I was fourteen at the time, when my school organized a field trip to London. We'd spend four days exploring the city, learning its culture, its history, and however little English they taught us at school, we'd learn to use that on the field. Some would think it's fun, and under different circumstances I would too. I mean, I never liked going anywhere with my own family, so the better alternative would be to travel along with friends. Or at least it would be if I were friends with anyone from school, which I wasn't. Little did I know that this was the least of my worries.

Now you're probably wondering about accommodations. Well, rather than staying at hotels, we were taken in by host families, who were located just outside of London. Either the school couldn't afford hotels, or there was some educational purpose behind it as well. A purpose which still eludes me. But never mind. The family I was staying at were called the Sparrows. Not sure why I still remember that name. Maybe it's because the name has become quite popular in the past few years, it helped me remember at least one thing from so long ago, even if it is something that trivial.

Anyway, it was my first night, and already I couldn't sleep. Maybe it's because it was my first night away from home, from anything and anyone familiar. Maybe I was excited about the next few days. Maybe it was the fear that my roommate would kill me in my sleep (told you I didn't like anyone from school). Or maybe it were the voices from the next room down the hall that kept me awake. Whatever happened, I do remember getting out of bed and listening in on what was being discussed in the other room.

I left the bedroom, sneaked to the other room's door. I overheard two girls talking. One of them I recognized to be the family's daughter. The other, I supposed, was a friend of hers. Since they spoke very fast, and had such heavy accents (especially that friend I mentioned), I could barely make out what they were saying. I understood that Shakespeare was mentioned at some point, because apparently they were reading one of his plays, though at the mere mention at the play's name, the daughter would freak out and sing a nursery rhyme. It wasn't until much later that the friend got bored with talking about Shakespeare, so she asked if the daughter was interested in seeing something "freaky". Although I couldn't understand every word they used yet, from the tones they used I could gather that the daughter wasn't all that impressed by the word "freaky". It was around then that I must have made some kind of sound, which alerted the girls of my presence. The daughter opened her door, and found me.

"Were you _ _ _?" she used a word I didn't know, but by now I guess she said "eavesdropping".

I tried to understand her question before saying: "What?"

"Who is that?" the friend asked.

"Remember I'd have foreign visitors this week?" she explained, "This is him."

"Oh! Hi!" the friend suddenly turned to me, "I'm Rose. What's your name?"

I was still surprised because I was caught eavesdropping, confused about the question I was asked, and suddenly some girl, who didn't even know me, actually talked nicely to me. My brain needed time to process all this, so I didn't immediately give her my name as she asked.

"Aw... are you shy?" the friend, Rose, asked.

"She asked your name." the daughter repeated, "Votre nom."

I raised an eyebrow at that: "I'm not French."

Rose said something else, followed by: "Maybe you're interested."

"Interested?" I questioned, "What about?"

This started a little argument between the two girls, which I interrupted: "Um... I may not be sleeping, but I'm sure my roommate is. So..."

If you think this was uncharacteristically altruistic of me, considering I didn't even like my roommate, think of it as "let sleeping dogs lie".

"Good!" Rose replied, "So he won't know it if you're gone."

"Gone?" I questioned.

"There's this _ _ _ house I wanted to see." Rose explained, "I hoped (said her friend's name) would come with me, but..."

"We got school tomorrow." she said, "I can't go out tonight."

"What about you?" Rose asked me.

I'm not sure why she would ask me, a complete stranger, to visit some house which she vaguely described. Admittedly, she might not have been that vague about it, it's just that I didn't know the word she used to describe it. But even if I did, that still wouldn't explain why she was ready to just take me there. She must be either braver than any girl I knew at the time, or dumber (which considering everyone I knew, regardless of their gender, would have been quite an accomplishment).

"Since I can't sleep..." I replied, "... why not."