus, I need to regell my hair."
"His girl?" Joe said, raising his eyebrows. "Who could he possibly be talking about?"
I laughed, sitting down on the bed closest to the door. His girl? He didn't mean Melissa did he? The one who didn't want to sit next to him? Ha! But then again, she had fallen asleep, resting on his shoulder... but the two of them? Nah! Matt was wasting his time. Now Sora... there's a fine girl...
"Okay, who's gonna sleep where?" asked Izzy, surveying the beds.
An idea came to me. While Matt was prepping himself in the bathroom, we could quickly decide the sleeping arrangements. "Okay Izzy, you and Joe can share the far bed. I'll take this one."
"Okay, so Joe and I will get this bed," Izzy said, "and Tai and Matt will take the other one closest to the door."
"No, no, no!" I said. "You've got it all wrong! Matt can have the floor for all I care! This bed is all mine!" A thought then floated across my mind. "Unless Sora wanted to share it... yeah..."
"Tai..." Joe said, waving his hand in front of my face. "Earth the Taichi Kamiya..." I snapped out of my wonderful daydream to look at Joe. "You're sharing the bed with Matt. It's not fair that you get an entire double bed to yourself."
"Whatever..." I said, dissmissing Joe with a wave of my hand. I glanced over at the clock. We had ten minutes until dinner. "What are we doing tonight?"
Izzy pulled out his letter with the schedule of what we were doing. "Well before hand, we take a walk past the Carnival. The we head over to the pizza parlour for dinner. Afterwards we go tobogganing and come back here to the hotel for the night."
"Okay," I said, going through my suitcase. "Let's see... I'll need my snowpants... gloves... disposable camera..." I began to get dressed, pulling on my winter stuff. I had my headband with my goggles to keep my ears warm. Izzy and Joe began gathering up their stuff. Matt finally came out of the bathroom. I decided to tell him the sleeping arrangements later.
* * *
My POV:
"We're going tobogganing, right?" I asked my room mates. They nodded. "Okay, I'm bringing my ski goggles. They could come in handy going down the hill."
I glanced at the clock. It was time to head down to the lobby. I headed downstairs, accompanied by my room mates. We stopped off at the other group of girl's room. They were waiting for Jacqueline. Marry had stolen her scarf and wouldn't give it back. Finally, we managed to return Jacquie her scarf and headed downstairs. Some of the guys were already there.
"I want to get a chance to practise my french," Mimi whined. "Everyone we've met so far speaks English!"
"Hey maybe while we're walking to the restaurant we'll get our chance," suggested Marry. "We can talk to someone on the way there."
"Like say 'bonjour' and stuff," agreed Joanna. "Yeah, we'll get our chance."
Our tour guide then came and we began our walk into and through downtown Quebec. It was fairly cold outside, but luckily I was dressed appropriately for the weather. The snow was so deep! It was exhausting work trying to walk through the knee deep snow. We took a turn down a street and began to climb a steep hill. The snow was packed down but covered in a sheet of ice. I slipped and fell backwards. Luckliy, Matt was behind me. He caught me in his arms but slipped on the ice too and we tumbled back into the deep snow. Tai walked by with Sora, laughing. Matt's face went red, partially from anger, partially from embarassment. He stood up, grabbing a handfull of snow in his gloved hand. He launched it at Tai, hitting him in the back of the head. Tai turned around to face Matt who was laughing. Sora giggled. Tai reached down to pick up some snow too, but Mr. Prugo was there.
"You'll get your chance to kill each other later," he said. "But not now, come on. You don't want to get left behind."
"Yeah, you two!" I luaghed, running ahead to catch up with my friends. "Don't want to get left behind!"
I caught up to Marry who was muttering to herself. Mimi was nodding fervently, her arms folded across her chest.
"What's up with them?" I asked Tanya.
"Some guy threw snow at them," she answered.
"He was so rude!" puffed Mimi. "It's not like we said anything mean!"
"What did you say?" I asked.
