Dear Mom and Dad,

Here's the postcard you told me

to send. Las Vegas is really fun.

Our hotel is cool. I'll see you

guys soon. Hope you're having

fun in Stoneybrook (ha ha).

Your son,

Alan

There. Mom and dad kept bugging me to send them a postcard, so there they go.

After I dropped that in the mailbox in the lobby, I went over to the buffet place for dinner. It's at our hotel and most of us SMS kids ate all our meals there. They have tons of food and it only costs $4.99. You wouldn't believe how much food Pete, Logan, Trevor, Rick, and I can eat.

None of the guys had gotten there when I arrived, so I looked for a place to sit. All I saw was all these old couples, some people dressed like Elvis (they are so dumb), this one couple dressed in wedding clothes, and those Baby-Sitters Club girls. I figured they were at least better than just sitting by myself.

"Dears," I said when I got to their table in a really great British accent, "I beseech thee, might I have a seat at yon table?"

"Beseech?" Claudia asked, looking confused.

"Just sit down, Alan." Kristy told me. The only seat left was on the end of their table, next to that sixth grader Mallory and across from Kristy. Mallory looked nervous when I sat down, and wrote down something her notebook that she was keeping in her lap. I glanced a quick peek at the book, and just saw one line that said "What if she's shipping drugs?!?!?!?!?" That girl is really weird.

Just about as weird as her was the get-up Claudia was wearing. Now, Claudia is pretty cute. She's one of the hottest girls in our grade. But she sure can come up with some strange clothing choices. Today she was wearing a man's gray suit. The jacket and pants were gray, and it had a white collared shirt and a blue tie. She was even wearing this gray hat with it (I think it's called a derby hat). Her earrings, usually the weirdest part of her outfits, were tiny old-fashioned microphones.

"That's some outfit, Claudia," I told her. I guess that sounded nice enough.

"It's an homage to the Rat Pack," she informed me.

"Well, you sure do look like a rat," I replied. She stuck out her tongue at me.

"I never saw Molly Ringwald dressed like that," Kristy pointed out.

"That's the Brat Pack, Kristy," Dawn snapped. "Claudia is dressed like the Rat Pack. You know, like Frank Sinatra?"

Before Dawn could begin lecturing us on this history of the Rat Pack or something, I decided to speak up.

"What are you lovely ladies up to this fine evening?" I asked.

"We were thinking of going to… what's it called again, Mary Anne?" Claudia asked.

Mary Anne, who had been talking to Stacey and Abby at the other end of the table, replied, "The Fremont Street Experience."

"Yeah, that. It's supposed to be really fresh." Claudia informed me.

"Why? Do you want to go or something?" Dawn asked me.

"Maybe I do," I answered. She was really getting on my nerves. "What is it?" I asked.

"It's a light show," Kristy told me.

"Pete and I were thinking of going over to the Star Trek thing at the Hilton," I told them.

"That sounds pretty cool," Claudia said after thinking about it for a minute. "Mind if I come?" she asked.

"Me too!" Dawn spoke up. "I went on a tour of the Paramount Studios once in California and I got to see the sets from one of the Star Trek shows."

Oh, yeah. This was going to be a great night.

So, Pete, Claudia, Dawn, and I, hopped on a bus from our hotel and headed down to the Las Vegas Hilton. I tried to get Logan to go, but he wanted to try and talk to Mary Anne, so he went with all those girls to that light thing. So it was just us four. Like the worst double date ever.

Well, it wasn't that bad. The place we went is pretty cool.

It's called Star Trek: The Experience. Now, I've never been much of a Trekkie or whatever it's called, but I've seen the show a few times. Pete knows a little more about it than I do, so he was the one who had suggested it. Claudia seemed more like me, she just thought the place sounded fun, and Dawn just kept talking about the real sets in California.

We got off the bus and went through the lobby and down into The Experience. I wished we hadn't eaten dinner just before, because there was a really cool restaurant called Quark's Bar & Restaurant.

