Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Tropical Revenge

Chapter 1: Bare Essentials

Whenever you bring up the topic of a vacation or a paradise resort, there is always that one event in my life that still brings both good but mostly bad memories to me.

Isla de Corales.

I've already made that one choice in my mind that any chance of me and my family going back to the resort is completely gone.

Seriously. Us, being on the front of their website? How freaking crazy is that?

Well, the last thing that I ever thought was that Mom would find a surefire way for us to revisit the resort.

Believe me; I thought that there was no chance of that ever happening.

Boy was I wrong!

Today, me and Rodrick were minding out own business, watching some TV, when Mom walked in all of a sudden carrying two oversized suitcases and set them down in front of us.

"Oh great. We're going someplace." Rodrick cursed under his breath.

"No just any place!" Mom said smiling. "I just heard from Aunt Gretchen that she is visiting Isla de Corales!"

"Yeah… like we even care?" Rodrick said.

"But the best part is…" Mom said.

Oh boy. For one thing, you can really expect that Mom would come up with something that would probably ruin another week or two of your life.

All I could really do was brace for what was to come.

"We are going to pay a visit to Isla de Corales again!" Mom exclaimed.

To be honest with you, it has been really hard to describe what I must've felt when I heard those words, but even though I tried to get defensive about it the best I can, it seemed like my efforts were in vain.

"But Mom! Didn't you see what was on their front page on their website? I used the Spanish translator on Google to decipher the message, and they clearly said that once we are spotted, contact them."

"Oh Greg. It's been only weeks. I'm sure they have moved on by now."

I looked at Rodrick, hoping he would help bail me out of this, but he just sulked. It seems like I have no choice.

"Now come on, these bags won't pack themselves. Let's go, go go!" she said, clapping her hands together.

"You mean like go right now?" Rodrick asked.

"Yes! We are going to the airport near the end of the week, so we better get going now!" Mom replied back.

"But it's only Monday!" I complained.

"And it's only a few days for us to pack. Now get packing!" Mom said, before leaving.

"Okay." I said once Mom was out of sight. "Now, Mom would probably lecture us in bringing only bare essentials again, so we have to think of the stuff that we really are going to use for sure." I said to Rodrick.

"Whatever you say," Rodrick smirked, before getting up and leaving the couch, dragging the suitcase with him, leaving me there shocked.

"Huh." I said to myself. "What's gotten into him?"

Once I was upstairs in my room, I started to put in the stuff that I would definitely use, such as new clothes, a stick of deodorant, my phone charger, and stuff like that.

Once I was done with that, I started to put in the stuff that I would reasonably and probably would use, like a pillow, extra socks, some cash for emergencies, and a bunch of other stuff.

After I was done with THAT, I started to fill in the last few empty spaces with stuff that I wouldn't mind using, although I was sure that they wouldn't qualify for Mom's standards as "bare essentials", which included, my phone, wait a second, okay, to me, that is a bare essential! But also headphones, and of course, some extra, extra socks.

"Done!" I said to myself proudly as I finished packing up the last item on the suitcase and then zipping it up. I hauled my suitcase down the stairs and plopped back down on the couch, where I could see Rodrick, relaxed also on the other side of the couch, his suitcase zipped it completely too.

"How long have you been here?" I asked him.

"Long enough to see you hauling your suitcase down the stairs in agony." He smirked, not looking away from the television.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure you packed the bare essentials?"

"If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be here." Rodrick replied back.

"Oh, okay!" I said, when Mom walked in a few seconds later, carrying Manny.

"Did you finish packing guys?" she asked.

"Yeah." I and Rodrick said in unison.

"Hmm… let me check." Mom said, before setting Manny down and unzipping my suitcase.

I slowly gulped. Let's just hope that she could at least give me a few exceptions to anything that might fall short of what you call, "Bare Essentials".

"Greg, pack some more clothes. We are staying longer than last time."

"What?" I asked, praying inside of me that I heard that differently.

"You heard me Greg. Pack more clothes!" she said.

"Fine." I muttered as I started to leave, but looked back when Mom opened Rodrick's suitcase.

"What is all this?!" Mom exclaimed.

"What? It's nothing personal." Rodrick said.

I walked back to see what he had in his suitcase, and at once, I nearly fell back in surprise.

Rodrick first of all, packed two whole bottles of cologne which i really didn't think was all that necessary. He also packed some tank tops and a black shirt that had a necklace around it with a fake golden dollar sign on the front.

There were also some black shades with black lenses, an oversized cloth to I'd assume polish the glasses. There was also a video camera inside, three packs of Icebreaker breath mints, and ripped pants that I was pretty sure he picked on purpose. The rest, I am not going to even continue because on behalf of my brother, it is actually pretty embarrassing.