"We simply said 'bonjour!'" Marry said. "And the guys picked up the snow and threw it in our faces!"
"Well maybe some pizza will cheer you up," Joe said, "because here we are!"
We all crowded into the pizza parlour. Our school had reserved the whole lower level of the pizzaria. The tour guides sat people down at the tables. I sat at a table for four along with Jacqueline. We were shortly joined by Arthur and Tai. At the table behind me sat Jeff, along with Dave, Matt, and Izzy. To my left sat Amahl, Jason, Alex(aka Horky) and Mike. I pulled out my camera.
"You know, I bet I can get some good pictures for the school yearbook," I said, looking around. "I just wonder if we're allowed to take any in here."
"I don't think so," Jeff said, leaning over in his chair by Jacqueline.
"I'm hungry," Arthur grumbled.
"Same here," Amahl nodded.
"You two are always hungry!" laughed Jacqueline. "No surprise there."
A waiter came around and gave us all cokes. I took a sip and sat back, looking at my silverware. I began to fiddle around with my fork. Arthur picked up his fork and knife and began banging them on the table, chanting "forks and knives, forks and knives..." Tai soon joined in.
"You two are truely demented," sighed Izzy.
"Ack!" cried out Jason. I looked. Amahl had grabbed his knife and was holding it menacingly at Jason who was inching away from him. Arthur laughed and held up his knife, cutting off Jason's escape route. "They're trying to stab me!"
"They're butter knives," Mike said, "they can't cut through anything."
"Settle down over there!" called Mr. Furtado. We immediately shut up, waiting for our pizza.
It soon arrived. Half our plates were pizza, salad on the other half. Arthur picked up his pizza and took a bite.
"Tastes okay," he said.
Tai and Arthur picked up the pizza and shoved it into their mouths. Seeing my oppurtunity, I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture.(I still have that photo!) The flash went off. Tai and Arthur sat there, blinking blankly at me from being caught off guard.
"Jeff, put the camera away," ordered Mr. Prugo. "This isn't the place to take pictures."
"But I-" Jeff began.
"Now!" ordered Mr. Furtado.
We began to laugh at Jeff. I stuffed the camera into my pocket. Jeff looked at me then turned back to Mr. Prugo. Jeff opened his mouth to say something but Matt clamped his hand over Jeff's mouth.
"Don't you dare say a word!" he hissed. "I mean it! Or else I'll-"
"Yeah, Jeff," I added. "Don't open your mouth!"
Jeff went back to eating his dinner. I put the camera away for the rest of dinner. Nothing much happened until after dinner, when our brownie dessert had arrived. Horky started laughing at Amahl.
"Watch what he can do with his glass!" he laughed. "Show them, Amahl!"
We watched as Amahl picked up his empty glass and stuffed it into his mouth. We were silent for a minute, shocked that he could fit such a large glass into his mouth. Then we began to laugh hysterically. It was too funny! We were quickly silenced as the tour guides called for attention.
"Due to the amount of snow outside and the current weather forecast, they've closed the toboggan run," they announced. "Now they should have it open for tomorrow, so we're going to bump up our plans. We're going on a tour of Old Quebec now instead of tomorrow evening. Hopefully the runs will be open tomorrow and we can go then."
Tobogganing was cancelled? Aw man! That really sucked, but the tour was an amazing one! We put on our coats and left the pizza parlour, heading towards the old half of Quebec City by the Chateau Frontenac. We walked down a narrow street, our tour guide giving us historical information on the different sights. I wasn't paying any attention as to what she was saying, we weren't being tested on this so who cared? Besides, I was much more interested in all the lovely sights.
Our group walked down what was called "Artist's Lane" or something along those lines. It was a very romantic area. A little narrow alley where apparently during the day you can purchase several paintings from artists, who go there to sell their work. We then came to the Chateau Frontenac, the pride of Quebec City and one of the most expenisive hotels in the world. It towered over the St. Lawrence River, keeping watch over Old Quebec City. I took a few pictures of the castle and then moved on to look at the river. I could see the lights of the city across the river glowing in the darkness. Snow fell lightly over everything, adding to the scene.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Matt, standing beside me and gazing out at the river.