"Oo, let's go get dessert there!" Claudia exclaimed.

"Ew! It's probably all processed sugars and artificial colorings!" Dawn told her.

"Mmmm… artificial colorings…" Claudia said. Sometimes she's pretty cool.

"How about after we do the two rides?" Pete suggested.

We passed by a huge souvenir shop as we headed to the ticket booth. We had to distract Claudia from that so she would go on and get her ticket and go on the rides. I wanted to go in the store later, anyway, it had some really cool daggers and swords and stuff.

The Experience has two rides. One's called Klingon Encounter, and it's a simulator ride where you're fighting the Klingons or something. Then there's this really cool sounding one called Borg Invasion 4D. The Borg are some kind of robots or something. Pete tried to explain them, but I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, this one's more of an attraction than a ride. There's a movie part to it, and these real actors are in it who try to capture you.

We all got our tickets and went on Klingon Encounter first. While we were in line, Dawn kept talking about how some guy who was the brother of a guy she goes to school with played a Klingon in one of the movies. Finally, it was our turn to get on.

The ride was awesome. It was all a simulator, but it was really cool. There were all these fights and stuff, and we got to be "transported" on the ship. I was hoping to myself that Dawn wouldn't explain to us how the show did the special effects for the transporting once the ride was over.

After that one, we headed straight over to Borg Invasion 4D. It's supposed to be even better than the Klingon thing, and considering how good Klingon Encounter was, that's saying a heck of a lot.

"These Star Trek people dress so funky," Claudia said as we waited in line.

"What, those red-and-black uniforms?" I asked, talking about the ones that over half the people there were wearing. They looked kind of dorky to me.

"Yeah! But not just those. They have lots of cool jewelry, too. And their hairstyles are so fresh," she told us. Pete and I just nodded. Dawn was talking to this couple in line behind us about when she saw some Star Trek actor at the mall one time.

We finally got in and everything we'd heard was right. It was even better than Klingon Encounter. These real Borg guys were actually in there, kidnapping us and everything! Claudia kept grabbing my arm and screaming all throughout it. This would've been kind of cool if she wasn't still wearing that suit.

"Ok, time for some ice cream!" Claudia shouted as we left the ride.

"Ugh. Really? Wouldn't you rather-" Dawn started.

"No!" Pete and I exclaimed before she could suggest anything else.

We got a table in the bar area of the restaurant and Pete, Claudia, and I all ordered sodas and large sundaes. Dawn ordered an orange juice, then asked the waitress what she could order that hadn't been slaughtered and didn't contain anything artificial. She finally ended up with veggie sticks and dip.

While we ate, Claudia told us all the story about how she'd been caught in the casino with a fake id. The security guard ended up contacting the chaperones, and they called her parents.

"So, when we get back, I have to write an essay about what I've learned from all of this. Plus I'm totally grounded." She concluded.

"That's not so bad," Pete said, reassuringly. "At least they didn't arrest you or anything. And at least the teachers didn't try to ground you to the hotel."

"I can't believe they didn't," Dawn added.

We finished up our sundaes (Dawn finished her veggie sticks and mentioned how she felt better and had more energy now), paid our bill, and left the restaurant.

Claudia made a beeline for the souvenir shop and we, of course, followed. Pete and I picked up these big Klingon sword things and started fighting with them. I wish I could've bought one, but there was no way I could have gotten it on the plane. They sure were cool.

"Look at all these cool things!" Claudia exclaimed, pulling us over to a jewelry counter. Most everything there was those pins that the Star Trek guys wear. There were also some necklaces and earrings with different Star Trek things on them. Claudia looked like she was in heaven checking out everything.

When we finally left, Claudia had a bagful of those pins, plus a couple necklaces and pairs of earrings. Dawn bought some kind of toy for her brother, and Pete and I left empty-handed, but wishing we'd gotten the swords.

You know, swords or not, and even despite Dawn's ramblings, this was turning out to be a pretty cool trip.