"Rodrick Heffley! You go remove all of this junk this instant and repack again!" Mom exclaimed.

"Hey! It's not junk!" Rodrick exclaimed defensively back, before reluctantly pulling the suitcase with him to his bedroom again.

Though an instinct told me that he might still try to attempt to sneak in the dollar sign necklace again. I was quickly out of there before Mom would take another chance to scold me for standing around there.

"Great." I muttered to myself as I unzipped the suitcase back at my bedroom. "Now what?"

Just as I looked again at my suitcase, it all of a sudden hit me. Mom knew that I wasn't packing enough bare essentials, so she sent me back to replace some of them with more clothes!

I just shook my head as I started to remove the headphones, the pillow, and a bunch of other stuff, but when I was done, you could still be sure that I didn't take out a single sock!

Trust me, after my incident with one of my sock's flying from a hand dryer into a urinal was enough for me to ensure the fact that it doesn't happen again, and it will STAY that way.

After that, I headed back down, and this time I couldn't see Rodrick around. It has been a few minutes again, but I could already assume that with the items Rodrick had tried to pack, it was going to be a long day for him.

The days in the week passed by very quickly, and it wasn't long until Saturday, the day we leave for the Isla de Corales, arrived. I wish it wasn't so soon.

I could remember what I felt like that day when I woke up. I was really regretting on all the events that had happened recently, but it was time to focus on the present. It was almost 5:00 in the morning, but I forced me to wake up and open the door.

After I finished brushing my teeth, I headed downstairs where I could see Mom serving breakfast to Manny, Rodrick, and Dad.

"Oh there you are Greg. I was just about to finish serving breakfast and wake you up." Mom said as she served on my plate scrambled eyes, and two pancakes with a small amount of syrup. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yes Mom, I did." I sighed, sitting down on my chair.

"Don't worry son." Dad said. "I'm sure you will enjoy this visit this second time around."

"Enjoy? How can I enjoy living with Aunt Gretchen and her boys in Isla de Corales where we are pretty much about to be hunted down?" I asked.

After I finished my breakfast, I briefly rinsed my mouth to remove the syrup from my teeth, and then started to get my suitcase and get dressed. I dressed in some blue jeans, and a light winter jacket that is thankfully not as big and bulky as Mom's winter coat that she made me wore when I supposedly wore Dad's old leather jacket without her permission.

But in my defense, I was sure that it was for my own good at that time.

A few minutes later, after I finished getting changed, I could see Mom holding Manny, Rodrick carrying two suitcases, which I seldom actually felt pity for him. And Dad had an even bigger suitcase upright next to him, and he slapped on his watch.

"You ready Greg?" he asked.

"I wish I was." I muttered back as I rolled my suitcase from behind.

"Now remember Greg, we are going to have a great time at the resort! Just try to know that you are going to enjoy yourself." Mom said, as Dad opened the front door.

It didn't take long before we finished hauling our entire luggage into the trunk of our car, and I was on the backseat with Rodrick, and Manny.

"Hey Mom. Did you find out the reason why Aunt Gretchen and her boys are visiting Isla de Corales?" I asked.

"Oh, I think I know why." Mom replied back to me as the car started in ignition by Dad and it started to move.

"Really?" Rodrick asked.

"Yes. I think the reason why that Aunt Gretchen decides on staying at Isla de Corales for a while with her boys is probably to have them exposed to some relaxation and fun. She might think that once they get exposed to all of this long enough, her boys would stop getting so wild."

"That might actually work." I muttered to myself as we drove across the freeway a few minutes later after pondering to myself about it.

It was getting kinda quiet in the car, so I decided that now might be the time to have a bit of information into what Rodrick managed to snuck into his suitcase.

"So Rodrick. Any bare essentials you manage to bring with you?" I asked.

"Don't question about it." Rodrick said. "I could let you in on a little secret."

"Really?" I whispered.

"Something going on back there?" Mom asked.

"Oh, nothing!" me and Rodrick said again in unison, before Rodrick started to whisper to me.

"When I had my black suitcase, I found out in Dad's room that there is another suitcase that is similar in color and size to my suitcase. So I got the suitcase, put in shirts, socks, you name it inside. Then after that I showed it to Mom, and at the last second as we were ready to leave, I quickly grabbed my suitcase with all of my stuff in and there you go. I'm set to do business!"

"Business to do what?" I asked.

"None of your business." He muttered back.

"Huh… okay then." I shrugged.

After a few long more minutes passed, which nearly seemed like forever, Dad this time decided that we take the big multiple story garage near the airport that could fit probably hundreds of cars a story. That was actually pretty smart of him, and we managed to get all of our bags out.

"Well…" I gulped as me and the rest of my family headed inside the doorways after we finished walking down the garage. "Prepare for another heap of trouble."

And boy was I right about that.