Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

I groggily opened my eyes to the sound of my alarm going off. “Jeez, its already morning? I swear I slept for like 2 minutes.” I grumbled, shoving my head into my wonderfully soft pillow. All of a sudden, the door flew open and in the blink of an eye Nikolai, my best friend was screaming something unintelligible into my face.

Then I heard Solon and Vincent shout “…WHAT?!”. I bolted upright due to the loud noise. “Bruh…, it's just 8a.m. Would you please keep the noise down?”

Solon looked at me like I’d gone crazy. “Ivy, did you not hear what she just said?”

“It’s 8a.m! I’m barely awake and functioning! You all just ruined my beauty sleep so this better be good.” I replied, irritated.

Then Vincent screamed loudly, “Our school is taking us on a field trip and it’s not that dusty-old museum again!”

"..." I was so shocked, I couldn’t even respond.

Our school had never taken us anywhere except a nearby museum (which I swear had existed just as long as this school, just for torturing us kids with the same old exhibitions.), and guessing by my roommate’s reactions, it must be somewhere good.

Nikolai started to shake me back and forth like a ragdoll with a bright smile on her face. “YA! YA! We’re going to a hill station for a week !!!”

Almost comically, Me, Solon, and Vincent jumped to start packing our things. We made such a commotion that the neighboring dorm students came to check out what was up. After an enthusiastic debriefing conducted by Nikolai, they too stumbled back to their dorm to pack their bags.

Meanwhile, Nikolai flopped down onto the floor. “But I really don’t know what made the school decide to do this. Never in my six years of living here have I been anywhere but that stinking museum. I swear I’ve got all the exhibitions memorized. They never even try to change it up!”

“Yeah, it’s been a really long time since they took us anywhere else but thank god they changed their mind this year. Imagine it’s because this place wanted cheap advertisement so they gave the school a discount! That would be ridiculous!” I replied.

Vincent suddenly spoke up. “Well do you think we’ll be grouped randomly or like it’ll be according to dorms or something? When are they going to even mention the details of the tri-”. At that exact moment we got an announcement on the speakers from the principal, cutting Vincent off. (“Talk about timinggggg…” Solon grumbled)

The Announcement:

Dear students, it is my pleasure to announce that all the activities for the day are to be cancelled as the teachers and their assistants will be busy preparing for the field trip to the Abyss Hill Station tomorrow. This trip will be lasting for an entire week .

You are advised to stay inside the campus and prepare for the same. The hotel rooms have already been prepared for our stay. Students of the same dorm will be put in the same groups. Multiple dorms will be put in the same groups. Each group will be assigned a separate teacher and bus driver.

You will be receiving lists which will inform you about your respective groups and your other travel partners. I hope the arrangements will be to your liking. Please maintain discipline during the trip and do not trouble the school and hotel staff. I hope everyone enjoys their stay at the hotel.

End of Announcement.

“I zoned out.” I quickly admitted. “Ya, me too.” Solon agreed. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Nikolai nod in agreement.

We all simultaneously turned to Vincent knowing he would have picked up at least the important pieces of info. He sighed. “It’s basically nothing. It’s what Niko (Nikolai) said but the principal just added that we should maintain discipline at the hotel, prepare for tomorrow, yada-yada. Oh! We’ll also get lists for our assigned groups.”

“Wanna bet we have the worst luck and get stuck with some of those crazy juniors?” I cackled. 

“Don’t jinx it!” Nikolai screeched.

“Yeah-yeah, knock on wood or whatever.” I drawled out, gently knocking on my bed post.

We were practically buzzing with excitement. None of us had ever gone out with our friends on an actual trip! It was already clear that we dormmates would be together. All we had to hope for was that we got grouped with our friends!

A sharp knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. “I’ll get it.” Solon said. He practically flew to the door and tore it open. “THANK YOU!” He screeched in the face of the poor assistant teacher before scanning the paper.

“Hell yes! We’re grouped with all of our friends!”

“Wait, lemme see-.” We all crowded around Solon and the paper, craning our necks to see it.

Group 5:

Assigned Teacher: (PE teacher) Liam Archer

Driver: Noah Jackson

“OH.MY.GOD!!! This is going to be AWESOME!!” Nikolai squealed, probably giving the rest of us ear damage that will come back to bite us later in our lives but whatever. 

For now, I understood Nikolai’s excitement. All of our friends, all of them were in the same group as us. It felt too good to be true. I had prepared myself to be disappointed but it looks like God has blessed us. 

“Well, this is great! We should probably start packing for real now.” Vincent said. “I’m sure the others are as hyped as us. By the way, snack duty is on you, Solon.

“Me? Again? I’m always on snack duty!” Solon grumbled. 

“Yeah? Well, that’s because you always bring the best snacks! If you don’t wanna do it anymore, then maybe you should start bringing bad snacks!” Nikolai snickered.

“If you’re trying to butter me up… It’s definitely working.” Solon sighed. “I’ll get to it.”

I giggled. Though I really had a weird feeling about this trip. It felt… unexpected that we had such a nice venue for a field trip which included hotel stays and travel costs all covered by the school alone. Well, anyway I knew it was gonna be unforgettable.