'This trip is stupid... no it's worse... it's.... stupider than stupid!' Serenity thought while cursing her limited vocabulary.
Here in Paris, France, it was freezing, smoggy, and just gave an overall sense of hostility. The people were snobby, the tourist joints were crowded, and the museum art should have been used as a gorilla tranquilizer.
Walking around the puddles of melting snow and avoiding the pigeons for fear of "stains", Serenity felt out of place and hated it. The school trip was turning out to be the WORST thing that had ever happened to her.
Her hotel room was cramped and housed a variety of rodents and roaches. The trips to the museums were boring and oddly redundant (once you've seen one naked sculpture, you've seen 'em all). Her friends were all on the trip to Spain (Spanish was widely popular at her school) and to make it worse, whenever she stopped to ask directions from a French native, they sniggered rudely at her barely recognizable French that was made even harder to understand with her heavy Japanese accent. It was enough to be patronized at home in both English and Japanese, but to be laughed at and ridiculed in a foreign country in a language she could barely understand was too much.
After all that effort used to convince her big brother to let her go on the trip, Serenity felt the heavy weight of disappointment and regret on her shoulders.
On the bright (or dimly lighted) side, for the next week, that creepy pervert Kaiba wouldn't be following her around trying to get her to go out with him. It was always so sad to see a grown man lower himself to such pathetic standards... as well as annoying. HOW many times would she have to reject him for the guy to get it through his thick skull that she would NEVER go out with him? For a person who was a millionaire due to his brilliant genius... he sure was an idiot.
Sighing (she had been doing that a lot during the trip) Serenity peered at her watch then looked around for her classmates. After waiting around for an estimated five minutes, she looked at her watch again. Noticing that the time had not changed since she had glanced at it a few moments ago, Serenity concluded that her bargain price watch had, in fact, died.
"SCREW!" she yelled, earning her over a dozen demeaning glares, before stalking off, looking for someone with a watch.
Her eyes fell upon a guy under the bridge right across the street from her. Looking both ways before crossing (those crazy French drivers had already attempted to murder her countless times); she hurried over to him and asked, in her best French, if he had the time.
"What? Best resort to plain English, your French is, at best, horrible." He responded, grinning at the shock on her face at his flawless English.
"You... but... how... and... oh never mind!" she replied, still flustered.
"Oh... I see your English isn't much better than your French... care to use hand signals?" he asked, openly mocking her confusion.
Getting angry (she had a short temper), Serenity gritted her teeth and answered, "I was going to ask you for the time... but since you're such an obnoxious, pigheaded jerk, I'll just ask someone else."
"I doubt anyone else would be able to understand you, but... I'm afraid I can't let you go just yet." He smirked before dragging her forcefully under the bridge.
Pinning her against the side of the bridge, he leered at her before whispering in her ear, "Don't you wish you were a little nicer to me."
"No." Serenity responded calmly before kneeing him in the below the belt.
Crumpling, he did his best to stand up before Serenity flipped him onto his stomach and slammed her knee into his back, pinning him. Pulling his arm back as far as she could, Serenity asked, "But don't you wish you were a little nicer to me?"
"Alright, OW, alright, you win, now let go before you break my arm!" he cried, struggling to break free.
"Hmmmm... how 'bout no." she replied, pulling his arm even farther back.
He was silent, and for a moment, Serenity was afraid that she had killed him, until she realized that he was just in deep thought.
"Alright... I guess I deserve this... it was pretty low of me to take advantage of you like that... though I would have never done it if I had known you'd react like that." He finally said, slightly surprising Serenity.
"I guess that's as close as an apology I'll get." She compromised, letting him up.
Rubbing his arm reproachfully, he looked up slowly, before something caught his eye.
"Hmmm... that weird tourist bus is finally leaving... I thought it'd never go." He remarked, relieved.
"Tourist bus? What? Oh my god!!!!!" Serenity screamed, realizing that the weird tourist bus was indeed the charter bus which she was supposed to be on.
Running after it she didn't bother to look both ways before crossing the street and was almost strangled when a hand latched onto her hood. Falling to the ground, Serenity saw a speeding car race across she had been just a few seconds ago.
Looking up at her savior, she was shocked to see that was the boy who had tried to rape her.
"What? No thanks for saving your life?" he asked, before mock sighing, "Guess that's what you get from a foreigner." He pulled her up and dusted her off. Serenity, though still dazed from her near-death experience, immediately realized that she was in debt to this, most likely perverted, stranger and also that she was in DEEP shit.
She had missed the bus and was completely lost and even if she did find her way back to the hotel, she would most likely be suspended... or even EXPELLED for not paying better attention.
Sighing, Serenity looked up at the boy. "Well... looks like I'm stuck with you... so will you help me get back to the hotel?" she asked, hating that she had to beg.
"Why should I, it's not really my business if you get back to the hotel or not." He answered nonchalantly.
"NOT YOUR BUSINESS! YOU'RE THE REASON WHY I'M IN THIS MESS!" Serenity shrieked at the top of her lungs.
Still calm, the boy replied simply, "C'est la vie." before turning around and walking away.
Frustrated, Serenity tore at her hair weighing out her options. She could...
Run back to the boy and beg for his help.
Find a kindly French person and beg for their help.
Wait around the area until the chaperones realize that she was missing and drive back
Call the number of one of the teachers.
Well... option A and B were demeaning and wouldn't necessarily work. Option C was dangerous and had a bigger chance of failing than success. Option D would be the best... except her cell phone was at the hotel and she had no loose change for the payphone. It was a lose-lose situation. Every option had a price and in order to pay that price, Serenity would have to lose... a lot.