"Yeah," I nodded, watching Marry wink at me and walk away. "Sure, I guess..."
Matt looked at me. "I need to tell you something really important. I'm-" He was cut off as a snowball hit him in the face. He turned to face Tai who was laughing and holding a ball of snow.
"Gotcha back!" laughed Tai, running off. Growling, Matt gave chase and dissappeared in the crowd of students that were heading back towards the hotel. Sighing deeply and shaking my head, I joined up with Lilian and the others, wondering what Matt had wanted to tell me.
We trudged through the deep snow past the Carnival again. We glanced at the large ice sculptures and the beautifully lighted ice castle. Our tour guide and teachers led us to a giant snowy field. We were told we were standing on the Plains of Abraham, the sight of the battle for Quebec(Izzy's Note: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was fought between the French and the English for control over Quebec. The English launched a sneak attack against the French and were better prepared for the battle by cutting off France's shipping to Quebec so the French were unable to seek reinforcements and ammunition. It was a short battle and Quebec quickly fell to the British.). I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I saw Amahl tackle Jeff into the deep snow. Mrs. Gal picked up a handful of snow and threw it at Mr. Furtado. A snowball fight! We were actually allowed to have a snowball fight! I caught sight of Tai throwing another snowball at Matt who chased him threw the deep snow. I looked at Marry and Jacqueline who suddenly jumped me, knocking my down into the snow.
"You asked for it!" I cried, getting to my feet and making a snowball. I threw it, missing the two girls but hitting Jeff in the head. "Oops!"
He rushed at me, trying to knock me into the snow. We grappled for a minute until Amahl barreled into the two of us, knocking us both down. Tai and Matt came running by. Matt lunged at Tai, tackling him into the snow. Matt stood up and put a foot on Tai's back, raising his arms in triumph. I climbed up onto a snowbank and jumped down, landing on Matt who landed sprawled out on his stomach. Jeff took my idea and was prepared to attack Amahl from above. That's when Arthur came up behind him and checked Jeff. Jeff tumbled and rolled down the hill, landing dazed at the bottom. Amahl saw Jeff and grabbing a handful of snow, shoved it in Jeff's face. A little ways away from the carnage and chaos, Marry and a few of the others were burying Mimi in the snow. I laughed. Even the teachers were taking down the students! That's when Ms. Falcicchio pushed me, causing me to trip over Matt. I landed hard on my back, laughing.
Later the teachers managed to calm us down and restore order. We then organized a giant game of Red Rover. It didn't exactly work. Joe was called. He ran but the snow was so deep, he tripped and landed face first on the ground. The same went for everyone else who was called, except Mr. Furtado. He ran full force through my team but didn't make it through. The result? The whole team was pulled down by his attempt!
* * *
Matt's POV:
We finally returned to the hotel. We ran upstairs and into our rooms. There were still two hours before lights out, so we were allowed to walk around and visit each other. I decided to pay Melissa a visit. I still needed to tell her something. As I headed towards her room, I saw the teachers sitting in a circle in the hallway. They were gambling, using food as the money!
"I thought gambling wasn't allowed," I said to Mrs. Gal.
"We're not gambling," she replied. "We're just having a friendly game of cards!"
*Sure you are,* I thought to myself. *Of course...* I walked down the hallway and found Melissa's room. The door was wide open so I walked inside. Sora was sitting on one of the beds, watching TV.
"Hey, Sora, is Melissa here?" I asked her.
"No, Matt, sorry," she answered, shaking her head. "I think her and Lilian went over to visit the other girls."
"Okay, thanks," I sighed and left. I walked back down the hall and found Marry's room. The door was open a little ways. I opened it up. "Anyone home?"
Joanna quickly shut the door in my face. "Go away, Matt!"
