The Schoppenboers have finally arrived at their final destination: Portimão. The parents parked their RV at the parking lot of the hotel they've booked for this occasion. Then, they went up to the front, and Mrs. Schoppenboer said:
"Hello, there! I'm Mrs. Schoppenboer, one of the people who reserved a stay in this hotel!"
"Let me see...", The receptionist replied. "Ah, yes, you're all 5 people in total, is that right?"
"Right!"
"Alright!", The receptionist said as she handed the keys to Mrs. Schoppenboer. "Five people, three reservations. Welcome to the Portimão Seaside Hotel! Have a nice stay!"
The family then went to their assigned rooms. The parents were assigned to one room, Coco and Mymy were assigned to another, and Maya had her own room. Maya went to her own room, opened up all of her bags, and, before doing anything else, drank a bit of her moonshine and then put all of her bottles in her room's freezer. She had drunk her booze warm for so long that she couldn't wait to test what it'd taste like cold.
Tired from the trip, she then laid down on one of her room's beds. It was very soft and comfy, way better than her room's bed and especially her bed in the RV. She took a selfie and then sent it to her friends' WhatsApp group, caption saying:
"At the hotel lmao"
Soon after, replies came.
"Yo, awesome!", Cleo said. "Have a nice rest!"
"Thanks, Cleo!", Maya replied.
"You finally got to Portugal?", Epke asked.
"Yeah.", Maya replied. "I'll be going to the beach soon too!"
"Awesome!", Epke replied. "I hope it'll be fun!"
"Thanks, you too, babe!", Maya replied.
"Ayo, are you in Portugal?", Yfke asked. "Can you get me some zaza when you get back? I heard it's legal there n shit."
"Bruh, it's legal in the Netherlands too lmao.", Cleo replied.
"Oh...", Yfke said. "But still, zaza is zaza, and it'd be nice if you brought me some."
"Haha, true, but the problem is that I got here through an RV and not an airplane.", Maya said. "I can't risk going through France, where weed is very fucking illegal, and get my entire family slapped with a drug trafficking charge."
"Why not go around France?", Yfke asked. "You know, like that Austrian guy!"
"...are you high?", Epke asked.
"Yeah lol.", Yfke replied. "Shmoked like 4 blunts earlier lmao."
Everyone then started laughing, Maya included, even in real life.
Maya, a bit bored, decided to check the hotel's television. There was only a Portuguese news channel, a British one, a local kids' station, and one where it's just ads for the hotel playing over and over again.
Suddenly, a notification sound comes from Maya's phone. She checked it. It's Yfke. She said:
"Hey, Maya, do you, like, do drugs n shit?"
"Nah.", Maya replied. "I drink every now and then, but that's it."
"You dunno what you're missing, Maya.", Yfke continued. "Get yourself some weed in there or whatever."
"This is not like in the Netherlands where there are coffeeshops, unfortunately.", Maya replied. "Plus, they'd card me the second I went in one if it existed."
"Bummer, dude...", Yfke replied. "Get shrooms then."
"Dunno where to find, plus I'll get carded."
"Well then uh, I don't know, get some DXM or whatevs, that has to be sold in Portugal too, right?"
"Wait, what even is that?"
"DXM is this drug that they put in cough syrups n shit, sometimes in sleeping pills, and it gets you really fucked up, trust!"
"Wait, so you're saying that I can get that stuff in drug stores and nobody will bat an eye?"
"Yup!"
Maya then thought about it. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to try out a new drug for variety's sake...
"Alright, but I wanna know about its effects first, as well as some harm reduction stuff.", Maya replied.
A minute later, Yfke sends Maya a link to a Psychonaut Wiki article on DXM. She clicked on it and began reading it.
"Let me see...", Maya thought as she read. "It's called... dextro... methor... phan... it's a dissociative drug, like ketamine and... PCP? Really, the stuff that makes you manic?"
Maya was skeptical, but grabbed some jelly beans and kept on reading. She went all the way down to the effects section. At first, it didn't interest her that much, but then she got to the parts where it talked about disconnective effects, all sorts of hallucinations at high doses, empathy, affection and sociability enhancement, and an intense increase in music appreciation, as well as the differences between the effects of each plateau.
"This actually sounds a lot better than alcohol, not going to lie!", Maya thought to herself. "I'll give it a try!"
Maya then opened up WhatsApp again.
"I'll do it.", Maya told Yfke. "I'll try to see if I can obtain some of that DXM stuff."
"Based.", Yfke replies. "Get ready for your mind to be expanded."
Maya then began researching brands of DXM syrup in Portugal, as well as pharmacies near her hotel. After being able to trace a plan, she still felt insecure about it, and decided to message Mymy about it. She said:
"Hey, Mymy! I'll need your help with a couple of things later in the day if you don't mind."
"It'll be no problem!", Mymy replied.
Tired from all this planning, Maya just decided to take some good rest, messing around on her phone, eating jelly beans and drinking, waiting until lunchtime comes.
To be continued...