"What did I do?" I asked.
"You can't come in right now," Joanna replied through the door. "Unless you're a perv!"
"Fine, I'll stay out!" I called through the door. "Could you just tell me where Melissa is?"
Joanna opened the door just enough so I could see her but the room was not visible. "She's gone to get ice with Jeff. The two of them went...ALONE...teehee..."
I rolled my eyes and went down the hall towards the ice machine. I saw Lilian in her pyjamas at the pop machine getting a coke. She told me Melissa and Jeff were at the ice machine. She giggled shyly and headed off to her room. I came to the ice machine. Jeff was standing there holding a bucket of ice, talking to Melissa who was filling hers up.
"Hi, Melis," I greeted, walking up to the two of them. "Hi Jeff. Anyways, I've been looking for you."
"Well you found me," she replied, not looking up. "Did you want something?"
"Yeah, um...I uh...I didn't get to finish telling you what I wanted to at the Chateau Frontenac..."
"Yeah, well I'm listening," she said. "You can tell me on the way back to my room. I have to bring back the ice and then phone my parents." She began walking back to the rooms. I followed.
"Well, uh...gee...how do I say this? I um...er...uh...I uh..."
"Tongue tied?" she smiled, handing Mimi the bucket of ice. She then went through her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone card. I'm sure it can't be that hard to voice."
"I just wanted to tell you I'm-"
"Gambling?" Melissa had stopped in front of the teacher's card game. "Ms. Falcicchio, I never would have guessed."
"Melissa, will you listen to me?" I cried, grabbing her wrist as she walked down the hall towards the phones. "This is important!"
"What?" she sighed, yanking her hand out of my grasp. "What is so important that you can't just tell me? Spit it out already!" She tapped her foot impatiently.
"You know what? Forget it!" I cried. "Forget I had to tell you anything, okay? I'm going back to my room!"
"Fine!" she said, and turned her back on me, walking to the phones.
I fished a quarter out of my pocket and stared at it. I guess I should call my dad too. But wait! He'd probably be over at my mom's for the family get together that I missing because of the trip. I guess I'd call my mom's house then. I walked over and picked up the phone next to Melissa. She looked at me and turned her back to me, clearly ignoring my presence. I put in the quarter and dialed my mom's number. TK answered the phone.
"Takaishi residence, can I help you?"
"Hi TK! It's me--Matt!" I greeted.
"Hi Matt! You at the hotel?"
"Yup! I just got back from dinner. We had pizza and then a snowball fight!"
"Sounds like fun," he said. He sounded dissappointed. "I wish I could be there..."
"Hey, cheer up, little bro! I mean it's not all that great. We have to share beds."
"With other guys or with girls?"
"Other boys of course!" I laughed. "Tell you what. I'll take lots of pictures to show you and I'll even bring you back a souvenier."
"Wow! Thanks, Matt!" TK exclaimed. "I'll tell Mom and Dad you called, okay?"
"Sure thing."
"Okay, bye Matt!"
"Goodnight, TK."
I hung up the phone and headed back to my room. I walked inside and flopped down onto the bed. Mr. Furtado came by telling us it was lights out. I pulled out my pyjamas and went into the bathroom to change. When I came out, Joe and Izzy were back. Tai came in shortly afterwards.
"So now we decide the sleeping arrangements," I said. "Anyone have any preferences?"
"Uh Matt, didn't Tai tell you?" Izzy asked. "We already decided where everyone was sleeping when we got here. You and Tai are sleeping in the bed by the door."
"Oh this isn't fair!" I protested. "I don't want to sleep with Tai!"
Tai began to laugh and crawled into bed. "Oh Yamato! There's room for one more!"
I crawled under the blankets, giving Tai a piercing death glare. He immediately stopped laughing. "You're soooooooo NOT funny."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I personally don't like this part. Of course the first day in Quebec wasn't that eventful. In the next part we go skiing and that's just... different. Hope you like!